184 



Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



the county of Kerry, as in the east and only window in the oratory at Gallerus, 

 of which an external view has been already given. 



Of ancient windows exhibiting a double, or 

 external and internal, splay, as found in many of 

 the Saxon churches and towers in England, I do 

 not recollect having met with more than a single 

 example, and in this the splay is only in the jambs. 

 This window is found in the stone oratory, built 

 without cement, situated near the old church of 

 Kilmalkedar, about a mile to the east of Gallerus, 

 and which is unquestionably one of the earliest 

 ecclesiastical structures in Ireland. I may ob- 

 serve, however, that windows of this character are by no means uncommon in 

 Ireland, in churches of less ancient date. 



In these primitive structures the win- 

 dows, like the doorways, are most generally 

 without an architrave or ornament of any 

 kind; but when the doorways present an 

 architrave, or a bead moulding at their an- 

 gles, the windows are generally decorated 

 with a similar ornament, as in the annexed 

 example, which represents the east window 

 of the very ancient and interesting church 

 of Ratass, near Tralee, in the county of Ker- 

 ry, of the doorway of which I have already 

 given a drawing at p. 168. This window, 

 which is much injured, is of greater size 

 than is usual in Irish churches of the earliest age, the height, externally, being 

 three feet six inches, and the breadth at the base ten inches, and at the top 

 eight inches : the external measurement is above eight feet in height, and four 

 feet three inches in breadth. 



I have next to speak of the triumphal or chancel arches, which, in the larger 

 churches, stand in the division between the nave and the chancel. These, in the 

 primitive churches of undoubted antiquity, are also of an equally unornamented 



