ROUGE. 



ROUND TOWER. 



193 



such plan being adopted for a Protestant Church. The arrangement 

 pews and seats in parallel rows, strikes as a disagreeable con- 

 ; in to the shape of the building; and in this case the vaulted 

 dome, which is almost essential to snch plan, is wanting, a core and 

 lantern with windows being substituted for it. Some few dissenting 

 chapels have been built of a circular form, but they are equally 

 factory, whether regarded as architectural objects, or for con- 

 gregational purposes. 



Instead of attempting to describe these and other examples of 

 rotundas, we shall ptit our notices relative to them into a condensed 

 form, and for convenience sake shall include those already mentioned, 

 as their relative sizes can thereby be more readily compared. 



Panlli'on, Rome. External diameter 188 feet, internal 142, internal 



t 14'2. [ROMAN AiiciimvrrKB.] 



Temple of liinerra tfniira. External diameter 110 feet. Interior a 

 decagon 78 feet in diameter ami 1 "."> high. 



GWoHia, Rome. Extreme internal diameter 140 feet; 

 diameter of rotunda within the peristyle and beneath dome 70 ; height 

 ..I doi,, 



la Maria. Extreme internal diameter 78 feet, diameter 

 of.! istyle 39, height 42. 



Rittuii'' , t'unim Caracalia. Exterior diameter about 100 f,vt. 

 ('linthim portico hexastyle, triprostyle. Interior diameter 80 feet, 

 ni of order 48, entire height 90. 



Mimlorlo, Rome. (Bramante.) Exterior 

 I l.y a Doric peristyle of 16 columns. Internal dian. 

 feet, heiglit 48. This edifice is generally admired as a classical piece 

 ire, but it has many striking defect*, and the balustrade 

 (without pedestals) over the peristyle u intolerable. 



mna di Oampaijna, Verona. (8amni>-heli.i Exterior 7 i feet in 

 irly surrounded by a low Doric peristyle of 28 columns, 

 making tin- entire diameter below 118 feet. Interior an octagon 64 

 feet in diameter and 101 high. 



/'Iliyrini, Verona. (Sanmicheli.) Elegant in plan, but 

 enormously disproportioned in section. External diameter 40 feet, 

 internal :;n. Two orders within. Height to spring of dome 46 feet, 

 entire heigh 



La Uaddellna, Venice. (Temanza.) Internal diameter 55) feet, 

 height to spring of dome 36, entire height 63, or 7} more than dia- 



. Arrangement hexagonal, that is, six arched compartments. 

 //.///. ii>t AY'*, Parti. (De Mezieres.) External diameter i.s feet, 

 i diameter of the rotunda beneath the dome 1 '27, height to spring 

 >f dome 42i, to summit 105. 



Pouaguo. (Canon.) External diameter 110 feet; v.-idth of portico 

 90, projection of portico 55, height of stylobate 10J, internal diameter 



Ma' r.iionsignore.) A rotunda about 1 30 feet 



in diameter, with hexastyle, diprontyle, Corinthian portico. Internal 



r 74 feet, bright 100 ; plan four semicircular tribunes, with 



rinthian columns in front of each, bearing the entablature 



continued over those spaces. Attic with a long panel over each of the 



recesses. 



tltanan o/ the Vatican, Rotunda. (Simonettl) Divided into ten 

 recessed compartment* : diameter 60 feet. 



Raddi/e Library, Ihrfard. (Oibbs.) Bsssmmt a polygon of 16 



sides, and 104 feet in diameter. Extreme exterior height 140 feet, 



r diameter 88, interior diameter of central space and dome 63, 



n Miueum, Central I/all. (Srliiukel.) Diameter 67 feet, height 



-iipported by a peristyle of twenty Corinthian columns, 



I the lower part '21 ; height to spring of dome 42 feet, i-min? 



i if Cliurrl, Darnutadt. (Mnller.) Extreme internal diameter 

 135 feet, peristyle of twenty-eight Corinthian columns supjiorting 

 ' 'f dome and peristyle 1 0*2 feet, height to spring of 

 .. 48 feet, to summit 1 



.'// Rtfim, Briiiih Mtatum. (8. Smirke.) Diameter 140 feet; 



| UlllTIMI MrsM'M. ] 



M KTAU. Iron , pertaide of iron.} 



from rota, a wheel) is a term which is indis- 



11 iii. > in common language to everything which has no 



very sharp comers. A cylinder and a sphere, a wheel and a ball, are 

 equally styled round. In geometry, the sphere, cylinder, and cone, are 

 smmilllimsdsniillllsalsd llui" Him i mil t.o.lj,- t " and it would certainly 

 add much to many persons' power of describing shapes if they would 

 l*rn the meaning of the terms circular, cylindrical, conical, spherical, 

 spheroid*), and annular, for all of which the term round is employed 

 without any distinction. 



Itiil'Xh, a short vocal coi i: ; o.itjon in three or more parts, in the 



of wliich ' .n alone, singing to the end of 



--t part, then psssns on to the second. and afterward to the third, 



e following successively the same routine, till all 



are joined together, the round ending at the mark of a pause ( * 



. signal agreed on. This i frequently, but most erroneously, 

 alll id sometime!), not less incorrectly, a " Canon in the 



M> ToWKIl. Numerous lofty towers, tapering from the 



base to a conical cap or roof, which crowns the summit, are found in 

 Inland, and are almost peculiar to that country. That they are of 

 great antiquity appears from their having been considered ancient even 

 in the 12th century, when the British connection with Ireland began. 

 Had they been then in actual use, it is not probable that so accurate a 

 writer as Giraldus Cambrensis, who had been in Ireland, and circum- 

 stantially describes them, should not aUo have mentioned to what 

 purpose they were applied. Dr. Tetrie, ' Ecclesiastical Architecture of 

 Ireland,' however, quotes several records between the years 948 and 

 1170, in wliich bell towers are referred to, which he seems to be able 

 to identify, in some instances at least, with the existing round-towers. 



There are 117 of these towers, or of the sites where they once stood, 

 now known, and there is reason to believe they were formerly more 

 numerous. Some of them are still perfect, and preserve their conical 

 roofs; but only one, the tower of Devenish, possesses the singular 

 ornament of an obtuse crescent rising from the cone, and somewhat 

 resembling what is called the trident of Seeva. 



Ardmore tower, near Waterford, had also, within the memory of 

 man, this finishing oinameut. In the other towers, the conical caps 

 are either more or less injured, or have altogether vanished. Some 

 few are topped by battlemeuts, but these are all of more modern 

 construction than the towers. 



Though most of these round towers were evidently divided into 

 stories, yet Cashel tower is smooth, and even polished on the inside 

 from top to bottom. That at Ardmore was plastered with a very fine 

 and durable cement. The divisions are usually formed by projecting 

 ledges for the flooring joiste, which however in some instances were 

 inserted in square holes in the wall, where the ends were still visible 

 not many years ago. 



On each floor there ia one very small window, and immediately 

 below the conical cap four windows may be traced in the greater 

 number of towers ; in one there are five and in a few six windows ; 

 and so many aa eight ap|>ear in one or two of the towers. In a few 

 of these buildings no windows appear in the upper story only one small 

 loophole. In most of the towers the doors are at a considerable height 

 above the ground, in one even twenty-four feet, in several fourteen, 

 and in others only eight, seven, or six feet, but in none of them are 

 there any traces to assist conjecture as to the mode of reaching those 

 doors, except in those where the door is on the ground, or raised from 

 it by a couple of steps. 



The height of these towers varies greatly, one being only thirty-five 

 feet, while the loftiest is one hundred and thirty, but the common 

 range is between eighty and a hundred feet. Some stand on circular 

 bases, which form one or two deep steps round the tower. Thus 

 Donoughinore has a two-step base, each step or plinth being com- 

 posed of very large blocks of stone. The basement of Kell's tower is 

 square, and the stones are of great size. Killree and Aghaviller, both 

 in the county of Kilkenny, have circular plinths fourteen inches deep, 

 projecting six inches and resting upon a square base formed of grt at 

 blocks of stone. The tower of Clondalkin, about five miles from Dublin, 

 stands on massive stone-work; and St. ( 'ohimb's tower, at Londonderry, 

 rises from a vaulted crypt. So also does that at Oughterard, in the 

 county of Kilkenny. 



In external character all the towers may be said to agree, since there 

 is only one which does not taper, and iu that case the tower is cylin- 

 drical throughout its entire height. It is nicely faced, inside and out, 

 with coggle-stones, and filled up with rubble. Though all bear to 

 each other the strongest family likeness, there are many striking 

 differences in the mason-work and in the minor detail'. The stones in 

 some are truly chiselled, and closely and beautifully laid in fine cement. 

 Some are only coarsely hammered, others merely faced, and of various 

 shapes and sizes, but still well fitted to each other. Some towers are 

 built of round cuggle-stones. In all the mortar is as hard as the 

 imbedded stones. 



The above and various other little diversities prove that these 

 remarkable structures were erected by various workmen and at very 

 clitlerent times, and, as Giraldus Cambreusis says, "according to the 

 manner of the country." Some excellent Irish archaeologists imagine 

 thai they range in date from the 5th or Oth to the loth or 12th 

 century. 



Their situation on hill or dale is equally variable, nor does any one 

 cin 'i i instance respecting their situations seem to be common to all, 

 except their immediate vicinity to a :.mall and very ancient church, 

 though ill some instances this ancient building has been replaced by a 

 more modern fabric. 



It is a well known fact tliat the early missionaries usually chose the 

 sites of Pagan places of worship fur their churches, and the undoubted 

 relics of Pagan places of worship still remain in close association with 

 these towers, and even in the same churchyard; the pillar .'-tone of 

 witness, the tapering sun-stone, the crombac, the fire-house, and the 

 holy spring of sacred water necessary in the mystic rite-, all these, 

 according to some Irish archooologists, are found along with the tower, 

 and the little ancient church, within the same narrow boundary. 



The speculations of antiquaries as to the objects of rearing these, 



mysterious towers have indeed been manifold penitentiaries, the 



< if anchorites, beacon-towers, alarm-posts, places of safety for 



goods, sepulchral stels', I . trumpet-towers, from whence, by 



means of the great brazen trumpet, the people were invited to wor,-hip, 



