Deane — On Ancient Monuments in Co. Kerry. 107 



nothing except what might be ashes were found in the beehive cells ; 

 that I am assured a sword was found in similar structures near Tralee ; 

 that what were evidently wells have been discovered, and the curious 

 projecting stones in neaTly all the cells, there is nothing up to the 

 present to identify the buildings with any particular race, or to indi- 

 cate with a degree of certainty their age. But this paucity of evidence 

 should not delay further investigation or leave a country so full of 

 mystery unexplored. 



I may here add, apropos to the subject of Ancient Monuments, that 

 an excellent extension of Sir John Lubbock's Bili passed both Houses 

 of Parliament, which enables not only prehistoric monuments to be 

 scheduled for preservation, but embraces extra Ecclesiastical ruins. 

 The consent of the owner is necessary for the exclusion of a ruin, and 

 no time has been lost in making fresh selections. 



The Royal Irish Academy have been consulted ; and I have the 

 pleasure of stating that not only is public interest alive to the import- 

 ance of the protection of the relics of the past, but that the suggestions 

 of public bodies and individuals are in excess of the number of ruins 

 that it would be prudent (considering the limited funds) to place under 

 the control of the State. 



I trust with careful management of the funds available, and pos- 

 sibly with an additional annual grant, that no such thing should occur 

 as the desecration of a ruin which ought to be protected from fuilher 

 removal, and tliat Irish Buildings, numerous as they are, but simple 

 and grand in their character, owing to the hardness of the material, 

 and the limited sum disposable at the hands of those who erected them, 

 may remain as marks in history, more faithful and more enduring than 

 written lore. 



