the present history, the early traditions which the Four Masters, and other annalists, have adopted, record the bursting out of Lough Tetchet (now called Lough Gara), in the year of the world, 2532. In A. M. 2850, it is stated, on the same authority, that Nemedius came out of Greece into Ireland, with a fleet of men, women, and children, and that, in his earliest expeditions, with the object of exploring this then uninhabited, and thickly-wooded country, he discovered the plain of Moylurg, the earliest name of the Barony of Boyle, and, so much was he pleased with the situation, that he thereon constructed a noble fort, or rath, a specimen of fortified habitation, which was most extensively adopted by his adherents, as the prevalence of these structures throughout the Barony evinces.

Raths, it may be here remarked, are to be distinguished from the moats, or funeral mounts, which are also so thickly dispersed throughout Ireland. "The latter are smaller and more precipitate, and, consequently, wear the appearance of greater height; but they are all artificial, while the former are a work of art, grafted as it were on nature, exercised in commanding situations; cut out of the hill, not raised from the plain; and in fosses, ramparts, and entrenchments, even still presenting the similitude of grimvisaged war.' On these raths, at the era of their origin, the habitations of the chiefs of the district and their families, were constantly placed, consisting in general of small buildings, constructed of earth and

hurdles" (a), and in many cases, as it may be supposed, further strengthened with palisades. This part of the country was, like most others of Ireland in those times, forested with timber, and prudence, as well as convenience, suggested such useful application of that material. The dimensions of these earth-works are various, but their forms almost always round or oval; and some have caves of considerable extent hollowed within them. Agricultural improvement has, however, altered their face, and, in many instances, mixed them with the soil of the surrounding land. Yet are these field-fortifications evidences, stamped upon the broad face of nature, of almost as much architectural civilization as the Romans in subsequent centuries, even in the Augustan age, left to survive their government in Britain; and certainly it could not be expected, from the materials and structure of the upper works, that, after a lapse of 2000 years, a trace of them could be now any where discoverable. How few are the vestiges of those cage-beamed houses that, but two centuries since, were the pride and admiration of the day? Where could the finest streets of the mightiest metropolis be traced in some years, if any chilling influence averted what, in Irish parlance, may be termed their perpetual renewal? Would not they, too, be as desolated, as if they never had a foundation but in the fancy of bards, and the credulity of enthusiasts?

(a) D'Alton's History of the County Dublin, p. 105.

In A. M. 3266, the Firbolgs, i. e. the Belgæ, are recorded as having landed in Ireland, whereupon the Nemedian colony, being then but a scanty population, the new comers acquired sway over the country, which they held until A. M. 3303, at which time Eochaid, the son of Erc, their King, had reigned ten years. He was accounted the best king of this sept, for, say the annalists, "in his time he annihilated all the wrongs and bad customs used in the time of his predecessors, and established sure, known laws, unto which he caused his subjects to conform themselves; and God blessed him so, that, during his reign, they had continual fair and seasonable weather, free from storms and tempests, by reason whereof all things, to the very briars, were exceedingly fruitful, so that his subjects swam in plenty." But in this, the tenth year of his reign, the Tuath de Danans (i. e. the Damnonii, from the south-western parts of England), invaded Ireland, carried war through the country, and ultimately engaged Eochaid at Moy-Turey, between Boyle and Lough Arrow, where, after a long fight, Eochaid was overthrown, with all his army, and the fourth colony of Ireland there established. The scene of this engagement is described, by the native historians, as a place surrounded with high hills, great rocks, and narrow defiles.

About A. M. 3500, the fifth, and most celebrated colonization, called the Milesian, occurred; subsequent to which Rath Croghan, not far from Boyle,

became a royal seat of their dynasty, and in twentynine years afterwards, a notice is preserved of the re-edification of the fort at Moylurg. In the long line of sovereigns, which these triumphant invaders established over Ireland, Tigernmas is classified as the seventh in succession, in the second year of whose reign, A. M. 3581, nine lakes are recorded to have sprung out of the earth; one of these was Lough Allen, another Lough Ke, which latter is expressly stated to have overwhelmed, by its inundation, a plain theretofore called Magh Sulchair. Nor should these notices detract from the credibility of the Irish annalists; those of other countries record similar changes: the most eminent geographers, Varenius, Cluvier, Boetius, &c., relate such; and surely, in the very province, with which this history is connected, turloughs, that are sheepwalks in summer, and lakes in winter, are of frequent occurrence. In A. M. 3727, the plain of Moylurg was wholly cleared of wood, and in 3790, Lough Skean sprang up within its limits. In A. M. 4981(a), a battle was fought at Magh-Ai, a district within this county, extending from Castlerea to Clonfree, and from the town of Roscommon to Mantua, within which was subsequently composed the "Tean Bo Cuailgne," or narrative of that Cualgnian war, which was so destructively waged, about fifty years before the Christian era, between the people of Connaught and Ulster; (a copy of this work is preserved at Stowe).

(a) of the chronology of the Irish annalists, see post.

Emerging from this obscure period of history, the first notice of importance available, is suggested by the map on which Ptolemy, at the close of the first century, delineated, with singular fidelity, the maritime parts, tribes, and rivers, of Ireland; but, as his knowledge was avowedly gleaned from merchants frequenting its harbours, his assertions respecting the interior are less to be depended upon; he does, however, seem to suggest that a tribe, whom he calls the Auterii, were settled hereabout, though this appellation is by others referred to the inhabitants of the western coasts of the Counties of Galway and Mayo. The section of the present County of Roscommon, extending from Lough Ke to Briole (in the now called Barony of Athlone), was, about the same time, possessed by a race of people, whom the Book of Lecan calls the Cruithneach, i. e. "painted men" (as it would seem, a tribe of Picts), while another tribe, called the Cregrai, dwelt from Lough Gara to the Barnes. In A. D. 236, another battle was fought at Magh-Ai, in which Aodh (Hugh), King of Connaught, was defeated.

The next notice is connected with the mission of St. Patrick, and the earliest introduction of Christianity into Ireland. The Apostle, as his biographers relate, having achieved the dispersion of a Pagan host, who had assembled at Magh Sleught, in the present County of Leitrim, for the celebration of heathen rites, resolved to visit the region of Moylurg, and, in his progress through it, crossed the Boyle