Matheson Collection > Gleanings from Irish manuscripts

A LETTER FROM JOHN MAC SOLLY
Other religious matter. A collection of tales in
his handwriting was completed in 171 3, while
Edward O'Reilly was in possession of a MS.
made by him in 1742. Perhaps his most
ambitious effort is the incomplete transcript of the
Book of Ballymote^ which is now in the Library
of Trinity College, Dublin, and runs to no less
than 622 pages. It bears the dates 1727 and 1728.
Edward O Reilly, speaking of its contents, says,
that ** to the industry of Tipper, the Irish scholar
and antiquarian is indebted for many copies of
ancient MSS., which he made from originals that
are either not extant, or are locked up in libraries
from the public." Tipper left no Irish compo-
sition of his own.
In transcribing the letter printed above no
change of importance has been made. In the
place-name at the top the original, by an over-
sight, omits the final n, I have no doubt O is
similarly omitted in the name O Doibhlin, which
name is given as O Doimhleinn in an extract in
Mr. Flower's Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in
the British Museum, The work just mentioned is
the principal authority for the notes here given.
Use has also been made of Gadelica^ Vol. I, where
Tadhg O Neachtain's poem is edited and of
Edward J. Gwynn's Catalogue of the Irish MSS.
in T,C,D,, Dublin,
We know but a part of the activities of the
poets and scholars of the period following the
Battle of the Boyne. It is only when the Academy
collections, and others preserved elsewhere, have
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