Mr. Petrie on the History and Antiquities of Tar a Hill. 187 



and moralizing mournfully over its history ; nor should those who visit, in our 

 days, that seat of long extinguished royalty, feel any w^onder on not discovering 

 there some vestige of its grandeur, when told, that even in the time of this poet, 

 not a trace of the original palace still remained ; while the hill itself had become 

 a desert overgrown with grass and weeds." — p. 132. 



It will be seen, however, that this statement, which would completely nullify 

 the accounts given in the preceding pages of this memoir, is not substantiated by 

 any passage in the poem. 



It should be remarked, that in the following translation the various copies 

 have been compared, and that of these the best is preserved in a MS. in Trinity 

 College, H. 3. 3, transcribed in the sixteenth century, at Jrd Choill in the 

 county of Clare, for the celebrated historian and poet, John O'Mulconry. It is 

 from this copy the text is here printed ; but, as the various readings in the other 

 copies will be given in the notes, it will be proper to prefix a list of the several 

 copies referred to, with their present localities. The first is in the Book of 

 Glendalough, class H. 2. 18 ; the second, in the Leabhar Buidhe Lecain, 

 H. 2. 16, p. 403 : these two MSS. are in the Library of Trinity College. 

 The third is in the Book of Ballymote, — fol. 189, p. b. col. 1 ; the fourth, in the 

 Leabhar Gabhala of the O'Clerys : both of these are in the Library of the Royal 

 Irish Academy. It will be proper also to premise, that from the great obscurity 

 of the language, and the differences found In the readings of this poem In these 

 several copies, it Is not always possible to decide on the most correct reading, or 

 to convey, with any great degree of certainty, the author's original meaning. But 

 the general sense, as far as history is concerned, will at least be preserved, as on 

 this point no material difference occurs In any of the copies, and particularly as 

 an ancient Gloss on this very poem has been found in the College Library, — 

 H. 3. 18, p. 467. 



SuiDiugao Cicci niiDcuapco arm po piop The situation of Teach Midhchuarta here fol- 



buD Depcai. lows. 



Cech miocuapca' imopjfo an amfip Teach Midhchuarta in the time of Cormac 



Copmaic h-Ui Cuinn: qn cecqioicciD aco- O'Cuinn: three hundred feet [was] the mea- 



mup an cije pin, ocup vii. cubaic a pao an surement of that house, and seven cubits the 



' Ceach TTIioDchuapca imoppo i Ceariipaiij, &c — i. Oabhala of the O'Clerys. 



2a2 



