262 



Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



The conclusion at which I have arrived, and which I now submit 

 to the Academy, is that the bronze is the foremost portion of the head 

 of an ancient Irish Crozier or bishop's staff. (See XoteB, at end.) 



This opinion has been fortified by a circumstance which I have 

 since learned from Mr. O'Laverty. He writes to me, saying: — " On 

 the same day was sold a thin piece of amber, through which was 

 pierced a small hole, and around it was a piece of paper containing 

 this note : — ' Taken from the head of an ancient Irish crozier.' " I 

 venture to think that the label might relate to the bronze instead of 

 to the piece of amber, or, at least, that the latter at some time 

 belonged to the former. 



It will be observed that the flat front of the bronze (corresponding^ 

 in the preceding engraving, to the bottom of 

 the sole, according to the simile of a shoe) pre- 

 sents a well-defined cross, which, according to 

 my supposition, would be held in a position 

 presenting it perpendicularly to the bishop's 

 flock, thus displaying the emblem of the Christian 

 faith stamped on the very forefront of the ensign 

 of his office. It also appears on the side of the 

 bronze. A herring-bone pattern, not common 

 in Irish work, but nearly resembling one on the 

 inner part of the crook of the Lismore crozier 

 (see lithographed plate in O'Neill's " Fine Arts' 

 of Ancient Ireland") forms the cross in front. 

 It is surrounded by ornaments formed by the 

 interlacements of a single band. Those in the 

 two lower corners are perfect and beautiful. 

 The patterns resemble others on similar Irish 

 work, e. g., on the Durrow tombstones repre- 

 sented in the " Christian Inscriptions," edited 

 by Miss Stokes (Plate XXXI.), and on the 

 side of the shaft of the stone cross of Drumcliff, 

 figured in Mr. O'Xeill's work above quoted, 

 p. 32. 



It would be difficult to convince any one familiar only with the 

 conventional form of the crozier-crook, as represented in modern or 

 medieval pictures, or as embodied in most croziers now in use, or of 

 ancient continental manufacture, that the bronze in question — with 

 its square, blunt termination — forms part of a crozier. The usual 

 design, following more closely the analogy of the shepherd's crook, 

 almost invariably terminated in a curve, either outward or inward, or 

 — as more usual in French work — in a combination of both. 



It is only by comparison with ancient Irish examples that the 

 identity of Mr. O'Laverty's bronze can be thoroughly established. 

 There are specimens in our own Museum which might serve the pur- 

 pose ; but the resemblance is more strikingly shown by comparison 

 with the ' ' Lismore' ' and ' ' Clongo wes-wood' ' croziers, which, through the 



