Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 



183 



tute for glass, parchment was used, and, as we may conjecture, other trans- 

 parent substances, such as horn, which, no doubt, would admit sufficient light 

 for the performance of religious ceremonies in which candles were necessary. 

 Hence, while it was requisite to have the windows externally of small size, 

 it was equally necessary that their jambs 

 should be splayed internally, to admit as 

 much as possible of the quantity of light 

 required ; and such we find to be the con- 

 struction of the ancient windows invariably, 

 as in the examples which I have now to 

 adduce. Of these, the first represents a 

 triangular-headed window in the east wall 

 of the church of Kilcananagh, on the Mid- 

 dle Island of Aran ; the second, a semi- 

 circular-headed window in the east end of 

 St. Mac Dara's church, on the island called 

 CruachMicDara, off the coast ofConnamara; and the third, a semicircular-headed 

 window, quadrangular on the inside, in the east end of St. Cronan's church, at 

 Termoncronan, in the parish of Carron, barony of Burren, and county of Clare : 



tir 



The same mode of construction is observable in the windows of the ancient 

 oratories, which are built without cement, in the neighbourhood of Dingle, in 



