For many years it had been the habit of Sir Samuel Ferguson to spend his summer holiday in visiting these monu ments. His time and energies for the rest of the year were devoted to his professional or official duties, but his annual vacation was consecrated to the pursuit of poetry, literature, or antiquities. The sedentary life of the city was then laid aside, and the long summer days were passed driving about the country, in search of these and kindred objects of interest. The rough accommodation and homely fare which these excursions often entailed, were not without their attraction for him; his genial nature was happy in simple intercourse with his fellow-man, while the varied beauties of the external world ever gave to him deep and keen delight. Year after year every nook and corner of Ireland and Wales was thus explored.