239 



men w6re employed in both countries before the conquest of the one 

 or the invasion of tlie other. 



Glandalough has been called the Palmyra of Ireland, and has 

 been so frequently and elaborately described,* that repetition of any 

 part would be idle ; especially as no accurate date of the building 

 of any one of the edifices remaining there can be discovered. The 

 abbey and the whole city was in 1020 reduced by fire to a heap of 

 ruins ; soon after which catastrophe, from the style of the present 

 remains, it may be presumed that the abbey and churches were 

 rebuilt ; since, for the most part, the masonry is good, the arches 

 all circular, and the ornamented mouldings and capitals that remain, 

 whether standing or among the fallen stones, are so nearly of tlie 

 same fashion as thoise of St. Peter's at Oxford, which was certainly 

 erected soon after the year 1000, -f- as to warrant its being referred 

 to the same era. 



The most remarkable differences between the early ecclesiastical 

 architecture of Ireland and that of England, seems to lie in the fol- 

 lowing particulars. The high pitched stone roof> formed within of 

 thin stones embedded in cement, and covered on the outside by 

 very thin square slabs of stone. No roof of this sort exists in 

 England. 



There being no crypt or underground chamber to any of the 

 churches built before the invasion. 



Jn St. Doulagh's and in Cormac's cha|3el a low chamber, dimly 

 lighted, occupies the space between the stone ceiling and the outer 

 stone roof; — of this there is no instance since the landing of the 

 English. 



* In Arclidall Monas. Hib.^-^Ledwich's Antiquities. — Wliitelaw's History of Dublin. — 

 Brewer's Beauties of Ireland. 



f Britton's Antiquities, v. p. 201. 



