285 



: SECTION V. 



The Arts. 



There is abundance of continuing evidence as to the existence of 

 cities in Ireland ; the terms of building which occur in the Irish lan- 

 guage, and yet more the regulations in the Brehon laws of the period 

 concerning architecture, internally establish this ; while it will be re- 

 membered that Edgar speaks of Dublin as " nobilissima civitas," and 

 other " civitates," are lauded by their respective historians. But al- 

 though Krantz makes a Danish prince, when besieging Dublin, exhort 

 his men to scale the walls and storm the city, " muros scandere," 

 "oppugnare mania, &c."* yet, that these cities must have continued 

 to be constructed of wood cannot be better evinced than by the faci- 

 lity with which they were burned and rebuilt. The Danes seem cer- 

 tainly to have set the example of stone structures for habitation and 

 strength ; they built depots for their plunder, which enlarged into 

 cities vigilantly garrisoned and enclosed, but in the situations of such 

 they only considered the facility of shipping and piracy. Cambrensis 

 says they were also the builders of many forts and round castles, -f 

 which he states the English found unoccupied and ruinous, an incon- 

 trovertible testimony that such castles could not have been of native 



* Anle, p. 263. 



f " Turgesius • • * * * totam undique terram locis idoneis incastellavit, unde et 

 fossata infinita, alta nimis, rotunda quoque, ac pleraque triplicia castella, etiam murata et 

 adhuc Integra, vacua tamen et deserta, ex reliquiis illis et antiquitatis vestigiia hie usque in 

 hodiernum multa reperies. Hibernicus enim populus castella non curat, sylvis namque pro 

 castris, paludibus utitur pro fossatis." — Top. Hib. Dist. 3. c. 37. 



