232 Mr. Petrie on the History and Antiquities ofTara Hill. 



of other nations, equally remote from examples of Grecian and Roman civilization. 

 It is not probable that they were unlike, or inferior to those of the ancient Germans, 

 of which Tacitus speaks in terms of praise, and which he describes as being 

 overlaid with an earth so pure and splendid that it resembled painting. And the 

 observation of Mr. Moore, applied to these remains, though somewhat clothed in the 

 language of the poet, is not unworthy of a philosophical historian ; that, " however 

 scepticism may now question their architectural merits, they could boast the ad- 

 miration of many a century in evidence of their grandeur. That these edifices 

 were merely of wood is by no means conclusive, either against the elegance of 

 their structure, or the civilization, to a certain extent, of those who erected them. 

 It was in wood that the graceful forms of Grecian architecture first unfolded their 

 beauties, and there is reason to believe, that at the time when Xerxes invaded 

 Greece, most of her temples were still of this perishable material." 



Note — While this paper was passing through the Press, the wells called Laegh and Cabrach 

 Cormaic, — the first on the western, and the second on the eastern side of the hill, and which 

 were supposed to be obliterated, — have been discovered, and are inserted on the plan of the Anti- 

 quities, as restored from the ancient descriptions. 



i- 



END OF VOLUME XVIII. 



