only it was done by the sisters instead of by the brothers; the same kind of work, too, went on; the ground was tilled, mechanical arts were pursued, and especially the work of producing illuminated manuscripts occupied a considerable portion of their time. Giraldus Cambrensis gives us a wonderful account of a copy of the Gospels which existed in his time, and which must have been of the same class as the Book of Kells. He tells us that it was miraculously produced. Every night an angel showed the scribe in a dream a copy of the designs he was to execute on the following day, and by the prayers of Bridget he was then enabled to reproduce them. 'In this manner the book was composed, an angel furnishing the designs. Saint Bridget praying, and the scribe copying.'
In later times the abbesses seem to have had less authority, and the establishment was nearly always under the control of some member of the royal family of Leinster, not unfrequently the heir to the throne. A remarkable peculiarity of the monastery at Kildare was the keeping up of a perpetual fire. Giraldus mentions it among the 'Wonders and Miracles of Ireland.' He tells us that 'this fire is surrounded by a hedge, made of stakes and brushwood, and forming a circle, within which no male can enter; and if any one should presume to enter, which has been sometimes attempted by rash men, he will not escape the Divine vengeance. Moreover, it is only lawful for women to blow the fire, fanning it or using bellows only, and not with their breath.' There has been much speculation as to the meaning of this fire, bat its origin is lost in mystery, and is not impropably to be traced to the old Druidism. Henry de Londres, one of the Anglo-Norman archbishops of Dublin, believing it to be of idolatrous origin, caused
