202 M‘Sweeny, on the Climate of Ireland. 
fashion does not influence, we may discover in the dress of particular nations, some 
indications of the nature of the climate. 
The large shading hats of the Spaniards, bespeak a sunny clime. 
The conical caps of the ancient Irish, were admirably adapted for protecting the 
head against rain, and may be received as collateral evidence of a moist climate. 
Cambrensis describes the Irish as dressed in woollens, and the mantle as a protection 
against the rain, is mentioned by Spencer. 
The account of the Irish in the reign of James I. as given by Morryson, is scarcely 
worthy of notice ; he says—‘‘ In the remote parts where the English laws and man- 
ners are unknown, the very chiefs of the Irish, as well men as women, go naked in 
the winter time.” Dr. Leland gives no credit to this account of Morryson ; he 
remarks—‘ The fact is totally incredible, the climate must at all times have forced the 
most barbarous to some covering in their retired chambers.” Walker, in his essay on 
the dress of the ancient Irish, agrees with Leland on this point ; and it is worthy of 
observation that Morryson speaks of the remote parts, with which of course he was 
the least acquainted ; besides, and what has not been remarked by Leland or Walker, 
Morryson had been present at the celebrated siege of Kingsale, at the time of the 
Spanish invasion, and therefore was a witness of the severe weather that prevailed 
during that siege. 
In his history of Ireland, L. Abbé Ma Geoghegan, thus writes of the dress of the 
Irish—‘‘ Les manufactures de toiles d’ etoffes, de tout ce qui etoit necessaire pour les 
couvrir et garantir de l intemperie del’ air etoient connues aux anciens Irlandois.” 
The abundance of timber in former times, must have led the inhabitants, in Ireland, 
as it does in America at present, to construct habitations of that material. In Han- 
mer’s Chronicle, we have the reasons assigned by Mac Mahon, an Irish chieftain, for 
not residing in a castle. Hanmer informs us, that Mac Mahon levelled two castles 
bestowed on him by Sir John De Courcy, a short time after the coming of the Eng- 
lish. He said that he had promised not to hold stones, but land, and that it was 
contrary to his nature to couch himself within cold stones, the woods being so nigh. 
The desire of the ancient Irish to reside in woods, no doubt arose from the shelter 
afforded against the winds, from the proximity of timber for the construction of habi- 
tations, and for fuel, and probably from the facility of enclosing, by means of stakes 
between the trees, during the night, their cattle, always a desirable prey amongst a 
pastoral people, divided into a number of septs, frequently in a state of hostility with 
each other. 
Cambrensis tells us that woods were inhabited as places of defence : ‘* Hibernicus 
enim populus castella non curat, sylvis namque pro castris, paludibus utitur pro fos- 
satis.” — Top. ib. Dist. 3, c. 37. 
In the Dublin Philosophical Journal, there is an account of the finding of the body 
of a man preserved in a peat bog, and dressed in a singular costume. ‘The dress was 
