Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/248

232 232 AllCHITECTUKE OF IRELAND. Pakt IL straight externally, with horizontal courses resting on these ribs. This mode of double rooting was, perhaps, a complication, and no imjtrovement on that adopted in the South of France in the same age (Woodcuts Nos. 312, 319), but it enabled the Irish to make the roof steeper than could be effected with a single vault, and in so rainy a climate this may have been of the first importance. The roof of the Cashel Chapel is of this double construction ; so is the building called " St. Kevin's Kitchen " at Glendalough (Woodcut No. 666), which appai-ently belongs tojthe 7th century. There is another very similar at Kells, and several others in various parts of Ireland, all displaying the same peculiarity. Had the Irish been allowed to persevere in the elaboration of their own style, they probably would have applied this expedient to the roofing of larger buildings than they ever attempted, and might, in so doing, have avoided the greatest fault of Gothic architecture. Without more experience, it is impossible to pronounce to what extent the method might have been carried with safety, or to say whether the Irish double vault is a better constructive form than the single Romance pointed arch. It was certainly an improvement on the wooden roof of the true Gothic style, and its early abandonment is consequently much to be regretted. Round Towers and Oratories. The round towers which accomj)any these ancient cliurches have long proved a stumbling-block to antiquaries, not only in Ireland but in this country ; and more has been written about them, and more theories proposed to account for their peculiarities, than about any other objects of their class in Europe. The controversy has been, to a considerable extent, set at rest by the late Mr. George Petrie.i He has proved beyond all cavil that the greater number of the towers now existing were built by Christians, and for Christian purposes, between the 5th and 13th centuries ; and has shown that there is no reasonable ground for supi^osing the remainder to be either of a different age or erected for different uses. Another step has recently been made by Mr. Hodder Westropp, who has pointed out their similarity with the Fanal de Cinietiere so frequently found in France,^ and even in Austria (Woodcut No. 530). To any one who is familiar Avith the Eastern practice of lighting lamps at night in cemeteries or in the tombs of saints, this suggestion 1 " The Ecclesiastical Architecture of I 2 gge Viollet le Due, " Dictionnaire Ireland anterior to the Anglo-Norman d' Architecture," mib voce. Invasion." Duhlin, 1S4."- 1