174 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



stones being all of the thickness of the wall, which is three feet. This door- 

 way, like that of the Lady's Church at Glendalough, has a plain architrave over 

 it, which is, however, not continued along its sides; and, above this, there is a 

 projecting tablet, in the centre of which is sculptured in relief a plain cross 

 within a circle. This cross is thus alluded to in the ancient Life of St. Fechin, 

 translated from the Irish, and published by Colgan in his Acta Sanctorum, at 

 the 22nd January, cap. 23, p. 135. 



" Dum S. Fechinus rediret Fouariam, ibique consisteret, venit ad eum ante FORES ECCLESI^, 

 VBI CRUX POSITA EST, quidam a talo vsque ad verticem lepra percussus." 



Though this doorway, like hundreds of the same kind in Ireland, has at- 

 tracted no attention in modern times, the singularity of its massive structure 

 was a matter of surprise to an intelligent writer of the seventeenth century, Sir 

 Henry Piers, who in his Chorographical Description of the County of West- 

 meath, written in 1682, thus describes it, and preserves the tradition relative 

 to its erection by St. Fechin : 



" One of these churches before mentioned is called St. Fechin's, one of our Irish saints. The 

 chief entrance into this church is at the west-end, by a door about three feet broad, and six feet 

 high. This wall is hard upon, if not altogether, three feet thick ; the lintel that traverseth the 

 head of the door is of one entire stone of the full thickness, or near it, of the wall, and to the 

 best of my remembrance, about six foot long, or perhaps more, and in height about two foot or 

 more ; having taken notice of it, as the largest entire stone, I had at any time observed, espe- 

 cially so high in any building, and discoursing of it with an antient dweller in the town, I observed 

 to him, that of old time they wanted not their engines, even in this country, for their structures ; 

 the gentleman, smiling as at my mistake, told me that the saint himself alone without either 

 engine or any help placed the stone there, and thereon he proceeds in this formal story of the man- 

 ner and occasion of it ; he said the workmen having hewen and fitted the stone in its dimensions, 

 and made a shift with much ado to tumble it to the foot of the wall, they assayed with their joint 

 forces to raise it, but after much toil and loss of time, they could not get it done, at last they re- 

 solved to go and refresh themselves and after breakfast to make another attempt at it ; the saint 

 also, for as the story goes he was then living and present, advised them so to do, and tells them he 

 would tarry 'till their return ; when they returned, behold they find the stone placed exactly as to 

 this day it remains over the door ; this was done, as the tradition goes, by the saint alone ; a work 

 for my part, I believe impossible to be done by the strength of so many hands only as can imme- 

 diately apply their force unto it." Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, vol. i. pp. 65, 66. 



The next specimen of doorway in this style which I shall present to the 

 reader is one nearly cotemporaneous with the last, namely, the doorway of the 



