An Essay upon the state of Architecture and Antiquities, previous 

 to the landing of the Anglo-Normans in Ireland. By L. C. 

 Beaufort. 



Read, Oct. 22, 1827. 



Ancient Architecture, taking the expression in its most ex- 

 tended acceptation, opens a wide field for investigation, carrying us 

 back to the rude monuments of early ages ; monuments which 

 prevail to a wonderful extent, throughout all parts of the world, and 

 yet bearing such an extraordinary identity of character, as marks 

 that character to have every where arisen from the same superstition. 

 For these relics of times long since gone by, fragments, which 

 Lord Bacon calls, " the wrecks of history," all bear a religious 

 character, and point out both the worship and the country from 

 whence that religion sprung. 



That both were oriental is declared by tradition, and confirmed 

 by history, sacred and profane. 



From the East, the early histories of Ireland deduce her first in- 

 liabitants ; while the Saxon Chronicle explicitly asserts that Britain 

 was peopled from Armenia. And these statements have been so 

 strongly corroborated by the researches into Indian and Persian 

 history, which have been prosecuted by Sir William Jones and 

 other learned Orientalists, as to clearly shew that these claims are 

 not the mere fables of bardic legend, but that however disfigured 

 and confused, they rest upon a solid basis of history. Hence an 

 investigation of the early architecture of Ireland, necessarily involves 

 some degree of enquiry into the origin of her population, her 

 manners, and her customs. 



