8 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



" It is most certain, that those high, round, narrow Towers of stone, built cylinder-wise, whereof 

 Cambrensis speaks, were never known or built in Ireland (as indeed no more were any Castles, 

 Houses,, or even Churches of stone, at least in the North of Ireland) before the year of Christ 

 838, when the Heathen Danes possessing a great part of that Countrey, built them in several 

 places, to serve themselves as Watch-Towers against the Natives. Though ere long, the Danes 

 being expuls'd, the Christian Irish turn'd them to another and much better (because a holy) use, 

 that is to Steeple-Houses or Bell-Fries, to hang Bells in for calling the People to Church. From 

 which latter use made of them, it is, that ever since to this present, they are call'd in Irish 

 Cloctheachs, that is Bell-Fries, or Bell-Houses; Cloc or Clog, signifying a Bell, and Teach a 

 House in that Language." Prospect of Ireland, pp. 416, 417. 



In the following century this hypothesis received the abler support of the 

 celebrated Dr. Molyneux, the friend of Locke, whose opinions, delivered with 

 the modesty of a sincere inquirer after truth, I shall present in his own 'words: 



" It may not be improper to add to these remarks upon Danish mounts and forts, some observa- 

 tions on the slender high round towers here in Ireland, tho' they are less antient ; since they are 

 so peculiar to the country, and seem remains of the same people the Ostmen or the Danes. These 

 we find common likewise every where, spread over all the country, erected near the oldest churches 

 founded before the conquest ; but I could never learn that any building of this sort is to be met 

 with throughout all England, or in Scotland. 



" That the native Irish had but little intercourse with their neighbours, and much less commerce 

 with these at greater distance, before the Danes came hither and settled among them, is pretty 

 certain : and that the Danes were the first introducers of coin, as well as trade, and founders of 

 the chief towns and cities of this kingdom, inclosing them with walls for safer dwelling, is generally 

 agreed on all hands ; and it seems no way less probable, that the same nation too must have intro- 

 duced at first from countries where they traffick, the art of masonry, or building with lime and stone. 



" For that there were lime and stone buildings here, before the conquest by the English, in 

 Henry IPs reign, is certain ; notwithstanding some, and those reputed knowing men in the affairs 

 of Ireland, have hastily asserted the contrary. For it appears, beyond all controversy, that those 

 high round steeples we are speaking of, were erected long before Henry IPs time, from a plain 

 passage in Giraldus Cambrensis, that was in Ireland in that prince's reign, and came over with his 

 son king John, whom he served as secretary in his expedition hither : he speaks of them in his 

 account of this island, as standing then, and I am apt to think, few of these kind of towers, have 

 been built since that time. 



" That author mentioning these steeples gives us this short description of them, Turres eccle- 

 siasticas, quce more patrice arctce sunt et altce, nee non et rotundce. Church- towers built slender, high 

 and round, and takes notice of their model, as being fashioned after a singular manner, and proper 

 to the country. 



" And since we find this kind of church-building, tho' frequent here, resembling nothing of this 

 sort in Great Britain ; from whence the Christian faith, the fashion of our churches, and all their 

 rites and customs, 'tis plain, were first brought hither ; the model of these towers must have been 



