It has even been supposed that the diversities of natural character, at the present day, in some measure illustrate the generally received chronological and topographical arrangement. Ledwich in his introduction to _Grose's Antiquities_, considers the CELTES as the primeval possessors of the country;--all under the system of Druidism, living a sylvan life, and worshipping the Deity in oaken groves, wherefore few memorials of them are left. In the north are to be traced, from the earliest ages, the SCOTI; in the south, the FIRBOLGS, then the MILESIANS, and also the PHŒNICIANS about two centuries before Christ; there also, according to Ptolemy, were the MENAPII and BRIGANTES; and the RHOBOGDII, DARNI, &c. in the north, of a later date than the first SCOTI, or INDO-SCYTHI, agreeable to Vallancey's theory. From these and other local circumstances connected with Ireland, there are few antiquities of very ancient date, with the exception of rude memorials, because nothing but wood was used in building until the 11th or 12th century; for until then, stone was only employed in funeral monuments, or _Cairns_, in _Cromlechs_, and sometimes in the _Barrows_, _Raths_, and _Danish forts_; also in the _Round Towers_, if their antiquity is so great as some writers suppose. Of the antiquities of modern date, the greatest number consist of _Castles_, _Churches_, and _Monasteries_, principally to be found within the limits of the ancient English Pale. This is evident from what Sir John Davis asserts--"Yet, which is strange to be related, they did never build any houses of brick or stone, some few poor religious houses excepted, before the reign of Henry II." Of the earlier English antiquities, those consist of CATHEDRALS, CHURCHES, and CASTLES; some few Saxon, (at Kilcullen, Co. Kildare, and Disert, Co. Clare,) some Norman, but principally of later date. DRUIDICAL MONUMENTS are very numerous, particularly in some parts of the north. Dr. Drummond, in the scientific notes to his interesting poem on the Giant's Causeway, says that "numerous monuments of the Druidical superstition are still to be seen in the County of Antrim." The appearance of those agrees with the description in Mallet's _Northern Antiquities_; and also with the quotation from Wormius, copied by Ledwich,--"The structure of our altars is various; but generally a tumulus is formed, on whose summit three great stones are erected, and on them a fourth broader and more flat is laid, so that it exactly appears like a rude huge table resting on three feet." We may add, in respect to these CROMLECHS,