all 
close to where the floor of the third or upper apartment would come, and 
this last was lighted by four very large flat-headed windows, about 6 feet 
in height, and which face the four points of the compass. 
In modern times, the tower was used as a belfry, and the walls below 
the springing of the conical roof have been cut into to receive the ends 
of cross-beams to support the bell. On account of the top openings in 
this tower being surmounted by large flag-stones for lintels, I cannot think 
that these apertures were ever widened from their original size to allow 
of the bell being better heard. 
Fig. 9. This gives a general view of the tower, showing the position 
of the doorway and one of the large window openings in the upper floor 
of the tower. 
Fig. 10. This shows the position of the small triangular-headed 
aperture lighting the second floor. 
Fig. 11. This gives a section of the tower, showing the manner in 
which the floors were supported by offsets for the second floor, and a 
recess in the wall to receive the ends of joists for the third apartment. 
The next doorway is that of the Round Tower of Donoughmore, in the 
county of Meath, and it is especially worthy of our attention, as being the 
only structure of the kind in Ireland which is stamped with the most 
marked emblem of Christianity, viz., the Crucifixion. The door which 
faces the east is semicircular-headed, the sides converging; it is orna- 
mented by a broad, flat, raised architrave, which completely surrounds 
it, in which respect it resembles the doorway of the Round Tower of 
Lusk. On this moulding, on the south side of the door, and at the 
springing of the arch, is a female head, which projects boldly from the 
surface of the masonry; and on the opposite side, but beyond the limits 
of the architrave, is a-corresponding male head, exhibiting the beard 
_ and moustache, the forehead being bound by a plain fillet. Over 
the keystone of the arch is an oblong stone, on which is carved, in high 
relief, the upper part of the figure of the Crucifixion, the legs, from the 
waist downwards, appearing on the keystone itself. It is worthy of note 
that the figure is nude, the head resting on a long, squared cushion, and 
the lower extremities are twisted so as to present a complete profile view of 
the right leg, the knee of which is bent, and thus it allows the left leg, from: 
the knee downwards, to appear behind it. This attitude is not eross-legged. 
It is perfectly evident that the carving and decoration just described 
are contemporaneous with the erection of the tower, as ithas been produced 
in relief, leaving the field of the stones level with the surface of the sur- 
rounding masonry. 
From the fact of the head of the effigy being supported by a cushion, 
and the body twisted to express pain, an idea which was carefully 
avoided in all early Irish ecclesiastical art prior to the close of the twelfth 
century, I am decidedly of opinion that the Round Tower to which I 
now allude is not older than this period, and most probably may date 
to the early part of the thirteenth century. The introduction of the 
mortuary cushion under the heads of recumbent effigies is strikingly 
characteristic of Anglo-Norman and Francgo-Norman taste, and its in- 
troduction in sepulchral monuments dates from the eleventh cen- 
R. I, A. PROC,—VOL. VII. 2¥ 
