(_To the Editor of the Mirror._)
In No. 333 of the MIRROR, there is an article on the ancient _round
towers_ in Scotland and Ireland, in which it is stated that the said
towers "have puzzled all antiquarians," that they are now generally called
_fire towers_ and that "_they certainly were not belfries_."
I have often thought that antiquarians, and particularly our modern Irish
antiquarians, have affected to be puzzled about what, to the rest of
mankind, must appear to be evident enough; and this for the purpose of
making a parade of their learning, and of astonishing the common reader by
the ingenuity of their speculations.
I think I shall be able to show, that a motive of this kind must have
operated in the case of these _round towers_, otherwise "all the
antiquarians" could not have been so sadly puzzled about what to the rest
of the world appears a very plain matter.
The fact is, that when St. Patrick planted the Christian faith in Ireland,
in the middle of the fifth century, (he died A.D. 492,) the practice of
hanging bells in church steeples had not begun; and we know from history,
that they were first used to summon the people to worship in A.D. 551, by
a bishop of Campania; the churches, therefore, that were erected by St.
Patrick, (and he built many,) were originally without belfries; and when
the use of bells became common, it was judged more expedient to erect _a
belfry detached from the church_, than by sticking it up against the
side or end walls, to mar the proportions of the original building.
This is the account of the matter given by the old Irish historians, not
one of whom appears to have been aware what "puzzlers" these _round
towers_ were to become in after ages; and in a life of St. Kevin, of
Glendaloch, (co. Wicklow,) who died A.D. 628, we are told that "the holy
bishop did," a short time before his death, "erect a _bell-house_
(cloig-theach) contiguous to the church _formerly_ erected by him, in
which he placed _a bell_, to the glory of God, and for the good of
his own soul."
I am not unaware, in giving you the above quotation, that "all the
antiquarians," and particularly those of Scotland, have long since
decided, that in every matter connected with the ancient history of
Ireland, her native historians (many of whom were eye-witnesses of the
facts they relate) are on no account to be credited; and that the safest
way of dealing with those chroniclers is, in every thing, to take for
granted exactly the reverse of what they may at any time assert. In
deference, therefore, to such high authorities, I shall waive any
advantage which I might claim on account of a quotation from the works of
a _native historian_, and proceed to show, from the reasonableness of
the thing itself, that those towers which you state "were certainly never
belfries," were in fact belfries, and were never any thing else.
_First_.--They are all situated within a few yards of _some ancient
church_, and which church is invariably _without a steeple_.
_Secondly_.--It is impossible to conceive, from their slender shape,
their great height, and their contiguity to the church, for what other
purpose they could have been intended, having, to a spectator inside, who
looks up to the top, exactly the appearance of an enormous gun-barrel.
_Thirdly_.--That in all of them now entire, the holes, for the
purpose of receiving the beam to support the bell, remain; and that in one
at least, that upon Tory Island, co. Donegal, the beam itself may be seen
at this day.
_Fourthly_, and which appears to me _more conclusive than all the
rest_, that these towers, in every part of Ireland, are, to this day,
called in Irish by the name of _clogach_, (cloig-theach,) that is,
_bell-house_, and that they are never called (in Irish at least) by
any other name whatever.