85 



they should build upon it high enough into the air'to form a 

 comparatively safe refuge and storehouse against their assailants. 

 The round tower is, therefore, to be regarded as a genuine 

 original Irish development from architectural forms already 

 present. 



Mr. Workman considered that the civilization of Ireland 

 was almost entirely an ecclesiastical civilization. The Church 

 and the world were in contact, but they did not blend. 

 During the period when Ireland was looked on as an island 

 of saints and scholars, and Irish monks were evangelising the 

 barbarous hordes abroad, there does not appear to have been 

 any corresponding manifestation of culture amongst Irish laics. 

 Irish secular life has left no trace behind, and almost all 

 remains, architectural or artistic, are ecclesiastical remains. 

 Irish Church antiquities, however, do possess an interest all 

 their own — the primitive stone-roofed churches, as substantial 

 as if they had been hewn out of the rock ; the isolated pillar 

 tower, which in other days sheltered the monks from the 

 furious Northmen, and which now stands grey and solitary and 

 mysterious, the most prominent object upon the plain ; the 

 crosses, which commemorate the early founders of Christianity. 

 These interesting memorials are only to be found in our country 

 and in those parts of Scotland which came under the influence 

 of Irish Christianity. 



