258 [Proc. B.N.F.C., 



proceeded along the railway towards Whitehead every hedge- 

 bank and copse were carefully explored for botanical specimens, 

 the ladies of the party proving themselves especially active and 

 observant. A member of the Club, Mr. B. D. Wise, M.Inst.C.E., 

 chief engineer of the Northern Counties Railway, having kindly 

 placed at the disposal of the Club a lorry manned by stalwart 

 navvies, it was speedily loaded with cameras, vasculums, and 

 geological hammers, and proceeded down the line in front of 

 the party. At one point a detour was made in order to pay a 

 visit to the site of the old church from which the district 

 Kilroot derives its name, and which is associated for a brief 

 period with the early days of the great Dean Swift. This is a 

 very ancient ecclesiastical foundation. O'Laverty, in his 

 valuable history of the diocese, gives it as the " Ceall-Ruaidh " 

 where St. Ailbe (whose death is recorded a.d. 527) landed with 

 a small band of disciples, after having " sailed in a great calm 

 over the sea in a most wretched boat." In acknowledgment of 

 their merciful preservation he directed his companion, St. 

 Colman, to build here a church, and, when the latter objected, 

 on the plea of scarcity of water, St. Ailbe blessed a stone, and a 

 small spring of water trickled out, " which," said he, "though 

 small, will never fail, and will continue till the end of the 

 world." The tiny stream still forms a well for the adjoining 

 farmhouse, and overflows into a pretty duck-pond. Of the 

 first ancient cell or oratory no trace now remains ; and of the 

 church or churches which must have succeeded it, the founda- 

 tions are buried under the long grass of the graveyard, 

 though a rude stone font still stands in its centre. Abutting 

 on a corner of the graveyard are the picturesque ivy-covered 

 ruins of "Brice's" or " Bruce's " house, surrounded with tall 

 trees, which now form the 



" Copse where once the garden smiled, 

 And still where many a garden flower grows wild." 



Amongst these the sweet-scented verbena, not often seen 

 except under glass, was observed growing luxuriantly to a 

 height of eight or ten feet. This mansion house is reported to 



