yet eminent, was the working in gold and silver; and William of Poictiers states that the best German artists in that department found themselves encouraged to come and take up their residence in the country. From this, we may presume that the chief demand for their productions and those of the native artists of the same class was among the English themselves; but, from the high repute of the English workmanship, some of the embroidered stuffs, of the vases, ornamented drinking-cups, and other similar articles fabricated here, would, no doubt, also be sent abroad. Considerable quantities of the precious metals must have been consumed in the manufacture of these articles; and it is not unlikely that the supply was in great part obtained from Ireland, where it is agreed on all hands that, whencesoever it may have been obtained—whether from native mines, or from the ancient intercourse of the island with the East, or from the Northmen, enriched by the spoils of their piracy, who had conquered and occupied a great part of the island in the period immediately preceding that with which we are now engaged—there was formerly an extraordinary abundance of gold and silver, of the former especially.[1]
- ↑ "It appears that there were greater stores of the precious metals in Ireland than could well be supposed. Large sums of gold and silver were frequently given for the ransom of men of rank taken in battle; and duties or rents, paid in gold or silver, to ecclesiastical establishments, occur very often in the Irish annals. At the consecration of a church in the year 1157, Murha O'Lochlin, king of Ireland, gave a town, 150 cows, and 60 ounces of gold, to God and the clergy: a chief called O'Carrol gave also 60 ounces of gold; and Tiernan O'Ruark's wife gave as much—donations which would have been esteemed very great in that age in England or upon the continent. What superstition so liberally gave, some species of industry must have acquired; and that was most probably the pasturage of cattle...unless we will suppose that the mines of Ireland, which, though unnoticed by any writer, seem to have been at some time very productive, were still capable of supplying the sums collected in the coffers of the chiefs and the clergy." — Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. i. p. 334.
