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gonnell, was found a large flat stone, around which many small splinters of flint were lying. Among them were found an arrow not finished, and a triangular piece of flint, evidently intended to form one, as if they had dropped from the hands of the workman at his working place, and had been lost among the useless fragments. There would be a difficulty in forming an opinion as to the use of this triangular piece of flint, if the place in which it was found, and the chipped flints around it, did not prove its intended purpose. Would these matters tend to throw any light on the great quantities of flints said to have been found lately in France, which have so much puzzled antiquaries and geologists?

"The arrows are generally turned up in ground not before broken, when being set in potatoes for the first time. They would seem to have been used for destroying hares, or birds. If so, a great number in this way must have been lost, carried off by wounded animals, or, when they missed their aim, overlooked in the excitement of the chase, or hid by long grass. Besides, they were easily made, and not worth the trouble of looking for. The continuance of this state of society for many generations will account for the abundance of arrows found here. There is, however, a great difference in the skill exhibited in their workmanship. Some are extremely well made, neatly, even elegantly formed,-others quite rough, and rude in finish. I do not think they are so old as is generally supposed. They would answer the purpose of shooting small animals as well as metal arrows, and would be much more easily obtained. From these circumstances, as well as from an examination of other stone implements, the theory of what is called the stone age would appear not to be very well sustained. Thus, I have a very fine stone hammer, found here, in which the hole intended for the handle is bored with such smoothness, precision, and accuracy, that I cannot see how it could have been made, except with a very good metal tool. Other round stones are also found with holes in the centre, bevelled off, and smoothed, so as not to cut the rope, apparently, or whatever else they were attached to. One of these would make a very useful, or rather a very dangerous weapon, presenting some points of similarity to what is called a life-preserver of the present day. Another specimen of stone implement has been brought to me, the use of which I cannot well understand. It consists of a tolerably heavy stone, with two holes at the ends exactly opposite to one another, not passing through the stone, but merely sunk about half an inch deep.

"There is still another class of stone implements found in great abundance in this district, which formed part of the property of its early rude

"This is a very interesting stone fort, of great size. It consists, in great measure, of an isolated rock, standing near one of the branches of the Ravel river, far up in the mountain. It is sheltered and secluded, with good pasture land around. It is now much dilapidated. There are traces of a way to the summit neatly built up on each side with large blocks of stone, without cement. There is a cave within it, entered apparently from the top, but now utterly choked up with rubbish. It appears to have been, in old times,

a residence of its class of the first importance. Further down the river is an old graveyard, but at which there is no trace of a church, or any other building, nor does any information, that I am aware of, exist concerning it, except that, at the time of the Taxation of Pope Nicholas, it was a parish church, having an income of £5 a year. Near it is a holy well, formerly visited as such, but now neglected. A fair had also been held here from an old date, but was discontinued about a century ago.

inhabitants, and the use of which has given rise to some conjecture. These consist of small, flat, round stones, about an inch and a half in diameter, generally, and about a quarter of an inch thick, with a small hole in the centre (I enclose a fair specimen). Some are larger than this, indeed nearly three inches in diameter. They are found both in Down and Antrim. By some, it is supposed these stones were used in some way for spinning; the people call them fairy mill-stones. My own conjecture is, that they were used for buttons, for which purpose they would seem to be well adapted.

"Though it has been said that little or no trace of agricultural operations has been observed, this applies only to the green mountain pasture, at the head of the valley. A little lower down, marks of old cultivation appear in occasional spots. These consist of ridges of great breadth, the furrows still of much depth. At one of these places a wooden spade, about three feet and a half long, was found."

The following observations relative to the seal of O'Kelly, of Hy-many (see vol. II., new series, p. 448), were forwarded by Mr. T. L. Cooke :

"One of the great advantages arising from the existence of such an association as the Kilkenny and South-East of Ireland Archæological Society is the interchange of ideas, and the mutual aid bestowed by its respective members on each other. Even when corrections happen not to be conclusive on the particular point in discussion, they seldom fail to be highly acceptable, as well as useful, by their evoking observations on some collateral matter of as great interest and value as that which formed the topic inviting attention originally. I therefore feel that the antiquarian public are much indebted to Mr. Gilbert J. French, of Bolton, for his notice of the O'Kelly seal appearing in vol. III., new series, p. 47, of the 'Journal' of this Society.

"That writer there suggests that as the mode of indicating heraldic tinctures by lines or points, denominated taile douce, originated in Italy about the year 1636, it would be unsafe to attribute an earlier date to the curious bronze seal engraved at page 448 (vol. II., new series), on which the field, gules, is distinctly marked by perpendicular lines.'

"There is, I apprehend, a mistake in the statement just copied; for the regal helmet and monkish figure of the handle of the O'Kelly scal seem to me to prove that that particular relic once belonged to some personage of the O'Kelly family who was at the same time, or had been at different periods of his life, the King of Hy-Many, and a friar of the Order of St. Francis. In my paper, referred to by Mr. French, I have attributed the ownership of the seal to the most recent member of the O'Kelly family who, I believed, was found to fill these two positions in society; and I endeavoured to show that as the seal was found in the country of Hy-Many, and at no great distance from a Franciscan establishment founded by the ancient Irish family of O'Kelly, the evidence that it had belonged to an O'Kelly, at once king and friar, was almost conclusive as to the owner.

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"It is clear to me that at whatever time the art of expressing colours

in heraldry by engraving first originated in Italy, it was known in other countries long before 1636, the era assigned for its invention by Mr. French. Thus, on the armorial bearings of France, as engraved on a plate in a copy of Camden's 'Annals of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth' (printed at Leyden in 1625), now in my library, the Field, azure, is represented by horizontal lines. The use of that device by engravers for representing the azure tincture was, therefore, beyond doubt practised in Holland eleven years previous to the time assigned for its invention in Italy by Mr. French.

"My sole wish being such as should inspire every real searcher after truth, I must here render my humble assistance to Mr. French by referring to Brydson's 'Summary View of Heraldry' (1795), p. 60, in which is written: S. Petra Sancta, an Italian Herald about two centuries ago, is said to have been the first who thought of expressing the tinctures by lines and points.' This brings the supposed modern invention to a date about sixty-one years antecedent to the era given by Mr. French. I am convinced that the art was practised long before even the year 1595.

"In my small collection at Parsonstown is a gutta percha copy of an impression from a seal of Fromundus le Broune, preserved amongst the records in Kilkenny Castle, where this Society can, I presume, readily have access to the original. This copy was kindly presented to me several years ago by my excellent friend, Mr. Prim, one of our learned and praiseworthy Honorary Secretaries. The field on this seal appears to be distinctly marked by lines in the manner still used by heralds to notify the tincture, Murrey; which, on coats of gentlemen, is called Sanguine; of noblemen, Sardonix; and of princes, Dragon's Tail. It is represented by diagonal, parallel lines crossing other diagonal, parallel lines in the manner of Saltires, or St. Andrew's crosses. (See the Introduction to Playfair's 'Family Antiquity;' also the Introduction to Kent's 'Grammar of Heraldry.')

"The introduction to Carter's 'Honor Redivivus' (London, 1670), pp. 10, 11, 17, informs us that this heraldic colour is composed of lake, with the addition of a little Spanish brown. It is a tincture scarcely used by English heralds.

"From the style and fashion of this last-mentioned seal, it manifestly belongs to about the time of King Edward III.; and I find on the closeroll of the thirty-third year of that King, memb. 44 (A. D. 1360), the following entry regarding Fromundus le Broune and wife, viz.:Sic ecia Fromudus le Broune et Nesta ux.' If the Kilkenny seal belonged to this Fromundus le Brun, it carries us back in the art of conventional engraving far earlier than the date to which I have ventured to suppose the O'Kelly seal to belong."

The following papers were communicated to the Society:

The hatchings on the field of the seal of Fromundus le Brun, alluded to by Mr. Cooke, are merely ornamental, and intended to give relief to the charge on the shield, as is well

known to collectors of ancient seals, and as exemplified by many seals in the Ormonde collection. Sometimes this ground-work takes the form of scrolls.-ED.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE EXPLORATION OF A REMARKABLE

SERIES OF SUBTERRANEAN CHAMBERS SITUATED ON THE ESTATE OF ROBERT J. E. MOONEY, ESQ., J. P., THE DOON, TOWNLAND OF DOON, PARISH OF LIS, BARONY OF GARRYCASTLE, KING'S COUNTY.

BY CHARLES H. FOOT, ESQ., BARRISTER-AT-LAW.

THE following account of these interesting structures is given, without any presumption of being able to impart definite information as to their age or use, but simply to call attention to their size and peculiarity of construction.

These chambers or "caves" (to use the local designation), are situated about three feet below the summit of a rath, on the top of a hill, rising about 200 feet above the level of the surrounding country. This hill is a partly isolated point in the great chain of "Eskers," or low hills, running obliquely across Ireland, from northeast to south-west; and this rath must have been one of the strongest military positions in the neighbourhood, where many smaller raths appear, not only from its great height, but also by reason of two sharply-scarped terraces running all round it. Until forty years ago, it was covered with thorn-trees; but now, together with the entire hill, it is thickly overgrown with natural ash and fir. At what time the existence of these chambers was first discovered does not appear; but they have been open for more than a century and a half, according to the testimony of the venerable woodranger, who (although not the "oldest inhabitant" on the estate), may, from the fact of his being in his eightieth year, while his father and grandfather attained, the one to ninety-six, and the other to ninety-seven years, be considered to be a good authority.

Until the beginning of the present century, there was but one entrance into these chambers (No. 4, ground plan), when the then owner of the Doon estate broke an entrance through the roof into the second chamber (indicated by dotted lines across chamber No. 2, ground plan); and although his object was to ascertain if more chambers existed, strange to say, the huge flagstones and rubbish, which then fell in, so completely covered and concealed the entrance of the gallery marked (6 on the ground plan), that its existence was unknown until the 16th of September, 1859. But, from the time that this entrance was rudely formed, the old entrance by the passage (4 ground plan) fell into disuse; and as but few persons visited these gloomy chambers, while of those who did so, a very small proportion felt suffient interest in such works as to creep on their hands and knees through the passage (5 on the ground plan), into No. 1, the

original entrance through the passage (No. 4) became choked

up.

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Ground Plan.

The badgers now held their revels in these lonely galleries; and having burrowed through the walls of chamber No. 1, in two or three places, by their constant experiments in tunnelling, with the exception of a very small space, they filled that chamber with sand, completely burying the mouth of passage 4, and the platform afterwards described; nor were the rabbits idle outside: they succeeded in filling up the entrance of the passage No. 4, and in raising the ground about it, so effectually, that the lintel-stone of the entrance was more than eighteen inches underground.

While on a visit with my cousin, the present proprietor of Doon, in the month of September, 1859, we both agreed to thoroughly clear out and explore these interesting remains of the architecture of a race who, although they have left behind them no trace of their language, have written in stone the history of their modes of fortification, sepulchre, and, it may be, of their domestic dwellings or store-houses. We commenced with the chamber No. 1, and, as all the gravel which had accumulated inside had to be removed through the narrow low gallery (No. 5, ground plan), on a little wheeled truck, the process occupied nearly three days, during which time upwards of twenty tons of gravel and sand were taken out. We carefully repaired the walls where broken through, and at last our labours were rewarded by beholding the full extent and proportions of the chamber.

We found, at the northern extremity of the first chamber, a very curious structure, which has never, as far as I can learn, been found in similar chambers,' being a platform, of the dimensions indicated on

See a somewhat similar arrangement for defence, or concealment, occurring in rath chambers, as described and illustrated by T. L.

Cooke, Esq., Parsonstown, in the "Transactions" of the Society, vol. i., first series, pp. 294-7.-ED.

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