ABBEYS AND LATER CHURCHES: FONTS.
FOUNDATION OF ABBEYS AND CHURCHES--JERPOINT ABBEY, CO. KILKENNY--
CATHEDRALS OF ST. PATRICK AND CHRISTCHURCH, DUBLIN--ABBEYS OF
NEWTOWNTRIM AND BECTIVE, CO. MEATH--CHURCHES OF CANNISTOWN,
NEAR NAVAN--ST. DOULOUGH’S--THE ‘ABBEY’ AND ST. FINTAN’S CHURCH,
HOWTH--EARLY FONTS--EXAMPLES AT KILLINEY--KILTERNAN--ST. JOHN’S
POINT--KILLESHIN--KILCARN, CLONARD, AND DUNSANY, CO. MEATH.
In the preceding chapters early churches and other Christian remains
possessing characteristics distinctively Irish have been described. It
has been stated that at the Anglo-Norman Conquest Irish architecture
may be said to have ceased, the invaders having brought with them their
own fashion of building, which was afterwards adopted by the Irish. How
far the stone-roof style of building, which reached its culmination in
King Cormac’s Chapel, could have been carried by builders working on
their own free and independent lines we need not discuss. But never
at any time could it be said that Ireland lay without the sphere of
new influences, as we have tried to indicate in tracing this sketch of
her pagan and early Christian remains. Irish-Romanesque work reached
its highest development in the twelfth century; and during the latter
half, to the beginning of the thirteenth century, a great change was
witnessed in the style of architecture as applied to ecclesiastical
edifices throughout the land.
The rapid growth of the great monastic orders in England in time
affected Ireland. From the Norman Conquest to the close of the reign of
Edward III. it has been computed that 1200 institutions were founded
in England, and of these 228 were established in the reigns of Stephen
and Henry II.--a development which was more or less felt in the
sister kingdom. A complete change was made at this period in the old
monastic system which had existed from the first days of Christianity
in Ireland. This was due to St. Malachy O’Morgair, the friend of St.
Bernard of Clairvaux, and who died there when on a visit to him in
1148. He introduced the Cistercian Order, the greatest builders of all
the Orders, and founded for them the first of their great monasteries
in Ireland. Mellifont was established by St. Malachy in 1142; and
in nine years Bective, Newry, Athlone, Monasteranenagh, Boyle, and
Baltinglas were founded and affiliated to it; and before 1172 we are
told that twenty-five Cistercian monasteries were established in the
land. This is sufficient to show that modifying forces were at work
before the Anglo-Norman invasion touched Irish shores. As we have seen,
for several centuries previous to it, Irish architecture had been
gradually undergoing a development, and had in some measure become
what in England is known as the Norman style. Towards the close of the
twelfth century the Irish kings and chiefs, and the Anglo-Norman earls
and barons settled in Ireland, appear to have vied with each other in
the erection of abbeys, the ruins of which, to this day, attest the
zeal and power of their founders. Most of the monastic structures of
this period, in their larger arches, exhibit beautiful examples of the
earliest Pointed style, while the doorways and smaller openings remain
semicircular, and frequently exhibit pure Norman details. Almost the
last traces of peculiarly Celtic architectural art appear to have died
out in Ireland about the close of the twelfth century.
* * * * *
_Jerpoint Abbey._--Jerpoint Abbey, belonging to the Cistercian Order,
in the County of Kilkenny, whose foundation is attributed, as well as
to others, to Donogh MacGilla-Patrick, Lord of Ossory, is, perhaps, the
finest structure of this period remaining in Ireland. The plan of the
church was cruciform, with aisles on the north side of both nave and
choir. The greater portion of the southern wall has been destroyed.
The western window consists of three lights, with semicircular heads,
surmounted by a continuous weather-moulding. A fine range of clerestory
windows of the same character appears in the north wall of the nave.
The tower, though of considerable antiquity, is evidently of later date
than the Transition period. The only entrance to the body of the church
from the exterior appears to have been a small doorway in the south
wall of the nave; and this is defended by a bartizan similar to those
found upon the castles of the twelfth century. Of the battlements of
the tower, so conspicuous a feature in many of the early buildings,
Fergusson says they are ‘identical with many found in the north of
Italy, but very unlike anything either in England or Scotland. They
give a foreign look to the whole building, which is very striking.’
Chevroned Pointed arches occur in the nave of Dunbrody Abbey, which
belongs to this period; it was erected for the same Order in 1182 by
Hervey de Montemarisco, Marshal of Henry II., who became its first
abbot.
The Transition style soon gave place to the Early Pointed, and the
finest existing cathedrals and abbeys belonged almost exclusively to
the latter. As early examples, we may mention portions of Christchurch
and St. Patrick’s Cathedrals, Dublin; Kilkenny Cathedral; Gray Abbey,
Co. Down; the Cathedral of Cashel; the Abbey of Newtown, near Trim;
and Kilmallock Abbey, Co. Limerick. Perhaps the finest window of this
style in Ireland is that of the Abbey of Kilmallock. It consists of
five slender lancets, separated by shafts, upon which are two sets of
the bands so characteristic of this period. A large and beautifully
proportioned arch embraces all the lights, which, both internally and
externally, are enriched with a bead moulding.
* * * * *
_St. Patrick’s Cathedral._--The Cathedrals of St. Patrick and
Christchurch, Dublin, were, for the most part, built about the same
period, the former (commenced in 1190) upon the site of an older
church, by John Comyn and his successor Henry de Loundres (1212–28),
Archbishops of Dublin. Its prevailing style is Early or First Pointed,
and it is remarkable as the only structure in Ireland having original
flying buttresses. The nave, choir, and transepts are ascribed to
London masons; and the graceful features of the Lady Chapel have a
marked resemblance to contemporary work in the Temple Church. It was
carefully restored by Carpenter in 1845. The Cathedral suffered many
vicissitudes and rebuildings, so as almost to destroy all details of
the original features. In 1869 it was restored at the sole expense of
Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness, at a cost of £150,000. A recent restoration,
under the direction of Sir Thomas Drew, includes the choir and lateral
aisles, and the replacing of stone groining. Though in point of size
and architectural grandeur St. Patrick’s cannot be compared with many
structures of the same class elsewhere, it is, nevertheless, a very
chaste and beautiful building.
* * * * *
_Christchurch._--Christchurch was originally founded in 1038 by
Sigtryg, son of Amlaf, King of the Danes of Dublin, in conjunction
with Donatus, the first Danish bishop; the crypt beneath nearly all
the church represents the original plan. The oldest portions of the
ancient building, raised by Strongbow and St. Laurence O’Toole on
the Danish foundation in 1170, are the transepts, some of the arches
of which display chevron mouldings, and the Norman doorway, which
forms the principal entrance. It was removed some years ago from the
north transept, and placed in its present position, where it forms
a conspicuous feature. The nave (_circa_ 1230) has the distinctive
features of the English mason work of Glastonbury; and, as in the
case of Kilkenny Cathedral (thirteenth century) and other buildings,
it is very probable that the designers and builders were brought from
the south-west of England and South Wales. The arches of the nave are
remarkably beautiful, springing from piers formed of clustered columns,
and displaying in their capitals foliage of exquisite and graceful
design. An ancient inscription, recently interpreted ‘John, Master
Builder of the fraternity of Parma,’ seems to preserve the name of the
reputed architect of the Anglo-Norman building. The ancient wrought
stone of the two Cathedrals is a very durable Somersetshire oolite, but
its particular source is not known. Christchurch, like St. Patrick’s,
has been thoroughly restored by private munificence,--at the hands of
the late Henry Roe, and at an expense of over £160,000.
* * * * *
_Newtowntrim Abbey._--The Abbey of Newtowntrim, founded by Simon
Rochfort, or de Rupeforti, for Augustine Canons, about A.D. 1206,
and dedicated to SS. Peter and Paul, though now in a hopeless state
of dilapidation, was originally one of the finest of the many
establishments in this part of Leinster. This can be judged from
the beauty of some of the details, such as the capitals, vaulting,
and shafts, which have not been disturbed, and from the numerous
fragments of its once noble windows and arches with which the
surrounding cemetery is strewn. Broad strips of masonry, placed at a
considerable distance apart, project from the walls of the church upon
the exterior--a feature never found except in early work, and which
is generally characteristic of the Norman period. But it is within
the walls that we must seek for evidence of the former beauty of the
building. Several chastely decorated corbel shafts remain, and support
portions of the ribs by which the vaulted roof was sustained. The
windows are of the lancet form, with piers between, and the mouldings
which run round them are ornamented with beautifully designed bands.
Sedilia, in the Norman style of architecture, may be seen in the wall
to the right of the space once occupied by the altar. The ruins on the
opposite side of the river and the ancient bridge at this place are
worthy of notice, although they do not possess any striking peculiarity.
* * * * *
[Illustration: Bective Abbey, near Trim, Co. Meath.]
_Bective Abbey._--The Abbey of Bective, in the immediate neighbourhood
of Trim, was a Cistercian house, founded by Murchard O’Melaghlin,
Prince of Meath, in A.D. 1146. The ruins exhibit, in a remarkable
degree, a union of ecclesiastical with military and domestic
architecture. Their chief feature is a strong battlemented tower, the
lower apartment of which is vaulted, placed at the south corner of
the quadrangular space occupied by the various buildings, and in the
centre of which the cloisters remain in good preservation. The cloister
arches are late in the First Pointed style, and are cinque-foiled. The
featherings are mostly plain; but several are ornamented with flowers,
or leaves, and upon one a hawk-like bird is sculptured. A fillet is
worked upon each of the clustered shafts by which the openings are
divided, and also upon their capitals. The bases, which are circular,
rest upon square plinths, the angles of which are ornamented with a
leaf, growing, as it were, out of the base moulding. Of the church
there are scarcely any remains. As the northern wall of the cloister
is pierced with several windows which now have the appearance of
splaying externally, it is extremely probable that it also served as
the south wall of the church, no other portion of which can at present
be identified. Those buildings which were devoted to domestic purposes
are, for the most part, situated upon the east side of the quadrangle.
Their architectural details are of a character later than those of the
tower and of the other portions; but additions and alterations have
evidently been made. Several of the apartments have large fireplaces
covered with flat arches, the stones of which are dove-tailed into one
another. The flues are carried up through the thickness of the wall,
and are continued through square tapering chimney-shafts, headed with a
plain cornice. In its general arrangements Bective Abbey differs from
every other monastic structure in Ireland. It is, in fact, a monastic
castle, and, previous to the use of artillery, must have been regarded
as a place of great strength.
The smaller churches of the close of the twelfth, and of the early half
of the thirteenth, century, are not different in general form from
those of an earlier age. In a few examples, indeed, transepts occur, as
in the church of Clady, adjoining Bective; but they are not invariably
evidences of comparatively recent work, being sometimes found in
connection with very early churches, to which they have evidently been
added, and from which, in their architectural details, they differ in
every respect.
Down to the very latest period of Pointed architecture the original
plan of a simple nave, or nave and chancel, was followed; and the
chief or only difference observable in churches of an early date, from
those of the sixth and seventh centuries, consists in the form of the
arch-heads, the position of the doorway, the style of the masonry,
which is usually much better in the more ancient examples, and the
use of bell-turrets, the cloictheach or detached round towers having
answered this purpose during the earlier ages.
A beautiful and very characteristic example of an Early Pointed church
may be seen at Cannistown, not far from Bective, upon the opposite side
of the Boyne. As usual it consists of nave and chancel; and there are
the remains of a bell-turret upon the west gable, the usual position.
The choir arch is represented in the annexed cut. There are numerous
instances of churches in this style scattered over Ireland; but they
are usually plain, and the choir arch is generally the least ornamented
feature of the building.
[Illustration: Choir Arch of Cannistown Church, near Navan, Co. Meath.]
As examples, we may refer to the churches of Kilbarrack, Dalkey,
Kinsaly, and Rathmichael, all in the immediate neighbourhood of
Dublin. The church at Dalkey indeed cannot be regarded as a very good
example, as it has evidently been altered and remodelled at various
times. A portion of the north nave wall, including the semicircularly
arched window, may probably have formed part of an extremely ancient
_Teampull_, dedicated to St. Begnet, which is recorded to have stood
here. It may be observed that the piscinas, or stoups, do not occur in
the early churches of Ireland; they appear to have been adopted during
the latter half of the twelfth century, and churches of a later period
frequently contain several.
* * * * *
_St. Doulough’s._--The Church of St. Doulough, the origin of which
is involved in obscurity, is unique, and the most remarkable example
of Pointed architecture remaining in Ireland. Bishop Reeves was of
opinion that St. Doulough lived about the year 600, and had a cell
here. The church lies about six miles north of Dublin, and, owing
to its incongruity, has received much attention from writers on the
ecclesiastical architecture of Ireland. This church has generally been
classed with the stone-roofed chapels and oratories of the early Irish
saints; but in style it differs completely from those buildings; and
numerous architectural peculiarities, evidently original, prove the
structure to belong to the latter end of the thirteenth century. It
is an oblong church, 48 feet by 18 feet, with a square battlemented
tower in the centre. A projection on the south wall of the tower
contains a passage leading from the lower part of the building to an
exceedingly small chamber, in the east wall of which are two windows,
one commanding the only entrance to the church, the other an altar in
an apartment or chapel between the tower and the west gable. The body
of the structure is divided upon the interior by a mass of masonry
which was evidently intended to support the roof, and which contains
a small semicircular arch now stopped up. The western apartment
measures 10 by 7½ feet; it is vaulted, and was originally lighted by
several windows with flat or trefoiled heads. The altar, or ‘tomb,’
as it is popularly called, rests immediately against the masonry
which divides this apartment from other portions of the building. The
chapel or eastern division measures 21 by 9½ feet. It was lighted by
four windows, one to the east, two to the south, and one, now stopped
up, to the north. The east window is larger than the others, and is
divided into two lights, by a shaft, with shallow hollows at the sides
and a semi-cylindrical moulding on its external face. Similar hollows,
and a moulding, run round the arch, and meet those of the shafts. The
north window is of plain early Lancet form. The windows in the south
wall are unequal in size; the larger one is placed beneath the tower,
near the centre of the building, and is divided by a shaft into two
lights, the heads of which are cinquefoiled, while the space between
them and the crown of the arch is left plain. The vaults of the lower
apartments form the floor of a croft occupying uninterruptedly the
whole length of the church. There are the remains of a fireplace in the
centre of the north wall of this singular room, which appears to have
been originally used as a habitation. It is lighted by small trefoiled
opes in the end walls, and is higher by several feet, for a distance
of about four yards from the west gable, than the other part. By this
arrangement, and by a depression of the vault of the western division
of the building, provision is made for a small intermediate chamber,
to which a passage from the tower leads. The latter was divided by a
wooden floor into two storeys, the lower of which contains a small
fireplace. The roof of the church is formed of stones, well cut, and
laid in regular courses. It has been suggested that the tower is more
modern than the church; its upper portion is certainly different in
style of masonry from the rest of the building, and appears to be an
addition or restoration; but the body of the tower is clearly coeval
with the church.
[Illustration: St. Doulough’s Church, Co. Dublin.]
Such are the more remarkable features of this singular structure, in
the erection of which the architect appears studiously to have avoided
every principle of Gothic composition except variety.
The well of St. Doulough, which was probably also used as a baptistery,
is quite in keeping with the curious character of the church. The
spring, which is covered by a stone-roofed octagonal building, rises
through a circular basin, cut out of a single stone, and was, down
to our own day, thought to possess miraculous powers. According to
tradition the interior was once decorated with pictures, and holes
are pointed out as having been made for the reception of iron pins,
or holdfasts, by which they were secured to the wall. Adjoining is a
curious subterranean bath. It is supplied by the well; and even yet
the water rises to some depth within it. According to J. D’Alton, the
historian of Co. Dublin, the well was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin,
and the bath was called ‘St. Catherine’s Pond.’
[Illustration: St. Doulough’s Well.]
There are many interesting old Churches in Fingal, the name by which
the North of the Co. Dublin was known long before the Conquest. Their
history is told in Canon Robert Walsh’s careful work, _Fingal and its
Churches_. To a few of these we briefly refer.
* * * * *
_Howth ‘Abbey.’_--The Church of St. Mary or Collegiate Church, more
commonly known as the ‘Abbey’ Church of Howth, stands near the edge
of a cliff, the base of which was formerly washed by the sea. The
original foundation is said to be by Sigtryg the Dane in 1042; and
a portion of this church still remains at the west entrance. This
was enlarged, chiefly by the addition of a north aisle in 1235 under
Archbishop Luke, on the removal of the prebendal church of Inis Mac
Nessan from Ireland’s Eye to the mainland, a grant of land having been
given by Almaricius, Lord of Howth, for this purpose. Placed upon a
precipitous bank, considerably elevated above the water’s edge, and
surrounded by a strong embattled wall, it presents a striking evidence
of the half-ecclesiastical, half-military character of the time.
Considerable additions were made to the east side in the fifteenth
century. The church was practically a two-aisled structure, the north
aisle being a little shorter than the south. The arches dividing the
aisles are six in number; and with the exception of the two adjoining
the east end, which are separated by an octagonal pillar, they spring
from rudely-formed quadrangular piers. The three to the west end denote
the earlier addition; those to the east are more pointed and show the
later extension. The porch in connection with the south doorway is a
very unusual feature in churches found in Ireland--a fact not easily to
be accounted for, as they appear to have been common in England during
mediæval times. A bell-turret with three apertures rose from the west
gable; the bells are said to be preserved in the castle.
A tomb usually ascribed to Christopher, the twentieth Lord of Howth,
who died in 1589, but which, from its style, is more probably that of
Christopher the thirteenth Lord (_d._ 1430), stands in the nave not
far from the east gable. It is a good specimen of the altar-tomb; but
an inscription which it bears, owing to the neglected state in which
the monument until lately was suffered to lie, has become illegible.
* * * * *
_St. Fintan’s._--The little church of St. Fintan, situated upon the
Hill of Howth, not far from the village of Sutton, cannot be of earlier
date than the ‘Abbey.’ This singular building measures upon the
interior but 16½ feet in length, by 7 feet 8 inches in breadth, yet it
contains five windows: one to the east, two to the south, one to the
north, and one in the west gable. These lights are of various forms:
that to the east has a semicircular head with a multifoil moulding; one
of the windows in the south wall is covered with a single stone, out of
which a semicircular arch-head is cut, while the other is quadrangular.
All the windows splay widely upon the interior. A doorway in the Lancet
form is placed in the west gable, which supports a bell-turret of
considerable dimensions, and strangely out of proportion to the size of
the structure. It contains one small Pointed aperture for the reception
of a bell. Of the origin of this church nothing is known; and there
were twelve saints of the name of Fintan; but the date is very fairly
indicated by its architectural peculiarities, which are characteristic
of the close of the thirteenth or early part of the fourteenth century.
There is a very ancient church remaining on Ireland’s Eye, a romantic
islet, or rock, lying off the North side of Howth. The place was
formerly known as _Inis-mac-Nessan_, from the three sons of Nessan,
viz. Dicholla, Munissa, and Nadsluagh, who some time in the seventh
century erected a little _Teampull_ or _Cill_; the remains of
Kilmacnessan still exist. It consists of a nave and chancel, and the
nave is 1 foot narrower at the west end than at the east. The doorway
has sloping jambs and a rounded head. An arch spanning the east end
formerly sustained a round tower belfry--a later addition, and a
curious feature, as the usual position is at the west end. The whole
building was so restored in the last century that it is impossible to
identify satisfactorily anything of the original structure.
FONTS.
A very considerable number of ancient baptismal fonts still remain
within the walls of the ruined churches of Ireland, and others are
found in graveyards where churches, of which no vestige remains,
formerly stood. The fonts usually found in connection with the more
ancient churches are extremely rude, and of small dimensions, being
rarely large enough to allow of the immersion of infants. They are
almost in every instance formed of a single stone, clumsily hollowed,
and having a hole at the bottom of the basin; but in some instances no
mode of escape for the water appears.
A very early font occurs in the ancient church of Killiney, Co. Dublin;
and there is another in the equally ancient church of Kilternan, about
six miles south of the city. An example, in which there is no passage
by which the water can escape, may be seen in the church of St. John’s
Point, Co. Down. There is a fine twelfth-century font of black marble
in Kilkenny Cathedral; it rests on four columns and a central drum, and
has fluted faces and incised spandrils round the bowl. The earliest
fonts are generally somewhat circular in form; but the stone appears
only to have been roughly hammered, and in no instance can be perceived
any attempt at decoration.
* * * * *
_Killeshin Font._--One of the oldest ornamented fonts remaining in
Ireland is that which stands in the graveyard of Killeshin. It is of
a bulbous form, and the base is cut into the figure of an octagon.
After the twelfth century, fonts of greater size, and supported by a
short column, appear to have become common. Their form is generally
octagonal; but they are seldom enriched in any way, and when ornaments
occur, they consist only of a few mouldings upon the shafts or upon the
upper edge of the basin. From the absence of mouldings in the majority
of instances, it is extremely difficult to assign a date to the
numerous fonts of an octagonal form which remain in many parts of the
country. During the period of debased Gothic architecture, a great many
appear to have been erected in Ireland, particularly in the district
comprising the old English Pale.
* * * * *
[Illustration: Kilcarn Font, Co. Meath.]
_Kilcarn Font._--We have engraved an unusually fine example from the
mediæval church of Kilcarn, near Navan, in the County of Meath, and
now in the Roman Catholic Church at Johnstown close by. Placed upon its
shaft, as represented in the cut, it measures in height about 3 feet 6
inches; the basin is 2 feet 10 inches in diameter, and 13 inches deep.
The heads of the niches, twelve in number, with which its sides are
carved, are enriched with foliage of a graceful but uniform character;
and the miniature buttresses which separate the niches are decorated
with crockets, the bases resting upon heads, grotesque animals, or
human figures carved as brackets. The figures within the niches are
executed with a wonderful degree of care, the drapery being represented
with each minute crease or fold well expressed. They were evidently
intended to represent Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the twelve
Apostles. All the figures are seated. Our Saviour, crowned as a King,
holding in His hand the globe and cross, is in the act of blessing the
Virgin, who is also crowned the ‘Queen of Heaven.’ The figures of most
of the Apostles can be easily identified: St. Peter, by his key; St.
Andrew, by his cross of peculiar shape; and so on. They are represented
barefooted, and each holds a book in one hand. In the Church of Clonard
is another interesting font. The basin is octagonal, and the external
panels are divided into two compartments filled with Scriptural
subjects, such as the Flight into Egypt, the Baptism in the Jordan, etc.
[Illustration: Kilcarn Font. No. 1.]
[Illustration: Kilcarn Font. No. 2.]
[Illustration: Kilcarn Font. No. 3.]
[Illustration: Kilcarn Font. No. 4.]
A font almost precisely similar in design may be seen in the choir of
the ruined church of Dunsany, near Dunshaughlin, in the same county;
but it is of smaller size, and the figures and ornaments with which
it is sculptured are less prominent than those upon the example at
Kilcarn. It is 3 feet 6 inches in height, with an octagonal head.
The panels contain representations of the Crucifixion, many of the
Apostles, and other figures. The shaft is carved in heraldic and
other devices. Its probable date is about the middle of the fifteenth
century. A fine and unusually large font remains in Christchurch,
Dublin; and in several churches referred to in this work, interesting
specimens occur.