1 8 JACKSON, Distribution of the Shell-Purple Industry. 



to 1 8th centuries for marking linen in Somersetshire, 

 Cornwall and other parts of England, as well as in Scot- 

 land, France, Norway and other parts of Europe. 71 



Purple robes were in frequent use in Ireland during 

 ancient times. In the tale of Eithne and King Cormac, 

 quoted by Whitley Stokes in his introduction to the Irish 

 " Tripartite Life of St. Patrick," i., p. xxxviii., fifty maidens 

 in purple mantles are mentioned. In the " Book of 

 Rights," p. 65, cloaks trimmed with purple are noticed ; 

 at p. 87, the King of Ara is said to be entitled to six 

 purple mantles from the King of Erie ; at p. 147, the 

 stipend of the King of Ui Breasail includes three purple 

 cloaks. We are told that Medb presented Ferdiad with 

 a girsat cocra or purple waist scarf to induce him to fight 

 Cuchulaind. 7 - 



Apart from its use in the dyeing of fabrics, we find, 

 in Miss Robert's work, 73 some interesting particulars as to 

 the employment of Tyrian purple, in Britain and else- 

 where, in dyeing parchments, or vellum. This was done 

 for the purpose of rendering still more splendid the 

 manuscripts, which were adorned with gold and silver 

 letters. This magnificent and expensive style of writing 

 on purple vellum was appropriated to Biblical manu- 

 scripts, and the libraries of princes. As examples of this 

 class of work we have the book of the Gospels, which 

 Louis the Pious gave to the monastery of St. Medard, at 

 Soissons, now in the royal library of France, and the 

 Book of Prayers, bound in ivory, and studded with gems, 

 formerly belonging to Charles the Bald, but now in the 

 celebrated Colbertine Library. 



Similar manuscripts were also occasionally made in 



71 See papers by Cole, Reaumur, du llamel, Deshayes, and Lacaze- 

 Duthiers, 1. c. 



72 F. J. Bigger, Proc. Roy. Irish Acdd. % 3rd ser., iii. , 1896, p. 730. 

 '••• Roberts, op. cit., pp. 123-4. 



