430 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



House, at Kells. Like the former, it is a simple oblong building, having a high 

 pyramidal stone roof, with an arched apartment below, and a small croft between 

 it and the roof. In external measurement, it is twenty-nine feet eleven inches 

 in length, and twenty-two feet three inches in breadth, and the walls are three 

 feet seven inches in thickness. In height it is, at present, thirty-one feet to the 

 ridge of the roof, the side walls being eleven feet, and the roof twenty feet in 

 height ; but it must have been originally at least two feet more, so that, as in St. 

 Columb's House at Kells, the gables form, if not exactly, at least very nearly, 

 equilateral triangles. The side walls are finished by a projecting string course, 

 or cornice, which is carried round the faces of the end walls. Internally the 

 lower or vaulted chamber is twenty feet in height, and the upper croft seven 

 feet six inches. The lower part was entered by a doorway placed in the centre 

 of the west side, and lighted by three small apertures, of which two are plain, 

 and placed in the east end, one over the other, and the third in the south wall, 

 about eight feet from the south-east angle. Of the former, the upper is an 

 oblong loop, and the lower had a semicircular head, formed of a single stone. 

 The south aperture, or window, was also semicircularly-arched, but was alto- 

 gether of a different character, for, according to the notes of Colonel Conyngham's 

 artists, " it was ornamented with an architrave elegantly wrought, but being of 

 freestone, it was conveyed away by the neighbouring inhabitants, and brayed to 

 powder for domestic use." I may observe, however, that I consider this window 

 to have been a subsequent insertion, and, most probably, cotemporaneous with 

 the other remains of ornamental architecture in the vicinity. The upper croft 

 is lighted by two small oblong loops placed, one at the east, and the other at the 

 west end. The doorway is of a quadrangular form, and is so similar in con- 

 struction to that of the great church, as to leave no doubt of their being cotem- 

 poraneous works, if not actually built by the same workman. It is two feet 

 eight inches wide at top, three feet two inches at bottom, and in height, six feet 

 eight inches. The stones of which it is composed, are mostly of large size, and 

 most of them extend the entire thickness of the wall. The lintel, which, like 

 the rest, is of mica slate, is five feet eight inches in length, and eleven and a-half 

 inches in height. It is ornamented with a rude cornice, four feet ten inches in 

 length, six inches in breadth, and projecting five inches from the face of the 

 stone. And, as in the doorway of the cathedral, the weight is taken off the lintel, 



