THEIR HEIGHT, FORM, AND STRENGTH. 31 



of Topinard and Virchow. To any fair-minded 

 man, yea, to a mind preoccupied and haunted by the 

 horrid caricatures of Punch and Puck, the worth, 

 and wealth, and cumulative force of the evidence I 

 am about to produce must bring home the following 

 two conclusions : 



I. That, to borrow the words of the Elizabethan 

 Captain, Barnaby Rich, " The Irish appear to every 

 man's eye to be of good proportion, of comely 

 stature, and of able body." ^fce evidence is that of 

 distinguished and uninjflMHftble eye-witnesses 

 English warriors, travelll^^HB^jfic, and literary 

 men. To them I add the^aBHRiy of some other 

 foreigners. Most of those English fought hard 

 against Irishmen, and wrote hard things of them ; 

 but they all agreed in admiration of their splendid 

 physical form. 



II. That the men of Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim, and the 

 Fews were, and are, about half-a-foot taller than they 

 have been misrepresented to be, and are " of good 

 proportion, of comely stature, and of able body." * 



The witnesses are produced in chronological 



* For the height of the men of Mayo, etc., I give the evidence 

 of Irishmen whose testimony cannot be impeached. For 

 their form and strength I give some of their deeds, which 

 prove their physical courage backed by physical force and 

 " form." 



