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preserving from destruction some of the mediaeval cross slabs which 

 still exist there, and which attest the former importance of Movilla 

 as an ecclesiastical establishment. 



" The abbey of Movilla was founded by Finian about the year 

 540, and existed down to the time of the suppression of the Irish 

 abbeys in the reign of Henry VIII. The place is mentioned in 

 the Annals as having been frequently burned and plundered by 

 the Danes. Its situation, close to the North-Eastern sea coast, 

 and on the neck of land between the loughs of Strangford and 

 Belfast, rendered it particularly vulnerable to these predatory 

 attacks. The coffer, when dug up, was considered by those who 

 first saw it to be the old font of the abbey ; and, if this supposition 

 be correct, considerable interest must attach to it from its dissimi- 

 larity to the ordinary forms of baptismal fonts. The oblong form 

 and large size would, I think, point it out as a very early type of 

 font." 



" If a font, I can understand the peculiar conditions under which 

 it was found, by supposing that it was hastily buried, for security, 

 on the approach of some party of Danish pirates, and that the 

 secret of the place of its concealment perished with those who 

 thus endeavoured to preserve it from desecration. 



" An antiquarian friend, who lately examined this object along 

 with me, suggested that it may have been the base of a sculptured 

 cross, and that the hollow part was the mortice, in which the end 

 of the cross stood. This I do not think very likely, as the entire 

 size of the block would be totally disproportionate to the large 

 socket ; in fact, a cross to have stood in this base would require to 

 had a shaft or stem 26 inches wide, by 14 inches thick, and would 

 have been of such a weight as to have burst out so frail a base, if 

 the cross got the slightest lean to either side. 



"The only other purpose that I can imagine this object to have 

 served was that of a chest or coffer, perhaps for the safe-keeping of 

 some of the church valuables ; in this case, it must have been 

 fitted with a heavy stone lid. I am myself disposed to think that 

 this curious object is a font ; but, as some of my fellow-members 

 may have met with similar antiquities in the course of their re- 



