Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/102

86 86 POINTED STYLE IN GERMANY. Pakt II. Eleanor, but it is larger and taller, the sculpture better, and better disposed, and the whole design perhaps unrivalled among monu- ments of its class. The lightness of the upper part and the breadth of the basin at its base gave an appearance of stability which contrib- utes greatly to its effect. Scarcely less elegant than this is the cross or " Todtenleuchter," Lanterne des Morts, in the cemetery of Kloster Neuberg, near Vienna. Its height is about 30 ft, ; the date en- graved upon it is 1381. There is a small door at a height of about 5 ft. from the ground, and near the summit a chamber Avith six glazed windows, in which the light was exhibited. In France, some ten or twelve of these lanterns have recently been brouorht to light and described. In Ger- many about as many, besides numberless lit- tle niches in which lamps were placed in churches, showing a prevalence in Chris- tian countries of a cus- tom which now only prevails among Ma- hometans, of placing lights at night in the tombs of saints, or of relatives, so long as their memory is pre- served. Perhaps, how- ever, the greatest point of interest attached to their investigation arises from the light these foreign examples may be expected to throw on the origin of the Round Towers in Ireland. Their form is not unlike this at Kloster Neuberg. Their destination seems the same, Todtenleuchter at Kloster Neuberg.