368 



pear that they were written long after the erection of exist- 

 ing Ogham monuments, which certainly belong to Christian 

 times. 



The conclusion to which Mr. Graves has arrived, as re- 

 gards the origin of Ogham character, is shortly this, that it 

 was framed by persons acquainted with the later and deve- 

 loped Runic alphabets, such as were used by the Anglo- 

 Saxons. If this conclusion be well founded, the existence of 

 Ogham monuments in Ireland does not prove, as is commonly 

 supposed, that the Irish had the use of letters before the in- 

 troduction of Christianity into this country. On the other 

 hand, it must be admitted, that even if the recency of the 

 Ogham be granted, the question respecting the time of the 

 introduction of letters into Ireland still remains unsettled. 

 Long before the invention of the Ogham character, it seems 

 likely that the Irish may have had letters of some kind: either 

 Roman letters obtained from Britain, or Runes derived from 

 some of the Northern nations, with whom they certainly had 

 intercourse in very remote times. 



Mr. Graves exhibited a rubbing of an inscription on one 

 of the upright stones supporting a cromleach at Lennan in 

 the parish of Tullycorbet, county of Monaghan. 



The inscription, though not deeply cut, is well preserved, 

 being executed on a smooth part of the stone, completely 

 sheltered from the action of the weather. 



Of its genuineness Mr. Graves acknowledged that doubts 

 might be entertained, inasmuch as no similar inscriptions have 



