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the mass to be supported, no after efforts would be sufficient to remedy 
the original mistake, and the block should be deserted as unmanageable. 
I really think that the manner in which the table-stone of the Dundalk 
cromlech is balanced on its three supports, is a marvel of rude construc- 
tive art, and worthy the genius of our best engineers. 
In the latter Pagan or early Christian structures which have remain- 
ed to us, there is but little mechanical skill evinced in their construction 
beyond what could have been accomplished by mere patience, without 
much skill. In the dry masonry of the stone forts, cashels, cahers, or 
cloghauns, there is not the same nicety of work as that observable in the 
later primitive stone-roofed oratories. Many of them (of which that at 
Kilmalkedar, in the county of Kerry, is the most remarkable) are so ad- 
mirably constructed that the blade of a knife, sometimes not the point of 
a penknife, could be inserted between the stones. All the doorways of’ 
such structures as I have alluded to, whether Pagan or Christian, are 
flat-topped, the lintel being formed of one large stone; the sides converg- 
ing more or less; and it is not till we arrive at the true Pelasgic style of 
architecture, introduced into Ireland, most probably, by St. Patrick in the 
fifth century, and retained for fully 400 years after his time, that this 
extreme simplicity of architecture in doorways and windows gives place 
to a more careful mode of construction, and the rudiments of decoration, 
either as an incised line or a raised architrave, are introduced in them; 
while in the building generally mortar is sparingly used, and the stores 
are squared, chiselled, and dressed. As an example of this rudely 
decorated Pelasgic architecture, I present you with a sketch of the 
doorway of St. Fechin’s Church at Fore in the county of Westmeath: first, 
because it is a characteristic type of its class; and, secondly, because it 
admirably illustrates the primary object of this inquiry, viz., the classifi- 
cation of the Irish crosses. 
Archdall, on the authority of the Annals of the Four Masters, states 
that St. Fechin died of the plague which ravaged Ireland in the year 
665; and Colgan, in his Acta Sanctorum, at page 135, alludes to the 
cross which St. Fechin placed over the door of his church at Fore— 
(vide Dr. Petrie’s ‘‘ Essay on the Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland,” 
at page 175). We have here, therefore, in Fig. 4, a work and carving 
of undoubtedly the seventh century. 
This doorway, which is flat-topped, the sides converging much, is 
formed of eight stones, including the lintel. It measures at top 2 ft. 84 in. 
wide, increasing to 3 ft. 2 in. at its present base; the length of the lintel 
is 5 ft., and its maximum depth 2 ft. The door is completely surrounded 
by araised flat architrave, 6 in. in width; above this the lintel on the ex- 
terior is ornamented by a raised, flat, long, rectangular tablet, on which is 
incised the cross alluded to by Colgan. The form of this emblem is that 
of the modified Greeco-Irish type, in which the arms are widened merely 
at the extremities, and it is enclosed in an incised double circle. It is 
somewhat remarkable that this cross and circle appear too large for the 
tablet.on which they are carved, the former not being perfect, and the 
cross is not placed perpendicularly on it. This, doubtless, indicates 
want of skill in the carver, and bears out the supposition that it was 
