Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 417 



There is one other statement in this work of Sir William Betham, which it 

 is necessary I should notice. It will be recollected by those who have read the 

 First Part of this Inquiry, that the advocates of the several erroneous theories 

 advanced, have each found, or supposed they found, a name for the Towers 

 in the Irish language, which proved the truth of their hypothesis. But it re- 

 mained for Sir William Betham to discover, that not only all these theorists 

 were in error, but, also, that the whole body of Irish writers, annalists, law com- 

 mentators, hagiologists, and poets, were alike ignorant of the form and meaning 

 of the name applied to these Towers in their own language, and which, accord- 

 ing to Sir William Betham, signified nothing else than monuments for the dead. 

 But I mvist allow Sir William Betham to speak for himself: 



" I shall, however, remark upon a vulgar error which has had great currency among Irish anti- 

 quaries, who have asserted that they were called closceac, steeples, belfries. Bells are of compara- 

 tively recent introduction into Ireland, and clocks, from which the word has evidently been derived, 

 still more modern. This blunder has arisen from ignorance of the language. I have a memorandum 

 in an Irish MS., that they were called by the people leaccaib, that is, monuments of the dead, the 

 sound of which has been mistaken by those who but imperfectly knew the language ; many writers 

 have been misled by this. An error once promulgated by an antiquary of reputation, takes such 

 hold on public opinion, that it soon becomes an established dogma, to question which, even although 

 palpably erroneous, is sure to provoke almost persecution." Etruria-Celtica, vol. ii. p. 210. 



As I should be sorry that Sir William Betham should include me in the list of 

 his persecutors, for I have had, unfortunately, myself, some experience of the 

 unamiable courses to which persecutors, on account of difference in speculative 

 opinions, can sometimes resort, I shall allow this reference to a memorandum 

 by an unknown hand, in a nameless manuscript which has not yet seen the 

 light, to pass without comment ; but, in the hope that it may induce him to 

 bring it forward, and permit us to judge of its age and real value, I shall con- 

 clude by submitting to his serious attention the following extract from the 

 work of a historian and critical antiquary of deserved celebrity ; and which, I 

 am obliged to acknowledge, expresses an opinion, but too well founded, as to 

 the want of literary honesty exhibited by some writers on Irish subjects : 



" Vague references to MSS. of vague antiquity form the main chicane of Irish authors ; who are 

 so dull, as not to discern that this is never allowed in such questions, but that if a MS. be quoted, 

 its age, place where kept, page, and column, are always accurately marked by the antiquaries of all 

 other countries, and the words themselves always produced, with a literal translation." Pinker- 

 ton's Enquiry into the History of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 20. 

 VOL. XX. 3 H 



