Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 207 



cum intuentium non modica delectations persequi solebat : & ad terrain ab aere innata velocitate 

 coercere. (Quis enim locus miseris auiculis relinquebatur, cum homines terrain & aquas, auis 

 inimica, grauisque tyrannus aerem obsidebat ?) Mirum de hoc alite : quod circa templum quod 

 frequentabat, parem non admittebat : sed anioris tempore procul inde secedens, & apud montana 

 de Glindelachan ex consuetudine parem inueniens, naturse indulgebat. Quo complete, iterum ad 

 Ecclesiam solus reuertebatur ? Viris Ecclesiasticis & tune prascipue cum intra ecclesiarum sinus & 

 septa diuinis deputantur officiis, signum prseferens honestatis. In ipso discessu primo Domini Co- 

 mitis loannis ab Hibernia, auem (qiue per tot durauerat ssecula, & delectabiliter Brigidse locum 

 illustrauerat) demum prsedas, quam ceperat, minus caute insidentem, & humanos accessus parum 

 euitantem, baculo, quern gestabat, rusticus quidam petiit. Ex quo patet, casum in secundis fore 

 metuendum, & vitse diuturnse delectabili & dilectee, parum esse confidendum." Topog. Hib. Dist. 2, 

 cap. 37, pp. 729, 730. Francofurti, foL 1603. 



It is scarcely necessary to remark, that, from the phrase " ecclesiastic ce tur- 

 ris" in the preceding story, Cambrensis could have meant none other than the 

 present Round Tower of Kildare, for it is the very phrase which he elsewhere 

 employs to designate the Round Towers in the legend, so often quoted, re- 

 specting the submersion of the city in Lough Neagh : and though this legend 

 is no more sufficient to prove the tower to be of St. Bridget's time, than the 

 legend of the towers in Lough Neagh would prove them to be of the first century, 

 still it is sufficient to show, that the tower of Kildare was considered to be of 

 great antiquity in the twelfth century, and thus fix an early period for the style 

 of ornament we find on its doorway, a period not to be questioned except on 

 the gratuitous assumption of a newer doorway having been inserted at a later pe- 

 riod; but the fallacy of such an assumption is easily detected by an examination 

 of the tower itself, which will leave no doubt on the mind that the doorway, as 

 well as the other apertures, which are in a corresponding style, though en- 

 tirely devoid of ornament, are equally original and integral features of the 

 structure. 



For the satisfaction of the reader I annex a drawing of this very interesting 

 doorway, together with an outline of the ornaments on the capitals of its inner 

 columns, and the diagonal pannelling on the soffit of its inner arch ; and it will, 

 I think, be at once seen, that in its general character, as well as in the style 

 of its ornaments, notwithstanding the chevron or ziz-zag moulding on one of 

 the cornices, it presents features not to be found in any decidedly ascertained 

 Anglo-Norman remains. 



