298 



net, &c. distinguish Ireland as Scotia Major, while by Gretzer it is 

 designated " vetus Scotia," and by Cluverius, D'Anville, and Gibbon, 

 " Scotia antiqua."* Even Mr. Mac-Pherson admits, that " Ireland 

 received the name of Scotia some centuries before it was appropriated 

 to Caledonia,"-f- thus granting a premise, from which, according to his 

 own arguments, J though subversive of the cause he advocates, the 

 colonization of Scotland from Ireland must be inferentially de- 

 duced. 



The notices, professedly most referrible to Ireland in this period, 

 are those contained in the works of Giraldus Cambrensis. He visited 

 that country as the instructor of Prince (afterwards King) John, and 

 continued in the island for nearly two years, during which he made 

 many observations, which are necessarily very curious at this day, 

 but are nevertheless to be received with considerable caution. It must 

 not be forgotten that he came over, the advocate of English dominion 

 and Roman discipline, that without the facilities of a native or even a 

 long resident, and with a total ignorance, if not a contempt of the lan- 

 guage of the country, he assumed to describe its general nature, 

 customs, and habits, from that very limited part of the kingdom which 

 the English adventurers then fearfully ventured to traverse. Con- 

 scious as he must have been of his own deficiencies, he tries to supply 

 the want of diligence by difFuseness, and that of material by ill-timed 

 encomiums on the fellow-labourers of his mission ; or what is still less 

 excusable, by retailing the miracles, traditions, and calumnies which 

 the idle attendants of his royal pupil's boy-court manufactured for 

 his credulous and superstitious ear. The appeals of truth have in 

 many instances compelled him to retract his assertions ; and in a word, 



• See O'Conor, Rer. Hib. Script, vol. i. Proleg. part ii. p. xlvi. 



t Introduction, p. 122. % Introduction, p. 153. 



