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It is not easy to conjecture at what time the erasures now 

 noticed were made in the manuscript. They seem not only 

 to have concealed the name of the scribe from those scholars 

 through whose hands the manuscript has passed at different 

 times, but to have escaped their observation. At all events, 

 they are not mentioned by those antiquaries who have hitherto 

 published descriptions of the Book of Armagh. It is hardly 

 possible to conceive how so intelligent a scholar as Lhwyd 

 could have spoken as he does of the commonly received belief, 

 that it was in the handwriting of St. Patrick, if the name of 

 the real scribe, Ferdomnach, had appeared in eight or more 

 places. And if he had not himself observed the signature of 

 the real scribe, it could scarcely have passed unnoticed by Mr. 

 Arthur Brownlow, who, on purchasing the book, after it had 

 been left in pledge for £5 by Florentine Mac Moyre, carefully 

 arranged and numbered the folios, and marked in the margin 

 the beginnings of the chapters of the several books of the New 

 Testament, a task, in the execution of which he must necessa- 

 rily have examined every single page of the book. On these 

 grounds Mr. Graves is inclined to believe, that the erasures 

 were made before the manuscript came into the possession of 

 Mr. Brownlow, that is to say, about the year 1680. 



DONATIONS. 



1. Dictionary of the Roots of the Latin, according to the 

 Method of A. F. Yazvenskago. Presented by the Author. 



2. Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

 New Series. Vol. II. Presented by the Academy. 



3. Natuurkundige Verhandelingen van de Hollandsche 

 Maatschappij der Wetenschappen te Haarlem. 2e Verzarael- 

 ing. 3e Deel. leStuk. Presented by the Society. 



