Round Towers of Ireland. 357 
Possibly this form may have originated i 
the fancy of the first builder of them, or 
possibly he might have been aware of the 
superior strength of the round form, and 
preferred it on that account. 
- We have been told that there are Round 
Towers in the north of Denmark, but, from 
the description given of them, they seem to 
be of a totally different character from those 
in Ireland. They are built along the coast 
at regular intervals, on eminences, in sight 
of each other, are capable of containing 
a great number of armed men, and are evi- 
dently placed there for resisting an invasion, 
It. certainly is a singular circumstance, if 
the Ostmen were in fact, as they appear to 
have been, the first builders of the Round 
Towers, that no similar. ones should be found 
in their own country, which, we believe, can- 
not boast of any. Of this no satisfactory. 
explanation has been given, and that. which 
we offer rests wholly on conjecture, The 
native Irish had been Christians for nearly, five 
centuries before the invasion of the Ostmen. 
They. must have had some kind of churches 
for public worship, and these, it is generally 
admitted, were then built of wood. They 
must also, have had some means of summon- 
ing their congregations to the church: how 
