_W. Morgan Evans, of Pwllheli, photo._] [Illustration: BRONZE RELIQUARY FROM LOWER LOUGH ERNE; NOW IN THE POSSESSION OF T. PLUNKETT, ESQ., OF ENNISKILLEN 7 INS. LONG BY 5⅞ INS. HIGH BY 3½ INS. WIDE _R. Welch, of Belfast, photo._] The most beautiful and perfect example of a reliquary in the form of a small oratory is the one now in the possession of Sir Archibald Grant, and preserved at Monymusk House,[400] Aberdeenshire. It is a wooden box, hollowed out of the solid, and covered with plates of bronze and silver. It is decorated with enamel, settings of precious stones, and raised circular medallions and rectangular plaques of interlaced-work on a chased background of zoömorphic designs. Another reliquary of the same kind was found in Lough Erne,[401] between Enniskillen and Belleek, in 1891, and belongs to Mr. T. Plunkett, of Enniskillen. It is 7 inches long by 3½ inches wide by 5⅞ inches high, and is made of plates of bronze covering an inner box scooped out of two solid pieces of yew-wood. The decoration, which consists of interlaced-work, is concentrated upon the ridge-piece of the roof; upon a band concealing the joint between the eaves of the roof and the sides; upon six circular raised medallions, one on each of the longest sloping faces of the roof and two on each of the longest sides; and upon the hinges at each end of the box to which the bars for suspending the shrine round the neck of its hereditary keeper were attached. There is a third reliquary, like the two just described, from Norway, in the Copenhagen Museum.[402] It has raised circular medallions arranged in the same way as on the Lough Erne shrine, but they are decorated with spiral designs, and the background, instead of being plain, is covered with elaborate interlaced-work. An inscription in later Runes on this shrine reads “Ranvaig owns this casket.” The Edinburgh Museum possesses a fourth shrine of the same class found in the Shannon[403] in a very dilapidated condition. [400] Dr. J. Anderson’s _Scotland in Early Christian Times_, 1st ser., p. 249. [401] _Journ. R. Soc. Ant. of Ireland_, 5th ser., vol. ii. (1892), p. 349. [402] J. J. A. Worsaae’s _Nordiske Oldsager i det Kongelige Museum i Kjöbenhavn_, p. 129, Fig. 524. [403] Dr. J. Anderson’s _Scotland in Early Christian Times_, 1st ser., p. 246. Dr. J. Anderson[404] has pointed out the identity of the form of the Temple at Jerusalem, as represented in the Book of Kells, with the form of this particular class of reliquary.