good opportunities for forming a collection of Irish antiquities. 

 The possessor of ample means, he lived for many years in a 

 district Avhich is probably the richest in Ireland in stone 

 implements. Living not in a town, but in the centre of a wide 

 country district, he became known far and near as a purchaser 

 of anything curious which might be found from time to time 

 in the bogs or in the operations of the farm, in reclaiming and 

 breaking up waste lands, and in sinking drains, clearing out 

 water-courses, and all the other ways in which lost and buried 

 objects come to light. It may not be generally known that 

 the chief friends of collectors of antiquities are ragmen. These 

 men, in wandering all over the country, have opportunities of 

 getting possession of things that have been found ; and, when 

 they know that certain things are in demand, they inquire for 

 them, and it is wonderful what numbers of things they pick 

 up — in this cottage a flint arrow head or a stone axe, in that a 

 bronze spear head or celt, and in another a quern stone or an 

 enamelled bead or old coin. These things are carefully stored 

 away for days and weeks, as the case may be, till the ragman's 

 wanderings bring him near the house of the collector, whom 

 he has had in view all the time, as the person who will give 

 him shillings for what he has only paid pence ; and the collector 

 is glad to *get an addition to his cabinet, and dismisses the 

 ragman with an admonition to bring him the next curious 

 things he finds. A blessing on the ragmen ! But for their 

 intervention, most of the antiques that are dug up would soon 

 be lost again ; unless of metal, the labourer who found an 

 implement would likely throw it away, or, if he brought it 

 home, it would become the plaything of the children for a 

 short time, and then would be either broken or lost. But for 

 the ragman, most of the collections of Irish antiquities would 

 be much smaller than they are. The ragmen are not abso- 

 lutely truthful ; and, if they find that it will enhance the value 

 of any antique they have to sell, they will not hesitate to invent 

 a story, as to how it was found in an old rath, or fort, or castle. 

 Some of them also try their hand, but in a very clumsy way, 

 at the forging of antiquities, but these forgeries are so bare- 



