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ployed, detailing more especially his personal experience in the 

 glass works of Belfast. He also exhibited some elegant specimens 

 made in Belfast, and compared them with Continental works. 

 After giving a history of the glass-making trade in Ireland, and 

 enumerating the several works formerly in operation, he stated a 

 a number of facts in proof of his opinion, that the decline of the 

 trade in this country was not owing to foreign or English compe- 

 tition, so much as to the uncertainty of workmen, and their trade 

 combinations. 



On Wednesday Evening, 12th January, Mr. W. H. Patterson 

 communicated the following Notice of an Ancient Stone Coffer, 

 found at Movilla, County Down. 



"Some years ago a curious stone object was dug up in the 

 burial-ground which surrounds the ruins of the old Abbey Church 

 of Movilla, near Newtownards, Co. Down. It was found under the 

 following circumstances : — 



" A gentleman living in the neighbourhood, wishing to con- 

 struct a family burial vault, had an excavation made to the depth 

 of eight or ten feet, until the solid slate rock, which underlies the 

 clay of the cemetery, was reached. At the bottom of the exca- 

 vation, resting on the rock, was found the large stone coffer to 

 which the present notice refers. 



" The finder had the coffer removed to his own house (between 

 one and two miles distant from Movilla), where it still remains, on 

 the lawn, in front of the hall door. The measurements are as 

 follows : — Length, 3 feet 8 inches ; width, 2 feet 8 inches ; height, 

 1 foot 10 inches. Inside measurements — 26 inches long, 14 inches 

 wide, and about 15 inches deep. Its general appearance is that 

 of a clumsily-made oblong trough, on which the only attempt at 

 ornamentation consists of some shallow panels worked on the 

 outside. 



" Within the upper edge there is a ledge, sunk about an inch, 

 which may have been for the purpose of receiving a stone lid. 



"My attention was directed to this curious object by Mr. 

 Jamison, of Movilla, a gentleman who has been instrumental in 



