i6 



time. In the collection there are a few articles of wood — 

 namely, two paddles from the peat which occupies the site of a 

 dried-up lake, a wood spade, a cattle yoke, and some methers, 

 or drinking cups. There are three gold ornaments and a silver 

 bracelet. 



I think most of the antiquities in the collection have now 

 been noticed, with the exception of the coins, of which there 

 is a very large series. To deal effectively with these requires a 

 special knowledge, and I will now express a hope that the 

 coins in this collection may shortly be catalogued, and 

 that a notice of them — especially of the rarities among 

 them— may be brought before the Society. I may say that 

 there is an entire series of the tokens of the Belfast merchants 

 of the seventeenth century, with one exception, that of the 

 joint token of Thomas Atkins and William Lockhart, of which 

 there is a beautiful drawing by Dr. Aquilla Smith, of Dublin. 

 These tokens are about 30 in number. A very interesting 

 token in the collection is that of W. Johnston, of Belfast, of 

 which only this one specimen is known to exist. From its size 

 and the character of the letters, it may probably have been 

 issued early in the eighteenth century. It probably represents 

 on copper a part of High Street as it then was ; the market- 

 house, with its little steeple ; the river, apparently unenclosed, 

 flowing in an open stream, and one of the bridges which crossed 

 it. It is strange that no other specimens of this " Belfast 

 ticket" have turned up. 



Mr. Benn has also presented, with the collection, a number 

 of valuable books on antiquarian subjects. I estimate that, not 

 counting the coins, there are in the Benn collection about 

 1,500 separate objects. These, along with the collection of 

 Irish antiquities already in the Society's Museum, will form a 

 very fine nucleus, around which, it is to be hoped, many inte- 

 resting objects will from time to time be gathered. The Irish 

 antiquity room should form, and I expect will form, one of the 

 chief attractions in our Museum. 



