nard Castle, is named after the same deity. A field upon the banks of the Tees is also termed Woden-Croft, from the supreme deity of the Edda. Thorsgill, of which a description is attempted in Stanza II., is a beautiful little brook and dell, running up behind the ruins of Eglistone Abbey. Thor was the Hercules of the Scandinavian mythology, a dreaded giant-queller, and in that capacity the champion of the gods and the defender of Asgard, the northern Olympus, against the frequent attacks of the inhabitants of Jotunheim.There is an old poem in the Edda of Sæmund, called the Song of Thrym, which turns upon the loss and recovery of the Mace, or Hammer, which was Thor's principal weapon, and on which much of his power seems to have depended. It may be read to great advantage in a version equally spirited and literal, among the Miscellaneous Translations and Poems of the Hon. William Herbert.

he besieged a fort garrisoned by the English, which ceed him in the said captainry, if he live thereunto. commanded the passes into his country.

« Eudox. Do they not use any ceremony in this election, for all barbarous nations are commonly great observers of ceremonies and superstitious rites?

<< Iren. They use to place him that shall be their

pose, and placed commonly upon a hill. In some of which I have seen formed and engraven a foot, which they say was the measure of their first captaine's foot; whereupon hee standing, receives an oath to preserve all the auncient former customes of the countrey inviolable, and to deliver up the succession peaceable to his Tanist, and then hath a wand delivered unto him by some whose proper office that is; after which, de

thrice forwards and thrice backwards.

«Eudox. But how is the Tanist chosen?

<< The captaine and his few warders did with no less courage suffer hunger, and, having eaten the few horses they had, lived vpon hearbes growing in the ditches and wals, suffering all extremities, till the lord-captaine upon a stone, always reserved to that purlieutenant, in the moneth of August, sent Sir Henry Bagnal, marshall of Ireland, with the most choice companies of foote and horse troopes of the English army, to victual this fort, and to raise the rebels siege. When the English entered the place and thicke woods beyond Armagh, on the east side, Tyrone (with all the rebels assembled to him) pricked forward with rage, enuy, and settled rancour against the marshal, assayled the English, and turning his full force against the mar-scending from the stone, he turneth himself round, shall's person, had the successe to kill him valiantly fighting among the thickest of the rebels. Whereupon the English being dismayed with his death, the rebels << Iren. They say he setteth but one foot upon the obtained a great victory against them. I terme it stone, and receiveth the like oath that the captaine did.»> great, since the English, from their first arriuall in that-SPENSER's View of the State of Ireland, apud Works, kingdome, neuer had receiued so great an ouerthrow as this, commonly called the Defeat of Blackwater; thirteene valiant captaines and 1500 common souldiers (whereof many were of the old companies which had serued in Britanny vnder General Norreys) were slain in the field. The yielding of the fort of Blackwater fol-imprudent, if not impossible, to have asserted a milowed this disaster, when the assaulted guard saw no hope of relief; but especially vpon messages sent to Captaine Williams from our broken forces, retired to Armagh, professing that all their safety depended vpon his yielding the fort into the hands of Tyrone, without which danger Captaine Williams professed that no want or miserie should have induced him thereunto.>> -FYNES MORYSON's Itinerary, London, 1617, fol. part II. p. 24..

Tyrone is said to have entertained a personal animosity against the knight-marshal, Sir Henry Bagnal, whom he accused of detaining the letters which he sent to Queen Elizabeth, explanatory of his conduct, and offering terms of submission. The river, called by the English Blackwater, is termed, in Irish, Avon-Duff, which has the same signification. Both names are mentioned by Spenser in his « Marriage of the Thames and the Medway,» But I understand that his verses relate not to the Blackwater of Ulster, but to a river of the same name'in the south of Ireland :

Swift Avon-Duff, which of the Englishmen

Is called Black-water-—

Note 6. Stanza vi.

The Tanist he to great O'Neale.

« Eudox. What is this which you call Tanist and Tanistry? These be names and terms never heard of nor known to us.

« Iren. It is a custome amongst all the Irish, that, presently after the death of one of their chiefe lords or captaines, they doe presently assemble themselves to a place generally appointed and knowne unto them, to choose another in his stead, where they doe nominate and elect, for the most part, not the eldest sonne, nor any of the children of the lord deceased, but the next to him in blood, that is the eldest and worthiest, as commonly the next brother unto him, if he have any, or the next cousin, or so forth, as any is elder in that kindred or sept; and then next to him doe they choose the next of the blood to be Tanist, who shall next suc

Lond. 1805, 8vo. vol. VIII. P. 306.

The Tanist, therefore, of O'Neale, was the heir-apparent of his power. This kind of succession appears also to have regulated, in very remote times, the succession to the crown of Scotland. It would have been

nor's right of succession in those stormy days, when the principles of policy were summed up in my friend Mr Wordsworth's lines:

the good old rule

Sufficeth them; the simple plan,

That they should take who have the power,
And they should keep who can.

Note 7. Stanza viii.

His plaited hair in elf-locks spread, etc.

There is here an attempt to describe the ancient Irish dress, of which a poet of Queen Elizabeth's day has given us the following particulars:

I mervailde in my mynde,
and thereupon did muse,

To see a bride of heavenlie bewo
an ouglie fere to chuse.

This bride it is the soile,

the bridegroom is the karne,

With writhed glibbes, like wicked spirits,
with visage rough and stearne;

With sculles upon their poales,

instead of civill cappes;

With spears in hand, and swordes by sides,
to beare of after clappes;

With jackettes long and large

which shroud simplicitie,

Though spitfull dartes which they do beare
importe iniquitie.

Their shirtes be very strange,

not reaching past the thie;
With pleates on pleates thei pleated are
as thicke as pleates may lye.
Whose sleaves hang trailling doune,
almost unto the shoe;
And with a mantell commonlie
the Irish karne do goe.
Now some amongst the reste

doe use another weede;

A coate, I meane, of strange devise,
which fancie first did breade.
His skirts be very shorte,

with pleates set thick about,
And Irish trouzes moe to put
their strange protactours out.

DERRICK's Image of Ireland, apud Somens' Tracts,
Lond. 1809, 4to. vol. I, p. 585.

Note 8. Stanza viii.

With wild majestic port and tone,

Like envoy of some barbarous throne.

Some curious wooden engravings accompany this poem, from which it would seem that the ancient Irish dress was (the bonnet excepted) very similar to that of The Irish chiefs, in their intercourse with the Engthe Scottish Highlanders. The want of a covering on the head was supplied by the mode of plaiting and ar-lish, and with each other, were wont to assume the lanranging their hair, which was called the glibbe. These glibbes, according to Spenser, were fit masks for a thief, since, when he wished to disguise himself, he could either cut it off entirely, or so pull it over his eyes as to render it very hard to recognize him. This, however, is nothing to the reprobation with which the same poet regards that favourite part of the Irish dress, the man

tle.

Morrison has guage and style of independent royalty. preserved a summons from Tyrone to a neighbouring chieftain, which runs in the following terms:<< O'Neale commendeth him unto you, Morish Fitz Thomas; O'Neale requesteth you, in God's name, to take part with him, and fight for your conscience and right; 'and in so doing, O'Neale will spend to see you righted in all your affaires, and will help you. And if you come not at O'Neale betwixt this and to-morrow at twelve of the cloke, and take his part, O'Neale is not beholding to you, and wille doe to the uttermost of his power to overthrow you if you come not to him at furFrom Knocke Dumayne in thest by Satturday noone. Calrie, the fourth of February, 1599.

<< O'Neale requesteth you come to speake with him, and doth giue you his word that you shall receive no harme neither in comming nor going from him, whether you be friend or not, and bring with you to O'Neale Gerat Fitzgerald. « Subscribed O'Neale.»

Nor did the royalty of O'Neale consist in words alone. Sir John Harrington paid him a visit at the time of his truce with Essex, and after mentioning «< his fern table, and fern forms, spread under the stately canopy of heaven,» he notices what constitutes the real power of every monarch, the love, namely, and allegiance of his subjects.

« His guard, for the most part, were beardless boys without shirts; who in the frost wade as familiarly through, rivers as water-spaniels. With what charm such a master makes them love him, I know not, but if he bid come, they come; if go, they do go; if he say do this, they do it.»-Nuge Antiquæ, Lond. 1784, 8vo. vol. I. p. 351.

<< It is a fit house for an outlaw, a meet bed for a rebel, and an apt cloke for a thiefe. First, the outlaw being for his many crimes and villanyes banished from the townes and houses of honest men, and wandring in waste places far from danger of law, maketh his mantle his house, and under it covereth himself from the wrath of heaven, from the offence of the earth, and from the sight of men. When it raineth, it is his penthouse; when it bloweth, it is his tent; when it freezeth, it is his tabernacle. In sommer he can wear it loose, in winter he can wrap it close: at all times he can use it; never heavy, never cumbersome. Likewise for a rebel it is as serviceable: for in his warre that he maketh (if at least it deserve the name of warre), when he still flyeth from his foe, and lurketh in the thicke woods and straite passages, waiting for advantages, it is his bed, yea, and almost his household stuff. For the wood is his house against all weathers, and his mantle is his couch to sleep in. Therein he wrapeth himself round, and coucheth himselfe strongly against the gnats, which, in that country, doe more annoy the naked rebels while they keep the woods, and doe more sharply wound them, then all their enemies swords or spears, which can seldom come nigh them: yea, and oftentimes their mantle serveth them when they are neere driven, being wrapped about their left arme, instead of a target, for it is hard to cut thorough with a sword; besides it is lighte to beare, light to throw away, and being (as they commonly are) naked, it is to them all in all. Lastly, for a thiefe it is so handsome as it may seem it was first invented for him, for under it he << Foster-fathers spend much more time, money, and may cleanly convey any fit pillage that cometh handsomely in his way, and when he goeth abroad in the affection on their foster-children than their own; and in return take from them clothes, money for their sevenight in free-booting, it is his best and surest friend; for lying, as they often do, two or three nights together ral professions, and arms, and even for any vicious abroad to watch for their booty, with that they can purposes; fortunes and cattle, not so much by a claim prettily shroud themselves under a bush or bankside of right as by extortion; and they will even carry those till they may conveniently do their errand; and when things off as plunder. All who have been nursed by all is over, he can in his mantle passe through any and confidence in each other than if they were natural the same person preserve a greater mutual affection town or company, being close-hooded over his head, as he useth, from knowledge of any to whom he is indan- brothers, whom they will even hate for the sake of gered. Besides this, he, or any man els that is disposed these. When chid by their parents, they fly to their to mischief or villany, may, under his mantle, goe pri-foster-fathers, who frequently encourage them to make vily armed without suspicion of any, carry his head-open war on their parents, train them up to every expiece, his skean, or pistol, if he please, to be always in readiness.»-SPENSER'S View of the State of Ireland, apud Works, ut supra, VIII, 367.

The javelius, or darts, of the Irish, which they threw with great dexterity, appear, from one of the prints already mentioned, to have been about four feet long, with a strong steel head and thick knotted shaft.

Note 9. Stanza x.

His foster-father was his guide. There was no tie more sacred among the Irish than that which connected the foster-father, as well as the nurse herself, with the child they brought up.

cess of wickedness, and make them most abandoned miscreants: as, on the other hand, the nurses make the young women, whom they bring up for every excess. If a foster-child is sick, it is incredible how soon the nurses hear of it, however distant, and with what solicitude they attend it by day and night.»—Giraldus CAMBRENSIS, quoted by Camden, IV, 368.

This custom, like many other Irish usages, prevailed till of late in the Scottish Highlands, and was cherished

by the chiefs as an easy mode of extending their influence and connexion: and even in the Lowlands, during the last century, the connexion between the nurse and foster-child was seldom dissolved but by the death of one party.

Note 10. Stanza xiv.
Great Nial of the Pledges Nine.

Neill Naighvallach, or Of the Nine Hostages, is said to have been monarch of all Ireland, during the end of the fourth or beginning of the fifth century. He exercised a predatory warfare on the coast of England and of Bretagne, or Armorica; and from the latter country of brought off the celebrated Saint Patrick, a youth sixteen, among other captives, whom he transported to Ireland. Neal derived his epithet from nine nations, or tribes, whom he held under his subjection, and from whom he took hostages. From one of Neal's sons were derived the Kineleoguin, or Race of Tyrone, which afforded monarchs both to Ireland and to Ulster. Neill (according to O'Flaherty's Ogygia) was killed by a poisoned arrow, in one of his descents on the coast of Bretagne.

Note 11. Stanza xiv.
Shane-Dymas wild ———.

This Shane-Dymas, or John the Wanton, held the title and power of O'Neale in the earlier of Elizapart beth's reign, against whom he rebelled repeatedly.

tates.»-CAMDEN'S Britannia, by Gough, Lond. 1806, fol. vol. IV. p. 442.

When reduced to extremity by the English, and for saken by his allies, this Shane-Dymas fled to Clandeboy, then occupied by a colony of Scottish Highlanders of the family of Mac-Donell. He was at first courteously received, but by degrees they began to quarrel about the slaughter of some of their friends, whom ShaneDymas had put to death, and, advancing from words to deeds, fell upon him with their broadswords, and cut him to pieces. After his death a law was made that none should presume to take the name and title of O'Neale. Note 12. Stanza xiv. -Geraldine.

The O'Neales were closely allied with this powerful and warlike family, for Henry Owen O'Neale married the daughter of Thomas Earl of Kildare, and their son Con-More married his cousin-german, a daughter of Gerald Earl of Kildare. This Con-More cursed any of his posterity who should learn the English language, sow corn, or build houses, so as to invite the English to settle in their country. Others ascribe this anathema to his son Con-Bacco. Fearflatha O'Gnive, bard to the O'Neales of Clannaboy, complains in the same spirit of the towers and ramparts with which the strangers had disfigured the fair sporting fields of Erin.-See WALKER'S Irish Bards, p. 140.

Note 13. Stanza xvi. He chose that honour'd flag to bear. Lacy informs us, in the old play already quoted, how the cavalry raised by the country gentlemen for Charles's service were usually officered.. You, cornet, have a name that's proper for all cornets to be called by, for they are all beardless boys in our army. The most part of our horse were raised thus:-The honest country gentleman raises the troop at his own charge: then he gets a low-country lieutenant to fight his troop safely; then he sends for his son from school to be his cornet; and then he puts off his child's coat to put on a buff coat; and this is the constitution of our army.>> Note 14. Stanza xvi.

his page, the next degree In that old time to chivalry.

«This chieftain is handed down to us as the most proud and profligate man on earth. He was immoderately addicted to women and wine. He is said to have had 200 tuns of wine at once in his cellar at Dandram, but usquebaugh was his favourite liquor. He spared Altho' so il neither age nor condition of the fair sex. literate that he could not write, he was not destitute of address; his understanding was strong, and his courage daring. He had 600 men for his guard, 4000 foot, 1000 horse for the field. He claimed superiority over all the lords of Ulster, and called himself king thereof. When commissioners were sent to treat with him, he said, "That, tho' the queen were his sovereign lady, he never made peace with her but at her lodging; that she had made a wise Earl of Macartymore, but that he kept as good a man as he; that he cared not for so mean a title as earl; that his blood and power were better than the best; that his ancestors were kings of Originally the order of chivalry embraced three Ulster; and that he would give place to none.' His ranks:-1. The Page; 2. The Squire: 3. The Knight;kinsman, the Earl of Kildare, having persuaded him of a gradation which seems to have been imitated in the the folly of contending with the crown of England, he mystery of free-masonry. But before the reign of resolved to attend the queen, but in a style suited to Charles I. the custom of serving as a squire had fallen his princely dignity. He appeared in London with a into disuse, though the order of the page was still, to magnificent train of Irish Galloglasses, arrayed in the a certain degree, in observance. This state of servitude richest habiliments of their country, their heads bare, was so far from inferring any thing degrading, that it their hair flowing on their shoulders, with their long was considered as the regular school for acquiring every and open sleeves dyed with saffron. Thus dressed, quality necessary for future distinction. The proper and surcharged with military harness, and armed with nature, and the decay of the institution, are pointed out battle-axes, they afforded an astonishing spectacle to by old Ben Jonson, with his own forcible moral colourthe citizens, who regarded them as the intruders of ing. The dialogue occurs between Lovel, «<a compleat some very distant part of the globe. But at court his gentleman, a soldier, and a scholar, known to have versatility now prevailed; his title to the sovereignty of been page to the old Lord Beaufort, and so to have folTyrone was pleaded from English laws and Irish insti-lowed him in the French wars, after companion of his tutions, and his allegations were so specious, that the studies, and left guardian to his son,»> and the facetious queen dismissed him with presents and assurances of Good-stock, host of the Light Heart. Lovel had offered favour. In England this transaction was looked on as to take Good-stock's son for his page, which the latter, the humiliation of a repenting rebel; in Tyrone it was in reference to the recent abuse of the establishment, considered as a treaty of peace between two poten-declares as a desperate course of life :»—