5° 



zyth February, igo4- 



Mr. William Swan~ston, F.G.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



A HISTORIC TRIAL : THE LIMAVADY GOLD 



ORNAMENTS CASE, 



By R. Lloyd Praeger, B.E., M.R.I.A. 



(Abstract.) 



Mr. Praeger, in the course of his lecture, pointed out that the 

 Limavady gold ornaments case had been in many respects a most 

 remarkable one. The action had been at the suit of the Crown 

 against the trustees of the British Museum for the delivery up of 

 certain ancient golden Celtic ornaments. The matter had origin- 

 ated through the finding by a ploughman named Nicholl in April, 

 1896, on a farm near Lough Foyle, of the following articles : — (1) A 

 hollow collar, in two sections, with elaborate repousse ornament- 

 ation of eccentric curves ; (2) a model boat, with eight thwarts 

 (originally nine) and a number of oars and spars ; a hemispherical 

 bowl of thin metal, with four rings at the edges for suspension ; 

 (4) a solid gold tore of stout wire, with a thin wire twisted round 

 it ; (5) one half of a similar tore ; (6) a necklace, formed of three- 

 plaited chains, with a peculiar fastening ; and (7) a thin single 

 chain of same plaiting. 



The articles were found some fourteen or fifteen inches below the 

 surface of the earth and packed together within a radius of nine 

 inches, showing that they had been deposited there. 



The lecturer proceeded to describe how the ornaments were 



