360 [Proc. B.N.F.C., 



lignites of County Antrim, proceeded to note the history of its dis- 

 covery, and point out the uses to which it is being applied. This 

 latter part of the subject was illustrated by specimens both Irish 

 and Continental, showing the mineral in its natural state, as well 

 as several of its products in the form of alum, alum-cake, &c. 



The second communication was by Mr. F. W. Lockwood, who 

 had for his subject " Notes on the Round Tower and Cathedral of 

 Kildare" — a place which has been of some note according to the 

 earliest traditions. Saint Bridged or Bridget founded a nunnery here 

 in the fifth century, and the place then became known as Kill-dara, 

 or the church of the oak. Kildare was fourteen times pillaged by 

 the Danes within the space of 190 years, and on ten of these 

 occasions was wholly or partly burnt. The legends of St. Bridged 

 are numerous, the most curious is that relating to the sacred fire 

 which was kept up by the nuns even till the time of the Refor- 

 mation. Cambrensis, in the twelfth century, was informed that nine- 

 teen nuns guarded the fire in turn, and on the 20th night it was 

 left to the saint, by whom it was miraculously sustained without 

 fuel. The fire was strictly watched, and no male was permitted to 

 approach it. The round tower is a very fine one, and the 

 highly ornamented doorway a good example of Irish Romanesque 

 work of the eighth or ninth century, which would lead us to infer 

 that the original cathedral, probably about the same date, was also 

 highly decorated. It was divided down the middle by a wooden 

 screen, so as to keep the nuns and other females separate from the 

 remaining worshippers. The early Irish Christians possibly derived 

 many of their ideas in architecture from the Eastern Church, and not 

 from Britain or those parts of Europe which had formed the west- 

 ern branch of the Roman Empire ; for the churches before the 

 Anglo-Norman invasion have no aisles, being generally small, and 



