J47 



ing been the resort of the Roman Cathohc clergy in the times of a 

 cruel and miscalculating persecution. It must be admitted there are no 

 signs of art very discoverable in its neighbourhood, no circle of stones 

 immediately surrounding it, but, while the huge mass itself evidently 

 plays upon another rock now much sunken, the deep valley below 

 exhibits numerous rocks and broken fragments of stone, that seem 

 to have been hurled down from the summit for the same gratifica- 

 tion, which would fain have precipitated the rocking stone itself. If 

 even this stone should fail to satisfy the antiquary, there is much in 

 the novelty and extent of the prospect to reward his excursion. A 

 wild assemblage of mountains and lakes, the singular hill called 

 Scrieb-na-mucka, with the two deep ravines that as it were saddle it, 

 the dark expanse of Lough Eask, and far in the distance the silvery 

 edges of the Atlantic, the flitting clouds and vapours that eternally 

 shift the landscape and vary its complexion, the rocks crowned with 

 mountain thyme and saxifrage, the beautiful varieties of heath, the 

 precipices (occasionally animated with badgers, foxes, or wild cats,) 

 all present a scene of solitary grandeur highly interesting. I have 

 heard that another rocking stone was on its poise at Kilmoragan, in 

 the barony of Corran, County Shgo, until overturned within the me- 

 mory of man, to leave way for a public road. The reverend author 

 of the "Sketches in Ireland" mentions another on its balance near 

 Lough Salt, in the County Donegal. 



The pillar stones are also very numerous in Ireland,* In some 

 places they stand single, while in others they are placed circularly, and 

 otherwise collectively. Their use is said to have been two-fold, to 

 commemorate events or as places of worship. In each way they are 

 met with in Scripture. Of the first class were the pillars of Rachel 



• See Girald Cambr. on this subject. Top. Hib. Dist. 2. c. 18. p. 722. 



