Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 115 



or character, as there could have been no necessity to erect such a structure 

 there, if that which already existed had been considered applicable to the pur- 

 pose. But it cannot be questioned that the habitation of the anchorite at Drum- 

 lahan, or as it is now called, Drumlane, was, like other hermits' cells, a small, 

 low, stone cell; for it was so described to Mr. O'Donovan in 183(), by the late 

 Mr. Kennedy of that place, who was the descendant, by the mother's side, of 

 the O'Farrellys, the hereditary Herenachs of the church, and who also told 

 him that the building was partly remaining in his grandfather's time, and si- 

 tuated near the church: and of such a cell, which still exists, Harris himself 

 gives us the following description : 



" One of these Anachorites, at present, remains in Ireland, viz. at Foure, in the County of West- 

 Meat/i; but instead of taking his Station in one of these Towers, he inhabits a small low Cell, so 

 narrow, that a tall Man can scarce stretch himself at length on the Floor. He makes a vow at his 

 Entrance never to quit his Cell, and the only liecreation he takes is to walk on a Terras built over it, 

 if he may be said to walk, who cannot in a direct Line stretch out his Legs four Times." 



He afterwards states that the servants of this anchorite, who used to beg 

 provisions for his support about the country, used to call him " the Holy man 

 in the Stone" a term, which in the spoken language of the Irish at the time, 

 was expressed by cloch-angcoire, and which, being found by Harris in the Irish 

 Annals, as applied to the cell at Drumlahan, gave origin to his tradition in con- 

 nection with it, and to its erroneous application to the Round Tower there. The 

 fact referred to in the Annals, therefore, not only contradicts the assertions of 

 Harris, but establishes also the fallacy of the theory of the anchorite use of the 

 Towers, as drawn from this fabricated tradition. 



I have now gone through the entire of Harris's arguments, treating them 

 with an attention which I should not consider them to have deserved, but for 

 the influence which they appear to have hitherto had on the question his 

 theory having been adopted even by many from whom we might have expected 

 a more rational conclusion. The reader will now be able to appreciate their va- 

 lue, and I shall not commit a longer trespass on his patience by adducing further 

 proofs of their futility. Neither do I think it necessary to transcribe the obser- 

 vations of Mr. King, or of Dr. Milner, in support of this conjecture, as they con- 

 sist chiefly of objections to the other theories, and offer nothing new, or requiring 

 an answer, in support of their own. Dr. Milner indeed says, that " it is impos- 



Q2 



