86 Mr. PETKIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



have been kindly favoured by Mr. Windele himself. In the first of these letters, 

 dated 25th September, 1841, Mr. Windele thus writes: 



" I hasten to inform you of the result of an excavation which we caused to be made, on the 23rd 

 instant, in the lower part of the Round Tower of Cloyne. 



" You are probably aware that that building is based upon a lime stone rock, which stands out 

 several feet higher than the surrounding ground, and that between it and the cemetery, in which 

 stands the Cathedral, runs the high road, which here forms one of the principal streets of the an- 

 cient town of Cloyne. The workmen commenced by clearing out about 2| feet of rubbish, under 

 which they found a floor of small stones, a large powder pavement, which could not be penetrated by 

 spade or shovel, but yielded to the pick-axe ; beneath this, in loose mould, were found human bones, 

 a skull, and fragments of decayed timber. The space, within which the bones were found, is 6 feet, 

 and the mason-work is, as it were hollowed to receive the bodies. 



" This discovery you will probably deem to be confirmatory of that already made at Ardmore." 



From Mr. Windele's second letter, dated 29th September, 1841, it will, 

 however, appear, that the preceding account was any thing but a correct one ; 

 and, it would also appear, that Mr. Windele was not present at the excavation 

 at all. He thus writes : 



" Last week I sent you a report, obtained at second hand, of so far as related to our antiquarian 

 researches at Cloyne. Since then I visited, with others of the ancient craft, the Tower in question, 

 and I now enclose you a semi-official statement of what occurred; and in so doing, it is right that I 

 should inform you that the statement, with regard to fragments of timber being found, was incor- 

 rect, no such remains having been discovered. It is a curious circumstance that many small oyster 

 shells have been taken out from amongst the clay and rubble which covered the skeletons ; could 

 these once have been men ? Lord Kaimes has somewhere said, that ' men by inaction degenerate 

 into oysters,' and Sir , in more recent times, when speaking of his Jim Crow propen- 

 sities, declared he did not know if he should not yet turn into an oyster ! We are told of an Indian 

 Bramin who shut himself up in a Tower for 40 years, during which lengthened period he indus- 

 triously occupied himself in merely looking at the wall and thinking of nothing. Who knows 

 but, in these unexpected shells, we may have found some old Indo-Irish Bramins, whose contem- 

 plative inaction might have been productive of an ostracism. To the Budhists this, I submit, is 

 worth some consideration. 



" Since writing the foregoing I received your letter of the 27th instant, and now beg to answer 

 your queries. The feet of the skeletons were under or in a line below the door of the Tower, which 

 faces the S. E. ; consequently the bodies lay from N. W. to N. E. (not West and East as in Report). 



" The hollowing of the mason-work to receive the bodies you are to reject. That was a fancy 

 of my informant, who laboured hard on my visit, to persuade me of its correctness, but as I could 

 see no such hollow I could not give in my assent. The little sketch and measurements at foot will best 

 explain." 



