Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 253 



not mica slate, the stone of the district, as in the angles of the nave. Besides, the 

 walls of the chancel are not bonded into those of the nave, as they unquestion- 

 ably would have been had both been built at the same time. In addition to 

 these facts, I need only observe the extreme improbability that the same archi- 

 tects who introduced decorated architecture in and around the principal window 

 would leave the great entrance doorway without ornament of any kind. 



The last, and perhaps most interesting of the ornamented architectural re- 

 mains at Glendalough, which I have to notice, are those found in the chancel 

 of the Church of the Monastery, situated about a mile to the east of the old 

 city, and which is called by Archdall and other modern writers, but without 

 sufficient authority, the Priory of St. Saviour. This small chancel, which was 

 originally stone-roofed, had lain for ages concealed from observation, in conse- 

 quence of the falling-in of the roof, until, about the year 1770, the rubbish was 

 cleared out by Samuel Hayes, Esq., of Avondale, in the county of Wicklow. 

 Its interior measurement is fifteen feet six inches in length, and eleven feet five 

 inches in breadth, and the walls are three feet in thickness. At its east end it 

 has a stone bench or seat, one foot eight inches in breadth, and extending the 

 length of the wall, like that in the little chapel called the Priest's House, already 

 described ; and at a distance of two feet from that seat stood an isolated stone 

 altar, since destroyed, five feet in length, two feet eleven inches in breadth, 

 and about four feet in height. In its south wall are three niches, one foot six 

 inches in depth, one of which appears to have been a fenestella for a piscina, 

 and the two others were probably ambrys, or lockers. Of these niches the first 

 is one foot six inches in breadth, the second two feet eight inches, and the third 

 two feet four inches. At the upper end of the north wall there is a similar 

 niche, but of smaller size, being only one foot four inches in breadth, and one 

 foot two inches in depth. This chancel was lighted by a single window, placed 

 in its east end; but this was destroyed previously to the year 1770. 



The nave connected with this chancel, and which appears to have been 

 without ornament, was about forty-two feet in length, and about twenty-six feet 

 in breadth, and seems to have been entered by a doorway placed at the eastern 

 extremity of the south wall, near the chancel arch. On its north side there ap- 

 pears to have been a range of apartments for the use of the officiating clergy 

 of the place, but their divisional walls cannot now be traced. 



