ROUND TO\Vl.i;s, 



Orkney. They are usually capped by a conical 

 roof, anil divided into stories, sometimes by \ct 

 existing floorm of masonry, though oftener the 

 floon hve been of wood. Ladders were the means 

 of communication from story to story. There is 

 generally a small window MM each -i..i\, ami 

 (our windows immediately liclow the conical MM if. 

 Tin- d.Mii is in nearly iill cases a considerable 

 height from the ground. The figure represents 

 the tower at Ardinore, County Watcrford, which 

 is one of the most remarkable of those remaining 

 in Ireland. ICi-ing from a double plinth course at 

 the bottom to a total height of 05 feet, it is divided 



Round I ower, Ardmore. 

 (From a Photograph by J. Lawrence, Dublin.) 



into three stages by external liands at the offsets, 

 corresponding to the levels of three floors within, 

 the fourth being also marked by a slight offset. 

 Most of these towers, however, have only a slight 

 batter externally from top to liottoiii. Some, like 

 that of Devenish, are carefully and strongly huilt. of 

 tones cut to the round, and laid in courses, with 

 little cement ; others, such as those at Caxhel and 

 Monasterboiee, have the stones merely hammer- 

 dressed and irregularlv counted : others, again, like 

 those of Lusk and Clondalkin, are orattnutad of 

 gathered stones untouched hy hainmer or chisel, 

 roughly coursed, and jointed with coarse gravelly 

 mortar ; while in others, as at Hells and Drumlane, 

 part of the tower is of ashlar, and the rest of rubble 

 masonry. The average . height of these tower* is 

 from 100 to 120 feet, the average circumference at 

 the bane about 50 feet, and the average thickness 

 of the wall at the base from 3 feet 6 inches to 

 4 feet; the average internal diameter at the level of 

 the doorway is from 7 to 9 feet, and the average 

 .f the doorway above the ground-level about 

 13 feet These doorways always face the entrance 

 of the church to which the towers In-longed. All 

 the a|MTtures of (he towers have inclined instead 

 of perpendicular jamlm, which in also an architec- 

 tural characteristic ( ,f (lie churches of tho same 

 period, and the sculptured ornamentation of the 

 apertures or walls of the towers is in the ...m.. ;\ V 

 a* that of the churches. Dr I'etrie wa- inclined 

 to think that a few of these remarkable structures 

 may be as old as the 6th century, hut they are now 

 assigned to a period ranging from the Mb to the 

 12th centuries. The source whence this form of 

 tower was derived, and the cause why it was so 

 long persisted in by the Irish architects", are point*, 



however, on which there is not the same uimniniitv 

 of opinion. Two round towers, similar to the Irisli 

 t\pc, are to be seen in the yet extant plan of the 

 monastery of St Call in Swit/erland. of ihe fust. 

 half of the 9th century : and, in the Latin dc.sciip 

 lion attached to the plan, they are said to be ml 

 uiiirrrttt till" -m/iii-irnifn. The church ami towers as 

 !i at that date are no longer in existence ; but 

 Miss Stokes baa pointed out a passage in the life 

 Teneiian of Itrittanv which shows that this 

 t\pc of round tower detaclied from the church 

 in use on the Continent in the 7th century, ' wherein 

 to deposit the silver-plate and treasure of the 

 church and protect them from 

 the sacrilegious hands of the lar- 

 li.-uiaiis should the) wish to pillage 

 the church.' Lord Dunraven has 

 traced the type from Ireland 

 through France to Ravenna, 

 where there are still six remain 

 ing out of eleven recoidcd 

 examples. Hulsch considers the 

 detached round towers or cam- 

 paniles of the Kavenna churches 

 to be of the same date as the 

 churches themselves, or mostly 

 earlier than the close of the 6th 

 centurv : but Freeman, on the 

 other hand, maintains that they 

 are all later than the da 

 Charlemagne, as the local writer 

 Agnellus, writing soon after his 

 time, describes the churches of 

 Ravenna much as they are, but 

 says nothing of bell-towers. Suf- 

 folk and Norfolk contain more 

 round-towered churches than does 

 all the rest of Kngland, probably 

 because the flint there prevalent 

 is \\oiked into this form more 

 readily than any other stone. A 

 modern round tower isO'Comiell's 

 monument in Glasnevin Cemetery, which is 160 feet 

 in height. 



See Dr G. Petrie's Eceletiattieal Architecture of Ire- 

 land (Dublin, lf*45); veil ii. of Lord Dunraven'a ffotet on 

 Irirh Ari-httiCturt (land. 1877); Dr J. Anderson's s 

 lam! in Knrhi Christian Time* (film. 18X1 ) ; and Miss 

 Stokcs's Early Christian Art in Ireland (land. I 



Roniulway Down, a hill about 11 mile N 

 of Devi/es. in Wiltshire, the scene of Waller's 

 defeat bv the royalists under Lord Wilmot in July 

 1643. Waller was l>csieging Devizes when Wilmot 

 came up to relieve the town, whereupon he turned 

 at once to meet him, but was quickly crushed 

 between Wilmot on the one side and a sally of the 

 garrison on the other. Waller escaped, but only 

 with the loss of his artillery and most of his men. 



Round Worms (.\ViimrWfl), a class of worms 

 in which the Ui.lv is elongated and more or less 

 cylindrical. Most are par.i-itic. ~iieh u 

 hnnliricnide* and Oxyurtt vermieiilaru, common in 

 man, and numerous species of Tylencbiis. which 

 infest plants. Many genera, however, live in water 

 or in moist earth, and many of the parasites are 

 free-living during part of their life. They are called 

 round worms, in contrast to the Hat worms or 

 I'lathelniinthes. such as tapeworms and flukes. 

 For classilication, see, THREAD- WOKMS. 



Ronp is one of the most serious diseases which 

 the poultry or pheasant kcepci has \,, \\p\\\, because 

 in it then' is generally an allection other than the 

 mere cold which develops and makes it apparent. 

 II is usually found that the system is scrofulous, 

 which is the milder form; but sometimes it takes 

 a diphtheric development, and this is the most 

 severe aud deadly disease known to poultry -keepers. 



