352 Obsérvations on the 
where the rope came out, the ringer standing 
below the door on the outside.”(~) From 
the impossibility of ascending any of the 
Round Towers, we cannot say what indica- 
tions, or if any, there may be, of beams on: 
which the bells were hung. If the upper parts, 
of them were to undergo a thorough examin= 
ation, the result would be of much use im 
deciding the question. 
Giraldus Cambrensis, who wrote so early 
as the year 1185, a few years after the con- 
quest of Treland by the English, and from 
whom we have the earliest authentic infor- 
mation about that country, describes the 
Round Towers as ‘“'Turres Ecclesiasticas, 
que, more patrio, areta sunt et alte, 
nécnon et rotundez.’’ Ecclesiastical Towers— 
which, after the fashion of the country, are 
narrow, high, and round. This is not, it 
must be allowed, historic evidence, that the 
Round Towers were used for Belfries, but 
it is; that they were then used for, some pur- 
pose connected with the church. 
But one important fact is to be found in 
most of the writers on Irish antiquities, whe- 
ther they attribute the Round ‘Towers to Chris- 
tians or Heathens, Irish or Danés,—which 
is, that the common name for them amongst 
(tL) Ledwich’s Antiquities, 163, 
