64 



to make the same remark with regard to some stone-coffins and coffin- 

 lids found at Cashel, in the county of Tipperary. 



ISTo. 30. — This represents a coffi.n- shaped tombstone, from the grave- 

 yard of Fethard church, in the county of Wexford ; it bears along its 

 bevelled edge the following inscription, in the Anglo-N^orman cha- 

 racter : — 



, Thomas de Angayne gist deu de sa alme eit merei. Amen. 



]S"o. 31. — Fragment of an Anglo-lS'orman tombstone, with foliated 

 cross, and a portion of an inscription, from St. Canice' Cathedral, Kil- 

 kenny. 



1^0. 32. — This sketch represents a tombstone of a very unusual type 

 either in Ireland or England. It is decorated with a human head and 

 bust, rising from beneath a richly foliated cross, which rests on the chest 

 of the figure ; the head is apparently that of a female ; the stone is pre- 

 served in the cathedral of St. Canice, Kilkenny. 



]S"o. 33. — A tombstone similar in type to the former, and preserved 

 in the graveyard of the old church of Bannow, county of Wexford. 

 Here, however, we have the head and bust of a male and female figure, 

 surmounted by an architectural canopy. The male head is armed vrith 

 the cylindrical flat-banded helmet of the 1 3th century ; the female head 

 is bare, showing the hair tonsured over the forehead, and falling in looped- 

 up curls over the ears, being bound round with a flat band. Along the 

 shaft of the cross there is the following inscription, in black letter : — 



Hicjacet Johannes Colfer qui ohiit [no date]. Orate pro Anna Siggin 

 que ohiit [another blank space on which the date was never inserted], 

 quorum animahus proprietor deus. Amen. 



In the district of Bannow and Carrick, Colfer is the most common 

 name ; but Siggin, though recognised as that of one of the oldest families, 

 is now extinct; the last of the name in the county was an itinerant horse- 

 breaker, an old man much respected by the people, and who occasionally 

 lived amongst them at free quarters. 



E'o. 34. — Yiew of the old house of the Siggin family, in the townland 

 of ISTewtown, formerly Brandane, opposite to Bannow Island. 



]^o. 35. — A mediaeval tombstone, from the graveyard of Bannow old 

 church. 



]^o. 36. — Yiew of the old church of Bannow, county of Wexford. 



1^0.37 Doorway of Bannow old church, remarkable as being of 



precisely the same type and general form as that from the so-called 

 Cathedral " at Glendalough, which is supposed to be of the 7th cen- 

 tury. As the date of Bannow church cannot be later than the 13th 

 century, we can only suppose that its architect copied from the antique, 

 unless his judgment led him to adopt the most simple and at the same 

 time the strongest form of doorway possible, — that with a massive flat 

 lintel, having an arch over it to relieve it of the weight of the superim- 

 posed masonry. 



