Field Meetings. 33 



passed to Mr Anderson for his instructive remarks, the party 

 proceeded to Holywood Kirk, where a few hours were spent 

 in looking up the old epitaphs and inscriptions on the tomb- 

 stones. A good many of the tombstones are dated from the 

 early part of the l7th century. The intelligent sexton 

 pointed out some places where in digging graves he had 

 come upon traces of the Abbey of Darcongal, which in 

 ancient times stood on the ground now occupied by the 

 churchyard. This Abbey was at one time a place of some 

 celebrity. It is said to have been founded between 1121 

 and 1154. No trace of it now exists above ground, but the 

 sexton remembers having been in the vaults belonging to it 

 which are situated below the present stable of the Abbey 

 Farm, close to the churchyard walls. In 1860, while digging 

 a gi-ave, he came upon the fireplace of the Abbey kitchen^ 

 Some of the ashes were given to local antiquaries, but the 

 grate crumbled to dust on being handled. A short distance 

 off, and at about a depth of three feet lower, a very beautiful 

 piece of ornamented flooring was exposed. A memorial of 

 the Abbey, however, still exists in two excellently-toned 

 bells, which do duty in the belfry of the kirk. They do not 

 seem to have suffered much from the tear and wear and 

 ding-dong of centuries. One of them bears the following 

 inscription, which is quite legible : — IWFTEN abbas sacr me 

 FIERI FECIT AGOVICE, — and which was translated into " The 

 Holy Abbot Iften caused me to be made." The party were 

 here joined by the Rev. W. Lytteil, M.A., the well-known 

 philologist, whose work on place-names entitled. " Land- 

 marks," is a standard one on the subject, and from whom a 

 large amount of information was derived regarding the 

 names of places in the surrounding district. The Druid's 

 Circle on the farm of Kilness was next visited. It consists 

 of eleven large boulders (tradition says there were twelve at 

 one time) arranged in the form of a Druidical temple, en- 

 closing a space of ground about eighty yai-ds in diameter. 

 Mr Lytteil was strongly of opinion that the Druids had never 

 had any connection with it. Howevei-, the generally received 



