Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 



329 



p. 255, and the larger church at Rahen, p. 240. The ornaments now described, 

 together with the interlaced tracery, typical, as I conceive, of the cross, and 

 which, with characteristic varieties, is found in ecclesiastical antiquities of 

 every age previously to the thirteenth century, are some of the principal 

 varieties peculiarly in use in Ireland anterior to the eleventh century ; and a 

 characteristic example of their combination will be seen in the following out- 

 line of one side of the leather case made to hold, with its silver cover, the 

 celebrated Book of Armagh, so well known to the readers of Irish ecclesiasti- 

 cal history. 



In the preceding illustration we are presented with the ornament called the 

 triquetra, the interlaced cross of two ovals, the cross formed between four seg- 

 ments of circles within a circle, as well as several varieties of the interlaced 

 tracery forming crosses. 



VOL. xx. 2 u 



