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Petkte contributed numerous papers to cur " Transactions" and 

 "Proceedings." His first communication was a paper " On the Auto- 

 graph Original of the Annals of the Pour Masters." This was followed 

 by a description of the Domnach Airgid — an ancient reliquary, contain- 

 ing a copy of the Gospels, which belonged to St. Patrick. I must refrain 

 from stating the titles of his other contributions, with the exception of 

 the three to which this Academy awarded its gold medal. These were 

 — his essay " On the Origin and Uses of the Round Towers ;" his essay 

 " On Military Architecture in Ireland ;" and his essay " On Tara Hill." 

 The second in order of these essays remains unpublished. I proceed to 

 notice the contents of the other two. 



The work which is most closely associated with the name of Peteie 

 is his celebrated " Essay on the Round Towers." It was originally 

 written for and presented to the Academy, and was rewarded by your 

 gold medal, and a prize of £50, in 1833. This essay is included in 

 the treatise " On the Ecclesiasiastical Architecture of Ireland," of 

 which the first portion forms the twentieth volume of our " Transac- 

 tions." The writer, feeling that the question as to the origin and uses 

 of the towers could not be satisfactorily settled except in connexion 

 with a systematic review of Christian architecture as it existed in Ire- 

 land previous to the ISTorman invasion, wisely resolved to make his essay 

 the basis on which to erect a more comprehensive work ; and that work, 

 intended to be exhaustive and decisive on the subject of which it treats, 

 grew under his hand into proportions very different from those of the 

 original design. References had to be made to authorities of different 

 times and in different languages — many of the most conclusive being 

 gathered from our Irish MSS., and produced by him for the first time ; 

 although it might have seemed natural that writers, treating of Irish 

 antiquities, would have looked, in the first instance, to our own history 

 and annals for information. In order to furnish adequate means of 

 judging of the structural features of the buildings described, it was also 

 necessary to supply abundant illustrations. In preparing these, the 

 author was independent of the assistance of other draughtsmen. The 

 volume is enriched by numerous drawings, which are almost as interest- 

 ing to the artist as to the antiquary. Again, our fellow- Academician 

 conceived it to be necessary to examine and confute all the opposing 

 theories as to the origin and uses of the towers. This imposed upon him 

 the obligation of showing, as regards their origin, that they were not 

 Danish or Phoenician; and, as respects their uses, that they were not 

 fire temples ; that they were not places from which the Druidical festi- 

 vals were proclaimed ; that they were not astronomical observatories ; 

 that they were not phallic emblems, or Buddhist temples ; and, lastly, 

 to come to supposed Christian uses, that they were not anchorite 

 towers, or penitential prisons. To prove a single negative is prover- 

 bially difficult. Can we complain, then, of Peteie as having been te- 

 dious, if, in the compass of about one hundred and twenty pages, he has 

 temperately and conclusively disposed of so many erroneous theories ? 

 I make bold to say, that he has disposed of them, though there yet re- 



