Can you tell me anything of the history of a little work, of which the
following is the title?--
"A Discourse of the Round Towers of Ireland, in which the errors of the
various writers on that subject are detected and confuted, and the true
cause of so many differences among the learned, on the question of
their use and history, is assigned and demonstrated. By John Flanagan,
Kilkenny. Printed for the author by Thomas Kelly, 1843."
It was purchased by a Dublin bookseller at Jones' last sale (Catalogue, No.
704.), for 2s. 6d. The bookseller, who has kindly lent me the book, says
that it was never printed in Kilkenny, and that it is very scarce, he
having seen only one other copy of it. It is a small quarto of twenty-four
pages, beautifully printed on good paper, which leads me also to believe
that the book could not have been printed in Kilkenny. The author, whoever
he was or is, boldly says that, "There are no Round Towers in Ireland," p.
8., and through the pages of the work runs a vein of nonsense, which would
lead a person to think that the author was not very right in his mind.
Still, there is something very remarkable in the production.