550 



the cahers of Arran, or the Round Towers, and several of the primitive 

 churches, and even the Norman castles throughout the country, there 

 are names attaching to this locality which serve to guide the painstak- 

 ing and skilled inquirer ; and the ancient Irish annals, and some manu- 

 scripts believed to be derived from very early sources, afford sufficient 

 materials for attempting now, in the middle of the nineteenth century, 

 an essay on a battle-field referred by our annalists to a period before the 

 Christian era. 



To popularize Irish history, and familiarize our youth with incidents 

 such as the foregoing, will tend to the mental culture of the rising gene- 

 ration, and the preservation of our national monuments ; but until some 

 Scott, or some one endowed with even a fragment of his genius ; and 

 combining, as he did, the knowledge of the antiquarian scholar, the deep 

 research of the historian, the gifted tongue and feeling heart of the poet, 

 the subtle wit of the humorist, the dramatic powers of the novelist, the 

 knowledge of the popular superstitions and modes of thought of his 

 countrymen, together with that rarest of all powers, the faculty of fus- 

 ing fiction and fact, so as to weave a romance common to humanity with 

 the historic incidents and characters of the past, we shall never have an 

 opportunity, notwithstanding our much greater materials, for vieing 

 with the literature of Scotland. 



Sir William R. W. Wilde exhibited plans of some of the subterranean 

 chambers he had discovered, and quoted several of the early authors on 

 the subject ofMoytura. fie also said he intended dividing his commu- 

 nications on Moytura into three portions — a general sketch of the 

 battle-field, an historic amount of the engagement, and a detailed de- 

 scription of the monuments still existing thereon. 



Sir William R. W. Wilde brought forward, and made some remarks 

 upon, his paper on the Plunket MS., descriptive of the civil wars in Ire- 

 land, and styled " A Light to the Blind," which he had read to the Aca- 

 demy on the 27th June, 1859. 



The following donation was presented : — 



A perforated stone found at an earthen fort, adjoining Kilbride pa- 

 rish church, in the county of Wicklow : presented by J. S. Moore, Esq., 

 of the Manor, Kilbride. 



Thanks were returned to the donor. 



The Academy then adjourned to the 12th of November. 



