and FERCEIRTNE, a bard and herald; some of whose remains will also be found with the foregoing. LUGAR and CONGAL lived about the birth of Our Redeemer, and many of their verses, particularly those of the latter, are still extant*. The subjects and language of these insular poems afford internal evidence of an antiquity transcending that of any literary monument in the modern languages of Europe.

In that remote period the cultivation of music kept pace with the progress of poetry. The Dinn Seanchast, compiled by AMERGIN MAC AMALGAID, A. D. 544, relates that in the time of GEIDE, monarch of Ireland, A. M. 3143, "the people deemed each others voices sweeter than the warblings of a melodious harp, such peace and concord reigned among them, that no music could delight them more than the sound of each others voice: Temur (Tarah)

* In numerous old vellum MSS.-To these may be added ADHNA, and NEIDE his son, who flourished about the same time, fragments of whose writings, in the Bearla Feine, or Phoenician dialect of the Irish, are extant in the MSS. of Trinity College, Dublin.

† Or "History of noted places in Ireland." This curious. piece of ancient topography is preserved in the Books of Lecan and Ballimote; two celebrated MSS. volumes, in folio vellum, containing transcripts of numerous miscellaneous tracts and poems of antiquity. The former of these was carried to France by James II. and after his death, lodged in the Irish college at Paris, where it remained until the year 1787, when it was

was so called from its celebrity for melody, above the palaces of the world. Tea, or Te, signifying melody or sweet music, and mur, a wall. Te-mur, the wall of music*." In the same ancient tract, music is again alluded to, in the relation of a youthful dream or vision of CAHIREMORE, monarch of Ireland, which, amongst other things, describes," a delightful hill, surpassing all others in height, whereon stood hosts; and there grew a most beautiful and stately tree, like gold, whose variegated and luxuriant foliage, when moved by the wind, yielded the most melodious music ever heard, and on it grew delicious fruit, pleasing to every one's tastet."

restored to this country by Doctor O'Kelly, superior of that college, and deposited in the library of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. The Book of Ballimote, also said to have been brought from Paris, was presented to the same library. By an entry at fo. 180, of the latter, it appears that it was purchased in 1522, by Hugh O'Donnell, from Mc Donogh of Corran, for 140 milch cows. None of the contents of these volumes have been published. The Dinn Seanchas contains poems of FININ MAC LUCHNA, a bard of the second century, FIONN MAC CUBHAIL and FERGUS FIONNBELL, who, with the celebrated OISIN, (OSSIAN,) lived in the third century, and others.

* Book of Ballimote.—Temur dín ol Amáirgen, &c.— See fo. 188, a. col. 1.

+ "Cnoc oebind osa cinid diblindáibh Kirde záe tulkiz co slogaib And bili edroct Amáil or asin enue cosmad comulu Ará Kirdi gác ceol iná duillib brec táis Atoirti in tálám in tán ná mbena̸d gáot rogá toráid do gác Ken.”— Id. fo. 198, col. b.

The royal druid Bree, thus interpreted the dream : "You are the tree who shall rise high to the sovereignty, over all the nation; the wind blowing on the leaves, and producing harmony, is the sweetness of your words in giving laws and ordinances to the people; and the fruit you saw, are the many blessings that shall come on your subjects in your reign." The first of these extracts contains the earliest allusion to the harp which I have met

Mr. Gunn, in his interesting inquiry respecting the performance of the harp in the Highlands of Scotland, until it was discontinued about 1734, 4to, Edinburgh, 1807, says "I have been favored with a copy of an ancient Gaelic poem, together with the music to which it is still sung in the Highlands, in which the poet personifies and addresses a very old harp, by asking what had become of its former lustre? The harp replies, that it had belonged to a King of Ireland, and had been present at many a royal banquet; that it had afterwards been successively in the possession of Dargo, son of the druid of Baal— of Gaul- of Filan-of Oscar-of O'Duivne-of Diarmid-of a Physician—of a Bard-and lastly, of a Priest, who in a secluded corner was meditating on a white book."—This, like every other research connected with the natives of the Highlands, leads to their Irish origin. It has faded from the recollection of most of our countrymen, that until a late period, Ireland was the school of the Highland Scotch. "The gentlemen of note probably were, partly at least," (these words in italics the lawyers would call guarded or unwilling evidence,) "educated in Ireland, to which country all who adopted either poetry or music as a profession, were uniformly sent to finish their education, till within the memory of persons still living.”JAMIESON'S Introduction to Letters from the North of Scotland,

with, though it is frequently mentioned in Irish poems ascribed to Columba, and others of the sixth century. It is considered needless to multiply extracts, to shew the early knowledge and progress of music in Ireland. Proved to have existed as far back as the most ancient annals extend, its origin, like that of our round towers, must be sought for in the East+.

London, 1822. This writer further adds, "Till within the memory of persons still living, the School for Highland poetry and music was Ireland, and thither professional men were sent to be accomplished in those arts. The cruit, clarsach, or harp, was the proper instrument of the Celts. The bagpipe was introduced by the Goths, from Scandinavia.”—Same work, Vol. II. 65.—These are unpalatable truths for the advocates of Scotland's pretensions to Ossian.

* Quoted by the Irish annalists TIGERNACH and the FOUR MASTERS. See Doctor O'Conor's splendid edition of the principal Irish annals to the time of the English Invasion, printed at the expence of his Grace the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, 4 vols. quarto, 1813-26.

The native strains of several oriental nations have been observed to bear a close affinity to Irish music. Many have been found in Persia, and the mountainous parts of India. Marsden, in his History of Sumatra, says, "The Sumatran tunes much resemble to my ear those of the native Irish, and have usually like them a flat third." Our countryman, Sir William Ousely, observes, that several of the Hindoo melodies possess the native simplicity of the Scotch and Irish.-Oriental Collections, Vol. I. p. 74.-Many of the Siamese melodies, remarkable for softness, sweetness, and simplicity, resemble the Scotch and Irish.-Crawford.—Mr. Thompson in his preface to the select melodies of Scotland, (in which, by the way, he has

The music of Ireland is better known to the world, at the present day, than its poetry. In the sweet

embodied many Irish airs,) observes that, "Melodies of the Scottish cast have been remarked among the Moors in Barbary, and the natives of North America." He might have added the West India islands, for thither did Oliver Cromwell and his myrmidons,--they to whom Ireland was parcelled out under the memorable Act of Settlement,-cause thousands of the native Irish to be transported and sold as slaves. These unfortunate people brought with them their language and music, of which vestiges remain to the present day.

Ireland gave its music to Scotland, and thence it may be traced in the modern history of the art, imparting its beauties. and sweetness to Italy. According to the poet Tassoni, the ancient music of the Scotch or Irish, and particularly the compositions of the first James of Scotland, was imitated by GESUALDUS, the chief of the Italian composers, and greatest musical improver of the sixteenth century. The celebrated GEMINIANI frequently declared that the works of Gesualdus were his first and principal study. Hence probably his acknowledged partiality for Irish music, and his well known admiration of the bard, CAROLAN. Our countryman, GOLDSMITH, alludes to the opinion of Geminiani "that we have in the dominions of Great Britain no original music except the Irish." -See British Mag. 1760.-It is amusing to see how our Scottish neighbours invariably treat this subject. Among others, Mr. Tytler in his dissertation on Scottish music, (Trans. Soc. Antiq. of Scotland, Vol. I. 475.) after noticing the imitations of James I. by Gesualdus, exclaims, "How perfectly characteristic this of the pathetic strains of the old Scottish Songs! what an illustrious testimony to their excellency!" But, quoting the following passage from Major, " In Cithara Hibernenses aut Silvestres Scoti, qui in illa arte præcipui sunt," he says, "To these Sylvan ministrels, I imagine we are indebted for many