The Boyne Valley. 55 



others at the Royal residence of Tara, for he rightly judged if 

 he converted the chiefs the people would certainly follow. He 

 came up the Boyne in a coracle similar, I have no doubt, to 

 those still peculiar to that river. When he reached Slane, 

 being Easter Eve, he ascended the hill which is the highest 

 ground in Meath, and lighted his fire, which was distinctly 

 visible from Tara. The ruins of a monastery now stand on 

 that hill, and from the top of the church tower a view may be 

 obtained from the yellow steeple in Trim to the maiden tower 

 at Drogheda, a view of fully five-and- twenty miles as the crow 

 flies. Every spot in this extended view is historic ground, 

 trodden for centuries by kings, and lords, and saintly men, as 

 well as by all the race of invaders already mentioned. In the 

 early ages of our era, Con, the hundred fighter, and his grand- 

 son, Cormac, the son of Art, that chivalrous and wise king and 

 law-giver, the greatest who reigned at Tara up to his time, and 

 to whom we shall again refer ; Nial, also of the hostages, the 

 conqueror of Alba and of Britain, trod this soil, and was finally 

 assassinated in Gaul, whilst invading that country. In review- 

 ing this remote age, there arises before our mental vision 

 Leary, son of Niall, Ard Righ, or High King, when Patrick 

 came, and, though his chief druid and principal nobles embraced 

 the new faith, Leary, like a stout Pagan which he was, died as 

 he h 'd lived, and was buried in the rampart of his own fort on 

 Tara Hill, in a standing posture, with his great war spear in 

 his hand and his face towards Teinster, the territory of his 

 hereditary enemies. A few centuries later bands of Northern 

 foreigners might be seen pillaging this same district. The 

 Annals relate that the caves of Knowth, Dowth, and New 

 Grange were pillaged by Amlaff, Imar, and Ansilie, three of the 

 leaders of the Danes ot Dublin. We can contemplate another 

 and a mote peaceful scene, one hundred years after King Leary 

 had been interred. Up the Valley of the Boyne, at Clonard, 

 in the year 520, St. Finnan established a school for the youth 

 of Erin, which became the most celebrated seat of learning in 

 the island. He had for pupils men such as St. Columba, St. 



