Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 



187 



of Glendalough, twelve feet six inches in breadth : and I should also observe, 

 that the stones forming the chancel, or choir, are usually smaller than those 

 in the nave. Of the masonry called " opus reticulatum" I have met with no 

 example in Ireland, nor have I seen any examples of herringbone masonry, 

 except in one church that of Killadreenan, in the county of Wicklow : but, 

 as this church was obviously re-edified in the twelfth century, it would be 

 hazardous to pronounce on the earlier antiquity of any portion of it. Of her- 

 ringbone ashlar there is indeed a good example, which I shall produce hereafter, 

 in the roof of the Round Tower belfry of the church of Tempull Finghin at Clon- 

 macnoise ; but this is obviously not of an earlier date than the tenth century, 

 and possibly later. Of brickwork I have met with no examples, except in the 

 ruins of the chapel and baptistery of Mellifont, in the 

 county of Louth, erected in 1165; and in these in- 

 stances the bricks only occur intermixed with stone 

 in rubble masonry. I have only to add, that the style 

 of masonry, now known among architectural anti- 

 quaries by the appellation of " long and short," and 

 which Mr. Rickman was the first to discover to be a 

 characteristic feature of the Anglo-Saxon churches, is 

 also very generally found in the ancient churches of 

 Ireland. This masonry, which consists of alternate 

 long and short blocks of ashlar, or hewn stone, bond- 

 ing into the wall, is generally used, in England, in 

 forming a sort of quoins at the angles of churches ; 

 but in Irish ecclesiastical buildings it is rarely found 

 except in the sides of the doorways and windows, 

 though a few well-marked examples of it occur as quoins in the external angles 

 of churches of undoubted antiquity, as in the annexed example from the older 

 of the two churches of Monasterboice, in the county of Louth, which, there is 

 every reason to believe, is the original church of the place. 



As an example of the general appearance of these primitive structures, 

 when of inferior size, I annex an engraving of the very ancient church called 

 Tempull Ceannanach, on Inis Meadhoin, or the Middle Island, of Aran, in the 

 Bay of Galway. This little church, which would be in perfect preservation 



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