“"Donagh O’Hanlon, an inhabitant of the upper part of this country (Fermanagh), went, about 600 years ago (longer than which time, in the opinion of a celebrated antiquary, the kind of engraving on it could not have been made), on a pious pilgrimage to Rome.  His Holiness of the Vatican, whose name has escaped the recollection of the person who gave this information, as a reward for this supererogatory journey, presented him with the Dona.  As soon as Donagh returned, the Dona was placed in the monastery of Aughadurcher (now Aughalurcher).  But at the time, when Cromwell was in this country, the monastery was destroyed, and this Ark of the Covenant hid by some of the faithful at a small lake, named Lough Eye, between Lisbellaw and Tempo.  It was removed thence when peace was restored, and again placed in some one of the neighboring chapels, when, as before in Aughalurcher, the oaths were administered with all the superstition that a depraved imagination could, invent, as “that their thighs might rot off,” “that they might go mad,” etc., etc.

“"When Kings James and William made their appearance, it was again concealed in Largy, an old Castle at Sir H. Brooke’s deer-park.  Father Antony Maguire, a priest of the Roman Church, dug it up from under the stairs in this old castle, after the battle of the Boyne, deposited it in a chapel, and it was used as before.

“"After Father Antony’s death it fell into the possession of his niece, who took it over to the neighborhood of Florence-court.  But the Maguires were not satisfied that a thing so sacred should depart from the family, and at their request it was brought back.”

“For the confirmation of the former part of this account, the informant refers you to Sir James Ware.  I have not Ware’s book, and cannot therefore tell you how much of this story, is given by him, or whether any.  In my opinion there is nothing detailed by him at all bearing on the subject.  The latter part of this story rests, we are told, on tradition.

“As I confess myself not at all versed in Irish antiquities, it may appear somewhat presumptuous in me to venture an opinion respecting this box and its contents, which is, I understand, opposed to that of our spirited and intelligent antiquary, Sir Wm. Betham.  I cannot persuade myself that either the box or the contained MSS. were of such an age as he claims for them.  And, first, of the box:—­

“At present the MSS. are contained in a wooden box; the wood is, I believe, yew.  It cannot be pronounced, I think, with any certainty, whether the wooden box was originally part of the shrine of the precious MSS.  It is very rude in its construction, and has not a top or lid.  Indeed it appears to me to have been a coarse botched-up thing to receive the MSS. after the original box, which was made of brass, had fallen to pieces.

“The next thing that presents itself to us is the remnant of a brass box, washed with Silver, and rudely ornamented with tracery.  The two ends and the front are all that remain of the brass box.