Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 2.djvu/151

Rh associated with them. This difference of treatment appears to constitute part of the general contrast which Irish architecture and sculpture exhibits when compared with English work of the same period. It may I think be safely asserted, that had this coffin been the work of the same school as that which produced the effigies, we should have had more precision in the design of its ornaments, and more skill and care in their execution. These considerations lead me to believe that the coffin is Irish, whilst the effigies may be regarded as specimens of Anglo-Norman art.

Between this stone coffin and similar remains in England, there will be found a certain general similarity, but only just so much as we should expect to find on comparing an Irish cathedral of the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries with an English structure of a similar age; namely, a general accordance in the design and style, while there is a great difference in the treatment and finish of the decoration. When compared with the tomb in Westminster abbey, given by Carter, (an example offered more for the value of the general features of style which it displays, than for its details,) the stone coffin of Cashel will present a sufficient similarity to enable us, aided by the traditionary evidence, to come to the conclusion that it is of equal age with the effigies, and may be regarded as a work of the thirteenth century.

The foregoing critical remarks suggest here the statement of this general rule, that, with very few exceptions, the mediæval ecclesiastical remains in Ireland, from the twelfth century downwards, are remarkably devoid of ornament, as compared with edifices in England; and that, whenever English architecture has been borrowed, it has been used only in the principal doors and windows, and the work, from its appearance, has evidently been executed hurriedly, without any previous fixed design, or else has not been completed. It would appear therefore, that those who then followed the decorative arts, had, even while secluded within the comparatively safe precincts of a cloister, so imbibed the restless spirit then abroad in the land, that they could not calmly sit down to perform a work requiring both patience and study to accomplish: or that they attempted to carry out their designs only to a small extent, fearing, that before