The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-23 00:00:00

lIRECTION .

.Bth. 5 15 p.m becameWNW
930 p.m. " W
11 30 p.m " WSW
.9th. 115 a.m " W
220 a.m " WS W
3 0 a.tn " S W
5 0 a.m " S•INT
7 0 aan "
8 0 a.a " NW
8 15 a.m "
245 p.m " N W
9 0 p.m N W

Throughout the 18th the wind was brisk, and at
11 p.m. began to blow hard ; by 12 30 a.?n. of 19th
the force had increased to a gale, which ceased at
3 30 a.m., becoming rough again at 5 45 a.m. ;
from 11 50 a.m. a violent gale set in at 12 45 p.m.,
during a shower, the air moved over 1,305 yards in
a minute. Exactly at 2 p.m. clouds of rain and
hail rolled in waves along the ground and the air
became very dark, suddenly a hurricane commenced
which fortunately only lasted five minutes ; during
this short time a pressure of 201 b. on the square
foot was maintained, the force being greater than
I had ever before registered ; electricity negative
and powerful. This storm moved in a W.N.W.
current and sank down in 5.F..; it was followed by
a second storm of rain, snow, and hail, which com-
menced at 2 27 p.m., when a pressure of 121 b. on
the square foot was reached, and again the Electri-
city was strong; at 2 35 became fine. A third
storm began at 2 57 p.m., passing over us in a
N.W. current, and being mostly snow ; at 3 p.m.
the force of the wind was 101 b.; at 3 5 snow
heavier; 3 10, great snowstorm, some of the snow
flakes two inches in diameter ; 3 15, snow less vio-
lent ; 3 25, fine. During these storms the tempera-
ture fell rapidly, descending from 48.4 deg. on the
grass at 1 45 p.m. to 33 2 deg. in 15 minutes (a
difference of 15.2 deg.) From 445 p.m. the weather
became very fine and frosty, the gale increasing to
101 b. at 5 p.m , and suddenly ceasing at 5 40 p.m.
Throughout the evening the wind was rough, with
occasional squalls.
The barometer fell for 2G hours before the vio-
lence of the gale commenced.
I have the honour to he, Sir, your obedient ser-
vant, E. J. LOWE.
Observatory, Ileeston, Feb. 19.

A DRCOVERY.-THE OLDEST SCOT-

TISH CELTIC MAN USCR/PT.

(From the Inverness Courier.)
In the public library at Cambridge there has
been found a manuscript history of the Gospels,
with notices of the grant of lands to the abbey of
Deir, in Buchan, all in the Celtic language, and
written as early as the tenth century. Some
munuscripts in the Irish Celtic go hack as far as
the sixth century, but wo have no ancient Scottish
Celtic documents. In the postscript to Mr. Cosmo
Innes's interesting and valuable work, " Scotland
in the Middle Ages," we have the following notice
of this curious relic of antiquity :
" I have not myself seen the book ; but I am told
it contains, besides the Gospels, some portions and
forms of church service—among which the service
of the visitation of the sick—and, on the margins
and blank vellum are entered a few charters and
memoranda of grants to the church of Deir. These
entries are of high antiquity—more ancient than
any extant Scottish chartularies—and recording
facts still more archaic, reaching, indeed, a period
of history which neither charter nor chronicle
among us touches, and of which we have hitherto
had only a few glimpses from the older lives of the
saints, or from the meagre notes of foreign annalists.
e The first of the remarkable entries is one of that
class of memoranda of transactions which must have
been used in all countries before the introduction of
charters of gift. They are of common occcurrence
in church registers in France and Italy, and are not
unknown among ourselves. The memorandum is in
the Celtic dialect, and runs as follows :
" Columkille and Drostan, sons of Cosgrech, his
disciple, came from Hy [lona], as God had directed
them, as far as Aberdover, and Bede, a Pict, was
then Mormaer of Buchan on their arrival, and it
was he that granted to them that city in freedom
for ever, from the Mormaer and his sub-chief. They
came afterwards to another city, but the king of it
gave refusal to Columkille, for he was not endued
with the grace of God, and the Mormaer ordered
that it should be given to him ; but it was not.
And, after refusing the clerics, a son of his [the
king's] took a disease, and it wanted little but he
died. Afterwards the Mormaer went to entreat the
clerics, and [under-took] that he and Domnail and
Cathal would make all offerings to God and Dros-
tan from beginning to end, in freedom from the
Mormaer and his sub-chief till the day of judgment.'
"An imperfect note of two other benefactions
gives us the names of Colban, Mormaer of Buchan,
and Era, daughter of Gartnait, his married wife,
and the Clan Megan.' Among the grants are two
charters of Gartnat, son of Cannoc, and Eta, (laugh•
ter of Gillemichel, his wife, and a grant by Donead,
son of Macbead.
"The MS., whether judged from the handwriting
or its contents, appears to be of the 10th century ;
and the interest and importance of the discovery
will be felt when it is considered that we had not
previously any charter or grant of lands in Celtico
language in Scotland, nor any written Gaelic of
Scotch production earlier than the 16th
unless we except eight leaves of an almotsta N
i e
, ngvsow
pedigree, said to be as old as 1450 ;h
70 kings,
without of the Picts was a naked list of some
without dates or events ; that the title of Mormaer,
learnt from the Irish annals, does not once occur in
any Scotch charter, and the name of the Picts only
once (in a description of boundaries). Its dedica-
part the trion of the
tion to St. Drostan, and in
Church (preserved in the Aberdivuteihban wasrevlaryo)nletodf
informed us that Abertiouer in
St. Drostan's churches; but the early history of
Deir was quite unknown."
Mr. Bradshaw, a well-known scholar, has under.
taken the task of editing and Publishing the MS.,
which, as Mr. Innes says, " sets the whole discussion
which excited the Scotch antiquaries of the last cen-
tury on an entirely new footing." One class of an-
tiquaries has always maintained that the Celtic lan-
guage was the language of all Scotland (with the
exception of Lothian) up to the period of Malcolm