valued from the Pound of Silver co valued from the Pound of Silver valued from the Pound of Silver Reign of Elizabeth to th valued f valued PRESENT STATE OF IRELAND. CHAPT NAME, SITUATION, EXTENT, AND DIVISIONS. : WHETHER Ireland was known to the Phoenicians who frequented the coasts of Cornwall for the purpose of procuring tin, is uncertain; because no authentic information on that subject has been preserved.* The earliest notice, perhaps, to be depended on, which we have of it, is that of Eratosthenes, librarian to Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, who flourished about two centuries and a half before the Christian æra. The works of this eminent mathematician and geographer have been lost; but Strabo, who frequently refers to them, and who seems to have been indebted to him for many observations, praises his private collection of books,+ and remarks, that he was so well acquainted with the western parts of Europe, that he determined the distance of Ireland from Celtica. The first Roman author who speaks of it is Cæsar; he calls it Hibernia, a name said to be given to it by the Romans on account of its supposed coldness; and he * Had the Phoenicians been acquainted with Ireland, it is probable they would have concealed their knowledge of it, because they were exceedingly jealous of their commerce, and unwilling to let other nations know the sources from which they derived their riches. The story of the Phoenician ship-master, who, on a voyage to Britain, observing a Roman vessel following him in order to watch his course, voluntarily run his own vessel on a shoal for the purpose of misleading the Roman, is well known. The wily Phoenician, who was a better seaman, found means to escape; but the Roman, less skilful, was lost. The former, on account of his ingenuity, received an indemnification for his goods from the public treasury. Strab. Geog. edit. Almeloveen, Amst. 1707, vol. i. p. 265.-Postell, a reviver of oriental literature in the sixteenth century, derives Irin from Iurin, the land of the Jews. Warai Antiq. cap. 1. and Bochart endeavours to trace Hibernia to the Phoenician Iber-nae, or the farther habitation. Geo. Sac. ed. Leusden, lib. i. cap. 60. + Strab. Geog. vol. i. p. 120. Ibid. ib. p. 124. This author gives to Ireland the name of Ierne; mention of it occurs also p. 111, 127, 175. VOL. I. B states it to be half the size of Britain, and to lie at the same distance from it that Britain does from Gaul.* It is mentioned also by Tacitus, in his Life of Agricola, under the same name; and various writers who lived at later periods describe it under those of Ierna,+ Ierne, Iuverna,§ and Ivernia.|| Diodorus Siculus, who travelled over a great part of Europe and Asia to collect materials for his history, gives to Ireland the name of Iris; a word which is to be found in no other Greek or Roman author. Some, therefore, have considered it as a mistake; but a learned antiquary seems to think that this was the genuine name of the island; and indeed the proofs which he adduces in support of his opinon appear to me to deserve particular attention. "Iri, or as now written, Eri, in the Irish, is the great isle. In Teutonic Er-aii, contracted into Eri, is the farther isle. It received this appellation from the Teutonic tribes, who formerly possessed Europe, and has been invariably used by them in every age." A.D. 540, Gildas left the school of Iltutus in Wales and went to Iris.** 870, In Islands Landnamaboc, one of the oldest Icelandic Sagas, Ireland is named Ir-land. In King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon translation of Orosius, Ireland is styled Ireland.++ 891, Three Irishmen, says the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, came in a boat from Yr-land. 981, In the same record under this year Ireland has the same name. 1048, In the same chronicle Harold flies to Yr-land. 1076, Adam of Bremen has the same name. 1105, Elnoth in his Life of St. Canute calls the Irish Iros. 1401, Odericus Vitalis styles the Irish Irenses, and their country Ire-land.‡‡ → Cæsaris Comment. de Bello Gallico, lib. v. cap. 13. edit. Oxon. 1800, 8vo, p. 93. Tacit. Opera, edit. Eliz. Lugd. Bat. 1640, vol. ii. p. 673. It is mentioned under the same name by Solinus, cap. 25, in Pomp. Mela, C. Jul. Solini. Polyhist. Ethici Cosmograp. Lugd. Bat. 1646, p. 125, and in Æthicus, ibid. p. 508. + Sed in altera parte orbis jacent insularum aggeres maximarum: Britanniæ duo, Albion et Ierna. Scotorum cumulos flevit glacialis Ierne. Apuleius de Mundo. Apul. Op. Paris, 1601, p. 8. Claudiani Op. de iv. Cons. Honor. Lubecæ. 1701, p. 96. Pomp. Mela, lib. iii. cap. 6. Lugd. Bat. 1646, p. 125. Agathemer. in Geog. Vet. Script. Min. vol. ii. p. 39, 46. Marcianus Heracleota, ibid. vol. i. p. 9, 57. Η Αγριωτάτων δὲ ὄντων τῶν ὑπὸ τὰς ἄρκτες κατοικέντων καὶ τῶν τῆ Σκυθία πλησιοχώρων, φασὶ τινὰς ἀνθρωπος ἐσθίειν, ὥσπερ καὶ τῶν Βρετανῶν τὰς κατοικῶντας τὴν ὀνομαζομένην Ιρινο Diod. Sic. edit. Wesseling, vol. i. p. 355. ** Valedicens pio magistro venerandisque condiscipulis Iren perrexit. Usser Primor, p. 907. HJohnstone's Antiq. Celto-Scand. p. 14. Usser ut sup. p. 734. "And in Wormius's Runic Literature, the Irish alphabet is called Ira-letur. The identity of Diodorus's Iris with the Iris, Ira, Iros, Irenses, Ire, and Ir, of the Gothic and Teutonic people, and that traced for above six hundred evinces that this Greek author has preserved the genuine and original name of the island."* years, clearly This island, which next to Britain is the largest in Europe, lies at no great distance from the western shores of England, and is still nearer to the coast of Scotland. It is separated from Britain by the Irish Sea, which varies in breadth from fourteen to forty leagues; but between Scotland and the county of Down it is contracted into a channel only six leagues wide, and farther north, to a still narrower strait of less than four, between the north-east point of the coast of Antrim and the Mull of Kintyre.+ Ireland has not yet been surveyed with sufficient care to determine exactly either its size or its situation. General Vallancey constructed a map of it, which is commonly called the "Ordnance Map." This map is supposed to be laid down from actual observation, and it has furnished the data for the recent one of Mr. Arrowsmith, which, notwithstanding its many errors and deficiencies, must be considered as by far the most accurate yet published. I shall, however, point out a few of its errors: it makes the Grand Canal complete no farther westward than Tullamore; and the Royal Canal is marked out only in some places beyond Kilcock. It exhibits a canal from Kilkenny to the Barrow, which is a work in contemplation, but not yet begun. It is deficient in the orthography of places; for instance, Tanderagee, one of the first linen market-towns, appears under the name of Tanerage. Laurentinum, a place of less note in the vale of Doneraile, is named Labantiman. Castle-Mountgarret becomes Castle Margaret. The Twelve Pins Mountains are the Xiipins. Even Lambay has not been suffered to retain its proper name, and numberless instances of the same kind might be produced. The town-lands are marked as villages, though they have no title whatever to that appellation. In Ireland the places of this kind amount to several thousands; to insert them in a map would be impossible, and if practicable it would be useless. Mr. Arrowsmith, I believe, received many assurances of being furnished with several of the county maps constructed for the use of the grand juries of Ireland, but he complains that, except in the case of a very young nobleman, the Earl of Desart, the performance of most of these offers has been forgotten. * Ledwich's Antiquities of Ireland, Dublin, 1804, 4to, p. 19, 20. + Beaufort's Memoir of a Map of Ireland, p. 8. The Romans seem to have had a map or topography of Ireland, which is alluded to by Pliny, lib. iv. cap. 16, Lug. Bat. 1669, vol. i. p. 234. Sir William Petty constructed a map of Ireland, which was edited by Vischer and Homan. See Hauber's Versuch einer Historie der Land-Chartens, Ulm, 1724, p. 97. A tonnage duty is collected in England upon all shipping for the purpose of erecting light-houses. This fund is intrusted to the management of the Elder Brethren of the Trinity House. I do not know the extent of their powers; but did the nature of that institution admit of it, I cannot imagine a better application of part of their income than in sending men of science to ascertain the precise position of the capes, headlands, &c. of Ireland, which would enable ingenious artists like Mr. Arrowsmith, to lay down correctly the true situation of the coasts of that country, the boundaries of which have hitherto been but vaguely defined. I have not furnished this work with a map, because I found it impossible to give any thing like a correct one; I might have copied that to which I have alluded, but it would have been unfair to ask permission for that purpose of its publisher, who ought alone to reap the benefit of his ingenuity and labour. To it, therefore, I must refer the reader who may be desirous of becoming acquainted with the situation of those places which I shall hereafter have occasion to mention. I have measured upon it with some care the area of Ireland, and make the superficial content of it, including the inland lakes, to be as follows :— English Square Miles* 32,201 Irish Acres English Acres 20,437,974 The divisions of this extent of country may be comprehended under three general heads. I. A Political Division into four Provinces; ULSTER, LEINSTER, CONNAUGHT, and MUNSTER, which are again divided into thirty-two counties. These counties are sub-divided into two hundred and fifty-two baronies; the baronies into 2436 parishes; and the parishes into town-lands, ploughlands, gneeves,+ cantrons, &c. II. An Ecclesiastical Division into Provinces and Dioceses, which are distributed in the following manner The Province of ARMAGH contains ten Dioceses. + In the county of Cork, "a gneeve is the twelfth part of a ploughland." Townsend's Statistical Survey of Cork, p. 320. The dioceses are placed here according to contiguity, and not according to rank. |