. 324 
It is not easy to conjecture at what time the erasures now 
noticed were made in the manuscript. They seem not only 
to have concealed the name of the scribe from those scholars 
through whose hands the manuscript has passed at different 
times, but to have escaped their observation. At all events, 
they are not mentioned by those antiquaries who have hitherto 
published descriptions of the Book of Armagh. It is hardly 
possible to conceive how so intelligent a scholar as Lhwyd 
could have spoken as he does of the commonly received belief, 
that it was in the handwriting of St. Patrick, if the name of 
the real scribe, Ferdomnach, had appeared in eight or more 
places. And if he had not himself observed the signature of 
the real scribe, it could scarcely have passed unnoticed by Mr. 
Arthur Brownlow, who, on purchasing the book, after it had 
been left in pledge for £5 by Florentine Mac Moyre, carefully 
arranged and numbered the folios, and marked in the margin 
the beginnings of the chapters of the several books of the New 
Testament, a task, in the execution of which he must necessa- 
rily have examined every single page of the book. On these 
grounds Mr. Graves is inclined to believe, that the erasures 
were made before the manuscript came into the possession of 
Mr. Brownlow, that is to say, about the year 1680. 
DONATIONS. 
1. Dictionary of the Roots of the Latin, according to the 
Method of A. F. Yazvenskago. Presented by the Author. 
2, Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 
New Series. Vol. II. Presented by the Academy. 
3. Natuurkundige Verhandelingen van de Hollandsche 
Maatschappij der Wetenschappen te Haarlem. 2e Verzamel- 
ing. 3e Deel. leStuk. Presented by the Society. 
