attempt at the formation of an arch, or rather the appearance of one, by means of flat bedded stones, prior to the knowledge of the construction of an arch by stones radiating from a common centre. NEW GRANGE is the most remarkable of these remains; the drawings shew a most singular though rude kind of construction, much resembling the well-known Treasury of Atreus; and we dwell particularly on this because this imperfect arch continued a characteristic feature of Irish architecture even after they had learned from other sources to construct a true arch on geometric principles; and further, that from the imperfect form alluded to, a pointed arch has resulted accidentally, and was in use long before the pointed style as practised subsequently to the disuse of the circular or Norman style was adopted. The masonry of some of the earliest ruins in Ireland resembles the kind known as Cyclopean, not that we would refer it to an equally early date with the Etruscan examples, but we infer that this rude mode of building lingered in Ireland to a comparately recent period, and struggled as it were to retain its ground against the later scientific modes of building.

With regard to the Round Towers, Mr. Wilkinson does not look to a more distant period for the date of these erections than to the era which produced the more ancient architectural works in this country; he assigns many of them to the period when the style we call Norman (meaning that modification of Roman architecture which prevailed in Europe for about four centuries, and after the decline of Roman art,) was prevalent. A few extracts from the author's descriptions, and particulars of these towers, as given by him from actual survey, will serve to exhibit his views of their antiquity.

"Generally the towers, when perfect, vary in height from about 70 to 100 feet, some being nearly 120; the average height, however, is that between 70 and 100 feet. The circumference of the towers at their base is generally from about 50 to 60 feet, and their diameter at the level of the doorway from 8 to 9 feet internally. The walls are commonly 4 feet thick. door is generally from 8 to 12 feet above the surface of the ground."

The

We extract a few of the most striking of the descriptive notices.

"ANTRIM. Walling of rude rubble masonry; the stones are basalt of the country, apparently field stones; the upper stones appear to have been quarried, and are of common size; the interstices of the stones are filled with small spawls. The floors were supported originally from holes in the wall; over the door a cross is cut raised 3 ft. 8 in. from the surface, and resembling the upper circular portion of the large crosses of the country." (p. 60.)

The doorway of this tower is lintelled and rude, the cross is cut in the stone above the lintel, and there seems no reason to conclude it to be an after introduction.

ARDMORE tower is of freestone, and preserves its conical cap, a feature identical with the period of all our Norman towers in their original state. "Several features in the architecture of this tower are in common with the adjoining architectural ruins." (p. 70.)

The walling is described to be in squared coursed work of reddish grey sandstone of the locality. From these two examples it will be seen that the materials, rubble and masonry, do not differ from the ancient structures of this country.

CASHEL and ABERDALKEY have four openings at the top; in this respect they appear to agree with the English round towers; such openings existed at Tooting, Surrey, (scandalously destroyed some years since,) at South Ockenden, in Essex, and in many if not all the other examples.

DONOUGHMORE. The door is round-headed, with busts at the spring of the arch, as at Perranzabuloe, "and a crucifix with effigy cut partly on the keystone and partly on a large stone above it." (p. 72.)

The heads are also found at KELLS.

"KENEITH rises from an octagon base; it has a well-hole in the centre, which a flag covered, and formed into a chamber below the level of the door." (p. 74.)

Perhaps a sepulchre ?

"KILCULLEN. The doorway roundheaded, the head formed of two stones, the jambs have quoin stones. This form is exceedingly common in windows of the smaller Norman churches in every county in England."

"KILDARE. The door is circular

headed, with zig-zag and interlaced mouldings; it may be not older than the Norman conquest of Ireland. TIMAHOE has a circular doorway, perhaps of the same period. The small tower at the Seven Churches, King's County, has a doorway similar to the Norman arch of the adjacent chapel."

KILLALA. Opening angle-headed. The window engraved is identical with many of those in the "long and short" churches of England.

We have extracted enough for the purpose of supporting the conclusion of Mr. Wilkinson as to the period of the erection of these structures, with which our own opinion concurs.

"With regard to the constructive peculiarities of the round towers, the table given is intended to shew that they possess features decidedly in common with the architecture of the Normans, under which designation is embraced the architecture of the Lombards and Normans. In remarking on the features of these round towers, the doorway, which is common to all, first demands attention. By the table it will be seen that the circular arch of the doorway is by far the most prevalent; and that the masonry in some of the structures is of the exact character peculiar to Norman buildings. A more conclusive argument, and one that is more evident to the general reader, is, however, the elaborated execution of the masonry in some of the doorways, displaying some of the finest examples of Norman architecture and construction, and of a character exactly similar to that of doors of later churches in the localities of these buildings, whose construction in the style of Norman architecture is not to be disputed." (p. 62.)

The author's theory is supported by a comparison between a round tower of Ireland with Pembroke and other round castles of undoubted Norman construction. We might adduce in support of his hypothesis the circular staircases found in most Norman churches, one of which at Waltham is a fine specimen, and, if insulated, would closely resemble an Irish pillar tower, We need not go further into the subject than to refer to the round towers of Norfolk and other English counties, which appear to us to claim a common origin with the Irish towers; the architecture appears to be identical with the styles here known as Saxon and Norman; and, as an evidence that

these towers may as far as regards those actually attached to churches be ecclesiastical, we need only adduce the well-known structure, St. Kevin's Chapel, at Glendalough, which end, differing in no respect from the has a circular bell-tower at its gable pillar tower, except in regard to its not being an insulated edifice, and in point of situation agreeing with the position of the belfries commonly ap. pertaining to small Norman churches.

The stone-roofed churches are a class of structures for which Ireland is remarkable: their age, however, does not admit of a question; the architecture is decidedly Norman, and not at all differing from the English specimens. The covering is a well-turned circular arch over the entire area, forming a waggon-headed ceiling; but the building is remarkable for a room in the roof between the vault and the outer covering, which is constructed with a pointed arch: the use of this apartment Mr. Wilkinson supposes was for the sake of security; its approach was either from a window in the gable or an aperture in the vault.

Mr. Wilkinson pursues the history of church architecture to its close; and it is remarkable that a striking feature in after structures is the elevation of a turret on the apex of an arch in an apparently inaccessible situation for the sake of security. One of these bell-towers at the Abbey of Rosserk, county of Mayo, ably illustrates the use for which they were formed. This portion of the work contains many other peculiarities of Irish ecclesiastical architecture, the investigation of which would prove highly interesting to the antiquary, but which we have not space to extract. From the same cause we leave untouched the portion which treats of Elizabethan and domestic

architecture. The volume will form a pleasing guide to the study of the architecture of the sister island. The

subject has never received the attention it deserves, but it opens a fruitful field for research, which we feel certain will amply repay the student

of ecclesiastical architecture for the time he may expend in pursuing the inquiry, the materials for which he may gather from the present work,

Notitia Britanniæ; or, an Inquiry concerning the Localities, Habits, Condition, and progressive Civilisation of the Aborigines of Britain; to which is appended a brief retrospect of the result of their intercourse with the Romans. By Wm. D. Saull, F.S.A. &c.

The subject before us has already engaged the pens and personal researches of Borlase, Douglas, Sir Richard Colt Hoare, and others, yet there is room to draw the facts which they have ascertained into one comprehensive view, and to add fresh particulars in illustration of the first

tenants of our island.

The learned and ingenious if somewhat imaginative antiquary Whitaker tells us with great appearance of truth that on the first settlement of the Romans in Britain they found in England and Wales upwards of one hundred towns or fortified inclosures, "planted in the centre of their woods, defended by the advantages of position, and secured by a regular rampart and fosse."* The investigation of

such remains forms the subject of the tract before us.

Mr. Saull states that he found the most numerous British settlements interspersed among the moorlands and wolds of Yorkshire, in spots where the spade and plough have not yet been brought into operation; that their sites are generally found near running water, an element so indispensably necessary for existence. The author's first essay was to visit Harewood Dale, which lies on the moors to the left of the road from Scarborough to Whitby; there, at a spot called by the country people the Roases (Rosest), a small eminence rising from a wooded valley,

he discovered 50 or 60 small circular

oblong depressions in the earth, the edges of which were somewhat raised above the adjacent level. These he considered to be the remains of British huts. Dr. Young, the historian of Whitby, states that he had frequently found in the centre of many of these areas of huts ashes, charred wood, &c. evident indications of the fires made by their occupants. The annexed is a ground plan of these hollows.

times accompanied with rows of stones, formerly placed upright, but now for the most part prostrate. In remains of a British township to be found between Danby and Sealing the huts are placed with regularity in streets or lines. Compare these vestiges with those at Merivale Bridge on Dartmoor, Devon, described by Mr. Kempe in Archæologia, vol. xx11. Upright pillars of stone are said to be constantly found in connection with British villages. Might not barrows also be expected?

Plate vi. of Mr. Saull's essay represents a number of circular excavations in the chalk on the hill which forms the east side of Kingly Vale in Sussex; these hollows are accompanied by hillocks, and the whole are considered vestiges of a British village. We doubt the correctness of the scale of this plate; if it be taken from the two figures which appear in the view, the hillocks are at least fifty feet in height, measured by the proportion of these pigmy explorers.

Mr. Saull seems to give no sanction to the opinion of our correspondent J. P. that British London was in Moorfields; on the contrary, he finds it, where it might be expected, on the high ground about St. Paul's. He descended into a deep cutting made for sewerage at the west end of Cheapside, and discovered the burnt wood of the hearths of British huts lying on the natural gravel twentytwo feet below the modern surface of the street.

Mr. Saull speaks of flint arrowheads as found in the sepulchres of the aborigines of our island; they afford, indeed, very conclusive testimony of a barbarous population. In interments of the aborigines the bodies were generally, he says, placed north and south, the face we suppose to the south. A remarkable example of this mode of burial has been noticed in our pages at Kyn Gadel, near Laugharne.

There is, we think, no other solution for the remarkable circumstance that rats and mice are found in the barrows of the dead, than that those animals were induced by the food afforded by the dead corpses, or by deposits of corn, or other edible substances, with sepulchral urns, to take up their residence in the hillocks placed over them,

There they bred, reared their young, died, and were succeeded in their habitations by their progeny, for no other reason than that a colony for vermin had been established-just as rabbits are congregated in contiguous burrows.

It is stated that no iron arms or implements are found in the tumuli of Britain before the Conquest, its conquest by the Romans; this is a point highly worthy of decisive proof, although we doubt that it may be capable of being completely reduced to a rule. The bronze tomahawks, popularly called celts, and the beautiful leaf-shaped swords of bronze, which are so frequently discovered in the beds of rivers, in the bogs and morasses of the British Islands, were indeed in all probability the weapons of the British population at an early period, and it may be suspected that both these and their coins had a classic origin: the leaf-shaped sword appears in sculptures decidedly Greek, and their coins simulated the forms and devices to be found on those of Grecian colonies. These are matters worthy of the most careful investigation, and they will obtain it in the progress of archæological science. On the subject of the Roman pottery extant in Britain, nothing very important is offered by Mr. Saull, in addition to the papers which have within a few years past appeared in the Archæologia, and in our own numbers. Mr. Saull's minute and accurate account of the construction of the Roman wall of London we have already spoken of.*

Mr. Saull concludes his pamphlet with the assertion,

"That science recognises none of the petty distinctions of sect, party, or persuasion, its effects on the mind being to establish universal philanthrophy in our communications with our fellow-men, knowing that the higher they advance in intelligence the more perfect and enduring will be that congeniality of sentiment so much to be desired, and so worthy of their strenuous efforts for its accomplishment. If we cannot reconcile all opinions let us endeavour to unite all hearts."

This is the very beau ideal of a liberal philosophy, but we earnestly hope that it is not the intention of the ingenious

* Gent, Mag, for Nov, 1844, p. 505.

essayist to say that the reign of the refinements of the goddess of reason will supersede the great truths for our direction in time, and guidance to the mansions of eternity, to be found in the Bible. If so, we will venture to repeat to him, with a little amplification, the words of his literary friend of the old school whom he quotes in the preface-"We like your

Hora Liturgica: containing, 1. Liturgical Discrepancy, its extent, evil, and remedy, in Two Letters to the Clergy of his Diocese. 2. Liturgical Harmony, its obligations, means, and security against error, whether Popish or Puritanical; in a Charge to Candidates for Holy Orders. By Richard Mant, D.D. Lord Bishop of Down and Connor and Dromore, 12mo.The Church, of whose episcopate he forms so distinguished an ornament, is deeply indebted to Bishop Mant, for the promptitude and zeal with which, when the occasion demands it, he is always ready to contribute the results of his extensive learning and research in her service. In the discussions on the subject of rubrical conformity so prevalent just now the clergy naturally look to such individuals as this eminent prelate for advice and assistance to guide them, and in the present instance they will certainly not be disappointed. In the first division of his work the Bishop has pointed out the various cases of discrepancy which exist in the performance of divine service. In the second division, he has shown the manner in which most of these may be obviated and removed. The whole work is drawn up with so much simplicity, clearness, and good sense, with so much kindness and candour, with such an evident desire to promote peace, good will, and harmony, without abating in the least degree either the integrity or authority of the ordinances of the Church, that it would be difficult to find a work more calculated to allay the disquiet and heat existing on the subject of rubrical observances.

Hawkstone; a Tale of and for England in 184-. 12mo. 2 vols.-There are some books which, as soon as they are taken up, arrest the attention and fix it until their contents are gone through. This is the case with the book before us. It is impossible to open it at any part without being convinced of the talent and genius of the author, his singular power of observation, and his extensive information upon all subjects of a social, moral and

description of British aboriginal settlements very well; but, as to your philosophy, it is that of Voltaire and Rousseau, has been tried and found something worse than mere speculation. Take away the certainty of rewards and punishments which revealed religion announces, the social obligations are dissolved in an overwhelming flood of misery and crime.”

religious nature. Whoever the author may be, and we do not know his name, it is very certain that he is a true patriot, a sound churchman, and a sincere and humble Christian. To class this book as a work of fiction, would be doing it an act of injustice, as it possesses far superior claims to any which can belong to a mere tale. Whilst the story is drawn out with great power, and abounds with incidents and scenes of the most striking and imaginative kind, it still must be chiefly regarded as a vehicle for conveying the thoughts and opinions of the author. In the character of Villiers, the hero or chief personage in the work, is delineated the conduct and course of action which ought to be pursued by a firm and consistent friend of his country, and, still more, by a sincere and zealous member of the Church of England, who is desirous to carry out her rules and ordinances in all their bearings; it is by acting up to her admirable and comprehensive scheme for promoting the temporal and eternal welfare of her members that, in the author's opinion, the means are provided for preserving the country from the evils which threaten its security, and for arresting the threatening torrent of profligacy, vice, and irreligion.

It is quite impossible to do justice to such a work in our brief limits, or to notice more than a very few of its more striking points. Among these last are certainly to be classed the singular and very extraordinary proceedings of the Roman Catholics, and more particularly the Jesuits, in this country, which are alluded to in this work. Whether they are only introduced as forming a portion of the story, or whether they are intended to be understood in truth and soberness, we know not. At any rate, they are very startling, and we hope may serve as a warning.

Alphabets, Numerals, and Devices, of the Middle Ages, by Henry Shaw, F.S.A. Royal 8vo. Parts 7, 8, 9, and 10.-This work is not only very beautiful and inter