52 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



other letter ; and, alluring as the association with the renowned son 

 of Daire may appear, we mnst not look for it in this part, at least, of 

 the legend. ' The context has not yet yielded any reading agreeable to 

 ordinary forms of sepulchral commemoration ; but, even without the 

 key furnished by the correlative Latin, the reason of this deficiency 

 has been divined by a more penetrating sagacity than mine. A 

 communication which I have received from the Bishop of Limerick 

 enables me to present the true exposition of the Camp Ogham, in the 

 language of its legitimate author. The subjoined letter has been 

 elicited by an inspection of this paper, submitted, in one of the 

 intervals of its reading, to Bishop Graves. Bishop Graves' letter con- 

 tains not only an exposition of the Camp Ogham, with several disclo- 

 sures of novel and valuable matter (partly in elucidation of things 

 obscure to me, and partly in correction of errors into which I proba- 

 bly have fallen), but an announcement which will be received with 

 lively interest in the world of learning, of the general conclusions at 

 which he has arrived respecting the form and structure of Ogham 

 proper names. 



" Limerick, January 23, 1871. 

 ' ' My deah Ferguson, 



" You were rightly informed that I had succeeded in deciphering 

 the Ogham inscription on the Camp Stone. 



"In the year 1858, Archdeacon Rowan sent me a drawing of it, 

 with a request that I would let him know how I proposed to read and 

 explain it, but as I did not succeed in reading it offhand, I laid it 

 aside. I had so often found my time wasted in attempts to decipher 

 Ogham inscriptions which had been incorrectly copied, that I resolved 

 to pronounce no opinion on this inscription until I had seen and felt 

 it, or, at least, was in possession of a cast or good rubbing of it. Thus 

 I remained silent while other more adventurous scholars amused 

 themselves and our brother academicians with their attempts to solve 

 the riddle. But happening, a year or two ago, to leam that this 

 inscription had again attracted notice, and thinking that it was likely 

 to be made an occasion of putting forward views on this subject 

 calculated rather to retard than to promote the study of Ogham, I 

 resumed the consideration of the inscription, having before me the 

 woodcut in the seventh volume of our ' Proceedings.' After a little 

 examination, I observed that this inscription, when the Ogham cha- 

 racters have been so set before the eye as to assume their proper 

 alphabetic powers, must be read, not as is usual from left to right, 

 but from right to left. Thus I obtained the reading : — 



' Conuneacc TTIocui Conupi,' 



And I did not hesitate to identify the two names with conncnc 

 and conpoi. With respect to the former, I am now inclined to 



