38 
ample of Niello, upon the reverse of this brooch, a solitary in- 
stance, though we have seen none before of such delicate beauty ; 
but of the carving or casting of glass into the forms of human 
faces, as seen in this brooch, no other example is, I believe, to 
_be found. 
‘‘T have now stated the principal points observable in this 
beautiful remain, to which it seemed to me desirable that the 
attention of the Academy should be drawn, and I shall only 
add a few words more. 
‘* The general form and character of this brooch is that 
usually recognised as peculiarly Irish, or perhaps more properly 
Celtic, for it was, at all events, common to Scotland; and if 
we can trust to the authority of the author of ‘The Pillars of 
Hercules,’ it is also common to Moorish tribes of Africa, and 
derived from thence; but, be that as it may, it is certainly ofa 
very great and unknown antiquity in Ireland. Not so, how- 
ever the various arts displayed in its manufacture, which, how- 
ever derived from an earlier period, are those of Christianized 
Greece and Rome, as practised on the decline of the higher 
and nobler arts of design, when, as St. Chrysostom acquaints 
us, ‘all admiration was reserved for goldsmiths and weavers.’ 
And as to the age to which this exquisite specimen of those 
arts should be assigned, I should with little hesitation state as 
my opinion, founded on the peculiar character of most of the 
ornaments found upon it, though examples of a few of them 
may be found of an earlier antiquity, that it should be assigned 
to that period when such arts were carried to the greatest artis- 
tic perfection, namely, the eleventh, or, perhaps, the early part 
of the twelfth century. 
«« And further, should it be an object of inquiry what the 
probable rank of the owner of such a costly ornament had been, 
I would with as little hesitation express my opinion that the 
rank must have been a princely one; as we have the autho- 
rity of a tract of our most ancient Brehon laws that the size 
