[ 1 DA 1 990 3° OSSIANO: gtn ®tttm#t TO ASCERTAIN ^nans siHFiF&iu n?ai2aa)s FINGAL IN ULSTER; BY THE ANALOGY OF NAMES AND PLACES MENTIONED IN OSSIAN'S POEMS. By HUGH CAMPBELL, Esq. u Though the plains of our battles are dark and silent, our fame is in the four grey stones: the voice of Ossian has been heard, and the harp was strung- in Selma. 1 ' Berrathon. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. RIDGWAY. 170, PICCADILLY, opposite bond street; AND F. PILLANS, HANOVER STREET, EDINBURGH. 1818. » BOSTON COLLEGE LIBltARI CHESTNUT HILL, MASS. , when Swaran, king of Norway, invaded Ireland. The principal residence of this race of monarchs, we find, was at Te-mora in Ulster ! Tim Te- mora, Ossian tells us, was at the foot of the hill of Mora, which rose near the borders of the heath of Moi-lena, near the mountain Cromla. Before I can offer my observations on Te-rnora, I find it necessary to go back to the coast of Ulster. We are often told by the royal bard, that * I would here observe, that the election of Connor to the supreme government of Ireland, (which makes sucft a conspicuous place in one of the notes to the poems of Ossian) appears to have never been acknowledged by the native hereditary princes of that coun- try ; and that it required all the assistance of his friends of Mor- ven, united to the exertions of his adhering subjects, to retain for himself and race, the small portion of Ulster, which the map will shew you bounded on the east and west by the rivers Legon and Bann, and on the north and south by Lochneagh, and the Irish Sea. If such an election took place, it is but natural to imagine that it was dictated by the wants of some puisne prince, whose power or right was doubted by his neigbouring chieftains ; and, consequently, like the later case, which called Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, to Ireland ; and ultimately vested the lordship of that excellent island in the hands of the English monarch. 13 he rushed into Carmona's bay, and into Turn's bay ; thence we see frequent allusions to Cromla, Lena, and the lake of reedy Lego; all, appa- rently, in the neighbourhood of these two places. This account of the poet makes the Carmona of ^he ancients, the Pisgah : whence I have disco- vered the land promised to my exertions by hope. There is no difficulty whatever in ascertaining the t'^eie^t Carmona to be the "modern Carmony. It stands on the hill, a little from the shore, be- tween Carrickfergus and Belfast, which Car- rick^rgus, there is not the slightest doubt in my mind, was the Tura of the ancients. Here com- mences that range of hills (which in the poems I take to have been called Cromleach, i. e. high hill,) that extend in a south-west direction ; and after running as the boundary of the extensive and fertile valley of Ulster, through which flows the river Legon, (reedy Lego ;) the range termi- nates above Lochneagh, (lake of Roes,) at, or near, a place now called Cromlin, from the ancient Cromleach ! The part of the range, how- ever, which the bard calls Misty Cromla, I take to be that high hill of lime-stone, which stands be- tween Carmona and Belfast : that from three large and beautiful caves cut in the face of the rock or mountain, is now called Cave-hill ; and at different seasons of the year, a place much frequented by the inhabitants of Belfast. The address to the Druid occurred to my memory on visiting two of these celebrated and beautiful caves, (the third 14 being unapproachable ;) u Why, son of the rock," &c. I may here observe, that these caves were certainly places of shelter to the early inhabitants of these countries. The landscape from the second was one of the most beautiful I ever beheld ; but to my discoveries. In the first book of Fingal, we find Cuchullin sitting by the wall of Tura, (a castle on the coast of Ulster,) his spear leaned against the mossy rock, while the other chiefs had gone on a hunt- ing party to Cromla, a neighbouring hill. Now as the analogy of the scenes has almost clearly expressed the Cave hill of the moderns, to have been the Cromla of the ancients; so it is only natural to imagine, that this castle of Tura, (on the coast of Ulster) is the Carrick, or by some Craig-fergus castle of our times : of which, like Dundonald castle, in Ayrshire, there are noauthen- tic records when it was built ! From the cele- brated hill of Cromla, Carrickfergus castle is only about four miles distant ; and it is situated on a rock on the shore, in which is a spacious cave, and opposite to Scotland, consequently the most likely place to effect a landing from that country; being bounded on either side by a fine sandy beach, and in the immediate neighbourhood of Temora, the royal residence. To know that Car- rickfergus castle has no rival in antiquity on the coast of Ulster, or I may say, on the coast of Ireland, is an almost indubitable proof that the Tura of the ancients is the very spot now known - 15 by that name ! To infer otherwise, would be a perversion of reason, and a mark of injustice to the manes of the royal bard. Having thus briefly ascertained Tura, Cromla, &c. we read that the river Lubar ran between Cromla and the hill of Mora ; at the foot of which was the royal residence, Te-mora ! From many local allusions, I am disposed to think that there cannot be a doubt as to the hill of Tardree, or Cairn-eerie, having been the Mora of the ancients. Indeed there is no other hill of any note in the neighbourhood ! Hence, on proceeding to the foot of Cairn -aerie, or Tardree, I discovered the mossy ruins of an ancient castle of extensive dimen- sions, at the ancient city of Connor; which, your map will show you, is nearly in the centre of the county of Antrim. Here the beautiful lines of my classical countrymen, Messrs. Moore and Phillips, have their full sway over the imagi- nation. "Ah! dark are the halls where your ancestors revelfd, And mute is the harp that enliven'd the day: The tow'rs that they dwelt in are awfully levell'd — The signs of their greatness are sunk in decay ! Oh, Tara ! but 'twas fair to see Thy court's assembled majesty ! All that man deems great or grand, All that God made fair ; The holy seers, the minstrel band, Heroes bright, and ladies bland, Around the monarchs of the land, Were mingled there ! 16 Art thou the festal hall of state, Where once the lovely and the great, The stars of peace, the swords of honour, Cheer'd by the ever gracious eye Of Erin's native majesty Glitter'd a golden galaxy, Around thee, great O'Connor! And did these sacred ivy walls Once glare with gorgeous tapestry ? And did these mute and grass-grown halls Once ring with regal minstrelsy? Chill is the court where the chief of the hills Feasted the lord and the vassal, And winter fills with its thousand rills The pride of O'Connor's castle. The many remains of antiquity in this neigh- bourhood, such as ruins, caves, stones, &c. render Connor beyond a doubt, the Temorah, Teamrah, or Tara of the ancients. It is situate about twelve miles west of Carrickfergus, and nearly in the angle formed by Lochneagh and the river Bann to the east, and a short distance from Kells- water, a tributary of the Bann. There is a tradi- tion extant, that this was the residence of a King Connor, who left it his name : hence, I am bold to assert, that the whole scenery agrees as per- fectly in every point with the description of Ossian, as the scenery around Loch Catrine does to the elegant description of Mr. Scott. Many are the allusions which the poet makes to Connor (Temora), to cite all of which would be loss of time; but I shall here remark, from what I have discovered, that the poet and his IT father never penetrated into Ireland, but that their progress appears to have been no farther than the fields of battle ; which, during Fingal's life, were generally in the vicinity of Connor — in consequence of the enemy, whether of the Belgae, or of Lochlin, wishing, nay, attempting to dethrone his young friend, the minor king, Cormac, whose wants required and occasioned the frequent descents of Fingal on Ireland ; and, that immediately after he had defeated the ene- mies of the young king, or restored peace, he found it necessary, from his wars with the Romans, Scandinavians, &c. to return to Mor- ven. I have farther to remark with regard to Connor, that when Edward Bruce assumed the sovereignty of Ireland, in 1316, he found it necessary to reduce Connor, which is reported to have been very strong at the time of his invasion, and a place where he found as powerful, though not so fatal, a resistance as he did at Dundalk ! The castle of the kings was even then in ruins, a proof of their antiquity. I have often visited them, and the walls appear to be coeval with Carrickfergus castle, but only a few feet above the surface. Should any doubts be entertained as to the certainty of this castle having been the residence of some of the early potentates of this country, might we not also doubt the ruins shewn at Dunscaith in the Isle of Sky, and the stone to which Cuchullin is said to have fastened his dog Luath ? If one has the least foundation in truth, 18 the other is more than equally founded. Connor was a place of such note in the days of St. Patrick, that the apostle ordered an abbey, (whose ruins are still standing) and several other religious houses to be erected there. It has ever since been a conspicuous place in the church his- tory of Ireland ; and is, I believe, both a Catholic and Protestant bishop's see : at least, it is reported to have been the former, in the reign of the eighth Henry; and is now joined to Down, as a Protestant see, though there is but one family of the church of England resident in the parish. And so effectual were the plans of Cromwell for exterminating the Catholics, that this parish, for- merly the capital seat of Catholicism in the north of Ireland, contains only a few Catholic families, and they, I understand, returned to it at the restoration ; the majority being Presbyte- rians of the established kirk of Scotland. Having thus briefly noted Connor, and ascer- tained it to be the celebrated Temora, I venture to quote a few passages from the poems, that tend to elucidate and confirm the other places, which I have mentioned, the identical ones which I hold them out to be. As we proceed in the first book of ,Fingal, we find. many beautiful allusions made to Cromla, as being in the imme- diate neighbourhood of the scene of action of that poem. And from the striking appearance of its romantic scenery, and the frequency of mists on its summit, (mentioned by Ossian,) at particular 19 . seasons of the year, we may safely affirm that it would hold a conspicuous place in the mind of the illustrious poet, which we find to have been fondly stored with all that is grand in nature, and sublime in thought. Nathos, nephew of Cuchullin, tells his Dar- thula, " I remember thy words on Etha when my sails began to rise ; when I spread them towards Ullin (Ulster ;) towards the mossy walls of Tura, (Carrickfergus.)" Again he says, " I came to Tura's bay ; but the hails of Tura were silent !" Duchomar came to Tura's cave, and spoke to the lovely Morna : " Morna, fairest among women, lovely daughter of Cormac-Cairbar, why in the circle of stones ? in the cave of the rock alone ? The stream murmurs hoarsely : the old trees groan in the wind. The lake (Belfast loch) is troubled before thee ; and dark are the clouds of the sky. But thou art like snow on the heath, and thy hair is like the mist of Cromla ; thy breasts are like two smooth rocks seen from Branno of the streams ! Thy arms like two white pillars in the hall of the mighty Fingal." The Branno of the streams, I infer, was an allusion to the seat of the chieftain of that name on the banks of the Legon, whose daughter, Everallin, became wife of Ossian, and mother of Oscar. Could the poet here allude to the charms of his amiable consort, whom be bore from Branno of the streams ? Her goodness, I inter from his songs, retained the most affectionate hold of his memory, long after she and her valiant 20 son had mouldered into dust. The elegant com- pliment which the feeling poet puts in the mouth of the young aspiring warrior, Nathos, resembles one in the Canticles — but I am not criticising. The principal battles which Fingal fought with the Norwegians, native Irish, &c. were all in the neighbourhood of Connor ! Between Lochneagh (Lake of Roes,) and ridgy Cromla, and all round the intermediate space, by Connor, Mora, and on to Carmona ; it is almost impossible to walk twenty minutes without meeting some rude marks of the warfare of those times. I have penetrated a large and beautiful cave in the neighbourhood of Connor, which is capable of holding two or three hundred persons. It is divided into two apartments, and covered over head with long flat stones of granite. Innumerable are the four grey stones, (the graves of the illustrious dead) w T hich one discovers while travelling among these hills. There are also several moats or forths around Con- nor : one of the former, is in as great a state of preservation as the one at Carnwath in Lanark- shire ! These moats and forths I take to have been thrown up to answer the purpose of hills, for watch stations in a level country, and to kin- dle fires on when the approach of an enemy ren- dered such signals necessary. Some antiquaries, however, have observed, that they were seats of justice, where the chieftain exercised his judicial power ; but, in Ireland, particularly the level parts of Ulster, there are more forths than there 21 could have been chieftains, allowing at the rate of two forths for each extent of country equal to a modern sized estate. And I may farther ob- serve, that I have traced a chain of these artifi- cial eminences through a level part of country, and generally found them at signal distances from each other, and their termination at the foot of a commanding hill. A proof that their origin was in the want of natural signal stations for the early inhabitants of these countries. The Moi-lena mentioned so frequently by Ossian, is frequently contracted by the poet to Lena, (Moi meaning hill ;) and is a district of Antrim county, lying along the banks of Loch- jji, and is yet famous for deer, which are sup- pc _ "> be the best in Ireland. " j., ther days," said Carril the bard, " came the sons of Ocean to Erin. A thousand ships boundedover the waves to Ullin's (Ulster's) lovely plains ! The sons of Inisfail (Ireland,) arose to meet the race of dark brown shields. On Lubar's grassy banks they fought, and Grudar, like a sun-beam fell by the hand of the fierce Cairbar. Cairbar came to the vale of the echoing Tura (Carrickfergus,) where Brassolis (white breast,) fairest of his sisters, all alone raised the song of grief. She sung of the actions of Grudar, the youth of her secret soul. She mourned him in the field of blood, but still she hoped for his re- turn. a Her white bosom is seen from her robe, as the 22 moon from the clouds of the night. Her voice was softer than the harp to raise the song of grief. Her soul was fixed on Grudar : the secret sigh of her soul was his.. When shalt thou come in thine arms, thou mighty of the war? "Take, Brassolis," said Cairbar, " this shield of blood. Fix it on high within my hall, the armour of my foe!" Her soft* heart beat high against her side. Distracted, pale she flew ; she found her youth in all his blood ! She died on Cromla' s heath !" The termination of this melancholy episode, when compared with its commencement, " On Lubar's grassy banks they fought," &c. tells us that the Lubar alluded to, is no other than the Six Mile Water which rises in the northern end of r ^® Cromla, and after running through the b dutiful vallies between Mora and Cromla, and passing Templepatrick, (the elegant seat of Lord Tem- pletown) falls into Lochneagh, near Antrim. Brassolis could not have found her lover on any other grassy stream than the Six Mile Water, in the neighbourhood of Tura (Carrickfergus) and of Mora : hence, I am bold to assert, that the Six Mile Water is undoubtedly the Lubar of Ossian. The advice which Connel gives Cuchullin after his affecting interview with the ghost of Crugal, brings forth a beautiful allusion to the Cave-hill (Cromla,) which is the highest all round Connor, Temora ! After Cuchullin tells Connel to strike the shield of Caithbat, and assemble the warriors of Erin to battle, the poet sings : " High Cromla's 23 head of clouds is grej^. The morning' trembles on the half enlightened ocean. The blue grey mist swims slowly by, and hides the sons of Inis- fail (Ireland.)" Here the poet insidiously tells us, that the camp of Cuchullin was at, or near, the scite of Carmona. From this position the poet on hearing the reveille of the army, at the dawn of day, natu- rally cast his eyes towards the sea, in hopes of ob- serving the enemy advancing. Thence turning from the half enlightened ocean to the right, his eyes were instantly cheered with the head of his favourite Cromla, covered with the grey clouds of the morning. I have risen at the dawn several mornings in the month of June, and have invariably observed the head of Cromla covered with a grey mist a considerable time after all the hills were clear of the remains of night, so truly and elegantly described by Ossian. When Starno ironically orders the beautiful Agandecca to be brought to her lovely king of Morven, " she came with the red eve of tears. She came with the loose raven locks. Her white breast heaved with sighs, like the foam of the streamy Lubar," Six Mile Water. Again, iC morning is grey on Cromla ; the sons of the sea ascend." Their fleet might have been anchored on any part of the shore of Belfast Loch, and yet the army would have to ascend Cromla's ridge, to approach the capital Connor, or its defen- ders, the Irish army under the gallant Cuchullin. It appears that the general and his forces were 24 encamped on the hill in the neighbourhood of Carmona, for the purpose of protecting the capital Connor, where was the minor king, whose right in Ireland appears to have been productive of heredi- tary doubts and dissensions with both Norwegians and native Irish princes. It may not be unworthy of remark that Connor lies beyond a second ridge of hills from the Bay of Carrickfergus : between the former, and the one on which Cuchullin was encamped, runs the river Lubar. This goes far to establish the preceding conjec- tures. After the battle is over, and the Irish tribes under Cuchullin, were defeated by Swaran, who with the defeated warriors beheld the fleet of Fingal entering the bay, Carrickfergus, no doubt, the conquered hero drags his long spear behind him, mourns his fallen friends, and bending sad and slow sinks into Cromla's wood ; for he feared the face of Fingal, which was wont to meet him with smiles from the fields of renown. Again, when Fingal landed in Tura's Bay, his noble son makes him exclaim : " The battle is over! Sad is the heath of Lena, and mournful the oaks on Cromla !" A most convincing proof that my conjectures founded on analogy are strictly correct ; for the proximity of Cromla to Tura at once enabled Fingal to judge of the fate of his defeated friends. Indeed in all the poems in which the royal bard speaks of Ireland, we ob- serve that Cromla, Lena,* Lego, and Lubar, supply similes, shelter, battle fields and hunting 25 to Fingal, and a haven for his shipping! This is accounted for by the extent of the ridge of hills, Cromla and Lena lying between Carrickfergus Bay, and the capital Connor. On the coast of that arm of the sea, friends and foes from Lochlin and Morven, invariably made good their landing. And as the end of Lena, towards Carrickfergus, was a commanding martial situation, it was but natural for the allies of the house of Connor, to seize hold of it, to keep the royal residence in- violate. Hence, if I might be allowed to olfer my humble opinion of martial positions, it -~as for that purpose one of the most judicious situa- tions that could have been chosen in the neig-h- bourhood of the capital, then threatened by such a powerful and dangerous enemy, as the Scandi- navians had repeatedly proved themselves to our early islanders. To assist my conjecture of the strength of Lena as a judicious position, we can read that, when the king of the Belgae, medi- tated an attack on Connor, for the purpose of dethroning the young prince, he found it neces- sary to approach the capital Connor, by the valley of Ulster, through which flows the Legon (reedy Lego)'; for had he attempted to go to it by the western side of Lochneagh, he would have found it impossible for his army to cross the river Bann, (the outlet of Lochneagh) a beautiful, rapid and navigable river, larger and deeper than the Thames at London; and I believe at no place fordable from the lake of Roes, (Loch- n 26 neagli) to the Leap of Colerame. This conjec- ture is fully confirmed by the march of Torlath (a chieftain of Connaught) to dethrone the young king, whose office appears to have brought on him the ill will of native, as well as of foreign princes. This attack on the young kinsman of Fingal may be seen in the poem, " The Death of Cuchullin." That hero, commanding the forces of the young king, gallantly marched against the invading, ambitious prince, and came up with him at the lake of Legon, which I take to be that part of the Legon river, that spread out a little above where Belfast now stands, a place which there can be no doubt was covered with water at no very remote period. This gallant advance of Cuchullin from the neighbourhood of Connor, and the young king, his ward, was judiciously turning the battle to a distance from the royal residence, and putting it out of the power of the king being annoyed, or dethroned by any casual advantage of the enemy over his general, Cuchullin, in the absence of Fingal, who y i we are to understand, was then hourly expected to his assistance. And, in my opinion it proved Cuchullin to be not only a brave man, but an excellent commander, and well deserving the friendship of the renowned Fingal. "Asa hundred winds on Morven, as the streams of an hundred hills ; as clouds fly successive over heaven, or as the dark ocean assaults the shore of the desart : so roaring, so vast, so terrible the 27 armies mix on Lena's echoing heath !" After the battle is over, and Ossian in a father's pride relates the caressing interview of Fingal, and his promising grandson Oscar, the youthful warrior is told "that often did the hills of Cromla reply to the sighs of love for the unhappy Fainassolis." In my grounded opinion, this is' the range of hills before alluded to ; else why did the poet use the plural number? On my way to the southward, along the banks of the Legon, I had several reasons to believe that the hospitable Branno, the father of Everallin, wife of Ossian, and mother of Oscar, lived at, or near where now stands the town of Lisburn. An almost unquestionable proof of that we find in the description which Ossian gives Malvina of his courtship with Everallin. " I went in suit of the maid," says the elegant poet, " to Lego's sable surge : twelve of my people were there, the sons of the streamy Morven. We came to Branno, friend of strangers, Branno of the sounding mail, &c." On this part of the description I can say without fear of contradiction, that the Legon has no sable surge, until we arrive on its banks in the neighbourhood of Lisburn ; there this beautiful river has several little falls, but between that and Belfast it runs smooth and placid as a lake. The antiquity of several parts of ancient scenery and warfare around Lisburn, is reported to have been done away or defaced, to make room for modern improvements during the rebel- 28 Ion of 1640, when Lisburn was made head- quarters for the royal troops — Belfast being then an inconsiderable fishing village ! But notwith- standing the improvements of the moderns, or the implacable cruelty of the conquerors of past times, there are sufficient proofs of Lisburn having been a place of the first note in the early ages ; and such a place as one of the early chiefs would have fixed on for a residence, a fertile country abounding in game, woods, and rivers. Here I have no doubt was the hall of the gene- rous Branno. In the fourth book of Fingal, Ossian farther tells Malvina, " Now on Lena's heath the voice of music died away, the incon- stant blast blew hard, and the high oak shook its leaves around me. Of Everallin were my thoughts, when she, in all the light of beauty, and her blue eyes streaming in tears, stood before my sight, and spoke with feeble voice, ( O, Ossian, rise, and save my son ! Save Oscar, chief of men ! Near the red oak of Lubar's stream, he fights with Lochlin's sons V I called him like a distant stream, 'My son return, no longer pursue the foe over Lena P " Thus have I cited several parts of the poem to affirm my supposition as to the hill of Lena ; and to let the world see the ground on which my conjectures are established i I may yet proceed, " As the winds of night pour their dark ocean over the white sands of Mora 3 so dark advance the sons of Lochlin over Lena's rustling heath." On the north-west end of the small 29 chain of hills above Temora, ^Connor) is the hill of Mora, before noticed, in whose imme- diate neighbourhood, on the road from Belfast to Connor, is a hill now called the Sandy Braes: an appellation evidently given to it by the Scot- tish settlers in that neighbourhood about the middle of the seventeenth century. The white sands on its summit render it a singular hill, there being no one like it, in that respect, in the north of Ireland. This last citation is sufficient to prove the correctness of Ossian's description of all tne .scenes in the neighbourhood of Connor, and to convince the most incredulous that he was particularly well acquainted with every conspicu- ous object around it, had there been no other proofs, of which every hour's walk furnishes abundance. Fingal had started from his dream, and leaned on Trenmor's shield, the dark brown shield of his fathers, which they had often lifted of old, in the battles of their race. The hero had seen in his rest the mournful form of Agandecca, (his first love ;) she came from the way of the ocean, and slowly, lonely moved over Lena ; her face was pale, like the mist of Cromla, &c. she de- parted on the winds of Lena. The sound of Oscar's steps approached ; the king saw the grey shield on his side, for the first beam of the morning came over the waters of Ullin, Ulster. " Fly over Lena's heath, O Oscar ! and awake my friends to battle. The king stood by the atone of 30 Lubct)\ and thrice raised his terrible voice ; the deer star Led from the fountains of Cromla, and all the rocks shook on their hills !" How convinc- ing is this analogy ! In Colna, Dona, we find, that it was customary in those days to perpetuate the memory of victories, by placing large stones on the fields of fame ! On my little tour through the country around Connor, I had the satisfaction of seeing two of these remarkable stones. One stands about a mile from the village of Doagh, and nearly equi-distant from the Lubar, Six Mile Water! This stone is said to be about twenty feet in circumference, and about seven or eight above the surface : its depth in the earth is un- known. What renders it remarkable, is a large hole through it, capable of receiving an ob- ject as large as a man's head. The other is on the road from Belfast to Connor, about five miles west of this stone, but its dimensions are less than the former. I am informed that there are two others in the neighbourhood of Connor, which I did not visit ; but if I might be allowed to note my opinion of their origin and use, I would say, that they were certainly placed there by some of the early inhabitants of Ireland, to perpetuate great atchievements ; and, surely it is not beyond the pale of probability, that the above remarkable holed stone on Lubar's banks, was the same on which Fingal leaned. — Musing perhaps, on the deeds performed in its neighbourhood; which, among rude warriors, was not uncommon, 31 when they visited the fields of former battles. We know that it is natural even for a modern to experience an awful delight on visiting scenes famous for hard contested victory. Witness the feelings that rise in the mind on visiting Therm o- pyloe, Pharsalia, Agincourt, Londonderry, Tra- falgar, and Waterloo! As the spirit of Atha's king said to Ossian, " Future warriors shall mark the place and think of other years ; they shall mark it like the haunt of ghosts, pleasant, and dreadful to the soul. Do we not behold with joy the place where our fathers feasted ? But our eyes are full of tears on the fields of their wars! This stone shall rise, with all its grass, and speak to other years ! Here Cathmor and Ossian met in peace! When thou, O stone, shalt fail, and Lubar's stream (Six Mile Water) roll quite away, then shall the traveller come here, and bend perhaps in rest !" Might not this prophetic description allude to the remarkable stone before mentioned ? Mr. Phillips's poetry excels his prose account of these places. When tired at eve the pilgrim leans Upcn some rocky pile, Of days long gone the rude remains Sav'd by their rudeness from the Vandal reign*. Which red and ruthless swept the plain* Of this ill-fated Isle. He little thinks the mossy stones Beneath his feet Afford some hero's hallow'd bones Their rold retreat ; 32 Once saw tlie pomo of morning pride. And heard the virgin's sigh Swelling the sweet and solemn tide Of ancient minstrelsy. Perhaps e'en there on Fingal's arm A thousand heroes hung While Ossian, music of the storm. The battle anthem sung. Or there GSmania's palace rose In more than regal pride ; Ollam inhal'd a nation's woes, Conn's fiery sceptre crushed her foes, Or noble Oscar died. I passed, unknown to me at the time, near one of the other stones on the side of the hill of Mora, on my way to visit the scite or rather the foundations of five or six hundred little human habitations, each of which appeared to be about twelve feet square. Of the origin of these cabins it is scarcely possible to form a reasonable conjec- ture. They are not modern ; and tradition, such as it is, makes them coeval with the ruins of the old palace at Connor, Temora ; and that they composed at one time the camp of the Caledonian king's army. On this tradition and their antique appearance, a conjecture might be founded — the hill on which they stand has a very commanding prospect over a large extent of country. It may be worth adding, that, on an elevated mossy heath, like that on which they have been erected, quite out of the way of the plough, there seems to be nothing more improbable in the tradition of their antiquity, than in the oral testimonies of the 33 natives of the isle of Sky, who cannot avoid showing themselves angry at a traveller who does not seem to place implicit confidence in the report of the stone they point out ; and actually believe to be the same to which Cuchullin fastened his dog Luath. I shall cite a few more allusions to the scenery around Connor, to place it beyond a doubt that it is the ancient Temora. . " Now Fingal arose in his might, and thrice he reared his terrible voice ; Cromla answered around, and the sons of the desart stood still." The battle having been fought on Lena, the poet thence educes his similitudes, and from the neighbour- hood his allusions ; for the purpose, I presume, of giving greater celebrity to the scene of action ; which we find to have been invariably the case with Ossian. — Wherever the battle was fought, from its neighbourhood he always deduces his similes. It were, perhaps, unnecessary to cite any more allusions to Cromla, Lena, &c. but one is yet necessary to elucidate the beautiful story of Lamderg, mentioned in the fifth book of Fingal. There is a pleasing hamlet called Lambeg, a short distance from Lisburn, which tradition makes the scene of a lamentable story, similar to the one told by Ossian on the authority and description of the bard Ullin. The hamlet stands near the before mentioned falls of the Legon, and at the foot of the south-east end of the ridgy Cromla. When Fingal is informed by his bard Ullin, that 34 his son Ryno sleeps with the awful forms of his fathers, the hero desires the mouth of song to relate whose tomb is on the heath of Lena : " that his son might not fly through clouds unknown, but be buried with the valiant." " The mouth of the song," informs him, " that the first of heroes lies there. Silent is Lamderg in his tomb ; and Ullin king of swords. And who, soft smiling from her cloud, shews me her face of love ? Why, daughter, why so pale art thou, first of the maids of Cromla ? Dost thou sleep with the foes in battle, Gelchossa, white bosomed daughter of Tuathal ? Thou hast been the love of thousands: but Lamderg was thy love ! He came to Selma's mossy towers, and striking his dark buckler, spoke, ' where is Gelchossa, my love ? the daughter of the noble Tuathal? I left her in the hall of Selma, when I fought with the gloomy Ulfadda,' &c." I must here digress a short time to notice the word Selma — or Selamath, which means a dwelling, beautiful to behold ; and we find several places merited and acquired that appellation from the royal bard. Fingal had a Selma in Morven, and is thence denominated the king of Selma ; and we read of another near Tura, Carrickfergus ; but the Selma here alluded to, is evidently meant for the dwelling of Lamderg, and if it was at the place now called Lambeg, be the house of what construction soever it might, the situation and the scenery around it, were well deserving the cha- racter of beautiful to behold. I proceed with 35 the fatal episode. Allad, the druid, replied to en- quiries respecting the chiefs : — " I saw Ullin the son of Cairbar. He came like a cloud from Cromla, and he hummed a surly song like a blast in a leafless wood. He entered the hall of Selma. * Lamderg,' he said, ' most dreadful of men, fight, or yield to Ullin !' ' Lamderg,' replied Gelchossa, ' the son of battle is not here! — he fights Ulfadda, mighty chief ! He is not here, thou first of men ; but Lamderg never yielded. He will fight the son of Cairbar.' ' Lovely art thou,' said terrible Ullin : ' daughter of the generous Tuathal, I convey thee to Cairbar's halls : the valiant shall have Gelchossa. Three days I remain on Cromla, to wait that son of battle, Lamderg ; on the fourth, Gelchossa is mine, if the mighty Lam- derg flies !' ' Allad,' said the chief of Cromla : 1 peace to thy dreams in the cave ! Ferchious, sound the horn of Lamderg, that Ullin may hear on Cromla!' Lamderg, like a roaring storm, ascended the hill from Selma." The whole de- scription goes far to affirm that Lamderg, the chief of Cromla, had his residence of Selma near the spot to which tradition gives the name of Lam- beg, at the foot of the hill or mountain of Cromla. This is but a natural conjecture when we recollect that the chiefs of those times generally had their dwellings in the low lying countries, near rivers. " Gelchossa saw the silent chief as a wreath of mist ascending the hill. ■ Cairbar,' said the maid of the tender hand. ' I must bend the bow on 36 Cromla ; for I see the dark-brown hinds. She hasted up the hill. In vain ! The gloomy heroes fought. Fierce Ullin fell. Young Lamderg came all pale to the daughter of generous Tuathal. ' What blood, my love,' said the soft-haired wo- man, ' flows down my warrior's side V ' It is Ullin's blood ! Thou fairer than the snow on Cromla ; let me rest here a little while. The mighty Lamderg died.' 4 And sleepest thou so soon on earth, O chief of shady*! Cromla?' Three days she mourned beside her love. The hunters found her dead, they raised the tomb above the three! Thy son, O king of Morven, may rest here with heroes. ' And here my son shall rest,' said the king of the streamy Morven." The above beautiful episode, which I consider one of the finest in the poems, is given by Ossian as the work of the native Irish bard Ullin, Ulster, who we find accompanied Fingal in all his expe- ditions to Ireland ; for the purpose, I presume, of giving the warrior all the necessary informa- tion respecting that country, in which he ap- pears to have been a stranger, and for recounting the tales of other years. — The history of past times, which we know to have been in the pro- vince of the bards, who, unlike those of our times, were on all occasions honoured with the most unlimited confidence by the warriors, whose ad- herents they were, and to the strictest attention, and intimacy, and I might say brotherly friendship. In the sixth book of Fingal, we find the scene 37 of the poem, laid on the heath of Lena (Moi- leny.) On the mountain Cromla, " Fillan and Fergus/' said Fin gal, u blow my horn, that the joys of the chace may arise, that the deer of Cromla may hear and start at the lake of Roes. 1 ' The lake of Roes is evidently the Lochneagh of our times. The northern end of this beautiful lake, is bounded on the east by the range of hills, known to the ancients as Cromleach, or Lena. Lena, I apprehend, was the name of the whole ridge, and Cromleach, the highest part, was ap- plicable to that portion of the ridge, that lies to the westward of Belfast. There is a small district on the west side of the mountain called Cromlin, from the Erse, I presume, which terminates near the town of Antrim. On the borders of this dis- trict, and along the banks of Lochneagh, the deer are yet very plenty, and thrive there better than in any of the deer parks in the north of Ireland. I shall again digress a little from the subject of places, and remark that the red oaks, so frequently mentioned by Ossian, are here very plenty ; and many of them appear to be of great age. One, named the royal oak, from its extraor- dinary dimensions, was blown down on the windy Saturday of 1748., It grew in Lord Conway's (now Marquis of Hertford's) deer park; its dimensions are reported to have been very large for a native oak ; the diameter being eighleen feet , and height from the root to the lower branch twenty-six ; I have heard it remarked by judges'. 38 who calculated by the time which oaks generally take in growing to maturity, that the above oak must have been of considerable size in the time of Ossian, allowing the elapsed time to be sixteen hundred years. " And hereafter shalt thou be victorious," said Fingal, " the fame of Cuchullira shall grow like the branchy tree of Cromla." After Fin gal had cheered the defeated hero, while they sung and feasted, the soul of Cuchullin arose, and his face was brightened with gladness, and the strength of his arm returned. They pass- ed the night in joy, and brought back the morning with song. Fingal arose on the heath, and shook his glittering spear. He moved first towards the heath of Lena, and we followed like a ridge of fire. " Spread the sails," said Fingal, " and catch the winds that pour from Lena !" This gives me another proof, that my opinions of the scenes of Fingal's exploits, are through analogy deeply grounded in truth. The winds that pour from Lena, were the winds necessary to fill their sails in any part of Carmona's bay, (Belfast Loch,) and to waft them to Morven. For that part of the ridge of Lena, above Dun-mura, has a large open- ing to the south-west about six miles from Belfast. In the third book of Fingal, we read that Carril represents that hero as strong as the waters of Lora. There is a Lora in the north of Ireland, near the seat of Lady Antrim, which now has the addition of Don (a hill,) to it. It lies nearly opposite Scotland, and the mountain is remark- 39 able for white dashing cascades that tumble pre- cipitantly down its sides, picturesque and truly grand in their descent. It is but natural to sup- pose that this mountain, with its cascades, caught the eyes of the elegant Ossian in some of his voyages to and from Erin. u Why art thou so dark, Slimora, with all thy silent woods? No green star trembles on thy top —No moon-beam on thy side." The Erse for great hill is Slieu-mor ! In a note to the first book of Fingal, we find that Cuchullin was killed somewhere in Connaught. If that was the case, a part of my system is overturned ; but I hope I shall make it appear, that the annotator is in this instance blameable for a little inconsistency or error. In the poem, " The Death of Cuchul- lin," after the advice which the hero received the preceding night from the ghost of Calmar, we read that the faint beam of the morning rose, and the sound of Caithbat's buckler spread. Green Ullin's warriors convened like the roar of many streams. The horn of war is heard over Lego, (Legon) The mighty Torlath came ! c Why dost thou come with thy thousands, Cuchullin V said the chief on Lego ! * I know the strength of thine arm, and thy soul is an unextinguished fire ! Why fight we not on the plain, and let our hosts behold our deeds ? ' Thou risest like the sun on my soul,' said the son of Semo ! i Thine arm is mighty, O Torlath, and worthy of my wrath ! - Retire! ye men of Ullin to Slimor's shady side. 40 Behold Cuchullin in the day of his fame !" To elucidate this meeting, it is necessary to observe, that during the administration of Cuchullin in Ulster, Torlath, one of the chiefs of the Belgae, who were in possession of the south of Ireland, rebelled in Cormaught, and advanced towards Temora, for the purpose of dethroning the young king Cormac, who, excepting Ferdath, afterward king of Ireland, was the only one of the Scottish race of kings, (from Connor the Great) existing in that country. Cuchullin march- ed against the rebel prince, from the neighbour- hood of the capital, Connor, and came up with him at the lake of Lego, where he totally defeated his forces, and killed Torlath : this victory, how- ever, like that at Quebec and at Trafalgar, was dearly bought to the country, for in the proudest moment, the magnanimous and prudent Cuchullin was mortally wounded by an arrow. I have now only to observe, that it is the noun Sinner (great hill) from whose mention the little inconsistency has arisen ; for, on taking a nearer view of the subject, there may have been, and are, many Slimoras or great hills ; but that which in- duces me to challenge the little error or mistate- ment, is, that there is a hill about five miles from Connor, that retains the name of Slieu-mors ! It is one of the most remarkable hills inlreland. A proof that it was once covered with wood, is from a moss on its summit whence large oak and fir trees are frequently dug. Now is it not probable that 41 that the oral reporter to the translator of the poems, may have occasioned this little error ; if it is an error or inconsistency ? The reporter, perhaps, unacquainted with the geography of Ulster, taking it for granted that Cuchullin was killed in Connaught, because Torlath his opposer was a native and chieftain of that country, affirmed it to be the fatal place ; forgetting, or passing over, the axiom, that the battle was fought on the banks of the Legon. (Belfast Loch.) As we read on, we observe that his friends who came from Scotland to his assistance, " by the darkly rolling waves of the Lego, raised the hero's tomb — Luath at a distance lies — the com- panion of Cuchullin at the chace." This is suffi- cient to prove that the battle was fought on the banks of the Legon ; for it is a well known fact, that our forefathers of the remote ages, who had the honour of falling in the service of their coun- try, were always rewarded with a grave on the field of their glory, as a place the most apposite and glorious that could be chosen. About a mile distant from Belfast, there is an an- cient burying-ground on the banks of the Legon. Tradition reports it to have been a place used for that purpose from the most remote period, down to the days of St. Patrick, by whom it was conse- crated. The moderns call it Friar's Bush ; and I have little doubt but that it had its origin, as a place of sepulchre, from one of the battles of those days. F 42 For even in the most rude and barbarous nations, particularly in Africa, America, and part of Asia, I have witnessed the most reverential and careful attention paid to the dust once blest in the human form ; and farther a particular desire of succeeding generations to be mingled with their forefathers in the narrow house. Hence, I think it within the bounds of probability, that this Friar's Bush is the grave of Cuchullin. Ossian tells us, " We came to Lego's mournful banks — we found his rising tomb. His companions in arms were there, and bards of many songs !" In the poem, Darthula, we find mention made of Cairbar, sitting at a feast in the silent plain of Lona ! And again, " Lathmor is before us |" he that fled from Fingal at Lona ! The English of Lona is, a marshy plain. About a mile above Belfast, and close to Friar's Bush, commences a level plain, or what should be called a holm, form- ed by the course of the river Legon. It is now covered with gentlemen's seats, whose business and concerns are in Belfast. The difference be- tween the Gaelic and Erse dialects may have altered the name, by adding the " Ma," to " Lona," in the course of succeeding ages ; for it is the only place that I can discover near the scenes of action that has any resemblance to the original. Hence, I am disposed to think that the analogy of the preceding scenes, with the one under consideration, would affirm this to be 43 the same Lona twice alluded to by Ossian, as being 1 in the neighbourhood of the capital Connor, or at least of the scene of action — it is now called Malone. After the defeat of Cuchullin, we read that Cairbar, taking advantage of the victory, advanced along Lego's lake, (Belfast loch, at the confluence of the Legon) to the sea-coast, where he expected Fingal, who meditated an attack, or rather pre- pared an expedition, to establish his kinsman on the throne of Ireland. Between the wings of Cairbar's army was the castle of Tura (Carrick- fergus,) where the landing from Scotland was generally effected. And into it the sons of Usnoth, and nephews of Cuchullin, were driven by a storm, without the possibility of escaping from their enemy Cairbar. " Distinct is the voice of Cairbar, and loud as Cromla's falling stream." Could this allude to the river Clady, that rises in the heath of Lena, and gurgles down the side of the mountain, past Cromlin, till it loses itself in the Lake of Roes? (Lochneagh.) " Cairbar had seen the dark ship on the sea before the dusky night came down. His people watch on Lena's plain, (the north-west end of the hill, lying alongthe road from Belfast to Carrickfergus) and lift ten thousand spears !" " And let them lift ten thou- sand spears, said Nathos with a smile ; the sons of Car-borne Usnoth will never tremble in dan- ger ! Why dost thou roar with all thy foam, thou 44 roaring sea of Ullin, (Ulster.) Why do ye rus- tle on your dark wings, ye whistling tempests of the sky ?" These, however, forced the gallant brothers into Carrickfergus bay among the ten thousand spears of Cairbar, which prevented them raising the song of joy in Connor. In the poem of Croma, we find Croma a coun- try in lovely Inisfail, Ireland ; but I can observe no allusion in the whole poem, by which I can trace any discovered object, or the province it is in ; although it is highly probable it was in some part of Ulster : this I would infer from its proxi- mity to Morven* There is a small district in the county of Down, commencing on the banks of the Legon, a short distance from Belfast, and nearly opposite Friar's Bush: it is called Cromac ; but the poet, in the description of his actions to Malvina, ingeniously evades any allusion or similitudes by which we might trace his position, or rather the fields of his exploits in favour of Crothar, the chief- tain of that district. As Temora furnishes me with grounds for the few brief remarks I have made, at the commence- ment of this enquiry, so I am also indebted to it for grounds whereon to challenge another little error of the annotator. Inishuana is noted as a part of South Britain, an island, &c. This mis- take of the annotator must have arisen from his recollection of Fingal, having in the preceding poems, twice sailed from Carmona's bay, for that 45 destination : hence, perhaps, the annotator thought that had Inishuana been in Ireland, the warrior might have gone thither by land. This Inishuana, or by some Inishona, is in the north-west part of Ireland, opposite Scotland, and noted wherever Irishmen travel for its excellent whiskey. I have yet to observe, that if this was the same place to which the poet alludes, the warriors of Mor- ven, no doubt, found it necessary to go to it by sea: probably in consequence of the unfordable river Bann running across their way ; or, perhaps, from a wish to have their shipping at hand in case of being obliged to retreat ; or, perhaps, rather than leave their ships behind them to be exposed to an enemy in their absence, who might have destroyed them, and consequently cut off their communication with Morven, they pre- ferred the journey by water to Inishuana. " The setting sun was yellow on Dora ; grey evening began to descend. Temora's woods shook with the blasts of the inconstant wind." This is one of the strongest proofs the whole collection of poems afford of the just and more than analogi- cal grounds of my opinions on the celebrated scenes. Here Ossian insidiously tells us, that the poem was composed at Connor : for Connor and its neighbourhood supply the beautiful simi- litudes he so ingeniously displays, and are thence immortalized by his matchless muse. It is evident he was at Connor with his roval kinsman ; else 46 how could he see its woods shake in the blasts of the inconstant wind, or observe the rays of the setting sun on Dora ? — Which hill is about four miles from Connor ; and, need I add, that the description of the setting sun on Dora, is truly natural and picturesque ! I might here remark, that it is scarcely possible for the most minute inquirer at this period to accurately ascertain the names of places, used by the early inha- bitants of Ireland. The frequent revolutions and rebellions occasioned by the disagreements of the native princes, which from time immemorial have plunged and kept the inhabitants of this excellent island in everlasting broils and commotions, have also shut out the prospect in Ireland which an an- tiquarian might have on proceeding to Wales, or to the Highlands of Scotland, where the people are unmixed. Ulster, in particular, has more severely felt the intestine commotions that have disunited Ireland, than any of the other provinces. In fact, Cromwell so completely laid Ulster waste, for the massacre of the Protestants by the Papists at the instigation of the O'Neils, that I have seen a proclamation of his, inviting settlers to people Ulster from England and Scotland, wherein is stated, that colonists need not be afraid of the Papists, for he had either killed or driven them all from Ulster ; and none should ever be allowed to return to it. As I have been advised by that well informed divine, Dr. Jameson, secretary of 47 the Scottish Society of Antiquaries, to be brief in my citations, I thence consider it necessary to conclude my observations with a very few short extracts and remarks that tend more immediately to ratify the consistency of the analogy from which I have deduced my discoveries. " Who comes from Lubar's vale, from the folds of the morning mist? The drops of Heaven are on his head. His steps are in the paths of the sad. It is Carril of other times ! He comes from Tura's silent cave !" Than the above passage, there is scarcely a sentence in the whole collection of poems that tends more to confirm my opinion of the places I have ascertained. Ossian, we read in the same page, was on the hill of Mora (Tar- dree) above Connor, and saw Carril the bard in Lubar's vale, (the vale through which runs the Six Mile Water) approaching him from Carrick- fergus, — charged, no doubt, with dispatches — for it was usual in those days for those who held the office of bard, to include in it that of embassador, historian, messenger, herald, &c. The situations of the two bards are so clearly described, that a person the least acquainted with the country, could have no difficulty in pointing them out, and the other places discovered by the certainty of these. It will be recollected that there are two chains of hills which run parallel with Belfast Loch, and between its western shore and Con- nor. The one is Cromla, the other Mora. The 48 Intermediate space is that vale, I imagine, that the poet names the Vale of Lubar, through which the Six Mile Water winds in the most beautiful ser- pentine wanderings. In the battle of Oscar and Cairbar, in which the latter fell, he lay like a shattered rock which Cromla shakes from his craggy side ! On the north-east end of Cromla (Cave Hill) near Bel- fast, the rocks seem jutting out as if ready to fall ; and many are the fragments it has shaken from its craggy side— to be seen at the foot of the hill. It is also worthy of remark, that the Cave-hill is the highest in that neighbour- hood ; and the only one that has such a pic- turesque craggy side ! Thus having found each part strictly analogous, and consistent with all, throughout the whole of the preceding enquiry, I feel the greatest confidence in submitting the result to an enlightened public, as a part of my leisure hours' pastime ; sensible, that, though such communications are not of the most va- luable sort, yet, I presume this will be acknow- ledged a gratifying one : — hence, it remains only for me to conclude, by repeating my opinion, that Fingal's progress in Ireland never exceeded twenty miles from the coast of Ulster ; and that, never to the southward of Moileny, nor to the westward of Connor, (Temora); and Lochneagh, (the Lake of Roes). A most con- vincing proof, that the allegations of the histo* 49 rians Keating and O'Flaherty with regard to Fin- gal having been an Irishman, are wholly incon- sistent with reason. For we may safely assert, that, had he been a native of Ireland, he would have chosen a more extended field for his exploits, than that portion of lovely Inisfail, confined within the above limits. But, instead of taking advantage of his numerous conquests, and the respect or terror which his redoubted name created in the minds of all the warriors wherever he went, we find him represented to have been only the virtuous and prudent warrior, and the active friend of distress. Peaceably inclined, he was anx- ious only to preserve the land of his young kins- man, and careless of extending his conquests, even when his frequent victories, if we may cre- dit his son, could have giv\3n him an easy supre- macy over then, as now, distracted Ireland. No ; after his victories and treaties, we find him in- variably return to Morven, adored by his friends, and esteemed by his late enemies : more pleased within himself at the idea of having performed his part faithfully as a friend, and gallantly as a warrior, than if he had ambitiously laid coun- tries desolate, and deprived millions of their na- tural rights and inheritance. To conclude, — if Fingal was an Irishman, his son Ossian, and his translator, have more than ingeniously evaded giving any hint by which he might be correctly ascertained to have G 50 been born in Ireland. — And, on the contrary, have given the most convincing proofs that he was a Caledonian, and that his frequent de- scents upon Ireland, were solely occasioned by the wants of his kinsmen of the race of Connor ! Now, as there is every reason to believe, that Mr. Macpherson never was in Ireland, nor any of those from whom he had the oral originals of the elegant poems of Ossian ; and, as the geogra- phers of that excellent island are wholly silent on many of the places, which I have here attempted to bring to light, as sacred to the heroic actions of a Fingal, and the never languid, never dying strains of his noble-minded son : so, I presume, it may be safely asserted, that the poems of Ossian are the genuine effusions of that father of Scottish and of sublime poetry ; who, from a state of rude though polished bar- barism, (if I may use the expression,) poured forth a stream of sensibility, dazzling by the brightness of bravery and enthusiasm of patrio- tism ; that, had it come down to us by an ex- plorer of Herculaneum, as the work of a Greek or Roman, instead of through the long doubted hands of the inconsistent Macpherson — it would have invaded our partial and too fasti- dious hearts, with the irresistible force of lioht- nmg, and with the electric ardour of every idea that conspires to animate, exalt, and at the * same time, to astonish and chain the intellectual 51 empire, as by magic, to all that is truly feeling, noble, and sublime. Without the passport from the classic vine-covered hills of Italy, I know those on whom the poems of Ossian have had the above ennobling effect, though they came from the rugged mountains of Caledonia. London, August 12, 1818. 62 APPENDIX. There are five ancient castles in the county of Antrim, of which there are no records when they were built ; but their appearance renders it beyond a doubt, that they are of the first stone and lime buildings erected in Ireland. They are the ruins of Connor Palace, (the ancient Temora); Carrickfergus castle, (Tura) ; Shanes Castle on the banks of Lochneagh, (Lake of Roes) ; the seat of the O'Neiis, for many centuries chief- tains in Ulster ; and the old building in Carmona bay, called the White House — which tradition would make the first house in Ireland, and may have been the Selma, mentioned near Tura, from its beautiful situation. — The old round tower near the town of Antrim, is evidently of a more modern date — perhaps of the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Carrickfergus Castle is tra- ditionally reported to have been built by Fergus, the first king of Scotland, who, according to Fordun and others, went from Ireland to govern the Scots who had emigrated from Ireland to Scotland about the time of Alexander the Great, 53 or three hundred years before Christ. But that must be a misrepresentation, for we have the authority of several of the Roman writers to counteract that tradition, who all agree in their account of the barbarous mode in which our forefathers lived. The Romans found no stone and lime buildings in these countries ; conse- quently, they were the first who introduced them. The antiquary on having read the forego- ing pages will agree with me, I presume, in the remark which naturally arises from a review of the whole — namelv, that that tract of Antrim country, to which my observations have been directed, is apparently the same which the learn- ed Archbishop Usher designated the Route of Dalriada ! — whence report would colonize the neighbouring Island of Scotland. Be that as it may, however, the; e is no part of Ireland, over which I have travelled, that contains so many rude vestiges of antiquity ; nor one whose local situation is more likely to have received inhabi- tants from, or given them to, the sister Island. — Ne plus ultra ! W-Shackell, inner, Johnson's-court, Fleet-street, London. 3?Vt- ; ^ Date Due 1 W\R13'51 ft' 7t- \ <\ 9 PRINTED IN U. S. A. «.s