f simplicity in the Irish
burial-places, the most common type being the rough slab of stone,
several of which are here sketched at random from the graveyard of
the large village or little town of Swords, ten miles or so north of
Dublin (Fig. 88). Very few of these stones bear any inscription, and,
according to the belief of the local residents, never have been carved
or even shaped in any way. In one or two instances, however, the
effort of trimming the edges of the stone is clearly visible, and in
rare cases we see the pious but immature attempts of the amateur mason
to perpetuate, if only by initials, the memory of the deceased.[10]
Some such records still remain, but many have doubtless perished, for
the material is only the soft freestone so easily obtainable in the
district, and the rains and frosts of no great number of years have
sufficed to obliterate all such shallow carvings; the surfaces of the
laminated rock being even now in process of peeling off before our
eyes.

[Footnote 10: In a barren record of facts, such as this chapter is
meant to be, I avoid as far as possible deductions and reflections
apart from my immediate subject; but it is impossible to pursue an
investigation of this character without being deeply interested both
in the past history and present life of the people. I cannot help
saying that in one day's walk from Malahide to Balbriggan I learnt
far more of the Irish peasantry, the Irish character, and the Irish
"problem" than I had been able to acquire in all my reading, supported
by not a little experience in the capital and great towns of Ireland.
The village streets, the cabins, the schools, the agriculture and the
land, the farmer and the landlord, the poverty and the hospitality
of the people, were all to be studied at first hand; and there were
churches by the way at Swords and Rush which the archaeologist will
seek in vain to match in any other country. The Bound Tower (Celtic no
doubt) at the former place, and the battlemented fortalice, which is
more like a castle than a church, at Rush, are both worth a special
visit.]

The cross and "T.L." scratched on one of the stones appears to be
recent work, and the wonderful preservation of the stone to Lawrence
Paine, of 1686, can only be accounted for by the supposition that it
has long lain buried, and been lately restored to the light. The stone
is of the same perishable kind as the others, and it is certain that
it could not have sur