Kells, the ancient name of which was Ceannanus, and the one by which it is
still known in Irish, is one of the most ancient towns in Ireland.
According to Irish annalists it was founded by an over-king called Fiacha,
1203 years B.C. If its situation and environs are of no great beauty, it
is yet a place of great historic interest. It can boast of the possession
of one of the finest round towers in Ireland, a very ancient cross, and a
still more ancient stone-roofed church. If there are no mountains or
romantic scenery round Kells, it has the advantage of being situated in
the midst of the most generally fertile of Irish counties. It is on the
river Blackwater, a tributary of the historic Boyne. Nothing can exceed
the fertility of the land round Kells; but that does it no good, for the
land is almost all in grass, the rural population sparse, and
consequently, of very little outside support to the town. But Kells is no
worse off than the other towns of Meath. It is, as far as soil is
concerned, the richest county in Ireland, but its towns are either in a
state of absolute decay, or at a standstill. There is hardly any tilled
land in the county; its herds are large, and its population consequently
declining. Where cattle abound, people are generally scarce.
For those who visit Kells merely to see the wondrous luxuriance of its
grassy environs, the best thing they can do is to ascend the hill of
Lloyd, which is close to the town, and go to the top of the tower that
crowns the summit of the hill. It is over a hundred feet high, with a
winding flight of stairs, and a turret on top, capable of containing a
dozen people. The view from the tower is very fine, and will well repay
those who see it. Almost the whole of Meath, Louth, Cavan, and parts of
other counties can be seen. The tower was built more than a hundred years
ago by the first Earl of Bective. It is sometimes called "Bective's
Folly," because it serves for nothing except giving a fine view to those
who ascend it. It is generally known as the tower of Lloyd.
To the antiquarian, the neighbourhood of Kells is of supreme interest.
Four miles south-east of it, on the banks of the Blackwater, lies the site
of what is considered, next to Tara, the most ancient spot of Irish
soil--namely, the place where the games of Tailltean were, for some
thousands of years, celebrated. The place is now called Telltown, an
evident Anglicisation of its Irish name; but it is still called Tailltean
by any old persons in its vicinity who speak Irish. If any credence can be
given to Irish annals and history, the antiquity of this place is
astounding. The sceptic has to admit that the mere fact of the
preservation down to the present day of the name by which it was known
from remote antiquity is in itself an extraordinary fact. The games or
sports of Tailltean were somewhat similar to the Olympic games of Greece,
except that those of Tailltean were celebrated every year. The whole of
Ireland used to assist at them, and they seem to have been celebrated
every year down to 1168, when they were for the last time celebrated by
the unfortunate and foolish Roderick O'Connor, the last of those who were,
even in name, chief kings of Ireland. In spite of internal wars, Danish
invasions and plunderings, a single year does not appear to have elapsed
from the time they were first established down to the twelfth century in
which they were not celebrated. It would also seem that no matter what
wars or troubles were distracting the country, the games of Tailltean
were never omitted. They took place at the beginning of August, as has
been mentioned in the article on Tara, and from them the Irish name of the
month of August--_Lughnasa_--is derived. The name Tailltean is the
genitive case of Taillte, the woman in whose memory they were established
by her son, Lugh, who lived and reigned in Tara, according to the
chronology of the Four Masters, which differs only slightly from that of
other annalists, 1824 years B.C.! It is no matter how we may smile or
shake our heads when this astounding antiquity is mentioned, the
preservation of those two names, _Lughnasa_ and _Tailltean_, down to the
present day, drives away the smile and makes us look serious. Such
collateral proofs of the existence of historic personages of such
antiquity cannot be furnished by any other nation in the world, not even
by Egypt or by Greece.
We must not pooh-pooh the statement of Irish annalists as to the enormous
antiquity they give to persons who figure in early Irish history. Here is
what the late Sir William Wilde says in his book, "Loch Corrib": "With
respect to Irish chronology, we believe it will be found to approach the
truth as near as that of most other countries; and the more we investigate
it and endeavour to synchronise it with that of other lands, the less
reason we shall have to find fault with the accounts of our native
annalists."
There are not many monuments of the past to be seen at Tailltean save an
earthen fort of about a hundred paces in diameter, and two small lakes
that bear evidence of having been formed artificially. To show how long
traditions live in countries that even partially preserve their ancient
language, it need only be said that up to about a hundred years ago, the
peasantry of the neighbourhood used to meet on the first of _Lughnasa_, or
August, at Tailltean to have games and athletic sports of different kinds.
The meeting was called a _pattern_, but it was not held on any patron
saint's day. It was merely the traditional remembrance of the old games
that had not been celebrated for seven hundred years previously, that
caused the peasantry to meet at Tailltean. It is said that on account of
the drinking and consequent fighting that used to take place, the clergy
forbid the people to assemble. Irish history and annals, while they
constantly mention the games of Tailltean, leave us a good deal in the
dark about the nature of the sports that used to take place. But they do
say that marriages, or, rather, alliances of a somewhat evanescent kind
used to be contracted; and to this day, all through the part of the
country in the neighbourhood of Tailltean, when a matrimonial alliance
turns out badly, or when the parties separate, it is called "a Telltown
marriage." No one who has ever written about Telltown, not even such
profound archaeologists as O'Donovan and Petrie, has ever had any doubt
about its being the exact place where the games of Tailltean were held in
ancient times.
There cannot be said to be any very ancient monuments of Christian times
to be seen in Kells save a very fine round tower, the top of which is
gone; a very ancient cross in the market-place, two in the churchyard, and
a stone-roofed church or oratory. The last is the oldest and most
interesting ancient monument in Kells. It is a small building, only
nineteen feet long, fifteen broad, and twenty-five high. It is one of the
most ancient edifices built with cement that exists in Ireland. Its
foundation is attributed to St Columba; and it is considered to be at
least of his time, or the middle of the sixth century. It is apparently as
sound and as solid as it was the day it was built. Everything that could
with any certainty be believed to have been part of the great monastery
that was in Kells has disappeared. Its stones were probably taken to
build the present church that stands near to where the monastery was. The
stones of the ancient building that has been described would also probably
have been used for some purpose if they could have been easily removed,
but it is so solid, and the stones are so firmly bound together by
grouting, that the labour of tearing it down deterred the vandals from
destroying it.
Kells was so often burned and so often plundered by the Northmen that it
is a wonder how anything in it remains. According to the annals it was
burned twenty-one times, and plundered seven times, before the twelfth
century! Every vestige of the great castle, that was built either by Hugo
de Lacy or John de Courcy, has disappeared. This castle must have been
nearly as large as that of Trim, for it was built for the protection of
some of the most valuable country conquered by the invaders. It is said
that the monastery was in a ruined condition at the close of the twelfth
century, and that de Lacy renovated it and richly endowed it.
That wondrous manuscript known as the Book of Kells, although it is not
believed to have been written in that town, has been named from it, and
consequently should be mentioned in connection with it. That the book
found its way to Kells, and that it was there for many centuries, there
cannot be any doubt. Neither can there be any doubt that it belonged to
the Church of Kells, for there are curious charters in it, written in
Irish of a very archaic kind, relating to the clergy of that town. It
seems to have been in Kildare in the twelfth century, for it is evidently
of it that Giraldus Cambrensis speaks when he says, "Of all the wonders of
Kildare, I found nothing more wonderful than the marvellous book that was
written in the time of St Brigit." It was in the church of Kells until
1620, when Archbishop Ussher saved it from being destroyed. It is a Latin
version of the Gospels, with some Gaelic charters, relating to the Church
of Kells, that were bound into it many centuries after it was written. It
was taken by the Danes, it is believed, and the golden cover torn off it;
it was found buried in the ground some time after. This is recorded to
have happened in 1006. It is the most wonderful work of art of its kind
known to exist in any country, and it is no wonder that in a credulous age
it should have been believed to be the work of angels. Westwood, an
Englishman, and author of the greatest work on illuminated manuscripts
ever written, says of it: "It is unquestionably the most elaborately
executed manuscripts of so early a date now in existence." Doctor Waagen,
Conservator of the Royal Museum of Berlin, says of it: "The ornamental
pages, borders, and initial letters exhibit such a rich variety of
beautiful and peculiar designs, so admirable a taste in the arrangement of
colours, and such an uncommon perfection of finish, that one feels
absolutely struck with amazement." Where and when the Book of Kells was
executed, and by whom, will probably never be known; but it must have been
written as early as the sixth century. Tradition attributes it to Columba,
or, as he is usually called, Columb Cille. The late Dr Todd, one of the
most learned archaeologists, and one of the best Gaelic scholars that ever
Ireland produced, believed that it was as early as the time of Columba.
The author of _Topographia Hiberniae_ says of it: "The more frequently I
behold it, the more diligently I examine it, the more I am lost in
admiration of it." No one who has not seen the Book of Kells can form an
idea of its beauty. In the pages that have not been soiled the colours are
as pure and as bright as if they were laid on only yesterday. The naked
eye cannot follow all its delicate and minute tracings; to see it aright,
it should be seen through a microscope. It is beyond any doubt the most
wonderful book of its kind in the world. In it and in the Tara Brooch
Ireland possesses two works of ancient art, two gems of artistic beauty
which are unequalled of their kind and of their age. The art treasures of
metallurgy exhumed in Pompeii, and all that have been found in Greece and
Asia Minor by Schliemann, contain nothing equal in exquisite finish to the
Tara Brooch; and in all the treasures of illuminated manuscripts in the
libraries of the world, there is nothing of its kind equal to the Book of
Kells. The Tara Brooch can be seen in the Museum, Kildare Street, Dublin,
and the Book of Kells in Trinity College, in the same city.
* * * * *
All the ecclesiastical establishments that have been described owed their
origin to native piety, benevolence, and enterprise.