137 



and the octagonal spire to the tower at Brechin, or the occurrence of 

 what is called a Saxo-gothic arch, in one solitary instance at Timahoe, 

 or the cross that terminates the conical roof of that at Swords, be per- 

 mitted to invalidate this principle ; they are a very small exception 

 indeed, and these unusual features are evidently the additions of much 

 later days. In truth the interval, at present under consideration, 

 seems to have been precisely that, in which the building of round 

 towers was most practised. 



Neither their founders nor their era have been more questioned 

 than their use. Some with Lynch and Walsh imagine they were 

 erected for watch-towers or beacons, but subsequently used for bel- 

 fries. This first purpose is obviously negatived by their situation, 

 many being found in deep valleys and hollow places, while in other 

 parts two are placed close to each other; and as to the second use, that 

 they were Christian belfries, as Molyneux, Ledwich, and Campbell 

 suppose, (although they exist no where else in Christendom,) their 

 structure is greatly unsuited to such a design ; for, as has been justly 

 observed, " none of those towers is large enough for a single bell to 

 swing round in it, and from the whole of their form and dimensions, 

 and from the smallness of the apertures in them, they are rather cal- 

 culated to stifle, than to transmit to a distance, any sound that is made 

 in them."* Indeed it would be hard to conjecture why Christians 

 should build their churches of such frail materials as wicker and wood, 

 and erect such everlasting belfries of stone ; much less labour would 

 have accomplished a comfortable and roomy church. The extraordi- 

 nary circumstance of their door-ways being always raised from eight 

 to sixteen feet above the level of the ground, is an additional self 

 evidence against their being belfries, while the fact of there being a 



• Milner's Inquiry, Letter 14. 



VOL. xvr. T 



