10 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



certain from our authentic historical records, that the obeliscal pillar-stones, 

 sepulchral mounds, and earthen military works, so numerous in this country, are 

 of Irish and not Danish origin ; and for the fact, that no remains similar to these 

 are found in Denmark, we are furnished with the testimony of a Danish antiquary, 

 the grandson of Olaus Wormius, as communicated to Dr. Molyneux himself by 

 his brother William, in a letter written to him from Holland, in 1684. In this 

 letter William thus writes : 



" I am intimately acquainted here with a young gentleman that comes from Denmark, though 

 he is a Norwegian by birth ; his name is John Scheldrop ; he is very inquisitive after antiquities, 

 especially of his own country and of Ireland. I have often discoursed with him concerning both, 

 and especially of our great Danes' mounts; I have told him your thoughts of them, and the 

 reasons you ground them on, taken out of Olaus Wormius, who was his grandfather, but he will 

 by no means allow of them ; assuring me that those mounts erected over soldiers killed in battle, 

 of which he has seen several, are not (even the largest of them) above ten foot high. He says 

 he never saw any such as ours in all Denmark ; wherefore I question they be rightly called, or 

 whether they be the works of the Danes." Mdyneux's Correspondence, Dublin University Magazine, 

 vol. xviii. p. 483. 



Thus it appears that Dr. Molyneux's reasoning, as to the Danish origin of 

 the sepulchral mounds and forts, had failed to make an impression, not merely 

 on the minds of the learned in Denmark, but even on that of his own most 

 intelligent brother ; and hence the whole superstructure as to the origin of the 

 Towers, which is raised on this basis, must necessarily fall to the ground. Indeed, 

 from the whole tenor of the Irish annals, it may be seen that the Danes, a 

 rude and plundering people, were so far from being the builders of ecclesiastical 

 edifices, except in a few of their own maritime towns in Ireland, that almost 

 invariably, during their settlement in the country, they were the remorseless 

 destroyers of them ; and though it might be conceded, that on their conversion 

 to Christianity, in the tenth century, they may have founded a round tower 

 belfry in Cork, or in any other town which they inhabited, yet the probability 

 is quite against such a supposition, as we are altogether without proof of their 

 having done so. The Tower of Cork was connected with the ancient church 

 of St. Finbar, founded in the sixth century, and perhaps coeval with it ; and 

 no Round Towers of this kind have been discovered in connexion with any of 

 the edifices which the Danes are said to have founded in Dublin, Wexford, 

 Waterford, Limerick, or elsewhere. Had the Towers been of Danish origin, 



