on the plain of Magh-sleacht, in Breffny, near Fenagh, a parish. in the barony of Mohil, being killed by lightning. The fires which were lighted on hills were conceived to have a purifying quality, and on this account the Irish generally drove their cattle through them. As the monument at New Grange formed one alteration from the original construction of the Druidical temples, so the firetowers intended to supersede the lighting of fires on hills made another. As these were conical, and ending in a point at top, the idea seems to have been, in the opinion of Irish antiquaries, derived from the pyramidal plane: they were built of stones without mortar. In Smith's History of Kerry, there is a plate of one, which is twenty feet long, ten feet broad, and twenty feet high, and its walls four feet thick. "It may be asked,' says Colonel Vallancey, "since the Pagan Irish could chissel stones for the round towers, why are the Ogum inscriptions on rough unhewn rocks? The reason is, because such inscriptions were Mithratic; they allude to Mithras, whose votaries pretended that he was sprung from a rock, and therefore the place where the mysterious ceremonies were communicated to the initiated was always a natural cave, or an artificial one, composed of unhewn stones, several of which exist in this country. Hence, the rude obelisk was dedicated to the sun, that is, to Mithras. It was not, therefore, the want of knowledge in working with tools, or of cements, that caused the Pagan Irish to construct their temples of rough materials. The fire temple, or tower, was an innovation, as we shall prove hereafter, and from the smallness of its diameter, and its height, it required the tool." The highest tower in Ireland is dedicated to Brigit, the daughter of Daghda, or Apollo. At Drom-bagh, temple of the sun, now Drom-boe, in the county of Down, are still the remains of a fire tower, which once blazed in honour of Bagh; and there are many other towers that, by their names, plainly indicate they were for this purpose. One of these is called Aoi-Beiltoir, the community of the towers of Belus, and this was a title of high dignity among the Pagan Irish. Wherever the word occurs in the Brehon laws, it is underlined by the commentator, and explained by the word Easbog, bishop. The fire tower, however, was not universally adopted by the Irish, as we learn from many oppositions made to it, which are recorded in history; and there were sectaries that still continued to light their fires on the mountains, and raised tumuli. Perhaps, however, the most curious Arkite remains in Ireland are the ship-temples, of which that at Dundalk, and that in the Collect. de Reb. Hib., vol. vi. + So O'Clery has Ata tu cu usbaid file le Ulltaibh, thou art the illustrious Urbaid (fire minister) of the Ultonians. county of Mayo, are interesting specimens. The first of these is called Fags na ain eighe, the one night's work, and, except the projection which marks the head of the vessel, would be a perfect ellipse. It is composed of brownish grit-stone, the two or three first courses aboveground being from two to three feet broad, and from twelve to sixteen inches high, those of the superstructure of all sizes. It is made to bulge out on the sides, like a ship, and has along the inside, stones so placed as to form a seat all round. Its interior length is forty-four feet nine inches, and greatest breadth twenty-one feet. It had a door at its side, as the ark is said to have had, and it rests on a mount surrounded by a vallum. That near Mullet, on the western coast of the county of Mayo, is named Leabba na Fathach, the giant's bed, and, unlike the former, is still in a state of perfection. The walls are two feet thick, of well jointed stones, without cement. The ground-plan is exactly like a Welsh coracle, viz. a curvilinear triangle, the length within fifteen feet, and to the ceiling, seven. The door, which is on one side, is formed of two large converging upright stones, and an impost, resembling an Egyptian gateway. The roof is made of large flag-stones, with a grassy covering; and the temple itself stands on an insulated conical hill. With every prosperous wish, Gentlemen, I remain most truly yours, (To be continued.) SAMUEL R. MEYRICK. INSCRIPTION FOR AN OBELISK AT MORVA RHUDDLAN. In the eighth century, this peaceful plain, Where smile the meadows now, and wave the grain, The British Golgotha!-Here Offa's word [THE following lines are a literal translation of a Welsh poem, written immediately after the Battle of Bosworth Field. They are interesting as affording so many allusions to the subjects of Walpole's historic doubts, though it is evident he did not take his views of the character or person of Richard III. from these Wesh words.] TO HENRY THE SEVENTH. BY DAVYDD LLWYD LLEWELYN AP GRUFYDD, Who flourished from 1480 to 1520. THE Crown is on the eagle's head; If, indeed, the Mole and his host have bled. For the good of the world little R. was slain. With withered shank for brawny thigh, Where Gloucester's cunning cheats the ear! A Jew usurp the British power: The boar on murder foul intent, Brave Edward's sons in durance pent; His tender wards, his nephews two, By lawless ruthless force he slew. "The Mole." Richard III. is called the Mole in allusion to his working by treachery or underground. So Henry IV. is called the Mole by Iolo Goch, in his ode to Owen Glendwr. †The person of Richard III. expressed by the letter R is here contrasted with the tall upright form of Edward IV., expressed by the letter I. It may be observed that I. is the initial of the Welsh name for Edward, Iorworth: though the Bard in this place uses the English name Edward. It is, therefore, probable that the simile was not the invention of the Bard himself. Non was the mother of Saint David, and a saint of great credit in Wales. § The 21st of May, 1471, upon the night of which Henry VI. was If Richard his life-blood foully sought, The heads of lords, of chiefs renown'd, Good luck to the hand that dealt the blow; A SILURIAN. murdered, appears to have fallen on a Thursday, and the anniversary of that event, in 1485, was the battle of Bosworth field, on the same day of the week. London locust, or caterpillar as the original signifies, meaning the venal citizens of London. The Welsh expression of which this is a literal translation signifies grasshopper. "Simon Magus." The old legends represent Simon Magus, after having obtained the power of working miracles, to have come to Rome, and there to have ascended into the air in a chariot, accompanied by two angels: but, upon the intercession of St. Peter and St. Paul, he was thrown down, and broke his legs in the fall. § The Bard, who was attached to the Lancastrians, on account of Henry VII.'s Welsh origin, treats the Yorkists as Saxons. Henry VII. landed at Milford Liavcu, and passed through Wales in his way to Bosworth Field. NUGE CAMBRO-BRITANNICA. No. II. A Plea for the Mother Tongue. "Si quid novisti vectius istis, Candidus imparti, si non, his utere mecum." WITHOUT presuming to detract from the transcendent merits of our great English lexicographer, it must be admitted, that his Dictionary is more deficient in his Welsh etymologies than in any other part of that immortal work. Dr. Johnson either passes over, without tracing to their source, a great number of words unquestionably derived from the ancient British, or he ascribes to them another origin from the Saxon, French, Dutch, or Danish languages. This seems the more extraordinary, as the doctor has himself informed us that he was aided in this portion of his laborious compilation by the assistance of a native of the Principality, who had already distinguished himself by the publication of a collection of Welsh Proverbs. The Cambrian compiler, however, has manifested an evident, but unwarranted, partiality for Saxon derivations. The Welsh were unquestionably the aboriginal inhabitants of this island. It is among them, then, that we must naturally seek for the fountain head of the English language. The AngloSaxon was little more than a conduit-pipe through which the rich stream of the ancient British flowed into the modern English, corrupted, indeed, in its course, by a forced and heterogeneous mixture with the Danish and the Norman-French. The Welsh is the only mother-tongue of Great Britain; and yet in England, upon all occasions, we observe a marked predilection in favor of Anglo-Saxon literature to the prejudice of the Welsh. The last century has seen an Anglo-Saxon professor installed in his academic chair in the University of Oxford; but no literary honours, no encouragements, have yet been offered for the study of the mother-tongue. The eastern languages have not been thus neglected. In addition to the other Oriental professors in both our Universities, the late Colonel Boaden, by a most liberal and laudable benefaction in his will, has recently founded at Oxford a professorship of the Sanscrit, between which, by the by, and the Welsh, there seems a very striking resemblance, as is known to be the case between it and the Hebrew, and all the derivative languages of the East. A more intimate connexion than is generally imagined will be found to exist between the |