233 



SECTION V. 



The Arts. 



Dr. Ledwich, and others of his school aver, that the Irish in 

 the sixth century were troglodytes, meaning thereby, for it some- 

 what requires interpretation, that they commonly lived in caverns, 

 and he is bold enough to call in Gildas to prop the position ; but the 

 error lies in misquotation, and we cannot but say, it is a happy in- 

 stance of the facility with which passages may be garbled to serve a 

 purpose. The whole sentence in Gildas is but a rancorous compari- 

 son, '•''foul droves of Scots and Picts," says the exasperated chroni- 

 cler, " they come up out of their corraghs, just like odious regiments of 

 reptiles, from the deep caverns of their earth-holes, when the summer 

 heat is at the highest ;"* of this passage, however, the antiquaries allud- 

 ed to retain only the words italicised, as fit for their quotation. Several 

 souterrains, that might answer such uses, are certainly found over the 

 country; and Smith, in his History of Cork,-f- enumerates a great many; 

 but while there is no evidence attainable to their having been the ordi- 

 nary habitations of the Irish, there is abundant testimony to their use, 

 continuing to be, as already alleged, for storehouses or granaries, 

 and as a last retreat in extreme danger and persecution ; Giraldus 

 supports the former position, as a long established custom,:]: while the 



•«* In alluding in the last page to Hannibal at Trebia, we find that, like the generals 

 opposed to him, we wrole of his " misfortunes," where we should have said his " victory." 

 Many a bulletin has exhibited the same erratum, not so soon confessed. 



* "Emergunt de curicis, quasi in alto titane incalescenteque caumate, de arctissimis fora- 

 minum cavernulis fusci vermiculorum cunei, tetri Scotorum Pictorumque greges, &c." — Hist. 

 Gildas. c. 15. 



f Vol. 2. p. 402. X Hib. Expugn. lib. 2. c. 17. 



VOL. XVI. H H 



