Bibl. note: The 2 vols. of Grose’s Antiquities were largely written by Ledwich after Grose’s death 1791 and printed in London in that year with a page-length dedication to the Right Hon. William Conyingham and with introductory essays on “Pagan Antiquities” and “Military Antiquities of Ireland” (Vol. I) as well as “An introduction to Ancient Irish architecture” (Vol. 2). A new edition was published in Dublin in 1804, with his earlier History of ... Irishtown and Kilkenny appended, now ded. to the Earl of Ossory with a preface forebearing to apologise for errors in such an undertaking. In his edition of Grose’s Antiquities, Ledwich attempted to demolish the ‘bardic inventions’ which are ‘the oral records of every barbarous society’ (p.1; cf. ‘bardic figments’, p.5), and generally depreciated pre-Norman Irish (i.e., Gaelic) society and culture. Though ignorant of Irish, he advanced hypotheses refuted in the Irish annals about the builders of Irish ecclesiatical monuments. The list of subscribers to this work is virtual almanack of intellectual society of all parties commencing with the Viceroy Duke of York[e].

Ledwich rested heavily on the research in the Monasticon Hibernica of Mervyn Archdall [q.v.] and imputed endemic corruption to the Catholic Church while asserting after James Ussher [q.v.] that the Irish Protestant Church was faithful to the Patrician origins of Christian faith in Ireland; joined the Royal Irish Academy as Sec. of the Committee of Antiquities some years after its foundation in 1785 - delaying on account of Vallancey’s membership and his objections to the prevailing Phoenician theory of round towers; issued A Statistical Account of the Parish of Aghaboe (1796), with ‘a description of agricultural economy on ‘the main road from Dublin to Limerick’; a study of the antiquities of Salisbury (Antiq. Salisburiensis) which appeared anonymously in 1771 with a 2nd edition in 1777 is probably by a name-sake, given his residence in Ireland at its date of publication; he was elected Fellow of the Society of Arts [FSA] (England and Scotland); d. at home in York St., Dublin, 8 Aug. 1823; the surgeon Thomas Hawkesworth Ledwich was a grandson [see note]. ODNB DIW RAF [FDA] OCIL RIA

• Antiquitates Sarisburienses, or the History and Antiquities of Old and New Sarum [...] (Salisbury: E. Easton 1770-71) [see details]; and Do. [facs. rep.]
Forgotten Books 2018], 366pp.

Antiquities of Ireland (Dublin: Printed for Arthur Grueber [No.59 Dame Street] 1790), v, [3],184, [1], 184-473, [13]pp., 39 pls., front. engraved title-page & 37 numbered plates by W. Beauford, A. Cooper, A. Chearnley, Geo. Holmes, S. Hayes, W.L., and R.G., engraved by J. Ford; ded. to Rev. Charles Coote;

• Antiquities of Ireland [viz., Grose’s Antiquities,] 2 vols. (London: S. Hooper MDCCXCI-MDCCXCV [1791 & 1795]), var. pag.; ill. [247 lvs. of colour-washed pls., 4°.
  • Do. (Printed for S. Hooper & Wigstead, No 212, High Holborn [MDCCXCVII] 1797), 235 pls., 24 plans; 4o. [Pref. dated 1794; setting as in 1791 edn.].
  • Do. as Antiquities of Ireland / Second edition, / with / Additions and Corrections. / To which is added, / A Collection of Miscellaneous Antiquities. / by / Edward Ledwich L.L.D. / and member of many learned societies (Dublin: Printed by and for J. Jones 90, Bride-street / 1804), ill. [40 pls. - 1 folded; 2 maps., 2 plans], add. engrav. t.p. [see details].

• A Statistical Account of the Parish of Aghadoe in the Queen’s County, Ireland (Dublin: G. Bonham & J. Archer 1796), vi, 95pp., 3pp., ill. [pls., map], 8°.
• An Essay on the Study of Irish Antiquities - A Dissertation on the Round Towers in Ireland. Memoirs of Dunamase and Shean Castle, in the Queen’s County. History and antiquities of Irishtown and Kilkenny. [With an appendix.]
• Sermons (London: printed for W. Miller 1793), [6], 154pp.

• Contrib. to Collectanea de rebus hibernicus, ed. Charles Vallancey (Dublin: Luke White 1786- 1786-1790) - viz., An essay on the study of Irish antiquities.
• Contrib. ‘A letter to Joseph C. Walker ... on the style of the ancient Irish musicto J. C. Walker’ [as Appendix II], in Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards (Dublin: Luke White; London: T. Payne & Son 1786) [on Scandanavian origins of Irish harp].
• ‘An Essay on the antient name of Ireland’, in Anthologia Hibernica (Jan. 1793), pp.13-16 [see extracts].

• Historical Memoirs of the City of Armagh, for a period of 1373 years; comprising a considerable portion of the general history of Ireland, a refutation of the opinions of Dr. Ledwich, respecting the non-existence of St. Patrick; and an appendix on the learning, antiquities, and religion of the Irish Nation, with addenda and plates (Newry 1819), 651pp., 8o.

On the Romantic History of Ireland
Ancient Notices respecting Ireland, and its Name
Of the Colonization of Ireland
Of the Druids, and their Religion
Of the Pagan State of Ireland, and its Remains
Of the Introduclion of Christianity, and of St. Patrick
Anecdotes of early Christianity in Ireland
Origin and Progress of Monachism in Ireland
Of the Irish Culdees, and Antiquities of Monaincha
State of the Irish Church in the Eleventh Century, and after -
Of the Stone-roofed Churches, and Cormac’s Chapel
Of the Round Towers in Ireland
History and Antiquities of Glendalough
Observations on Saxon and Gothic Architecture
Of ancient Irish Coins
Observations on the Harp, and ancient Irish Music
Of ancient Irish Musical Instruments
Of the ancient Irish Dress
The Military Antiquities of Ireland
Political Constitution and Laws of the ancient Irish
On the Ogham Characters and Alphabetic Elements of the ancient Irish
A Review of Irish Literature in the middle Ages
Giraldus Cambrensis illustrated
History and Antiquities of Irishtown and Kilkenny
Appendix of Records to Irishtown and Kilkenny
Abbey and Church of Aghaboe
Abbey of Athasset
Abbey of Devenish
Chapel at Holy-Cross
Abbey of Knockmoy
Old Leighlin
Miscellaneous Antiquities

‘The French Jesuit Harduin, in the sixteenth century, acquired immortal notoriety and contempt, by his paradoxical reveries, in striving to prove that the most ancient medals and Roman classics were forgeries, pawned on the public by the Benedictines. thus the Aeneid of Virgil he considered as an allegorical poem, invented by that brotherhood in the thirteenth century, for designating the voyage of St. Peter to Rome, under the feigned name of Aeneas ... [7] Had Dr Ledwich’s motive for obtruding his contradictory opinions on the public originated from a similar ambition of eternising his name, without calumniating both the living and the dead, the paradoxical part of his writing would only excite every Irish reader’s ridicule and contempt. [8; ...] arising from a general indisposition to all who dare undertake to vindicate the history and investigate the antiquity of Ireland ... envy at his original associates’ [Vallancy] well-merited reputation wrought in the once liberal Ledwich [8] In fact, the scurrilous language vented on every occasion against Vallancy, a man ever dear to Irishmen, has debased the character of the antiquary to the degraded rank of an odious Billingsgate.

The various antilogies [sic] and contradictions to be met in Ledwich’s works, may be easily accounted for, by considering, that some of his essays were written before, and some after the commencement of his rancorous enmity to his original associate, the general. This will account for his inconsistency in being the encomiast of Colum Cille and the disprover of St. Patrick’s existence. Hear on what a weak foundation he founds his saint-destroying system. [“]Dr Ryves, in his defence of the Anglo-Irish government, found it necessary to inspect into the old records of the Irish nation, and hold a commission court for trying St. Patrick’s title to the apostleship of Ireland. Ryves found he had no claim to it, as he proved, first from the multiplicity of miracles ascribed to the saint, and from the total silence of Platina in his [9] life of Celestine, respecting St Patrick’s mission to Ireland. Though he mentions the mission of St Germanicus to England, and Pallodius to Scotland.”’ [10].

Further: The author [Patrick Lynch] holds that Ledwich’s Eccles. History, like Lot’s wife, ‘exists as a monument to the author’s disgrace’ on account of the ‘venom he vents on Keating, O’Flaherty, O’Connor [sic], Vallancy’ [14]; ‘Harris’s life of the prince of Orange, and his varous writings against popery evince such a zeal for the protestant interest of Ireland, as places him above suspicion ...’ [14].

AFTER having so lately experienced indulgence and favour from the Public, it is with reluctance and diffidence, I again obtrude myself on their notice: a few words however seem necessary to explain my connection with this Work, and the manner in which it is executed.

When the late CAPTAIN GROSE had finished the Antiquities of ENGLAND, WALES, and SCOTLAND, he turned his eyes to IRELAND, who seemed to invite him to her hospitable shore, to save from impending oblivion her mouldering monuments, and to unite her, as she ever should be, in closest association with the British Isles. The Captain arrived in Dublin in May, 1791, with the fairest prospect of completing the noblest literary design, attempted in this Century. As I had then just published a large Collection of Essays on the remoter Antiquities of Ireland, he naturally sought my acquaintance on his coming to this City. His good sense, easy manners, and sportive hilarity, always made an instantaneous and decisive impression in his favour; I confess I was pleased and flattered by his application, and permitted him to draw freely on the little stores I possessed. But alas! Death, closed all our pleasing hopes before the end of the month, and left the world to lament the loss of the eminent abilities and social qualities of this amiable and excellent man.

The worthy and spirited Publisher, who has also paid the great debt of nature, immediately solicited my aid to carry on the work, Captain Grose having written and printed but seven pages of Descriptions. He reminded me of the promise I had made to his deceased friend, and stated the large sums he had already expended in paper and engravings; and that it would be no small instance of patriotism to stand forward on this occasion, I acquiesced; although besides the fatal interruption which this engagement gave to the History of Ireland, on the plan of Dr. Henry’s History of England, in which I had made some progress, I was [iii] well aware of the difficulty of the undertaking. Ireland, the seat of turbulence and discord for five centuries, and attached to barbarous municipal laws and usages, which occasioned a perpetual fluctuation of property, preserved, except imperfect traditions, but few memorials of her ecclesiastical and military structures: those, that survived the ruins of time and internal convulsions, being sparingly scattered in worm-eaten records, and on the pages of History. The labour of collecting these, was greater than those who have not made the experiment, will believe and after all, for the reasons assigned, the result was by no means satisfactory: I speak particularly of the history of our Castles. Imperfect as these accounts are, they will be found of some value to the Antiquary and Historian, while they open an untrodden path to future and more successful Inquirers.

In the introduction to the Pagan and Monastic Antiquities, I have, in a great measure, abridged what I before gave in the Essays, because my most careful researches supplied nothing more apposite or authentic; the Introduction to the Military Antiquities never before appeared. Prefixed to the succeeding volume will be an historical account of our antient architecture and sepulchral monuments. To conclude, I beg leave to join my most grateful acknowledgements, with those of the Publisher, to the Right Honourable WILLIAM CONYNGHAM, who, with unexampled munificence, generosity, and patriotism, bestowed his noble collection of drawings for the use of this work, and at the same time indulged me with free access to his magnificent library, abounding in valuable MSS and books on this subject. The following beautiful views are the truest panegyric on his taste, and love of the arts.

Ante oculos interque manus sunt omnia vestras - Virgil;

POWERFULLY aided by learning and criticism, Antiquities have become an interesting and valuable study: they seem, at present, to have advanced to a greater degree of accuracy and utility than at any ancient or modern period. Minuter attention has been paid to Chronology, to method and discrimination, than heretofore; and to these are probably to be ascribed the successful conclusion of very difficult investigations. When we behold such accomplished writers as Pelloutier, Mallet, and Bruker, lamenting the wild chaos of ancient history, and torturing their ingenuity to reconcile contradictory opinions, we are grieved at the loss of time and erudition, which a few happy distin&tions would have saved.

Though the ancients are far from being accurate in their accounts of uncivilized nations, and particularly confound Celtic. and Scythic practices, we are yet able to approximate the truth, and from a few surviving rays discover the path in the gloom of remote times. [i] The primæval possessors of Ireland were (a) Celtes, who arrived here in an age far beyond the reach of history or conjecture.— Their language, as to its matter and form, was peculiarly their own, and pointed them out as a distinct people. It is strange that ingenious men should stumble at the entrance of these enquiries, and not perceive this self-evident truth, that a difference of language always includes a difference in manners and religion: this is a clue which conducts to the shortest, easiest, and most certain way for discovering the remote Antiquities of Nations.

Druidism was professed by all the Celtic tribes. Its leading feature, as might be expected from a people who received their appellation from their sylvan life, was a veneration for, and a celebration of sacred rites in oaken groves. The concurrent testimony of antient writers, more valid than the childish guesses of modern etymologists or hypothetic reasoning, gives decisive evidence of this fact. Saronides is the name of the Druidic priests in Diodorus Siculus, and is derived from their attachment to the oak. Of the Druids, Lucan sings:

Pliny, at some length, informs us, they held nothing more sacred than the oak, and from their devotion to it received their name. Tacitus, alluding to the Astii and other Celtic tribes remaining in Germany in his time, says, they thought it unlawful to restrain the immortal gods within walls, or make images of them, but that they consecrated woods and groves to religion.

Few surviving remains can be expected of a people, overwhelmed, so many centuries ago, by a numerous and exterminating swarm of barbarians. Where the Celtes were more numerous than the Scythians their invaders, there more traces of Celtism, as in England and Ireland, are to be found: on the contrary, nothing but Scythism is to be seen on the Continent. A few instances of the {iii}

[Ftn.] (a) The Author begs leave to refer, once for all, to his former Work, The Antiquities Ireland, Dublin, 1790, where the proofs of what is advanced in this Introduction are found: where such proofs do not occur, they are here set down.

[...]

To look for the arts of peace and civilized life among fierce and roving Barbarians, is a striking instance of mental imbecility. Could a people, like the Irish in remote ages, who protected themselves: from the inelemency of seasons in the gloom of caves,* or beneath the umbrage of forests — who were clothed: with the skins of ani- mals — who- were without commerce,. and whose greatest mechanical exertion was the fabrication of a stone hatchet, or stone f pear-head could they form durable structures, or participate in the comforts of domestication? It is absurd to suppose it. And yet there are Irish Antiquaries, whose quixotism and ignorance are so great (sheltering themselves indeed under the flimsy: plea of patriotism) as to affirm, that we had magnificent palaces in this isle above two thou- sand years ago, wherein regal splendor, elegance and etiquette were conspicuously displayed; and that the court of Tarah continued to {ii} throw a lustre on Irish Monarchy to the year of our Lord, four hundred and twenty-seven.

*The Author begs leave to refer to The Antiquities of Ireland, published by him in Dublin in 1790 [sic], for the proofs of what is advanced in this Introduction: when omitted: there, they are here set down. {ii}

WHERE are the proofs? If any, they a are to be found in the rhapsodies of Bards and Seanachies of the 16th century ; for the internal evidence of the language, with the ideas and practices of that period, decisively mark the æra of their composition. I love my country, and am interested deeply in her honour ; but I never will sacrifice common sense, truth, and my own reputation, at the shrine of popular prejudices. Such facrifices, often and liberally made, have degraded our national understanding and national an- tiquities in the eyes of Europe. It is time to burst the fascinating illusions of romantic fables, and calmly behold our country, rude indeed in its infant state, but in this respe& not more degraded than the proudest monarchies of Europe or Asia. Where our antiquities are supported by authentic records and existing monuments, it may be said with confidence, that they are as curious and valuable as those of any other country. The formation of the Irish alphabet, the analogy and etymology of the language, the state of our litera- ture, from the sixth to the ninth century, our round towers and stone-roofed crypts, the origin and progress of Christianity in Ire- land, our ancient laws and coins, our {kill in metallurgy, the la- pidary’s and goldsmith’s arts, with the remains of our primitive superstition, all soliciting our attention and illustration by monu- ments every where to be found, are topics which would abundantly exercise the ingenuity and erudition of the philologer, grammarian, architect, theologian, and antiquary.

LITERARY memorials testify, that the progress of architecture among the Irish kept pace with their civilization. The Celtes, the primeval inhabitants, were, as their name indicates, woodlanders: in groves and forests they found houses, food, and security. Occupied in the chace, and supported by the spontaneous produce of the earth ; and above all, living as hunters ever do, in families, and {iii} these widely dispersed, they never dreamed off stone edifices,- or felt the want of them. They had their pallice “ or peillice, a temporarx booth or tent, made- of earth- and- branches' of trees; and covered: by the skins of beasts. These were nearly the same as the Shealin, the extemporaneous hut of the Scottish Highlanders.

The Firbolgs, or Belgic colonies, who succeeded the Celtes; were a very different and more improved people. Like their brethren in Germany, they dwelled a great part of the year either in natural or artificial Souterrains: the number of the latter discovered - in Ireland, evinces, that they well knew how to form antrile cham- bers of dry stones, and cover them with long projecting flags. In these the Firbolgian Priests instructed their disciples, and practised divination; and they always adjoined their stone temples, as at Roscarbury, Killofly, and many other places. At length they became the Cemeteries of illustrious chiefs and warriors, and as at New Grange, had conical. mounts raised over them, surrounded at top and bottom by circles of pondrous uprights; Skilled in the manipulation of metals, the Firbolgs could easily have squared and polished wood and stone, and erected neat and convenient houses; but: their rude state of society prevented the proper i an cation of their knowledge.

At the arrival of the Christian Mifffoners, the Irish had emerged from their subterraneous recesses, and inhabited houses of wood.

Then commenced the Irish style of building: The learned reader will probably smile at this ufe and application of the term, STYLE; but he will find it-not capricioussy adopted, but founded in fact. Palladius, in four hundred and thirty-one, erected three wooden Oratories. Concubran, describing the old chapel of St. Monenna, at Kilslive, in the county of Armagh, A. D. 630, tells it was made of smoothed timber, according: to the. Irifh fashion; “juxla morem [iii] Scotticarum gentium.”

* O’Brien’s Irish Dict. in voce 422.

[...]

[On Glendalough:] SAMUEL Hayes, Esq. Representative in Parliament for the borough of Wicklow, searching, a few years ago, among the ruins of Glendaloch, not far from his beautiful seat of Avondale, fortunately difcovered a fmall arched chapel, of which there was no memory, it having been buried for ages under the ruins of a neighbouring church. Its western portal and only entrance was adorned with sculptures, and the room, about 14 feet by 10, was almost entirely occupied by the tomb. of St. Kevin, the Patron of Glendaloch. Mr. Hayes, who to the finest understanding, improved by elegant and useful learning, joins a most perfect knowledge of ancient and modern architecture and love of antiquities, felt the strongest emotions of pleafure on this difcovery ; he carefully collected the sculptures, made accurate drawings of them, and most obligingly communicated them to me. (vi)

[...]

‘[...] Our mythologists [Keating, p.18-46] inform us that three Spanish fishermen arrived here before the flood, and soon after that awful event, the Formoraigh or Africans [Keating, p.11] subdued the Isle, or others from the continent of Africa frequently visited it, and that it was finally colonized by [the Milesians].

Pinkerton has the following curious note: “Nennius knew nothing of Milesius, but only mentions Miles quidem Hispanus, a certain Spanish soldier. Of this Miles the Irish made Milesius, as of Julius Caesar they made Caesara, Noah’s neice.” [History of Scotland, V, a, p.6.] Milesius, a Spaniard. Nennius relates that these Spaniards in their voyage saw a tower of glass, which endeavouring to take, they were drowned in the attempt. This tower is a sure mark of an oriental fancy, and [3] similar to the tower of glass, said to be built by Ptolemy, and Boyardo’s wall of glass made by an African magician, and the pillars of Hercules erected on magical looking glasses.

The Milesians, when they landed, had various battles [Keating, p.55] with the Tuatha de Danans, a nation of enchanters and magicians, whom they at length subdued by superior skill and bravery.

In our Legends the same spirit of romantic fiction abounds. [...]’ (Ledwich, op. cit., pp.3-4.)

Source: These excerpts appear to be copied from Joseph Th. Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fior-Ghael: Studies in the Idea of Irish Nationality, [...] (1986) - using the 1804 edition which contains some alterations from the former edition of 1791. The later edition does not appear to be available on internet. [BS]

Edward Ledwich writes to criticise the derivation of the name Ireland from Ierne in English histories from Giraldus and Camden forward. He draws attention to the disputed identity (if any) of the famous Orpheus and nominates Julius Caesar as the first to call Ireland Hibernia - from the weather. Of Ussher he writes that he ‘exaltingly remarks on this verse of Orpheus (cited by Camden) that the Roman people were not able to produce so antient a witness of their name. Before our primate indulged this overflowing of patriotism, it would have been proper to determine the age and country of Orpheus. There is scarcely a writer of antiquity on whom so many suppositious works have been fathered as on this famed Thracian lyrist. Fabricius enumerates between thirty and forty, and particularly notices fifteen authors, who published their performances under his name. Cicero quotes Aristotle, who declares there was no such poet as Orpheus; on this decision the compositions passing under his name have been acknowledged fictitious. Who, then, was the author of the Argonautes, wherein Ireland was mentioned?’ Here he ridicules the idea of an overland journey carrying ships, ‘then plunging with so slight a ship into the Atlantic Ocean, and passing by Ireland, situated in it.’ (p.14.) He continues:

At present I see no reason to believe with Camden that Iar-in or Erin at first denoted the western situation of Ireland: for who gave it the name of Iar [referring to the west]? The Celtes, a swarm of roaming savages, of whom iittle is recorded, and that little proclaims their ignorance and barbarism. If, as Hipparchus very justly remarks, geography cannot be understood with a knowledge of the celestial bodies, and of eclipses, whereby the cardinal points are to be ascertained; if Homer intimates nothing of climate and eclipses, and if astronomy at a late period was introduced into Greece from Egypt by Plato, Eudoxus and others, can the simplest credulity conceive the wandering Celtes, [15] (who have left not one memorial of their acquaintance with any art or science) were more advanced in knowledge than the Greeks, who were able to determine the cardinal points.
  Ware would never have given us his guesses (or divinationes), as he rightly styles them, had Camden been solid and convincing on this subject. Bochart’s sacred geography had just appeared when he writ: its boldness, novelty, and the uncommon erudition everywhere visible, made it universally read and admired. This author derived Hibernia from the Phenician compound Ibernae, or the remotest region. Wrapped in oriental learning, he adopted the dreams of the Jewish Targums, Josephus, and the Rabins, who confidently supply the obscurity of scripture by distinctly parcelling Europe among the posterity of the grand Patriarch, though in reality they knew no more of the matter than those who lived before the Catalysm. An excellent judge [Richardson, Diss. on the Languages of the East] declares, Bochart was not competent to the task he had undertaken. With so slender a stock as fifty Phenician words, almost everything was to be supplied by fancy; and yet on this foundation has been built the systems of Sammes, Stukeley, and other whimsical writers on the Phenician antiquities. Ware seemed to like the derivation of ibernia from Iberia, because a Spanish colony, he says, settled here; however, he adds, I will affirm nothing, it being a most difficult thing to assign a satisfactory reason for the name. A position thus tactfully relinquished is not worth farther inquiry; besides Mr Macpherson has very ably examined and confuted the arguments adduced for a Hispanic extraction of the Irish.’ (p.15.)

[...] tells us in the preface of his first book, that great errors had arisen for want of profound examination of places: that to observe these he had travelled over a great part of Europe and Asia, and spent thirty years in compiling his work. Though not free from mistakes, it yet abounds in curious and valuable information. The remote northern nations, says he, who border upon Scythia, are ferocious, devouring men, as is reported, as do the Britons who inhabit Iris. Here is a passage, which has been unaccountably passed over by antiquaries, though it gives the primal name of Ireland two thousand years ago. The Greek and Roman writers, who frequently are tame copiers of each other, used Hibernia Jouernia, but Diodorus Siculus who had penetrated far into the north of Europe, there first heard and has happily preferred the genuine name of our isle - Ir-i, or as know written ‘Er-i, the great isle. The ancient Irish alphabet had but four vowels; E was not one of them [O'Brien’s Irish Dictionary]. This compound, like many others, was at first appellative and then became a proper name: a practice common in every country, and particularly exemplified in these islands by the learned Lhuyd.

The proof of this is novel and cannot be resisted. No evidence can be expected from the north when enveloped in gross ignorance and barbarism but as soon as enlightened by letters, every page of its ancient chronicles depose for the veracity of Diodorus.’ [Here lists names for Ireland such as Ira-land (King Alfred), Yr-lande (Danes in Chronicles), Ir-land (Adam Bremensis), Irenses (Odericus), Iros (Œlnoth), Ir-land, and Ira-Letur (Icelander Landamabac)]

Thus plainly from the original Celtic Ir-in came Ira, Iros, Irenses, and Yr-lande of the Icelanders, Danes, Anglo-Saxons and Germans, and the Iris of Diodorus Siculus, and by a transposition of - in - into - ne - the Irene of the other Greeks, [for .]

This primitive name was in full view of all our antiquaries, and probably for that reason flighted: the spacious field of etymology and conjecture were preferred, as they hoped to display their ingenuity, and acquire literary honour; but they did not perceive, that my such exertions they were hazarding theire own reputation, and depriving their country of the laurel of unrivalled antiquity.

Patrium tamen obruit olim Gloria paucorum, & laudis titulique cupido. Juvenal.

[Signed:] Edward Ledwich,

(p.16.)