A great deliverance.

the descent, he ftuck in another projecting thick tree, and from it came fafely down. This was a deliverance. Providence often faves us in a wonderful manner, 'till the work appointed to be finished is done, or the limited time of our trial over. In relation to fuch escapes, I could give myself as an inftance many a time, and will here mention one extraordinary case.

31. As I travelled once in the county of Kerry in Ireland, with the White Knight, and the Knight of the Glin (22). We called at Tere

lab

(22) Such knights were honourable creations made by the Irish kings. We have an account of them in the Pfalter of Tarah, before the reigns of Conaire the Great, A. M. 3970, ante Chriftum 34; Cormac Ulfadda, A. D. 230; and the glorious Brien Boiromhe, A. D. 1027; the three greatest monarchs that ever Ireland had: Fitzgerald, thefirst knight of Glin, was fo made by the immortal Brien Boiroimhe, who fell in the bloody fight, A.D. 1239, that was fought by him with Maolmorda king of Leimfter, who joined with the Danes. The king of Ireland and the king of Leinfter flew each other; and with Brien Boiroimhe set the glory of Ireland. The states from this time began to decay; and Roderick o Connor, who came to the crown, A. D. 118. was the last king of Ireland. Our Henry the Second, got the kingdom A. D. 1172, by two means; one of which was a grant the pope made of it to him; who was allowed by the natives to be fupreme Lord of the island in temporals, and the nobility had by commiffion refigned it to him, after the death of Brien Boiroimbe.The other mean, and what effectually did the work, was the king of Leinster's joining with Strangwell, who was at the head

of

tab O Crobanes, an old Irish gentleman, our common friend, who kept up the hofpitality of his ancestors, and fhewed how they lived, when Cormac Mac Cuillenan, the Generous, (from whofe houfe he defcended) was king of Munfter and Archbishop

Ꮜ

of the English forces, and had married that king's daugh ter. An old chronicle fays fhe was the most beautiful woman upon earth of her time, and very learned: but inferior nevertheless in beauty and learning to the fix princeffes we read of in the pfalter of Tarah, who were fair beyond all mortals that ever lived, and wonderful in the extent of their knowledge; to wit,

The princefs Mac Diarmuid.
The princess Mac Reagien.
The princefs Mac Faolain.
The princefs Mac Kennedy:
The princefs O Heyn.

The princefs O Flaherty.

Thefe fix were Druidesses, says the pfalter of Tarah. By the way, reader, let me tell you, that from this fame pfalter of Tarah, I writ out one of the fireft and moft improving love stories that ever I read. It is called the adventure of Teriagh Mac Shain and the beautiful Gara O Mulduin; which happened in the reign of Cormac Ulfada, king of Ireland, in the year of falvation 213, that Faon Maccumbail, commonly called Fian Mactul, the mighty champion, beat the Pits, and brought off among other prifoners, the beautiful Ciarnuit, (daughter to the king of the Picts) whom Cormat Ulfada took for his concubine. This story is likewife more fhortly told in the red book of Mac Eogane, a very valuable old Irish manufcript and from both those books I will give my reader the best part of this adventure as foon as I can fee a Proper place to bring it in.

290

bishop of Cafhel, in the year 913 (23.) There was no end of eating and drinking there, and the famous Downe Falvey played on the harp. For a day and a night we fat

to

(23.) This Cormac Cuillenan writ the famous psalter of Cafhel, a very extraordinary and valuable book, which he compofed from antient poems of the bards, who thus writ their hiftory, and from venerable records, as this The claufe is this king and prelate declares in his will.

My pfalter, which preferves the antient records and monuments of my native country, which are transcribed with great fidelity, I leave to Ronal Cashel, to be preferved to after-times and ages yet to come.

There is another remarkable claufe in this great man's will, to wit, My foul for mercy I commit to heaven; my body leave to duft and rottennefs. There is not a word of any faint in it; and of confequence, there was no faint-worship then in Ireland.

Cormac writ his will the day before he fought the bloody battle of Maghailbe with the king of Leinster, and therein fell. It begins in this manner:

Summon'd away by death, which I perceive
Approaches; for by prophetic fkill,

I find that short will be my life and reign:
I folemnly appoint that my affairs
Shall thus be fettled after I am dead;
And thus I conftitute my latest will:
My royal robe embroider'd o'er with gold,
And fparkling with the rays of coftly jewels;
Well fuited to a state of majesty,

I do bequeath, etc. -

My coat of mail of bright and polifh'd feel
Will well become the martial king of Ulfter,
To whom I give it: and my golden chain
Shall the moft pious Muchuda enjoy

As

37

to it by candle-light, without
without shirts or
cloaths on; naked, excepting that we had
our breeches and fhoes and stockings on;

As a reward, etc.

U 2

My golden veftment for moft, facred ufe,
And my royal wardrobe I hereby give

To etc.

and

Now from this antique piece verbally translated, I think it is evident, that the kings of the four provinces of Ireland were not fuch poor and ignorant chiefs as they are generally imagined to be; and of confequence, that one of the four, to whom the other three did homage, and who was therefore called the king of Ireland, was always a potent prince, and could do great matters, when they were all united. This confideration, I fanfy, (and the address let me add of Anfelm, archbishop of Canterbury, and of Lanfranc, archbishop of the fame fee, to Mortogh O Brien king of Ireland, and Terlah O Brien king of Ireland, Moriardacho Gloriofo and Terdeluacho Magnifico, To the most magnificent Terlagh OBrien, king of Ireland, our benediction, etc. as you may read them at large in Uber's Primordia *) ought to give fome credit. to O Fluberty's Ogygia, Keating's Hiftory, and Mac Curtius' Annals; which thofe writers really took from very antient records, and principally from the very valuable manufcripts, called the pfalters of Cashel and Tarah.

What the pfalter of Cafhel was I have told you, reader; and as to the pfalter of Tarah, the hiftory of it is this. On a tract of land called Tarah, that was taken from the province of Leimfter, and added to the county of Meath, ftood the largest of the four vaft palaces of the kings of Ireland, and at that grand fabric there was a triennial meeting

* These letters were written by the English archbifhops to the Irish kings, Turlogh and Murtogh, in the years 1098 and 1110.

1725. June 11.

ney continued,

and I drank fo much burgundy in that time, that the sweat ran of a red colour down my body; and my fenfes were fo disordered, that when we agreed to ride out for a couple of hours to take a little air, I leaped my horse into a dreadful quarry, and in the defcent was thrown into a large deep water that was in a part of the frightful bottom, and by that means faved my life. When I came above water, I fwam very eafily out of the pit, and walked up the low fide of the quarry as fober as if I had not drank a glass. This is a fact, whatever the critics may fay of the thing. All I can fay to it is, my hour was not

come.

49. Having dined, and fhot a buftard The jour- that weighed forty pounds, I went on again, the course north-weft for half a mile, and then, to my astonishment, it trended to the fouth for more than an hour; which was going back again: but at laft it turned about, and for half an hour, we went to the northweft again, and then due east for a long time, till we came to hills upon hills that were

very

meeting of the ftates of the kingdom, called the royal affembly of Tarah. There they enacted laws, examined the antient chronicles and records, and purged them from all falfe and fpurious relations, fettled genealogies, and confidered noble exploits. All the things that received the affembly's approbation were registered, and tranfcribed into the royal records, and they called this journal the pfalter of Tarah.