THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 167 



The figures in the Book of Kells, an illuminated MS. (vellum), sup- 

 posed to date from the sixth century, are generally believed to afford 

 us the earliest representation of Celtic costume of certain classes of 

 this period. A foot soldier, clad in a green tunic, light blue and 

 red trews, armed with steel-headed spear and I'ound shield, appears 

 as if kneeling to receive cavalry, A subsequent page of the 

 same work displays horsemen riding on horses covered with yellow 

 trappings or coverlets ; the cloaks or mantles are green also (the 

 national color), but neither saddle nor arms are represented in the 

 folio ; so they do not offer us much assistance in endeavouring to 

 ascertain whether they are intended to display mounted warriors or 

 civilians of the age — in the absence of weapons, perhaps, the latter. 

 In the vellum MS., called the Book of Ballymote, A. D. 1396, the 

 dress of the figures is a close-fitting tunic fastened at least in one in- 

 stance with a belt. There are not many representations of any but 

 ecclesiastical costumes on sculptured monuments or shrines. 



In the Book of Rights we read of the tributes paid by the seve 

 ral states or petty kingdoms. This valuable work, translated by 

 Dr. O'Donovan, is now accessible, and may be considered a reliable 

 authority on costume at a period before the Norman invasion. We 

 there find mention made of the hooded cloaks, speckled with white 

 borders, red, blue and green, trimmed with purple — purple of four 

 points — -with golden borders. The seann, or mantle, a white woollen 

 loose shirt. Dr. O'Donovan thinks was used over armour. The Chief 

 of Cinel Eanna was entitled to receive, among other tributes, five 

 mantles and five coats of mail ; the King of Tulach Og fifty mantles 

 and fifty coats of mail, the seanns of deep purple in this instance. 

 O'More, taken prisoner by the Earl of Ormond in A. D. 1600, is 

 represented as wearing a short red cloak fringed at the neck, the 

 conical Phrygian cap and tight trews. 



The illuminated copy of Giraldus presents a portrait of Dermot 

 MacMurrough ; it agrees exacdy with the description given in our 

 native annals, and may be deemed quite authentic. He bears the 

 double-handed battle axe, an unusual weapon at that time. The 

 dress of the middle classes of England in the time of King 

 Edward III. was a tunic with tight sleeves, tight pantaloons, short 

 boots; precisely similar to that worn by the King of Leinster. It is 

 quite possible he may have received and adopted the garb presented 

 by his liege lord, in acknowledging the feudal supremacy of ^he 



