94 
Aran was garrisoned, and a barrack built, in which soldiers had 
been quartered for many years after. 
In 1762, Arthur Gore was created Karl of Aran. At this time 
the ownership of the islands is in the Digby family, to a member of 
which they are said to have been mortgaged by a Mr. Fitzpatrick of 
Galway for £4000. On failure of payment, the mortgage was fore- 
closed. The present proprietor is John William Digby of Landens- 
town in the county of Kildare Esq. a Gentleman of popular cha- 
racter, and much esteemed by his tenantry of Aran. 
SECTION FOURTH. 
PAGAN MONUMENTS—DRUIDISM. 
This subject is extensive. What applies to the learning, religion, 
and national institutions of the pagan Irish, applies also to the anci- 
ent condition of Europe. On this important portion of Celtic his- 
tory, the best means of information, now extant, is to be found in 
the ancient MS. records of Ireland; indeed little or no such in- 
formation can be found elsewhere; scarcely a vestige of Celtic 
learning, in the way of original written documents, can, at this 
time, be traced throughout the other nations of the west. The 
Romans, whose polytheism could tolerate foreign creeds the most 
absurd, actively persecuted Druidism, the religion of the Celts, and 
the fountain of all their knowledge. Of this fact we have sufficient 
evidence in the religious warfare, so unrelentingly prosecuted by 
Paulinus Suetorius and Agricola ; and what the Romans left undone 
in Britain, Gaul, and elsewhere, their Gothic conquerors took 
care to accomplish, in their desolating rage against every monument 
