188 



are without windows round the top, or have only one very small 

 one, so that no sound could in that case escape. Even of those 

 that have the row of top windows, their apertures are so very small 

 that the sound of a large bell would have been muffled, and that of 

 a small one lost. Indeed the round tower of Dun-na-man, in the 

 county of Limerick, is so extremely slender towards the summit as 

 to make it impossible for a bell to have been suspended there ; 

 so confined are its dimensions, that it is said an anchorite shut 

 up in it " could hardly incline his head, or help himself to food."* 



Again, had they been the accustomed belfries of the country, 

 would the churches erected within a few feet of the towers have also 

 been built with a lofty gable, pierced with an apperture for the bell, 

 as is the case in many of the oldest structures still existing at Grig- 

 namana, Dunbrody, KilcuUen, Rallydungan, and many others, 

 where this useless trouble has been taken ? f- 



It is true the towers of Dromiskin and Caslle Dermot are now 

 used as belfries, and there is every appearance that of A rd more has 

 likewise been so employed ; but Uromiskin has evidently undergone 

 alteration, since it has lost a great part of its original height, and the 

 ancient door being many feet from the groimd, and therefore 

 extremely inconvenient, a new one has been made on a level with 

 the soil, J while in each of the others, channels have been cut in the 

 door-sills to facilitate the passage of the rope; achunsy contrivance, 

 and apparently one of modern date, since if they had been ordi- 

 narily constructed for this purpose, and the bell usually so rung, 

 similar perforations would have been made in the door sills of all. 

 But surely nothing so inconvenient could have been designed ; it 



* Parochial Surveys, II. p. 94. 



f Dr. Shea on the Cathedral of Kilkenny, p. 24. 



X Brewer's Beauties of Ireland, II. p. 332. 



