ewe lit) 
XL. 
ON THE GOLD NUGGETS HITHERTO FOUND IN THE 
COUNTY WICKLOW. By V. BALL, C.B., LL.D., F.RB.S. 
(Prate XIII.) 
[Read Frepruary 20; Received for publication Frpruary 22; Published 
Juty 15, 1895.] 
In the Science and Art Museum there are two lead models, belong- 
ing respectively to the original Royal Irish Academy and the 
Royal Dublin Society Collections, of a large gold nugget which 
was found in Wicklow in 1795, and weighed, as we shall see, 
about 220z. Being anxious to provide a proper descriptive label 
for these models, | commenced, some time ago, an investiga- 
tion of the various historical facts and of the supplemental tra- 
ditions and myths (for such they have proved to be) regarding 
the discovery and the disposal of the original nugget, and I 
now propose to record the results of these researches. 
The actual discovery of the nugget took place, it is believed, 
in or before September, 1795; and tradition asserts that on the 
occasion of the visit of George IV. to Ireland, in 1821, it was either 
presented to his Majesty at the instigation of an “ officious mem- 
ber” of the Dublin Society, or, when merely intended to be shown, 
was claimed by the king as a droit, placed in his pocket, and 
never seen or heard of again by the Society, having been given, 
so it is said, to a lady, who caused it to be melted down. This,in . 
brief, is the story which has been tacitly accepted by all who have 
written about the nugget for the last thirty or forty years. So 
far as is known it was first actually published so recently as 
the year 1865,' but according to a letter received last September 
from the late Mr. Gilbert Sanders, it seems to have been current 
at an earlier date. And, as we shall see, there is said to have 
been a claimant for the authorship of the fable in the year 1833. 
1 Journ. Geol. Soc., Ireland, vol. xi., 1865, p. 100. 
