Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/589

 LETTER OF DR. ADAM CLARKE.* Millbroolc, Prescot, Lancashire, Nov. 22d, 182L Dear Sir, Almost six months after date, I was honored with your letter enclosed with Vol. I. of the Arch&ologia Americana. For this token of respect I beg leave to return my warmest thanks to your Honorable President, and to the Society ; and to yourself for the handsome and polite manner in which this valuable present was conveyed. Two literary friends who were with me on a visit begged to read the work ; their perusal of it kept me nearly eight days from having the pleasure which they told me they had received in perusing it. On its return, I threw aside all other studies, and bent my mind fully to consider its contents. To say I was pleased with it, will express very little of my feelings ; I was highly delighted, and much instructed. The investiga- tions relative to your ancient people, led me into a new world. Fancy, a rare operator in antiquarian pursuits, got immedi- ately to work ; and I began to travel with your travellers ; survey with your surveyors ; and thought how well I could have digged with the laborers employed in clearing the old tanks, ditches, he. Mounds, cairns, and forts, which I had repeatedly seen in England, Ireland, and Scotland, presented themselves before me ; as also the various instruments of stone and clay, which I have seen, particularly in Ireland, dug up by the spade or turned up by the plough. Those which I have myself examined bear such a striking resemblance to those which you have described, that I cannot possibly doubt of their affinity. For several years, I have bent my mind frequently to the study of the ancient customs of the Irish ; especially of those who live in the glens, who preserve their ancient language, and cholera, at London, Aug. 21st, 1832, aged sixty-nine years. vol. ii. 70
 * 1) This celebrated scholar and eminent divine, died of the Asiatic