416 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



urn said to have been found in the Round Tower of Brechin, I think I may say, 

 to use a favourite phrase of Sir William's own, I have demolished that. And 

 even if an urn were found within this Tower of Timahoe, would it necessarily 

 follow that all the Towers were built as pagan sepulchres? And might not 

 the wall of the tower have been built around one of those low sand hills, which, 

 Mr. Moore says, are so numerous in its vicinity, and of which each has similar 

 sepulchral deposits? Is a question of this nature to be thus disposed of by a 

 hearsay story, of more than fifty years' standing, in opposition, as Sir William 

 Betham himself acknowledges, to the evidence of the authentic annals of the 

 country? Has this story even one circumstance connected with it, that would 

 entitle it to credit? Does it condescend even to give the name of the finder of 

 the urn, or to offer evidence of any kind that it was a Pagan sepulchral vase, 

 and not a specimen of that characteristic, but more, modern glazed pottery, 

 found in the Tower of Brechin? The truth is, that it would be difficult, as I 

 know from experience, to find a peasant, or even farmer in Ireland, who would 

 know what the word urn means, or who, if they saw such a thing, would apply 

 any other term to it than crock. And, I should add, that there is scarcely a 

 ruined tower, castle, or abbey in Ireland, of which a similar story is not related. 

 It is one of the popular legends of the country; the crock of goold seen by night 

 being always converted by the " good people," or " gentry," into a crock of 

 bones, burned or unburned the legend sayeth not, in the light of day. 



But to be more serious, if possible Sir William Betham has been unhappy 

 in his selection of this Tower of Timahoe, as the monument, in which the 

 alleged discovery was made which was to set, what he calls, " the long agitated 

 qucestio vexata" at rest for ever, for, unfortunately, it so happens, that this very 

 Tower is, as I have already shown, one of those which is proved, by all its archi- 

 tectural features, to be a building not earlier than the ninth or tenth century; 

 and though Sir William Betham has not hitherto been able to perceive this 

 fact, I need have very little apprehension that it will now be acknowledged 

 by the true antiquary everywhere. In truth, the Christian architecture of this 

 Tower is so incontrovertibly marked, that even the discovery of a Pagan urn 

 in it, if such were established, would no more prove it to be a Pagan Tower, 

 than the finding a purse of ancient Roman money in a man's pocket, would prove 

 that man to be an ancient Roman, or " the Wandering Jew." 



