A ntiqiiitics. 



257 



were saved. The Antrim tower is one of the most perfect 

 in Ireland, and is the solitary remnant of the ecclesiastical 

 foundation that once flourished round it. It rises to a 

 height of 92 feet, and has a circumference of 50 feet at the 

 base. The doorway is well over the ground line, with in- 

 clined jambs — a distinctive feature of the early Christian 

 Church — about 5 feet 6 inches high, and the ope is about 



UOWNPATRICK CATHEDRAL AND ROUND TUWHK I'KluR ;< 



2 feet wide. The lintel-stone bears a rudely-shaped cross, 

 but whether contemporaneous with the tower or an addition 

 cannot be decided with certainty. The windows are at the 

 top, and face, as is the usual custom, the points of the com- 

 pass, and the stone roof is conical ; so that, in nearly all 

 respects, it is a typical example. 



Margaret Stokes classified all the round towers of Ireland 

 according to the average styles of their masonry and 

 apertures, and that of Antrim comes under the first or 

 earliest style ; viz., " Rough field stones untouched by 

 hammer or chisel, not rounded but fitted by their length to 

 the curve of the wall, roughly coursed, wide jointed with 

 'spalds'or small stones fitted into the interstices, mortar 

 course, unsifted sand or gravel." From this they graduated 



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