289 



were first erected in Ireland ; the first specimens were small, with 

 stone pediments and circular arches, and these continued to be 

 erected to the period of the English invasion, after which no such are 

 known to have been constructed. Cormac's chapel at Cashel is per- 

 haps the oldest of these now extant. Saint Doulogh's, near Dublin, 

 was also evidently built before the English invasion ; it has a double 

 stone roof, the tomb of Saint Doulogh in the porch, a very ancient 

 crypt, a consecrated well, roofed, and other remains of very high an- 

 tiquity. Saint Kevin's kitchen, in the deep sequestered scenery of 

 Glendaloch, is another of the stone roofed structures, to which can be 

 added tli,e crypt of Killaloe, and a few more yet remaining in the 

 island. To this species of churches succeeded an order of architec- 

 ture that evinced the builders to have become acquainted with the 

 Saxon style,* particularly in the ornamental work round the arches of 

 the doors ; of this class are the ruins at Glendaloch, Clonmacnois, 

 Kildare, Timahoe, and Monaincha ; to the antiquity of the last of 

 which Giraldus Cambrensis himself bears especial testimony. -f* 



Of the pasturage and agriculture of this period, the mention at 

 A. D. 994 of the Irish dog which Olafus purchased from the herd, 

 and which had that Swiss quality of tending his master's cattle, so 

 remarkably described as " omnes eodem signo notatos," establishes 

 not only the sagacity of the dog, but suggests the practice of exten- 

 sive pasturage, which must have needed cunning herding at a period 

 when all Ireland was a common to the depredations of foreigners. 



* See Archaeol. vol. yiii. p. 193. 



f "Est lacus in Momonia boreali duas continens insulas, unam majorem et alteram 

 minorem. Major ecclesiam habet antiquoe religionis, minor vero capellam cui pauci c«libe», 

 quos calicolos velcolideos vocant, devote deserviunt." — Top. Hib. Dist. 2. c. 4. ..yJi Ml I 



VOL. XVI. P P 



