M‘Sweeny, on the Climate of Ireland. 203 
composed of the skin of some animal, laced in front with thongs of the same ma- 
terial, and having the hairy side inwards. The writer who describes it, thinks that it 
belonged to a period antecedent to Cambrensis, as he described the Irish dressed in 
woollen garments. However this may be, the dress is well adapted for keeping out 
rain, and may be received in evidence of a rainy climate when the wearer lived. 
The woods in winter afforded protection to the inhabitants against high winds, and 
in warm summers yielded a pleasant shade; but military defence was probably the 
great inducement for their choosing such places of residence, 
In the Speculum Regale, a treatise written in the twelfth century, the inhabitants 
of Ireland are described as being well clothed in winter and summer.— Antiquarian 
Repertory, Vol. II. page 336, 
The loose coat, a garment so much worn by our peasantry, is supposed to be a 
remnant of the old Irish mantle. 
This garment, the great coat, worn in winter and summer, is often valuable 
in affording protection against rain in a variable climate. 
However mild the climate of Ireland is to persons who can have the shelter of a 
~ house when necessary, still to troops in the field, obliged to march at all hours, and, 
of course, exposed to wet, it must be any thing but agreeable. 
Therefore, it is not strange that we find, in the history of Irish warfare, complaints 
of the weather, and of sickness amongst the troops, particularly amongst those newly 
arrived. 
It is extraordinary how well the Irish peasantry bear the drenching rains of this 
climate—they travel, and frequently work, in weather that would prove destructive to 
strangers, or even to men from the cities or towns in Ireland. 
The sufferings of different armies, at different periods, tend to prove, therefore, 
that the general character of the climate has been the same. 
The troops of Henry the Second were affected with sickness. 
The army of Bruce, when he invaded Ireland, suffered from the weather. 
The army of the Earl of Essex, in the reign of Elizabeth, was diminished by sick- 
ness ; indeed the English troops in Ireland, in her reign, suffered dreadfully from the 
climate. 
The sufferings of the soldiers of Cromwell are well known. It would appear that 
officers of rank, at this period, had sometimes recourse to oil cloth, as a protection 
against the weather. Ludlow, in his memoirs, says, ‘‘ I clothed myself as warm as I 
could, putting on a fur coat over my buff, and an oiled one over that, by which means 
I prevented the farther increase of my distemper.” 
Who has not heard of the sufferings of the army of William the Third in Ireland 
from the climate ? 
In the Pacata Hibernia we have a good deal of detail given of the weather in 
Ireland, in the reign of Elizabeth. ‘ 
VOL. XVII. Q2 
