Travelling Arrangements.

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THOMAS COOK & SON.

PIONE

IONEERS, Inagurators, and Promoters of the Principal system of TOURS established in 1841 in Great Britain and Ireland, and on the Continent of Europe.

TOURIST TICKETS BY MIDLAND ROUTE issued by THOMAS COOK ANI SON to Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Morecambe Bay, Isle-of Man, Scotland, Ireland, &c.; also, Cheap Excursion Tickets to and from London.

Also

COOK'S ENGLISH LAKES AND ISLE-OF-MAN TOURS cover all Points of Interest, including Windermere, Coniston, Ullswater, Derwent water, Rydal, Grasmere Lakes, Douglas, Peel, Ramsey, &c. Coaches and Carriage Excursions to visit all principal places. COOK'S WEST OF ENGLAND TOURS, combining Railway, Coach, anc Steamer to every point of interest in the West of England.

COOK'S SCOTCH AND IRISH TOURS cover all points of Tourist interes in Scotland and Ireland.

COOK'S TICKETS TO PARIS are available by the Shortest and Cheapest Routes, and by Dover and Calais.

COOK'S TOURS TO HOLLAND, BELGIUM, AND THE RHINE are ar ranged upon a very comprehensive basis, for single and returi journeys, and for Circular Tours.

COOK'S SWISS AND ITALIAN TICKETS provide for every Route to and through Italy and Switzerland, at great Reduction in Fares.

THE STEAM NAVIGATION OF THE NILE is conducted by means of the new Tourist Steamers specially constructed by THOMAS COOK & SON TOURS TO PALESTINE are rendered easy, safe, and economical by the superior arrangements of THOMAS COOK & SON.

NORWAY, SWEDEN, AND DENMARK.-Tourist Tickets issued for al principal parts of these Countries.

ALGERIAN TOURS.-Tourist Tickets available over all the Algeriar Railways and Diligences.

TURKEY, GREECE, INDIA, CHINA, AND ROUND THE WORLD.-THOMAS COOK & SON are prepared to issue Tickets for all these Countries, by all principal Lines, and also a Direct Travelling Ticket for dovrnej Round the World.

COOK'S TOURS IN INDIA, AUSTRALIA, AND NEW ZEALAND. Ide special arrangements with the Government of India and *1€ Indian and Australasian Railway Administrations, TH WAS COOL & SON issue Tickets to and through all parts of these Counties.

PASSAGES TO AMERICA AND CANADA are secured by TEA. AS COOK & SON for all the chief Lines of Steamers, and, in connection with these, Tickets can be issued for Tours to all principal parts o'the United States.

CONDUCTED PARTIES leave London and Paris constantly ring the season for Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, the Rhine, Germany. Norway, Sweden, &c.. &c.

COOK'S HOTEL COUPONS are available at nearly 1,200 Hors guaranteeing first-class accommodation at fixed prices.

POLICIES OF INSURANCE against Accidents of all kinds issued ", THOMAS COOK & SCN.

PROGRAMMES of all the above arrangements can be had gratuitously at any of the offices of THOMAS COOK & SON.

COOK'S EXCURSIONIST AND TOURIST ADVERTISER.-Published at short intervals, and contains specimen Tours and Fares. Price 2d; by post, 3d.

COOK'S CONTINENTAL TIME TABLES. With eight maps. Published monthly.

1s.

COOK'S HANDBOOK FOR LONDON.-Contains particulars of all places of interest. With Two Maps. Price 6d. ; cloth gilt, 1s.

of Office - LUDGATE CIRCUS, LONDON, E.C. 43 Dame St. BELFAST, 27 Royal Avenue.

INTRODUCTION.

A GLANCE AT ANCIENT IRELAND, &c., &c.

Irs early Colonization.-The Firbolgs, Fomorians, Tuatha-Dé-Danaan.-A Chieftain with an Eye in the Back of his Head!-An extraordinary Chieftainess.-The Milesians, or Scoti.-The early Christian Period.— Ireland a Missionary Nation.-Wonderful Irish Manuscripts still extant. The "Opus Hibernicum."-Ancient Ecclesiastical Schools -Hospitality.-Poem descriptive of Ireland, written by Aldfred, King of the Northumbrian Saxons, more than 1,000 years ago.Danish Invasions.-Their results.-Overthrow of the Danish Power in Ireland. Invasion of the Anglo-Normans in the Twelfth Century. -Only a small portion of the Island then subdued.-Further partial Conquests.-The English in Ireland become more Irish than the Irish themselves.-The Decay of Anglo-Norman or English Power in Ireland.-Remarks of the Poet Spencer on Ireland as he viewed that Country in Elizabethan Days.-The description then given still applicable.-Ireland a glorious Country for Tourists.-A word on Modern Travelling in Ireland.-Its comparative Cheapness as compared with Charges made elsewhere.-General remarks.

MOR

ORE than dull and sluggish, indeed, must be the mind of that man living, even for a passing week, within the precincts of an ancient, and, of course, ghost-haunted house if he fail, at least now and then, to desire some knowledge of the manner of men, aye, and of women also, who had in old, old times lived and moved and had their being amid the scenes of his surroundings. Such a creature, in point of imagination and feeling, might well be compared to that species of crab, which, as we are informed by naturalists, having no domicile of its own, creeps into an empty sea shell, and there dwells contentedly so long as it can gather a meal from the wrack floated forward by the ever restless tide. I do not write these, my introductory pages, for human crustacea of any class, and to all whom the

cap may fit, I simply beg to offer an opinion that they had better merely skim, or altogether skip this chapter. I trust, however, as in duty bound, elsewhere to find no little entertainment for even the most matter-of-fact people who care little for history or legendary lore, and are merely content to enjoy the present hour, and to make the most of it.

If to many it be a source of gratification to recall the past, and re-people the chambers and galleries of one venerable home with long faded figures of gallant knight, and, of course, lovely dame, squire, and groom, Celt or Saxon, how much more interesting to trace the history of a Nation through the various classes of monuments handed down to our time through the rcvolution of centuries.

It is a very long time since the country now called Ireland was first visited, interviewed, and courted by strangers. Who these primitive people were, how they arrived, and how they managed for board, lodging, and garments, will probably never be known. Geologists inform us that the " silver streaks ̈ which now separate the British Islands from each other, and from the neighbouring Continent, at a not very distant period in the physical history of the world, had no existence. If this be so, and there were human families in that forgotten time, an occupation of the spot we inhabit might possibly have been made by energetic wanderers from the eastward, without the assistance of any class of boats. We are told, also, of a period when the climate of Western Europe was very different from what we at present experience-a time, indeed, when the seas dividing our islands must have been completely and strongly frozen over for a considerable portion of each year. This era, geologically speaking, is very late. Our authentic annals record the passage of people between Erin and Alba-i.e., Ireland and Scotland-upon ice. This was so late as the seventh century,

A.D.

But there is evidence of the occupation of Ireland by man nearly three thousand years ago.

Of the aboriginal inhabitants of Ireland we know little, except what can be gleaned from an examination of their bones, traces of their abodes, tombs, a few weapons and ornaments of stone, flint, or bone, rude pottery. and a few other waifs of

Time, as occasionally discovered. They would appear to have been a people living in a state very similar to that of the modern Laplander, using the same kind of weapons, and dwelling either in natural or artificial caves or souterrains, or in tents formed of the skins of animals, killed in the chase, or possibly trapped. The heads of their spears and arrows were formed of flint or bone. Their axe was of stone; their boats or canoes a hollowed trunk of the oak. For ornaments, they had necklaces of shells, amber, stone, bone, or vitrified paste, sometimes resembling porcelain, or even opaque glass. Their implements were skewerlike pins and needles of bone; knives, skinners, punches, chisels, &c., of flint or stone; and combs of wood or bone; the Irish at all times were remarkable for the luxuriance and beauty of their hair. For mills they used the quern, or rubbing stones. For animal food, they seem to have drawn largely on various kinds of deer, the wild boar, cattle, goats, horses, and asses. They do not appear at an early age to have had sheep. Devourers of oysters, limpets, &c., &c., they were to a great extent, as the heaps of shells which remain on many portions of our coasts, mixed occasionally with hammer-stones, sufficiently indicate. They appear to have consumed immense quantities of hazel-nuts, the husks of which, and the hammer-stones by which the nuts were cracked, being often found amongst the ruins of primitive settlements, or on the site of a picnic of the Paleolithic age.

It is not for a moment to be supposed that people possessed plenteously with more than the necessaries of life would be long left in undisturbed enjoyment of their special blessings. Outsiders would, sometimes at least, wish to join the happy family and might, no doubt, occasionally make an unwelcome appearance. Thus we find early attempts at the construction of defensive works of earth or stone scattered over the kingdom.

These old Irishmen must have been a hardy set of savages. They seem often to have lived to a great age, as their molars, like the rest of the teeth, which are invariably beautifully formed and regularly set, are generally observed to be much ground down. The race probably possessed hard hearts and good stomachs; were not much given to fretfulness; and thought little of mercantile fluctuations, the poor-rates, county cess, or of a visit from a landlord's rent-warner.”

That the British Islands were frequently visited by Phoenician and Carthagenian traders in search of tin, lead, and other native products is a well ascertained fact. Orpheus, who is supposed to have written in the sixth century before Christ, mentions these mysterious islands as the Iernian Isles, a name which will be recognised as that of the smaller island Ierne, or Erin, an inflected form of the native name Erin.* It seems strange and significant that the name of the whole island group should have been derived from Ireland.

When the exact date of a king or dynasty anterior to Abraham," writes Goldwin Smith, " is confidently given to us, we may be sure we are in the region of creative imagination.' In this Guide Book I shall not trouble my readers by offering anything like a detailed account of the invasions to which Ireland was subjected during the mythic period of her history. A slight sketch of some events, our knowledge of which is derived from bardic tradition, nevertheless, may interest some readers.

It is stated by not a few of our annalists that Partholan, a Scythian, sailed from Greece and landed in Ireland in the year of the world 2520, or 278 years after the Noachian deluge! This colony is recorded to have landed at Ballyshannon, its leader making the little rocky island of Inisamer, now occupied by a fish-house, his head quarters. It is to be noted that the surrounding districts plentifully exhibit souterraines and caves which were in early, but unknown, days used as dwelling-places or store-houses by a primitive people. Next came the Fomorians, who are generally believed to have been African sea rovers, or pirates. They, of course, met the Partholonians in battle, and are said to have been all slain; but the triumph of their enemies would appear to have been of short duration, as Partholan's colony were shortly afterwards destroyed by a thaum or pestilence, so that none escaped. This scourge is said to have fulfilled its deadly mission in one week. The majority seem to have perished on or near the Hill of Tallaght, near Dublin, where numerous stone cists containing calcined human bones enclosed in cinerar

* See the Rev. J. F. Shearman on the "Celtic Races of the Greater And Lesser Britain," in Journal of the Royal Historical and Archæological Association of Ireland for April, 1883.