224 



in the projection, in which was found, about fifty years ago, a 

 manuscript book, written on vellum, in tlie old Irish character; the 

 greater part of this book was torn and lost, but the fragments are 

 said to exist in the library of the present Marquess of Headfort. 



The space between the vaulted ceiling and the roof is just high 

 enough for a man to stand upright, and is divided into three parts ; 

 the eastermost and largest contains at the east end St. Columb's bed, 

 a flat stone six feet long, raised somewhat more than a foot above 

 the floor ; over this a stone having a hollow, evidently for contain- 

 ing something, projects from the wall ; it is by the people called the 

 saint's candlestick. Near the point of the gable there is a very 

 small window. The centre chamber contains nothing remarkable, 

 and that at the west end seems to have been but a passage of en- 

 trance to it ; there is a little window in this gable also. A vaulted 

 subterraneous passage has been traced from St. Columb's house to 

 the church-yard, where the low arched entrance is to be seen ; 

 it has been filled with bones, and walled across five or six feet from 

 the mouth. 



The church-yard at Kells contains fragments of some very ancient 

 stones, curiously carved with griffins and Irish characters, which 

 have not as yet been decyphered. There is also shewn the smooth 

 top of a stone, now on a level M'ith the soil, on which devotees, 

 on St. Columb's day, kneel and pray, turning their faces towards 

 the tower. From this stone, tradition says Kells, or as formerly 

 written Kenlis, derived its name. The church-warden, who is an in- 

 telligent antiquary, once, during the digging of a deep grave near it, 

 saw this stone laid bare for eight or nine feet down ; he described it as 

 resembling an unhewn pillar, but broader at bottom than at top. 

 The probability is, that it was a tapering pillar-stone. There is also 

 a holy well in the vicinity consecrated by St. Columb. This assem-. 



