which had never been adequately displayed. The Council set 

 to work to collect the necessary funds, and, by the kindness of 

 friends, they were shortly enabled to commence the building of 

 the three-storeyed addition which you now have the oppor- 

 tunity of seeing. The contractor did his work in a rapid and 

 satisfactory manner, under the superintendence of our fellow- 

 member, Mr. Young, who, I should say, was President of our 

 Society at the time this work was commenced. The lower 

 room of the new building, in which the Benn collection is 

 deposited, was formally opened in July last, on the occasion of 

 the meeting being held here of the Royal Archaeological and 

 Historical Association of Ireland, Mr. Young having in a few 

 appropriate words declared the Benn collection open. At the 

 same time, the remainder of the space in the room not already 

 occupied by the Benn. collection was filled with a most inte- 

 resting collection of antiquities, chiefly stone implements, Irish 

 and American, which were lent to the Committee of the 

 Archaeological Association by a small number of friends residing 

 in the neighbourhood, who are the fortunate possessors of very 

 fine collections. This loan collection is only mentioned inci- 

 dentally ; but, having named it, I should like just to say 

 further, that among those who contributed towards the collec- 

 tion were Messrs. Gray, Knowles, Raphael, O'Laverty, Canon 

 Macllwaine, Canon Grainger, and the Earl of Antrim. I 

 should also specially mention Mr. Gray's series of coloured 

 drawings of cromlechs and other rude stone monuments and 

 remains existing in this neighbourhood. This series is most 

 interesting, and quite unique. 



I have been asked to give this evening some account or 

 description of the Benn collection, by way, perhaps, of intro- 

 ducing it more particularly to the notice of the members of this 

 Society and their friends. I have already mentioned briefly 

 how and when the collection came into the possession of our 

 Society, and now it will be well to mention more particularly 

 the classes of objects and the numbers of objects in each class, 

 so that you may have an idea of the extent of the collection. 

 But first let me say that the late Mr. Benn had exceptionally 



