O'er some rich tillage country-side, when mellow autumn days Gild all the sheaf y food-full stooks, and, broad before him spread,-- He looking landward from the prow of some great sea-cape's head Bray or Ben-Edar--sees beneath in silent pageant grand Slow fields of sunshine spread o'er fields of rich, corn-bearing land; Red glebe and meadow-margin green commingling to the view, With yellow stubble, browning woods, and upland tracts of blue;-- Then, sated with the pomp of fields, turns seaward to the verge Where, mingling with the murmuring wash made by the far-down surge, Comes up the clangorous song of birds unseen, that, low be neath Poised off the rock, fly underfoot, and, mid the blossoming heath, And mint-sweet herb that loves the ledge rare-aired, at ease reclined, Surveys the wide, pale-heaving floor crisped by a curling wind; With all its shifty shadowing belts, and chasing scopes of green, Sun strewn, foam-freckled, sail-embossed, and blackening squalls between, And slant, cerulean-skirted showers, that with a drowsy sound, Heard inward, of ebullient waves, stalk all the horizon round. With its faithfulness to tone and character, its skillful reproduction of style and language, its force and vigor of narrative, its forms of mythologie mysticism and its appreciation of the magic of nature, Congal is the most perfect reproduction of the form and spirit of ancient Celtic poetry in existence, and from it the English reader, who is not a Celtic student, can obtain the best knowledge of its pervading elements. Congal is not the only contribution made by Sir Samuel Ferguson to Celtic poetry. The Lays of the Western Gael are a series of ballads founded on events in Celtic history and derived from the early chronicles and poems. They are original in form and substance, the ballad form and measure being unknown to the early Celtic poets of Ireland, but they preserve in a wonderful degree the ancient spirit, and give a picture of the ancient times with all the art of truth and verity. As I have said elsewhere 1:--