Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/242

226 226 ARCHITECTURE OF IRELAND. Pabt U. CHAPTER V. IRELAND, CONTENTS. Oratories — Round Towers — Domical Dwellings — Domestic Architecture — Decorations. THE history of arcliitecture in Ireland forms as distinct a contrast to that of Scotland as it is possible to conceive. At a very early period the Irish showed themselves not only capable of inventing a style for themselves, but perfectly competent to carry it to a successful issue, had an opportunity ever been afforded them. But this has not yet happened. Before the English conquest (1169) the country seems to have been divided into a numl)er of small states, whose chieftains occupied the scant leisure left them between the incursions of the Danes and other Northmen in little wars among themselves. These were never of such importance as to yield glory to either party, though amply sufficient to retard the increase of population and to banish that peace and sense of security which are indispensable for the cultivation of the softer arts. Yet during that period the Irish built round towers and oratories of a beauty of form and with an elegance of detail that charms even at the present day. Their metal work showed a true appreciation of the nature of the material, and an artistic feeling equal in kind, if not in degree, to anything in the best ages of Greece or Italy; and their manuscripts and paintings exhibit an amount of taste which was evidently capable of anything. After the conquest, the English introduced their own pointed, architecture, and built two churches in Dublin which, in dimensions and detail, differ very little from English parish churches. But be- yond the Pale their influence was hardly felt. Whatever was done was. stamped with a character so distinctly Irish as to show how strong the feeling of the people was ; and sufficient to prove, with our knowledge of their antecedents, how earnestly and how successfully they would have labored in the field of art had circumstances been favorable to its development. For seven centuries, however, the two races have lived together, hating and hated, and neither capable of comprehending the motives or appreciating the feelings of the other. It was not that the Saxon was tyrannical or unjust, but that he was prosaic among a people whose imagination too often supplied the place of reason, and that he was strong among those who could not combine for any steady