248 



Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



The only other ornamented feature in this chapel was its doorway, which was 

 placed in the south wall. This doorway, which was in a ruined condition even 

 when sketched by Colonel Conyngham's artists, was a simple oblong, one foot 

 eight inches and a half in width, and, as we may conclude, about six feet in 

 height, for it was too much injured to be measured accurately. Thoiigh quite 

 plain in its jambs, it was surmounted by a triangular pediment, in the tym- 

 panum of which, formed of a single stone, was the sculptured bas-relief repre- 

 sented in the annexed wood-cut, taken from a drawing recently made : 



The stone is now broken, as marked in the drawing, but the two pieces are 

 preserved in a neighbouring house. This is the only example of a pedi- 

 mented lintel, which I have met with in Ireland, nor do I know of any other of 

 the middle age architecture either in England or France, except one in the 

 latter, namely, over the Byzantine portal of the church of Notre Dame du 

 Port at Clermont-Ferrand, and which is supposed to be of the eleventh century. 

 See Les Arts au Moyen Age. 



I cannot pretend to explain the subject represented in this curious piece of 

 sculpture, nor, indeed, is it essential to my purpose to do so ; but, as Dr. Led- 

 wich has seized upon it to support those peculiar prejudices, the exhibition of 

 which so greatly disfigure his work, I feel it a duty, at least, to expose the 

 errors, whether proceeding from ignorance or dishonesty, into which he has 

 fallen, in his description of it. Dr. Ledwich says : 



" Among the remnants of crosses and sculptures is a loose stone, shewing in relievo three 

 figures. The one in the middle is a Bishop or Priest sitting in a chair, and holding a Penitential in 

 his hand. On the right a Pilgrim leans on his staff, and on the left, a young man holds a purse of 

 money to commute it for penance." Antiquities of Ireland, p. 177, second edition. 



