420 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



of the monastery founded by St. Gall at Brigantium, or Brigents, given in the 

 life of that saint by Wallifrid Strabo, as published by Messingham : 



" Illis igitur illuc ire cupientibus, parauit Presbyter nauiculam et imposuit remiges. Venera- 

 bilia aute Abbas cu comitibus Gallo et quodam Diacono naue conscendens, invocato nomine Domini 

 ad locum desideratum via recta peruenit. Egressi de nauicula, Oratorium in honorem Sanctae 

 Aurelise constructum adierunt, quod postmodum B. Columbanus in priscum renouauit honore. 

 Post oratione cum per gyrum oculis cuncta illustrassent, placuit qualitas illis et situs locorum. 

 Deinde oratione prsemissa, circa oratorium mansiunculas sibi fecerunt." Lib. i. cap. vi. p. 259- 



And such an humble establishment, as we also find from the same work, 

 was the original monastery of St. Gall, which afterwards became so celebrated 

 for its wealth and splendour. 



" Tempore subsequent! ccepit virtutum cultor eximius Oratorium construere, mansiunculis per 

 gyrum dispositis ad commanendum Fratribus, quorum iam duodecim Monastici sanctitate propositi 

 roboratos, doctrina et exemplis ad seternorum desideria concitauit." Ib., cap. xxv. p. 270. 



That such structures, in the northern and eastern parts of Ireland, were 

 usually of perishable materials, such as wood or clay, we may well infer from the 

 fact, that few vestiges of them remain to us. But, in the western and southern 

 portions of the island, in which the custom of building with stone seems to have 

 prevailed far more generally, we have still remaining abundant examples, not 

 only of such detached monastic habitations, but of all the other buildings 

 necessary in these early establishments. From these remains it appears, that 

 the ecclesiastical houses for the various ranks, and for every purpose required, 

 were usually of a round or oval form ; and, that they differed in nothing from the 

 ordinary buildings in use among the inhabitants generally: nor do I think that 

 there was any other difference, than that of material, between these and the 

 houses usual in the other parts of Ireland ; and, indeed, we have evidence, in a 

 few examples still remaining, that ecclesiastical houses were occasionally erected 

 of stone in those parts also, as in the cell of St. Kevin, now dilapidated, situated 

 at a little distance from the Rifert church at Glendalough, and which is so 

 accurately pointed out in the life of that saint, published by the Bollandists, as 

 being erected by himself, " constituit mansiunculam ibi in loco angusto, inter 

 montem et stagnum sibi, ubi erant densa? arbores et clari rivuli." See the 

 whole passage quoted at p. 171. And such, we may well believe, was the 

 tugurium or hut of St. Columba, at lona, which is mentioned in the ancient lives 

 of that saint, by Cumian and Adamnan. Of such stone buildings I have already 



