157 



was coming to the fair. As good luck would have it, he was alone; 

 for he had sent word to the castle that some of his men should meet 

 him at Finnea to hang the blacksmith. ' Xow, then,' said one brother to 

 the other, 1 do yon keep silent, and watch your time, while I try to drag 

 away the horse's skin from yon, and do you keep a tight hold of it/ 

 Just as the Baron rode up, the brothers began their mock quarrel. ' Oh, 

 musha/ said the one who was palling at the skin, ' and is not the country 

 come to a pretty state, when a man may be robbed in this way on the 

 high road ! Is there no law or jostiee to be had anywhere for an honest 

 man, who pays his money for what he wants?' The Baron at this 

 reined up his horse, and inquired the cause of quarrel. ' Sure, my lord,' 

 said the brother who was tugging at the raw hide, 4 did I not buy 

 Hps horse's skin from that fellow there at the fair, and now he stops me 

 on the road, and wants to take it back, and he has my money for it." 

 The Baron was angry : and, leaning over his horse, he was about to 

 dismount to enforce justice,, when the other brother placed the pistol 

 to his body and gave hirn a mortal wound ; he fell from his horse, and 

 hras then dispatched by a shot from one of his own holster pistols. 

 (That, Sir," said old O'Beiilv, " was the end of the wicked Black Baron 



"Kb. 60. View of Carrick Castle, county of Westmeafh, near Bal- 

 linalack. 



ISo. 61. Plans of Carrick Castle. This building is comparativeLy 

 modern, probably erected at the beginn in g of the eighteenth century, 

 and appears to be the last of the castellated dwelling-houses. 



This completes the sketches of antiquities in the counties of TTest- 

 meath, Meath, and Longford. I append to them, however, some 

 sketches of bones and teeth, &c, from the peaty mud of the east shore 

 of Lough Kiileen, in the county of Longford, three miles due west of 

 Granard. w:::: I as?is:ei in piilin:; ~i: :ir mintl :: Anra-t 



last, when the lake was unusually low. These are figured in sheets 

 feos. 62, 63, 64, and 65. and consist of the jaw of a horse, that of the 

 red deer, with hones and teeth of the same animals, and of the ox, and 

 a human under jaw of large proportions. In connexion with all these 

 I found the skull of the Bos Jongifrons, the frontal bone of which 

 seems to hare been fractured by some blunt instrument. 



Xo. 66. On tie margin of tie same lake, and -ir>en in:: tie stinp 

 of a large red fir tree, I discovered a staple of white metal, probably 

 that known as white bronze — a mixture of tin with a small alloy of 

 copper, sufficient to give it hardness. This is merely my conjecture. 

 The tree stump into which thi3 staple was driven is most usually covered 

 by the lake to the depth of five or six feet, but the drought of last 

 summer completely exposed this and the adjoining shore. I had the 

 staple cut out of the tree stump with some of the wood attached to it, 

 and I have great pleasure in presenting this singular antique to the 

 il oeeum of tie Royal Irish Academy. The tin which is found in com- 

 bination with our bronze weapons and implements was doubtless ob- 



n. I. A. PROC. VOL. LX. T 



