the towers were places of sanctity, such as are still resorted to for 

 the performance of penances, the name might have been taken 

 from the tower, and applied to the penance, although not in fact 

 connected with it, unless by some such secondary application. 



The idea that they were belfries has been one of the most 

 favourite systems, and supported by a greater number of antiqua- 

 rians* than any of the former. Giraldus Cambrensis is the first 

 writer who makes mention of the towers ; he gives them the epithet, 

 ecclesiastical, because he observed they were usually situated near 

 clmrches: had they been belfries would he not have called them 

 campanilee, the name by which such buildings were known in his 

 day, and the more so as the campanilse on the Continent were more 

 frequently separate buildings from the church than joined to it, 

 while in England they were customarily united to the church. 

 From his time down to the middle of the seventeenth century, little 

 or no mention was made of them. Spencer is silent on the subject, 

 and even Ware but slightly touches upon it. 



To the system of this being Iheir destination there are numerous 

 objections ; the diameter at top of some of the towers is so small 

 that a bell of very moderate size could with difficulty swing, and at 

 such a height a small bell Mould have been inaudible. Mr. Brere- 

 ton thinks that they were built previously to the use of cast bells in 

 Ireland, and that if they were intended for calling people to wor- 

 ship the large trumpet was employed.-f- An additional argument 

 against the supposition of their bell-towers may be deduced frpm 

 the circumstance, that there are three or four towers, which either 



Tur, a tower in Syriac — O' Flaherty and Yallancey. Turrace, a tower, a flame, in Hindos- 

 tanee. 

 • Peter Walsh. — Sir T. Molyneaux. — Dr. Ledwich. 

 f Archeologia, II. p. 81. 



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