The Duain begins with the first peopling of Britain; and the account is mostly fabulous. It is followed by the tradition, that seventy Pictish Kings reigned in Albany before the dissolution of the Pictish Government by the Scots. For Mr. Pinkerton's satisfaction, I annex a translation to the copy I send him on the other side of this paper. I am only sorry to tell him, that, after all my inquiries, I could not find a second copy; and for that in my possession I am indebted to you, Sir, from whom I have received many other documents of the best authority. Yesterday, my dear Sir, I received your Vindication under a franked cover from our Castle of Dublin. It outweighed all the papers in the postbag; but this is nothing: it outweighs a hundred volumes, the compositions of ignorance on our British Antiquities: you have opened a mine for new workmen ; and, by the treasure you have thrown up, you have created a passion for further explorations. Your erudition and labors in the work before me are immense. The framers of hypotheses on our European Antiquities will be vexed, undoubtedly, to find all their fabrics demolished; but the unbiassed among the learned will be extremely thankful to you for your discoveries in a region (the extremity of the west) where little or nothing in ancient history was expected macte esto. Peevish system-makers envy, and will object. But relative to the PanoScythians, their navigations, their knowledge of letters, and the final settlement of some of their tribes in the British Isles, you have carried your point demonstrably. I return a thousand thanks for your communications and documents for twenty years past. Through that assistance I am preparing a Prospectus of the Internal State of this Country; but my infirmity and other avocations throw, I am afraid, insurmountable obstacles in my way. DR. THOMAS CAMPBELL TO THE BISHOP OF DROMORE.* No. 5, Anne Street, Dublin, I told you that I had put Mr. Pinkerton's inquiry into such a train that I had almost every hope of giving him satisfaction; but the sequel will show how far I have been disappointed. The Librarian of the College, wishing to further our research in the most liberal manner, sent for a Mr. Flanigan, a student of Trinity College, Dublin, and greatest adept he knew of in the Irish language, that gentleman being, as you probably * Attached to this letter is one in the hand-writing of the Bishop of Dromore, stating that it is from "Dr. Campbell, author of the Philosophic Survey of the South of Ireland, who, since that book was written, has very much wavered in the faith he then had in Colonel Vallancey, and is now an unbeliever in his hypotheses."-Dr. Campbell was Chancellor of St. Macarten's, Clogher, and a correspondent of Mr. Gough, to whose edition of Camden's Britannia he contributed. Dr. Campbell died in 1795: see Mr. Walker's letter of the 7th August of that year. know, employed by the Royal Academy in copying Irish manuscripts; but, alas! his knowledge failed in making out the dates in the text of those venerable parchments, the Annals of Tigernac and Inisfall, or Innisfallen. (N.B. not Inisfail! Inisfail is a name for Ireland at large: Inisfall is an island in the county of Kerry, where the monastery stood, whence originated the famous Annals.) And, unfortunately, there is a chasm or hiatus valde deflendus at the period of the reign of Brudi, of whom no mention is made in this copy. But it is to be observed, that, on the margin of this copy, is a regular notation of chronological dates, in our common figures, by a modern hand, from which it appears to my unlearned eye, that the above chasm extends from the year 577 to 590. Thus far we go on sure grounds: now, it is to be further observed, that, in the Annals of Tigernac, there is a similar notation of chronology in the margin; and, opposite to the account of Brudi Mac Milochon is the following marginal note."584. Brudeus ob'. Ult. Annal." On this I remark, that it should from hence seem, that the date of Brudi's death in the Annals of Ulster, to which the writer of that note refers, is a year later than in the translation which Mr. Pinkerton has seen in the British Museum. It is then natural for Mr. Pinkerton to expect that I should have referred to the Annals of Ulster to clear up this doubt; and I did so: but the copy in Trinity College, Dublin, has no marginal notes that we could make out; and the text, as to the VOL. I. K dates, was, like that of Tigernac and Inisfallen, not intelligible to Mr. Flanigan. Upon the whole, my lord, here is a certain degree of authority in favor of three out of those four years which pressed Mr. Pinkerton's accuracy with difficulty in his punctum fixum, or great epoch. As it was found so difficult to come nearer to the death of Brudi, your lordship and he will easily see how vain it would be for me to attempt any inquiry into more minute dates. But I must add, that I have heard that the best copy of the Annals of Ulster is in the Library of Oxford; and whether an inquiry would reward Mr. Pinkerton's pains I dare not so much as guess. I am heartily vexed that I could not be of more service to Mr. Pinkerton; as I am persuaded he is divested of those fond prejudices which have disfigured the writings of some gentlemen of his country and my own. THE BISHOP OF DROMORE TO MR. Feb. 28th, 1787. The Bishop of Dromore's compliments to Mr. Pinkerton he has had the good fortune to procure what he esteems the very ablest assistance in this kingdom for the solution of his doubts and difficulties; and, if the result has not answered his sanguine expectations, the Bishop despairs of success from any other quarter. Dr. Campbell is supposed to be now engaged in researches, which, like a talisman, will tend to dissolve the unsubstantial visions and reveries of Colonel Vallancey and his followers, and is a very careful and cautious inquirer into the reliques of antiquity. He has in this research of Mr. Pinkerton's employed a Mr. Flanigan, a student of Trinity College, who received a reward for discovering an ancient inscription, supposed to exhibit the Ogham, or secret character of the ancient Irish druids and bards, &c., and is wholly devoting his studies to the revival of ancient Irish literature. The Bishop thought he could not do better than send to Mr. Pinkerton the autograph of Dr. Campbell. Dr. Campbell's stay in Dublin being only a few months in winter, he can only be an occasional assistant to Mr. Pinkerton; but, while he is here, the Bishop will apply to him or young Flanigan. He knows no other who can be of solid use. The Bishop wishes Mr. Pinkerton would carefully read Dr. Priestley's Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion, in 2 vols. 8vo., before he decides that all of that school have given up the Old Testament, as Mr. Pinkerton seems to hint in a former letter; but indeed he wishes Mr. Pinkerton would read them on other accounts. * MR. A. DE CARDONNEL, TO MR. PINKERTON. March 5th, 1787. Some days ago, Mr. Buchan called upon me, * Author of the Numismata Scotiæ, or a Series of the Scotish |
