XIV 
of it of their usual number of five hundred copies, and are 
moreover saved from the expense of the paper and printing 
of fifty copies, always given to authors who publish Essays 
in the Transactions. 
‘* With respect to the delay in the publication of my 
Essay on the Ancient Irish Bells, which I wrote in compli- 
ance with the wish of the Academy, as conveyed to me from 
the Chair, by their former illustrious President, Bishop 
Brinkley, I have only to state, that the cause of that delay is ; 
solely attributable, since the plates were furnished, to my be- 
ing wholly employed on the publication of my Essay on the 
Round Towers. 
** And lastly, with respect to the charge that my paper on 
the Antiquities of Tara Hill, was read by the permission of 
Colonel Colby, it having been prepared under his direction, 
for the Ordnance Survey, by the persons employed thereon, 
I have only to remark, that it is certainly true that I wrote and 
read the paper by permission of Colonel Colby, because, be- 
ing employed in the Ordnance Survey at the time, I could 
not, with propriety, have written or read it without such per- 
mission ; but that it was my own work, assisted, as I have 
constantly been, by more competent Irish scholars than my- 
self, and written expressly for the Transactions of the Aca- 
demy, I have already given the most unquestionable evidence, 
namely, that of Colonel Colby and Captain Larcom, the di- 
rectors of the Survey. 
«J have the honour to be, Gentlemen, 
‘© 21, Great Charles-st., ** Your obedient Servant, 
“ Jan. 23rd, 1845.” ‘© GrorGE PETRIE. 
‘© 104, Grafton-street, 
*§ 20th January, 1845.” 
“ Hodges and Smith present their respects to the Secre- 
tary of the Royal Irish Academy, and in reply to his note 
