347 



ing records, the chariot would appear to have then constituted the 

 universal means of locomotion in this country. The explanation of this 

 may be found in the fact, if such it is, stated in Leabhar-na-h Uidhre 

 (fol. 68, aa), that there was neither ditch, fence, nor stone wall erected 

 in Ireland before the reign of the sons of Aedh Slaine {circa 660), but 

 that the land was all in level tracts ; and that fences then became ne- 

 cessary as boundaries, owing to the multiplicity of houses. The erection 

 of fences would of course tend to diminish the usefulness of the kind of 

 chariots then in use, which we may well believe, notwithstanding the 

 glowing description left to us of the chariot of Cuchullain, to have been 

 little better than the heavy waggon of the Eoman husbandman : — 



" Tardaque Eleusinse matris volventia plaustra." 



Be that as it may, when we come to the time of Cormac Mac Art, 

 and the genuine Fenians, that is to say, about the year 260, we find 

 the chariot races apparently superseded by horse racing ; for, whereas 

 in our accounts of the true epic period of Irish history — termi- 

 nated by the so-called Attacotic rebellion in A.D. 90 — chariot races 

 only are mentioned, the stories of the Fian, and pieces of more genuine 

 history of the period, represent horse races as the delight of kings and 

 chieftains ; and whilst Conor Mac Nessa and the heroes of the Craebh 

 Ruaidh, or " Red Branch," are praised for the number and beauty of 

 their chariots, Finn Mac Cumhail and his friends are complimented on 

 the symmetry and fleetness of their steeds. 



The evidences on this point are numerous ; but I shall only adduce 

 one piece, and this simply as bearing on the subject more immediately 

 under consideration. The oldest specimen of Ossianic poetry with 

 which I am acquainted is a poem contained in the " Book of Leinster"-— 

 a twelfth-century MS. in Trinity College Library — in which Ossian 

 laments his blindness, and expresses his regret that he cannot enjoy the 

 Aenach, or Assembly of the Liffey, i.e., of the Curragh, which he re- 

 presents as having been inaugurated on the occasion by the King of 

 Leinster. Then he narrates a visit which he paid in his younger days ? 

 with his father, Finn, to the assembly of Aenach- Clochair, now Mon- 

 aster-an-enagh, near Croom, in the county of Limerick, where horse races, 

 or " graifne" were got up in honour of Finn's visit. Thence they pro- 

 ceeded, adds the poem, to Tragh Beremhain, probably the ancient name 

 of Ballyeigh strand, in Kerry, where another horse race took place, 

 and where indeed the good old practice is still kept up, The copy of 

 this poem which we now possess is of course not more than 700 years 

 old ; but who can fix the age of the original from which it was then 

 transcribed into the 4 'Book of Leinster ?" The statement that the public 

 games celebrated on the Curragh were inaugurated by the king can be 

 supported by many references of a similar kind. Indeed, the office of 

 presiding over such assemblies was part of the duty of a king, according 

 to the Brehon Laws ; and there are not a few entries in our annals 

 where a king is said to have been killed by a fall from his horse at 

 an Aenach. This is also further confirmed by a clause in the well- 



