The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

84 The Highland Monthly.
Written charters, too, were coming into use. In the
Book of Kells there are seven charters in the Irish
language said to have been copied into that book in the
twelfth century, but all relating to grants of land made
between 102 1 and 11 57. These documents are more
however, in the nature of records of verbal grants, with the
names of the witnesses and sureties, than of actual grants
in writing. But there are also extant some regular Latin
charters by Irish princes, being all foundation charters of
ecclesiastical establishments. There is also a charter by
the Danish King of Limerick in 1 169, in which, in addition
to other pertinents of the land, fishings and mills are
mentioned.
It was through the Church, however, as we have said,
that foreign influence principally made itself felt, and that
the way for the conquest was prepared, and how this came
about we shall endeavour to narrate in the next chapter.
[to be CONTINL'En.]