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How the Mind Comes Into Being
How the Mind Comes
Into Being
Introducing Cognitive
Science from
a Functional
and Computational
Perspective

Martin V. Butz and Esther F. Kutter

Department of Computer Science and Department of Psychology
Faculty of Science, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen
Tübingen, Germany

3
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
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© Oxford University Press 2017
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted
First Edition published in 2017
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address above
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Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
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contained in any third party website referenced in this work.
 v

To our families
Preface

More than 2000 years ago — maybe as the first humans in the world — Greek philosophers
have thought about the puzzling introspectively assessed dichotomy between our physical
bodies and our seemingly, non-physical, mental minds. How is it that we can think highly
abstract thoughts, seemingly fully detached from the actual, physical reality? Despite the
obvious interactions between mind and body (we get tired, we are hungry, we stay up late
despite being tired, etc.), until today it remains puzzling how our mind controls our body,
and vice versa, how our body shapes our mind.
This textbook focuses on the embodiment of the mind in all its facets. Many other
books on cognitive science focus on sensory information processing, motor output genera-
tion, reasoning, symbol processing, and language in separate rather disconnected chapters.
This book integrates these aspects of cognition sketching-out their interdependencies and
their potential ontogenetic (over a life-time) and phylogenetic (over centuries, millennia, and
beyond) development. As a consequence, after giving a multidisciplinary background on the
development of cognitive science as a research discipline, the book starts from an evolu-
tionary developmental perspective, shedding light on how behavior traits and genetic codes
may have developed on our earth. Next, we proceed with cognitive development during a
life-time, focusing on reinforcement learning and the development of flexible behavioral capa-
bilities by learning about and selecting amongst redundant alternative interactions with the
environment. An excursion into a functional perspective on the human brain then leads to
principles of perception and action generation, including the relations between these prin-
ciples, leading to multisensory and multi-information interactions. Processes of attention
and the different aspects of attentional processes then lead to principles of decision making,
language, and abstract thought. One goal of the book is thus to sketch-out a developmental
pathway towards higher, symbolic, abstract cognitive capabilities starting bottom-up with
principled processes of bodily representations and body control, offering a novel perspective
on cognitive science by taking a sensorimotor, integrative, embodied stance.
Meanwhile, the textbook offers a principled mathematical, functional, and algorithmic
background about the processes that apparently underly neurocognitive representations,
processes, adaptations, and learning in our brains. In particular, when considering phy-
logenetic, evolutionary development of the human mind, we introduce genetic algorithms
and their functionality, revealing potentially rather simple developmental pathways and
contrasting these with situations of highly unlikely evolutionary developments. Moving to
reward-oriented adaptations of behavior, reinforcement learning is introduced and analyzed
once again in terms of its capabilities and challenges. Interestingly, evolutionary learn-
ing algorithms appear to have much in common with a particular type of reinforcement
learning algorithm. We also show, nonetheless, that our behavior and behavioral decision
making cannot be purely reward-driven. We are able to make context-dependent decisions
and choose alternative environmental interactions given current circumstances. Thus, we
are highly flexible in our interactions with the environment. Where does the flexibility of
our mind come from? We show how it is possible to alter interactions on demand – so to
say, effectively doing what seems right given the current context – by means of abstract,
predictive models.

vii
viii PREFACE

With cognitive flexibility in mind, we then have a look at the current neuroscientific
knowledge from a functional perspective. Several of the rather dedicated modules in our
brain are then further evaluated and analyzed in further computationally-oriented detail.
In particular, we proceed by bottom-up visual information processing and the possibility
to include top-down influences into this processing stream. Once again computationally
oriented, we show how such interactive information processing can be accomplished by means
of Bayesian probability and predictive coding principles. The same principle also applies
when information from various sensors needs to be integrated into one fused percept of
both the environment and the own body. To interact flexibly and selectively with mental
concepts, attention for behavior needs to be enhanced to principles of internal attentional
processes, which select those mental representations that are currently most appealing. Once
again, the bottom-up processes are combined with top-down processes to guide information
processing for behavioral- and mental control.
Equal processes expand to principles of planning and decision making, for which an
embodied value system needs to be integrated, and finally to language and abstract thought.
Even with respect to language, computational principles can explain aspects of language
evolution, including benefits of communication, the need to individualize your conversation
partners, and principles of basic grammatical structures. Moreover, structures that are
highly suitable for accomplishing behavioral flexibility and enabling more complex planning
and decision making may determine the principle underlying the universal grammar, offer
solutions to the symbol grounding problem, and bootstrap the very flexible compositionality
offered by human languages.
In closing, we hope this book provides a new, intriguing perspective on cognitive science.
While being a textbook with educational contents, the book also aims at shedding light onto
the recent movement towards embodied cognitive science, offering answers to the questions
of what embodied cognitive science may mean and what it may imply.

Acknowledgments
This book would not have come into being without the help of many people, including our
families, friends, and many colleagues. Thank you for all the support and understanding.
As the first author, I would like to particularly thank my colleagues at the University of
Würzburg for supporting me during the time when I gave the lecture – upon which large
parts of the book are based on – for the first time in the summer term of 2008. In par-
ticular, professor Frank Puppe has encouraged me to present my perspective on artificial
intelligence and cognitive systems back then. Moreover, professor Joachim Hoffmann has
always provided his complete trust and support throughout my time at the University of
Würzburg and beyond that until now. I am immensely grateful for all the inspiring discus-
sions, comments, and constructive criticism throughout my career. Only due to his thorough
and farsighted work in cognitive psychology – and beyond that towards cognitive science
– have I understood and internalized the importance of predictions and anticipations for
cognition. I am equally in debt to professor David E. Goldberg for all his trust and support
throughout my time at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (UIUC) and
beyond that. Due to the highly inspiring discussion and analytical sessions with him, I have
learned – amongst many other things – to appreciate the importance of understanding a
complex system’s functionality by means of facet-wise analysis. I would also like to thank
my colleagues at the University of Tübingen for supporting my work here in many ways.
Finally, I would like to thank my wife for her understanding for all the late nights and her
continuous support, and my kids for always welcoming me home and reminding me in their
beautiful ways that a very important part of life has nothing to do with research.
As the second author, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Martin for all
the trust and support he put in me. In countless passionate and constructive discussions
with him he helped me understand how to see and forge links between all the different
aspects of cognitive science. During the past years in his team I have internalized the
PREFACE ix

impact and importance of a holistic, unifying understanding of cognition in all its facets. I
am immensely grateful that he offered me this unique opportunity to become coauthor of
this book. Finally, I am so grateful to my family, who provided me with unfailing support
and continuous encouragement throughout the project.
Comments and suggestions for the actual book came from numerous people. We found
the enthusiasm that was returned when we detailed the planned book’s content particularly
encouraging. Several anonymous reviewers from OUP have provided very useful suggestions
including to keep a balanced perspective, which is hopefully maintained successfully. More-
over, we would like to thank the Cognitive Modeling team for reading book chapters and
providing very useful contents suggestions. We are particularly grateful also for PD Oliver
Herbort, who managed to give detailed and highly valuable comments on the first chapters
in these busy times. Moreover, we would like to thank Carolyn Kinney for proofreading
the book in immense detail and very thoroughly and also Kenneth Kinney for his detailed
proofreading effort.
In closing, we would like to thank professor Harold Bekkering, professor Wayne Gray, and
professor Karl Friston for their wonderful book endorsements and all the support beyond
that. We very much hope, of course, that the book will be well-received by many other
researchers, students, and anybody with the longing to understand “how our minds come
into being.”
Contents

Preface vii

1 Embodied Cognitive Science 1

1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Our brain controls our body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 Our body controls our brain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4 Our body and our world shape our brain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.5 Our brain develops for a purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.6 Computational knowledge is necessary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.7 Book overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2 Cognitive Science is Interdisciplinary 9

2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2.1 Epistemology and its development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2.2 Philosophy of mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.2.3 Philosophy of language and forms of representation . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.3 Biology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.3.1 Neurobiology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.3.2 Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.4 Psychology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.4.1 Behaviorism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.4.2 Constructivism and developmental psychology . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.4.3 The cognitive turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.4.4 Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.5 Bringing the pieces together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.6 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

3 Cognition is Embodied 45
3.1 Computers and intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.2 What is intelligence anyway? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.2.1 Early conceptualizations of intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.2.2 Further differentiations of intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.3 Symbolic artificial intelligence and its limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.3.1 Symbolic problem solving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.3.2 Symbolic linguistic processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.4 Hard challenges for symbolic processing systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.4.1 Symbol grounding problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.4.2 Frame problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.4.3 Binding problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.5 Neural networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.6 Embodied intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.6.1 Embodied biological processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

xi
xii CONTENTS

3.6.2 Embodied artificial intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

3.6.3 Embodied cognitive agents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.7 When have we reached artificial, human cognition? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
3.8 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

4 Cognitive Development and Evolution 77

4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.2 Ontogenetic development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4.2.1 Prenatal development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.2.2 Cognitive development after birth: the first few years . . . . . . . . . 81
4.3 Phylogenetic development and evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
4.3.1 A brief history of evolution science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4.3.2 Genetics in a nutshell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
4.3.3 Evolutionary mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
4.4 Evolutionary computation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
4.4.1 Basic components of evolutionary computation algorithms . . . . . . . 96
4.4.2 When do evolutionary algorithms work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
4.5 What can we learn from evolution? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
4.6 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

5 Behavior is Reward-oriented 109

5.1 Introduction and overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
5.2 Reinforcement learning in psychology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
5.3 Reinforcement learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
5.3.1 RL problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
5.3.2 Temporal difference learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
5.3.3 Speeding up temporal difference learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
5.3.4 Behavioral strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
5.3.5 Actor-critic approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
5.4 Policy gradients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
5.4.1 Formalization of policy gradients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
5.4.2 Gradient estimation techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
5.4.3 A racing car example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
5.4.4 Conclusions and relations to cognition and behavior . . . . . . . . . . 128
5.5 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

6 Behavioral Flexibility and Anticipatory Behavior 131

6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
6.2 Flexibility and adaptivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
6.2.1 Niches and natural diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
6.2.2 Beyond behaviorism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
6.2.3 Redundancies and complements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
6.3 Sensorimotor learning and adaptation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
6.4 Anticipatory behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
6.4.1 Forward anticipatory behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
6.4.2 Inverse anticipatory behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
6.5 Motivations and curiosity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
6.5.1 Intrinsic reward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
6.5.2 Extrinsic reward and motivations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
6.6 Summary and outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
6.7 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
CONTENTS xiii

7 Brain Basics from a Computational Perspective 155

7.1 Introduction and overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
7.2 The nervous system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
7.3 Brain anatomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
7.3.1 Neurons and neural information processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
7.3.2 Modules and areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
7.3.3 Basic brain and body maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
7.4 General organizational principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
7.4.1 Function-oriented mappings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
7.4.2 Cortical columns and topographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
7.4.3 Neural tuning and coordinated communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
7.5 Brain mechanisms and brain imaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
7.5.1 Brain lesion studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
7.5.2 Active methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
7.5.3 Passive methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
7.5.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
7.6 Summary and conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

8 Primary Visual Perception from the Bottom Up 183

8.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
8.2 Light and reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
8.3 The eye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
8.4 Visual processing pathways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
8.5 Redundant and complementary visual processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
8.5.1 Receptive fields, columns, and hypercolumns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
8.5.2 Smoothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
8.5.3 Edge detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
8.5.4 Motion detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
8.5.5 Integrating edge information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
8.5.6 Further sources of visual information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
8.6 Summary and conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
8.7 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

9 Top-Down Predictions Determine Perceptions 203

9.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
9.2 Top-down predictive, generative models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
9.3 Bayesian information processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
9.3.1 Probability theory: a short introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
9.3.2 A simple example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
9.3.3 Bayesian networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
9.3.4 Probability distributions and densities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
9.4 A Bayesian model of visual processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
9.5 Visual illusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
9.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
9.7 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

10 Multisensory Interactions 231

10.1 Introduction and overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
10.2 Body-relative spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
10.2.1 Redundant, body-relative, multisensory spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
10.2.2 Simple population encoding in a locust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
10.2.3 Learning peripersonal spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
10.2.4 Optimal information fusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
10.2.5 Spatial, topology-preserving transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
10.3 Multisensory recognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
xiv CONTENTS

10.3.1 Object recognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

10.3.2 Behavior recognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
10.4 Cognitive maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
10.4.1 Hippocampus and episodic memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
10.4.2 Behavior-oriented cognitive map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
10.5 Summary and conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
10.6 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

11 Attention 255
11.1 Introduction and overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
11.2 Top-down and bottom-up attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
11.3 Phenomena of attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
11.3.1 Visual search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
11.3.2 Attention over time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
11.3.3 Change blindness and inattentional blindness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
11.3.4 Other attentional capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
11.4 Models of attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
11.4.1 Qualitative models of attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
11.4.2 Bundesen’s theory of visual attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
11.4.3 Saliency maps and eye saccades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
11.4.4 Dynamic neural fields of attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
11.5 Summary and outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
11.6 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

12 Decision Making, Control, and Concept Formation 275

12.1 Introduction and overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
12.2 Compositional motor control in the brain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
12.2.1 Muscles and the spinal cord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
12.2.2 Motorcortex and beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
12.3 Computational motor control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
12.3.1 Models of online motor control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
12.3.2 Models of decision making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
12.3.3 Action and motor control components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
12.3.4 Decision making components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
12.4 Event-oriented conceptualizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
12.4.1 Events and event segmentations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
12.4.2 Event taxonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
12.4.3 Event conceptualizations and abstractions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
12.5 Summary and conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
12.6 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

13 Language, Concepts, and Abstract Thought 305

13.1 Introduction and overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
13.2 Introduction to linguistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
13.2.1 Historical sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
13.2.2 Speech sounds: phonetics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
13.2.3 Words: phonology and morphology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
13.2.4 Sentences: syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
13.2.5 Semantics and pragmatics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
13.3 Language in the brain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
13.4 Language evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
13.4.1 Shared intentionality, cooperation, and communication . . . . . . . . . 319
13.4.2 Gestural theory and verbal communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
13.4.3 Mind and grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
13.4.4 Further implications of language evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
expenses of the castle in lieu of the land used, in accordance with the
conditions agreed to by the Bishop of Norwich when he was fortifying it.
After this there are several references in the State Documents to the tithes
and other compensation due to the monks.
In 1221 the King instituted a fair to be held at the castle.
The fortress being situated on the border of Irish territory, its early history
has an exceedingly stormy record. In 1226 Geoffrey de Marisco, who was
then Justiciary of Ireland, complained that as the King of Connaught refused
to come to Dublin, he had appointed to meet him at Athlone, although the
castle was fortified against the Crown.
In 1232 an order was issued to Hubert de Burgh to deliver the castle to
Peter de Rivall, and the next year one to Richard de Burgh, who was to
surrender it to Maurice FitzGerald, Justiciary of Ireland.
Walter de Lacy received twenty marks for the custody of the fortress in
1240, and eleven years later a tax was levied for its repair.
It was granted to Prince Edward, the King’s son, in 1254; and during the
years 1276-77 it was repaired.
Richard de Verdon was besieged in the castle in 1288 by Richard de
Burgo, and the same year John, Archbishop of Dublin, took up residence
there to oversee its better fortification, and to try and make terms with the
Irish.
In 1305 Richard de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, was constable.
The castle was “obtained” for the King in 1537, having been in the hands
of the Irish for many years. It contained only one piece of broken ordnance,
and there is a request that another piece should be sent.
During Queen Elizabeth’s reign it was the residence of the President of
Connaught, and also the Chief Justice and Attorney-General for Connaught.
Tradition states that the Earl of Essex frequently stayed in the castle, and
some of his letters to the Queen are dated from Athlone.
The O’Conor Don was imprisoned in the fortress in 1570 while Sir E.
Fitton was constable, as a hostage for the good behaviour of his sept. Some
of his followers, however, brought a “cot” under the castle walls, into which
the captive stepped, and so escaped.
In 1585-86 it is described as being a fitter residence for the Chief
Commissioner of Connaught than the Lord Deputy in the following words:
—“That the castle is conveniently furnished with buildings and other
necessaries fit for the said Commissioner, but far too mean for the Lord
Deputy and the train that must follow the state.”
It was ordered to be garrisoned in 1599, and the following year it was to
be entrusted to none but a “sound Englishman.” In 1606 it was repaired and
added to.
Two years later it was seized by the Earls Tyrone and Tyrconnell. It passed
again to the Crown, and the Earl of Clanricard was constable in 1610.
Thirteen years later it was repaired, and a curious tax is mentioned with
regard to the operations, which is, that the sept of Kellyes was bound to
supply three hundred labourers yearly for work in the fortress.
The Court of Claims sat in the castle during the Commonwealth.
In 1682 Sir H. Piers writes of it:—“In the centre of the castle is a high
raised tower which overlooketh the walls and country round about. On the
side that faceth the river are rooms and apartments which served always for
the habitation of the Lord President of Connaught and Governor of the
castle, the middle castle being the storehouse for ammunition and warlike
provisions of all sorts.”
After the battle of the Boyne in 1690, Lieut.-General Douglas, with ten
regiments of infantry, three of horse, two of dragoons, twelve field-pieces,
and two small mortars, endeavoured to take possession of Athlone. The
bridge across the Shannon was broken, and he erected his batteries on the
Leinster side of the river.
He continued the cannonading for eight days, but his powder running
short he was obliged to retire. In his despatch he stated he had done his best,
and that it was his opinion Athlone Castle was “of the greatest importance of
any in Ireland.”
Colonel Richard Grace held the fortress for King James.
The following year the main division of William’s army, under de
Genckell, laid siege to the town. At once seizing that portion of it that is in
Leinster, he began to play his batteries on the north-east side of the castle on
June 22nd. By seven in the evening he had made a large breach in the walls.
Firing continued all night, and by five in the morning the side of the castle
next the river was completely broken down, and the garrison was obliged to
go in and out by a hole made in the wall on the western side.
 The following evening the castle garrison raised two batteries above the
castle, and some others, but the firing had little effect. The bridge was slowly
and surely gained by the besieging troops, and their guns played constantly
on the fortress, wrecking the Connaught tower and walls.
Two officers deserting from the town informed William’s troops that the
best regiments had been withdrawn by St. Ruth, and thereupon a concerted
and sudden attack was made on the 30th of June, which carried the bridge,
castle, and town by storm.
Repairs were at once begun by the victors on July 3rd, and in 1697 the
castle was the chief depôt of military stores in the west.
It is now used as a barrack, and officers’ quarters and other buildings have
been erected inside the walls.
Authorities Consulted.

Weld, “Statistical Survey of Co. Roscommon.”

Joly, “Old Bridge of Athlone.”
Parliamentary Gazetteer.
State Documents.
State Papers.
Carew MSS.
O’Donovan, “Annals of the Four Masters.”
D’Alton, “History of Drogheda.”
Proceedings of Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland.
In Journal of same, Langrishe, “Walls of Athlone,” and “Sieges of Athlone.”
 BALLYMOTE CASTLE
This fine old ruin is situated in the Barony of Corran, County Sligo, about
twelve miles north-west of Boyle.
The name signifies the “town of the moat,” and was not used before the
building of the Norman fortress. Some think “mote” is derived from
“mound,” but it is more likely to refer to the ditch which surrounded the
castle until the close of the seventeenth century. The place was formerly
called Athcliath-in-Chorainn, or “the hurdleford of Corran.”
The castle fell to ruin after the rebellion of 1688. The curtain walls, which
are 9 feet thick, were flanked by six round towers, one of them still being
about 60 feet in height. The courtyard which was thus enclosed contained
150 square feet.
A passage about 3 feet wide ran round in the thickness of the walls, and
communicated with the towers and defences. The state-rooms were on the
north side of the courtyard, and some of them were fine apartments. The
Survey of 1633 calls this part “the Court.” A few traces of outworks remain.
About twenty years ago the present Rector of Ballymote was told by an
old man that an underground passage was locally supposed to lead from the
castle to the abbey, a distance of about 200 yards. Upon further investigation
Canon Walker discovered two arches, one in the vestry of the abbey and the
other within the castle, apparently leading in the same direction. Both are
now choked with rubbish. The entrance in the castle is exceedingly narrow,
and was reached from the castle yard by descending steps.
Ballymote was erected by Richard de Burgo, “the Red Earl,” in 1300. It
was dismantled in 1318, and twenty-two years later it was in the possession
of Turlough O’Conor, King of Connaught, who was besieged in it by
MacDermot. Peace was afterwards concluded.
In 1346 it was restored and garrisoned by John de Kerrew.
Two years later it is referred to as belonging to Rory O’Conor, and it was
by that family entrusted to the MacDonoughs to hold against the Burkes.
These MacDonoughs seized the castle of Ballylahan in 1381, and taking its
gate to Ballymote, there erected it.
 In 1470 Brian MacDonough, who was lord of Ballymote, was slain by
Teige MacDonough, who took possession of the castle. It was still in this
family’s possession in 1522 when the famous parchment “Book of
Ballimote” was sold by the MacDonough of the time to Hugh Oge
O’Donnell for the large price of 140 milch cows, he having first obtained the
consent of his family to the transaction.
The MacDermots laid siege to the castle in 1561, and Cathal and Owen
MacDermot were both slain before the walls. Five years later the castle was
taken by the English and Hugh and Comac MacDonough imprisoned.
Almost immediately, however, the fortress was surprised by Tomaltach and
Duagal MacDonough.
Sir Richard Bingham recovered Ballymote in 1584 and placed his brother
George in charge with seven warders, while he also carried off MacDonough
as hostage. At this time sixteen quarters of the best land were set aside for
the castle’s maintenance, which seems to have given rise to a great deal of
jealousy regarding its custody. The year after its capture Sir Richard applied
to be made constable, with a lease of the fortress for sixty years.
In 1587, writing to Mr. Treasurer Wallop, he states he is willing to give up
Ballymote if he is refunded the money he has laid out upon it. The following
year George Goodman and Thomas Wood seem to have been constables.
The Irish burnt the town and drove the garrison back to the castle in 1593,
and two years later O’Conor Sligo petitioned the Government for the
fortress. The next year there was an unsuccessful attempt to surprise it, and
this year O’Conor Sligo occupied it upon his return from England.
Bingham managed to victual the castle across the Curlew mountains in
1595, but with the loss of many of his best soldiers, and in 1598 it was
betrayed to the MacDonoughs by two men the constable trusted. The captors
immediately put the fortress up to auction. There seems to have been sharp
bidding between Sir Conyers Clifford and Red Hugh O’Donnell, but it was
finally purchased by the latter for £400 and 300 cows.
O’Donnell remained in it until Christmas, and he continued to occupy it at
different times until 1601, being six months in residence after his victory of
the Yellow Ford. It was from here he set out for his disastrous march to
Kinsale.
He left Owen O’Gallagher as Governor, who handed the keys to Roderick
O’Donnell in 1602.
 Two years after it was granted to Sir James Fullerton by James I., and
when he left Ireland to be tutor to Duke Charles (afterwards Charles I.), the
castle passed to Sir William Taaffe.
It was surrendered to Sir Charles Coote upon articles in 1652, which are
still preserved.
The chief conditions were that the garrison was to march away with bag
and baggage, and twenty days were to be allowed for the removal of goods,
during which time Major-General Taaffe and his family might remain at the
castle. After this he was to have a free pass to the Continent, and Lady Taaffe
was to be allowed to live at Ballymote, on condition she did not use it
against the State, and that the Parliamentary forces might garrison it at any
time.
In 1689 the castle was held for King James by Captain M’Donough. A
party under Captain Cooper was sent to reconnoitre the district, and pursued
M’Donough’s men to the drawbridge of the fortress.
Two years later Lord Granard summoned the castle, but the governor,
named O’Conor, refused to surrender. Thereupon he despatched Baldearg
O’Donnell and a thousand men to lay siege to the place. They brought with
them one 12-pounder and two small field-pieces, and as soon as O’Conor
saw the guns he surrendered, upon condition the garrison might march out
with their belongings and proceed to Sligo.
After this period the castle was dismantled, and the land subsequently
passed to the Gore Booths. Of late there has been some talk of erecting a
modern institution within the old walls.
Authorities Consulted.

Wood-Martin, “History of Sligo.”

O’Rorke, “History of Sligo.”
State Papers.
Atkinson, “Book of Ballimote.”
Parliamentary Gazetteer.
Bagwell, “Ireland under the Tudors.”
 BALLYSHANNON CASTLE
The name used by the early annalists to denote Ballyshannon, was
Athseanaigh, which signified the “Ford of Seanach,” who was ancestor of
the Princes of Tirconnell. “Bel” stands for mouth, and the modern
designation is a corruption of the Celtic name meaning “the entrance to
Seanach’s ford.”
The town is situated on both sides of the river Erne, about eleven miles
south-south-west of the town of Donegal, to the extreme south of the county.
The castle was on the north bank of the river, and commanded the
principal ford. For this reason its possession was of immense strategical
importance, it being the key to the province of Tirconnell. Of the great
fortress of the O’Donnells only a small portion of one of the walls remains.
This is on the north side of the market yard, part of it being incorporated
with a grain store and part with a butter shed. It is 10 feet high and 5 feet
thick.
The fortress originally occupied the whole of the market square, and it is
most likely that its stones were used in the erection of a cavalry barracks,
which subsequently occupied the present market enclosure, but which has
now been removed.
Round the castle stretched a beautiful park, the name being still preserved
in some old leases. This extended almost to the summit of the hill on the
north. Quantities of human bones have been found in the neighbourhood.
The castle was erected in 1423 by Niall, son of Turlough O’Donnell. In
1435 Naghtan O’Donnell gave it to Brian Oge O’Neill for promising him
assistance against the O’Neill. Brian, however, went treacherously to his
chief without O’Donnell’s knowledge, leaving his warders in the castle.
O’Neill, not approving of such double dealing, took him and his two sons
prisoners, cutting off a hand and a foot from each, under which treatment
one of the sons died.
The fortress was taken from O’Donnell’s warders in 1496 by his son
Hugh. His brother Con, with the assistance of Maguire, laid siege to the
castle and dislodged him. O’Neill possessed himself of the stronghold in
1522, and slew the warders. It seems to have remained in his possession
until Sir Henry Sidney came north in 1566 and had it delivered to him, as
well as the castles of Donegal, Beleek, Bundrowes, and Castle Sligo. All
these fortresses he placed in the hands of O’Donnell and his allies, who were
at this time in high favour with England.
The next year Shane O’Neill liberated Con O’Donnell and his brother,
who were at the time his prisoners, and the castles of Ballyshannon and
Beleek were delivered to Con.
About this time the Government began to look with alarm on the growing
power and popularity of the O’Donnells, and the State Papers of the period
contain notes regarding the advisability of garrisoning Ballyshannon and the
other fortresses of Tirconnell.
The regular military force under O’Donnell consisted of 1,500 foot and
300 horse, out of which the garrison of Ballyshannon numbered 200 foot
soldiers and 40 mounted men.
In 1584, Lord Deputy Perrot recommended the erection of a castle and
bridge at Ballyshannon, no doubt to counteract the power of the O’Donnells’
fortress, which could hold the main ford against all comers. Four years later
the Lord Deputy dates a letter from Ballyshannon, and about this time young
Hugh O’Donnell was kidnapped and imprisoned in Dublin Castle.
In 1592, Mr. Ralph Lane applied to Burghley, asking for the custodianship
and fee-farm of the castle and lands of Ballyshannon, &c. The successful
escape of Red Hugh, however, from Dublin Castle seems to have placed the
possibility of the Government’s disposing of his ancestral home quite out of
the question, and in 1592 the greatest of the O’Donnells received a most
royal welcome from his father’s dependents in the north.
Arriving at Ballyshannon, where the O’Donnell warders still guarded the
fortress, the whole country flocked to meet him and offer their
congratulations on his escape.
The neighbourhood was in the most fearful state, being entirely overrun
by freebooters, against whom even the English were powerless—the castles
of Ballyshannon and Donegal alone remaining in the hands of the
O’Donnells.
After a most successful campaign against the marauders, Hugh O’Donnell
returned to Ballyshannon to undergo medical treatment for his feet, which
had been fearfully injured by travelling from Dublin to Glenmalure in his
house-shoes over the mountains and in bitter cold. He did not recover
entirely until the end of the year, as both his great toes had to be amputated.
In 1594 Sir Ralph Lane, writing to Burghley, mentions that Hugh Roe
O’Donnell would have broken down Ballyshannon but that his mother
dissuaded him from it, assuring him that it might be defended with his own
forces. Yet this very year it was evidently in the hands of the O’Donnells,
and remained so until its capture in 1602.
The State Papers of this period are full of letters requesting money and
forces sufficient to take it, alleging that the fortress was the “key of the
province,” and no peace could be hoped for in the north until it was
garrisoned by English.
In the meantime the O’Donnells lived in royal state, and with lavish
hospitality entertained the surrounding chiefs, while their flag floated from
the battlements.
Sir George Carew observes of the Prince of Tirconnell: “O’Donnell is the
best lorde of fishe in Ireland, and exchangeth fishe allwayes with foreign
merchants for wyne, by which his call in other countryes is the kinge of
fishe.”
It was during a great assemblage of chiefs at Ballyshannon to organise a
raid on the English border, that the great Shane O’Neill became madly
enamoured of O’Donnell’s lovely daughter, Helen. He went to her father and
demanded her hand, but was informed that the lady was already betrothed to
Maguire, the young chieftain of Fermanagh, who held his lands under
suzerainty of O’Donnell. This young man had been educated at the Spanish
court, and was all that a maiden could wish in a suitor.
One evening the lovers left the castle together, for a stroll by the river side,
towards Belleek. Here, while Helen was singing to her harp, O’Neill, who
had followed them, broke in upon their happiness. Maguire drew his sword
to defend the lady, but he was no match for the great chief from whom he
quickly received his death wound. O’Neill placed the fainting form of the
fair Helen before him on his horse, and, with a few followers, rode to
Dungannon Castle. Her father at once called his forces together, and
followed to revenge the injury. The end of the story has several variations,
but the most probable seems to be that O’Neill, finding the beautiful girl
irreconcilable to the loss of her handsome lover, returned her to her father.
The world had, however, lost its charm for her, and the rest of her short life
was spent in seclusion.
In 1597 the first determined attack was made on Ballyshannon. Sir
Conyers Clifford, Governor of Connaught, with four thousand men, foot and
horse, marched on the stronghold, accompanied by Donough, the son of
Connor, Murragh, Baron of Inchiquin, and other Irish nobles. O’Donnell
having all the fords guarded, they were obliged to cross the river about half a
mile west of Belleek. Here the Baron of Inchiquin was shot through his
armour, while his horse was standing in the deep water below the ford,
where he was encouraging the soldiers and saving them from drowning.
The ordnance was landed by water and planted against the castle. The
siege lasted three days, but when the little garrison were thinking of
surrendering, help arrived from Tyrone, and the English were driven off with
great loss. The defenders of the castle numbered only eighty men, and were
commanded by a Scotchman named Owen Crawford.
During Red Hugh’s absence in Spain in 1602 the English took the
opportunity to again attack the fortress. The warders, seeing no hope of
relief, fled, after the walls had been battered by a big gun, and Captain
Digges took “that long desired place.”
Ballyshannon, with 1,000 acres, was reserved to the King in 1603, and
five years later Sir Henry Folliot was appointed Governor. In this year the
plot to seize the King’s castle of Ballyshannon was one of the charges in the
indictment against the Earls of Tyrone and Tirconnell. In 1610 the castle,
lands, and fishings were granted to Sir H. Folliot for twenty-one years. He
was raised to the peerage under the title of Baron Folliot of Ballyshannon,
1619.
During the Jacobite troubles the castle was still used as a military
headquarters, and the town was for a time in the hands of the Royalists.
The land on which the ancient fortress stood is now part of the Connolly
estate, and was acquired by purchase from the Folliots.
Authorities Consulted.

Allingham, “Ballyshannon, its History and Antiquities.”

Donovan, “Annals of the Four Masters.”
Calendar of State Papers.
“The Donegal Highlands.”
Parliamentary Gazetteer.
 BALLYTEIGUE CASTLE
This castle is situated in the townland of the same name upon the shore of
Ballyteigue Lough, in the County Wexford. The name signifies “O’Teige’s
town.”
The old fortress forms part of a modern dwelling-house, and the keep has
always been kept roofed and in good repair.
It was erected by Sir Walter de Whitty, one of the Norman settlers, the
name being spelt variously—Whythay, Whythey, Wytteye, Whittey, Wythay,
in old documents.
Sir Richard Whitty was summoned to Parliament as a baron by Edward
III., and his son Richard held three carucates of land in Ballyteigue in 1335.
In 1408, as we learn from a MS. in the British Museum, the Castle of
Ballyteigue was burnt by Art M’Murrough Kavanagh on Tuesday, the
morning after the Feast of St. Barnabas.
Richard Whitty, of Ballyteigue, died in 1539, and his son Robert being
only fourteen at his father’s death, the custody of Ballyteigue was granted to
John Devereux during his minority. The estate contained 3 manors, 3
carucates, and 523 acres.
The manor and castle of Ballyteigue were in the possession of Richard
Whittie in 1624 and 1634.
The estate was forfeited in the time of the Commonwealth, and was
granted to Colonel Brett. It afterwards passed into the hands of the Sweenys,
and subsequently to the Colcloughs, a branch of the family of Tintern Abbey.
In 1798 the castle was the residence of John Colclough, one of the leaders
of the Wexford insurgents. He was only twenty-nine when the rebellion
broke out.
As soon as Bagnal Harvey heard that Lord Kingsborough’s terms for the
surrender of Wexford would not be ratified, he hastened to Ballyteigue, but
Colclough and his wife and child had already fled to one of the Saltee
Islands, about ten leagues from Wexford. He followed them, but the island
was searched, and the fugitives taken in a cave. They were conveyed to
Wexford, and Harvey and Colclough were immediately tried and hanged.
Colclough’s head is buried in St. Patrick’s Cemetery, Wexford.
 His little daughter and only child inherited Ballyteigue. She afterwards
married Captain Young, and both lived in the castle until their death. Their
only daughter sold the house to Mr. Edward Meadows, from whom it passed
to Mr. Thomas Grant.
A legendary tale of “Sir Walter Whitty and his cat,” published some years
ago by the late M. J. Whitty, editor of the Liverpool Post, may have
originated from the lion which is represented in the Whitty arms.
Authorities Consulted.

MS. Ordnance Survey.

Parliamentary Gazetteer.
Book of Inquisitions of Leinster.
R. Madden, “United Irishmen.”
“Balliteigue Castle,” in The People.
Joyce, “Irish Place Names.”
 BARBERSTOWN CASTLE
This castle is situated in the parish of Straffan, County Kildare, in the barony
of North Salt, about a mile north of the village of Straffan.
The name is spelt variously Barberstowne, Barbeston, Barbieston,
Barbiestowne, Barbiston, Barbitstowne, Barbyeston.
The present building consists of a battlemented rectangular keep
considered by experts to be of thirteenth-century construction, and
measuring at its greatest height 52 feet. It is divided into three floors. The
lower room, which is vaulted to the height of 17 feet, is 18 feet long by 15½
feet wide, and the walls are 4½ feet in thickness.
The entrance is situated at the north-west angle, above which are two
grooves of sufficient width to stand in, and evidently intended for the
protection of the doorway.
The room above the vault is of slightly greater proportions than that
below, owing to the walls being of less thickness.
Two small rectangular towers are joined to the main building on the south
side’s western angle, and west side’s northern angle respectively. The latter
contains a winding stone stair of fifty-three steps leading to the now slated
roof. The original crenelated loops for musketry have here and there been
enlarged to admit more light. The summit of the watch tower is reached from
the roof by a short flight of nine steps.
A man is said to be interred between the top of the main stair and the roof
of the tower. His family having held the castle by a lease which expired
when he was put underground, determined to evade relinquishing their hold
on the property by keeping him always above the earth.
The southern tower consists of three storeys corresponding with those in
the keep, and had formerly doors opening from the main rooms. Next the
southern wall is a curious slit in each floor just wide enough to permit of a
ladder giving access to the apartment above or below. The ground floor in
this tower is of very small dimensions, being about 3 feet square.
The walls of the keep slope considerably at the outside base so as to
prevent an enemy getting out of gun shot by closing up to the building.
Large modern windows now light each floor, and the whole is in excellent
preservation.
A flue runs in the thickness of the wall on the north side, which is crowned
by a handsome brick chimney, evidently added when the Elizabethan
dwelling-house which adjoins the castle was erected. A still more modern
house has been added to the north of this building, so that at present three
distinct periods are represented by the castle and houses, which are all joined
together.
The remains of an old wall near the fortress points to its having once been
of larger dimensions. Tradition states that an underground passage leads
from the castle to a lodge near the roadway. Some fine old yews of great age
adorn the lawn, similar to those which are to be seen near Maynooth Castle.
Locally it is believed that Barberstown was once the residence of the King
of Leinster, but its architecture does not bear out the tradition.
In 1622 William Sutton, of Barberstown, is mentioned in an inquisition,
and in 1630 it is stated that he held it as tenant of the Earl of Kildare.
Nicholas Sutton was in possession of the castle in 1641, and at a
subsequent date it must have passed to the Crown, who granted it in 1666 to
John King, first Lord Kingston.
His son Robert, the second Baron, was exempted from mercy by
Tyrconnell’s proclamation, and his estate sequestered in 1689.
Richard, Earl of Tyrconnell, then became possessed of the fortress, and,
strange to say, that although he could only have retained it until he was
attainted in 1692, yet it was known for many years as Tyrconnell Castle.
Lady Tyrconnell retained some of her husband’s lands in the neighbourhood
to a much later date.
Bartholomew Vanhomrigh, Esq., of Dublin, father of the famous Vanessa,
bought Barberstown from the Crown in 1703 for £1,300. James Young was
the tenant at the time, and the property is thus described: “In the parish of
Straffan, distant from Dublin ten miles, Naas 5, and Manooth 3; is Arable
Medow and Pasture, on it 1 Castle in repair, with a large stone House
adjoyning, and Orchard, also 8 Cabbins, with Gardens.”
At the beginning of the next century it was occupied by a family named
Douglas, and it was purchased by the Bartons, of Straffan, in 1826. They
restored and re-castellated it, and it still remains in their possession.
 Subsequently it was occupied by Admiral Robinson, and the present
tenant is S. F. Symes, Esq.
A most extensive view is obtained from the summit.
Authorities Consulted.

A Book of Postings and Sale of the Forfeited and other Estates, &c.
Book of Survey and Distributions.
Book of Inquisitions, Province of Leinster.
S. Lee, “Dictionary of National Biography.”
 BARGY CASTLE
This castle takes its name from the Barony of Bargy, County Wexford, on
the borders of which it is situated, about eight miles south-west of the town
of Wexford, on the margin of Lake Tucumshane.
The fortress is in excellent preservation, having been several times
restored. It consists of a square keep, to which two wings have been added at
more recent dates, probably in the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries.
The chief entrance to the Castle was formerly by the central tower, where
a stained-glass window bearing the Harvey Arms is now to be seen. On the
outside of the embrasure is a stone carved with figures supposed to represent
Queen Elizabeth and her court, and far above this slab may be seen a large
machicolation, once used for hurling missiles for the defence of the door.
The tower is ascended by a winding stone stair, off which are openings
commonly known as “murdering holes.” The keep, in which are several
rooms, is separated from the rest of the mansion by a large door at the foot
of the stairway. A beautiful view can be had from the battlements.
In the north wing of the castle is a small panelled room, and not far from it
a carved oak partition bears with a cross and shamrock the following on the
reverse side: “I.H.S. 1591. R.R. M.S.”
A beautiful oak staircase leads from the chief apartments.
The castle grounds were formerly entered from the south, where the old
piers and gateway still remain. At the back of the castle is part of the old
moat or fosse, which now contains large cellars.
The fortress is usually supposed to have been erected by the Rossiter
family at the beginning of the fifteenth century, though some authorities state
it owes its origin to Hervey de Montmorency, one of the first Norman
invaders.
William Rowcester, of Bridge of Bargie (Bargie Castle), was pardoned for
felony in 1540. He is described as a “horseman,” which, according to
Hollinshead was a position next to that of captain or lord. About 1553
Nicholas Roche was granted the wardship and marriage of his son Richard.
The Most Rev. Michael Rossiter, Bishop of Ferns, is supposed by some to
have been born in Bargy Castle, in 1648, but the Down Survey maps of 1657
describe the castle as being in ruins.
The last Rossiter to own Bargy was William Rossiter, who took part in the
defence of Wexford against Cromwell. His lands were confiscated in 1667,
and Bargy Castle was granted to William Ivory, Esq.
After this it passed to the Harvey family, and here Beauchamp Bagnal
Harvey was born, who commanded the Wexford insurgents in 1798.
Bargy was confiscated to the Crown, after the suppression of the rebellion;
and Bagnal Harvey, who owned the castle, and Colclough were captured on
the Saltee Islands and executed at Wexford.
Troops were quartered at Bargy from 1798 to 1808, when the property
was restored to James Harvey, brother of the late owner.
It is said that when a detachment of soldiers was sent to take possession of
the fortress in 1798 they indulged so freely in the contents of the great wine
cellars, that some of them injudiciously disturbed the hives in the garden,
whereupon the bees attacked their tormentors with such force that some of
the soldiers died from the effects, and others were pursued by the irate
insects to the very town of Wexford.
Mr. Harvey lived in London, and the castle gradually fell into dilapidation
until his death, when it passed to Councillor John Harvey, who restored it.
Major Harvey, who died in 1880, is entombed in a mausoleum before the
hall door. The castle was afterwards let to Mr. Leared, who re-roofed and
improved it.
Ghostly tappings are reported to be heard on the castle windows between
10 and 11 p.m., while a phantom carriage is said to be sometimes audible
driving up the disused avenue, when the horses’ hoofs cease before the old
entrance in the keep, and a minute or two later the coach is again heard
returning by the old drive.
Authorities Consulted.

Act of Settlement.
Down Survey Maps.
Fiants of Edward VI.
Doyle, “Notes and Gleanings of Co. Wexford.”
Madden, “The United Irishmen.”
Article and letter in The People.
 BARRYSCOURT CASTLE
The fine ruins of this fortress are situated about half a mile south of
Carrigtohill, in the County Cork.
It consists of a rectangular structure about 70 feet in height, flanked by
three towers, which open into the main building at each storey.
A small oblong shaft in the south-east angle of the keep runs from the
upper to the lower rooms. A passage in the main north wall is now filled up.
The arches are of good workmanship and well preserved. In some of the
smaller apartments the marks of the wattle frames used in the building are
still easily traced on the ceilings, which show an early date of construction.
In the chamber above the chapel appears the date 1588, as well as an
inscription stating the castle was erected by “D.B.” and “E.R.,” which
initials stand for David Barry and his wife, Eliza Roche. In another room the
date 1596 is inscribed.
The lands of the Barrys in Cork were confirmed to Philip Barry by King
John in 1206, and he later became possessed of Barry’s Court. The present
castle is, however, supposed to have been built during the fourteenth century.
Tradition states it was erected upon the site of an older fortress belonging
to the Lyons or Lehanes of Castle Lyons, and that during the excavations for
the present foundations an inscribed stone was found stating that “O’Lehan
hoc fecit MCIII.,” but O’Donovan does not think the story probable.
Geraldus Cambrensis is credited with having written part of his history of
the conquest in the earlier castle.
In 1490 the head of the Barry family was summoned to Parliament as
Lord Barry of Barry’s Court, and 1588 “James Barry of Barrescourt,
Viscount Barrymore, otherwise James, called Barrymore and Barryroo,” was
in possession.
The Commissioners who were appointed to govern Munster while the Earl
of Desmond was in prison, wrote, after arriving in Cork, in 1568: “Wood
Kerne, under Gerot Bracke, one of the Earl of Desmond’s near kinsmen,
intercepted our letters, certain Kerne lay in ambush for us, but Lord
Barrymore and John FitzEdmund, Dean of Cloyne, met us, and led us to
Barry’s Court.”
 In 1580 Sir Walter Raleigh started from Cork to make complaint to Lord
Grey in Dublin that the Barrys and Condons were in league with the rebels.
He received orders to besiege Barry’s Court, but Lord Barry, hearing of his
intention, set the castle on fire, while he and his friend, Fitzgerald, the
seneschal of Imokilly, lay in wait for Sir Walter at the ford near the old
abbey of Midleton.
In the encounter so little expected, Raleigh only saved his life by his
somewhat foolhardy daring.
In the account of his doings in Ireland in 1583, Sir Henry Sydney writes:
“I was well entertained at the Viscount Barrie’s house, called Barrie’s
Court.”
During the Desmond rebellion of 1585, David Lord Barry, whose initials
are carved over the mantelpiece of the castle, was associated with the
disaffected. He afterwards submitted and sat on the Council of Munster
under Sir George Carew. He was present at the relief of Kinsale in 1602, and
died at Barry’s Court in 1617. He was the second son of James Barry, and
his wife, Ellen Roche, was a daughter of Lord Fermoy.
Writing of him in 1606, Sir John Davys says: “From Youghall we went to
Cork, and dined by the way with the Viscount Barrie, who, at his castle at
Barriecourt, gave us civil and plentiful entertainment.”
Barryscourt was regranted by James I. to his grandson David, who
succeeded him.
The castle seems to have again been consumed by fire after James II.’s
visit to Ireland, as it is stated that the velvet bed hung with gold brocade in
which he slept at Sir James Cotter’s, of Ballinsperrig, was then at
Barryscourt, and so destroyed by the conflagration.
The castle was in possession of the Coppinger family for many years,
William Coppinger being the owner in 1861.
It now belongs to Lord Barrymore.
A member of the Wakeham family informs me that it was in possession of
her ancestors several centuries ago, and that the Lord Barrymore of that day
gave the owners, John and William Wakeham, the estates of Springhill and
Water-rock instead of it, which their descendants still possess.
Authorities Consulted.
Gibson’s “History of Cork.”
Carew MSS.
Patent and Close Rolls, Chancery, Ireland.
State Papers.
“Local Names” and “Notes and Queries” in Journal of Cork Archæological
Society.
 BIRR CASTLE

“Lords to whom great men submit,

Are the O’Carrolls of the plain of Birr.”
O’Heerin.

This fortress was one of the numerous strongholds of the O’Carrolls of Ely
O’Carroll. The derivation of the name, formerly Biorra, is doubtful. Bir
signifies “water,” birra = “abounding in wells,” or “fountains of water,” bir
= “a spit,” bior = “the brink of a river,” and the name may have originated
from any of these words.
The town is situated on the right bank of the Little Brosna River at its
juncture with the Birr rivulet. It is in the barony of Ballybrit, King’s County,
sixty-two and a half miles west-south-west of Dublin.
The O’Carroll’s stronghold, called the “Black Castle,” stood some sixty
yards north-west of the present building on the high bank of the river. The
principal tower was raised on an artificial mound, and in 1627 Sir Laurence
Parsons added a watch tower, which stood on thirteen corbels, projecting on
the outside, and was higher than all the other buildings. The dungeon of the
stronghold was situated in the Black Castle, but this older fortress has long
since been demolished.
In 1620-21 Sir Laurence Parsons made a great many additions to the
castle. He erected a tower 46 feet long and 25 feet broad, at each end of
which an arch of hewn stone gave entrance to the fortress. The present hall,
which is reached by a flight of stone steps under a vaulted vestibule, is the
centre part of this tower, as it is also that of the present mansion.
In the following two years Sir Laurence also built a porter’s lodge, known
as the “Garden House,” fitted up a drawing-room and made a garden and
orchard.
In 1624 he built a new line of offices, which formed one side of the
courtyard, and in which was a kitchen, &c. Another side of the enclosure
was occupied by the stables, which extended along the river, south of the
Black Castle.
 BIRR CASTLE.

On the north was a double wall filled up with earth, and having a gateway
in the centre.
Sir William Parsons threw all these buildings down in 1778.
The castle was enlarged and remodelled under the direction of Mr. J.
Johnstone, architect, who altered the entrance to the back of the building,
away from the town.
Sir Laurence Parsons had also added a “French Flanker” in 1627, but on
what site is not known.
The Annals of Clonmacmoise record that Byrre Castle was besieged in
1207 by “Moriertagh Mac Bryen an Sleyve,” who burnt the whole town.
Ely O’Carroll was granted to FitzWalter by Henry II., nevertheless King
John re-granted it to William de Braosa in 1200, and FitzWalter had to buy it
back to regain possession.
It shortly afterwards passed into the hands of Hugh de Hose or Hussey.
The English rebuilt and enlarged the stronghold in 1213.
In 1432 the Earl of Ormond went to war with O’Carroll of Ely, and
demolished his two chief castles, which most likely were Birr and Leap, for
in spite of Royal grants the stronghold remained in the possession of the
O’Carrolls.
A dispute arose about the chieftainship of the sept in 1532, the senior
branch of the family holding Birr Castle.
Ferganainm O’Carroll, the son of the late chief, enlisted the aid of the Earl
of Kildare, whose daughter he had married, and together they laid siege to
Birr. The Earl received a bullet in his side from the garrison. It is said that a
soldier, hearing him cry out in agony, remonstrated with him, remarking he
himself had been wounded three times and was none the worse, to which the
Earl replied he was sorry he had not received the fourth bullet in his stead.
The ball was extracted the following spring, but it is said to have hastened
his end.
In 1537 Lord Leonard Grey took Birr Castle, and is reported to have
received submission from O’Carroll, who was created Baron of Ely in 1552.
At the time of the plantation of Ely, Birr and its castle were granted to Sir
Laurence Parsons in 1620, and the same year his steward arrived to make
preparations. Shortly afterwards O’Carroll appealed in vain.
In 1641 Sir William Parsons was made Governor of Ely O’Carroll and the
Castle of Birr, which latter he garrisoned with his tenants.
He put the place at once in a state of defence. He raised a flanker behind
the stables, and erected scaffolds inside the castle for the garrison to fight
from.
After some skirmishing the fortress was closely besieged in 1642, and of
the nine hundred people in town and castle many died of starvation, while
others were reduced to eating dogs and cats.
At length the Earl of Ormond sent a detachment to its relief, but early the
next year General Preston approached the stronghold with artillery and
troops.
He reconnoitred the town from Drumbawn Hill, and after firing a few
shots encamped in the neighbouring woods. On the second day of the siege
he sent a messenger to the Governor to inquire if he held the castle for the
King or the Parliament, and asking to be allowed to garrison it for his
Majesty’s use.
Sir William replied that he had not heard of any difference from his
Majesty or from the Parliament, and that he held his commission as
Governor of Ely O’Carroll.
 At this reply Preston entrenched, and next day began to bombard the
fortress in earnest. The following night a mine was commenced under the
direction of a mason who had been employed in the castle. The garrison,
hearing the noise, fired on the sappers, but the darkness prevented the shot
taking effect, and in the morning they were underground.
Preston continued firing, and destroyed much of the wall and one of the
flankers. He said he would break down the fortress about the Governor’s
ears. Some of the balls found in the masonry weighed 9 lbs. each.
Under cover of a parley the defenders of the mill were withdrawn, and the
garrison held out for two days after they had been undermined. A conference
was held and the besieged were granted honourable terms.
Lord Castlehaven conducted them to Athy. They numbered about eight
hundred men, women, and children.
Preston seems to have retained possession of Birr until 1645, when for
five years it was held by the Confederate Catholic forces.
It was taken from the Irish in 1650 by General Ireton, the enemy having
burnt it before retreating. The Marquis of Clanrickarde tried to retake it in
vain.
In 1688 Birr was so infested with robbers that Sir Laurence Parsons took
some of his neighbours and tenants inside the castle and closed the gates.
This act was magnified to the Government by his enemy, Colonel Oxburgh,
who obtained an order from the Lord Lieutenant to put a garrison in the
castle.
Oxburgh demanded admittance, and Sir Laurence refused until he should
hear from Lord Tyrconnel. A siege then began, and when they attempted to
undermine the fortress terms of capitulation were agreed upon.
Both terms of surrender (1643-1688) are preserved in the castle and have
been published in the Report of the Historical MSS. Commission.
Sir Laurence and some of his tenants were imprisoned in the fortress. He
was tried for high treason and several times reprieved. He was liberated after
the Boyne, and appointed High Sheriff for the King’s County.
In 1690 the castle garrison, being English, was summoned, but after a
parley the enemy retired.
Later the same year it was attacked by Sarsfield, who fired all day on the
stronghold. The marks of the shot are still to be seen upon the castle walls.
The besieged, under Captain Curry, held out until reinforcements arrived.
 The English army, passing through Birr in 1691, left four hundred
wounded men in the castle for two months.
Sir Laurence Parsons died in 1698.
The second Earl of Rosse succeeded to the estates in 1841. His
experiments towards improving the reflecting telescope had been begun in
1827 at Birr Castle. He employed local workmen, and the tools, machinery,
furnaces, ovens, &c., were all constructed on the spot, many of which are
still to be seen.
At length, after many failures, two specula were cast in 1842-43. They
each measured 6 feet in diameter, weighed 4 tons, and were of 54 feet focus.
The tube in which one was mounted is 58 feet long and 7 feet in diameter.
It is slung on chains between two piers of masonry, and the telescope is
moved and supported by a complex system of cast-iron platforms, triangles,
and levers.
It is the largest telescope in the world, and cost about £20,000 to construct.
Observations were commenced in February, 1845. There are several smaller
telescopes at the castle as well.
The present Earl of Rosse is the third Earl, and, like his father, is an
eminent scientist.
Authorities Consulted.

T. Cooke, “History of Birr,” &c.

Cooke, “Picture of Parsonstown.”
Brewer, “Beauties of Ireland.”
Donovan, “Annals of the Four Masters.”
S. Lee, “Dictionary of National Biography.”
Parliamentary Gazetteer.
Report of Historical MSS. Commission.
 BLACK CASTLE, WICKLOW
Wicklow is situated about twenty-five miles south-south-east of Dublin,
and the ruins of the Black Castle occupy an isolated rocky promontory east
of the town, and on the south side of the Leitrim river. The name Wicklow is
likely to have been of Norwegian origin, but the meaning is uncertain. The
Irish name Kilmantan signified S. Mantan’s Church. The castle followed the
natural shape of the dark rock on which it was built, and from which, no
doubt, the designation “Black” is taken. It was divided from the mainland by
a chasm, which was probably bridged in former times. A few fragments of
walls, with window openings, are all that remain.
The fortress can never have been of large dimensions if it was confined to
the rock on which the ruins now stand.
In 1176, after Maurice FitzGerald had been recalled by Strongbow, he
received a grant of the Castle of Wicklow, among other possessions, in lieu
of his lands in Wexford, which King Henry wished to retain. From this it
would appear to have been the site of an older fortification.
Maurice FitzGerald began to erect a Norman stronghold on the
promontory, but he died before it was completed.
Soon after his death William FitzAdelm managed by falsehood to get
possession of the Black Castle from his son Gerald, first Baron of Offaly,
and surrendered him instead the unprotected Castle of Ferns.
The Earl of Ormond being arraigned for treason in 1422, one of the
charges against him was that he had retained William Edward, Constable of
Arklow, in his service after he had assisted the O’Byrnes in seizing the
King’s Castle of Wicklow. They killed John Liverpoole, the constable, and
sent his head to the O’Byrne. They also imprisoned a priest, whom they
found in the fortress, to hold for ransom.
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