Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 2.djvu/414

386 ing the coal strata near Fairhead, in the neighbourhood of the Giant's Causeway, the miners broke into an old gallery, the walls of which were covered with stalactites, evidently of great age, and ancient mining tools were found therein. The residents in the district had never heard of a tradition of the mine having been anciently worked, and the excavation must have been made at a very remote period. About the year 1750, in working a copper mine at Killarney, ancient shafts and implements of mining were also found; and similar discoveries were made about the commencement of the seventeenth century in the lead mines of Knocaderry, since called 'the Silver Mines,' in the county Tipperary. It is true that in remote ages the Irish do not seem to have been acquainted with the use of iron, the swords and other implements found in tumuli and ancient burying places being invariably of bronze. But we find that the Irish had battle-axes of steel so early as the English invasion, during the reign of Henry II., as testified by Giraldus Cambrensis, (Dist. iii. cap. 10,) who asserts that they derived them from the Danes; but even supposing this to have been the case, it is more than probable that a people who were acquainted with the working of coal, and copper, and lead mines, could not be ignorant of the mode of smelting iron."

The Rev. R. C. Boutell, of Sandridge, Herts, Local Secretary, communicated a notice and drawing of a mural painting representing the incredulity of St. Thomas, recently discovered in the abbey church of St. Alban's. It is executed upon one of the large Norman buttress-strips in the interior of the north transept, on its eastern side. Its size is 8ft. 10 in. by 5ft. 10 in. The heads are very good. St. Thomas has a blue robe, and a crimson or rather scarlet mantle: the figure of the Saviour is habited in a whitish-grey vestment, fastened by a golden morse. The nimbus around either head has been gilt. The small banner is charged with a red cross. The architecture, which is of a bluish-grey tint, is now very imperfect, though clearly distinguishable. The subject is painted on a red ground, apparently semèe with crowns of thorns. The pavement is a pattern of yellow and blue tiles, with a few of a brown tint. The tiles in the angles are brown.

The Rev. R. Vernon Whitby, of Osbaston Lodge, Hinckley, presented two fac-similes of sepulchral brasses existing at Sawtrey, All Saints' church, Huntingdonshire. They represent a knight and a lady; the figures measure in length about 4 ft. 5 in., the costume and general design' present several features of similarity to those exhibited by the brasses of Thomas Beauchamp, at Warwick, (A.D. 1401,) and Robert, lord Ferrers at Merevale, (A.D. 1407.) The knight is armed with the basinet and camail;