312 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 
Like all such stories, and I have had to deal with many in 
my researches regarding Indian myths, the number of variants of 
the details is in the inverse ratio to the number of authentic facts. 
The majority! of these variants concur in the statement that 
the incident above referred to took place when his Majesty visited 
‘Leinster House on Friday, the 21st August, 1821. But of that 
visit there is a printed account’; and although it is a record of 
the transactions which took place on the occasion, there is not the 
least reference in it to a gold nugget, and the Registrar of the 
Royal Dublin Society informs me that he has not been able to 
trace any allusion to it in the MS. records of the Society, and it 
is certainly not mentioned in the printed ‘“ Proceedings.” 
If the story be true, the nugget must have been the property 
of the Dublin Society, or have been deposited in its care at the 
time. It is not, however, included in any of the early Cata- 
logues of the Society’s Minerals and other possessions, which still 
exist. On the contrary, that of 1832 affords internal, if indirect, 
evidence that Sir Charles Giesecke, who was in charge of the 
minerals from 1818 to 1832, had himself never seen the nugget, 
for, in his supplementary remarks on Irish minerals, Catalogue, 
p. 241, he merely says that the largest mass of gold ever found in 
Wicklow weighed about 25 oz., and that a model of it was in 
the Museum. Here there is no mention of the history of the 
nugget, while the ascription to it of the weight 25 oz. is apparently 
incorrect. 
Besides the two models above referred to, there are at least 
two others, one in the Geological Museum of Trinity College, 
which is the only one with an original(?) label, as follows :— 
“‘Moddel of a piece of gold found at Croughan.” ‘This is in an 
old-looking handwriting, and, as will be noticed, in an obsolete 
orthography. The fourth belongs to Dr. Fraser, who obtained 
it from Mr. Glennon. In a letter from Mrs. Baker, daughter 
of the latter, which Dr. Fraser has placed in my hands, it is stated 
that the model was cast by her father for a gentleman who 
1 One version of the story, however, is that the nugget was presented to George 
TY. on the occasion of his visit to Powerscourt, but Lord Powerscourt informs me 
there is no foundation for it. Another version connects the donation with the Earl 
of Meath, as we shall see. 
2««The Royal Visit,’? &e. Dublin: Crookes, 8vo, 1821. 
