[ .8 ] 



which year that Prince died ; and fince we are farther infor;r,ed 

 that he ftill holds the Kingdom "with a niighty war, we mr.y thence 

 fairly conclude that the publication was previous to the treaty 

 ■ of Bretigny in the year 1360*. 



This whinifical poem, which in point of language is of fuch 

 authority as to be cited by the authors of the Didlionary della 

 Crufca, and is written in Terza Rima, a fpecies of verfification 

 which Dante had then made fafhionable, contains an hiftorical 

 and geographical account of all the nations of the world. The 

 author, having travelled through England and Scotland, pafles 

 into Ireland, a defcription of which country, and of its inhabi- 

 tants, he begins as follows : 



Cap. xxvi. lib. iv. 

 Similimente paffamo en Irlanda, 

 La qual fra noi e degna de Fama 

 Per le nobile Saie che ci mandaf. 



These lines appear to me to contain a full proof of a moft 

 extraordinary fadt — That Ireland fliould have been already fa- 

 mous for her woollen manufadures fo early as in the middle of 

 the fourteenth century, and fhould at that period have imported 

 them into Italy, where the vent of thefe commodities was 

 even then fo fully eftablifhed, and the fuperiority of their fabric 

 fo univerfally acknowledged, as to render the country from 



* From a paffiige in the beginning of the 13th chap, of the ad book, the date of 

 the poem feems to be afcertained to the year 1357. The paflage, however, with a 

 flight and warrantable alteration, may receive an eafier conftruftion, fo as to bring 

 the date down to 1363, in which cafe the war alluded to by the poet may poffibly 

 mean thofe civil commotions in which John was involved even after the conclufion 

 of the peace with England. 



f In like nwnner we fafs into Ireland, -which among us is worthy of renown for the 

 excellent ferges that Jlje fends iis. 



whence 



