Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/203

Rh graves are marked by upright pillar-stones, sometimes bearing inscriptions in the Ogham character, as found on monuments presumed to be pagan, and in other instances, as at the oratory of Gallerus, with an inscription in the Græco-Roman or Byzantine character of the fourth or fifth century, of which the annexed is an accurate copy.

This inscription is not perfectly legible in all its letters, but is sufficiently so to preserve the name of the ecclesiastic, viz.

"It is greatly to be regretted that any part of this inscription should be imperfect, but we have a well-preserved and most interesting example of the whole alphabet of this character on a pillar-stone now used as a gravestone in the church-yard of Kilmalkedar, about a mile distant from the former, and where there are the remains of a similar oratory. Of this inscription I also annex a copy:" p. 131.

Of the doorways, windows, and other details of these buildings we have a copious selection.

"The next example, which I have to submit to the reader, is of somewhat later date, being the doorway of the church of St. Fechin, at Fore, in the county of Westmeath, erected, as we may conclude, within the first half of the seventh century, as the saint died of the memorable plague, which raged in Ireland in the year 664.

"This magnificent doorway, which the late eminent antiquarian traveller, Mr. Edward Dodwell, declared to me, was as perfectly Cyclopean in its character, as any specimen he had seen in Greece, is constructed altogether of six stones, including the lintel, which is about six feet in length, and two in height, the stones being all of the thickness of the wall, which is three feet. This doorway, like that of the Lady's Church at Glendalough, has a plain architrave over it, which is, however, not continued along its sides; and above this, there is a projecting tablet, in the centre of which is sculp-