194 



The inquiry into the origin of these towers naturally leads to the 

 question, whether there exist in any other country buildings which 

 bear a resemblance to them. Instances, though rare, are not want- 

 ing ; some bear a very slight resemblance indeed, while the greater 

 similarity of others may be considered as throwing light upon the 

 subject. * 



In Scotland the towers of Abernethy and Brechin are of precisely 

 the same character with those of Ireland ; they are both in perfect 

 preservation, and though not so lofty as some of ours, agree with 

 them in general ; the most striking difference consists in the four 

 windows at the top of Brechin tower, which are in the roof, and in 

 shape exactly what are called dormant windows, projecting with 

 small ridges from the cone-shaped roof of stone, while the sills of the 

 windows rest as it seems upon the capping stone from which the 

 roof springs. 



These towers have been supposed, in Gordon's Itinerarium Sep- 

 tentrionale, to be Pictish buildings, Abernethy having been the 

 capital of the Picts ; but Mess. Brereton and Gough decide on the 

 contrary, that, as the Picts never possessed the western side of 

 Scotland, nor had any influence in Ireland, where round towers are 

 so numerous, the towers in question must have been erected by Irish 

 workmen, what time Ireland had much connexion with Albin.* 

 Such connexion notoriously existed in the olden times, as western 

 Scotland and the Isles at several periods received colonies from this 

 country. The Picts also called in their allies, the Scots or Irish, to 

 assist them against the Romans, and it is remarkable that they 

 were the only nations who offered successful resistance to the masters 

 of the world, no mean evidence of their advancement in civilization, 



• Archeologia, 11. pp. 80—83. 



