34 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



experts that this mark determined at least the oldest possible year, the 

 terminus a quo, for the making of the piece. 



Even a superficial study of the College plate by anyone who knows the 

 history of that corporation is enough to show that such a cut-aud-dried 

 solution presents great difficulties. There are many objects in our collection 

 whose inscriptions tell us that they were the gifts of students or Fellows of 

 the College, with dates ranging from 1690 to 1730; and we can verify from 

 our books that these correspond with the years when the donors entered or 

 were living in the College. How are we to reconcile this evidence with the 

 fact that "ii almost all these gifts we have the Mibernia plainly stamped? 



The solutions offered by Mr. Westropp, to which we must give every 

 attention, were two. Either (1 ) the money subscribed for the plate was laid 

 by, and tin' actual piece not manufactured till half a century or more later ; 



2 iginal pieces given al the time specified in the inscription were so 



battered by use that they were sent to the silversmith, who either remade 

 them or furnished new pieces on the model of the original gift, ami hail 

 them Btamped with tin' proper marks of the new manufacture. 



To a student of tin- history of the College, and of the habits and tastes 

 of eighteenth-century ait in Dublin, neither of these solutions seems 

 satisfactory. 



The whole question of the gifts of silver t<> the College lias never been 

 treated in any of our histories. We have records of handsome gifts of 

 money, or bequests, from bishops ami College dons, such as the gift of £20 

 from Bishop PitzGerald (1029) and the bequest of £50 from Vice-Provost 

 Gilbert 1751 For chapel ornaments; and we know that these benevolences 

 were carried out according t" the wishes of the d< rs and without delay. 



Bui there was from the very foundation of the College another kind of 

 gift, it 1 m. iv bo say, a compulsory gift, of silver. In our earliest matricula- 

 tion fees, various items were paid to various officials ; the only additional 

 fee which was paid to the College was a gift of argent, which was fixed at 

 l'J-. for a pensioner, i"-' foi a Fellow Commoner, and £6 for the son of a 

 nobleman. 1 In the last case the value ol this tax was often, but not always, 

 exceeded. Rich fathers liked to give a handsome cup or tankard to the 

 College. The usual form of gift for pensioners was a silver spoon, of which 

 the College soon owned many scores. But if pensioners had no convenient 

 way of getting spoons or other small silver gifts, they paid their 12s. (which, 

 of course, n three or four times the sum in value now), and this 



money was simply put into the "College trunk," with other moneys, and so 



1 The lut tor -.inns were afterwards increased or varied, without altering the original 12». 



