clude Round Tower interment, which it was Dr. Petrie's main object to show was excluded, because not known in heathen times. To sustain his position he should have proved, beyond any open for cavil or contradiction, that such terms, for instance, as long, imdae, mur, barc, fert, cumot, fulacht, derc, carcar, caisel, could not possibly apply to tower burial, and that no other form of burial prevailed; for this at present we have only his assertion; also that no burial of distinguished individuals, priest, ollamh, king or chieftain, could have occurred in any other than one of the eight particular localities. But he has failed to do any such thing, and he must excuse me for thinking, that the question has therefore been still left as he found it.

It is indeed vain to attempt to exclude Round Tower sepulture from amongst the forms of our ancient Pagan burial. To evade it by the allegation, that bodies were allowed to remain, by the architects of these structures, under the foundation stones, has more of ingenuity than feasibility about it. And, even were it rational to admit that architects could thus leave the remains of the dead undisturbed beneath their foundation stones, is it not presuming rather much on our credulity to ask us to regard such prior interments as Christian rather than Pagan? Adopting the monstrous imagining that any builder could leave a fragile skeleton in the way of his superstructure, we might ask what evidence have we tendered to us that the site was certainly a Christian and not a Pagan burial-place, or that the skulls of the population of Ireland in the year of the Incarnation, one, or 500, were so thick and infrangible as bravely to withstand, for eighteen or nineteen centuries after, the enormously crushing pressure of the innumerable tons weight of pillar towers placed upon them.'

GLEANINGS FROM COUNTRY CHURCH-YARDS.

No. II.

NOTICE OF A SCULPTURED STONE IN THE OLD CHURCH OF ANNAGH, COUNTY OF KERRY.

BY RICHARD HITCHCOCK, ESQ.

THE ancient and now ruined church of Annagh is situate on the sea shore, in the parish of the same name, and at the foot of a lofty range of mountains. These circumstances, combined with the fact,

1 Since inditing the foregoing I have seen an answer from Dr. Rowan to Mr. Cooke's observations, referred to above, in which

the former gentleman recedes a little from his original position. In his first commentary upon Mr. Casey's statement, he laid

that the grave-yard is a well-peopled one, being a very favourite burying-place with the peasantry for miles around, impress it with a sort of melancholy solitude, which I have frequently experienced when wandering amongst the tombs there. How much more solemn must the place appear on a still moonlight night, when nothing is heard save the mountain breeze, the noise of the sea, if the tide is in, or the screaming of the sea-gulls-whilst the pale moonlight glances through the crevices of the ruin! Annagh church is also interesting to me from the fact of its being in the neighbourhood of my birthplace and the home of my youth.

The stone which is the subject of the present notice, and of which I have introduced what I believe to be a pretty accurate engraving (see Kerry Antiquities, plate 1), lies inside against the south wall of the church. It is a block of coarse red sand-stone, the same material of which the church is built, and which the adjacent mountain range furnishes; and measures, in length, eighteen inches at one side, and fifteen inches at the other; in breadth, sixteen and a-half inches at one end, and fifteen and a-half inches at the other; and the greatest thickness is about seven inches. On the face of this stone is rudely sculptured, in bold relief, the figure of a man on horseback, holding in his right hand something like a sword or dagger. What the other hand holds, I cannot exactly say, as it, as well as the greater part of the sculpture, particularly the two heads, is evidently unfinished. The hand, however, seems to be extended at full length, and not holding the horse's bridle. I think the leading idea of the figure that of a warrior pointing forwards, as if to encourage his followers to action; this agrees with the posture of the horse, which seems to be in motion. A sort of saddle, or saddlecloth, appears under the horseman, but I can see no trace of stirrups, though, as just mentioned, I do a little of a bridle and mouth-piece. The dress is of the frock shape, mitred or seamed from nearly the waist downwards. The resemblance between this equestrian figure and that on the seal of Strongbow, engraved in our Transactions, vol. i. p. 503, may be worth mentioning here, although the latter is turned the opposite way.

A friend, writing to me on the old figure in Annagh church, says:-"The people have a foolish legend, that if the stone were re

it down as an axiom, that there is no recorded case of dust unreturned to dust for 2250 years, and that the invariable effect of the admission of air into ancient tombs is the disappearance of the remains of the deceased, and that, therefore, a conclusion against the antiquity of the Glenaish interments is warranted.

Dr. Rowan now, influenced by Mr. Cooke's evidences, relaxes so far as to admit that animal remains, under certain circumstan

ces, such as being placed in "preserving matter" and "exclusion from the influence of climate or of the elements," may be preserved, and I presume survive the admission of air, although he does not expressly say So. I trust that the facts which I have gleaned from unquestionable ancient interments, may induce him still further to modify his incredulity, and convince him that the position he has taken up is untenable.

moved, it would be brought back again by supernatural means; but there is no real history attached to it, that I could ever learn." This, to my mind, makes the stone an object of greater interest for our speculations, believing, as I do, that the equestrian figure on it is of ancient date.1

Of the history of Annagh church I have not been able to find any account, though I have made some search; but, judging from the style of the building, which in general is plain, and in which there is no lime mortar, though situate in the centre of a lime-stone district, it is evidently an ancient work. There is, however, a well finished Gothic south entrance doorway, of very good proportions. Like most of our old churches, this one at Annagh is built nearly east and west. A little to the west, on a tongue of land, is "Tonakilla fort," apparently an obsolete burial-ground, in which are several graves and small gallauns, or pillar-stones. Traces of a causeway from the fort across the slob to the mainland are still plainly discernible. About the same distance from the church, to the north-west, stands another group of gallauns; there are also some forts in the neighbourhood of the church. The whole of these interesting vestiges are marked on sheet 38 of the Ordnance Survey of the county. Often have my eyes traced them on the beautiful map of nature, while sitting on a heathy hillock on the top of one of the mountains overlooking the entire scene.

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The following is the only mention I have been able to find of the sculptured stone in Annagh church :-" About half a mile3 distant [from Blennerville] are the ruins of the old church, with the burialground, in which is a stone bearing a rude effigy of an armed horseman."-Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, article Annagh."

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It may be interesting to ascertain, if possible, what hero of old the monument in Annagh church commemorates. If conjecture is allowable, I would say that he was probably some old chieftain of the district-it may be a king; but, at present, conjecture is all that I can offer. If we could glean anything of the history of the church it may help us. Perhaps some other member of the Society, more competent to discuss the subject than I can pretend to be, would take it up, and be able to throw some light on it.

I feel it but due to Mr. George A. Hanlon, the eminent wood engraver, of Dublin, to state that he has done ample justice to the sketches which illustrate this and the succeeding paper.

2 I find the church marked in ruins on several old maps of Kerry, including that in Dr. Smith's history of the county. Smith gives no account of the parish; but he makes up for this rather unaccountable deficiency in his description and legend (celebrated in

Irish story) of Cahirconree, a circle of immense stones on the top of the mountain of that name, in the neighbourhood of the old church (pp. 156-160). In the list of parishes given by Smith in his chapter on the ecclesiastical state of the county, which is the only place where he mentions the church or parish, he mentions Annagh church as "in ruins" in his time (p. 69).

3 Annagh church is fully a mile from Blennerville.

NOTES ON

THE ROUND TOWERS OF THE COUNTY OF KERRY.

BY RICHARD HITCHCOCK.

Ar the January meeting of this Society, two very interesting papers, by Mr. O'Neill and Mr. Windele, were read, containing some remarkable observations on the Round Towers of Ireland, particularly the paper by Mr. O'Neill, which also contained a description of the Round Tower of Aghaviller-a tower which, I may passingly observe, has been strangely overlooked by our writers on these monuments.1 Leaving the more serious question of the real origin and uses of the towers to persons better qualified for the task of discussing it than I can presume to be, I wish to confine myself to what Mr. O'Neill justly terms the "important work of giving a description of every pillar-tower now remaining (which, he says, Dr. Petrie has not yet done), as well as of the localities in which towers are known to have formerly existed." Having the honour to be admitted a member of the Kilkenny Archæological Society soon after its formation, it has often occurred to me as strange, that the Society did not long since embrace, among its varied archæological subjects, that most fertile one of the Round Towers. I am, however, glad to find that the Society is at length awakened to a sense of the importance of collecting and placing on record descriptions of the various towers now existing in Ireland, or as far back as it can obtain faithful accounts of them. I am assured of this, from the commencement made at the last meeting of the Society, as already referred to.2

The following excellent observations as to the importance of a systematic record of every Round Tower in Ireland occur at the end of a chapter on the Round Towers in a recent work on Ireland :

"I would also suggest to the antiquaries of Ireland a humbler labour, but one of analogous import, and which might even prove, eventually, more conservative of the fame of these wonders of their country, than all that the hand of architecture could effect. This labour is to get constructed an exact and minute description of every individual Tower, with careful measurements and accurate plans of the general structure of each, and of every individual part. This would not merely be a most valuable record of the actual condition of the Towers, at a particular epoch, but, by permitting a minute comparison to be instituted between each part of all of them, might even throw some considerable light on the great question of their origin and uses. It is surely discreditable to the spirit of Irish antiquarianism, that no such record as this exists; nay, that no attempt even to frame such a record has been made. As far as I know, Mr. Petrie's

1 The fullest mention of it which I have seen is that in Tighe's Statistical Survey of the County of Kilkenny, p. 632.

The Committee of the Society have always felt the importance of collecting accurate descriptions of our existing Round Towers (such as that now contributed by

Mr. Hitchcock), and will ever gladly place on record any new facts calculated to throw light on these mysterious structures. But the general question of their age and uses is one that demands a much more voluminous treatment than the pages of the Transactions could possibly afford.-Eds.

solitary description and delineation of Clondalkin Tower, is all that has been effected in this way. To undertake and complete a record of the kind proposed, in a spirit and style worthy of the subject, would surely be a labour of glory, and ought to be a labour of love for any Irishman. The author of such a work, when committing it to the immor. tality of print, might almost be justified in addressing the objects of his antiquarian love, in the language of the poet, when promising to his mistress the deathlessness of his own ⚫ powerful rhyme :'

When wasteful war shall statues overturn,

And broils root out the work of masonry,

Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn,

This living record of your memory.

'Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity

Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room

Even in the eyes of all posterity

That wear this world out to the ending doom.'"'

It has occurred to me, that a few notes, which I happen to have by me, on the Round Towers of my native county, accompanied by sketches of the two which still remain to us, made about five years ago, may not be unacceptable to the Society. And here I am glad to be able to observe, that the county of Kerry is as rich in its quota of the Round Towers as it is in other primæval remains. Truly, the study of antiquities is a delightful one, and none can relish or love it so well as those who have been for some time engaged in collecting information by local researches.

I am well aware that few of our Round Towers have been oftener described than that of Aghadoe, which, I think, may be attributed to the circumstance of its being situate close to the far-famed Killarney. More or less accurate notices of it will be found in the following works:-Smith's " Antient and Present State of the County of Kerry" (1756); Archdall's "Monasticon Hibernicum" (1786); Vallancey's "Collectanea," vol. vi. (1804); Weld's "Illustrations of the Scenery of Killarney" (1812); "The Traveller's New Guide through Ireland" (1815); Plumptre's "Narrative of a Residence in Ireland during the Summer of 1814, and that of 1815" (London, 1817); Smith's "Killarney, and the Surrounding Scenery" (1822); Bell's "Essay on the Origin and Progress of Gothic Architecture in Ireland" (1829); the "Dublin Penny Journal," vol. iii. (1834-5); Lewis' "Topographical Dictionary of Ireland" (1837); lady Chatterton's "Rambles in the South of Ireland during the year 1838," vol. i. (London, 1839); Hall's "Ireland" (1841); the "Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland" (1844); Windele's "Historical and Descriptive Notices of the City of Cork and its Vicinity" (1848); "Annals of the Four Masters," by O'Donovan (1851); &c., &c. None of these books, however, contain any engraving of the tower; and my sketch (see Kerry Antiquities, plate I) of, perhaps, one of the most dilapidated Round Towers in Ireland has chiefly induced me to accompany it with the present notes, believing that, if engraved in our Transactions, it may be the means of preserving to after generations the appearance of the Round Tower of Aghadoe in the year 1848. What remains

1 Forbes' Memorandums made in Ireland in the Autumn of 1852, vol. ii. pp. 313-14,