Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 



407 



in relievo on its key-stone, and the stone immediately over it. This doorway, 

 which is placed at an elevation of twelve feet from the base of the tower, mea- 

 sures five feet two inches in height, and its inclined jambs are two feet three 

 inches asunder at the sill, and two feet at the spring of the arch. It will be 

 perceived that there is a human head carved on each side of the door, the 

 one partly on the band, and the other outside it. 



Some of the antagonists of the Christian origin of the Round Towers have 

 asserted that this doorway " plainly appears, to an observing eye, to be an after 

 work;" but there is not the slightest grounds for such an assertion; and, as Sir 

 Richard Colt Hoare, a profoundly skilful antiquary, observes, this doorway fur- 

 nishes " a decided proof that these buildings" [the Round Towers] " were not 

 (as some writers have conjectured) built by the Pagans." To me, indeed, it 

 establishes more, namely, that many of the Towers were erected not earlier 

 than the tenth century. A similarly ornamented doorway, presenting a repre- 

 sentation of the crucifixion, but with richer sculptures, is found in the Round 



