391 



regiment under James the Second, made a present of the Four Masters 

 to Doctor O'Rourke, Mr. O'Conor's uncle, who gave it to him : it is 

 now in his Hbrary, and an autograph." — Memoirs, p. 256. 



Lastly — In his account of the MSS. in the Stowe library, Doctor 

 P'Conor says, " This volume was carried into Spain by Colonel 

 O'Gara, who commanded the Irish regiment of Hihernia, in the Spa- 

 nish service, in 1734. He sent it to his relative, the late Charles 

 O'Conor, of Belanagare, as the person best qualified to make use 

 of it." 



In these various accounts there is evidently some mystification or 

 error which it is not easy to understand ; but the object in all seems to 

 be to prove, first, that the original autograph of the Four Masters be- 

 longing to the O'Gara family was given to Mr. O'Conor; and secondly ^ 

 that the volume now at Stowe, was that very one so obtained. 

 The first of these positions may be readily granted, — the second, 

 however, appears to me to be extremely doubtful, and for the fol- 

 lowing reasons : — Bishop Nicholson, in his Irish Historical Library, 

 published in 1724, describes that very volume as being then in 

 the Irish manuscript collection of Mr. John Conry, (or O'Maolco- 

 naire,) a descendant of one of the compilers, who had also in his pos- 

 session the imperfect copy of the second volume, now deposited in the 

 library of Trinity College. Doctor O'Conor himself acknowledges this 

 fact, in the 'Testimo7iia,' and indeed it does not admit of a doubt. 



What claim then, we may ask, could the O'Gara Family have to 

 these volumes ? — and how could Colonel O'Gara have carried them 

 into Spain ? — and how could he, or the Archbishop, bestow the for- 

 mer on any one ? 



I Moreover, we find that in seven years after, that is, in 1731, those 

 MSS. of Conry 's were on sale, and that Charles O'Conor appears to 

 have been the purchaser. In that year he writes thus to his friend, 



