222 



resemble the fire-houses described in several parts of Persia, as 

 almost to afford conviction that they vv^ere constructed for the same 

 purpose ; this opinion is strengthened by the circumstance of their 

 being most frequently situated in the near neighbourhood of the 

 round towers, and by their being invariably attributed to the earliest 

 Irish saints, St. Declan, St. Coleman, St. Albe, &c. &c., and deno- 

 minated their kitchens, their chapels, or still oftener, their houses.* 

 Yet that dwelling-houses should have been built of stone for men of 

 such lowly habits, (though with minds enlightened by acquaintance 

 with the continent) in an age when dwellings were generally 

 formed of wood or wattle, is by no means likely ; but supposing that 

 they had been intended for dwellings, would they not have partaken 

 of those advantages of windows and chimnies, which may be con- 

 sidered as belonging to the more permanent mode of building. And 

 if erected for chapels, still more surprising would be the want of 

 vt^indows, or in some of them of even the smallest loop-hole 

 to enable the ministering priest to perform the service to the 

 scanty congregation which they were capable of containing. It 

 is also remarkable that in several instances small churches, ap- 

 parently of very great antiquity, are situated within the same church- 

 yard, but possessing windows, however narrow, and bearing all the 

 characteristics of ecclesiastical buildings ; had the others been cha- 

 pels these would scarcely have been deemed necessary. 



One of the most perfect of these stone-roofed structures, St. 

 Columb's house at Kells, in the county of Meath, is in such a state 

 of preservation as to be inhabited by a family. Though no longer 

 within the church-yard, it stands at but a small distance from the 



* All through the East the places of worship are termed houses, and particularly in Persia. 

 The fire-house is constantly so mentioned by Ousely in his Travels in the East, by Mgrier, 

 &c, &c. 



