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TH E G ETTY CENTER LIBRARY

ULSTER JOURNAL OF ARCHEOLOGY VOL. X

SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER,

LORD DEPUTY OF IRELAND. (Died 1624.)

ULSTER JOURNAL OF ARCHEOLOGY

Seal of Hugh O'Neill, King of Ulster

Volume X

BELFAST M'CAW, STEVENSON & ORR, LIMITED

THE LINENHALL PRESS 1904

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ULSTER JOURNAL OF

ARCHAEOLOGY

Volume X JANUARY 1904 Number I

Edited by FRANCIS JOSEPH BIGGER, m.r.i.a., Ardrie, Belfast.

JOYMOUNT, CARRICKFERGUS, THE RESIDENCE OF SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER.

Sir Arthur Chichester, Lord Deputy of

Ireland*

With some Notes on the Plantation of Ulster. By Francis Joseph Bigger, m.r.i.a.

T

HE action by which Chichester originally introduced himself to public notice was one that did not at first commend itself to the powers that be. He was compelled to make a very hasty retreat from his native place in Devonshire, in consequence of his having been criminally concerned in a highway robbery. With the connivance or assistance of one or two associates, he lay in wait for and robbed a " Queen's purveyor," as a tax-collector was then called ; which offence, however, was of very grave, indeed even terrible, signi- ficance, and more especially at that crisis, when Queen Elizabeth very much required all the money that could be hastily collected from her subjects to assist in carrying on her numerous military enterprises in almost every corner of Ireland.

It was generally believed at the time that Chichester had fled directly to France ; but this has since been found to be a mistake, as he went, in the first instance, for refuge to Ireland, where he had an A

2 SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER, LORD DEPUTY OF IRELAND.

elder brother, John Chichester, and two cousins named Bourchier, who were all servitors of the English at various places in the land. With their connivance, he was able to remain for a time in concealment ; but his retreat being soon discovered, he privately made his escape to France, where he was safe from further pursuit, and where he enlisted as a soldier of fortune.

His astute and daring nature in dealing with enemies soon made him a name in the French service, whilst several of his influential friends in England did not fail to inform the Queen that his exile was a serious loss to her service, especially in Ireland, where soldiers of his particular calibre were then so urgently needed. It soon afterwards came to pass that the offence which had been at first denounced in Devonshire as highway robbery of a very aggravated character, for which the perpetrator had to fly into an enemy's country for refuge, was condoned and pardoned by the Queen, and then as a matter of course represented to her subjects as a mere youthful frolic.

Chichester was then permitted to return to England, and thence sent with all despatch to serve Her Majesty in Ireland. It was commonly remarked that whilst Elizabeth sent her eagles against Spain, she reserved her vultures for this unhappy country ; and in the present instance the Irish had a very truthful illustration of the fact. Chichester came here about the time of the commencement of the war against the Northern Lords — a war which had been largely forced by the cruelties and oppressions of Fitzwilliam, the Lord Deputy, and Sir Henry Bagnall, the Field Marshal in Ulster. The new servitor, on his arrival, found the whole country in commotion, and was soon able to enter upon his work with heart and hand. It does not appear that Chichester was appointed to any military command, as his name is not mentioned in connection with any of the battles or general fighting during this war ; so his duties were probably, for a time at least, those of an assistant to his brother, who had been then recently knighted and appointed Governor of Carrickfergus — or correctly speaking, Governor of Upper and Lower Clannaboy, Carrickfergus being his base of operations.

In whatever capacity, however, Arthur Chichester was originally employed during the first year or two after his coming to Ulster, it is very certain that he must have had ample opportunities of knowing well the condition of this province, and it is equally evident that he availed himself very fully and freely of those opportunities ; in fact he must have made Ulster a special subject of study, as he afterwards,

SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER, LORD DEPUTY OF IRELAND. 3

when occasion required, was able to depend upon his practical know- ledge of all its leading physical features, as well as of the leading families by which the province was inhabited. He was thus able to draw up attractive and thoroughly intelligible reports for the Queen and her Council, not only on the general state of Ulster, but on any, or indeed every, part thereof; for no servitor had previously made himself so well acquainted with its mountains and glens ; its rivers, loughs, islands, and sea-coasts ; its arable lands and vast sweeps of pasturage for the rearing of young cattle ; its bogs, morasses, woods, and extensive forests. In a quiet and comparatively unobtrusive way he must also have gone about collecting information respecting the affairs, public and private, of all the great leading houses, such as those of the O'Neills (in their several branches), the O'Donnells, the O'Cahans, the O'Reillys, the O'Hanlons, and the O'Dohertys ; the Maguires, MacMahons, and even the MacDonnells, a Scottish clan who had possession of the Route and Glynns in Antrim.

All this spying out of the land, and painstaking on the part of Chichester to obtain the necessary information respecting its owners and inhabitants, were undertaken for a very special purpose ; for before he left England it was distinctly understood that Elizabeth's policy of plantation, which was then being carried out in Munster, would be adopted also in Ulster on the defeat of the Northern Lords. The great house of Desmond, with all its numerous vassals and adherents, had been brought down to utter desolation in the course of a length- ened and bloody struggle, and now Elizabeth's needy soldiers were dividing amongst themselves the fair lands of the Geraldines. Thus the same class of adventurers in Ulster had here before their eyes a grand precedent, and an almost illimitable reward for their toil. Chichester saw the situation at a glance ; and although there occurred several serious hitches and delays in bringing about his Ulster pro- gramme, yet he eventually succeeded in working it out according to his own will, and, as we shall see, largely to his own advantage. He encouraged all his friends to keep gathering on the Irish spoils instead of spending themselves in the distant colonies of America, maintaining that it would be better " to work with their hands in the plantations of Ulster than to dance and play in the plantations of Virginia." The great deeds of Drake or the heroism of Gilbert had little charm for him. He envied not Raleigh and his arcadian dreams of a kingdom in the setting sun, whose great natural wealth should outshine the most opulent of eastern nations ; no, he preferred the more certain reward

4 SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER, LORD DEPUTY OF IRELAND.

of lands nearer home, no matter how their acquisition might be brought about, nor even the instruments he used in bringing them to pass. The poetic glamour and Queen-worship which dazzled many of the great sea pirates of Elizabeth's time shed no ray upon him : his dark evil countenance and morose disposition shadowed forth all the bad and none of the good in that puritanic wave which, half a century later, was to sweep over the face of England. To some extent he may be styled the forerunner of Oliver Cromwell. Certain events occurred in the year 1 597 which brought Chichester to the front more prominently than hitherto, and served to show very plainly to friends and foes what manner of man he was. His brother, Sir John Chichester, at the date named was defeated and slain in a skirmish with the Antrim Scots under Sir James MacDonnell of Dunluce. Although the latter — who was the eldest surviving son and heir of the renowned Sorley Boye — did not co-operate with the Northern Lords against the Government, he warmly sympathized with them ; and indeed his brothers and leading kinsmen throughout the Route and Glynns took a prominent place in the actual fighting. This course exasperated the English officials in Ulster against the Lord of Dunluce, as they would have naturally felt much more pride in attacking him as an open enemy than in conferring with him as a doubtful friend. Sir James refused point blank to permit his vast estates to be taxed for war purposes on behalf of the Government, and he also refused emphatically to surrender to Sir John Chichester certain noble young Spaniards whose lives he had saved, or hand over some pieces of cannon which he and his brethren had rescued from the wrecks of Spanish galleons and mounted on his castle of Dunluce, which the former had demanded as booty belonging to the Crown, requiring them for the fortress of Carrickfergus.

It would be unkind if we did not here parenthetically record the charitable action of MacDonnell in regard to these same Spanish castaways. Theirs, indeed, was a hard lot. The best blood of Spain — young nobles from a southern clime — inflated with the arrogance of power and wealth, crusading, as they thought, in a worthy cause, shattered by the elements, hunted by their enemies, unsuccoured by their friends. All along the western coast of Ireland, wherever a Spanish galleon took shelter after that awful run around the Hebrides, the poor half-famished soldiers were mercilessly butchered. Better, far better, was the lot of those who sank in mid-ocean, or yielded up their lives in the breaking waves of the strand or on the cruel

SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER, LORD DEPUTY OF IRELAND. 5

rocks of an angry coast. It was excusable in Fitzwilliam, the English deputy, to give no quarter to the Spaniard, his country's bitterest foe ; but of many of the Irish better was expected. Had not the Spaniard assailed their conqueror, their enemy ? Were they not of their own religion, and would-be friends ? Sligo men vied with those of Clare in their inhuman actions — plundering thewrecks,stripping or murdering the poor distracted wretches that clung to floating planks and spars ; or worse still, yielding them for favour to the Viceroy, to be marched in shackles to Dublin, and there butchered by dozens in the castle yard. The inducements held out to the Irish and the threats used to act thus, scarcely excuse them in their actions. The loyalty drawn out by Sir John Perrot, the greatest and truest of all the Viceroys, should not have forced them to act so inhumanly. It is a dark passage in a dark time, and has sombre lessons.

WRECK OF A GALLEON AT PORT-N A-SPANIAGH, NORTH COAST OF ANTRIM, SEPTEMBER 1588.

Be this as it may, to MacDonnell of Dunluce pre-eminently belongs the place of honour in having succoured those who were in dire dis- tress— defiantly refusing to hand over the wretches who had fled to him for safety, and those flung by the waves at the foot of his fortress castle — knowing well the enemies he was thus making — preferring to give them every assistance and safe transport back to Spain, through his many friends in Scotland.

MacDonnell complained angrily to the Government that soldiers

() SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER, LORD DEPUTY OF IRELAND.

from the garrison at Carrickfergus had been sent illegally over his lands to plunder and spoil such of his tenants as refused to pay the imposed taxes. The English authorities in Ireland, unwilling, through their own weakness, to drive this powerful chieftain into the ranks of the enemy, recommended that the two knights thus so threateningly opposed to each other, should have a personal meeting to arrange an amicable settlement of the several points in dispute. A day was appointed for the interview, and Sir James MacDonnell, with a multitude of his hardy Scots, went early southward to be present in due time at the place of meeting near Carrickfergus. Suspecting — what afterwards really happened — that some treacherous attempt might be made on his liberty or life, he left the greater part of his troops at a place called Altfracken, near the present village of Ballycarry, and went forward with a small company of personal friends and attendants. He saw at a glance, however, that Sir John Chichester, who had come with a formidable array, had some sinister design in view, and accordingly, when MacDonnell commenced rather hastily to retire from the meeting, a rush was made upon his small party by the opposing force from the garrison. The pursuit, however, suddenly came to an end, for the whole Scottish force was up and around their leader just in time to save him and his friends. Sir John Chichester fell soon after the fight commenced, and his force fled in all directions — some back to their garrison, some into Island Magee, others taking refuge in various places throughout the district. Among the refugees was Sir Moses Hill, then an unknown lieutenant, who found a hiding-place in a cave in Island Magee, which cave is known by his name to this day. Among the runners also was Lieutenant Dobbs — the first of his name in the district — and he ingloriously retreated under a bridge until the danger had passed. Another runaway was Lieutenant John Dalway, who concealed himself for a time in the dry flow or ooze left by the shallow water that had once separated Island Magee from the mainland.

The survivors of the English force were in such haste away from the Glen of Altfracken that they did not even attempt to carry with them the body of their dead Governor. Sir James MacDonnell had it brought to a flat stone and decapitated, sending the head to the camp of O'Neill and O'Donnell, who were then in Tyrone, where it was made a football by the rude gallowglass of the army. This little barbarity was done, no doubt, by way of encouragement to the Irish leaders, and also as an act of retaliation against the English, who had previously thus mutilated the body of MacDonnell's elder brother,

SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER, LORD DEPUTY OF IRELAND. 7

Alexander, sending the head to be stuck up on a spike in front of Dublin Castle. Sir James MacDonnell, after that day's achievement, retired quietly to Dunluce Castle, where he was permitted to dwell in peace until the time of his death in 1601. The news of the conflict at Altfracken brought consternation to the English in Ulster, and deep deliberation amongst the authorities in Dublin as to whom they should appoint to the governorship at Carrickfergus. The mandate, however, soon came from London that Sir Arthur Chichester was to succeed his brother; and although Sir James MacDonnell and others remonstrated against this appointment, the Queen quickly made it final, knowing through some influential channel that Sir Arthur would not only be well able to give a good account of the Irish throughout Upper and Lower Clannaboy, but would also keep a sharp look-out on the Scots in the Route and Glynns.

The region over which Sir Arthur Chichester thus became Governor had been known time immemorial as one of the most important in Ulster. Its original extent varied somewhat in the lapse of time and according to local circumstances, but it was generally understood to comprehend the greater portions of the present counties of Down and Antrim, stretching from Carlingford Bay in the south to the mountain of Sliev Mis in the north. Its earliest recorded name was Dalaraidhe, or the country owned by the family or descendants of Araidhe — a prince who lived at an early period in Ulster history.

With this people were afterwards associated many members of a kindred tribe known as Cruithne, or wheat-growers — sometimes called Picts, or painted, from Cruith, " colour" — and descended from Irial Glunmore (son of the famous Conall Carnagh) and a daughter of Eochy, the ruler or King of the Cruithne in Scotland. Dal-Araidhe, however, continued to retain its original name, although its limits were then supposed to be Nevvry on the south and Glenravel on the north.

When the three Collas conquered southern Ulster in the fourth century, the dwellers on the conquered lands were obliged to seek shelter in Dalaraidhe, which from that time, although only a fragment of Ulster, was known as Uladh, or Ulidia. In later times, and because of some unknown territorial arrangements, the name of this section or division of Ulster appears in public records as Trian Congal, or " Congal's Third," Congal being, no doubt, a prince of the royal house of the Ui Cairill (O'Carroll), and this division his allotted share. By this last name it was known on the arrival of the English under

8 SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER, LORD DEPUTY OF IRELAND.

De Courcy ; but after its seizure by the O'Neills, the whole region, until the seventeenth century, was called Clannaboy — Clann-Aedh-buidhe — from a chieftain named Hugh O'Neill, surnamed Buidhe, "of the yellow hair." The River Lagan divided the whole region into nearly two equal parts, the southern part being designated as Upper and the northern as Lower Clannaboy.

When Chichester entered on his work he was put in command of a strong military force of picked men, including, of course, the garrison at Carrickfergus, whilst his officers were men specially after his own heart ; in other words, thoroughly in sympathy with their commander's policy and aims. During the seven years of his governorship at Carrickfergus, from 1597 until 1604, among his officers were Moses Hill, Fulke Conway, Hugh Clotworthy, Francis Stafford, Robert Norton, Henry Upton, Roger Langford, and John Dalway. It speaks volumes for the zeal and determination with which these men must have " served their Queen," that they all succeeded in carving out and obtaining large estates for themselves, and that they all, coming to Dalaraidhe, or Clannaboy, with nothing but their clothes, and perhaps their swords, accomplished, with one exception, the grand ambition of founding families throughout this celebrated portion of Ulster.

Sir Moses Hill, the founder of the Downshire family, made his home in Upper or Southern Clannaboy ; Sir Fulke Conway, the founder of the Hertford family, got possession of Killultagh, a separate district, then belonging neither to Antrim nor to Down ; Sir Hugh Clotworthy, the founder of the Massereene family, took up his quarters on the western shore of Lough Neagh ; Sir Francis Stafford's broad lands lay a little further north-west, and along the green banks of the Lower Bann ; Sir Roger Langford selected lands on the eastern shore of Lough Neagh, opposite Massereene, and including the celebrated Irish territory of Killmacavitt ; Sir Robert Norton's estate lay along the Six-Mile- Water, and on it stood the old town of the Temple of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem (the estate, however, passed to the Upton family of Templepatrick) ; Sir John Dalway, after much wandering and many vicissitudes, found at last a resting-place on the picturesque slopes of Bellahill, near Carrickfergus ; and last of all, but certainly not least, Chichester himself, the founder of the Donegall family, secured a very great sweep of Lower Clannaboy, reaching northward from the Lagan to the boundaries of the Templetown and Langford Lodge Estates, and thence north-eastward until it included Carrickfergus and the adjoining lands.

SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER, LORD DEPUTY OF IRELAND. 9

But this sweep, ample as it was, did not reconcile Chichester to the disappointment of not being able to secure, as his share, the great Irish territory in Upper Clannaboy, then and still known as Castle- reagh, extending southward from the shore of Belfast Lough, below Holywood, to the neighbourhood of Lisburn ; its green slopes over- looking the valley of the Lagan and much of the Antrim coast. On this great territory, now divided into the two modern baronies of Upper and Lower Castlereagh, he had set his heart, first riding about its fields and around its boundaries at the head of his flying column from Carrickfergus. Its chieftain, Con O'Neill, had taken a prominent place

SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER LEAVING THE NORTH GATE OF CARRICKFERGUS.

in the then northern revolt against Elizabeth, and, as a matter of course, had thus forfeited his lands to the Crown ; which lands Chi- chester felt pretty confident he would very soon be able to secure for himself. It so happened, however, that suddenly, and to the great surprise of both friends and foes, Con O'Neill deserted the Irish cause and surrendered himself to the Queen. As a likely means of encourag- ing other Irish leaders to follow in Con's footsteps, Elizabeth gladly accepted his surrender and restored him to his lands : thus Chichester's

10 SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER, LORD DEPUTY OF IRELAND.

cherished anticipations were frustrated, and to make matters worse, he was obliged to assist Con in re-entering and keeping possession of his castle and lands ; for no sooner did his desertion of the Irish become known, than his kinsman, Bryan MacArt O'Neill, seized Castlereagh and held it for the Northern Lords until Chichester and Con together succeeded, after much delay, in regaining the castle for its rightful owner. When Con, however, had time to look over his lands, he found that he had not returned a moment too soon to preserve his tenantry from the attacks of Chichester and his soldiers. It happened, unfortunately, soon afterwards, in the closing days of Elizabeth's life, that some of Con's servants had engaged in a brawl with certain of the Queen's tax-gatherers, who had been appointed at Belfast, and in this fight one of the latter was killed. Thereupon Chichester instantly sprang upon Con, had him thrown into a dungeon at Carrickfergus, and had judges and jurors prepared to try him on a charge of high treason in levying war on Her Majesty, and what not. Chichester believed that he had here another, and a still better, opportunity of finally disposing of Con, and of thus, after all, securing the green slopes of Castlereagh that looked down so temptingly upon the ford of Belfast ; but he was again doomed to fail, and this second disappoint- ment he must have felt even more bitterly than his first.

During Con's imprisonment at Carrickfergus his devoted wife kept hovering constantly around his place of confinement, thus attracting the notice and sympathy of Anna Dobbin, the daughter of the chief gaoler in the old castle. On an evening when these two ladies were talking — not unlikely condoling together — over the approaching doom of the prisoner, in came two Scottish gentlemen — brothers — named Montgomery, one of whom was Anna Dobbin's accepted suitor, and soon afterwards became her husband. Being formally introduced to Lady O'Neill (for Con had been dubbed an English knight), these gentlemen announced that the Queen was dead, and that their King, James VI., was being everywhere proclaimed as her successor. From this starting-point the little company entered into a free and friendly talk about public affairs in general. The Montgomerys had heard of Con O'Neill's arrest, and expressed their abhorrence in no measured terms of Chichester's conduct in the affair. From Irish topics the conversation turned to Scotland, where, as the visitors stated, there was then a widespread expectation that Ulster was soon to be planted with English and Scottish settlers. These Montgomerys, although from Largs, were nearly related to the Montgomerys of Braidstane,

SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER, LORD DEPUTY OF IRELAND. II

who had been then taking much pains to understand the exact position in Ulster, and regularly communicating to the Scottish king whatever information they could obtain on the subject. For much of this information the Braidstane Montgomerys were indebted to these gentlemen from Largs, who owned two trading vessels, and had thus frequent opportunities of visiting the coasts of Ulster.

To this conversation Lady O'Neill kept listening intently, and when it drew to an end she came forward solemnly to the speakers and said that her husband and she would willingly and thankfully give the half of their whole lands to anyone who would obtain his pardon from the King. The two Montgomerys seemed at first astounded : they stared for an instant at each other ; then consulted together ; and finally turning to Lady O'Neill, they proposed that she should return with them that afternoon to Largs ; that they would accompany her the next day to Braidstane, and that she could there make her offer to the laird of that ilk, as there was certainly no time to be lost in making any efforts that could yet possibly be made for her husband's safety. Lady O'Neill accepted their counsel with grateful emotion, and delightedly rendered her entire acquiescence in the arrangement thus proposed. They found the Laird of Braidstane eagerly anxious to assist, but only on the condition that Con O'Neill should be rescued by some means from prison, and thus enabled to accompany him into the presence of the King. The party from Largs then returned thither in hot haste, re-crossing the channel to Carrickfergus. Hugh Montgomery of Braidstane, afterwards Lord Viscount Montgomery of the Great Ardes, saw at a glance how significant this offer on the part of Lady O'Neill might be made, both for himself and his two kinsmen, who had so interested themselves in the affair ; but he felt also that whilst he would be engaged in negotiations with the King, the prisoner might be executed, as the time of his trial drew very near, and there- fore he urged on all concerned the absolute necessity of Con's imme- diate rescue. Fortunately, Anna Dobbin, through sympathy and pity for the O'Neills, and from the urgent solicitations of her intended husband, not only connived at Con's escape, but even arranged the only means by which it could be accomplished. The escape was not discovered until Con had time to hide himself in the ruins of an old church at Donaghadee ; and before Chichester could find his place of concealment, a little boat had carried him out into the channel to a friendly vessel that soon conveyed him to Largs ; and so Chichester lost his second and last opportunity of getting into Castlereagh.

12 BRONZE SERPENTINE LATC11ETS.

Montgomery, however, obtained eventually one-third of Con O'Neill's lands. For although the King had sanctioned the conditions of the original agreement for the full half thereof, James Hamilton, afterwards Lord Viscount Clandeboy, had also supplied James VI. with much information about Ireland, and had rendered other services, and was thus able to induce him to divide Con's estates into three parts — one for Con, one for Montgomery, and one for Hamilton. Out of Con's third part, however, one of that generous Irish chieftain's first grants — indeed we think the very first — was made by him to the two Mont- gomerys of Largs, and an ample grant of lands in perpetuity it was whereon Anna Dobbin and her husband lived happily until the end of their days.

(To be continued. )

Bronze Serpentine Latch etsf

and other cumbrous Dress Fasteners.

By Col. Wood-Martin, a.d.c.

( Continued from vol. ix, p. 166.J

INCE the first part of this paper was printed off, D of No. 1, plate i; No. 2 of same plate; No. 3 of plate ii; and Nos. 1,2, and 3, plate iii, have been more closely examined. All show abrasion and wearing on the outer edge of the disc, which may point to its employment as a button ; but it is not possible to assert that the abrasion was necessarily caused by the disc being so used.

It would appear as if the serpentine latchet were a development of the bent, curved, crooked, or serpentine pin, with disc-shaped head; a reproduction of a common dealg, or thorn. In demonstration a few examples may be given.

S tHCH£S

Fig. 1.

PROBABLY A CLOAK PIN. After a drazving in " Journal 0/ tin Kilkenny Architological Society," vol. i (new series), p. ig^.

BRONZE SERPENTINE LATCHETS.

13

Fig. i, a large cloak pin ; the cone, originally gilt, is of dark- coloured bronze.

No. 1, fig. 2, the knob a good deal corroded; acquired by the R.I. A. in 1874; was found near Tullaghmore. Nos. 2, 3, and 4 were presented by the Shannon Commissioners ; but for their pin-like extremities they might be taken for ear-rings.

3 /MCH£S

Fig. 2.

CURVED BRONZE PINS. Science and Art Museum, Dublin. Drawn by Gerald Wakeman.

No. 1, fig. 3, of peculiar form, $h inches in over-all length, has a thin plate riveted on the bend, and an oval disc on the front of the ring, both probably intended for the reception either of enamel or of ornamental stones. Of No. 2 and 3, acquired in 1881, and of No. 4, no information is obtainable. No. 5, clean and sharp in outline, was presented by the Shannon Commissioners. No. 6 was found in a bog, in thetownland of Carnfinton, Rasharkin, County Antrim, in the year 188 1.

14

BRONZE SERPENTINE LATCH ETS.

C. H. Read, keeper of the British antiquities, etc., in the British Museum, kindly forwarded drawings of two bronze pins, identical with No. 2 of fig. 3. Of one there was no history. The other was found

S

o

Li.

•4 INCHES

_»

Pig- 3-

CROOKED BRONZE PINS. Science and Art Museum, Dublin. Drawn by Gerald Wahentan.

at Bury-St.-Edmunds, Suffolk. A third pin, inlaid with coral, lay in a late Celtic chariot burial, in the E. R. of Yorkshire {Proc. Soc. Ant., vol. xvii, p. 120). A fourth pin formed portion of a bronze find near Bath.

BRONZE SERPENTINE LATCHETS.

15

Fig. 4, a bronze pin, of dark colour, an excellent example of this remarkable and unusual form, was found near Ballymoney, County Antrim. The cavity underneath the ring was evidently formed for the reception of some description of enamel or of ornamental or precious stone. It bears a great resemblance to a bronze pin found at Taunton (see fig. 451, p. 367, Evans's Ancient Bronze Implements). In the English example the stem presents an even more curved appearance, approximating to the contour of the Irish serpentine latchet. There is no cavity for enamel or stone on the acus.

The pins represented in fig. 2 are protoplasts of the types on plate i (see ante, vol. ix, p. 161). Those in figs. 3 and 4 present forms from which the latchet fasteners on plates ii and iii {ante, vol. ix, pp. 164-5) appear to be derived.

In many instances collections of small bronze rings have been found disassociated as well as in conjunction with human remains. The number of rings from any one locality generally varies from two to five or more. These rings, for pur- poses of primary investigation, divide into two classes — unpierced rings, and rings pierced in the sides, and through which a pin could be passed. Solid bronze rings were formerly believed, by antiquaries, to be " ring-money," used for pur- poses of barter ; but, with a greater degree of plausibility, they are now considered to have formed part of (in some instances to have consti- tuted entire) sword belts ; when discovered in great numbers and linked together, defensive armour. Solid bronze rings — judging by the

numbers in which they have been found — appear to have been much in use. They are, in general, too small for armlets or anklets, too weighty for ear-rings, too large for finger or thumb rings, and, in the majority of instances, not discovered in sufficient numbers to support the theory of their having been used as ring-armour attached closely together to portions of the warrior's leathern garment. Of four bronze rings found on the site of the lake dwelling of Lisna- croghera (see plate xv, p. 72, Lake Dwellings of Ireland), one was formed of two thin plates secured together by rivets of the same material ; the others were solid. Enamelled bronze sheaths, containing

Fig. 4.

Reproduced from the

Ulster Journal of Archeology'

(first series), vol. v, p. /jy.

Half real size.

l6 BRONZE SERPENTINE LATCHETS.

iron swords, were discovered in the same place. From the enamel- ling, style of ornamentation, and shape of the iron blades, one would be inclined to relegate the sheaths to about the fourth century of the Christian era.

As before stated, the now most generally accepted theory is that rings of this class, when found in small numbers, were connected with leathern sword belts. A Gaulish sword belt may be seen in the British Museum, composed entirely of similar rings — found in a grave in the department of Mame, France — supposed to date from the third century B.C.

As far as the writer is aware, in only one instance has a pin, such as could be used in fastening a cloak or tunic, been found in con- junction with two rings pierced through the circumference ; yet this solitary discovery goes a long way to prove that the rings and pin

■ IHCHLS

Fig. 5.

BRONZE DRESS FASTENER. After an illustration in the " Journal R.H.A.A.I." (third series), 7>ol. i,f>. 164.

were employed as a dress fastener. The great length of the pin (eleven inches) cannot be adduced as militating against its use as forming portion of a latchet ; for, as before stated, the enormous size of garment fasteners is often referred to in old Irish historical romances.

If one of the pins used by ladies to secure their headgear when " motoring " were found by some future antiquary, when motors are a thing of the past, we might imagine him writing a long and learned essay on " Daggers and implements of the twentieth century." These pins are quite as long as the curious bronze pin (fig. 5) with attached rings — or, as the discoverer describes them, " with two thick bronze rings on it" — found in the year 1868, in an ancient sepulchre, on a mountain slope in County Tyrone. Having regard to the relative positions of the rings to the pin, the combination seems to have been devised to act as a dress fastener ; for if the perforated rings were attached one on either side of a garment designed to fasten across the chest or over the shoulder, and so placed as to allow the position of one to be higher than the other, the pin, when dropped through

BRONZE SERPENTINE LATCHETS.

17

the opes in the two rings, would hold the edges of the garment securely together (as shown in fig. 6), whilst the strain would, to a great extent, be taken off the fastener. The cloak, tunic, or other gar- ment— probably of skin or leather — would, on account of its inherent stiffness, almost necessitate the use of a massive fastener. This, though cumbrous and complicated, is not more so than is the arrange- ment in parts of Northern Africa in the present day, where two brooches, connected by a chain, are placed, one on either side of the shoulder, to secure the cloak or tunic. If the theory of the manner in which this ancient Irish latchet was used be correct, it is quite pos- sible that this style of latchet is an intermediate link between the pin with attached head and the ring- brooch.1 As leather gave place to material of a softer texture, the pin became the true fastener, rendering the ring, or rings, unnecessary. Ancient man was, however, a great Conservative : the ring, though use- less, was retained, and afforded an ample field for development, as well in regard to size as in ornamental details.

The bronze rings in the Science and Art Museum, Dublin, may be arranged, for purposes of detailed investigation, in four classes, but even then the classification cannot be adhered to exactly.

Fig. 7 represents three hollow rings, with trumpet-shaped openings on the outer and corresponding opes on the inner circumference. These rings may have been used as fasteners, in conjunction with a bronze pin — as in fig. 6 — attached to the cloak, probably by lacing passing round the trumpet-shaped mouth ; or they may have formed portion of a sword belt or of ring-armour. But there are several very similar rings on view in the Science and Art Museum, with smaller rings on each sideA connected by a wire or metallic band, as in fig. 10. It seems reasonable, therefore, to suppose that they were all like that originally. No. 1. — No. 84 in the Catalogue R.I. A., and the largest

1 Journal R.H.A.A.I., vol. i (third series), on the "Contents of a Sepulchre of the Bronze Period " : Thomas O'Gorman. The pin and rings are also described and figured in Sir John Evans's Bronze Implements, p. 398, fig. 496,

B

Fig. 6.

Showing manner in which this class of Bronze Fastener may have been used.

1 8

BRONZE SERPENTINE LATCHETS.

of its class in the collection — is a hollow bronze ring, with trumpet- shaped openings at opposite sides of the outer circumference and corresponding opes on the inner side. No. 2. — No. 81 in the Cata- logue R.I. A. — has the trumpet openings somewhat different from and more elaborate than those in No. 1. No. 3. — No. 92 in the Catalogue R.I. A. ; the smallest of its class in the collection — is a diminutive reproduction of No. 1.

Fig. 8 depicts two hollow rings, with central inserted boss, small rings around the circumference, and trumpet-shaped openings, as in

Scale or Inches

Fig- 7-

BRONZE RINGS OF THE FIRST CLASS.

Science ami Art Museur,

Scale or Inches

1

■ 1 1

4-

1

Fig. 8.

BRONZE RINGS OF THE SECOND CLASS. Dnhiin. Drawn by Gerald H'akeittan.

fig. 7. Unfortunately there are no reference numbers on these objects, both greatly damaged. One is illustrated (fig. 491, restored) in the Catalogue of the Museum R.I. A. It may be observed that, in archae- ological illustrations of attempted restorations of antiques, the restored portion of the object should be indicated by dotted lines, or some such device, to enable one to judge of the correctness of the attempt.

BRONZE SERPENTINE LATCHETS. 1 9

No. 2 of fig. 8 is hollow, with central inserted boss, small rings around the circumference, spaced further apart than is the case in No. i, and trumpet-shaped openings on opposite sides, through which runs a piece of thick wire, observable where the ring has been broken. It is slightly smaller than No. I, and would appear to have been used either as a strap-fastener or as a link in ring-armour. It can hardly be suggested that the diminutive rings around the circumference of the articles represented in figs. 8 and 9 could have been designed for facilitating the sewing or lacing on of the larger rings to the cloak or other garment to be used as fasteners, as depicted in fig. 6, as the wire still remaining and running through the apertures militates against this ; yet it is quite possible that these rings may have formed a description of armour being attached to a hide, to which the smaller rings could have been laced.

Fig. 9 shows two presumably hollow rings, with central inserted boss, and small rings around the circumference, but without openings in the large ring. They are evidently portion of ring-armour, as an almost complete piece, of which one of them formed part, was found. No. 1, fig. 9, with smaller rings attached to the circumference — all but one broken — is illustrated (restored) in the Catalogue Museum R.I. A., as fig. 492. No. 2, fig. 9, is one of the shoulder rings, from the appar- ently undoubted piece of ring-armour, before mentioned, discovered in the year 1835. The place in which it lay was carefully searched, but no traces of human or animal osseous remains were observed. The armour consists of two broad chains, each formed of five strands of rings depending from two large wheel-like bosses, which rested upon the wearer's shoulders, one chain protecting the breast, the other the back. In the middle of each there is a rectangular plate with open- work pattern. Similar chains, of seven strands each, hung from the bosses over the upper part of the wearer's arms to protect them, as in modern times iron chains were slung outside wooden vessels going into action, to insure the most vital parts from injury. This almost complete antique was found in company with a number of detached pieces, consisting of fragments of chain of somewhat larger dimensions and bosses of various shapes. No. 2 of fig. 9 shows the off-going chains attached to the rings at the circumference of the large ring. It is not necessary, to the illustration of the subject, to draw the entire article.

Nos. 1 and 2 of fig. 10 are two hollow bronze rings, with smaller rings, one on each side, connected by a flat bar or strap that passes

20 BRONZE SERPENTINE LATCHETS.

through the two sides of the larger ring. These articles were probably strap connections. No. 3 is a hollow bronze ring, pierced with round holes— the only one of its kind in the collection of the R.I. A. —and identical with those shown in figs. 5 and 6— portions of a latchet. Thus

Scale or Inches

0 1 ?. 3

1 1 I 1 J I L

5 CALL OF INCHES

Fig 9. Fig. 10.

BRO.NZK RINGS OF THE THIRD CLASS. BRONZE RINGS OK TIIK FOURTH CLASS.

Science and Art Museum, Dublin. Drawn by Gerald U'akenian.

in only two instances — fig. 5, and in No. 3 of fig. 10 — can it, with any degree of certainty, be advanced that the rings were used, in conjunction with a pin, as a dress fastener.1

No information as to where any of the articles in fig. 10 were found could be procured. They appear to have been acquired by the R.I. A. in the year 1882.

(To be continued. )

1 The writer must acknowledge his indebtedness to Gerald Wakeman for the careful manner in which he has illustrated this paper, as well as for much valuable information.

THE FRENCH PRISONERS IN BELFAST, 1 759- 1 763.

21

The French Prisoners in Belfast, 17594763.

( Continued from vol. ix, page ij6. )

( 13 )

APPENDIX.

[NUMB. I.]

Lieut. Colonel Higginson's LETTER to the Sovereign, Burgesses, and prin- cipal Inhabitants of B E I. FA S T.

Gentlemen, Belfast, Jan. ift, 1761. TJPON General Strode's leaving Bel- fa ft, and the command of this Garri- fon devolving on me. I received a complaint horn the French Prifoners of warconfined here ; fetting forth that they were treated by Mr. Stanton with the greateft injuftice and inhu- manity, in the articles of Provifions, and e- very particular, that as their commiffary, it was his duty to furnifh them with ; and look- ing upon it as an affair, that not only as an officer, intrufted with the charge of them, but alfo as a chriftian, it became my imme- diate duty to take cognizance of, and to ufe my utmoft endeavours to get redreffed. — I accordingly made a particular enquiry into it myfelf, and defired every officer under my command to do the fame when on guard o-

vei

( 14 ) ver them, and to examine thoroughly into every particular grievance complained of ; which they did, and made me daily reports, all agreeing in the following particulars viz.

lit. The bread not fufficiently baked, and very fandy.

2d. The flelh provifions moft intolerably bad, and tainted when delivered out.

3d. The Small-beer in general bad and four.

4th. Not having a fupply of ftraw for thefe fix weeks pad, they now lye upon the bare floor, except a few who have had beds deli- vered out to them, which beds are intoler- ably bad.

5th. The allowance of coals for four mef- fes is barely fufficient for one.

6th. No utenfils to eat oft', but a dirty tub to each apartment.

7th. The provifions are in general deliver- ed out three hours too late.

This being committed to writing, and figned by my officers, I immediately, and afterwards daily, apply'd to Mr. Stanton for redrefs of fuch abufes, without effect : but at length I got the articles of bread, beef and beer put on fuch a footing as has pre- vented any frequent complaints of late, ex- cept with regard to the want of ftraw, and the neceflary article of fait : which Mr. Stan- ton for fome time pall has neglected to fur- nifh the Prifoners with : and touching thefe

particulars,

HE following extracts relating to the French landing at Carrick- fergus in 1760 are copied from MSS. in the British Museum by Dr. John S. Crone. They give a most detailed account

of the storming and surrender of Carrickfergus, and the subsequent

capture of the French fleet by Captain Elliott.

Copy of Add. MSS. 32,902, F. 364.

Information of Benjamin Hall, Lieutenant and Adjutant to my Regiment, who this moment arrived here in his Parole from Carrickfergus in Order to get provisions for the Officers and Soldiers of my Regiment there, says that on the 21st Inst: three ships appeared off the Isle of Magee, standing in shore, for the Bay of Carrickfergus, and at II o'clock came to an anchor about two miles and an half to the N E Pan of the Castle, and within Musquet shot of the shore of Killrute Point, at this Time the squall number of Troops belonging to the Garrison was at e\erci>e about Haifa Mile on the Road to Belfast, and at a Ouarter after II o'clock the Guard was tum'd out made up and marched off to relieve that on the French prisoners in the Castle, the rest of the men continued in the Field of Exercise, where an

THE FRENCH PRISONERS IN BELFAST, 1759-1763.

( 15 ) particulars, I am forry to inform you, I am altogether without hopes of redrefs, as I have fo often of late applied for it in vain : — So that now the Prifoners are miferable, to a degree that is fhocking to humanity ; and fo much fo to mine, that 1 cannot longer be a witnefs of their diftrefs without endea- vouring to adminifter to their relief. At prefent they are obliged to fell part of the provifions they receive to buy fait, for the prefervation of the remainder. And by the want of It raw to defend them from a very damp earthen floor, they are lying, objects of every man's compaffion but Mr. Stanton's. I can therefore no longer remain a witnefs of fuch mcafures, without laying before you this reprefentation of them, and an eftimate of the provifions delivered to the Prifoners by Mr. Stanton ; by which it will appear his profit for victualling 256 men at iT| per day, is ,£528 7 Ji per Annum : befides his other profits, &c.

Can the town of lielfaft thus fuffer a man to make a fortune at the expence of fuch ob- jects, and the character which thefe Nations are fo juftly entitled to, for their unparalel- led humanity? I hope Gentlemen, you will not, and that you will think with me, that fuch enormous abufes are a reproach to that town, which (when known) allows them to be continued And your well known hu- manity

( 16 ) inanity and ftrict attachment to juftice, up- on all occafions, allure me that your beft en- deavours, for the means to put an entire ft op thereto for the future, and to render the French Prifoners of War here as happy as the na- ture of their circumftances will admit of, will not be wanting.

To the Sovereign, Burgeffes, and principal Inha- bitants of the Town of Bel- fast.

/ am, Gentlemen,

Your mo/t obedient Servant,

Joseph Higginson,

Major to Genera/

Strode's Regt.

We the following Officers of General Strode a Regiment, having been for a long time eye witneffes of the facts herein repre- fented,— -in confirmation thereof, have here- unto fet our hands.

Tho. Nash, lieut. Hen. Harnage, lieut. W11.. Stewart, lieut. W11.. Macdowal, enf. Rob. Pennington, enf. Geo. Charlton, enf. Rob. Savage, enf.

A Re-

Account was soon brought that the three ships just come to an anchor, had taken and detained two Fishing-boats, and with them and several others were plying on and off betwixt the Shore and the Ships, on which immediate Orders were sent to the Castle for both Guards to continue under Arms and double the Centries over the French Prisoners and be particularly strict and watchfull over them, till such Time as they could be satisfied whether they were Friends or Enemies, tho' at the same Time a strong Report prevailed with some that it was an English Frigate and two Store Ships; but to be convinced what they were, after the Troops had assembled in the Market-Place, the said Lieut: Hall went off with a reconnoitring Party, and took Post on a rising ground, where he could plainly perceive 8 Boats landing armed men, and that they drew out in Detachments, and took Post on the Dykes, Hedges, and all the rising Grounds from whence they could have the most extensive Views ; upon which he gave the necessary orders to his Non-Commissioned Officers and Men to have a Watchfull Eye of their Approaches, and to take particular Care they did not get round them by going at the Foot of the Hill undiscovered, in Order to prevent which he posted them himself, and told them as soon as ever Advanced Guard came within Shot to fire upon them, and continue so to do till they repulsed them ; or if necessitated to retreat, he likewise pointed that out to them, with Orders to take every Opportunity, or Advantage of Ground in their Retreat to Retard the Enemy's Approach, and to be sure to keep a Communication with the Town as much as possible, and on this he immediately went to the Town and acquainted Lieut: Col: Jennings, where he found him with the Troops on the Parade, who immediately ordered Detachments to be made to defend the Gates of the Town, and all the Avenues leading thereto, so m after which the reconnoitring Party retired after having spent all their Ammu- nition, during which Time the Lieut: Col: and Chief Magistrate of the Town sent off the Sherifl and Mr Mucklewaine (who is Captain of the Militia of the Corporation) with Orders to lake off the French Prisoners of War and convey them with all speed to Belfast, where they

THE FRENCH PRISONERS IN BELFAST, 1759-I763.

( 17 ) A Return of Allowance of Provifions deliver- ed out to the French Prifoners of War at Belfast, 30M Decern. 1760.

One man's allow- \ ance for one 'lay/

One ditto for Friday

Allowan. for a mefs \ of 8 men one day /

Ditto for 8 men on ) Friday. /

One man's allow. \ for 7 days, inclu- <• ding Friday. )

Allowed each man 1 per week for Peas

Allowan for 7 day- ding Frid

Allow'd each mefs [ p. week for Peas. I

\Vm. Stuart, lieut in 62d Regmt.

of 8 men^j tys, inclu- > rid ay. J

32

U

or 6

CT41

4or 6

32°r43

lb.

12 12

lb

quar

1

4i

8436

56

Total amount

£

14

Sergeant- Major KeiTH'j Affidavit. [NUM. II.]

JOHN KEITH, Sergeant-Major to his Majefty's fixty fecond regiment of foot, commanded by Major-General Strode, came C this

( 18 ) this day before me, and made oath ; That in the month of October laft Major-General Strode left Belfaft, and that thereupon the command of the garrifon there devolved up- on lieut. col. Higginson, then major to faid regiment ; who having received complaint from the French Prifoners of War, that their Commiffary, Mr. Stanton, treated them in every particular with the greateft Injuftice and Inhumanity : this deponent was ordered by faid col. Higginson, daily to vifit the a- partments of faid Prifoners, and to report to him their juft complaints, in order to their redrefs. This deponent faith, that he accor- dingly did vifit the apartments of the faid Prifoners, and that their juft complaints con- futed in the following particulars, viz.

Firft, That mr. Stanton, from the cheap- nefs of provifions, fed each man for three pence three farthings per day, or lefs, when his Majefty allows fixpence per day for the fupport of each ; which, did they receive in cafh, they would thereby be enabled not on- ly to purchafe as much provifions as they re- ceived from mr. Stan/on, but alfo Apparel, Soap, Tobacco, Fuel, and other neceffaries ; by the want of all which they are naked, nalty, and every way moft miferable ; and to procure which, they were obliged to make fale of their provifions at the greateft under- value. Se-

were to receive further Orders from me ; by this Time the Enemy were on full march for the Town, which he computed to be near a thousand Men, and two or three stragling Hussars on Horses they had picked up after landing, attempted to enter the Gates, but on the first Fire retired, but were soon supported by Parties of Foot who attacked both the North and Scotch Gates, as also the Garden Walls of Lord Donnegal, who were repulsed also, and kept back, as long as the Men had Ammunition, on which Col: Jennings ordered the whole to retire to the Castle, which he had sufficient Time to do, as at this Time the Enemy was a little checked from our Fire, and would have been more so, had the Men had Ammunition ; before the Gates of the Castle were shut, they made their Appearance in the Market Place, and then it was in his Opinion the Destruction of the Enemy would have commenced had it not been that still (he begs leave again to observe) the then dreadfull Want of Ammunition, notwith- standing the supply of Powder they had had a few Days before from Belfast by my Order but was in Want of Ball and even Time if they had that to make them up ; From which the Enemy finding our fire so cool, attacked the Gates Sword in Hand, which from the battering of the Shot on both sides the Bolts were knocked back and the Gates opened and the Enemy marched in, but Lieut: Col: Jennings, Lord Wallingford, Capt: Bland, Lieut: Ellis, with some other Gentlemen and about 50 Men repulsed the Enemy and beat them back, here it was he saw great resolution in a few Irish Boys who defended the Gate after it was opened with their Bayonets, and those from the Half Moon, after their Ammunition was gone threw Stones and Bricks, had this attack of the Enemy been supported with any Degree of Courage, they must certainly have succeeded in it, but they retired back under cover leaving the Gates open with our Men in the Front of it which gave them a short Time to consider what was best to be done, first to see the Mens Ammunition which if they had had any would have certainly sallied, and even so without it, had not Col: Jennings and all the Officers thought the Enterprise too hazardous, then they considered if the Gate could be defended the Breach

-4

THE FRENCH PRISONERS IN BELFAST, I759-I763.

( 19 )

Secondly, That the Breacl was very lands, and ill baked.

Thirdly, That the Beef was often very bad, and tainted.

Fourthly, That the Beer was very had, weak and four.

Fifthly, That by the want of Straw, they were obliged to lie upon the ground.

Sixthly, That they were not allowed a fulficiency of Fuel to drefs their provifions, part of which they were obliged to fell to procure it.

Seventhly, That they had no L'tcnfils; fuch as Platters, to eat their Victuals upon, but a dirty Tub to each apartment.

Eighthly, That they had no Salt for a con- fiderable time, by the want of which their Peel often tainted before they could ufe it.

Ninthly, That the fick in the Hofpital had no Fire allowed them, and were put on half Allowance when they thoiild have double Allowance.

Tenthly, That the provifions were de- livered out fo late, that they could not drefs their lieef before evening.

Al.L which complaints this Deponent knows to be juft and true, and particularly with regard to the want of the neceffary articles of Salt and Straw ; the firft of which, this Deponent faith, they were without for fifteen days fuccffively; and the laft for fix weeks; C 2 at

( 20 )

at which time, in one Room for feven men, there was m>t two pounds weight of Straw, and in many others very little more : fo that by mr. Stanton's inhumanity, and neglect of them, they are become to a very great de- gree nafly, naked, and miferable.

This deponent further depofeth. that in confequence of col. IIigginson's orders to him, he reported the truth of the above com- plaints to col. HiooiNSON, who thereupon ordered this deponent to apply, in his name, to mr. Stanton, to have them redreffed, which he did daily, without effect ; receiv- ing for anfwer from mr. Stanton, that he did not regard the complaints of the Prifoners to col. Hir.r.iNSON one farthing; and let them complain as often as they would, thev lhould not be the better for it ; for that he had done them juftice by contracting with proper peo- ple to provide them with good and fufficient provifions; and that if they were bad he could not help it : From whence this depo- nent believes there muft be a collufion be- tween faid contractors and mr. Stanton. And this deponent faith, that with regard to the neceffary articles of Salt and Straw, the faid Stanton refufed in the moft haughty and in- human manner, to give either ; telling this deponent, that he was not obliged to furnifh the Prifoners with the former; and that there- fore they fhould have no Salt from him ; and

in the Castle Wall could not, it being near 50 Feet long, and having but short Time to deliberate, all agreed a Parly should be beat, and Lieut: Hall sent out to know on what Terms they might Surrender, which was accordingly done, and on his going out found the greatest Part of the Enemy under Shelter of the old Walls and Houses before the Castle Gate, and after the usual Ceremony demmded of the Commandant (the General being wounded) what terms would be given the Troops on their Surrender, and at the same time sent the Drum to call Colonel Jennings out of the Castle, in order to treat with the French Commandant on Articles of Capitulation which he says as well as he can remember were as follows, viz ;

1st— Col: Jennings demanded that the Troops should march out with all the Honours of War, and the Officers to be on their Parole in Ireland, and not to be sent Prisoners to France, the Soldiers also to stay in Ireland, and that an equal Number of French Prisoners should be sent to France within One Month, or as soon after as Ships could be got ready for that Purpose Granted.

2nd— That the Castle of Carrickfergus should not be demolished or any of the Stores destroyed or taken out of it Granted.

That the Town and County of Carrickfergus should not be plundered or burnt, on Condition the Mayor and Corporation furnished the French Troops with necessary Provisions Granted.

This, as well as he can remember was the verbal articles agreed on, tho' on writing them, the French Commandant after consulting his Principal Officers declared he could not by any Means answer to his Master the French King, granting to His Britannick Majesty the Stores in the Castle which he insisted upon, and Col: Jennings, to his great grief had it not in his Power to refuse, declaring solemnly, at the same Time, with a Grave Countenance, that he had rather have been buried in the Ruins, to which the French Commandant replied, that he

THE FRENCH PRISONERS IN BELFAST, I/59-I/63.

( 21 ) in regard to Straw, they might put their Buttocks to the ground, and be damned, for it was good enough for the fcoundrels. Thefe feveral anfwers, and others, haughty, (light and evafive, this deponent did at dif- ferent times receive from faid Stanton, which he reported to col. Hir.GINSON ; who there- upon generally afterwards went to mr. Stan- ton himfelf, without any effect. For this de- ponent declares, that the want of Straw and Salt were grievances that ftill remained un- redreffed, till the gentlemen of Belfaft, at col. Higginfon's inftance, thought proper to enquire, and take puhlick notice of mr. Stanton 9, treatment of the Prifoners. Then, and not till then, they were compleated with a proper allowance of Straw, and fumifhed again with an allowance of Salt. But this deponent faith, the Sick in the hofpital ftill continue to get but half allowance.

John Keith, Sergt. Major to the 62d Regiment.

Sworn before me in Belfaft, the $th Da)' of February, 1761.

James Hamilton,

Sovereign.

( 22 )

To the Commissioners for fick and wounded Seamen, and for Exchanging French Pri- foners of War.

[NUM. III.]

Gentlemen,

"\X7E the Sovereign, Burgeffes, and prin- cipal Inhabitants of Belfaft, deeply affected with the prefent ftate of the French Prifoners of War, confined here, beg leave to inclofe you a remonftrance made us in their behalf by lieut. col. Higginfon, and fuch of the officers under his command, as have had the charge of their prifon.

That the feveral matters therein fet forth are indifputably true, we are firmly per- ftiaded ; nay, many of us have been eye-wit- neffes to the inconceivable diftrefs thefe men feel, from the want of Apparel, Tobacco, Soap, Candles, Salt, Fuel, &c. which they cannot procure but by the fale of fome part of their provifions.

The fufferings of thefe unfortunate men call loudly for redrefs, and cannot but en- gage in their behalf, all thofe who have hearts capable of feeling the mifery of o- thers, or fpirit to fupport that national cha- racter of humanity which fo eminently dif- tinguifhes thefe countries.

It

could not insert it in the Articles of Capitulation, yet he would give his Word and Honour and did so, that if there was nothing of great Value in the Castle belonging to the King, besides Powder, he would not touch it (which there really was not) but how far he will keep his Promise is not yet known, likewise the Magistrates of Carrickfergus not furnishing the French with necessary provisions they plundered the Town declaring it was their own Fault, as they were convinced they had it in their Power to supply them as they had found enough in the Town afterwards.

Mr Hall further informs me that he has discovered by some of the French there was a Disagreement betwixt their General and Capt Thurot, the General being for the attack of Carrick, and Thurot for landing at the White House and attacking Belfast. He likewise judges the Frigates to be one of 40 Guns, the other two about 20 each.

Lieut: Hall begs Leave to present his Duty to Your Grace and hopes Your Grace will excuse any Inaccuracy that may be in his Description as he was no way provided with any papers (but his Memory) and often interrupted by Numbers of Gentlemen of the Militia who was crouding perpetually in the Room to receive Orders.

The inclosed just came to Hand as I was finishing directed to the Sovereign of the Town. I beg Leave to subscribe myself,

My Lord, &c,

Belfast, Febry 23'1 VVm Strode.

1760

at 6 in the Evening. [Endorsed] Belfast Feb: 23. 1760. 6 o'clock in the Evening. Information of Lieut: Hall

of Gen: Strode:s Reg' Recd from M. G. Strode by Lieut: Beers. 24"1 in Mr. Rigby's

Of. Feb! 24th 1760.

(To be continued.)

26 CRANNOGS, OR "ARTIFICIAL ISLANDS.

Crannogs, or Artificial Islands,

in the Counties of Antrim and Derry.

By the late Right Rev. William Reeves, Bishop of Down and Connor and Dromore.

(Reprint of a Pamphlet printed at the University Press, Dublin, i860.)

( Continued from vol. ix, page 176.)

SECOND PAPER.

T~ HAT part of Ulster known in the sixteenth century as Brian CarragJis Country consisted of a tract on either side of the Bann, of which Portglenone may be taken as the centre. The portion on the Antrim side of the river, which consisted of the adjacent part of the parish of Ahoghill, was held, by inheritance, under O'Neill, of Clannaboy ; while the Londonderry portion, which consisted of the south-east part of Tamlaghtocrilly parish, was wrested by force of arms from O'Cahan, and held in adverse possession. In Marshal Bagenal's "Description of Ulster," 1586, the territory is thus noticed : — " Brian Caraghe's countrey was a portion of Xorthe Clande- boy, won from it by a bastard kinde of Scottes, of the septs of Clandonells, who entered the same, and do yet holde it, being a very stronge piece of lande lienge uppon the North side of the Bande. The name of the nowe Capten thereof is Brian Caraghe,1 who pos- sessethe likewise another pece of a countrey of Tyron side upon the Band, for which he doth contribute to Onele, and for his landes on the North side to them of Clandeboye ; by reason of the fastnes and strengthe of his countrey, havinge succour and frendes on each side the Band, it is very hard to harme him, which maketh him so obstinate and careles as he never yet wolde appeare before any Deputie, but yeldethe still what relife he can to the Scottes. His force in people is very smale ; he standethe onelie upon the strength of his countrey,

1 A very interesting document from the State Paper Office has been printed by Herbert F. Hore, in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, vol. vii. , p. 61. It is a letter from Allister McConeill to Captain Piers, dated 10th of December, 1566, in which he says: " als mony as we

myt drywe and dreaf ower ye Ban all ye carycht y1 Brean Karriche hade and ane

innyse [i.e., island, namely, Innisrush] yl Brean Karriche hade of befair and Oneiles servand tuk yt, and now we have gotten y* innys agane, and that harchips I behuffit to sla yame to be meit to my arme."

CRANNOGS, OR ARTIFICIAL ISLANDS. 27

which in dede is the fastest grownde of Ireland."1 The substance of this statement is transferred by John Dymmok into his " Treatice of Ireland," circ. 1600, who corrupts the chieftain's name to Bryan Mac Carvugh.2 In his " Particuler of the Rebells Forces," April 28, 1599, we find under Ulster, "Shane mac Bryan Carragh, and his cuntry joynyng on the Bansyde — 50 foot, 10 horse."3 In Francis Jobson's Maps of Ulster, preserved among the manuscripts of Trinity College, Bryan Carrogtis Country is laid down on either side of the Bann, and a little south-east on the Antrim side, somewhere in the parish of Ahoghill, Temple Brian Carrogh is also marked.4 With these agree the engraved maps of Baptista Boazio,5 Speed,6 Jannson," and Blaeu.8 John Norden's map, prefixed to the printed State Papers of Ireland, places Brian Carogh only on the county of Londonderry side, north- west of Forte Tuom, now Toome Bridge.9 Local tradition circum- scribes his territory still more, bounding it on the north by Wolf Island ; north-west by Drumlane March ; on the east by Tyanee Burn ; on the south-east by Cut of the Hill, near Bellaghy ; and on the south by the Clady River.

This Brian, who bore the common epithet of Carrach, or "Scabbed,"10 was an O'Neill, and great-grandson of Domhnall Donn, or " Donnell the Brown," whose father, Brian, was brother of Con, eldest son of Hugh Boy the Second, the ancestor of the noble house of Shane's Castle, now, alas ! extinct in the male line. Domhnall Donn became possessed of the district on the Antrim side of the Bann, and founded a sept called the Cto.nn "OorhnAill *Oumn ti& Daiu,11 "Descendants

1 Printed from the original record in the State Paper Office, dated December 20, 1586, by Herbert F. Hore, in the Ulster Journal of Archirology, vol. ii., p. 154. The county of Antrim part of this document had previously been printed, with a few verbal inaccuracies, from a copy in Dean Dobbs' collection, by the Rev. John Dubourdieu, in his "Statistical Survey of Antrim," vol. ii., p. 620.

2 " Tracts relating to Ireland," vol. ii. , p. 23 (Irish Archaeological Soc. Publications). a Ibid, p. 29.

■* The second map of Ulster in the Trin. Coll. collection of Irish maps and charts is a large coarsely coloured survey of Ulster, on vellum, by Francis Jobson, dated 1590. The third, which is smaller, and on paper, is also by Jobson, and marks Brian Carrugh on both sides of the Bann. Map 4 of Ulster, also by Jobson, on vellum, places Brian Caroth entirely on the east side of the river.

5 This rudely executed and coloured map, which is extremely rare, was " graven by Renohle Elstrack," and published in the latter part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and sold "in the Pope's head alley by Mr. Sudburv." It places Brian Caroch on the west side, but has his name to the south-east, lower down, near the Fevagh.

6 Speed's Theatre ; the Province of Ulster, between pp. 145, 146 (1614).

7 " Le Nouvel Atlas, on Theatre du Monde," torn. iv. , Irlande, l>etween pp. 41, 42 (1647). " Blaeu, "Geographia Hiberni;t\" between pp. 27, 28 (1654).

9 With this agrees the copy of Norden's map of Ulster, on vellum, in the Trin. Coll. collec- tion, where it is No. i of Ulster It is of the date 1609-1611.

i" <\\j\j\ac1i was ai very common use. Thus, we find an earlier Brian Carrach O'Neill, in the " Annals of the Four Masters" at 1387; an Art Carrach at i486; a Neale Carrach at 1488; a Rory Carrach at 1523. all O'Neills. H. F. Hore, supposing Carrach to be a surname, in a note on Brian Carrach cites a statement about Alexander Carrach ; but he was a Mac Donnell. His name appears in the family pedigree, and in the " Four Masters," at 1542, 1577. This Alexander Carrach died in 1631. See note to O'Donovan's " Four Masters," 1590 (p. 1895).

11 Mac Firbis, Geneal. MS. (Library, Royal Irish Academy), p. 121 a.

28 CRANNOGS, OR ARTIFICIAL ISLANDS.

of Donnell Donn of the Bann." Hence arose among the English the familiar appellation of Clandonnells, as employed by Bagenal and Dymmok in the passages above cited. Camden, however, erroneously supposed them to be the same as the Mac Donnells, familiarly called M'Connells ; and, speaking of the Earl of Essex's failure in reducing Ulster, he adds, that he " left this country to the O'Neals, and Brian Carragh of the family of the MacConnells, who have since cut one another's throats in their disputes for sovereignty."1 The name Clandonnell, no doubt, was often applied to the Mac Donnells,2 especially O'Neill's gallowglasses, but in the present instance it was borrowed from Donnell Donn O'Neill.

The epithet, " a bastard kind of Scotts," is, probably, derived from a mistaken notion that Brian Carrach's men were Mac Donnells ; or it may have reference to Scotch mercenaries employed by the chief of the district, who settled and intermarried therein. In confirmation of this view, there is the local tradition that the Mac Erleans, who abound in the district, were a Scotch clan, whose name was originally Mac Clean,3 and that they were invited over from the west coast of Argyle and planted here by Brian Carrach, where they became his best supporters against O'Cahan.

Brian Carrach flourished in the middle of the sixteenth century,4 and died about 1586. A son of his was slain, according to the Four Masters, in 1577. Another son, Shane Boy, who was captain of the district in 1 599, is the last of that line noticed in Mac Pubis's Genealogy of the O'Neills, but the old family pedigree, copies of which belonging to the families of Shanescastle and Bannvale, have been examined by me, gives another generation in Cromac, son of Shane Boy. Anne, daughter of Brian Carrach, was second wife of Shane O'Neill, of Shanescastle,0 son of the Brian O'Neill whom the Earl of Essex caused to be apprehended near Carrickfergus in

1574-°

The following Table, commencing with the founder of the noble house of Clannaboy, shows the collateral descent of the Edenduff- carrick and Bann-side lines.

1 Britannia, vol. iv. , p. 431. (Gibson's translation, ed. Gough, London.)

a See Miscellany of the Celtic Society, p. 192 ; Iar Connacht, p. 331.

a That is Mar. Gil/a F.oin. Sec " Four Masters," at 1523, 1559, 1577.

■•The learned editor of the " Four Masters" makes a slight mistake in identifying Brian Carrach of 1387 (p. 709) with the present individual noticed at 1577 (p. 1692).

3 O'Neill Pedigree.

u Camden, Annales Flizabethre, anno 1573 (p. 246, ed. 1615). Devereux's Lives and Letters of the Earls of Lssex, vol. i., pp. 19, 34, 37-39, 66, 69, 89, 90. O'Donovan's " Four Masters,' 1573 IP- 1664), 1574 (p. 1676I.

CRANNOGS, OR ARTIFICIAL ISLANDS. 29

AEDH BUIDHE, or HUGH BOV I.

Appears in the "Four Mast." at 1259, 1260, 1261, 1262, 1281. Slain in 1283.

I

Brian O'Neill.

Inaugurated 1291 ; slain 1295.

I Henry O'Neill.

MuiRCERTACH CeNNLADA O'NEILL.

I

Brian Ballagh O'Neill. His sons adults in 1426.

I

Aodh Buide, Hugh Boy II., O'Neill. Slain May 2, 1444.

Con O'Neill. Brian O'Neill.

Flor. 1465, 146S, 147 1, 1472, Died of small-pox, 1488. 1475. l4&1 ; oh. 1482.

I

Niai.l Mok O'Neill. Domhnall Donn.

Ob. April 11, 1512. Founder of Claim Domh-

naill Duinn na Bana.

Fiielim Bacach O'Neill. Shane Dubh O'Neill.

I I

Brian O'Neill. Cokmac O'Neill. Flor. 1573, apprehended by Earl of Essex, 1574.

John O'Neill - Anne, d. of Brian Brian Carrach O'Neill

Flor. 15S6; ob. 1617. Carrach. Ob. circ. 1586.

• I i

Phelim Dubh O'Neill. Shane Boy Anne.

Ob. 1677. "The son of Brian O'Neill. Second wife

Carrach. son of Corb- Alive in 1599. of Tohn

Brian O'Neill. mac, was slain by the | O'Neill of

Ob. 1669. army of O'Neill, 1577'' Cormac. Shane's

(Four Mast.). Castle.

John O'Neill. Ob. 1738.

Charlks O'Neill.

Ob. 1769.

I

Tohn O'Neill.

First Vis. O'Neill ; killed 1798.

Charles Henry St. Iohn. John Richard Bruce.

Earl O'Neill. Ob. Mar. 25, Third Viscount O'Neill.

1841. jet. 62. Ob. Feb. 12, 1855, jet. 74.

The place which is traditionally pointed out as the site of Brian's abode is a small island, in the middle of a marshy basin at Inisrush, called the Green Lough.1 This spot was really the 1m|- |uii|\ " Island

1 As distinguished from the larger sheet of water called the Black Lough, which lies a little to the north-west, but which has no island. — Ordnance Survey of Derry, sheet 33.

In the fourth Ulster map in the Trin. Coll. collection, Brian Caroth is placed on the Antrim side ; but on the Derry side of his territory, south of the Slut Donogh, is the mark of a very small lake, with a diminutive island, no doubt intended for the one in question. Speed, Jamison, and Hlaeu mark the Clady River, which they call the Skinnefl., and on the north side of it they correctly place the little lake with its island, which they call Lo. Rush.

3<D CRANNOGS, OR ARTIFICIAL ISLANDS.

of the Wood"; and though it has long since ceased to bear this name par excellence, it comes in for a share as part of the townland of Inishrush, as adjacent to the hamlet so called, and as included in the Perpetual Cure of Inisrush. And the reason why this inconsiderable speck gave name to the surrounding district, was its importance in the sixteenth century as the seat of the chieftain's fortress ; just as Inir- Ua ploinn, the now obliterated crannog near Desertmartin, gave the name of loch \x\\\ Ua phloinn, first, to the small lake it existed on, and then, in the form of Lougkinskolin, to one of the largest baronies in Ulster.1

The Green Lough was drained some years ago by the father of Hugh MacLoughlin, the present tenant. Previously to that it was a sheet of water, about half a mile in circumference, and used to receive the surplus water of the Black Lough ; but, by means of a deep cut, its contents were carried into the Clady River, and it was completely drained. About the middle, in the position shown on the Ordnance map, was a circular eminence artificially formed of clay and gravel, the edge of which sloped down to the water. Inside this marginal embankment was a circle of oak piles, most of which still remain, about seven perches in circumference. In the upper ends were mortised horizontal beams of oak, and upon this framework, as a foundation, rested a wooden house, which was securely connected with the supporting timbers. Such was the edifice which tradition describes as the residence of Brian Carrach O'Neill. The approach was from the western margin of the lough, where an artificial cause- way was formed, which came within a short distance of the island. I expected to hear of many articles of antiquity being found during the process of draining, but the only one which was remembered was a piece of iron chain-mail. At present, owing to neglect of the drain, the basin containing the island has been to some extent again sub- merged, so that, on the 18th of October last, an effort which I made to reach the island failed, as I sank above the knees before I had taken many steps. However, the island, though considerably impaired in outline, still remains prominent and green, and produces a cock of hay every year. The apple-trees which are growing on the top were planted there a few years ago.

The road to Tamlaght skirts the Green Lough on the south, and on the other side of it rises one of the eskirs which abound in the parish. The highest part of this is called the Gallows Hill, and the

1 See my communication in the proceedings, p. 359, supra.

CRANNOGS, OR ARTIFICIAL ISLANDS. 3 I

marks of three graves are shown near the spot where the gallows stood. They are said to contain the remains of three warriors slain by Brian Carrach. Living, as this chieftain did, in a district which was wrested from a rival tribe, his life was naturally marked by vigilance, and his acts by decision and severity. The inaccessible nature of his territory enabled him to bid defiance to the English, but the emissaries of the O'Cahans were ever ready to take advantage of his difficulties ; and tradition says that the two sons whom he left were assassinated by the Logans and Mac Shanes at a christening party near Skeg-na-holiagh. Certainly the stories which are told of him do not impress the mind with a notion of his gentleness. The following, which was related to Dr. O'Donovan, when in this part of the country in 1834, and was communicated by him to the Ordnance Survey Office,1 presents a fair specimen of the local estimate for this chief's memory : — " Many stories are related of Brian Carrach O'Neill, who encroached upon O'Kane, and possessed the south-east portion of the county. Brian would never hang one man alone, and if he found a man guilty of swinging by his law, he would give him a long day, until he could find another to dance along with him. One time he found a man guilty, and a long time passed over but no com- panion could be found for him. At last a stranger came to visit the friars of a monastery within the territory, and Brian, riding out one day, viewed him, and they allow that he sent word to the abbot, requesting of him to lend him that man, and that he would send him one in return as soon as possible. The abbot, fearing to disobey, sent him the man, and Brian caused him to be hanged along with the convict. Soon after this, he found two others guilty, one of whom attracted his notice as being remarkably comely. Brian spoke to him, saying, ' I shall forgive you if you will marry a daughter that I have.' ' Let's see her,' says the convict. Brian sends for the daughter ; but as soon as the comely youth beheld her, he cried out, Sik\j^ tiom, pu\r- tiom : 'Up with me, up with me.' 'By the powers,' says Brian, ' I will not up with you, but she must go up.' Upon which he hanged his own daughter for her ugliness, and gave the comely youth up to the abbot, in payment of the man he had borrowed from him to make up the even number."2

The monastery above mentioned was, probably, the small friary

1 Derry Letters, dated Newtownlimavady, August 16, 1834.

2 A story very similar is recorded by Dr. Fitzgerald, in Mason's "Parochial Survev " of Henry Avrey O'Neill, whose castle was in the parish of Ardstraw. — Vol. i. , p. 116. The Ardstraw youth said, Cur suas me, cur suas me.

32 JOSIAH WELSH.

which tradition reports to have existed in the little village of Tam-

laght, about two miles distant, on the north-west.

(The End.)

[W. J. Knowles, m.k.i.a., will contribute some further notes on these crannogs, bring- ing down their condition to the present time, several of them having been investigated in recent years. — Ed.]

Josiah Welsh,

Minister of Templepatrick, County Antrim.

IN the book mentioned in volume ix, page 15S, there is a reference to the above minister, whose grave is in the old churchyard at Templepatrick. He died 23 June, 1634. Upon a heavy flat slab the following inscription is cut:

Here lies interred under this stone

Great Knoxes grandchild John Welsh's son

Born in Scotland and bred up in Erance

He then came to Ireland the Gospel to advance.

The following is the quotation referred to :

"He married Elizabeth Knox Daughter to the famous Master John Knox, Minister at Edinburgh, the Apostle of Scotland, and she lived with him from his Youth till his Death. By her I have heard he had Three Sons ; The first was called Doctor Welsh a Doctor of Medicine, who was unhappily killed upon an innocent Mistake in the Low Countries, and of him I never heard more. Another Son he had most lamentably lost at Sea, for when the ship in which he was, was sunk, he swam to a Rock in the sea, but starved there for Want of Necessary Eood and Refreshment, and when sometime afterward his Body was found upon the Rock, they found him Dead in a praying posture upon his bended Knees, with his Hands stretched out, and this was all the satisfaction his Friends and the World had upon his Lamentable Death, so bitter to his Friends. Another son he had who was Heir to his Fathers Graces and Blessings, and this was Mr. Josias Welsh Minister at Temple-patrick in the North of Ireland, commonly called ' the Cock of the Conscience ' by the people of the Country, because of his extraordinary Wakening and Rousing Gift. He was one of that blest Society of Ministers, which wrought that unparallelled Work in the North of Ireland, about the Year 1636. But himself was a Man most sadly exercised with Doubts about his own Salvation all his Time, and would ordinarly say, That Minister was much to be pitied, who was called to comfort weak Saints and had no Comfort himself. He died in his Youth, and left for his Successor Mr. John Welsh, Minis- ter at Iron-gray in Galloway, the Place of his Grand Fathers Nativity."

ANTRIM.

33

Antrim*

By John Stevenson,

Author of " Pat McCarty : his Rhymes."

Up ! rouse ye ! sleepy muse of mine : Why is our Antrim still unsung, When other lands not half so fine Have had their poorer praises rung? Is she, the City of the Ford,1 (May never aught her fame eclipse), Too busy spinning, building ships, To say in praise of thee a word ?

Thine are the grander forms earth-borne, — The land flood-channell'd, earthquake-torn ; The sea-wet border, lonely glen, Mountain and moorland, bog and fen, And cliff by storms of ages worn.

Where, fairer than with thee, appear The changing glories of the year : — The sunlit morn of Spring sweet-gal'd, The April hedge in emerald veil'd, The wind-wav'd grass and corn in ear ?

No need have I of hill to climb

To find fit subject for my rhyme :

Imagination sallies forth,

Looks o'er the land from south to north,

And backward thro' the mists of time.

When Prelacy plac'd under ban

All ways save hers 'twixt God and man,

And scourg'd with unrelenting rod,

The godly, for the love of God,

On Scotia's sward the life-blood ran.

From thee, O wounded Scotland, then, Our fathers came, great-hearted men. Denied the right, as reprobates, To praise God under thatch or slates, They prais'd Him in the open glen.

Oft tasted they on moors of thine Their Lord's memorial bread and wine, And sang with hearts made strong and calm, The rocky mountain-side the shrine That echo'd to the holy psalm.

I climb in thought the Hill of Caves,2 Afar to eastward o'er the flood, I see long galleys ride the waves ; I hear the songs of Danish braves, Eager to quench a thirst for blood.

On Fergus' rock I see arise

De Courcy's keep,3 that Time defies ;

I hear the hammer-clink on stones,

That shape its dungeons, — hear the groans

Of captives in their agonies.

Again I see it, old and grey, Two hundred ships are in the bay, And William's4 standard on the wall That breaks before the cannon ball Of Thurot5 on a later day.

By Olderfleet6 from Scotland came Bruce and six thousand men, with aim The sword in English blood to wet : And old Rathmore remembers yet The redden'd soil, the smoke and flame.

Sea-like in grandeur, calm and grey, To westward dully gleams Lough Neagh And Antrim's tower,7 lone and tall, And Shane's old home,8 I see them all As in the old time and to-day.

Then o'er the water, weird and low, There comes a wind-borne cry of woe From Cavan far ; where Ulster's head — The brave, the great O'Neil — lies dead : I hear the keen9 for Owen Roe.10

1 Belfast : Bel, a ford, an entrance ; feirsde, a sandbank.

2 Ben Madighan, overlooking Belfast — now called Cave Hill (1,188 feet) -with bold precipitous cliffs, and crowned by the great prehistoric fort of MacArt.

3 Carrickfergus Castle, on Belfast Lough, built by John de Courcv in 1177.

4 William III. landed here.

5 The castle was taken by the French under Thurot in 1760.

6 Now Larne. Here Edward Bruce landed in 1316.

7 One of the most perfect of the ancient Irish round towers is near the town of Antrim.

8 Shane's Castle.

9 The Irish wail for the dead.

10 Eoghan Ruadh (anglicized Owen Roe) O'Xeil died, from poison it is said, 10 November, 1649.

34

ANTRIM.

Slemish!1 what memories are thine ! Of slave hoy ragged, hungry, faint —

Who on thy iock\ scams did pine, The barefoot laddie herding swine. Now call'd our Ireland's patron saint.

Time oidy is the husbandman That ploughs where lonely Lurig'than, Where Trostan and Sliev'norra2 rise : Old hills whose hours are centuries, And days a nation's living span.

What think they of earth's man-made scars ; Man's small activities, — his wars — The pride, the claims extravagant Of him, —a larger kind of ant ! They having kinship w ith the stars.

Eastward the bold white cliffs appear : Fairer or not than all the rest, This is the Antrim lov'd the best. Whether the leaf be green or sere, Thought never sees a winter here.

Always the wind blows fresh and free Over a sunlit dancing sea ; Always the lark's alluring tongue Tells from the clouds the year is young.

Lonely, deserted church of Layde,:i How many weary ones have made Their beds beside thee and the sea ! How many stricken souls have pray'd And agoniz'd to God from thee !

By Cushendun the strife is loud —

The Scots have murder'd Shane the Proud !

I see the grave dug by his kin,

The headless body laid therein —

A poor man's ragged garb its shroud.4

Sorrow and strife be far away From these sweet vales and hills for aye ! () who would think of sword and death Who feels the living sea's sweet breath Blow thro' the nine green glens5 to-day !

Who sees the blue smoke skyward-curl'd From many a lowly glen hearth-stone, Each with a laughter and a groan, A pathos and romance its own ; Each little house a little world !

Who that can hear the voice of morn, The whisper of the springing corn, Who understands the babbling rills, The weird wild music of the hills, And nameless voices heaven-born !

Sure am I that the Antrim glen Holds mysteries beyond our ken, And that there moves in wind and sea, And rock and stream, and weed and tree, A life not far from life of men.

Dear Mother Earth, I know within That leaf and I are next of kin — The rowan high by blood is near, The primrose is a sister dear, Brother of mine the mountain whin.

Now on the ocean shore I stand, The sea-worn cliff on either hand, And farther north no other land ; Only the long sea-heave and roll Between me ami the Arctic pole.

Near where Knock-laydB the tempest braves, And Rathlin battles with the waves, I see the evening shadow fall Of Bun-na-Margie's ruin'd wall" On Bun-na-Margie's quiet graves.

1 Slieve Mis, an isolated rocky hill near Ballymena, on which S Patrick, as a slave-boy, herded swine Cor Milcho.

2 Mountains near Cushendall. Trostan is the highest of the Antrim mountains.

3 An ancient Franciscan abbey ; then the old parish church and burying-place of Cushendall.

4 The celebrated Shane O'Neil unwisely trusted his ancient enemies, the Scots, at a banquet at Cushendun in 1567. Shane and his attendants were slain, and the headless body of the great chieftain was wrapped in a peasant's shirt and thrown mto a pit. The head was taken to Dublin, and spiked on the Castle.

5 The nine glens of Antrim are Glentow, Glenshesk, Glendun, Glencorp, Glenaan, Glen- ballyemon, GlenarirT, Glencloy, Glenarm.

6 A hill near I'.allvcastle.

7 The ruins of Bun-na-Margie occupy a glorious site close to the sea-shore at Ballycastle. The monastery is said to have been founded A.n. t202 by Walter de Burgo.

ROBERT VICARS DIXON, D.D.

35

Keep, countrymen, his mem'ry green ! Here sleeps old Antrim's worthy son, As brave as e'er the soil has seen, Who scorn'd to hold what sword had won By sheepskin from the English queen.1

I see the Giant's pillar'd way ;- I see Dunluce of ancient day — Dunluce that saw Armada break.3 The old Clan Donnell heroes wake, And Dalriada4 own's their sway.

Hail, Pleaskin, northern sentinel ! Old Pleaskin, where the sea-birds dwell ! What ages, hoary grown, have past Since first ye felt the northern blast And salt lick of the ocean swell.

Here let my muse lay down her pen ; Her wanderings by hill and glen And stream and lake and shore adjourn. Would that her words were words to burn Would that her words had pow'r to turn To this lov'd land the hearts of men !

Robert Vicars Dixon, D*D,

(Archdeacon of Armagh),

and the Parish of Cloghernie.

By the Right Hon. the Earl of Belmore, g.c.m.g.

1 FIRST became acquainted, I think, with my friend, the late Archdeacon Dixon, Ex. F.T.C.D., in or about 1856. He had then held the parish of Cloghernie for about three years ; and was a Justice of the Peace for Tyrone. His parish, in the diocese of Armagh, had, until 1733, formed part of the old parish of Termon- maguirk, in " the Two Fues and Ballintackin" between Omagh and Dungannon. In 1733 it had been divided in the way which I shall describe further on ; and the advowson was also divided between the Viscount Tyrone, ancestor of the Marquis of Waterford, and Robert Lowry of Melberry, near Caledon, the two principal landlords in the parish : one as the descendant of Nichola Sophia, Lady Beresford, the younger sister of Lord Hamilton of Glenawley, who died under age and unmarried in 1680 ; the other as the son and heir of the assignee of her elder sister, Arabella Susanna, Lady Dungannon —

1 Sorley Boy MaeDonnell burned in his castle yard of Dunanannie, on the point of his sword, the grant of his lands which Queen Elizabeth had bestowed upon him, saying that what he had won by the sword he would not hold by parchment.

2 The Giant's Causeway.

3 At least two ships of the Great Armada— one of them the " Gerona '— were wrecked near Dunluce in 1588.

4 The old Clan Donnell territory, represented by the northern half of the present County Antrim.

36 ROBERT VICARS DIXON, D.D.

Robert Lowry of Aghcnis, also near Caledon. These ladies and their successors were entitled to present alternately ; but on the division of the parish, this arrangement, of course, came to an end. Lord Waterford's family continued to present to Termonmaguirk until Dis- establishment. Robert Lowry and the first Lord Belmore, his nephew, presented three times, in each case nominating a Lowry — grandfather, father, and son. The former, however, exchanged with Dr. Dobbs in 1745 for Tullaghog, or Dcsertcreat, where he owned lands ; whilst the second resigned in favour of his own son, after holding the parish for about 19 years.

In 1828 the second Lord Belmore, whose estates at that time were much encumbered, sold the advowson for .£14,000 to Trinity College, Dublin. The living was reckoned to be the most valuable in Ireland, and it had one of the largest glebe houses, besides glebe lands, which formed a tolerably extensive estate. The College made rather a bad bargain by this purchase, as the Rev. James Lowry, who had already been some 35 years rector and vicar, survived for another quarter of a century or so; whilst Archdeacon Dixon, in his turn, held the parish for 32 years, surviving " Establishment." The College, how- ever, received £1 1,701 2s. Sd. compensation under the Irish Church Act (vide Report of the Dublin University Commission, i8j8, p. 91, of which I was Chairman).

Robert Dixon was born in 181 1, probably in Dublin, as his fore- fathers were merchants and freemen of that city.1 He was at first educated at the Rev. T. Hextdart's school. He proceeded in due course to Trinity College, Dublin, where he was not a scholar. He took his B.A. degree Verti 1833. He obtained a fellowship at first sitting for one, in 1S38. It is supposed by his daughter — who thinks that there were then no lay fellows'2 — that he must have been ordained in the same year. He became Professor, on Erasmus Smith's endow- ment, of Natural and Experimental Philosophy ; and was the author of a treatise on Heat. He married a daughter of Samuel Maclean of St. Stephen's Green, Dublin, by whom he has had three children ; viz., H. M. Dixon, Superintending Clerk in the Admiralty ; C. H. Dixon, late Surgeon in the R.A.M.C, deceased (I believe, in Egypt) ; and one daughter, K. E. G. Dixon, now the wife of Colonel Montagu Browne, of Mullaghmore House, near Omagh. He proceeded to M.A. in Vern, 1839, and B.D. and D.D. in Htem, 1862. Dr. Dixon

1 Information penes his daughter.

2 Excepting, of course, one in law and one in medicine.

ROBERT VICARS DIXON, D.D. 37

had a great knowledge of the folk-lore of the district in which his lot was cast in Tyrone. He became a magistrate for the county ; and I have heard he was always ready in his earlier days to lend a hand to anyone whom he saw, in his progress through the parish, in need of one, to load a cart at hay or harvest time. I did not see much of him during the earlier part — the first nineteen years or so — of his career in Cloghernie ; and knew him then chiefly as one of the clergymen connected with the parishes in which my Tyrone estate (upon which I have no residence) was situate.

The following account of the parish of Cloghernie is derived from some notes which Dr. Dixon allowed me to publish as an appendix (M) to my History of the Manors of Finagh and Cook} in 1881 ; in preparing which book I was greatly aided by him as concerned the Co. Tyrone part, as well as by Dean Reeves (of Armagh) in the Co. Fermanagh portion. Dr. Dixon had used the notes for an article which he had written for The Parish Magazine in 1860-1.2

After some introductory remarks about the district, he said : " Two localities in the district — one in the present parish of Cloghernie, the other in Termonmaguirk — are connected with the names of Patrick and Columbcille ; and it is highly probable that the churches of Donaghanie and Termonmaguirk owe their origin to those saints, or to some of their earliest disciples. The existence, too, of the extensive church lands of Termonmaguirk,3 from which the parish derives its name, when coupled with the local traditions connected with Columb- cille, renders it probable that a religious house of some extent existed here at an early period ; to the support of whose inmates these lands were dedicated by the piety of some ancient chief."

The lands had, no doubt, been farmed under the superintendence of the Coarb, or Erenagh (i.e., the successor to the founder), who might be either a man or a woman (e.g., Bi igid and others), or by a sept or clan, for the benefit of the house. It generally gave its name to the termon lands. Hence this parish derived its name from the sept of the Maguirks, who had farmed the lands before the Plantation of Ulster. This, however, was not the original name of the termon. Bishop Henry Leslie was, at the time of the wars in 1641, holding the lands, etc., of this parish by lease, and considered the value to himself to be about ,£80 a year.

1 Longmans, and Alex. Thom & Co. Re-issued, revised, and enlarged, 1903.

2 Edited by the Rev. J. Erskine Clarke, M.A., Vicar of St. Michael's, Derby.

3 In the Irish Historical Atlas of 1609, called " Verruck." They are mostly now part of the estate of Sir John Stewart, Bart.

38 ROBERT VICARS DIXON, D.D.

The present church of Termonmaguirk stands at the entrance of the village of Carrickmore. It is comparatively modern — say about ioo years old. But there was an older Protestant church built at the beginning of the seventeenth century, higher up the hill, close to the Roman Catholic chapel ; and with a burial-ground now used exclusively by its congregation.

" No trace whatever remains of any of the buildings connected with the original tcrmon, nor does any local tradition record their existence or their site. Some singular burial-places, evidently of great antiquity, and some sacred wells .... alone remain to attest the early existence of a religious settlement in this locality."

A "Life" of St.Columbcille, in Irish, by a prince of Tirconnell named O'Donnell (dr. 1520), contains the earliest tradition attributing the establishment of this termon to that saint. Part of it is preserved in the Royal Irish Academy. The place is there called Termon- Cuiminigh, which is sufficiently near to " Termon-Comyn " (which this termon bore as late as the seventeenth century) as to render its identity with Termonmaguirk probable. O'Donnell said, "on a certain occasion, that Columbcille was in the place called at this day Termon- Cuiminigh, in Tyrone ; he consecrated that place, and gave it a Termonn for ever after. And he struck three strokes of his crozier into the hill, and a well sprung up in the place of each one of them. And he spoke through the spirit of prophecy, and said that Donnell, the son of Aedh (Hugh), that is, the King of Erinn, and the race of Conall along with him, would come to the Termonn, and the host would commit great defilements there ; and that himself would be at that time in Scotland ; and that it would be a pity for the descendants of Conall to injure or harm this Termonn, whilst himself was in perpetual exile from Erinn. And he said that he would obtain from God, that the King of Erinn should be filled with disease and debility, and that none of them should possess the strength of a woman .... on that occasion, until the Coarb of the place should have received from the King his full demand for the injury done to the Termonn ; and when he had received that, that he should sprinkle some of the water of the wells on the King and his host, and that they should be immediately healed ; and that Tobair-n-g-Conallach (that is, wells of the descendants of Conall) should be the name of those wells for ever after, in commemor- ation of this great miracle. All this prophecy was fulfilled in all things."

There is a well near Carrickmore, in a field near the road leading

ROBERT VICARS DIXON, D.D. 39

to Loughmacrory, which bears the name of Tobar-na-craobh-Conallach, or well of the branch (i.e., race) of the descendants of Conall.

Ireland was divided into dioceses and parishes in the twelfth cen- tury ; and the parish of Termon Cuiminigh was constituted before the end of the thirteenth century. The first mention of it occurs in a valuation of the benefices of the diocese of Armagh, between 1291 and 1306, for " Pope Nicholas's taxation," which is extant in one of the record offices in London. The parish is there named Termecomyn, and its annual value stated to be two marks, or ,£1 6s. Sd. The tax assessed was one-tenth part.

The parish had a rector and a vicar, both appointed by the Arch- bishop of Armagh. Originally the parish was a prebend of Armagh, until the seventeenth century, when the prebends were reduced from sixteen to four. The rector received two-thirds of the tithes, and the vicar one-third of all the parish, except the townland of Donaghanie. And on Donaghanie, until some time not long before 1861, stood the remains of a church called Donagh-a-nie (the Church of the Horse), said to have been founded by St. Patrick. The churchyard — still, perhaps, used as a place of interment— stood on the top of a low round drift hill, overlooking a bog, in which is a lake called Lough Patrick. It is somewhat remarkable that this church is not shown in any of the maps in the Irish Historical Atlas, 1609. In the seventeenth century Donaghanie belonged to the See of Clogher, and before that was the property of some religious house — probably the abbey of Clogher. I have heard it said that this townland is tithe rent charge free in consequence; but it belongs to a private owner. The following account was a local one : " It happened one time that Patrick was in Drum- connelly [a townland in Drumragh, diocese of Derry, of which the parish church is now in Omagh], that he was travelling to a place now called Donagh-a-nie, and he met a man with a horse, who told him that it was not safe for him to go any further in that direction, on account of a piest1 (a gigantic eel or water serpent) which frequented a lake about a mile off, and which destroyed all men and cattle which came within its suckage. And Patrick said to the man, ' If you will lend me your horse, I will enable him, by the power of the God I serve, to destroy the piest' ; and the man lent him his horse. And Patrick went on until he came to the top of the hill over the lough, and he ordered the horse to go down and destroy the piest : and the horse made three leaps, and in the last he leaped into the lough, and he

1 Pronounced " paslia. "

40 ROBERT VICARS DIXON, D.D.

drove the piest out of it. And the piest fled along the watercourse out of the lough, until he came to an esker,1 and then it fled along the top of the esker — and its track may still be seen. And at the end of the esker is a small round gravel hill ; and the piest went round and round this hill, trying to burrow into it and escape the horse, but the horse killed it then. And the horse went back to Patrick full of wrath and fury ; and he was so fierce and violent that the saint feared he would do some mischief, and he ordered him to go into the lough, and to stay there until the Day of Judgment. And the horse is there still. And there were men living who believed that they had seen him. And Patrick built a church on the top of the hill where he stood, to commemorate this event, and to remind the people of the power of God, who enabled his servant to work this great deliverance for them. And the church is called Donagh-a-nie — the Church of the Horse."

To return to the parochial income and the tithes. Those of wool, corn, fish,2 and flax were paid in kind ; for every milch cow, \d., and for every herd of swine, one pork pig. The Primate received out of the termon lands as rent, £\ i^s. \od., ten methers of butter, and fines for bloodshed.

To come to 1609. It was found by an Inquisition held at Dun- gannon, that, in addition to the parish church, there was a chapel-of- ease called Templemoyleneclogherny (i.e., the bare or bald church of Cloghernie) ; so called, either because it had no tower, or because it was at the time roofless. I observe, however, on the Baronial Map of Omagh of the same year, that whilst the parish church was shown as roofless, Cloghernie was, so far as I can judge,3 in good repair. It is now the parish church of Cloghernie, whose side walls are part of the original edifice, and it has had a tower as long as I have known it. The use of the word " Templemoyle " seems to show that the church was regarded as ancient in 1609. A sessiagh of glebe called Cloghernie was attached to the church, on which the rectory and the parish school- house now stand. It and Laragh adjoining seem to have formed part — with Dervaghroy — of the old ballybetagh of Durachrigh, or Deri- criagh, of the map of 1609.

(To be continued.)

1 There is a townland called Esker near by.

- The Camowan or Crooked River runs through the district. Trout, no doubt, and possibly salmon, in those days, may have been found in it.

3 It is not always easy to make out from the maps which churches are roofless and which in repair.

Miscellanea

Irish Journey of the Papal Nuncio to Henry VIII. (Chiericata), 1617. Verdelino : vol. ix, page 101-3.

Lord Belmore has placed your readers under an obligation by reproducing in his paper on Termon Magrath the account of above. The notes are helpful, but too scanty, and the details of this remarkable pilgrimage to St. Patrick's Purgatory deserve further elucidation. The itinerary seems to have been — London, by Chester to Dublin ; thence to Dromore, "a city in a pleasant plain " ; and then " five miles further to Doncalek," which Lord Belmore identifies as Dundalk. If it be, there must be some confusion as to the position of Dromore, which is, perhaps, a mistake for some other town between Dublin and the latter. Then "another day's journey of twenty-four miles " brought the party to Armagh, and twenty miles more to Clogher, both of which are described, as is more fully the "Purgatory." The narrative states that the party "returned by the same road to Armagh, and after visiting the Abbey of Verdelino, travelled thirty-four miles further to a city on the sea, called Don." The latter, which is the last place mentioned, is identified as Down, but no explanation is given of the former. I therefore write to point out that the abbey which Chiericata calls of Verdelino is evidently the Cistercian foundation at Newry which Henry VIII. converted into a collegiate church at the suit of Sir Arthur Magennis. See Archdall's Monasticon, where the various names by which Newry was called are enumerated, including one in the barbarous Latin of the age, " Monasterium de Viridi Ligno," doubtless referring to the yew- trees which are supposed to have supplied the original name of the town. See Joyce and Reeves. The " Verdelino " of the Nuncio is evidently the form which the name received from a foreigner unfamiliar with the vernacular.

J. R. Garstin.

Cure for Consumption.

I HAVE just read Lady Wilde's interesting book on Ancient Cures and Charms of Ireland. It does not contain any notice of an old north of Ireland "cure" for consumption: a disease formerly called by the peasantry "decline." I remember, when a lad, a labourer on my grandfather's farm at Whitehouse had a son ill with consumption. This man gathered early every morning a lot of small white snails ; he put over them salt, then added milk, which concoction his son drank. I have no doubt that the snails — a clean-feeding mollusc — were as nutritious and useful a dietetic agent as oysters, which have been often recommended.

H. S. PURDON, M.D.

The Magraths of Termon Magrath.

Dr. George U. MacNamara is not quite accurate must have settled in Termon Dabheog at some period I can find in the annals of the death of a Magrath filling trator, of the lands of Termon Dabheog." Far from Magraths as lay custodians of Lough Derg, there is were there at least 60 years previously. Under date following entry occurs: "Gilla Adomhnain Magrath, on October 20th of this year."

when he states that " the Magraths ante 1344; for this is the earliest date the office of Comha> ba, or lay adminis-

1344 being the earliest date for the evidence to show that the Magraths of 1290 in the Annals of Ulster, the

Superior of Termon Dabheog, died

Wm. II. G rattan Flood.

Reviews of Books*

)) ((

Publications habing any bearing upon local matters, or upon Irish or general

Antiquarian subjects, Ivill be rebielved in this column; "Books or

Articles for %ebielv to be sent to the "Editor.

;^ (T

'The Music of I) eland. By Francis O'Neill, General Superintendent of Police, Chicago,

U.S.A. Chicago: Lyon & Ilealy. Price i\s. To describe adequately this sumptuous quarto volume of 1,850 airs, printed in clear music type, suitable for violin, (lute, or pipes, would seem flattery, but let me at once state that nowhere is there procurable such a large collection of folk tunes, many of which are here printed for the first time.

When it is remembered that Captain O'Neill, the compiler of this collection, has the care of 34,000 police in a city of two million inhabitants, and that it was only in the intervals snatched from his duties that he was able to glean from all available sources — printed, manuscript, and oral — the tunes he liked best, no one will begrudge him a place of honour by the side of O'Conor, Bunting, Petrie, and Joyce.

Chief O'Neill, as he is called by his familiars, enlisted the co-operation of all the musical Gaels in Chicago, and thus accumulated a colossal pile of printed and manuscript collections of old Irish airs, in addition to the thousands of melodies taken down by James O'Neill from pipers, fiddlers, and flutists. This James O'Neill, it will interest Northern readers to learn, is a native of Ulster, and has acted for years as " musical scribe" to Chief O'Neill. Thus Ulster has collaborated with Munster in producing The Music of Ireland.

As to the classification of the tunes, the compiler ha? given us — song melodies, 625 ; compositions by Turlough O'Carolan, 75; double jigs, 415; slip jigs, 60; reels, 380; hornpipes, 225; long dances, 20; and marches, etc., 50— making, in all, 1,850 airs.

Of course there is a classified index, where will be found the alternative names for the tunes — hundreds of which have three and four titles for the same melody. In the body of the work the airs are given Irish and English names — a task of no small magnitude— the Irish names being in the Irish character.

It can be well understood that in such a number of Irish folk songs some English, Welsh, and Scotch airs have crept in, their long residence in Ireland qualifying them, in a sense, as "native to the soil," whilst a few modern tunes by Irish composers, such as " Killarney " (Balfe), "Come back to Erin" (by Mrs. Charles Barnard, better known as "Clairbel"), "Ireland for ever," "The dark girl dressed in blue," "I met her in the garden where the praties grow," etc., are also included. However, it were ungracious to be hypercritical, and we can only expre.-s our unbounded admiration for the practical patriotic spirit which animated Chief O'Neill in culling such gems of Irish melody, and presenting them in such an attractive form.

As a gift-book to music-loving Irishmen and Irishwomen in any part of the globe, we can unhesitatingly recommend O'Neill's Music of Ireland, and we feel sure that it will be very welcome to those who have long wished for such a collection. The publishers are Lyon & Healy of Chicago, but the book may be had through the leading music-sellers. The editor of this journal has kindly undertaken to transmit copies to those requiring them.

W. H. Grattan Flood.

?fC >fC *jZ >fC

The Journal of the Friends'1 Historical Society.

We commend this magazine to all those interested in Quaker history.

REVIEWS OF BOOKS. 43

Irish Music: being an examination of the matter of scales, modes, and keys, with practical

instructions and examples for players. By the Rev. Richard Henebry, Ph.D. Dublin:

«.\n cLo-ctun&nn. Price 6d. Wk welcome warmly the appearance of this excellent little brochure, and recommend it most strongly to all those interested in our national music. 1 r. Henebry is one of the very few musicians who have a clear, practical understanding of the nature of traditional Irish music and the manner in which it is played or sung. O'Sullivan, in his introduction to O'Curry's Maimers and Customs, made, perhaps, the first attempt of any scholar to elucidate that which was generally unknown about the native scale system ; but, as the author of this pamphlet points out, his work seems "to have fallen still-born from the press for all the use made of it in Ireland." We, therefore, hope that this publication will be widely read by all, as it contains much of the first importance to the study of Irish music.

Referring to the labours of Bunting, Moore, Petrie, Joyce, and others, Dr. Henebry remarks that "those collectors used the modern staff notation unchanged, and subjected their tunes to the whole economy of playing. In reality, what they did was to report the Irish interval accurately where it chanced to coincide with the modern, and where it did not, to substitute the nearest modern interval. The result was a string of notes altogether out of tune with the rules of modern composition on the one hand and totally unknown to Irish music on the other." With this we heartily agree; and it must be patent to all that if a tune is composed on an entirely different scale system, it will, when translated into another, suffer severely. Not one in a hundred amateur (or professional) musicians of good education who sing or play Irish airs is conscious that there exists an Irish scale differing almost note for note from the modern system. Still less is it known that the traditional music of Ireland can not be played on the pianoforte ; that our music has perhaps suffered more in the last hundred years from modernization than it ever did from neglect ; that there are such things as fiddlers' keys with fingering distinct from that used in modern violin playing ; that the most accomplished violinists brought up in the modern school would find extreme difficulty in playing an Irish air correctly, for the simple reason that it is not written in the ordinary chromatic or diatonic scale. Many airs have been composed since the English settled on our shores, not a few of which are strongly tainted by foreign elements, and some of these have unfortunately found their way into our collections. Take the writings of Carolan as a case in point. Any student will at once recognise how very different in style and feeling these compositions are from our more ancient tunes. Our oft-belauded bard might have spent much of his life in Italy to judge from the legacy he has left us.

We express again the hope that lovers of our ancient folk-music will make it their duty to study carefully what Dr. Henebry has to say in his pamphlet, which, by the way, can be had for sixpence. H. H.

* * * *

Poems by Helen Patterson. Privately printed. 1903.

This little brochure of sweet poems is the work of the wife of our confrere, W. H. Patterson, m.r.i. A., and certainly upholds the best traditions of that family. Belfast has well nigh lost its name as a literary centre, but gleams like this and others, which from time to time come under our notice, go far to induce us to believe that our Northern Athens is not entirely lacking in those qualities which earned for it this century-old title.

* * * *

An English- Itish Dictionary and Phrase Bool: By Edmund E. Fournier d'Albe. Dublin :

Printed by the Celtic Association. 1903. Price 6s. net. Pending the production of the larger and more complete official Dictionary of the Gaelic, we welcome this volume as a long-felt want supplied. It is accurately and carefully com- piled ; and as a book of reference, will be fully availed of by the numberless Gaelic students throughout the country.

44 REVIEWS OF BOOKS.

A Lay of Ossian and Patrick, with other Irish Verses. By Stephen Gwynn. Dublin :

Hodges, Figgis & Co., Ltd. 1903. Price is. We are very glad to have these few poems from the pen of Stephen Gwynn collected together and printed in this neat form. The story of the heroic days which gives its title to the book is well known to all the students of the literature of this period.

" Patrick is dead, and Ossian Gull to his place is gone. But the words and the deeds of heroes Linger in twilight on." The twilight of the past is brightened considerably by the mass of literature recently made accessible to the public under the Gaelic revival. The poem, however, that attracts our fancy most is "A Song of Defeat," which we certainly consider one of the finest his- torical poems written in recent years. It deserves a place in every school-book in Ireland, and should be as familiar to the youth of the present day as Goldsmith's " Deserted Village" was to the generations that are past. It is a short poem, yet the roll of Irish heroes mentioned is a considerable one. It ranges from Brian Boru to those of the present day. We cull a stanza from a period very often in the minds of the Northern Irish :

" I call to your mind brave Sarslield And the battle in Limerick street, The mine and the shattered wall And the battered breach held good, And William full in retreat, And at the end of all Wild geese rising on clamorous wing, To follow the flight of an alien king, And the hard won treaty broke, And the elder faith oppressed, And the blood — but not for Ireland — Red upon Sarsfield's breast."

* * * *

The Pikemen. A romance of the Ards of Down. By S. R. Keightly. London: Hutchin- son & Co. 1903. This is a story of the year '98 in the county of Down, written in vivid and telling language by one who has an excellent knowledge of the period of which he writes, and a thorough grasp of local circumstances and the common dialect of the people. There is not a dry or uninteresting chapter throughout the hook, and it will afford ample pleasure to the general reader of romance, and more especially to those who are residing in the county in which the principal scenes described in the book are laid. We heartily recommend to the cultured author the desirability of a cheaper and more popular issue of this work, so as to make its pages accessible to everyone. 1 he principal characters are painted with a decisive brush, but if anything, we consider the scene in the old meeting-house at Greyabbey a little over- drawn. Here we have the Rev. James Porter balloting in the communion cup for the name of him who was to do away with the informer Newell. We doubt the accuracy of this incident, and even the death of Newell at this place ; nor do we think this wretched man was such a character as is so skilfully portrayed by the writer. Be this as it may, it is ill to cavil with dry historical details in a work that has many charms, a store of information, and the deepest interest to even the most casual reader.

* * * *

The Volunteers and the Irish Parliament. By John P. Gunning. Limerick: Gray & Co.,

Ltd. 1903. Price is. 6d. We would have much preferred that this little book had not been the Irish Volunteers brought up to date, but had solely treated of an historic epoch of great importance, and omitted the modern deductions and appendix. As it is, the subject is dealt with in a some- what confused way, and is neither historical nor yet of the nature of a semi-political essay. Much of the information, however, contained within its pages, is valuable and well written.

REVIEWS OF BOOKS. 45

The History of Two Uls/et Manors. By the Earl of Belmore. Dublin : Alex. Thorn & Co.

1903. This is a re-issue of a valuable work of research by a learned and researchful contributor, and must have entailed a vast amount of labour, even to one who, in a more than ordinary degree, possesses such qualities to an unusual extent. The Plantation of Ulster is, perhaps, more officially recorded than any other period of Irish history, and certainly the portions of Tyrone and Fermanagh dealt with in this volume have now been laid before the public in a way that no other manors have. From its pages the future chroniclers of the different parishes treated can with certainty obtain such material as is necessary in their work, with full details of family history, local corporate records, funeral entries, tenants' names, and all the accurate information attached to a long possession of lands and houses in different families. A photogravure portrait of the learned author is appropriately placed as a frontis- piece.

* * *- *

The Passionate Hearts. By Ethna Carbery. Dublin : M. H. Gill & Son. Thksk half-dozen little stories of the sweet singer of the " Four Winds of Erinn " have been faithfully collected by him who was so dear to the dead writer ; and now, when the grass is green above her grave in Donegal, they are a welcome treasure to those who, like her, reverence the stories of hill and glen, lake and island, throughout our native land. Their beauty and simplicity, and the virtuous tone that pervades them, prove them to be the very essence of a life spent for others and early yielded up.

5fi ^ >jC Sy£

History ami Genealogy of the Family of Bailie. By George Alexander Bailie. Galveston :

Augusta. 1902. This is a compilation of family notes made by an Ulster settler in America. It is our lot from time to time to meet many such collectors of family records, who, when they re-cross the Atlantic after research in the home country for an ancestry more or less difficult to find, never fail to publish their notes, often hastily collected. The time spent in this somewhat arduous occupation varies from a few hours or less to several months, and often those at home, who are conversant with larger historical facts, are amazed at the turn they take when they appear in cold print. The present book occupies a medium place. We have seen much worse, and much better. Still, it is an addition to County Antrim history.

* * * *

The O'Dempseys, Chiefs of the Clan Maliere. By Thomas Matthews. Dublin: Hodges,

Figgis & Co. 1903.

This is a well compiled history of an Irish clan, once chieftains of Offaly, now scattered and

broken throughout the world. The pedigree is traced from Ileremon, who was buried on

the banks of the Moyne in the fourth century, down to their dispossession in the reign of

Charles II. Certainly everyone ot the name should possess a copy of this book, telling

of the deeds of a long ancestry.

■%, % 4: $i

A Lad of the O ' Friels. By Seumas MacManus. London: Isbister & Co. 1903. Price 6?. This book should have been printed and published in Ireland. To find Donegal stories in a strange garment is not quite satisfactory in these later days. Not that we have any fault to find with the stories, for they are indeed redolent of the turf fire, the blue hill, the deep lake, and the winding road of Donegal. This volume is certainly the best collection of stories from Dun-na-gall ; but we have our doubts — receiving penny monthlies and buying papers at the railway stalls— that our good friend Seumas is writing perhaps a little too much, and spreading out the ample material at his disposal too thinly, and just occasionally with a flavour of the stage Irishman about it. We are sorry to admit this, but it is better to do so, as it has occurred to us once or twice. No man knows the Dun-na-gall peasantry and the stories and legends of Tir-conal better than Seumas MacManus, and sorry we would be if he should fall away from the high position we had always laid out for him.

46 REVIEWS OF BOOKS.

A Social History of Ancient Ireland. By P. W. Joyce. London : Longmans, Green & Co.

1903. Printed in Dublin. Price £1 is. This is a book that we have long looked for, and now heartily welcome. The social rites of ancient Ireland have never previously been treated in such a thorough and exhaustive way in an accessible form. O'Curry's Manners and Customs is a storehouse for such material, but it is by no means a popular work, and it lacks illustration, which is so instructive to the general reader. The present volume is not deficient in this respect, although we would like to see more new ones, and the pages of this work were fully entitled to them. We have not the space to go into the contents of this book in a way that it deserves, but we must refer to the extreme accuracy of statements, of inference, of quotations, and of reference throughout the whole work, full acknowledgment being given to the works of others. The personalities of a chieftain's home life, the clan life, the surroundings of battle, the chase, the burial, and all the accessories of a nomadic people verging into mediaeval civilization are fully and painstakingly described. Dr. Joyce has succeeded in producing a work second to none in the wide and extensive plain of historical research. He has used his great endowments as a Celtic scholar, antiquary, and historian in the production of this work, and it is a worthy monument to a worthy man.

* * # *

History of Drumholm. By Thomas Kearney. Derry : James Hempton. Price 6d.

We are always glad to see such little parochial publications as this, setting out the different

incidents and historic facts connected with the parish.

JfC 'T' t^ *T»

Pat McC arty: his Rhymes. Hy John Stevenson. London: Edward Arnold. 190J. Price

6s. net. This is a dainty volume, ribboned and bound in green linen, the work of a Helfastman. Throughout its pages the Ulster Scot appears in all his characteristics — his dourness and sad gaiety, his love of home and country, his penuriousness and kindness of heart, his thrawing ways, biassed opinions, and integrity of purpose, with a puritanic shade of religion permeating every page. We can sit in his kitchen and see the dresser covered with burnished plates, and hear the cricket upon the hearth, and reverently behold the well- thumbed Bible upon the table, see the scolding wife at the door, the lavish beggar in her cot ; for the rich are niggards and the beggars spendthrifts — for "them that has plinty wudn't gie ye naethin', and them that has naethin' vvud divide onything they hev." We have read no better description of the interior of an Antrim cottage than this : " The table was laid in the centre of the kitchen floor, and over the peat fire on a great griddle were nearly-cooked scones, baked by the good wife in honour of the visitor ; a splendid collie lay winking at the firelight, and Pat, my host, in shirt-sleeves, was sitting at what he called his desk- a board made to rise and fall in front of the window looking eastward and seaward. . . . The task finished, Pat put on his coat, and his wife summoned us to the table ; but before a morsel was touched she took the ' big Book,' which was part of her marriage portion, and put a smaller Bible into her husband's hands; then they found Psalm xxix., and read it verse about . . . 'and where," said Pat, as he put away the books, 'could you find songs that stir you to the heart like these?' Then the meal proceeded." We might fill pages with quotations of similar accuracy, and even greater beauty, but we would prefer to recommend the reader to peruse the pages of this book for himself: he will not be disappointed by doing so. He will find those strong and distinct characteristics of the Antrim people portrayed to life, nor will he fail to find that the Antrim glens are a portion of Ireland having Scotland ever in view, yet the heart of them ever warm to the old country ; and although Pat sings little about the wrongs of his country, to use the writer's own words, ''I do not minimize these wrongs. The tears they brought are still in the eyes of dark Rosaleen, and for three hundred years to come there will be a catch in her voice when she sings because of them ; and often yet ' her holy, delicate white hands' will gird sons to fight for her, but the fighting will not be with sword and pike." It makes us proud to think that an Ulster hand and heart can still produce such a book as this.

REVIEWS OF BOOKS. 47

Lady Anne's Walk. By Eleanor Alexander. London : Edward Arnold. 1903. With Pat McCarty in an Antrim glen and Lady Anne in an archiepiscopal palace, we have two very distinct, yet accurate, views of Ulster life in different phases. This book is unique in many ways. It is local in every sense of the term. All the glories and traditions of the primatial See of Saint Patrick, the royal funeral of King Brian, the early saints, mediaeval warriors, and more modern church princes, are here depicted in all their fulness. Never can we get out of sight of the old minster, with its squat tower and many memories. The writer has inherited the glowing colours and splendid sunset, and the quiet humour of her father the Primate. As the bee in the garden gathers food and stores from the most unlikely-looking sources, so from old gardener Tummus the writer has gleaned many quaint phrases, and at least one unequalled narrative. We refer to his description of the sham fight at Scarva, and risk the spoiling of the story by its curtailment. We take a paragraph out of its centre, giving the conversation that took place between the bogus King William and the bogus King James as they meet in " deadly combat " on the make-believe battlefield :

" Come on, ye thirsty tyrant ye !" says William.

" Come on, ye low, mane usurper !" says James.

" Come on, ye heedious enemy of ceevil and releegious liberty ye !" says William.

" Come on, ye glorious, pious, and immortal humbug ye ! " says James.

" Come on, ye Gladstone ye, and Parnell, and Judas, and Koran, and Dathan,

and Abiram ! " says William. " Come on, ye onnatural parasite ye, and Crumvvell, and Shadrach, and Mesech,

and Abednego ! " says James. " Come on, ye auld Puseyite, and no more about it ! " says William.

We may describe this book as a series of essays, topographical and historical, with a strong literary flavour thrown in, and much local colour. Take this, for instance : " The grateful inhabitants long cherished the hope that, according to the promise given during the sublime interview at Capua, in the last day, when the twelve apostles sit on the twelve thrones, judging the tribes of Israel, a thirteenth throne will be set for Saint Patrick, when he will judge the people of Ireland. There is local colour here. Impartiality is not a quality which we care much about. When the representatives of rival clubs meet in a football or hurling match, the position of an unprejudiced umpire is often one of considerable danger. We want both here and hereafter to be sure of a friendly umpire."' It places us on the high seat to come across such a book as this, written by hands we know, describing scenes that we see again as we read the words describing them. Emania, the Red Branch Knights, Patrick, Lupita, and Hrigit — -all are there, not as spirits of the long past, but as present occupants of the landscape. The writer has depicted Lady Anne in language that we can only apply to herself — the loving daughter of her who wrote " The Burial of Moses " and " There is a Green Hill Far Away," and of him who, apart from his ecclesiastical dignity, stands pre-eminently first in eloquence and literary attainments. " She heard music in the running water, she read the poetry-b >ok of nature, she talked with God and the great spirits of all ages whom He has inspired to be His interpreters. She took a large view of life ; she loved the land of her birth, and the pleasant place where her lines had fallen. The men and women whom she met held the unfading interest of human problem and human need : and the men and women of the uncertain past came out of the shadows of her historic home, peopled the old waste places, and also claimed her attention and her sympathy."

"t* *f* T* ^

Old-Time Music. By P. O'Leary. Graiguenamanagh. 1904.

This is a welcome pamphlet dealing with some local lore in the lovely village of Graigue- namanagh. nestling by the Barrow, under the hill of Brandon. There are several references to the old harpers, and a curse on Cromwell for his destruction of the national instrument. Cromwell "quartered" the harp upon his arms in England, and at the same time "quartered " the harpers in Ireland.

48 REVIEWS OF HOOKS.

How to Decipher and Study Old Documents. By E. E. Thoyts. London : Elliott Stork.

Price 35. 6d. This book deals with the interpretation of documents that are to the ordinary student unreadable. It is written in a clear concise way, and will be of the greatest use to those who are working at original deeds and MSS. The chapter on Parish Registers is particularly

valuable to Irish "students.

* * * *

The Bloody Budge, and other Papers relating to the Insurrection 0/1641. By T. Fitzpatrick.

Dublin : Sealy, Bryers & Walker. 1903. THKRE is no more critical period in Irish history than the one dealt with in these pages, nor no one about which more misstatements have been made and false deductions drawn. The writer has in the pages of this book dealt with County Down incidents ; his position in the alleged "Massacre" is this: "The massacre of Milton, Temple, Borlase, May, Bushworth, Cox, Harris, Carlyle, and Froude is a stupendous falsehood, even on the showing of the very documents upon which the charge is, ignorantly or malignantly, based ; namely, the Deposi- tions preserved in Trinity College, Dublin."' To substantiate this position, the writer, as we proceed from chapter to chapter, drives home truth after truth that go far to satisfy us that he is right. There can be no doubt but these "depositions" were got up to make a case against the older race, and got up deliberately — they had no bona-fides ; but take them as they stand, and examine them critically, technically, and legally, and they prove nothing in the nature of a "Saint Bartholomew in Ireland." Let truth prevail, no matter which side suffers ; and the present volume must go far to establish a much better idea of the merits of this often fought over period. The work is one that has entailed vast labour on the writer — labour of correction, of research, and extended reading of all contemporaneous accounts, with a well-balanced mind, capable of unravelling the truth from a very mixed-up skein of

biassed information.

* * * *

Ireland under English Rule. By Thomas Addis Emmet. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.

1903. Price £\ \s. The name of Emmet is writ large on the pages of Irish history. In 1803, in Dublin, the tragedy of Robert Emmet was enacted ; in 1903 his grand-nephew gives to the public these two sumptuous volumes. The integrity and singleness of purpose of an Emmet have never been doubted. Truly the hangman's rope is the proudest charge on the Emmet shield, and an unknown grave their saddest, noblest memory. The writer is now an aged man, cultured beyond the ordinary degree, a scion of an old aristocratic race, with an ancestry traceable to the Royal blood of England. He has won a fame and a name in the States, wearing their best scientific and academic degrees. His home is a perfect gallery of Emmet relics. This book is a "plea for the plaintiff," or an advocate's special pleading in a cause dear to his heart. A perusal of its pages is a healthy exercise after reading, say, Froude's English in Ireland ; then anyone as a common juryman may give his own verdict ; but let him read both sides — thai is all, and only fair. The question is one very much sub-judice at the present moment. The writer in his preface states the "one great purpose he has had in view throughout was to do justice to the Irish people as a whole." How far he has succeeded in this the reader of these two volumes can decide for himself.

H< * * * The Newry Telegraph of 28 November, 1903, contains a letter from the Rev. Canon Lett, on " Maria Edgeworth at Rostrevor," well worthy of perusal.

* * * *

The United Irishman of 26 Dec, 1903, contains "Upton's Wolves," an account of the destruction of the last wolves in Ireland, by Clotworthy Upton of Templepatrick, in 1692. Romance and fact are so skilfully mingled that the whole reads as truth. Dundrod, Legoniel, Wolfhill, Lisnagarvey, are a few of the places specially mentioned in their old Gaelic names. The writing is picturesque in the extreme, and the whole surroundings painted in with accuracy and glowing effect. ' This is certainly the most recent masterpiece from the masterly hand of our clever young Belfast citizen -Seosam MacCatmaoil.

^

ULSTER JOURNAL OF

ARCHAEOLOGY

Volume X APRIL 1904 Number 2

KDiTF.n by FRANCIS JOSEPH BIGGER, m.r.i.a., Ardrie, Belfast.

Crannogs, or Artificial Islands,

in the Counties of Antrim and Derry.

By W. J. Knowles, m.r.i.a.

( Continued from page 32.)

I~ N continuing the interesting papers by the late Bishop Reeves, written nearly half a century ago, and republished in the last two parts of the Journal, I take it that the task assigned to me is to state the present condition of the various crannogs dealt with in those papers. This I shall do as far as I am able.

LOUGHMAGARRY. — This crannog is on the farm of Hugh Gray of Teeshan, and is about three miles from Ballymena, near the side of the main road leading from that town to Bally money. The bed of the former lough is now dry, though still damp and marshy, and can be seen from the road. The centre of the crannog is now represented by an earthen knoll, which must have been a small island when the water was on the bed of the lough. Some of the oak stakes which surrounded the island are still visible. I counted twenty-one on the north side, but the owner said that remains of the stakes could be found all round the knoll. They are about four feet from the base, and, by measuring roughly, I would estimate the quantity of ground embraced by the surrounding stakes to be half an acre. When the water filled the lough, there must have been a large circular platform, supported on oak piles, surrounding the central core of solid clay or gravel. Possibly the house may have been erected on this solid central island, which would stand up much higher than the platform. Judging from the number of heaps of stones surrounding the base of the knoll at present, the house may have been of stone ; but at same time these could have been utilized with earth and sods to make flooring on the D

50 CRANNOGS, OR ARTIFICIAL ISLANDS.

platform, and the house have been formed of wood. One can only speculate on this matter, as the island, judging from the ridges and furrows now appearing, has been cleared of stones, and planted with potatoes. The owner does not remember this being done, and he believes this clearing and cultivation must have taken place about sixty- years ago, previous to his father buying the farm. A canoe and two paddles were found a short distance from the crannog, which were sold to Canon Grainger, and should now be in the Grainger Collection. Between the island and a fort which formerly existed just on the edge of the lake, he found a bronze pin with flattish broad head. This was also sold to Canon Grainger, but it might belong as readily to the occupiers of the fort as to those of the crannog. The top of the fort has been removed to topdress fields reclaimed from the bottom of the lake. Neighbouring farmers remember beams, bored and mortised, being found while draining ; and Richard Bell got a two-edged iron sword while draining close to the island. This man has now left the district, and it is not known what became of the sword. Except a few drains through the bed of the former lake, very little digging has taken place, and such relics as would drop through the platform or over the edge of it are no doubt still buried up. The draining of the lough has altered boundaries, and three townlands which adjoin have had portions of the bed of the lough assigned to them. Loughmagarry crannog is therefore not now in the townland of that name ; nor yet in that of Fenagh, of which Loughmagarry is said to be a subdenomination, but in the townland of Teeshan. The name Glenagherty is still remembered. It was, I believe, an old name for the Galgorm estate ; but no one in First Ballymena Presby- terian Church remembers, or ever heard of, any part of that church being called the Glenagherty aisle.

LOUGHTAMAND. — This lough is now sufficiently drained to be free from any sheet of water ; but the surface, which was at one time the bottom of the lough, is soft and swampy. The crannog is as low as the surrounding surface, but can easily be distinguished by its greener appearance and a few stakes still remaining on the outside margin. I found the breadth of this portion to be sixteen paces, which corresponds pretty nearly to the diameter inside the piles (fifteen yards), as given by Dr. Reeves. He mentions, however, that the whole island was seventy yards in diameter ; but I could see no indication that an island of such diameter ever existed there. Dr. Reeves says there was a stone house on the island, said to have been

CRANNOGS, OR ARTIFICIAL ISLANDS. 5 1

a stronghold of the MacQuillins. If such a structure ever existed, the stones must have sunk through the soft mud to the bottom, as none is visible, and I do not believe they could have been carted away over the swamp, or that any one would take the trouble of carrying them away stone by stone. I am told by the owner, Thomas Bell, that on digging down he came on the floor of the original crannog ; and I believe, from the appearance it presents, that it is still unexplored. In addition to the articles mentioned by Dr. Reeves as having been found at Loughtamand, I was informed, on a recent visit, that a bronze or brass bowl, " like a scale you would weigh with," had been found near the crannog, and was sold to a watchmaker in Ballymena for 2s. ^d, A spear-head of iron, eighteen inches long, which went to the bad, and a grindstone, had also been found. Thomas Bell gave me the greater portion of an earthen bowl which had been dug up on the site of the crannog. Instead of giving drawings of portions of the vessel, I found I could easily make out its original shape, as there was about half the rim, besides a third of the bottom, and eighteen fragments of the sides. I, therefore, asked my daughter to give a restored view of the vessel, which she did (see fig. 6). It is ornamented with a wavy line round the neck, and is six and a half inches broad at the rim, which is neatly overturned ; five and three-eighth inches broad at the bottom, which is quite flat, and four and a half inches high. It is hand-made, thin, and well baked.

I wrote to Lord O'Neill to know if the canoe and swords found at Loughtamand, and which are supposed, as mentioned by Dr. Reeves, to have gone to Shane's Castle, were still in his keeping. He replied that he never heard of swords being found or brought to Shane's Castle to his knowledge ; and the only single-piece canoe he knows of about Shane's Castle was one found between Randalstown and Toome about 1863.

KlLNOCK. — I visited this crannog on 4 March, 1904. There is now no water in the site of the former lough, but the ground was shaky as one walked along, betokening much soft, boggy material below the tough sward. The island was easily made out, as its herbage is much greener than that of the ground surrounding it. Several sally-bushes are growing round the margin, and partly into the centre. No one knew what I meant when I inquired for the crannog, but it is known as the island. I paced the green portion, which looks rather circular, and found it about nineteen paces in

52

CRANNOGS, OR ARTIFICIAL ISLANDS.

diameter. (Dr. Reeves gives the diameter as sixty feet.) Almost the whole of the bottom of the former lake is in the townland of Kilnock, and in Lord O'Neill's estate. Alexander Macllvenna is the occupier of nine and a half acres, and one acre is occupied by another person. He remembered the Rev. Leonard Hasse of Gracehill, near Ballymena, and some others, coming to dig in the island, and one of them got portion of a quern. He (Macllvenna) also got the top of a quern, which he showed me. Besides the central hole, it has three

holes near the margin. One has been in a weak spot, and the others were evidently made as substitutes for it. He also got some fragments of pottery and " teeth of an extra size." He remembers seeing the timbers of the floor below the surface. A canoe may have been found, but he does not remember hearing of it. He said Kil- nock is part of Lord O'Neill's Monterividy estate, but he never heard of the name Loughernagilly. I believe this crannog is in its original state, and has been very little interfered with.

Derryhullagh (Lough Ravel). — A considerable number of articles have been found in this crannog from time to time ; probably owing, as in the case of Lisnacrogher, to the peat on which it rested being cut away for fuel. I have several articles which were found here, including a very perfect iron axe, shown in fig. i ; a bronze pin, with four settings of enamel, two of yellow colour and two whitish with reddish streaks (see fig. 3). It is in very perfect condition. There is another pin of bronze, all in one piece, with a portion bent round in a circle to form a head, and soldered to the main stem (see fig. 2) ; also a penannular brooch, of whitish bronze, ornamented with dots, represented in fig. 4. The canoe which Lord O'Neill describes as coming from a bog between Randalstown and Toome may have belonged to this crannog. He gives the dimensions of the canoe as twelve feet long, and three feet to three feet six inches wide. The paddle is about four feet long, and its blade shaped almost

CRANNOGS, OR ARTIFICIAL ISLANDS.

53

exactly like an ordinary narrow oar. Colonel Wood-Martin gives a list of the articles found in this crannog from time to time. See Lake Dwellings of Ireland, pp. 163-4.

Lough Crannagh (Benmore).— I have not been able to visit this crannog, but Alexander MacHenry, M.R.I.A., reported on it to the Royal Irish Academy in 1886. He says it is oval in shape, being one hundred and twenty-six feet long and eighty-five wide. Average depth of water, two feet on the west and three feet on the east side. " It is built of large loose blocks of basalt, well fitted together without

1 is

ig- 3-

cement." The surrounding wall is from six to eight feet thick. He made extensive excavations in all parts, but the only objects found were a rounded flint (probably a hammer), a worked flint flake, and some decayed fragments of charred bones of ox and sheep.

LOUGHINSHOLIN. — 1 am dependent on a correspondent for infor- mation regarding this crannog. Lough Shillin, as it is now named, is still a lough near Desertmartin, and in close proximity to the line of railway running from that town to Draperstown. It covers about a statute rood, and there is the little stockaded island or crannog in the centre, with a pathway leading to it, passable in the dry season of the year, but covered in winter. The oak piles can still be seen, but

54

CRANNOGS, OR ARTIFICIAL ISLANDS.

they are obscured by osiers. The lough is situated in a boggy or marshy place. My informant had not heard of anything being found in the island except a silver tube, got by a man living in the locality. Vegetables have been grown on the island, and it has been

Fig. 5- Fig- S^-

UScd for illicit distilling. The tube may therefore have as readily belonged to the distillers as the O'Lynns. The island is not used in any way now, probably owing to the difficulty of getting to it at most seasons.

Green Lough. — The owner of the farm on which this crannog is situated is Joseph MacLaughlin. It is near the road-side ; and I have passed it often, but it could not be reached except by wading.

Trees are still growing on it — two

sycamores and three apple-trees, I

am informed. I asked the son of a

neighbouring farmer if any curious

things had been found in the crannog,

and he said he never heard of any,

but he believed there was a " crock of

goold" buried in it. I asked him what

proof he had of that, and he said he

"heard the ould people saying so."

I believe that the crannogs of Green

Lough and Loughinsholin have not

been explored.

General Remarks. — Having mentioned crannog swords, I show

one in fig. 7, found by myself in an Antrim crannog, but not in any

of those described. It is twenty-four and a half inches long, and in

very good preservation.

I also show in fig. 5, $a, two views of a small piece of Samian ware. It is the bottom of a small vessel, but all the upper part has been broken off, and the angles caused by breaking smoothed by grinding, so that the little hollow bottom forms a shallow cup, which

Fig. 6.

CRANNOGS, OR ARTIFICIAL ISLANDS.

55

might have been useful to some lady of the period for holding her paints. This was found in a County Antrim crannog, though not in any of those I have described ; but I think it bears on the history of Irish crannogs generally, which is the reason I draw attention to it.

What knowledge we have of our crannogs is largely derived from chance finds, and these often not accurately recorded ; but even among our finds we have very good examples of Late Celtic orna- ment. Britain, however, according to Sir A. W. Franks, stands unrivalled in antiquities showing this style of ornament, which is traced to La Tene in Switzerland. I would judge /|\

from the superiority of Britain in such artistic designs that it was not to commerce, or to the immigration of a small portion of the La Tene people, that this superiority could be attributed, but rather to these artistic folk having come in large numbers to Britain. In the lake village of Glaston- bury we have the same people settled, according to Dr. Munro, about two centuries before the coming of the Romans. What became of the La Tene people? Did they become Romanized and lose their special kind of art, or did they leave their homes and go elsewhere, as they must have done at first when they came to Britain ? Some, no doubt, remained; some may have gone to North Britain : but I believe a large number came to this country. This small piece of Roman pottery which I figure is as instructive as a book. There must have been contact, but not more than mere contact, with the Romans, otherwise we would have more examples of Roman art and orna- ments. I believe the invasion of Britain by the Romans was the signal for a British invasion of Ireland. Our numerous crannogs would show, I think, that the immi- gration was large. Dr. Munro says it is suggested that the products of the La Tene culture and civilization spread to Ireland "by means of commercial and social intercourse, rather than by the immigration of a new race"1; but I prefer to believe that the people must have brought it here, and remained here them- selves, otherwise we could not have had the marvellous development of that special culture, by the Celtic people, which took place after- wards in metal and stone and in illuminated manuscripts. I would

1 Prehistoric Scotland, p. 277.

56 SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER, LORD DEPUTY OF IRELAND.

date the British invasion of IrelanJ by the British people of La Tene origin at the very bsginning of ttis Christian era.

Before concluding, I would again draw attention to the favourable state for investigation of some of the crannogs I have described. The farmers in wh^se Unds they are situated offer no hindrance to amateur explorers, and I believe would give facilities to societies of antiquaries or other public bodies who would undertake to explore them in a scientific manner, and deposit the finds in public museums. There should be sufficient energy and enterprise among Dublin or Belfast societies to have a work of this kind carried out.

Sir Arthur Chichestert Lord Deputy of

Ireland*

With some Notes on the Plantation of Ulster.

By Francis Joseph Bigger, m.r.i.a.

( Continued from page 12.)

THE traditionary account of these transactions, which existed among several families and in various localities, has been fully borne out and corroborated by the Montgomery and Stewart Manuscripts — two collections of much historical value and importance. The former were compiled from family documents by William Montgomery of Greyabbey, a grandson of Hugh Montgomery of Braidstane ; and the latter were written by Andrew Stewart, for many years Presbyterian minister at Donaghadee. The compiler of the Montgomery Manuscripts enters very minutely into the many negotiations respecting Con's lands which passed between his ancestor of Braidstane and King James, between Hamilton and the King, and between all these three parties separately and O'Neill. The writer of the Stewart Manuscripts presents Chichester to posterity in his true colours, as making a most villainous attempt to take Con O'Neill's life on a false charge of treason, that he might get possession of his estates. Stewart, when mentioning this attempt, further declares that Con was saved only by a special interposition of Providence.

At the time of Elizabeth's death, although Chichester had amply done his part of the clearing process for the Plantation, there came a

SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER, LORD DEPUTY OK IRELAND. $J

hitch in the business which he with all his sagacity had not been able to foresee. Had the Queen lived but a little longer, the work so well known as the Plantation would have gone rapidly forward, and her devoted servitors in Ulster would have had their rewards without further delay. But it somehow happened that the Irish leaders could not be induced to surrender until the closing hours of Elizabeth's life, and then the whole aspect of affairs suddenly changed. Her successor required all his wisdom to meet the difficulties of his position. The servitors had not, as yet, formally demanded any lands ; but it was known that the whole Irish nation was hesitating whether it would accept the Scottish king as its sovereign. To escape any trouble from this quarter, James made haste to proclaim a free pardon and re-grants of their lands to all Irish subjects who had been at war with England during the preceding seven years, and he could hardly, just at first, have done otherwise, for he had always hitherto encouraged the Ulster lords in resisting Elizabeth : indeed there was a tacit treaty of friend- ship and peace between him and them from the time of his accession to the Scottish throne. The wisdom of James, however, was largely mere duplicity, and he did not hesitate to practise it unsparingly towards friends or foes. The pardon he thus proclaimed to the Irish was conditional, at least so far as he was concerned, and their restora- tion to their estates was merely nominal, as it soon afterwards suffi- ciently appeared. The angry mutterings of the disappointed servitors soon became distinctly menacing, and to allay the rising storm the King was quite prepared to reverse his policy to the Irish ; and in 1604, the year after his accession to the English throne, he raised Chichester — the then recognised champion of plantation — to the office of Lord Deputy.

Before his elevation, however, to the supreme place of authority in Ireland, he had thoroughly fulfilled the terms of his mission in the north. As Governor of the two Clannaboys he was not obliged to take any part in the general fighting against the Irish forces through- out Ulster, at least beyond the limits of the territories now named ; and as Brian Mac Art O'Neill had drawn thence all the able-bodied men to assist in recruiting the armies of the Earls of Tir-owen and Tirconnell, Chichester and his picked men had only to make war on the non-combatants and the women and children north and south of the Lagan. In doing this work, he adopted a regularly arranged system, which he explains in two letters that have fortunately seen the light, and are printed in an article which the late William Pinkerton

58 SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER, LORD DEPUTY OF IRELAND.

carefully prepared for vol. v of the old Ulster Journal of Archeology, although, strange to say, it would seem that the originals from which he copied these letters have since disappeared from their places amongst the State Papers.

Chichester's method of procedure was simply to do away with the helpless Irish inhabitants by every means, fair and foul ; but as the " sword killed no multitudes," from the fact that they ran away and concealed themselves in bogs and woods, instead of standing patiently to be slain, he preferred generally to employ the agencies of famine and pestilence for their utter destruction. He writes : " I spayre nether house, corne, nor creature, . . . sparing none of what quality, age, or sex soever ; beside many burned to death, we kill man, woman, child, horse, beast, and whatsoever we find." He slew all four-footed animals in their farmyards, burned the stacks of grain, and in the spring-time mowed down the growing crops. A very few seasons of this treatment brought about the results so eagerly desired, and effect- ually cleared the lands of encumbrance standing in the way of future settlers. Fuller, the author of a book on what he is pleased to term " English Worthies," boasts of the way in which Chichester had ploughed up the barbarous Irish, and cleared their lands for the reception of better seed. An English pamphleteer named Gainsford is jubilant over Chichester's method of searching the shores of Lough Con — meaning Cuan, the Irish name ofStrangford Lough — and all its islands, in pursuit of their Irish owners or other refugees.

In Upper or Southern Clannaboy there were no inhabitants to be found after Chichester's governorship had ended, excepting a miser- able remainder of Con O'Neill's tenants; and when the Scottish settlers arrived from Ayrshire with Sir Hugh Montgomery, there were only thirty smoking chimneys to be found in the three parishes of New- townards, Grey abbey, and Donaghadee. The Irish had hidden themselves in great numbers among the islands of Strangford Lough and the extensive woods then covering the upper barony of Castle- reagh, but they were hunted there like wild beasts, and the few that escaped Chichester's " picked men " were devoured by wolves. In Lower Clannaboy there were twenty-one sub-territories containing vast tracts of the finest lands in Ulster, and inhabited by a very numerous population, but Chichester left it desolate, except in places where certain O'Neills and O'Haras, who had made their peace with Elizabeth's Government, were able to retain a few tenants. Some of the inhabitants fled along the eastern and western shores of Lough

SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER, LORD DEPUTV OF IRELAND. 59

Neagh, but only the merest sprinkling of them survived, and none of them were ever known to return to their abandoned homesteads. A well-known chronicler, named Fynes Moryson, occasionally accom- panied Chichester's troop when engaged in raiding over the country, and in his chronicle are preserved many horrible, but authentic, state- ments.

As they rode from place to place they found the waysides strewn with the dead bodies of such as had perished from hunger — their lips smeared with the green juices of the herbs on which they had been endeavouring to sustain life, and their faces all upturned as if appeal- ing to heaven for protection and mercy. If the troopers chanced to halt for a time here or there, they were surrounded by swarms of old men who had the appearance of spectres, but who had strength to make an expiring effort for life, by crawling secretly around one or two of the horses whilst feeding, and thrusting long sharp iron pins into their bodies at places where the wounds could not be observed. The horses soon became ill, and had eventually to be left by their riders, affording food for such as were permitted to share thereof. At one place Chichester and his men found a number of women around a great fire in a wood, where they had been living on the bodies of children whom they had caught and cooked before eating them. In another locality they saw children keeping themselves alive by eating the intestines of their dead mother. Indeed such horrible scenes must have been common at that time everywhere throughout Upper and Lower Clannaboy ; but a brief period obliterated every trace thereof from the fields and woods, and they were soon forgotten in the great plantation that followed ; but, after all, the evil results come sooner or later to surprise and afflict posterity. A great poet has truly said —

Desolation is a delicate thing :

It walks not on the earth, it floats not in the air, But it treads with silent footsteps, and fans with silent wing

The tender hopes which in their hearts the best and gentlest bear ; Who, soothed to false repose by the fanning plumes above

And the music-stirring motion of its soft and busy feet, Dream visions of aerial joy, and call the monster Love,

And wake and find the shadow Pain, as he whom now we greet.

It is fortunate for the cause of historical truth that even two of Chichester's letters, explanatory of his system for the destruction of the Irish inhabitants, were preserved; for these letters, when taken in connection with the evidence of Fynes Moryson and others above named, and more especially of the jurors at the Inquisition held in

6o SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER, LORD DEPUTY OF IRELAND.

Antrim in July 1605, truly account for the fact that there are so few of the old Irish race in the counties of Antrim and Down as compared with the other counties of Ulster.

Before proceeding to review certain doings of Chichester as Lord Deputy of Ireland, it will be necessary to notice his conduct in con- nection with the tragic death of Sir James MacDonnell of Dunluce. The latter, until the death of his father, Sorley Boy, in 1 590, had lived much at the Scottish Court, where he had been knighted by James VI. (afterwards James I. of England), and where he had imbibed his hatred of Queen Elizabeth's policy in Ulster. His immovable attitude of neutrality, even after the battle of Altfracken, had become intolerable, if not to the Government, at least to its many emissaries and officials then in Ulster. Sir James inherited an immense estate, containing upwards of 330,000 acres, confirmed by charter to his father by Eliza- beth herself in the year 1586 ; and Sir James was now, as these officials supposed, the only hindrance in the way of the Route and Glynns being confiscated and added to the other lands in the county of Antrim for plantation purposes. If he would only join with the rebel lords, it was argued, he might soon be got out of the way, and after him the field was clear, for his children were very young and believed to be illegitimate, and all his younger brothers held commands in the rebel armies.

Here, then, was a case worthy the best consideration of the Deputy ; and to nerve his arm, it was never to be forgotten that MacDonnell had defeated in battle, and afterwards decapitated, the late Governor of Carrickfergus, the brother of the then all-powerful Sir Arthur Chichester. Indeed, if Sir Arthur himself did not originally suggest the assassination, he cordially assisted in having it accomplished, by watching the movements of the actual performers, and communicating between them and their employers in England. Chief among the latter was Robert Cecil, afterwards first Earl of Salisbury, who, during the last forty years of his life, was Queen Elizabeth's right-hand man on all questions of domestic policy, and her special prompter in all dealings with Ireland and the Irish. Although generally very reticent about himself and his doings, he once incautiously declared that he would willingly sell even his shirt, if necessary, to have Shane O'Neill poisoned; and he actually, but without success, twice attempted the secret assassination of that Ulster prince through the agency of a villainous Englishman named Smith. His son, Robert Cecil, was the true representative of such a sire, and he was Chichester's principal

SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER, LORD DEPUTY OF IRELAND. 6 1

English correspondent during the crisis at Dunluce, and indeed always afterwards, so long as the latter acted as Lord Deputy.

On an April evening in the year 1601 a little coasting vessel glided quietly into the old landing-place in front of the town of Ballycastle, which was known as Bunnamargie, and which extended from Castle Hill southward to the hill above the present Margie Bridge, the river then winding through the town and falling into the sea exactly at the point now known as the head of the outer dock. At this place two men left the vessel and went on shore, but not before being challenged by the guard belonging to an armed fort which stood at a little dis- tance above the landing-place. The names of the two men, who had come from Scotland, although they had been commissioned in England, were Douglas and Linn, and they had arrived on some pretended errand to Sir James MacDonnell. Without any delay in Bunnamargie, they journeyed westward through the little towns of Ballycastle, Ballin- toy, Dunseveric, and Ballintrea, and took temporary lodgings in the town of Dunluce, wherein many of their countrymen had previously settled. They had easy access to the castle, and soon afterwards the lord of the castle lay dead — his death occurring on the morning of Easter Sunday, a short time after the two villains had taken their departure from Dunluce.

When Sir James, who had been so troublesome and so much in the way, had been finally laid at rest in the old abbey of Bunnamargie, and at a time when all the leaders of the Antrim Scots were absent from the Route with the Irish forces at Kinsale, Chichester and his merry men ventured for their first and last raid over the northern boundary of Lower Clannaboy, and as far almost as Dunluce Castle. His objects on that occasion were simply twofold; namely, to drive off cattle for provisioning the garrison at Carrickfergus, and to spy the lands of the historical and attractive Route. His predatory impulses were no doubt amply gratified on that occasion, for the Route was always noted for its abundant flocks and herds ; and he had thus, during that incursion, the best opportunity of visiting the Bann, as it glided smoothly and majestically along its meadow lands, and also the Bush, of" bursting torrents," hurrying rapidly to the sea ; and what was more to the point, he was able to traverse the vast arable plains bounded by those two rivers on the east and west.- On his return journey he found several of the passes leading from the Route into Lower Clannaboy swarming with armed Scots, who, having no leaders, wisely retreated as his troopers advanced. So soon as he reached

62 SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER, LORD DEPUTY OF IRELAND.

Carrickfergus, he penned one of the infamous letters already referred to, complaining that the "sword killed no multitudes," because the natives would not wait to be killed, and then explaining his method of dealing with the runaways. About the same time also, or when all the Irish leaders had gone southward on a forlorn hope to Kinsale, Chichester made a raid along the western shore of Lough Neagh, crossing the Bann at Toome, traversing parts of Derry and Tyrone, and desolating the country nearly as far as Dungannon. On his return he wrote the other letter above mentioned, boasting of what he con- sidered a great achievement, in which he had spared neither age nor sex, nor four-footed animal, nor any food that could be burned or otherwise destroyed.

But he was doomed to another signal disappointment as to the territories of the Route and Glynns ; for whilst he and his associates felt certain that Sir James MacDonnell (in their opinion) had left no legitimate heirs, and as all his younger brothers were in arms against the Queen, these great and most desirable estates would certainly be confiscated for Plantation purposes. But Randal MacDonnell, the next younger brother to Sir James, on hearing that Chichester had been in the Route, and knowing that the Scottish king must soon succeed to the English throne, suddenly surrendered to the Crown, and had the good fortune to have his surrender graciously accepted. Randal, who became a terrible thorn in Chichester's side, was known as Randal Arranach, from his having been fostered in the Scottish island of Arran. He had been for several years a personal friend of James VI., and when visiting Ulster had brought the King many liberal presents of peregrine falcons from the nests in Raghery and from that bird's several well-known haunts along the cliffs on the Antrim coast.

The King, on becoming James I. of England, received Randal Arranach literally with open arms, or rather we should say Sir Randal MacDonnell, for he had already received knighthood from Lord Mountjoy, and in the very presence of Chichester himself. The latter soon afterwards heard, with absolute disgust, if not dismay, that the new King was about to re-grant to Sir Randal the entire family estates as they had been held by his father, Sorley Boy, and his then recently deceased brother, Sir James MacDonnell.

Thus Chichester lost all hold and hope on the four baronies of Carey, Kilconway, Dunluce, and Glenarm — a loss which never ceased to call forth from him very plain expressions of indignation and regret. His letters often have reference to Sir Randal's position in the county,

SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER, LORD DEPUTY OF IRELAND. 63

and literally bristle with rage that a person so really disaffected and rebellious (as Chichester pretended to believe) should have such im- mense landed possessions, and consequently so many opportunities of giving trouble and alarm to the State. But there was no help for it, as the King stood stoutly by his kinsman and friend, Sir Randal ; and the latter was indeed the only native landowner whom James I. did not desert when Chichester gave the word of command. The Lord Deputy was all-powerful in every other case. Being thus, however, finally shut out of the Route and Glynns, as he had previously been refused admittance to Upper Clannaboy, he and his officers appear to have concentrated their affections on Lower Clannaboy, and for many of their descendants it proved a goodly heritage.

No sooner had Chichester become Lord Deputy than he was absorbed in the grand problem of Plantation : and where could the solution be attempted more naturally or auspiciously than on lands which he had so thoroughly cleared and planted with servitors or military officers who had themselves assisted in making the clearance? Accordingly, in 1605, the year after his elevation, he had an Inquisition appointed to inquire into the boundaries, ownership, and condition generally of the lands in Lower Clannaboy. This Inquisition met at the town of Antrim on the 12th of July, under the presidency of William Parsons, the Surveyor-General of Ireland, one of the success- ful adventurers concerned in the Ulster Plantation. The first discovery made by the jurors on that occasion was that Queen Elizabeth was seized as of fee, in right of her Crown of England, of all manors, castles, lands, and other hereditaments in the lower part of the territory of Clannaboy, called Lower Clannaboy, in the county of Antrim. This great territory contained the following sub-territories ; viz., Feigh, or Faigh, west of Lough Neagh and the river Bann, having within it the parish church of Duneane and a lake called Loughdireare, in which is a fortified island ; 2, Muinter Rindy, the country of " the race or tribe of Rindy " — probably Rennie — eastward of Lough Neagh, and having within it the parish church of Drumowlagh, the site of the abbey of Kells and appurtenances, the castle of Edendoughcarric (Shane's Castle) and a lake called Loughernegilly, in which is a fortified island ; 3, Muinter Callie, or " country of the race of Kelly," eastward of the Bann, and having within it the parish church of Hawhohill (Ahoghill) and a lake called Loughtoman, in which is a fortified island ; 4, Clinaghertie, north of the Owen Glan Rawre (the River Ravel), lying along the boundary between Lower Clannaboy and the Route, and

64 SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER, LORD DEPUTY OF IRELAND.

within it is a chapel called Killocan Reola (Kilconriola) and a lake called Loughinchfeaghny, in which is a fortified island ; 5, Muinter Murrigan, the country of " the race of Murrigan," lying along the boundary between Lower Clannaboy and the Glynns, and having within it the parish church of Rathcanan (now Rathcavan); 6, Maghery- morne, the " plain " or country of a branch of the great clan Morna, lying along the high sea and Loughlarne, and having within it the parish churches of Ballyedward Ralowar (now Raloo), Invermore (Larne), and Glinn ; 7, the Fall, or Feola, north-west of Knockfergus and the River Lagan, and having within it the parish church of Dromma (Drumbeg), the castle of Belfast (O'Neill's), an old weir and other free fishing of salmon, eels, and other fish in the River Lagan ; 8, Killelagh, lying eastward from Lough Neagh, and having within it the parish church of Killede, otherwise Killelagh, the church or chapel of Carnmeve (Carnmavey), an old fort called Dunowre, the site of the abbey of Muckmaire (Muckamore), the house of friars of Masserine, and the ruinous castle of Moubray, alias Cloughanmabree; Moylinny, lying eastward of Lough Neagh (one of its boundaries passing near Edendoughcarric), and having within it the parish churches of Moyulisk (Molusk), Antrim, Donagurr (Donegore), Ballycorra (Ballycor), Kil- bride, and Racy (Rashee) ; 9, Keart, having within it the parish church of Ballaclogg (Ballyclug), and enclosed by Muinter Murrigan, Clinagh- ertie, Muinter Callie, and Muinter Rindy ; Ballylinny, lying south of the Sixmile Water, and having within it the parish churches of Ballin- lini (Ballylinney), Amogalle (Umgall), Templeton, or Templepatrick, Ballymarteene, Ballywatter, and stone ruins called Carngranay ; Braden Island (Broadisland), lying northward from Knockfergus Bay, and having within it the parish churches of Kilreigh, Kilroot, and Templecoron.

Besides the sub-territories above named, there were found also in Lower Clannaboy several parcels of land called Cinaments, a rendering of the old French word Tinamcnts, of which the following is a list : I. One such adjoining Belfast was so large as to be known as the Tuogh or sub-territory tenement, and within it was the parish church of Semukill (Shankill), to which belonged the chapels of Killpatrick in Malone, Killonymia, Cloghmy, Costahy of Ballyvaston, and Tullerusk. 2. Killmacavet, more anciently known as Trianfad, " the long third," implying some very remote arrangement of the lands in this district, within which is the parish church of Kilmachevet, and an ancient fort called Altnacur. 3. Knockboynabrade lies along the

SIR ARTHUR CHICHESTER, LORD DEPUTY OF IRELAND. 65

boundary southward between the Glynns and Lower Claneboy, and in it is the parish church of Squire. 4. Duoghconnor also lies southward of the general boundary between the Glynns and Lower Claneboy, and within it is the parish church of Connor. 5. Ballinowre (Ballynure) also lies south of the general boundary between the Glynns and Lower Claneboy, and in it is the parish church of Ballinower ; on its western boundary are the ruined walls called Bruslee, and the three stones called Slewnetrew, Carntall, Monklande. Carnemony and Island Magie lie northward of Knockfergus Bay, and their eastern boundary passes the waterfall of Fasserineagh, or the Dares lands, an old stone building called Cloghanoghertie, Silver Stream, and Owen- glass Abreedan, or Fourmile Water ; in the tenement of Carnemony there is the parish church of Ciull. 6. Dirrevologie lies south of the Lagan, and its eastern boundary passes the hill called Castle Robin ; in it are the parish churches of Lambeg and Dirreraghie. 7. Clandermot is a small tenement enclosed by Killultagh, Kilmachevet, the sub- territory of Fall, and the large tenement adjoining Belfast.

All these lands as above named — sub-territories and tenements — are, with very few and slight exceptions, found by the Inquisition of 1605 to be waste : this very significant term meaning utterly desolate and entirely empty of inhabitants. One curious exception, however, was the tenement known as Island Magee, which, even then, was crowded by a contented and industrious population composed of English and Scotch, of Magees from the Rinns of Isla, and of settlers who had come in 1572 with the Earl of Essex and his would-be planters in the county of Antrim. These would-be planters very quickly found it convenient to clear out before Sorley Boy ; but some settlers were unable to return to England, and had thus to rough it as best they could among the wild Irish and the hardy Scots. In that expedition came the redoubtable Moses Hill as a lieutenant, accom- panied by several settlers of his own name ; and the latter appear to have made their way at once from Carrickfergus, where Essex landed, into Island Magee, as if thus guided by some agricultural instinct to one of the best farming nooks — if not the very best — in the county* The Magees had been brought there some time previously under the auspices of Sorley Boy, but the island had room for additional dwellers ; and the English and Scots, to the credit of their memory be it recorded, fraternized from the very first day of their meeting. Indeed, it is a family tradition, both among the Magees and the Hills, that there was then formed a mutual agreement — never afterwards E

66 THE DIALECT OF ULSTER.

violated or forgotten — to assist and shelter each other alternately in the political emergencies through which they might afterwards be doomed to pass. And it is rather remarkable that Moses Hill himself was one of the first to claim shelter and protection at the hands of the Magees under this mutual treaty of defence; for when he and some of the men under his command ran away from the field of Altfracken, instead of returning to their quarters at Carrickfergus, they made their way into Island Magee, where the Magees assisted to get him safely concealed in a cave, even against the wrath of their own countrymen, the Scots in the Route. Another well-known illustration of this silent compact is recorded in connection with the raid made into Island Magee by the soldiers of a Scottish Presbyterian garrison at Carrick- fergus, on a Sunday afternoon in January, in the year 1641. In despite of the furious remonstrances of Col. Hill, one of their officers in com- mand, these Scotchmen hurried away to attack their unsuspecting and defenceless victims, some of whom they hurled alive over the rocks at the Gobans in that lamentable Sunday afternoon's butchery. However, many of the Magees were protected by several families named Hill, who concealed them in the most secret and inaccessible corners of their houses and farms.

The year, at that period, commenced on the 25th March, so that January was the third month after the commencement of the insur- rection, 23 October, 1641.

( To be continued. )

The Dialect of Ulster*

ON Tuesday, the 1st of Dec, 1903, Professor J. W. Byers, M.D., delivered in the Belfast Museum a lecture on the " Sayings, Proverbs, and Humour of Ulster." The Northern Whig of 2 December contained a very full report of the paper. Dr. Byers treated his subject in a thorough manner — no mere hastily gathered together details, but the work of many years' careful collection and annotation. The Ulster blend, as described by Dr. Byers, ran thus : " Through his veins there courses a stream of Scotch, English, French Huguenot, and Irish blood ; and so in the same individual you may sometimes find the pluck and grit of the Englishman, the tenacity

THE DIALECT OF ULSTER.

6/

and forethought of the Scotch, the industry of the Huguenot, with the keen sympathy, pugnacity, and ready wit of the native Irishman." The Ulsterisms in general vogue are largely mediaeval Scotch, with a considerable number of the Gaelic. We consider Professor Byers's paper a distinct and valuable contribution to our local literature, and of considerable value to the philological student. We hope to see it produced in a more permanent form, with considerable additions and references and copious appendices. For our own part, we consider the following glossary worthy of reproduction on the same subject. It forms an appendix to a rare old volume of Ulster poetry, entitled Poetical Attempts by Hugh Porter, a County of Down Weaver. Bel- fast : printed for Archbold & Dugan by Simms & Mclntyre, Donegall Street. 181 3.

A', all.

Aboon, above.

Ae, one.

Aff, off.

Aiblins, perhaps.

Ain, own.

Alang, along.

Amang, among.

Amaist, almost.

An', and.

Ance, once.

Ane, one (pronounced yin).

Aneath, beneath.

Anent, against.

Anither, another.

Auld, old.

Ava, at all.

Awa, away.

Ba', ball, the earth.

Maims, children.

Baith, both.

Han, to swear.

Banes, bones.

Bauld, bold.

Beet, fuel added to fire.

Befa', befal.

Beuk, book.

Biggin, building.

Bit, nick of time, crisis.

Blaw, blow.

Blether, idle talk.

To blink, to shine by tits.

Bluid, blood.

Bony, pretty.

Braes, declivity, slope of a

hill. Braw, handsome, tine, brave. Brattling, hurrying. Brees, bruise. Brithers, brothers. Brose, porridge. Bun', bound. Burn, water, rivulet. Busk it, dressed. Byre, cow stable.

Ca', call. Callan, boy. Cam', came. Camp, to struggle for

superiority. Canna, cannot. Cannie, gentle, dexterous. Cantie, merry. Carle, old man. Cauldrife, chilly or cold. Chiel, young fellow. Cled, clothed. Commin, coming. Coof, blockhead. Corlie, to talk familiarly. Crack, conversation. Croon, a hollow moan. Crouse, cheerful.

Daddie, father.

Daft, giddy.

Dander, to walk slowly.

I >eil, devil.

Ding, to worst.

Doiled, stupefied.

Doon, done.

Douse, sober, wise, prudent.

Drap, dtop.

Drees, feels.

Dreigh, tedious.

Drouth, drought.

I Irummock, meal and water.

Dung, pushed, driven.

Ear', early. E'e. een, eye, eyes. En', end. Enow, enough.

Fa', fall.

Fan', fan'd, found.

Fash, to trouble, to care for.

Faun, fallen.

Faut, fault.

Feat, neat, spruce.

Fin', find.

Fippence, five pence.

Fisle, bustle.

Fit, foot.

Forfoughten, fatigued.

Forby, beside.

Forgie, forgive.

Fother, fodder.

Fou, full.

Frae, from.

Fretit, fretted.

Frien', friend.

Fyke, a fuss about trifles.

Ga', gall.

Cade, went.

Gae, go.

Gaet, way, manner.

Gane, gone.

Gang, go.

Gar, to make, to force.

Gawn, going.

Gear, riches, goods.

Geek, to toss the head in

scorn. Ghaist, ghost. Gie, to give. Gied, gave. Gien, given. Gie's, give us. Giglet, a young girl. Gin, if, against. Girts, jerks. Gloamin', twilight. Glour, stare. Goving, gazing. Gowd, gold. Gowk, cuckoo. Gowl, to howl. Graith, accoutrements. Grane, a groan. Greet, to weep. Grin', grind. Grousome, grim. Grumphie, a sow. Grun', ground. Guid, good.

68

THE DIALECT OK ULSTER.

Gully, a large knife. Gude, the Supreme Being.

Hae, have.

Haffet, temple or side of the

head. Hale, whole. Hame, home. Haud, hold.

Haun, han', hands, hand. Haume, home or dwelling. Haverel, half-witted. He's, he will. Het, hot, made hot. Hinches, haunches. Hin'most, hindmost. Hizzie, hussey. Hornie, a name for the Devil. Hunner, hundred. Hyte, delirious.

I', in.

Ident, diligent.

Ilk' or ilka, each, every.

Ithers, others.

Jauk, to trifle, dally.

Keek, to peep. Ken, to know. Kintra, country. Kittle, to tickle. Kyte, belly.

Laigh, low. Laith, loath. Lanely, lonely. Lang, long. Langer, longer. Lea'e, leave. Lear, learning. Leuk, look. Lift, sky. Lug, ear.

Mair, more.

Mak', make.

Mang, to make delirious.

Maun, must.

Meere, marc.

Men', mend.

Mense, good manners.

Mint, venture.

Mither, mother.

Mony, many.

Muckle, much.

Na, no, not, nor. Nae, no, not any. Naethin', nothing. Nane, none. Nappy, ale. Neuk, corner. Nieve, fist.

Niffer, exchange. Noo, now.

O', of. Ony, any. Ought, anything. Ower, over, too.

Fit, to put.

Pickle, small quantity.

Plevv, plough.

Plumpit, plumped.

Pou, to pull.

Pow, the head, skull.

Pratoes, potatoes.

Pun', pound.

Quat, to quit.

Ramstam, thoughtless, head- long. Raw, row. Rig, ridge. Rin, to run. Row, to roll, wrap. Rowth, plenty. Rung, a cudgel.

Sae, so.

Sair, a sore, to serve.

Sakless, innocent.

Sang, a song.

Saul, soul.

Saut, salt.

Sel', self.

Selt, sold.

Shaw, to show.

Shough, a ditch, a trench.

Shool, a shovel.

Shoon, shoes.

Sic, such — sicna, such a.

Siller, silver, money.

Sin', since.

Sin, a sou.

Skaith, damage.

Slee, sly.

Sleeket, sleek, sly.

Sma', small.

Snash, abuse.

Snaw, snow.

Snig, cut.

Sonsie, lucky.

Souple, supple, swift.

Souther, solder.

Spaul, limb.

Spier, to ask, enquire.

Sta', stall.

Stan' or staun, stand.

Stane, stone.

Stap, stop.

Sten, jump.

Steek, to shut.

Streak, stretch.

Sud, should.

Syne, since, ago, then

Tarn, Tom. Tak', to take. T'ane, the one. Tap, top.

Tauld or tald, told. Teen, anger. Thegither, together. Thole, to suffer, endure. Thoom, thumb. Thrang, throng. Till, to.

Timmer, timber. Tinkler, tinker. Tint, spent. Tippence, twopence. Tither, the other. Toom, empty. Twa, two. Twa three, a few. Twal, twelve. Twonty, twenty.

Unco, strange.

Vauntie, boasting.

Wab, web of cloth.

Wad, would — a bet, to bet.

Waddin', wedding.

Wadna, would not.

Wae, woe, sorrowful.

Wakerife, wakeful.

Wat, wet- I'wat, I know.

Wale, to choose.

Waur, worse.

Wee, little.

Weel, well.

Wha, when - whon, when.

Whanged, cut off.

Whare, where.

Wha'se, whose.

Whisht, silence, to be silent.

Whittle, a knife.

Wi', with.

Wie, a little time.

Win', wind.

Winna, will not.

Wingle, wrestle.

Wistna, I know not.

Withoutcn, without.

Wonner, wondrous.

Woodie, a rope.

Wrang, wrong.

Ye, frequently used for thou. Ye's, you will. Yestreen, yesternight. Yoursel', yourself.

The editor will be pleased to receive additions to the above list.

F. J. B.

THE FRENCH PRISONERS IN BELFAST, I759-I763-

69

The French Prisoners in Belfast, 17594763.

( Continued from page 25. )

( 23 )

It is upon thefe principles alone that we have engaged in this matter, and we doubt not but the fame generous motives will in- duce you to redrefs, in the moll effectual and fpeedy manner, the grievances we com- plain of: And in order to this, we beg leave to inform you, that a Committee of charity for the relief of the Prifoners is now formed, compofed of the Sovereign, the command- ing officer of this garrifon, and feveral Gentle- men of this town ; and that in cafe you think proper to remit the whole money allowed Mr. Stanton to their fecretary * Mr. Arthur Buntin, merchant, this Committee will con- ftantly affift him in diftributing it to the Pri- foners, in equal (hares, without deduction, and to vifit, and procure neceffaries for the fick ; which will be the only fure means to render the Prifoners as happy as the nature of their circumftances can polfibly permit them to be.

As our requeft (if complied with) will neceffarily deprive Mr. Stanton of the em- ployment he now holds, we cannot omit giving you our reafons for it ; and we pre- fume it will readily be admitted, that tender- nefs and humanity, together with a confci- entious regard to the ftrict rules of honelly

and

' Mr. WlL. Havfv was firft appointed, but as he afterwards declined ferving, Mr. Buntin was nominat- ed in his room.

( 24 ) and juflice, are qualifications indifpenfibly neceffary in any perfon charged with fuch a truft as Mr. Stanton is now veiled with, and to convince you that he has forfeited (as we apprehend) all pretenfions to humanity and honefty, we beg leave, in order to enforce the inclofed remonftrance, to lay before you the few following f.icts.

Firft, When the inhabitants of this town, willing to contribute, not only to the fafe, but better keeping of the Prifoners in the barrack, generoufly agreed to take the fol- diers from thence into their houfes ; the Commifftoners of the barrack-board ordered Mr. Stanton to contract with a pavior to pave the barrack-yard, for the better airing of the Prifoners. Mr. Stanton accordingly did con- tract with a pavior at fixpence per yard, a- mounting in all to feventy-tive pounds, who being in very neceflitous circumftances, and threatned by his creditors, was obliged, foon after the work was begun, to apply to Mr. Stanton for the fum of ,£12 18 4i which Mr. Stanton (well apprized of his neceffity) abfolutely refufed to advance ; until the poor wretch perfected a receipt to him for ,£16 16 7-j thereby allowing him a premium of three guineas : from whence it is reafonable to prefume, he intended the like fraud upon every future payment.

Secondly, Mr. Stanton contracted with a

butcher

Copy of Add. MSS. 32,903, F. 37.

A Return of the Officers made Prisoners of War of His Majestys 62d Reg1 of Foot

Commanded by Majr G1 William Strode at Carrickfergus Thursday Feb: 21*' 1 760, as also

those Wounded.

Belfast, Febry 26'!' 1760.

Lieu'. Col? John Jennings.

Cap1. Lord Visco' Wallingford.

Cap'. Humphry Bland.

L' & Adjutant Benjamin Hall slightly wounded in the Legg.

Lieu' Bushell Sill.

Ensign Valentine Rudd.

Ensign William Mackdowall.

Ensign George Jolland.

Lieu' Hercules Ellis of Colo Bagshaws Reg'. Joined the above Officers as soon as the Drums beat to Arms, & is also a Prisoner of War.

Eleven Serjeants, Ten Corporals, Five Drummers, & one Hundred & Sixty two Private Men made Prisoners of War. John Jennings Lieu' Colonel

to the 62".ti Regiment of Foot. [Endorsed] Copy of a Return of the Prisoners of War at Carrickfergus

in Mr Rigby's Letter of March 2? 1760.

70

THE FRENCH PRISONERS IN BELFAST, 1759-1763.

( 25 )

butcher to furnifli the Prifoners with beef at two-pence farthing by the pound, the year round, tho' the belt may be contracted for at two-pence by the pound, and bound the butcher in a penalty of one hundred pounds fieri, to deliver none but good and fufficient beef; and yet he permits him to furnifli a great part in coarfe, and fome times tainted pieces. From whence it may be reasonably prefumed, fome confideration is given, or will be given Mr. Stanton, by the butcher, for conniving at the non-performance of faid contract.

Thirdly, Mr. Stanton, without any confi- deration on his part, received twenty guineas from the owners of the (hips hired by him to carry the Prifoners taken on board Mr. Thurot's fquadron to France; which af- fords juft grounds to fufpect fome favours have been fhown the owners, the nature of which we know not, but apprehend this to be a bufinefs of your enquiry.

Fourthly, We have undoubted informa- tion, that Mr. Stanton has frequently, for his own emolument, put Prifoners into the hofpital upon the mod frivolus pretexts, and there kept them upon half allowance, to fave for his own benefit the other half. But now (many of us from our own knowledge are convinced) that the Prifoners, for that reafon, rather than declare themfelves out of D order,

( 26 )

order, hide, and are lingering under their maladies in their rooms to avoid a more hafly and painful death, by being ftarved in the hofpital. At prefent but one poor object re- mains there, unable to be removed, elfe he wou'd be better with the other Prifoners, for he lies upon a board without flraw or fire, but what the others fpare him from their own, 1 lying, by inches, for want of care, and the neceffaries of life Can you then, Gentle- men, be infenlible to fuch wretchedncfs, and the difgrace it reflects upon thefe countries ?

Fifthly, The French officers who are Pri- foners upon their parole, are treated by Mr. Stanton with great inhumanity; for they have been refufed, when fick, the mod trifling medicines, unlefs they would go into the hofpital, a place unfit for any creature, but much more fo for a gentleman, by the want of fire and proper neceffaries : and had it not been for the charity of fome Gentlemen of this town, who fupplied one of thefe unfortu- nate gentlemen with medicines and advice gratis, he might have died of his difeafe.

And laftly, We think Mr. Stanton an im- proper perfon for the office he holds, not on- ly becaufe of his late misbehaviour, but be- caufe his bodily infirmities prevent his necef- fary attendance upon his duty, frequently for months together ; and to fupply his ab- fence he keeps no mate, but one of the Pri- foners,

Copy of Add. MSS. 32,903, F. 39.

Articles of Capitulation agreed on between M. Dusoulier, Commandant of the 2rl Battalion of Ortoia, authorized by M: Flobert, Brigadier of the Army of the King of France, Com- mandant in Chief of fifteen hundred Men ; and Lieut: Colonel John Jennings commanding His Britannick Majesty's Forces in Carrickfergus.

Is} — That the Garrison of Carrickfergus, consisting of Lieut: Col: John Jennings, Capt: Lord Viscount Wallingford, Capt: Humphry Bland, Lieut. Benj'.1 Hall, Lieut: Francis Bushell Sill, Lieut: Hercules Ellis, Ensign Valentine Rudd, Ensign W"1 McDowall and Ensign George Jolland, together with eleven Serjeants, ten Corporals, five Drummers, and one hundred and sixty two private Men, of His Britannick Majesty's 62d Regiment, of Foot, with Four of the Artillery, do remain Prisoners of War, and they shall continue in Ireland upon their Parole, and not carry Arms till they are exchanged for an equall number of men, which Exchange shall be made in the Space of one Month, or as soon after as possibly Ships can be got ready to convey them to France Agreed

2diy — The Castle to be delivered up with all the Stores in it, but the Commissioned Officers and Non Commissioned Officers to have their Swords returned, and all the Baggage belonging to whole shall be saved Agreed

•j<Hy— The Town and County of Carrickfergus neither to be plundered, nor burnt, nor the

Inhabitants mis-used, and this to be most solemnly complied with Agreed The

Inhabitants furnishing the Provisions which shall be regulated between the Mayor and M. Dusoulier.

4^— If any Officer or Soldier should be left behind either wounded or sick, all possible

THE FRENCH PRISONERS IN BELFAST, 1759-I763.

71

( 27 )

foners, who for acting as fuch, has an allow- ance of three-pence a day. So that upon the whole, we are of opinion that it is impoffible that proper care can be taken of the Pri- foners, but by fome fuch method as we have taken the liberty to propofe.

You are now Gentlemen, qualified to judge of the propriety of continuing this man in office. It only remains for us to affure you, that your fpeedy interpofition for the relief of thefe diftreffed Prisoners, will give particular fatisfaction to, and extremely o- blige,

Gentlemen.

Your moft humble Servants,

Saml. M' Tier junr. John Callwell John Fivey George Fergufon Saml. M' Tier John Brown John Sinclair John Steward David Smith Wm. Stewart Jofeph Wallace William Harrifon William Gordon John Pettycrew George Barkley

1 Kurg.

Jas. Hamilton

fov. Ar. Byrtt John Gordon J John Hay

Thos. Knox Gordon James Fergufon Robt. Gordon Strickland Lowry John Dunbar William Wilfon Hercules Heyland David Hay John Smith John Milford D 2 Robt

	28 )
Robt. Harrifon	Alexr. Nicholfon
David Watfon	Wm. Haven
William Lyons	Jos. Stevenfon
James Bafhford	James Chambers
Peter Galan	James Archibald
Thos. Hyde	John M' Creight
Samuel Stewart	Robt. Johnfton
James Hathorn	John Templeton
John M' Cracken	Thos. Boyd
Daniel Blow	John Low
Chas. Roberts	Robt. Joy
Dav. Cunningham	John Brown
Sam. Black	Robt. M ' Clenaghan
Robt. Callwell	Thos. M< Ilwean
William Young	James Thompfon
Brice Smith	John M ' Kelvey
Sam. Scott	Hugh Bonar
Angus Sinclaire	John Smith
Alex. Orr	Sam. Edmond
Arch. Scott	John Shaw
St. John Main	William Arthur
John Ballentine	George Darley
John Fifher	Thos. Sinclair
John Connor	John Gait Smith
Hugh M' 11 wean	Hugh M' Matter
Robt. Wills	Robt. Simm
Ifaac Miller	Archd. Hyndman
Wm. Hilditch	William Holmes
John Campbell	James Magee
John Arnold	Sam. Wilfon
John Bradfhaw	John Jackfon
	N. B.

Care shall be taken of them and not to be detained as Prisoners but shall have Liberty to

return to France the first Opportunity that offers Agreed

Signed and exchanged at Carrickfergus Febry 21st 1760 DUSOULIER, Commandant de Battaillon au Service

du Roi de France. John Jennings, L' Col. of His Britannick Majesty's 62mi Regiment of Foot. Par nous Brigadier des Armees de S: M: J: Cet Commandant ses Troupes debarquees a Carrickfergus, vue approuvee et Autorisee la Presente Capitulation, dans nion lit a Cause <le ma Blessure 21 Fevrier 1760 a Carrickfergus. Flobert.

[ Endorsed] Copy Articles of Capitulation betwixt Lieut: Colonel Jennings & Monsieur

Dusoulier. Feby 2 Ist 1760.

in Mr Rigby's Letter of March 2d 1760.

Copy of Add. MSS. 32,903, F. 92.

... . /Eolus in Ramsay Bay the 29th February 1760.

I had the Honor to write you on the 26th Inst, off Dublin, but very incorrectly and in great Haste, as I that Minute had Information from the Fishermen that the Enemy were then at Carrickfergus, I made all the Dispatch possible to attack them there and got off the Entrance of the Harbour that Evening, but the Wind being contrary and blowing very hard, I could not get in. On the 28"1 at 4 in the Morning we got Sight of them under Sail, and gave Chace ; about Nine I got up alongside their Commodore, and, in a few Minutes after,

72

THE FRENCH PRISONERS IN BELFAST, 17S9~^7^3-

( 29 )

N. B. This re »i 011ft ranee is figned by ninty- one of the principal Inhabitants of Bel- fast, and many more names might have been got, had there been a neceffity, or time to make application for them.

The Affidavit of Lieut. Wm. Stuart.

[NUM. IV.]

WILLIAM STUART, lieut. in his Majefty's fixty fecund Regiment of Foot, commanded by major-general William Strode, came before me this day, and made oath ; That in the month of October laft major-general Strode left Belfaft for England, when the command of the garrifon there devolved upon lieut. col. Higgixsox, then major to faid regiment ; who received frequent complaint from the French l'rifoners • of War confined in the Barrack, that they were treated by their Commiffary, mr, Stan- ton, in every particular, with the greatefl injuftice, and inhumanity. Whereupon the faid col. Higginson ordered this deponent, and every other officer when on guard over them, to make him daily reports of the truth of every particular grievance complained of, in order to their redrefs. And this deponent faith, that he and the feveral officers that were fo charged as aforefaid, did make daily re- ports,

( 30 )

ports, agreeing in the particulars fet forth in a letter from col. Higginfon to the Gentle- men of Belfafl, dated 1 ft Jan. 1761 ; which was alfo then fubferihed to by this deponent, from his being a long time an eye-witnefs of the truth of the feveral facts contained there- in, and without any defign whatfoever, but in order to their redrefs. This deponent further depofeth, that on or about the fourth day of faid month of January, this deponent accompanied the Rev. Mr. James Makay, and Mr. Wm. Haven merchant, to vifit the hofpital in the barracks, where one man lay to all appearance very ill, attended by ano- ther of the prifoners ; who this deponent fpoke to in French ; and received for anfwer, that he had an allowance from mr. Stanton of three-pence per day ; which faid Stanton had not, but with fome difficulty, paid him, for acting as Mate in the hofpital : And this deponent faith, that he alfo informed him. that he had no inftruments allowed him, and that the fick man there had no Straw, for a confiderable time, to lie upon ; nor had not had as much fire as was fufficient to drefs his vic- tuals ; and that he alfo had not the neceffa- ries of life, by being put on half allowance : wherefore feveral others of the prifoners who were indifpofed, concealed their complaints, to enjoy their full allowance in their rooms, rather than flarve in the hofpital. All which

this

the Engagement became general, and continued very briskly for an Hour and Half when they all three struck their Colours. They proved to be the Marshall Belleisle of 44 Guns and 545 Men, M: Thurot Commander, who is killed ; the La Blond of 32 Guns and 400 Men ; and the Terpsichore of 26 Guns and 300 (including the Troops in this Number). I put in here to refit the Ships, who are all greatly disabled in their Masts and Rigging. The Marshall Belleisle in particular, who lost her Boltsprit, Mizenmast, and Mainyard in the Action, and it is with much Difficulty we keep her from sinking. I have acquainted my Lords Commis- sioners of the Admiralty with the Particulars, p Express, and I purpose returning to some Port in England as soon as the ships can possibly be repaired. Subjoined is a list of the killed and wounded. I am

My Lord,

Your Grace's

Most humble And most obedient Servant J° Elliott.

In His Majesty's Ships. Killed Wounded

/Eolus 4 15

Pallas 1 5

Brilliant — 11

5 31

By the best Account I can get, the Enemy's killed and wounded amount to upwards of 300 Men.

[Endorsed] .Eolus in Ramsay Bay, Feb. 29th 1760. Copy Lre from Captain Elliott to His Grace the Lord Lieutenant. Recd March 3d 50 Min past 12. in Mr Rigbys of March 5"1 1760

(To be continued.)

THE WARS OF 164I IN COUNTY DOWN. 73

The Wars of 1641 in County Down.

The Deposition of High Sheriff Peter Hill (1645). Transcribed and Annotated by Thomas Fitzpatrick, ll.d.

With additional Notes by Right Rev. Monsignor O'Laverty, m.r.i. a., and Edward Parkinson.

[This remarkable document, which I have transcribed at full length from the County- Down volume of Depositions relating to 1641 and subsequent years, throws much light on "the State" tactics of the time, and shows clearly enough that no efforts were spared to out- law, at the very beginning of the insurrection, every "papist of value, "and so to commit them hopelessly to the Rebellion. The copy preserved in T.C. D. is in the handwriting of Thomas Waring, clerk to the commissioners appointed to take the depositions. In the list of outlawry it will be observed that the same name turns up again and again; e.g., "Arthur Viscount Magennis" and "George Russell of Rathmullan," with several others. The reason may be that such names appeared first on the lists of the indicted at different sessions. Hill mentions five several sessions by him held for such purpose. The several lists are in the deposition strung together. Hill, it would appear, was particularly wroth with his neighbour, George Russell of Rathmullan, whom he charges with the executions at Ballaghonery (Newcastle). In this charge he is wholly unsupported by other deponents. There was a Russell on the convoy from Greencastle to Newcastle, but there is no evidence to show that any Russell was more closely connected with the tragedy.

In the T.C. D. MS. the names and addresses are written in continuous form, and the writing is so close, in many parts so dim, that it is very difficult to decipher some of the entries. I have placed the names in column form for convenience of reading: otherwise, I give as accurately as I can the deposition as it has come down to us.

I have collated the proof with the original MS. in T.C. D, (a difficult task for one pair of eyes), and have done my best towards bringing out an accurate version, but it were futile to pretend that there are no doubtful readings in the List of the Indicted. The uncertain and varying orthography, together with the worn state of the paper, renders it next to impossible (in some places) to fix upon the real name, the seventeenth-century scribe having but a hazy notion of the matter himself. It appears to me that the existing document was drawn up by Thomas Waring from memoranda and lists handed in by Hill, and that, when completed, it was formally sworn before Jones and Brereton, two of the eight commissioners appointed by Parsons and Borlase to take charges (rather than evidence) against rebels. The final paragraph seems to be an afterthought, and is in a high degree characteristic of the testimony put forth as "duly sworn.-' Supposing that Hill repeats correctly what he heard, the all-important question remains, How did Bellow come by the story? Was he also reciting hearsay? or was he simply practising on Peter Hill's gullibility? The deponent has shown clearly enough that no story about the Irish could be too gross, too wildly improbable, for his acceptance. The hearsay of such a "witness" surely stands in need of confirmation. It appears from his own story that the forms of outlawry were observed ; but the business was got through at high speed — a hundred cases disposed of at a single sessions — not unlikely in a single day ! ' ' But if he [the offender] absconds, and it is thought proper to pursue him to an outlawry . . . after the several writs have issued in a regular number, according to the nature of the respective crimes, without any effect, the offender shall be put in the exigent, in order to his outlawry ; that is, he shall be exacted, proclaimed, or required to surrender, at five county courts ; and if he be required quinto exactus, and does not appear at the fifth exaction or requisition, he is adjudged to be

74 THE WARS OF 1 64 1 IN COUNTY DOWN.

outlawed or put out of the protection of the law . . . An outlawry in treason or felony amounts to a conviction and attainder of the offence charged in the indictment, as much as if the offender had been found guilty by his country." — Chitty's Blackstone, vol. iv, p. 319.