56 [Proc. B.N.F.C, 



Gifted more fully with the amiable credulity of Mr. Pickwick 

 than with the cautious induction of a Lyell or a Darwin, some 

 of our antiquarians seem to have taken too seriously the tra- 

 ditions that form so large a part of the old monkish chronicles, 

 which, however valuable as ecclesiastical histories in early 

 Christian times, contain much that can only mislead. 



These ancient records, the " Book of Ballymote," and the 

 "Annals of the Four Masters," which date from the 14th 

 century, and the " Book of Leinster," 250 years earlier, were 

 compiled from older writings, fragments of which are still in 

 existence. These again were largely made up from the oral 

 traditions of the bards and Seannachies, who were in the habit 

 of holding a convention once every three years at a central 

 point in Co. Meath, in order to repeat these traditions to the 

 younger men, from generation to generation. We could hardly 

 suppose that these men were always deficient in the national 

 genius for embellishment, or that they were protected during 

 all that time by a chronic miracle, from the temptation to 

 indulge it. 



For instance, when the reader meets with the statement that 

 on such-and-such a date, anno mundi, " the lough of Belfast 

 broke out /"* he would like to learn some further particulars 

 about this extraordinary outbreak. What were the symptoms 

 accompanying the eruption ? Was it, so to speak, cutaneous 

 in its nature ? and confined to the crust merely ? Or had the 

 earth been suffering at this point from some deep-seated hydro- 

 cele, unknown to the geological faculty. 



Thus legends have multiplied, till they cling like ivy to every 

 crumbling wall of castle or of abbey, some of them perhaps 

 containing a " poor half-penny worth of truth," but always 

 mixed with " an intolerable deal " of the wildest absurdity. 

 To these we need not turn when we seek to learn something 

 about the origin of those ancient structures around us, which 

 we know by the various names of forts, raths, or duns, to 



* Annals of Four Masters, a.m. 3506. "Lough Leagh in Ulster," explained by 

 commentators as Belfast Lough. 



