334 



clesiastical history of Ireland had received important elucidations from the 

 labours of Archbishop Ussher, Sir James Ware, and Colgan ; but before 

 Peteie's time little had been done to illustrate our topography, our pre- 

 historic monuments, our military and ecclesiastical architecture. Sir 

 James "Ware had treated but superficially of these classes of antiquities., 

 His assertion that the Irish had no knowledge of the art of building with 

 stone and lime till the time of Henry II. proves how limited was his know- 

 ledge of this subject. He had hardly any acquaintance either with the 

 actual remains, or with the Irish language, and was therefore unable 

 to connect the antiquities with a history existing only in MSS. To- 

 wards the close of his life he employed an Irish translator, but not till 

 the greater part of his antiquarian collection had been completed. 



The contributions of Peteie to antiquarian knowledge were not con- 

 fined to the " Transactions" of this Academy and to the " Memoir of 

 the Ordnance Survey." To touch more cursorily than they deserve on 

 Guide Books, which in the earlier years of his life were indebted both 

 to his pen and his pencil, the " Dublin" and the " Irish Penny Journal" 

 contain a large amount of matter of great interest illustrative of the pic- 

 turesque ruins and the relics of art with which his rambles through 

 Ireland had made him acquainted. As the woodcuts of these cheap pub- 

 lications show the true artist's hand, so does the letterpress furnish 

 numerous descriptions marked by all his characteristic accuracy and 

 good taste. These volumes have thus acquired a permanent value. 



His rambles through all parts of Ireland called into exercise another 

 of his natural gifts, which, like the rest, he made to contribute to the 

 perpetuation of his country's peculiar endowments. I refer to his mu- 

 sical faculty. This, which was of a high order, enabled him to catch 

 the native melodies which he heard from all manner of persons, and in 

 as varying circumstances, and to commit them to his notebook. Part 

 of the fruit of this loving care is to be seen in a volume published by 

 the Irish-Music Society, in which about one hundred and fifty airs, 

 thus rescued by him, are carefully arranged, and introduced by no- 

 tices of their history, gracefully written, and full of interesting illus- 

 tration of Irish character and social life. He had previously contributed 

 many airs to the collections ofHolden and Bunting; and several hundred 

 more, I am told, are still in his portfolios. 



Among his unpublished antiquarian works are the following : — 

 " An Essay on Military Architecture," " An Essay on Irish Bells," 

 " A Description of Arran," "A History of Clonmacnoise," "ADescrip- 

 tion of the Sepulchral Monuments at Carrowmore," his Letters in 

 the Ordnance Survey Correspondence, and his great Collection of In- 

 scriptions. 



After indicating, even in the summary way in which I have done, 

 the extent and the nature of Peteie's literary and artistic labours, it might 

 seem almost superfluous for me to notice a charge which was sometimes 

 brought against him in his lifetime. He has been accused of dilatori- 

 ness in his studies, and a want of systematic diligence in the prosecution 

 of them. Of what scholar might not this be said ? And who has used 



