a most obscure passage in ancient history; but how the stone got at last to the county of Cork, appears to me a difficult transition. It must give you great trouble.

PROUT.

My dear sir, don't mention it! It went to Minorca with a chosen body of Carthaginian adventurers, who stole it away as their best safeguard on the expedition. They first settled at Port Mahon,-a spot so called from the clan of the O'Mahonys, a powerful and prolific race still flourishing in this county; just as the Nile had been previously so named from the tribe of the O'Neils, its aboriginal inhabitants. All these matters, and many more curious points, will be one day revealed to the world by my friend Henry O'Brien, in his work on the Round Towers of Ireland. Sir, we built the pyramids before we left Egypt; and all those obelisks, sphinxes, and Memnonic stones, were but emblems of the great relic before you.

George Knapp, who had looked up to Prout with dumb. amazement from the commencement, here pulled out his spectacles, to examine more closely the old block, while Scott shook his head doubtingly.

"I can convince the most obstinate sceptic, Sir Walter," continued the learned doctor, "of the intimate connexion that subsisted between us and those islands which the Romans called insula Baleares, without knowing the signification of the words which they thus applied. That they were so called from the Blarney stone, will appear at once to any person accustomed to trace Celtic derivations: the Ulster king of arms, Sir William Betham, has shown it by the following scale."

Here Prout traced with his cane on the muddy floor of the castle the words

"BaLeARes iNsul E-Blarna!"

SCOTT.

Prodigious! My reverend friend, you have set the point at rest for ever-rem acu tetigisti! Have the goodness to proceed.

PROUT.

Setting sail from Minorca, the expedition, after encountering a desperate storm, cleared the Pillars of Hercules, and landing in the Cove of Cork, deposited their treasure in the greenest spot and the shadiest groves of this beautiful vicinity.

SCOTT.

How do you account for their being left by the Carthaginians in quiet possession of this invaluable deposit ?

PROUT.

They had sufficient tact (derived from their connexion with the stone) to give out, that in the storm it had been thrown overboard to relieve the ship, in latitude 36° 14", longitude 24°. A search was ordered by the senate of Carthage, and the Mediterranean was dragged without effect; but the mariners of that sea, according to Virgil, retained a superstitious reverence for every submarine appearance of

a stone:

"Saxa vocant Itali mediis quæ in fluctibus aras !"

And Aristotle distinctly says, in his treatise "De Mirandis," quoted by the erudite Justus Lipsius, that a law was enacted against any further intercourse with Ireland. His words are: "In mari, extra Herculis Columnas, insulam desertam inventam fuisse sylva nemorosam, in quam crebrò Carthaginienses commeârint, et sedes etiam fixerint: sed veriti ne nimis cresceret, et Carthago laberetur, edicto cavisse ne quis poena capitis eò deinceps navigaret."

The fact is, Sir Walter, Ireland was always considered a lucky spot, and constantly excited the jealousy of Greeks, Romans, and people of every country. The Athenians thought that the ghosts of departed heroes were transferred to our fortunate island, which they call, in the war-song of Harmodius and Aristogiton, the land of O's and Macs :

Φίλταθ' 'Αρμόδι, ούτε που τέθνηκας,

Νήσοις δ' εν ΜΑΚ ας' ΩΝ σε φασιν είναι.

And the " Groves of Blarney" have been commemorated by the Greek poets many centuries before the Christian era.

SCOTT.

There is certainly somewhat of Grecian simplicity in the old song itself; and if Pindar had been an Irishman, I think he would have celebrated this favourite haunt in a style not very different from Millikin's classic rhapsody.

PROUT.

Millikin, the reputed author of that song, was but a simple translator from the Greek original. Indeed, I have discovered, when abroad, in the library of Cardinal Mazarin, an old Greek manuscript, which, after diligent examination, I am convinced must be the oldest and "princeps editio of the song. I begged to be allowed to copy it, in order that I might compare it with the ancient Latin or Vulgate translation which is preserved in the Brera at Milan; and from a strict and minute comparison with that, and with the Norman-French copy which is appended to Doomsday-book, and the Celtic-Irish fragment preserved by Crofton Croker, (rejecting as spurious the Arabic, Armenian, and Chaldaic stanzas on the same subject, to be found in the collection of the Royal Asiatic Society,) I have come to the conclusion that the Greeks were the undoubted original contrivers of that splendid ode; though whether we ascribe it to Tyrtæus. or Callimachus will depend on future evidence; and perhaps, Sir Walter, you would give me your opinion, as I have copies of all the versions I allude to at my dwelling on the hill.

SCOTT.

I cannot boast, learned father, of much vous in Hellenistic matters; but should find myself quite at home in the Gaelic and Norman-French, to inspect which I shall with pleasure accompany you: so here I kiss the stone!

The wonders of "the castle," and "cave," and "lake," were speedily gone over; and now, according to the usage of the dramatist, modo Romæ, modò ponit Athenis, we shift the scene to the tabernacle of Father Prout on Watergrasshill, where, round a small table, sat Scott, Knapp, and Prout -a triumvirate of critics never equalled. The papers