74 



February 28th, 1848. 



REV. HUMPHREY LLOYD, D. D., President, 

 in the Chair. 



Sir William Betham read the following letter from Mr. 

 Cooke, of Parsonstown, relative to the coins exhibited by 

 him to the Academy, on the 13th December last :* 



^^Parsonstown, 

 "26thFebruari/, 1848. 



" Dear Sir William, — My son, who came from Dublin 

 yesterday, informs me he did not deliver a letter I sent to 

 him for you about a month ago. It is not of any great im- 

 portance, but still you probably will feel an interest in a 

 portion of its contents, in reference to the Etruscan coins I 

 lent you. 



■ " Since I had the pleasure of seeing you I was speaking 

 to the person from whom I purchased these coins, and he 

 ofiered to make affidavit that they were found in the county 

 Tipperary, in some sort of earthen vase, which was broken, 

 and did not reach him. He would not then tell me the pre- 

 cise locality, as he said he was under a solemn engagement 

 not to disclose it, but he promised to obtain liberty to do 

 so by the next time I should see him. I can only add, that 

 / believe he is convinced of the truth of his statement, for, ex- 

 clusive of my thinking him an honest man, he could not have 

 any object in telling a falsehood on the subject, the coins 

 being mine before I asked anything about where he got them. 

 I thought, in my hurried interview with him at the time I 

 purchased the coins, that he named the neighbourhood of 

 Tullamore, but in that I find I was mistaken. 



* See Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. iv. p. 29. 



