§ MR. DILLON (Mayo, E.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that, the Science and Art Department having obtained permission from the Board of Works to take a cast of the High Cross at Monasterboice, the workmen have been engaged in scraping 76 the stone surface of the cross with sharp instruments, and that the surface of the cross has been disfigured by this process; and whether, in the opinion of some experts, there is not serious danger that the elaborate carving may be injured?
§ MR. HANBURYThe Board of Works gave permission to the Science and Art Department to take a casting of the cross for the Dublin Museum. Before the plaster could be applied it was necessary to remove the moss and lichen from the hollows of the cross. This work was entrusted by the Department to a skilled Italian workman of artistic training who has been for some time in their service and has always done his work with the greatest care. He at first used a steel instrument to clear the surface, but attention was usefully called by Mr. Pentland, a local antiquarian, to the risk of injury by that process, and it was at once discontinued, and the remainder of the growth removed by washing. Skilled officers have been sent down both by the Science and Art Department and the Board of Works, and they have examined so much of the surface as is not already enclosed in plaster. No signs of injury appeared, and it is hoped that, when the plaster is removed, the remainder of the surface will be found to have taken no harm.