Hardinge — Description of Coins. 19 



We went from this south-east up Owenreagh, where turf-cutting 

 was going on. On the ground from which the bog had been taken, 

 the line of a stone causeway was visible, and at a little distance we 

 came upon what they called the "Giant's stepping stones." For 

 about 150 feet this line of stepping stones ran towards the bank of 

 turf — I was told that at least as much more had been bared, but they 

 now lay covered with bog debris. This line of stepping stones ran 

 under the turf bank, which was here some five feet high, as well as I 

 could judge, at the time. 



The question of the antiquity of these monuments of ancient civi- 

 lization is bound up with the question of the rapidity of the growth of 

 bogs, concerning which nothing definite, I believe, is known. 



Stakes are occasionally found imbedded in the clay and gravel 

 beneath the bogs ; and it was remarked that they must have had good 

 cutting implements in those clays, as the cut by which the stake was 

 fashioned was clean and sharp, and showed no hacking. 



Here then, buried under an accumulation of bog, slowly growing 

 for many centuries, we discover the manifest traces of the habitation 

 of man. Three thousand years ago, that earthen fort was the abode of 

 a chieftain's family, who, upon this once grassy eminence, a clearing 

 among the forest, overlooked the wooded vales. Stepping-stones were 

 laid over the splashing hollow for his wife and children. Stockades of 

 stakes were driven into the soil, and interwoven with branches, to pro- 

 tect, at night, the herds and flocks from the hunger of the ravening 

 wolf. The Pound was erected on the "chieftain's green," to which 

 the cattle of those who had committed injustice could be driven, and 

 where they remained in safety until satisfaction was made. And, 

 finally, here was the Chieftain's grave, and the monumental tomb of 

 stones which his tribe built for him, in accordance with laws and cus- 

 toms, ere they, too, passed away. Such are the monuments that for 

 hundreds of years have lain concealed under a slowly-thickening zone 

 of bog, and which by accident we have discovered. 



VII. — Description of Coins presented to the Academy by W. H. 

 Hardinge, Treasurer. 



[Read May 23, 1870.] 



I beg to present to the Academy a silver coin of the reign of Athelstan, 

 another of the reign of his son Edmond, both minted between the years 

 924 and 946, and a third of Philip and Mary, having the Irish harp 

 impressed on it, and the date 1557. 



These coins, with several silver pieces of the reign of William and 

 Mary, were found in the townland and parish of Fennor, and County oi 

 Meath, half a mile south of the Kiver Boyne, on a part of the estate <>f 

 the Marquis of Conyngham, in the occupancy of Mr. Elliott. 



In one of this gentleman's fields there are some large rude stones, 



