(Vol. vii., p. 579.)
Mr. Riley mistakes my purpose if he thinks that my object was to make a personal attack on him; and for anything in my last communication which may have appeared to possess that tendency, I hereby freely express my regret. Still I cannot allow that he has explained away the mistakes of which I complained, and of which I still have to complain. The kingdom of Cork never "extended to within a short distance of Waterford;" and the territory of Desmond was never co-extensive with Cork, having been always confined to the county of Kerry. Mr. Riley, therefore, is in error when he uses "Cork" and "Desmond" as synonymous. Again, he falls into the same mistake by assuming "Crook, Hook Point, or The Crook," to be synonyms. I never heard that Henry II. landed at Hook Point, which is in the county of Wexford, and from which a land journey to Waterford would be very circuitous. At Crook, however, on the opposite side of Waterford Harbour, and within the shelter of Creden Head, he is said to have done so; and as that point answers pretty exactly to the Crock of Hoveden, why assume some indefinite point of the "Kingdom of Cork" as the locality, even supposing that its boundary did approach Waterford city? Really Mr. Riley's explanations but make matters worse.
With regard to "Erupolensis" being an alias of Ossoriensis, I may quote the authority of the learned De Burgo, who, speaking of the diocese of Ossory, observes:
"Quandoque tamen nuncupata erat Eyrupolensis ab Eyro Flumine, vulgò Neoro, quod Kilkenniam alluit."—Hibernia Dominicana, p. 205. note i.
I maintain that the reading public has just cause to complain, not (as I said on a former occasion) because the editor of such a book as Hoveden's Annals does not know everything necessary to elucidate his author, but because baseless conjectures are put forward as elucidations of the text.
James Graves.
Kilkenny.
COLERIDGE'S CHRISTABEL.
(Vol. vii., pp. 206. 292.)