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I now beg to call the attention of the Academy to the series of rough 
sepia sketches of various antique sculpturings, principally Ogham stones, 
crosses, and tombstones, numbering in all one hundred and eighteen, 
which are now before you, and which I have great pleasure in present- 
ing to the Library of the Academy. 
They are all, without any exception, taken from my original sketches 
from nature, and are intended to form the first volume, as it were, of a 
like series of other objects of antiquity—but principally architectural— 
which, however, to some may be of equal antiquarian interest. 
T trust, before long, I shall have leisure to complete this second series, 
which the Academy may again honour me by accepting. 
Ocuam Sronzs.—I shall first allude to the Oghams, not that I re- 
gard them as taking precedence in point of antiquity with many other 
sculpturings now presented to you, but they stand before us veiled with 
such an air of mystery that our natural promptings of curiosity lead us 
to give them our first attention. 
The first group of five Ogham stones, so far as my information leads 
me, are unique. The stones are all small, the longest measuring about 
2 feet 10 inches in length, and perfectly rounded, and polished on all 
sides, the angles being thus removed. They are arranged at the distance 
of 10 or 12 feet apart, around a portion of the outer diameter of an an- 
cient burying-ground called a ‘‘ calluragh burial ground,” on the sum- 
mit of Ballintaggart Hill, a low but well-defined knoll, about two miles 
to the east of Dingle, in the county of Kerry. No doubt, an ancient 
church once existed at this locality, but at present there is not even a 
foundation stone of such a building remaining. 
You will perceive that two of these smooth Ogham stones bear small 
incised crosses on them; the first rather complicated, the latter plain. 
From the particular form of the first cross, I have no doubt but that the 
work may be regarded as of an early Christian period ; but whatever the 
date of the crosses may be, that is also the age of the Ogham inscriptions; 
and all the Oghams bear the stamp of having been made as nearly as 
possible at the same period. 
The next Ogham stone is one of some interest, on account of its pe- 
culiar position, and from its bearing on one side an incised cross of the 
Greek form enclosed in a simple circle. 
This stone, which is about 6 feet in height, stands at the very sum- 
mit level of the ancient pass over the northern flank of Mount Brandon, 
in the county of Kerry, which leads from the plains of the Fionagh River, 
on the east of Smerwick Harbour, across the mountain to the western ex- 
tremity of Brandon Bay, and at an elevation of nearly 2200 feet above 
the sea. This Ogham and the cross were sculptured at the same period. 
Without doubt, the earliest form of cross adopted by the first Chris- 
tians in Ireland is that which is still distinctive of the Greek church— 
I mean the equal armed cross formed by the intersection of four semi- 
circles, and thus having eight points. It is highly probable that St. Pa- 
trick, who died in the year 493, introduced this peculiar form of cross 
into Ireland ; and it is even yet preserved to us in the little gaudy pa- 
