Part 23 (1/2)

[250] _Discovery_.--_Ulster Arch. Journal_, vol. v. p. 83.

[251] _a.s.signed_.--Petrie's _Tara_, p. 200.

[252] _Smith_.--The animals were brought to the smith, who knocked them down with his big hammer: hence, probably, the name of Smithfield for a cattle market. He was an important personage in the olden time. In the Odyssey, as armourer, he ranks with the bard and physician.

[253] _Tinnes_.--Dr. Petrie does not give the meaning of this word, but Dr. O'Donovan supplies the deficiency in the Book of Rights, where he explains it to mean a salted pig, or in plain English, bacon.

[254] _Table_.--In the earliest ages of Tara's existence, the household may have been served as they sat on the benches round the hall. The table was at first simply a board: hence we retain the term a hospitable board; a board-room, a room where a board was placed for writing on. The board was carried away after dinner, and the trestles on which it stood, so as to leave room for the evening's amus.e.m.e.nts.

[255] _Cooked_.--Wright's _Domestic Manners_, p. 87. The knights in this engraving are using their s.h.i.+elds as a subst.i.tute for a table. At p. 147 there is an ill.u.s.tration of the method of cooking on a spit; this is turned by a boy. The Irish appear to have had a mechanical arrangement for this purpose some centuries earlier. Bellows, which are now so commonly used in Ireland, and so rare in England, appear to have been a Saxon invention.

[256] _Poems_.--_Ulster Arch. Journal_, vol. i. p. 108. It would appear as if corn had been eaten raw, or perhaps partly scorched, at an early period, as was customary in eastern countries. Teeth have been found in crania taken from our ancient tombs, quite worn down by some such process of mastication.

[257] _Weir_.--Salt appears to have been used also at a very ancient period, though it cannot now be ascertained how it was procured. Perhaps it was obtained from native sources now unknown.

[258] _Gold_.--Book of Rights, pp. 145, 209, &c. The King of Cashel was ent.i.tled to a hundred drinking horns.--p. 33.

[259] _Beer_.--Book of Rights, p. 9.

[260] _Period_.--Accounts will be given later of the use of _aqua vitae_, or whisky, after the English invasion. The English appear to have appreciated this drink, for we find, in 1585, that the Mayor of Waterford sent Lord Burleigh a ”rundell of _aqua vitae_;” and in another letter, in the State Paper Office, dated October 14, 1622, the Lord Justice c.o.ke sends a ”runlett of milde Irish _uskebach_,” from his daughter Peggie (heaven save the mark!) to the ”good Lady Coventry,”

because the said Peggie ”was so much bound to her ladys.h.i.+p for her great goodness.” However, the said Lord Justice strongly recommends the _uskebach_ to his lords.h.i.+p, a.s.suring him that ”if it please his lords.h.i.+p next his heart in the morning to drinke a little of this Irish _uskebach_, it will help to digest all raw humours, expell wynde, and keep his inward parte warm all the day after.” A poor half-starved Irishman in the present century, could scarcely have brought forward more extenuating circ.u.mstances for his use of the favourite beverage; and he might have added that _he_ had nothing else to ”keep him warm.”

[261] _Bricks_.--In an ancient life of St. Kevin of Glendalough, there is mention made of certain brick-cheeses, which the saint converted into real bricks, in punishment to a woman for telling a lie.

[262] _King_.--Book of Rights, p. 15.

[263] _Informs us_.--_Domestic Manners_, p. 43.

[264] _Macaulay_.--_Lays of Ancient Rome_.--Horatius.

[265] _Cambrensis_.--”Hinc accidit, ut Episcopi et Abbates, et Sancti in Hibernia viri cytharas circ.u.mferre et in eis modulando pie delectari consueverunt.”--_Cam. Des._ p. 739.

[266] _Observes_.--_Asiatic Researches_, vol. ix. p. 76.

[267] _Asia_.--See Carl Eugen's valuable work on the _Music of Ancient Nations pa.s.sim_.

[268] _Country_.--_Erste Wanderung der altesten Tonkunst_, von G.W.

Fruh, Essen, 1831. In Conran's _National Music of Ireland_, he attributes this to the influence of ecclesiastical music. But an article by Mr. Darmey, in the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, takes a much more probable view. The Ambrosian chant, introduced about A.D. 600, could not have influenced national music which existed for centuries before that period.

[269] _Shoes_.--The use of inauguration shoes appears to have been very ancient in Ireland. It will be remembered how early and how frequently the shoe is mentioned in Scripture in connexion with legal arrangements.

It was obviously an important object in Eastern business transactions.

[270] _Book of Rights_.--The great antiquity and perfect authenticity of this most valuable work, should be remembered. It is admitted that the original Book of Rights was compiled by St. Benignus, the disciple of St. Patrick. Dr. O'Donovan thinks there is every reason to believe that this work was in existence in the time of Cormac, the bishop-king of Cashel, A.D. 900. It is probable that the present Book of Rights was compiled about this period, from the more ancient volume of the same name.

[271] _Da Derga_.--See an interesting Essay on the Curragh of Kildare, by Mr. W.M. Hennessy, read before the R.I.A., February 26, 1866.

[272] _Profit_.--The trustees of the estates forfeited in 1688 notice this especially. Trees to the value of 20,000 were cut down and destroyed on the estate of Sir Valentine Brown, near Killarney, and to the value of 27,000 on the territory of the Earl of Clancarty. Some of these trees were sold for _sixpence a piece_.

CHAPTER XVI.