sion is so well calculated to nourish; but the former were 

 adorned with foreign embellishments. 



While the See of Rome was fostering, Avith anxious so- 

 licitude, the Catholic church in Ireland, missionaries ^vere 

 occasionally sent, from the several monastic foundations 

 on the Continent, to regulate the ritual; and, at the same 

 time, to invigorate superstition, by furnishing fresh sup- 

 plies of holy legends. Amongst these, it may be presumed, 

 some of the profane romances, fabricated in the Continen- 

 tal cloisters, were introduced (perhaps Ave might say smug- 

 gled) into this country. And, as the brilliant fictions of 

 the East Avere the elements, . of Avhich those romances were 

 chiefly composed, they thus obtained a footing in Ireland, 

 and furnished materials for the metrical tales of our early 

 bards.* To the stock of materials thus supplied, were, 



probably, 



. * Availing myself of the privilege of a note, I shall embrace this occasion, 

 to observe, that the splendour of the provincial Irish courts, at a very re-' 

 mote period, which strikes and astonishes us, in some of our historians, (par- 

 ticularly Keating,) borrowed, in all prcJjability, a good deal of tlieir lustre, 

 from the romances alluded to in the text. Wanting the assistance of authen- 

 tic documents, our historians have been tempted to fill up the void, with 

 materials, drawn from the historical talc of the bards; and have thus been 

 unconsciously led to ascribe, to the ancient Irish, the customs and manners 

 of the East; forgetting they were only employed by the bards as poetical 

 cmbellishmentsr Hence, the romantic air, which onr early history wears.— I 

 hope my candour, on this occasion, will not be mistaken for retraction. Al- 

 though my crude productions, on tlie subjects of the history and antiquities 

 of Ireland, glow with all the warmth of jouthful enthusiasm, it will not, I 

 trust, be found, that I was led into wilful misrepresentation. I may have 

 inadvertently erred; but my authorities are before tiie public. 



