376 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



spected friend, Dr. Hibbert Ware, of York, he makes the following remarks 

 on the uses of the Anglo-Saxon and Irish detached Towers : 



" The church at Ramsey was ornamented with two towers, one at the western entrance, and 

 another in the centre of the transept, supported by four arches Hist. Eames., c. 20. The tower 

 of the new church at Winchester was at the eastern extremity. Wolst, p. 630. But I conceive 

 that originally the towers were distinct from the churches, like the celebrated Round Towers that 

 are still remaining in Ireland. Thus a tower had been erected before the western entrance of the 

 old church at Winchester, as we learn from Wolstan. 



" ' Turris erat rostrata tholis quia maxima qusedam 

 Ulius ante sacri pulcherrima limina templi,' &c. 



Act. SS. Ben. vol. ij. p. 70. 



" If I may be allowed a conjecture on a subject which has exercised the ingenuity of many 

 writers, I conceive such towers to have been originally built at a short distance from the church, 

 that the walls might not be endangered by their weight, and that they were not considered merely 

 as an ornament, but used as beacons to direct the traveller towards the church or monastery. 

 Lights were kept burning in them during the night. At least such was the fact with respect to 

 the new tower at Winchester, which, we learn from Wolstan, consisted of five stories, in each of 

 which were four windows looking towards the four cardinal points, that were illuminated every 

 night. Wols., p. 631." See p. 479, second edition : Newcastle, 1810. 



In this opinion of the learned English historian, my friend Dr. Hibbert 

 Ware entirely concurs, as communicated to me in the following memorandum 

 in the year 1836 : 



" Mr. Petrie mentioned to me that he had not seen the comments of Mr. [Dr.] Lingard on the 

 Anglo-Saxon churches and the towers incidental to them. I have copied his remarks on this sub- 

 ject, which many years ago appeared to me the only rational theory on the subject which I had 

 read. But I am now taught to consider the Round Towers as being devoted to other uses besides 

 affording beacon lights during the evening to direct the traveller to the church or monastery. 

 Yet, at the same time, I am not disposed to renounce the opinion that this might have been one, 

 and not the most subordinate, of the miscellaneous uses to which the building of these structures 

 was rendered subservient." 



I have only to add, that I am indebted to another friend, the late Mr. 

 Matthew O' Conor, of Mount Druid, for directing my attention to the follow- 

 ing curious reference in Mabillon's Iter Germanicum a work of which, unfor- 

 tunately, there is no copy in any of the public libraries in Dublin to apharus, 

 or beacon-tower, at the Irish Monastery of St. Columbanus, at Luxovium, now 

 Luxeuil, in Burgundy, and which seems to give some support to the conclu- 

 sion I have thus hypothetically advocated : 



