Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 367 



" My DEAR PETRIE, 



" I am really ashamed at not having ere now sent you the sketches ; but, in truth, 

 I have been so tormented at once with business and ill health, that it was out of my power to do 

 so; you now have them in a sort of way, which your knowledge of the subject and ingenuity will, 

 I trust, enable you to unravel. I have made you two views of the doorway, as it is ; and a restora- 

 tion, showing what I conceive to have been its original state. The value of this specimen, as it 

 strikes me, is the proof it affords, first, that the Towers have been, at a certain and very remote 

 period, employed as places of defence, or safety, which is fully established by the means here 

 resorted to, to prevent forcible entry ; and secondly, and most important, that at a subsequent pe- 

 riod those defences have been designedly removed, owing either to the increased security of the 

 country, or the increased veneration shown to its religion : it may be that its members were desi- 

 rous of thus evincing their confidence and security ; or it might be, that a successful spoliator thus 

 deprived the possessors of the means of future defence against renewed attack. But be that as it 

 may, it affords, I should think, a satisfactory refutation of the argument founded on the occasional 

 absence of such defences : having, from whatever cause, been here carefully removed, it is fair to 

 infer that like motives have induced a similar removal elsewhere, thus accounting for [their] 



occasional absence. 



" Believe me, dear Petrie, 



" Tour's very faithfully, 



" WILLIAM MORRISON. 

 " WALCOTT, Thursday, 19 {July}, 1832. 



" P. S. At Rattoo, as I remember, the bolt-holes for fastening the exterior, and removeable 

 door exist, whilst there does not remain any apparent means of hanging, or securing, the interior 

 door ; further, I believe, the inner jambs are not chiselled to receive a door ; it must, however, be 

 presumed, that where the exterior door, placed necessarily in an innermost position, was deemed 

 indispensable, that the interior one, which could occasion no inconvenience, and have effectually 

 answered any purpose of a door, would not be omitted ; if you conceive it hung within the interior 

 face of the wall from projecting sockets of stones, subsequently removed, the difficulty is got over. 

 It may be urged that the Towers are unprovided with offensive means of defence ; but to employ 

 such means might have been held inconsistent with the religious character of their possessors, or 

 such a garrison might have been unwilling to excite increased irritation ill its assailants ; or, which 

 is most likely, a sufficient means of offence was thought to be afforded by the upper windows, as 

 the door alone could be pregnable, and a stone falling seventy feet would be no soothing application 

 to a Dane's back." 



Amongst the letters of my friend I find another, which I consider worthy 

 of publication, not only as affording another example of the custom of double 

 doors in the Towers, but also as giving his valuable opinion on the fact that 

 the Tower and its accompanying church are cotemporaneous structures. The 

 buildings described in this letter are, the church and Round Tower of Dysart, 

 in the County of Limerick. 



