On the subject of Irish proper names of places and persons a vast body of curious and valuable information will be found in the publications of the Irish Archæological Society, and also in O'Donovan's splendid edition of the Annals of the Four Masters.
HIBERNICUS.
We mere Irish assume to be descended from a Phœnician colony; the word Milesian is not Irish, the families so designated being known in the Irish language only as "Clonna Gäel" (I spare the English reader the mute consonants, which would rather bother him to get his tongue round).
Our tradition is, that the leader of the said colony saw Ireland from a tower, still said to exist near Corunna; he bore the style of Mileadle Spaniogle, for which no better translation is offered than "the soldier of Spain." His brothers and sons, the chief himself having deceased, are said to have conducted the expedition to Ireland; and if your correspondent wishes for a full account of their adventures, he should consult Keating's History of Ireland, which will, at all events, afford him some amusement.
As to the round towers, Mr. Petrie's book on The Ecclesiastical Antiquities or Architecture of Ireland has set that question at rest. He has shown that they are undoubtedly Christian buildings intended as Bell-houses, which their name in Irish signifies; and further, probably, for the safe keeping of the sacred vessels, &c., in time of war or tumult. It is unfortunately too certain that agitation was always rife in Ireland. On all points connected with Irish antiquities, the safest and best reference is to the Secretary of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. If this answer attract any of your correspondents to visit the museum of that establishment, I venture to prophecy that they will account themselves well repaid for their trouble, even though they should miss visiting the Great Exhibition thereby.
KERRIENSIS.
THE TANTHONY.
([Vol. iii., pp. 105.] [229.] [308.])
I remember hearing a worthy citizen of Norwich remark, that it was very odd there should be three churches in the city called after saints whose names began with the letter T. Having been myself resident in that city many years, without being aware of this fact, I took the liberty of inquiring to which three he alluded; when I was unhesitatingly told, "Why, Sain Tandrew's, Sain Taustin's, and Sain Tedmund's, to be sure!" Let me then be allowed to repeat ARUN'S question, and to ask, "Why not Tanthony for Saint Anthony?"
The same worthy citizen was once sheriff of Norwich, and, as is, or haply was, the custom,—for I know not how these matters are managed now-a-days,—went forth in civic state to meet the judges of assize. When their lordships were seated in the sheriff's carriage, one of them charitably observed, "Yours, I believe, is a very ancient city, Mr. Sheriff!" to which the latter, a little flurried, no doubt, at being thus so pointedly addressed, but in decided accents, replied, "It was ONCE, my Lord!" And without stopping to consider what was passing in his mind when he gave utterance to these somewhat ambiguous words, may we not take them up, and ask whether it be not even so, not only as regards Norwich, but most of her venerable sister towns as well? Where are their quondam glories—their arts and rare inventions—their "thoughts in antique words conveyed"—their "boast of heraldry"—their pageantries and shows? Where their high-peaked gables—their curiously wrought eaves and overhanging galleries—their quaint doorways, so elaborately carved, and all their other cunning devices?—"Modern Taste," with finger pointed to the newest creation of her plaster genius, triumphantly echoes the monosyllable, and answers, "Where?" Well, we are perforce content; only with this proviso:—if, fatigued with the tinselled superficialities and glossy refinements of the present, we are fain to "cast one longing lingering look behind," and chance to light upon some worthy illustrative memorial of the literature, the manners, or domestic life of the past,—that the spirit of Captain Cuttle's sage advice be made our own, and that we forthwith transfer our prize for the critical examination of "diving antiquaries" to the conservative pages of "NOTES AND QUERIES".