Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/255

Rh Bk. VI. Ch. V. CIRCULAIi DOMICAL DWELLINGS. 239 ancient but deserted church, and among the mouldering tombstones of a neglected or desecrated graveyard. In a town or amid the busy haunts of men they would lose half their charm ; situated as they are, they are among the most interesting of the antiquities of Europe. There is still another class of antiquities in Ireland, older perhaps than even these round towers, and certainly older than the churches to which the towers are attached. These are the circular domical dwellings found in the west of the island, constructed of loose stones in horizontal layers approaching one another till they meet at the apex, like the old so-called treasuries of the Greeks, or the domes of the Jains in India. Numbers of these are still to be found in remote 681. Oratory of Gallerus. (From Petrie's " Ancient Architecture of Ireland.") parts, sometimes accompanied by what are properly called oratories, like that shown in Woodcut No. 681, taken from Mr. Petrie's valuable work. It is certainly one of the oldest places of Avorship in these islands, belonging probably to the age of St. Patrick ; and it is also one of the smallest, being externally only 23 ft. by 10. It shows the strange Cyclopean masom-y, the sloping doorway, the stone roof, and many of the elements of the subsequent style, and it is at the same time so like some things in Lycia and in India, and so unlike almost any other building in Europe, that it is not to be wondered at that antiquaries should indulge in somewhat speculative fancies in endeavoring to account for such remarkable phenomena. Ireland is not rich in specimens of domestic architecture of the Middle Ages, but such fragments as do exist show marked variations from the contemporary style in England. Such battlements, for instance, as those which crown the tower of Jerpoint Abbey are