76 [Proc. B.M.F.C., 



immediately under the Cave Hill. There seems a strong 

 probability that these works were thrown up to form a defence 

 on the north side of the town against any sudden attack of the 

 Scotch in 1640." Now, may not this fortification and the one 

 at the base of the Cave Hill (which I shall describe shortly) 

 have been erected by the gallant but unfortunate Earl of Essex 

 during his brief sojourn in Ulster. 



In 1573, in the halycon days of "good Queen Bess," the 

 Earl of Essex was encamped at Crag-Fergus, claiming a grant 

 of half the country of the Clan of Yellow Hugh O'Neill, 

 otherwise Clandeboye, in right of a bequest from Edmund 

 Mortimer, Earl of March, to his niece, which had fallen into 

 the hands of the crown. Sir Bryan MacPhelim O'Neill, whose 

 ancestors had here held undisputed sway for fourteen genera- 

 tions, had beaten back the English within the walls of their 

 town of Carrick. The Earl boasted that he wouid be successful, 

 should it cost him his earldom. It cost him more, for he lost 

 his head. The Irish did not seem to be in rebellion against 

 the Queen, but naturally resented the usurpation of their lands 

 by an Englishman. It took the cunning and cruelty of Sir 

 Arthur Chichester, the succeeding adventurer, to drive the 

 natives into open rebellion and then gain his chief end, the 

 confiscation of their lands. A proposition having been made 

 to reduce the number of the Queen's soldiers under Essex, the 

 Earl writes from Carrick that such would be disastrous to his 

 objects, as he had been more successful of late. In this letter 

 he said — " I think it not the way to save the Queen's charges, 

 for I see noe cause why every countye in Ireland should not 

 mayntein the Queen a nombre 01 soldiors. Theise Irish lords, 

 which make their countreys to mayntein twentye thousand 

 soldiors to warre against the Queen when they list, sholde be 

 made to pay English soldiors to serve Her Majestic, and their 

 idle kernes hold to their work or to the gallows." All of 

 which was very kind of the noble Earl. Then follows " a 

 noate of the severall seates for placing of the gentlemen ad- 

 venturers for their princypall dwellyngs, reserved for Her 



