Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, c. 381 



" Smell Cilli dipip, a air-cmi." L. BaUymot. fol. 119, L. Lecan. fol. 44. 

 " Sinell of Gill Airis, his aistiri." 



And that the word aistire as above given, was understood by the Irish in the 

 sense of bell-ringer, appears from the poem of Flann of Monasterboice, which 

 enumerates the household of St. Patrick, and which was written in the tenth 

 century, and evidently drawn by the writer from the most ancient authorities 

 then extant : 



" Smell, a peap bem in cluic." Lib. BaUymot., et Lecan. ibid. 

 " Sinell, the man of the ringing of the bell." 



It may, indeed, be objected, that if bell-towers had been erected in St. Pa- 

 trick's time, it is scarcely possible but that some notice of such structures 

 would be found in the ancient Lives of that saint. But it should be remembered 

 that the only passage in those Lives which gives any notice, in detail, of the 

 group of buildings which constituted a religious establishment in his time, is 

 one found in the Tripartite Life relating to the establishment at Armagh, and 

 of this, unfortunately, we have only Colgan's translation ; and hence, though 

 there is a passage in this account which might very well apply to one of the 

 primary purposes of the Round Towers, but little weight can be attached to it. 

 till the original be found. The passage is as follows : 



" Istis namque diebus sanctissimus Antistes metatus est locum, & jecit fundamenta Ecclesia? 

 Ardmachanffi juxta formam, & modum ab Angelo prsescriptum. Dum autem fieret hasc fundatio, & 

 metatio forms, & quantitatis Ecclesise ffidificand, collecta synodus Antistitum, Abbatum, alio- 

 rumque vniuersi regni Prselatorum : & facta processione ad metas designandas processerunt, Patricio 

 cum baculo lesu in manu totum Clerum, & Angelo Dei, tanquam ductore & directore Patricium 

 prsecedenti. Statuit autem Patricius juxta Angeli prsescriptum quod murus Ecclesiae in longitudine 

 contineret centum quadraginta pedes (forte passus) ; sedificmm, siue aula maior triginta ; culina 

 septem & decem; Argyrotheca, seu vasarium, vbi supellex reponebatur, septem pedes. Et has sacra; 

 sides omnes iuxta has mensuras sunt postea erecta?." Trias Tkaum., p. 164. 



But, whatever uncertainty there may be as to the existence of these build- 

 ings in St. Patrick's time, there can, I think, be little, if any doubt, that they 

 were not uncommon in the sixth and seventh centuries. Of this fact we have 

 a striking evidence in the architectural character of many of the existing 

 Towers, in which a perfect agreement of style is found with the original 

 churches, when such exist. As a remarkable instance of this, I may point to 

 the church and tower at Kilmacduagh, the tower and churches of Glendalough, 



