182 



Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



ticularly when the window, being of more than the usual contracted breadth, 

 required it, as in the annexed example from the very ancient church of 

 Mungret, in the coiinty of Limerick, said to have 

 been founded by St. Nessan in St. Patrick's time : 

 similar examples occur in the south side of the 

 great church, or cathedral, at Glendalough. 



In the triangular-headed windows the pyra- 

 midal head is almost universally formed, both ex- 

 ternally and internally, of two stones, laid in such 

 a manner as to form two sides of an equilateral 

 triangle : these stones, like the lintels of the door- 

 ways, most usually extend through the entire thick- 

 ness of the wall. The usual external construction of these windows will be seen 

 in the annexed wood-cuts, the first of which represents the window in the south 

 wall of the chancel of Trinity Church at Glendalough ; and the second, the 

 window in the south wall of the equally ancient church of Kiltiernan, in the 

 barony of Dunkellin, and county of Galway : 



In none of these windows, of whatsoever form they may be, does there ap- 

 pear to be any provision for the reception of sashes or glass; and I may observe 

 that no notice of the use of glass in the windows of the ancient churches is to 

 be found in any of the old Lives of saints, or other Irish historical documents, 

 although it would appear certain from Irish historical tales of an age anterior to 

 the Anglo-Norman invasion, preserved in Leabhar na h- Uidhre, that the Irish 

 were not ignorant of the application of glass to such purposes. They seem, how- 

 ever, to have been unacquainted with the art of manufacturing it for windows ; 

 and it would appear from traditions preserved in many places, that as a substi- 



