cross of Blackrock. According to this ancient custom, dating back to King John's day, all the householders, for instance, on the seaside of Blackrock and all along the Rock-road into town voted at the last election in the city, while the electors residing on the opposite side of the road or street voted in the county. From the cross of Blackrock the equestrian company of corporators proceeded along the line of the present road till they came to Merrion chapel and churchyard, where they turned up into the fields and made their way to Simmonscourt, along upon an ancient mear which ran by the well of the Blessed Virgin, and so they came to Donnybrook. This is a brief analysis of the ancient account. Now here I have a story to tell which illustrates several important points in practical archæology. It shows for instance the vast importance of personal inspection and of local knowledge. You will often be told things have vanished which are still in existence and which can still be found, lying hidden and waiting to reward the diligent investigator. Again, my story will show the conservative character of popular tradition and local practices. Popular usage will often retain the memory of ancient rights of way which have almost vanished and of ancient customs which few can explain. In last Christmas week I determined to see whether I could not recover the ancient route of the worthy Mayor and Aldermen of four hundred years ago. I have been always puzzled to know how they got from Blackrock to Donnybrook. All the ancient accounts mention that the mearings or bounds of the city run from Blackrock along by the well of the Blessed Virgin. Where, then, was this well? My first step was this: I consulted a splendid map of the county Dublin, made about 1820 by a man named Duncan. He marks the well plainly enough in the fields of what then was called Simpson's nursery, which is now the French College farm, at the back of Ailesbury-road. If I desired to be extremely exact I should locate the well of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or Lady Well, just at the back of the house now occupied by our new Honorary Fellow, the late Lord Mayor of Dublin, the Right Hon. Alderman Meade. This map at once fixed for me the line which the Corporation pursued. I then consulted the Ordnance Survey Map, and I found that the parliamentary boundary passed along the very same spot, so that the boundary for parliamentary purposes now represents the line of the ancient franchises. of Dublin. Then I proceeded to make the actual experiment to see whether I could follow the route. On December 27th, 1892, in company with my son, and on the following Thursday, 29th December, in company

2

1 Ancient rights of way are very often merely the ancient roads of the country, and might, if properly identified and explored, be most helpful in tracing the course of an invading or retreating army.

2 What a great pity it is that our public libraries should be superseding the original Ordnance Survey Maps by the modern issue. I went lately to consult the original Ordnance Maps of fifty years ago, and I was presented with the maps of 1886, which have omitted vast numbers of the ancient features and landmarks which existed half a century ago, but have now disappeared.

with our learned friend and acute antiquary, Mr. James Mills, I proceeded to survey the ground commencing with the cross of Blackrock. We followed the line of the franchises over to Merrion churchyard, where lie the mortal remains of so many brave soldiers who lost their lives, one wintry night, November 17th, 1807, when the Rochdale transport, en route with reliefs to the Peninsula, and the mail packet the "Prince of Wales," from Parkgate to Dunleary, were dashed to pieces on Blackrock sands, with all the souls on board.1

We then penetrated up the lane and entered Mr. Justice Madden's back gate, where we traced an ancient road, which led us through the midst of Nutley estate, all along by the back of the blind asylum, formerly Merrion Castle. This is the very line described in the ancient documents of 1480, and 1603, in Mr. Gilbert's book. We then found ourselves in the grounds formerly called Simpson's Nursery, and now the French College farm. It lies just behind Ailesbury-road and Dr. Meade's house. Here I summoned to my help two distinct sources of information. I first of all tried a labourer on the spot. I often find that the populace know of traditional routes and long-descended customs which lie hidden from the more educated. They know of them, though they understand not their meaning. So I told my labouring friend what I was at. I told him I was looking for the well of the Blessed Virgin. I showed where the ancient path ran from Merrion churchyard across the fields into Donnybrook, and enlisted his historical curiosity -for every Irishman is by nature an historian-telling him how the Corporation used to pass that way into Donnybrook. "Why, sir," he cried, in jubilation, "the people pass that very road to the present day, when taking a short cut from Merrion to Donnybrook. All the old stiles," said he, "have been built up, but they climb the walls and then pass over this field to the far corner (pointing me to a clump of trees), and there you will find an old

1 This notice of the wreck of the "Rochdale" has led Mr. Wakeman to communicate to me an interesting story which illustrates the vast period of time which can be covered by a few long lives. The last survivor of the passengers who embarked in November, 1807, has only passed from our midst within the last few years. Mr. Wakeman discovered this fact in the following manner. He was looking at the sexton digging the grave in the Monkstown old churchyard for the sailors who perished with heroic Captain Boyd in February, 1861. The sexton as he dug flung up an old-fashioned shoe, which Mr. Wakeman picked up, remarking that it doubtless belonged to some ancient monk; whereupon the sexton told him that probably he (the sexton) knew the original owner, as the bodies of those lost in the transport had been deposited in this spot, adding that he himself had been on board the fated transport. Mr. Wakeman challenged his statement, alleging that all on board had perished; whereupon the sexton, whose name was Argue, explained that all on board indeed perished, but that, just as the ship was weighing anchor, the officer commanding the troops had sent him back to Holles-street to look for a box of valuables left behind. When he returned to Dunleary the ship had sailed, and his life was thus preserved. He was soon after appointed sexton at Monkstown churchyard, which office he retained till the ground was closed for burials, some time subsequent to the year 1870. His children were, down to a few years ago, still in the neighbourhood of Kingstown,

double ditch, with a path along the top, which brings them into Seaviewterrace at Donnybrook." I was delighted with my cowherd, whom I had summoned from the stables. He had given me the abiding rural tradition, and rural tradition is the most tenacious of all records, as I have again and again noticed in the course of my historical investigations. I then summoned to my assistance the personal recollections of Mr. Mills, who had known the locality since he was a child. He said he quite well remembered a double ditch, with a pathway on the top, which ran along behind and parallel to the present Ailesbury-road. We went together, examined the spot, and there we found considerable remains of the double ditch, cut away in large part by modern and daring innovators, but leading over to the public path which still remains, conveying us into Seaview-terrace, and thence to Simmonscourt Castle, as the ancient records expressly state. I must confess one point: we failed to find the well of the Blessed Virgin. But this is no wonder; modern farmers have had but little reverence for ancient sacred wells, and have remorselessly covered them

up. We found, indeed, where the spring must be. The map of 1820 expressly marks the well in or beside the double ditch at the back of Alderman Meade's, and there is at that spot a stream still flowing, showing where the spring exists, though this ancient landmark has disappeared from view.

Let me here throw out a suggestion: this ancient path from Donnybrook across the fields to Merrion churchyard, may it not represent an ancient prehistoric road of Ireland. Dr. Petrie in his great work on Tara tells us that one principal road from Tara led through Dublin to Wicklow, passing through Booterstown, which was thence called Ballybother, the town of the road. Now, the present Blackrock-road did not exist between Ball's Bridge and Merrion one hundred and fifty years ago. There was no bridge at Ball's Bridge, and therefore no road. The road from Dublin to Blackrock and Dunleary ran through Donnybrook, and thence to where now stands the House of Rest near Merrion. Now, have we not an interesting survival? May we not conclude that the line of the city franchises, the bounds of St. Stephen's-green division to this day, represents a still more ancient road, the road used by King Leary himself in the days of St. Patrick when he wished to inspect his fleets, or organise his invading hosts of Scoti, or when, perhaps, he wished to take the fresh air, and drink, according to ancient Irish custom, health-giving draughts of salt-water drawn from the shores of Blackrock, Dunleary, and Kingstown, in days when they must have been much more bright and wholesome than at present. I throw out this suggestion, and would advise anyone in search of a real rural excursion within easy reach of the city to make a trial such as I have made. The first frosty day that comes, or the first fine dry spring day, set out and trace the franchises of Dublin between St. Stephen's-green and Blackrock. Read beforehand Mr. Gilbert's "Ancient Records of Ireland," with its

account of the doings of the Mayor and Corporation four centuries ago, and you will be astonished to find how very fixed are those features, the boundaries of fields, the lines of roads, the sites of ancient cemeteries and chapels upon which the city bounds depend. And here let me say in conclusion that as you start upon your wanderings from Donnybrook, supposing that, though an archaeologist, you condescend to modern prejudices and usages and travel out so far in a tram, you will meet at Donnybrook one thing worth your observation as an antiquity hitherto unnoticed. You all know the immense quarry hole filled with a lake of water at the back of the Donnybrook tram station and stables. I remember well how that in my rambles out from college, thirty years ago, I used to stand and wonder how such an excavation was formed. That quarry hole saw the franchises of Dublin ridden in all the pride and panoply of Corporation glory. That quarry was opened in the days of Henry VIII. at least. How do you know this? you may ask. The answer is easy. Three hundred and thirty years ago Christ Church Cathedral fell down; that was in the year 1562. There was a very clever architect among the members of the Chapter of that day. Sir Peter Lewis, as he was called, was not merely an ecclesiastic but a mighty builder. He built for the Lord Deputy Sydney the celebrated old bridge of Athlone, and the disjecta membra of the ornaments Sir Peter Lewis placed upon it are still in the vaults of the Royal Irish Academy.' And Lewis was entrusted with the rebuilding of Christ Church, which he carried out in the manner we have all seen remaining till the days of Mr. Roe's restoration, and he has left us the details of the work, the prices he paid for materials, the places where he obtained the stones, in a manuscript Book of Christ Church, now preserved in the library of Trinity College. That book Mr. Mills is preparing for future publication by our Society. It is a lamentable fact that the only body in Ireland which now publishes ancient Irish records is the one body which does not enjoy one penny of public help, though multitudes of works are lying in manuscript which would well repay publication, and our Society manages to do such work through the public spirit of its members, who freely contribute their time, talents, and knowledge for this special purpose.

Now, in this book of Christ Church, as Mr. Mills has pointed out to me, there are numerous notices such as these:-" 11th October, 1564; we began to take stones at the Cory of Mylton by Dodder." Again, "13th November; this day I was with the masons in the Corry of Dodder. Henris and two masons and ten workmen turning off the water and making of dams," showing us that three hundred years ago, and more, it was hard work to keep the flood under which inundated the quarries

1 They are now displayed on the walls of our National Museum

of Donnybrook, and that it is no wonder that such an immense flood still exists there.1

I have now finished the present portion of my task. Let me cherish the hope that it may stir up our Members throughout Ireland to direct particular attention to their own localities. I cannot see why our members in every good-sized town throughout the country should not meet a couple of times during the winter. Derry, Enniskillen, Sligo, Athlone, Limerick, Clonmel, and such like places could gather local knots of our Members to read Papers on purely local topics. The local press will gladly report their essays, while such of them as are of permanent and general interest might be afterwards forwarded to the central meetings of the Society when they had been first tried on a local audience. In that way we should diffuse a wider interest in our Society and its studies; we should help to cultivate what Ireland so much needs, social intercourse, intellectual development, and kindly feeling among Irishmen, too long separated by political causes, and help to transmit to the men of the twentieth century a truer and more perfect idea of Ireland in the nineteenth century than the men of the eighteenth century have transmitted to us of the Ireland of those days. I must now apologise for my very lengthened Paper, and can only hope that though I have as yet succeeded in getting simply from Dunleary to Blackrock, you will not have been so utterly weary of my subject as to be unwilling to accompany me in the further journey we hope some other time to take from Blackrock via Booterstown, Merrion, Donnybrook, Ball's Bridge, and Baggotrath to the famous city of Dublin.

1 The quarry used by Lewis was more probably on the Dodder at Milltown, but there is good reason to know that the quarry at Donnybrook was still older. A charter by Robert_Bagod (from whom Baggotrath is called), made in 1314, is enrolled on a Plea Roll (No. 144). It conveyed Donachbrok to Fromund le Brun, but reserved to the grantor "the quarries (lapidicina) on the land to dig and carry stone to build and enclose my manor of the Rath near Dublin."