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this precious metal must have been far more abundant in 
those remote times than it has been within the period of 
authentic history. According to the Irish annals, gold mines 
were first worked in that county, in the reign of Tigernach, 
the 26th King of Ireland. He caused a person of the name 
of Theodore, in the county of Wicklow, to make pins of gold 
to fasten the garments of men and women about the neck, 
a beautiful and effective substitute for the bone and wooden 
skewer previously used for that purpose. He is supposed, on 
the most received chronological computation, to have died 
about the year 784 before Christ. Minemon, who lived a 
century later, is said to have been the first Irish King who 
decorated the necks of his nobles with gold collars, or torques, 
and even with armlets and bracelets of gold. Although these 
annals were at one time inconsiderately assumed to be of 
doubtful authority, they have been latterly accepted with 
more confidence, on account of the frequent discoveries of 
external corroborative evidence supporting them, especially 
in foreign countries. At all events, it is a curious coincidence, 
that we find pins, brooches, and collars, or torques, amongst 
the most ancient articles fabricated from gold and silver 
in these islands. I am sorry that I cannot shew you any 
of those relics ; I fear they are too costly to be presented 
to our museum, at Leeds ; and we are, as yet, too poor to 
purchase them. It cannot be expected that I should, on this 
occasion, enter into a detailed notice of the numerous and 
various ancient golden articles found in these islands. How- 
ever, there is one of so much interest, and the history of 
which is so curious, that I cannot overlook it here. 
It appears that a mound had stood for ages in the corner 
of a field, at a place called Mould, in Flintshire. This 
barrow was called "The Hill of the Fairies," and it was 
always looked upon as an object of superstitious fear by the 
peasantry of the neighbourhood, who took good care to avoid 
