Uses qfi/tc Round Towers of Ireland, Sfc. 97 



unknown to the antiquaries of past ages, a sort of railroad process, requiring 

 but little laborious travelling on the old high roads of learning and research, 

 I am free to acknowledge, but I am by no means satisfied that, in inquiries of 

 such a nature, this is the safest mode of travelling. On the contrary, I am of 

 opinion that, after all, the old mode is the best, that if to abandon figure and 

 come to the point we wished to ascertain whether our pagan ancestors erected 

 the Round Towers as sepulchral monuments or riot, we should determine the 

 question, not by the short process of digging in the bases of the Towers, but 

 by the more laborious examination of the ancient literature of our country, 

 which is still so abundant in amount, and so rich in information on the usages 

 of the times to which those gentlemen desire to refer these monuments. To 

 adduce all the authorities which our ancient manuscripts could furnish respect- 

 ing the ancient pagan modes of sepulture in Ireland, from the earliest period 

 of the history of the country, would greatly exceed the space allotted to this 

 section of my inquiry, but, as the subject is of considerable interest, and has 

 not been hitherto treated of, I shall adduce a few notices from our manuscripts 

 which will satisfactorily show what the sepulchral usages of the pagan Irish 

 were, and be sufficient to demonstrate that the hypothesis of the South Munster 

 Antiquaries is wholly visionary. 



The first authority which I shall adduce will satisfactorily prove, that the 

 Irish in pagan times had regal cemeteries in various parts of the island, appro- 

 priated to the interment of the princes of the different races, who ruled as sole 

 rnonarchs, or provincial kings or toparchs ; and that such cemeteries were well 

 known to the people in Christian times, though no longer appropriated to their 

 original purpose, except in one or two instances, where the localities were con- 

 secrated to the service of Christianity. This valuable authority is preserved in 

 one of the most celebrated Irish manuscripts the Leabhar na h- Uidhre 

 a work compiled at Clonmacnoise, and transcribed by Moelmuiri, the son of 

 Ceileachar, the grandson of Conn na m-bocht, a distinguished writer of that 

 great abode of learning the Scotorum nobile culmen, in the twelfth century, 

 and of which the autograph original on vellum, the property of Messrs. Hodges 

 and Smith, is now before me. The article, which I give entire, is called Sen- 

 chas na Relec, or History of the Cemeteries ; and I may add, that, judging from 

 its language, its age must be referred to a period several centuries earlier than 



VOL. xx. o 



