The lands of England were not more liberally distributed on the Norman conquest, than were those of Ireland on the success of the Anglo-Norman enterprize. In the former of these events, originated the ancient greatness of the House of de Clare;* in the latter, its theme of modern fame. What the Duke

Fitzoliver of Courtstown; from whose younger son, Sir Oliver Grace, the Ballylinch or Gracefield family is descended. In the various official Heraldic MSS. deposited there, numerous original entries, and other genealogical memoranda relative to the name, have been found.

From the Diocesan Courts of Dublin, Ossory and Cashel, much valuable materials have been also collected, as well as from the Evidence Chamber in the Castle of Kilkenny. Besides these, some private MSS., monumental inscriptions, local traditions, MS. and oral Irish poetry, may likewise be considered as affording matter for original information.

Such are the solid foundations on which our superstructure may fearlessly rest and while confiding to their support and tenacious of fact, if the darkness of feudal days obscure, circumscribe, or even render useless some portion of our materials, it can seldom, thus guarded, be able to misapply them.

• Richard Fitzgilbert, Count of Ewe and Brion in Normandy, accompanied his kinsman William the Conqueror to England, from whom he obtained the Lordship of Clare, with other vast grants of land; and b's descendants in the third generation enjoyed the following great bereditary possessions, viz. :-In England, the Earldoms of Clare, Hertford, Gloucester, Pembroke, Buckingham, and Strigul or Chepstow, with the Marshalship of the Kingdom. In Ireland, the sovereign Lordship of Leinster, containing the palatinates of Carlow, Wexford, Kilkenny, Kildare, and Leix (Queen's Co.), with the Marshalship of the Kingdom. And in Normandy, they bore the titles of Counts of Ewe or Ogie, Brion, and Longueville. It is not however owing to these princely possessions, that their name has not been hurried along the stream of time to the gulph of oblivion. The patronymic of "de Clare" is indeed now almost unknown but the assumed name of "Strongbow," borne by Richard, Earl of Pembroke, the conqueror of Ireland, is to this day as universally and familiarly repeated, as that of William, Duke of Normandy, the Conqueror of England.