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XXIX. 



ON THE ROUND TOWER OF CHAMBLES, NEAR FIRMINY, 

 DISTRICT OF ST. ETIENNE (LOIRE). Br PROFESSOR 

 J. P. O'REILLY, Royal College of Science, Dublin. 



[Eead January 24, 1898.] 



Having become interested in the examination of some details of 

 construction presented by the round towers of Ireland, I was led 

 to seek for information bearing on the matter, in tbe authors who 

 have most authoritatively treated the question of their structure and 

 origin, more particularly in the works of Petrie, O'Brien, and 

 O'Neill. The study of them led me to regret that their works had 

 not been preceded by a complete and detailed description of all that 

 remains of these very interesting monuments. Petrie, towards the 

 end of his memoir, promised to undertake and have published such a 

 description ; but nothing has been done to fulfil this promise up to 

 the present. To any one taking an interest in the question, and 

 wishing to push investigation to definite limits, this want is very 

 distinctly a hindrance, so serious, indeed, as to bar all further prose- 

 cution of the study. No effective comparison of the details of the 

 construction of the different towers is possible without the aid of 

 such a complete description of them, and all safe conclusions as to 

 their origin and object must to a large extent be based on such a com- 

 parison. At present photographs are procurable of many of tlie 

 towers; but no complete collection of such photographs has yet been 

 published. Did it exist, and were it accessible to the public, those 

 taking an interest in the question, would have means of investigation 

 furnished them sufficient to form a basis for sound and accurate study. 

 It must be borne in mind that O'Neill has called in question tlie 

 correctness of certain of Petrie's di'awings, and that these, however 

 excellent the artistic work may be, are not always drawn to scale. 



In working out his conclusions as to the origin and object of the 

 round towers, Petrie makes mention^ of the curious reference in 



J Trans. R. I. Acad., vol. xx., p. 376. 



