238 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



anticipation presents to me no terrors; and Ifeel confident that those who are best 

 qualified to judge of the difficulties of my undertaking will not censure the ex- 

 pression of opinions, however novel, which are offered for consideration in such 

 a spirit, and which, even if erroneous, being based on evidences which I 

 submit to be tested by the learned, must equally tend to the discovery of truth, 

 as if they had been themselves incontrovertible. 



Impressed, as I am, with the conviction that the style of architecture va- 

 riously denominated by antiquaries Romanesque, Tudesque, Lombardic, Saxon, 

 Norman, and Anglo-Norman, belongs to no particular country, but, derived 

 from the corrupted architecture of Greece and Rome, was introduced wherever 

 Christianity had penetrated, assuming various modifications according to the 

 taste, intelligence, and circumstances of different nations, I think it only 

 natural to expect that the earliest examples of this style should be found 

 in a country supereminently distinguished, as Ireland was, for its learning, 

 and as having been the cradle of Christianity to the north-western nations of 

 Europe, in the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries. Neither should it, I 

 think, be a matter of wonder that more abundant examples of this style, though 

 on a small scale, such as might be expected in a kingdom composed of many 

 petty, and nearly independent lordships, should remain in Ireland, than in 

 those more prosperous and wealthy countries, in which such humble structures 

 would necessarily give place to edifices of greater size and grandeur. 



The supposition that the style of architecture exhibited in some of the Irish 

 Round Towers, as shown in the preceding instances, and in many of the 

 churches, of which I shall presently adduce examples, was derived from the 

 Anglo-Normans, is one in the highest degree improbable : in the general form, 

 size, and arrangement of these Irish churches there is to be found as little agree- 

 ment with the great Norman churches, as there is in our Round Towers with 

 their square ones. An equal and a more important dissimilarity will be found in 

 their ornamental details ; and I must greatly deceive myself if those exhibited in 

 the Irish churches will not be acknowledged as indicating an antiquity far less 

 removed from the classical model. The theory advanced by Dr. Ledwich, which 

 had great influence in its day, that our most ancient ornamented architectural 

 remains should be ascribed to the Danes, appears to me still more objectionable, 

 and scarcely worthy of notice. It is utterly opposed to the history of both 



