162 



Mr. PETEIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



their interior is filled up with rubble and grouting. In the smaller churches 

 the roofs were frequently formed of stone, but in the larger ones were always of 

 wood, covered with shingles, straw, reeds, and, perhaps sometimes, with lead. 



To the above general description I may add, that no churches appear to 

 have been anciently erected in Ireland, either of the circular, the octagonal, or 

 the cross form, as in Italy and Greece, though it would appear that churches 

 of the last form were erected in England at a very early period, and the only 

 exception to the simple forms, already described, is the occasional presence 

 of a small apartment on one side of the chancel, to serve the purpose of a 

 sacristy. 



That the reader may have more clearly brought before him the characteristic 

 details of these primitive churches, I shall here annex examples of their several 

 features, beginning with their doorways. Of these the most usual, and, as it would 

 appear, the most ancient form is the quadrangular one, as found in the stone- 

 roofed oratoiies in Kerry, built without cement, and of which the doorway of 

 the oratory at Gallerus, already described, p. 132, affords the finest example : 



This form we also find perpetuated in the churches said to have been founded 

 by St. Patrick and his immediate successors, as will be seen in the annexed 

 engraving, which represents the remains of the west end of the small church 

 called Templepatrick, situated on the island of Inis an Ohoill Chraibhth igh , 



