238 



exactly with those at Cormac's chapel, as to leave no doubt of its 

 identity with the Norman style, affording strong evidence of the latter 

 being in use in Ireland before the arrival of the English.* To the 

 above peculiarities it may be observed, in addition, that all the 

 arches are circular, that the columns are many of them covered 

 with lozenge net work, that the capitals are much varied, that 

 there are the chevron, nail-headed, billet, and dentated mouldings, 

 besides many ornamented with human figures and fanciful animals ; 

 and that the execution of the Avork is quite equal to that of many 

 Anglo-Norman buildings of a later date. |- 



There is also some coincidence in the arrangement and details of 

 Cormac's chapel with those of two of the oldest churches in Eng- 

 land ; Melbourne, in Derbyshire, and St. Andrew's, Hexham, in 

 Northumberland, which have been, on very good grounds, judged 

 to belong to the period between A. D. 677 and 726 ;% the latter 

 was built by Wilfrid Bishop of York, who went himself to France 

 and procured workmen to erect the church of hewn stone after the 

 Roman manner.^ 



The absence of side aisles, tlie fashion of the columns, together 

 with the mouldings and ornaments on the capitals, all agreeing in a 

 similarity of device, seem to confirm the idea, that Norman work- 



* Turner's Tour in Normandy, II. 176. Mr. Turner indeed suggests, that tlie two questions 

 so long debated, namely, the identity of Saxon and Norman architecture, and the aboriginality 

 of stone roofs to Ireland, may be decided by an examination into the architecture of the north of 

 Germany. 



f Beauties of Ireland, Introduction, p. cxiii. 



X Archeologia, XIII. p. 291. 



§ Britton's Antiquities, V. p. 353 Mr. Turner, in his Architectural Tour in Normandy, gives 



very strong reasons for the opinion, that the early Norman style was a corrupt imitation of the 

 Roman, 



