of the form usual in buildings erected late in the thirteenth, or carly in the fourteenth century. We, therefore, cannot believe that the structure was raised, as is supposed by this writer, about the year 890, unless we presume that the arches and sculpture were inserted at a subsequent period. A consideration of this particular is of some importance in our future inquiries.

There are round towers attached to several English churches, which towers are of unknown antiquity, and in some respects bear a faint similitude to the towers in Ireland. They are found chiefly in Norfolk and Suffolk, but a few instances occur in other parts of the country. Unlike the well-executed towers of Ireland, the walls, though of a great thickness, are uniformly constructed in a rude manner, and are composed of flints, rough stones, chalk, and other coarse ingredients, imbedded in mortar. The towers, as now remaining, are seldom of a considerable height. Those which have been inspected by the present writer have not any stairs, but are divided into stories by a wooden flooring, and are ascended internally by means of ladders. They are in general used as belfries. The tradition of the country (but quite unsupported by historical testimony) ascribes the ecclesiastical round towers of England to the hands of the Danes. Those northern invaders left so great a terror on the minds of the English, that tumuli, which have been proved on examination to contain the remains of the antient Britons; and other objects, vast, gloomy, or mysterious, are still, without cause, traditionally attributed to them, in several recluse districts of England.

The ascription of the round towers of Ireland to the same ferocious invaders from the north, is warranted by no other circumstance than the opinion of modern writers. It is evident that when Giraldus wrote, in the twelfth century, there was not even a traditional authority for attributing them to that people. Giraldus had little inclination to allow the Irish more merit of any kind than was unavoidable; yet we find that he explicitly describes the round towers as built more patrio, in a manner peculiar to the country. The possessions of the Danish and Norwegian settlers in this country were nearly confined to the sea-coast, except

during the short and sanguinary reign of Turgesius, in the ninth century. The constant wars levied by these marauders against works of piety and art, and the almost incessant struggles in which they were engaged for the maintenance of their footing in Ireland, prevent our admitting it as possible that they had either inclination or leisure for the vast labour required in forming edifices so stupendous, numerous, and widely-dispersed. In Ireland, tradition is now equally silent concerning the founders of these towers, and the people who constructed the circles of upright stones, or raised the gigantic cromlech. Respecting the towers of this description in Scotland, there prevails a local tradition that they were erected by the Picts.

ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE.-Ireland exhibits, in each of its provinces, numerous examples of the respective modes in sacred architecture which prevailed during the middle ages. With the exception of a few cathedrals, and other principal churches, these buildings are now in a state of neglected ruin; and the frequency with which they occur imparts an additional tone of melancholy to many recesses of a country, otherwise too fertile in subjects of painful reflection. Still, the tasteful examiner derives exquisite gratification from the picturesque forms assumed, in their different stages of decay, by these perishing structures, which are often found in tracts now remote from the haunts of man, but rich in august or soothing features of natural scenery.

There will be little difficulty in showing that the Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland moved nearly in a parallel gradation of style with that of England, after the adoption of the pointed mode of design. But, in regard to ages previous to the termination of the 12th century, there exist architectural peculiarities of which the sister island presents no example. It has been asserted by some writers on the history and antiquities of Ireland, that, before the arrival of the English, in the reign of Henry the Second, no buildings composed of lime and stone were erected in this country. The mistake of such authors must be sufficiently obvious; but that Ireland was probably later than Britain in the general adoption of cement and squared stones, is equally undoubted. A

simple vestige of one of the first rude buildings designed and constructed by the christian natives, is supposed to exist in that circular wall, composed of ponderous stones without cement, which is termed Dun Aengus, and is seated on a high cliff of the greater isle of Arran. This spherical enclosure bears a close resemblance to that which Bede describes as having been erected by St. Cuthbert, about the year 684, in Lindisfarn, or the Holy Island. Similar fabrics are to be seen in several recluse parts of Ireland.

It may be remarked, that the custom of raising a structure so rude in one retired tract, does by no means imply that superior modes of building were not also, at the same time, known and practised in more populous districts of the same country, by persons of opulence and authority, intent on other purposes than a rigour of secluded discipline. Churches of stone were, certainly, contemporary in Britain with the rude circular barrier raised by St. Cuthbert for the attainment of religious privacy. About the year 627, as we are informed by Bede, a spacious church of stone was erected at York. Although we are entirely destitute of historical authority for attributing so early a knowledge of architecture to the Irish, it is certain that there are existing edifices which indicate a very remote antiquity, and might, by a bold and hypothetical examiner, be supposed of a higher date than those buildings in England, which are by some writers ascribed to the Anglo-Saxons, and which are, unquestionably, in the style practised by that people.

Previous to such cursory remarks on these structures as are consistent with the nature of our work, it may not be superfluous to remind the reader of some circumstances respecting the mode of architecture that prevailed in Europe, during the ages in which were erected the earliest surviving churches. These buildings are chiefly distinguished by circular arches, often rudely but elaborately embellished; and by columns, or rather piers, massive and short, in proportion to the span of the arch. In the form of the columns, and every kind of ornament introduced, there is usually observable a studied diversity; but the decorations fre-, quently display an imperfect imitation of some particulars in classic

architecture, mixed with forms of men, animals, and imaginary figures. This is the style very commonly termed Anglo-Saxon, but which did not, in fact, originate with the Saxons settled in Britain, nor was it peculiar to that people. This mode evidently sprang from that debasement in Grecian and Roman architecture which took place in the third century, and is exemplified in the Palace of Dioclesian, at Spalatro. With slight varieties, proceeding from the manners, customs, and state, of respective countries, it became general on the continent for many ages; nor was its use confined, in Britain, to the dynasty of the Saxons. With scarcely any variations it was adopted by the Anglo-Normans, and continued to prevail until the latter years of the 12th century.

From a consideration of the necessity of such a nomenclature as might simplify the study of architectural antiquities, modern English writers derive the terms which they apply to different styles, from the dynasties under which those respective modes flourished. But as the same ruling principles do not apply to Ireland, we shall, in the present work, use the term CIRCULAR, when alluding to the weighty style of architecture practised by the Saxons and Normans of England, the characteristics of which are stated above, and will be exemplified in a notice of several Irish churches.

There are some structures in Ireland which are evidently of great antiquity, but which do not agree, either in general character or in detail, with the supposed earliest specimens of the circular style in Britain. Of this description may be deemed many buildings composed of rough stones, dissimilar in size, with remains of round-headed windows, equally rude in construction with the coarsest parts of the fabric, and quite destitute of any ornaments whatever. The doors of such buildings are sometimes of the simplest shape, the top being formed of one massive stone, placed in a longitudinal direction. These ruinous memorials of very remote ages are often found in the most secluded recesses of the island, and are sometimes seen in the obscurity of narrow and deep glens, apparently placed there for the attainment of gloom and privacy.

When unassisted by legitimate historical intelligence, the suggestions of the antiquary must ever be received with caution. It

is possible, perhaps is probable, that buildings like those noticed above, which though rude were calculated for great durability, were erected before existing piles, evincing more skill in architecture, and a knowledge of the art of sculpture. But it may, likewise, be argued that a country divided into several states, as was Ireland, might be subject in different parts to a dissimilar progress in taste or opportunities; and that an exhibition of rudeness might, in fact, be contemporary with, or subsequent to, a display of comparative refinement.

A species of structure wearing more decisive marks of architectural character, though still possessing lineaments unknown to the earliest specimens of the circular style in Britain, is observable in the Church of St. Doulach. This fabric is of small very proportions, and the interior is principally divided into two apartments. Nearly the whole of the first division is occupied by a square mass of stone, forming the monument and altar of the saint to whom the church is dedicated. A narrow, and square-headed, doorway, too low to permit the transit of a full grown person without stooping, leads to the second apartment, which constitutes the portion formerly appropriated to divine service. Many pointed windows have been introduced in different ages; but the original arches are all of rude workmanship, and are either round, or formed on a defective imitation of the segment of a circle. No ornamental mouldings, or sculpture, are introduced in any part. The roof is composed of stone, and is double, admitting of an upper story between the two ranges of stone work.*

The earliest buildings in Ireland, exhibiting the decorated mode of circular architecture, will be found to differ from the manner of other countries in several particulars, which constitute curious features in the architectural antiquities of the island. One of the most antient, as well as most interesting of the structures in this style, is the building usually termed Cormac's Chapel, on the rock of Cashell, in the county of Tipperary. This edifice is said to

* A more minute description of this, and other buildings here noticed in general terms, is presented under the heads of the counties in which they respectively occur.