34 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



I have next to notice the arguments in support of this hypothesis of the 

 eastern origin of the Towers, of a writer who was greatly superior in solid learn- 

 ing, honesty, and general acuteness, to any of those, whose reasonings I have 

 hitherto combated, namely Dr. Lanigan, the able author of the Ecclesiastical 

 History of Ireland. That such a writer should have followed in a track so 

 visionary as that of Vallancey, can only be accounted for by his slight acquaint- 

 ance with the subject of architectural antiquities. His reasonings are as follows: 



" The great similarity of these towers in the interior of Hindostan to our Irish Round towers 

 has convinced me, that, as my worthy and learned friend General Vallancey had long endeavoured 

 to establish in various tracts of his, that this mode of architecture was introduced into Ireland in 

 the times of paganism by a people, who came to this country from some far distant part of the East. 

 The patterns, from which the construction of our towers was imitated, were most probably the fire- 

 temples of the Persians and others, who followed the Magian religion as reformed by Zerdusht, or, 

 as he is usually called, Zoroastres. Those temples were usually round, and some of them were raised 

 to a great height. That fire was in pagan times an object of worship, or, at least, great veneration 

 in Ireland, and particularly the sun, which was considered the greatest of all fires, is an indubitable 

 fact. Now the lower part of an Irish Round tower might have answered very well for a temple, that 

 is, a place in which was an altar, on which the sacred fire was preserved, while the middle floors 

 could have served as habitations for the persons employed in watching it. The highest part of the 

 Tower was an observatory intended for celestial observations, as, I think, evidently appears from the 

 four windows being placed directly opposite to the four cardinal points. The veneration in which the 

 pagan Irish held the heavenly bodies and, above all, the sun, must have led them to apply to astro- 

 nomical pursuits, which were requisite also for determining the length of their years, the solstitial 

 and equinoctial times, and the precise periods of their annual festivals. I find it stated, that the 

 doors of most of these towers face the West. If this be correct, it will add an argument to show, 

 that they contained fire- temples; for theMagians always advanced from the West side to worship the 

 fire. According to this hypothesis the Round towers existed in Ireland before churches were built. 

 I see no reason to deny, that they did ; and the particular style of their construction shows, that 

 they are very ancient. But then, it is said, how does it happen, that they are usually found near 

 old churches? In the first place this is not universally true. Secondly it is to be observed, that 

 these towers used to be built in towns or villages of some note, such, in fact, as required churches 

 in Christian times. Thus, wherever there was a Round tower, a church was afterwards erected ; 

 but not vice versa, whereas there were thousands of churches in Ireland without any such towers in 

 the vicinity of them. Thirdly, there was a prudential motive for the teachers of Christian faith to 

 build churches near the sites of the Round towers, that they might thereby attract their new con- 

 verts to worship the true God in the very places, where they had been in the practice of worshipping 

 the sun and fire. It may be, that some of these towers were built after the establishment of Chris- 

 tianity in Ireland for penitential purposes, as already alluded to, although I have some doubts about 

 it; but I think it can scarcely be doubted, that the original models, according to which they were 



