formation, much light was thrown upon the subject of ancient Irish ecclesiastical architecture. The following is a summary of Petrie's conclusions:

1. That the Irish ecclesiastics had, from a very early period, in connection with their cathedral and abbey churches, campaniles or detached belfries, called in the Irish 'Annals' and other ancient authorities by the term Cloictheach, 'House of a bell.'

2. That no other building, either round or square, suited to the purpose of a belfry, has ever been found in connection with any church of an age anterior to the twelfth century, with the single exception of the square belfry attached to a church on Inis Clothrann or Clorin, an island in Lough Ree, which seems to be of earlier date.

3. That they were designed to answer at least a twofold purpose-to serve as belfries, and as keeps or places of strength, in which the sacred utensils, books, relics, and other valuables were deposited, and into which the ecclesiastics to whom they belonged could retire for security in cases of sudden attack.

4. An examination of ancient Irish literature tends strongly to the conclusion that the people so generally recognized this use of the round towers as a primary one, that they very rarely applied to a tower erected for defense any other term but that of cloictheach' or belfry.

5. That they were probably also used, when occasion required, as beacons and watch-towers.

Petrie, while establishing their ecclesiastical character and origin, gave, however, too wide a margin to the date of their erection, viz., from the sixth century to the thirteenth. The investigations of the late Lord Dunraven in tracing such structures on the Continent narrowed their first erection down to the ninth century. He shows that they were founded on European examples, the most notable being those of Ravenna, where six of its round towers still stand. The round towers were due to Byzantine influences, and some writers trace their original source to the towers built in connection with early Syrian churches. Miss Stokes, following Lord Dunraven, assigns the Irish round towers to three periods between 890 and 1238 A.D., and classifies them into four distinct groups, according to their style of masonry and doorways.

The Norse sea-rovers rendered ecclesiastical establishments most unsafe. The first period of their invasions extended from the end of the eighth century to the middle of the ninth century, and the land was ravaged from north to south with fire and sword. On the sea-coast and along the river valleys the country lay waste. On the banks of the Bann, the shores of Lough Neagh, by the Boyne, and broad expansions of the Shannon, and as far south as the distant Skellig Rock, few sacred establishments escaped plunder and desecration. To protect their churches, oratories, and sacred treasures, these towers were built by the monks, from which watch could be kept, and an easy retreat made to them as places of safety; their lines can still be traced along the shores of the waters where the fleets of the Danes are known to have appeared.

The usual features of the round towers may be thus summarized:

Doorways.-In form these are similar to the doorways we have described as characteristic of the early churches, but they are generally more highly ornamented, and appear to have been furnished with double doors. They are placed almost invariably at a considerable elevation above the ground. A flat projecting band, with a small beadmolding at the angles, is the most usual decoration; but in some instances a human head, sculptured in bold relief, is found upon each side of the arch. A stone immediately above the doorway of Antrim tower exhibits a cross sculptured in alto-relievo; and at Donaghmore, in County Meath, a figure of the Crucifixion, in bold relief, occupies a similar position. This style of decoration may have been much more common than is generally supposed, as, of the number of towers remaining in Ireland, the doorways of at least one-third have been destroyed. Concentric arches, with chevron and other moldings, occur at Timahoe and at Kildare.

Windows and Apertures.-Generally speaking, these are similar in form to the windows in contemporary churches --with this difference, that they never splay, and that the arch-head in numerous examples differs in interior form from that of the exterior. The windows in the earliest towers are square-headed or triangular, and in the latest they are well formed, and of cut stone. The tower was

divided into stories, about 12 feet in height, the floors of which were supported by projections of the masonry or by brackets. Each story, except the highest, was generally lighted by one small window; the highest has generally four of large size. A conical roof of stone completed the building. The tower usually rested on a low circular plinth; the walls varied in thickness, from 3 to 5 feet; the lowest story had no aperture, and sometimes its space was filled by solid masonry. The earliest towers were built of rubble masonry; and the spaces between the stones were filled with spawls; little mortar was used in laying the courses, but grouting abundantly. In the latest towers fine ashlar masonry was used, like the Norman work of the twelfth century; a few have external string courses, as in the perfect tower at Ardmore, County Waterford. About seventy round towers still remain, thirteen of which are perfect, of which ten retain the original conical cap.

JOSEPH COOPER WALKER.

(1747—1810.)

JOSEPH COOPER WALKER was born in 1747, at St. Valerie, near Bray, County Wicklow. While yet young he was appointed to a place in the Treasury in Dublin, but in consequence of bad health he went to Europe and traveled through the greater part of Italy, where he acquired a strong taste for the fine arts and increased his love of literature. In 1787 he was admitted a member of the Royal Irish Academy, and a little later was chosen Secretary to the Committee of Antiquities. He had already in 1786 produced his 'Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards,' a work which gave him a distinguished place among literary antiquarians.

Two years later he issued his 'Historical Essays on the Dress of the Ancient and Modern Irish,' in which volume he also printed a 'Memoir on the Armor and Weapons of the Irish.' For some years after this he contributed largely to the 'Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy.' In 1799 appeared in London 'An Historical Memoir of Italian Tragedy from the Earliest Period to the Present Time, by a Member of the Arcadian Academy at Rome,' which in 1805 was reprinted in Edinburgh under the title of 'An Historical and Critical Essay on the Revival of the Drama in Italy.' On April 12, 1810, after a lingering illness, Walker died at St. Valerie, the place of his birth. His Memoirs of Alessandro Tassoni,' edited by his brother, Samuel Walker, appeared in 1815.

DRESS OF THE ANCIENT IRISH.

From 'Historical Essays on the Dress of the Ancient and Modern Irish.'

Amongst the ornaments which formerly adorned the fair daughters of this isle, the bodkin is peculiarly deserving our notice. Whence the Irish derived this implement, I might conjecture, but cannot determine. Although I have pursued it with an eager inquiry, I have not been able to trace it beyond the foundation of the celebrated palace of Eamania. The design of this palace (according to our old chroniclers) was sketched on a bed of sand by the Empress Macha with her bodkin. If this tradition be founded in reality, bodkins must have been worn by the Irish ladies. several centuries before the Christian Era. But I should be contented to give them a less remote, provided I could assign them a more certain antiquity. If the word aiccde in the Brehon laws will admit of being translated

a bodkin, we may infer their use in Ireland about the commencement of the Christian Era: for in a code of sumptuary laws of the second century we find frequent mention of the aiccde. But I am rather inclined to consider the aiccde as a kind of broach from the circumstance of its marking the rank of the wearer by its value, as was formerly the case amongst the Highlanders, whose frequent intercourse with the Irish occasioned a striking familiarity in the customs and manners of both people.

This instrument was known in Ireland under several names, viz. coitit, dealg, meannadh. Its uses were twofold: it was equally worn in the breast and head. The custom of wearing the bodkin in the breast is alluded to in the following passage of an old Irish MS. romance, called 'The Interview between Fion Ma Cubhall and Cannan':-" Cannan, when he said this, was seated at the table; on his right hand sat his wife, and upon his left his beautiful daughter Findalve, so exceedingly fair, that the snow driven by the winter storm surpassed not her fairness, and her cheeks were the color of the blood of a young calf. Her hair hung in curling ringlets, and her teeth were like pearls. A spacious veil hung from her lovely head down on her delicate body, and the veil was bound by a golden bodkin."

Such bodkins as were worn in the head were termed dealg-fuilt. Even at this day the female peasants in the interior parts of this kingdom, like the women of the same class in Spain and Turkey, collect their hair at top, and twisting it several times make it fast with a bodkin.

Besides these uses, the bodkin had another: it was sometimes made to answer the purpose of a needle. Hence its name of meannadh-fuaghala. To be so employed it must have an eye. It is in a bodkin of this kind that Pope's Ariel threatens to imprison such of his sylphs as are careless of their charge

"Or plunged in lakes of bitter washes lie,

Or wedged whole ages in a bodkin's eye.”

Whether or not the Irish ladies, like those of the neighboring nations, employed their bodkins as weapons offensive and defensive, neither tradition nor history informs us. But such of those implements as I have seen, certainly