Iren. Indeede Eudox. you say very true; for all the customes of the Irish which I have often noted and compared with that I have read, would minister occasion of a most ample discourse of the originall of them, and the antiquity of that people, which in truth I thinke to bee more auncient then most that I know in this end of the world, [o 1] so as if it were in the handling of some man of sound judgement and plentifull reading, it would bee most pleasant and profitable. But it may bee wee may, at some other time of meeting, take occasion to treate thereof more at large. Heere onely it shall sufhse to touch such customes of the Irish as seeme offensive and repugnant to the good government of the realme.
Eudox. Follow then your owne course, for I shall the better content my selfe to forbeare my desire now, in hope that you will, as you say, some other time more aboundantly satisfie it.
- ↑ so as if it were in the handling of some man of sound judgement &c] Since Spenser wrote this View of Ireland, the Antiquities of the Country have been explored and elucidated, by men "of sound judgement and plentiful reading," with so much patience and precision, as to afford the curious "most pleasant and profitable" information indeed. When I mention the extremely valuable and important researches of the Royal Irish Academy; the labours of an Usher, a Ware, a Leland, a Walker, a Vallancey, a Ledwich, a Beaufort, an O'Halloran, an Ouseley, an Archdall; (to which might be added the ingenious disquisitions of many others;) I point out to the reader the true sources of elegant gratification in regard to the knowledge of Irish history, and topography, customs, and manners, Todd.
