been feen, yielded subjection to St. Ambrofe or pope Gregory; it therefore was not poffible for us to have any other mufic but on the Greek model, the character of which, as may be collected from St. Austin and Cambrenfis, was enharmonic. "The ftate of fociety here at our converfion; a precife and energetic language; the paucity of our inftruments, and the admirable effects of our harmony, clearly point out the fimple style of our melodies; how exactly they coincided with the Greek; how well adapted to delight our national vivacity and amufe our indolence. Topics thefe, capable of much curious and entertaining amplification, but exceeding the limits of this epiftle, and fuperfluous to fo excellent a master of this fubject.

"As the feeds of christianity and learning were coeval in this ifle, notwithstanding the vain and groundless pretentions of fome antiquaries, fo they found a foil wherein they vegetated with uncommon strength and rapidity: monatic foundations, the fchools of literature in thofe ages, greatly multiplied, and letters foon flourifhed in every corner. I have elfewhere alledged many circumstances to induce a belief that the Greek language was particulacly cultivated in thofe feminaries, and I have already produced an inftance or two of natives eminently skilled in it. Can it then feem ftrange that we fhould have the musical diagram of the Greeks, or that we practifed fcientifically their best melodies? This notation, it is true, appears corrupted in Mr, Morris's M.S, S.

but it invincibly demonftrates that the Well had a notation, and that it must have existed previously among the Irish. The Northumbrians and Albanian Scots, both converted by the Irish, excelled in harmony.

Pope

"The English mufic on the con❤ trary, was of the diatonic genus. It was the policy of the church of Rome, from the firft entrance of her miffionaries into Britain, to decry and depreciate the ancient rites and ceremonies of the natives, and to exalt the efficacy and perfection of her own. Arguments, however, were in vain, power foon decided the controverfy in favour of the latter. We are informed by Bede, that James, the deacon, inftructed the clergy of York in finging after the Roman manner, as Stephen did the northern ecclefiaftics. Agatho thought the establishment of the Gregorian chant fo important an affair, that he fent John, his precentor, hither for that purpofe. Thefe efforts of the papal fee, fe conded by the favour of the Britifh princes, foon extinguished every fpark of our ancient mufic, and, confirmed the flow, fpacious, and unifonous melody of plain fong. The perpetual ufe of it to both, clergy and laity was fecured by canons, and when it became a commutation for fins and fatting, the practice of it must have been uni verfal. 'Tis then no wonder that the taste of the nation accommo dated itself to this chant; a dull and heavy modulation fucceeded, well fitted to a state of fpiritual thraldom, and to exprefs the dif mal tales of minstrelfy."

PARTICULARS relating to the FIRST SETTLEMENT of the SCOTS in IRELAND.

[From HAMILTON'S LETTERS Concerning the Northern Coast of the County of ANTRIM.]

YOU would hardly believe

"YOU

of fubftantial civility, without much

Yhow little remains of Irish courtesy to relieve it, and fet it off

hiftory, language or customs, are to be traced in this part of the country: the revolutions which it has undergone, in confequence of forfeitures to the English, and the encroachments of the Scots, have overturned every remnant of its original ftate.

"During the time that the Eng lifh were endeavouring to extend their pale, in every direction from the metropolis of the kingdom, over a defperate but difunited enemy, the Scottish clan of M'Donalds, who by an intermarriage had got footing in Ireland, began their ravages on the northern coast of Antrim; and by the powerful fup port which they received from Cantire, and the western ifles of Scoland, established their dominion over. a tract of country near forty miles in length.

"As the people of thofe days ge. nerally followed the fortune of their chief, the greater part of the native Irish who furvived thefe bloody fcenes, tranfplanted themfelves elfewhere while the Scots remained peaceable poffeffors of the field.Hence the old traditions and cuftoms of the country were entirely loft; and the few who speak the Celtic language at all, ufe a kind of mixed dialect, called here ScotchIrif, which is but imperfectly understood by the natives of either

country.

"The prefent poffeffors are in general an induftrious thrifty race of people. They have a great deal

to the best advantage.-The bold ideas of rights and privileges, which feem infeparable from their prefbyterian church, renders them apt to be ungracious and litigious in their dealings.-On the whole, the middling and lower ranks of people in this quarter of the kingdom are a valuable part of the community; but one niuft eftinate their worth as a miner often does his ore, rather by its weight than its fplendor.

"There are three or four old caftles along the coaft, fituated in places extremely difficult of accels, but their early hiftories are for the greater part loft.-The most remarkable of thefe is the cattle of Dunluce, which is at prefent in the poffeflion of the Antrim family. It is fituated in a fingular manner on an ifolated abrupt rock, which projects into the fea, and feems as it were fplit off from the terra firma. Over the intermediate chafm lies the only approach to the castle, along a narrow wall, which has been built fomewhat like a bridge, from the rock to the adjoining land; and this circumfiance must have rendered it almoft impregnable before the invention of artillery. It appears, however, that there was originally another narrow wall, which ran across the chafm parallel to the former, and that by laying boards over these an eafy paffage might occafionally be made for the benefit of the garrifon.

"The walls of this cafle are built of columnar bafaltes, many

do you not give me milk as you give to the other?"-The gallogTogh immediately made anfwer, Would you, a highland beggar as you are, compare yourfelf to me, or any of Mc. Quillan's gallogloghs?"

"The poor honest tenant, (who was heartily weary of them both) faid, "Pray, gentlemen, I'll open the two doors, and you may go and fight it out in the fair fields, and he that has the victory let him take milk and all to himself."

"The combat ended in the death of the galloglogh; after which, (as my manufcript fays) the highlander came in again and dined heartily.

"Mc. Quillan's gallogloghs immediately affembled to demand fatisfaction; and in a council which was held, where the conduct of the Scots was debated, their great and dangerous power, and the difgrace ariling from the feduction of Mc. Quillan's daughter, it was agreed that each galloglogh fhould kill his comrade highlander by night, and their lord and mafter with them; but Coll. Mc. Donald's wife difcovered the plot, and told it to her hufband-So the highlanders fled in the night time, and escaped to the island of Raghery.

"From this beginning, the Mc. Donalds and Mc. Quillans entered on a war, and continued to worry each other for half a century, till the English power became fo fuperior in Ireland, that both parties made an appeal to James the First, who had just then afcended the throne of England.

James had a predilection for his Scotch countrymen the Me. Donald, to whom he made over by patent four great baronies, including, along with other lands, all poor Mc. Quillan's poffeffions. How

ever to fave fome appearance of juftice, he gave to Mc. Quillan a grant of the great barony of Enishowen, the old territory of O'Dogherty, and fent to him an account of the whole decifion by fir John Chichester.

"Mc. Quillan was extremely mortified at his ill fuccefs, and very difconfolate at the difficulties which attended the tranfporting his poor people over the river Bann, and the Lough Foyle, which lay between him and his new territory. The crafty Englishman, taking advantage of his fituation, by an offer of fome lands which lay nearer his old dominions, perfuaded him to cede his title to the barony of Enishowen. And thus the Chichefters, who afterwards obtained the title of Earls of Donegal, became poffeffed of this great cftate; and honeft Mc. Quillan fettled himself in one far inferior to Enifhowen.

"One story more (fays the ma nufcript) of Mc. Quillan-The eftate he got in exchange for the barony of Enishowen was called Claureaghurkie, which was far inadequate to fupport the old hofpitality of the Mc. Quillans. Bury Oge Mc. Quillan fold this land to one of Chichester's relations, and having got his new granted eftate into one bag, was very generous and hofpitable as long as the bag lafted. And fo (continues the manufcript) was the worthy Mc. Quillan foon extinguished.

"I fhould not have obtruded the account of the downfal of this Irish chief, but that it affords fo good a reason for the utter obliteration of every ancient record and monument in this part of the country; and will plead my excufe for not adding fomewhat to our collection of Irifla antiquities.

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS.

LETTERS on the BREEDING and TREATMENT of SILK WORMS.

[From the TRANSACTIONS of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce.]

February 1, 1785, the Silver Medal was voted to Mifs HENRIETTA RHODES, of Cann Hall, near Bridgnorth, for her fedulous Attention to and judicious Obfervations on the breeding and treating of SILK WORMS as communicated in the first of the following Letters; and the Thanks of the Society were given to her for her fecond Letter on the fame Subject, in which is contained an Account of the Succefs of her Experiments during the following Summer.