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Mr. PETBIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



of antiquity," I annex a view of the oratory at Gallerus, the most beautifully 

 constructed and perfectly preserved of those ancient structures now remaining; 

 and views of similar oratories will be found in the succeeding part of this work. 



This oratory, which is wholly built of the green stone of the district, is exter- 

 nally twenty-three feet long by ten broad, and is sixteen feet high on the 

 outside to the apex of the pyramid. The doorway, which is placed, as is usual 

 in all our ancient churches, in its west-end wall, is five feet seven inches high, 

 two feet four inches wide at the base, and one foot nine inches at the top ; and 

 the walls are four feet in thickness at the base. It is lighted by a single win- 

 dow in its east side, and each of the gables was terminated by small stone 

 crosses, only the sockets of which now remain. 



That these oratories, though not, as Dr. Smith supposes, the first edifices of 

 stone that were erected in Ireland, were the first erected for Christian uses, is, 

 I think, extremely probable ; and I am strongly inclined to believe that they 

 may be even more ancient than the period assigned for the conversion of the 

 Irish generally by their great apostle Patrick. I should state, in proof of this 

 antiquity, that adjacent to each of these oratories may be seen the remains of 

 the circular stone houses, which were the habitations of their founders ; and, 

 what is of more importance, that their graves are marked by upright pillar- 



