590 



I now lay before theAcademy, refers its construction (in all 

 likelihood) to the time of Trajan, because none of the geo- 

 graphers who lived before this emperor mention it, not even 

 the accurate Mela, who alludes to other particularities on 

 this coast. This, however, is but a negative proof; and 

 even among later geographers the same silence is preserved. 

 There is, however, one record extant in a stanza to be 

 found in the old Spanish geographer Ororio, or Orosirus, 

 who lived in the beginning of the fifth century, to this 

 effect : 



' Ubi Brigantia Calletce Civitas Sita 

 Altissimum pharum & inter pauca 

 Memorandi operis ad speculam Britanice 

 Erigit . . . .' 



*' Here we have the first notice of one of the purposes for 

 which this Tower was supposed to be erected, and also of 

 the ancient tradition, existing both in this country and in 

 Spain, of the British Isles being seen from the Pharos of 

 Hercules. Without, however, attaching any weight to the 

 story of our island being seen from this Tower, it may be 

 remarked, that if the ancients sailed directly ?ioii/iward from 

 it they would, owing to the concavity in the Bay of Biscay 

 in which the harbour of Corunna is placed, arrive at Cape 

 Clear, instead of Cornwall. 



" The early writers upon Irish history and Irish tradi- 

 tions have made frequent allusions to this ancient struc- 

 ture, as the ' Tuir Breoghan.' It is mentioned under 

 this head in the Leabhar Gabhalias, or Book of the Con- 

 quests, a translation of which was made by Henry O'Hart 

 about the year 1686, and the original, which is now in the pos- 

 session of Sir William Betham, contains this notice of it : 

 ' Then Lughaigh, the son ofIth,went to Tuir Breoghan, 

 or Corunna, and shewed his father's dead body unto the 

 posterity of Breoghian,' &c. ; and from this Breoghain is, in 



