MACALisTi'.ii — The History and Antiquities of Liis Ceattra. 119 



Delany told me that, the structure is now called " The Black Church." 

 He had a confused tale about it being a place whither people suffering from 

 cholera or other deadly sickness were biought ; I understood that it was 

 supposed to possess healing virtues, but he was not clear about this. This 

 tradition has already been noticed in connexion with the " tale of the 

 three wishes." The church was not touched during the Board of Works 

 operations, except for a little clearance of the site. Mr. Hibbert had 

 some of the brambles cut for me, when the moulded stone above-mentioned 

 was found. 



If. St. Brigicl's Church view, Plate VIII, fig. 2: plan and details, 



Plate IX). 



This is a small rectangular building, measuring internally 19 feet 7 inches 

 by 11 feet 10 inches; the long axis bears 97^^. It stands within an enclosure, 

 roughly rectangular, measuring internally 67 feet east to west by 57 feet 

 north to south. The southern wall of this enclosure, which contains the 

 entrance doorway, is built of dry-stone masonry ; the doorway is of smaller 

 stones and of rather better construction. The other walls of the enclosure are 

 rough structures of earth and stones, resembling the walls round St. Michael's. 

 The doorway in the enclosing wall is a plain round-headed arch, 5 feet 8 inches 

 high, 2 feet 5 inches across, and 2 feet 6 inches long through the thickness of 

 the wall. Except a very slight moulding, consisting simply of two grooves 

 running parallel with the jambs and arch, on the inner face, this archway is 

 perfectly plain. Slight though it be, however, the moulding is sufficient to 

 enable us to identify one stone of this arch, which has been built into the 

 doorway leading into the Saints' Graveyard, as described later on. 



The doorway that gives access to the church itself is at the west end of 

 the building. It is round-headed and recessed in three orders. The elaborate 

 ornament of the arch is carried down the jambs, interrupted at the spring 

 01 the arch by an impost. The innermost order bears a diaper of zigzags, 

 enclosing a row of lozenges on the soffit. Two of these lozenges on the north 

 side appear to be blank ; the others bear rosettes with four leaves (two or 

 three have eight leaves). The middle order has a decoration of chevrons, set 

 at right angles to the plane of the face of the arch. The asymmetry of 

 the springing-stones of this order will be noticed. The outer order is plain, 

 but is bounded by a hood-mould having billets on its intrados. These billets 

 are partly worked on the voussoii'S, partly on independent stones, as the eleva- 

 tion on Plate IX shows ; at the spring of the arch the billets are notably 

 farther from one another than in the upper pare of the arch. 



[18*] 



