11 



under consideration. He has also taken leave to furnish some short 

 historical notices of such family names as occur in the Essay, hoping 

 they might relieve the more sombre features of the antique, and 

 anxious to contribute them from stores which have been his favourite 

 collection for many years. Indeed to such a quantity have those 

 stores accumulated, that his "indices" alone to the general and family 

 history of Ireland, its topography, monastic, and other architectural 

 remains, &c., extend through five closely written quarto volumes, and 

 furnish perhaps the most complete references extant to all the domes- 

 tic and many of the foreign sources, from which any accredited infor- 

 mation on these subjects could be derived. It may perhaps excuse if 

 not justify this egotism, when he adds, that his available illustra- 

 tions of a single family, an Irish peerage, or place, would, in many 

 instances, run to a length exceeding that of this volume. 



48, SuMMRR HiiL, Dublin. 



