We have seen that in the Bronze Age a great advance had been made in metal work among the Celtic tribes of Europe, showing great technical skill, taste in design, and delicacy of touch in manipulation--qualities not excelled in the early part of the succeeding Christian period. The type of ornament which characterised the Later Bronze Age and the Early Iron period seems to have flourished longer in Ireland than elsewhere; and with the introduction of new elements by Christianity, it found, in time, its expression, not only in metal work, but in the stone work of ecclesiastical buildings, and in the illumination of copies of the Scriptures. The latter flourished especially, as we know, and the manuscripts which were executed by the early scribes in Irish schools are the finest of the kind now existing. * * * * * _Bells._--With the introduction of Christianity came new needs; and bells were among the first articles provided for ecclesiastical purposes. Considering, as we have shown, the skill that had been attained in metal work in pagan days, it is strange that the earliest examples in Christian times were of a very rude kind. That no fine example of metal work of the Christian period in Ireland can be assigned to an earlier date than about the tenth century, may be due to the fact that the country was repeatedly swept by Norse invaders, and all such objects became their prey. We read, in the Lives of St. Patrick, St. Columba, and others, of the names of various artificers who made bells, crosses, crosiers, and shrines for churches. Frequent mention is made of bells by the Annalists. The early bells were of a peculiar quadrangular form, and made of pieces of sheet-iron fastened together with rivets. The oldest example of the kind in Ireland is the _Bell of St. Patrick_, or Bell of Armagh, now in the Academy collection. It is of the rudest description, and its antiquity apparent. The space between the edges of the overlapping pieces seems to have been filled in with bronze to give the body complete cohesion; and the whole coated with a thin layer of a fusion of the same metal, which not only improved its tone, but preserved it from decaying by rust. There is good reason to believe that, as its name implies, it had belonged to St. Patrick himself. For many ages it was one of the chief treasures preserved in Armagh; here it was highly revered, so much so, that, about the year 1091, it was enclosed in a magnificent and costly _Shrine_, which is also preserved in the same collection. The bell had its own keeper, and was handed down, as was the custom, from generation to generation in the same family, with the most scrupulous regard for its safety. The shrine, which is characteristic of the metal work of the period, is formed of bronze plates, to which decorated panels are attached by rivets. The front panel is divided into thirty-one spaces filled with