.JOURNAL OF THE COUNTY iDONEGAL HISTORICAL SOCIET 'I side and on .the other an almost inexhaustible wealth of allegory and symbolism. Whilst I quite appreciate the value of the unique position of 1rcland'$ not having come under the direct influencEos of Roman occupation~leaving it for centuries an almost original specimen, as it were, of a very different culture and way of ilfe-yeit there are times 'when I could wish that there was a Roman Camp on my farm, and a fragment of Roman masonr.y or tessela.ted pavement in my back yiard\! I remember, years ago, having entertained some slight feeling of envy of a Cumberland farmer through who"e land passed Hadrian's famous Wall, at a point where it was carried over a little river on a massive bridge, when I watched his pigs and poultry feeding from Roman querns and other hollowed and sculptured stones which ;were lying around-debris of a great Imperia•l undertaking to mark and guard the Nori.hem limits of the Empire'- At this point I think I should interpose a few remarks on the recent finding of a Roman coin near the site of the ancient abbey of Conwall by young Master Kelly (1). He is a very lucky boy, indeed, and I should like to congratulate him on his most interesting find and I hope that he has, already caught something of the facina- .tion of old coins and ancient history. I notice that some writers in the local newspapers suggest that the finding of this coin might be evidence of the presence of Roman occupational sites near 1Letterkenny, but I am afraid that the finding of a single coin here is much too 1s~endier evidencie on whkh ~o bas·e ·an opinion of .that sort. Roman coins have been found in many parts of the world where they were accidently lost in modern times and it would not be at all surprising to hear of them being found in Iceland, Mexico or Australia, "regions Caesar never knew." 258, .I, myself, had an experience whkh may illustrate the possibility of such erroneous impressions being formed. For the past thirty-five years or so I have ca:rr:ied in my pocket a large First Brass coin of the Emperor Titus. This coin has a special interest for me as a farmer as it has on its reverse side a symbolic design referring to the importation and distribution of grain at a time when the home supply had become quite unable to feed the growing population of Rome and large quantities were imported from North Africa and elsewhere. The periodic arrival of the corn ships was an occasion of great public rejoicing and deemed worthy of commemoration on the coinage. It was one of 1their ships, >by the way, bound for a Roman port from Alexandria on which St. Paul was wrecked. F1H>tnote. Son of Superintendent T. Kelly, of the Garda Siochanna Now one day I los.t my favourJ.te coin and for days I searched for it till at length, to my great joy, like the woman in the parable, ~t was found. But, supposing I had not found it and tha:t nifty, one hundred or five hundred years hence it was picked up by some sharp-eyed schoolboy we could ima.gine an enthusiastic member of the Donegal Histor1ical So'Cie.ty of the future contributing an article to the Society'·s ~Journal entitled An inquiry into the evidences of the R.omrut occupation of Argrey Hill, with illustrations and Map! In this ·connection I might also menttlon that in addition to odd coins seve•ral hoards of Roman coins have been found in Ireland. One, f:ound in 1854, near Coleraine, had upwards of 1500 silver coins in it. In 1827 a hoard of 300 was found near Bushmills and in 1830 another of 500 coins rwas found in the same district. (2) It is generally supposed that such hoards were the result of raiding parties cross:ing the Irish Sea and pillaging the rich Roman Settlements that were left un-
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