ce,
Studded fair with gems of price."

One of the most remarkable pieces of Celtic jewelled work is the
bell of St. Patrick, which measures over ten inches in height.
This saint is associated with several bells: one, called the Broken
Bell of St. Brigid, he used on his last crusade against the demons
of Ireland; it is said that when he found his adversaries specially
unyielding, he flung the bell with all his might into the thickest
of their ranks, so that they fled precipitately into the sea, leaving
the island free from their aggressions for seven years, seven months,
and seven days.

One of St. Patrick's bells is known, in Celtic, as the "white toned,"
while another is called the "black sounding." This is an early and
curious instance of the sub-conscious association of the qualities
of sound with those of colour. Viollet le Duc tells how a blind man
was asked if he knew what the colour red was. He replied, "Yes:
red is the sound of the trumpet." And the great architect himself,
when a child, was carried by his nurse into the Cathedral of Notre
Dame in Paris, where he cried with terror because he fancied that
the various organ notes which he heard were being hurled at him
by the stained glass windows, each one represented by a different
colour in the glass!

[Illustration: SHRINE OF THE BELL OF ST. PATRICK]

But the most famous bell in connection with St. Patrick is the one
known by his own name and brought with his relics by Columbkille
only sixty years after the saint's death. The outer case is an
exceedingly rich example of Celtic work. On a ground of brass, fine
gold and silver filigree is applied, in curious interlaces and knots,
and it is set with several jewels, some of large size, in green,
blue, and dull red. In the front are two large tallow-cut Irish
diamonds, and a third was apparently set in a place which is now
vacant. On the back of the bell appears a Celtic inscription in most
decorative lettering all about the edge; the literal translation
of this is: "A prayer for Donnell O'Lochlain, through whom this
bell shrine was made; and for Donnell, the successor of Patrick,
with whom it was made; and for Cahalan O'Mulhollan, the keeper of
the bell, and for Cudilig O'Immainen, with his sons, who covered
it." Donald O'Lochlain was monarch of Ireland in 1083. Donald the
successor of Patrick was the Abbot of Armagh, from 1091 to 1105.
The others were evidently the craftsmen who worked on the shrine.
In