under his direction, in the most satisfactory manner. See Archaeological Journal, vol. ii. p. 211.-A square font has lately been discovered under the pulpit.

-

WE have heard it rumoured that the curious old wood-work houses in the main street at Conwy are likely to be pulled down. We earnestly hope that this may not be true. To destroy any thing old in the architectural features of that town- the very gem, in point of antiquities, of all Waleswould be sacrilege. On the other hand, we believe we may assure our readers that much less damage has been done to the walls, by the passing of the Holyhead Railroad through the town, than might have been anticipated. The contractors intended to build a circular-headed entrance for the line, in one of the curtains of the eastern wall; but, as we understand, on the representations of the committee of the Archæological Institute in the proper quarter, instructions were given by the company that the entrance should be in the pointed style, to harmonize with the castle. The tower of the castle, that had partially fallen down, is to be repaired and built up, we believe, by the company. Who is going to repair the whole castle? It is high time, now that Caernarvon is receiving a similar boon, after centuries of neglect.

THE original MS. of the Supplement to Rowlands's Mona Antiqua (published in 4to, by Dodsley, 1775,) was lately purchased at Rodd's, in London, and was conveyed to Anglesey, to be kept along with the MS. of the principal work, which, by the way, is in fine preservation. Owing to the carelessness of a servant, this MS. was lost last summer, on a road near Beaumarais, as is supposed, and has never since been heard of, notwithstanding the activity of the local police, and the offering of a reward. It is bound in 4to, and is in a good legible hand.

We recommend all our architectural readers, and especially the professional ones, to get Paley's Gothic Mouldings. It is the best book of the kind yet published, and quite necessary to whoever would really study mediæval buildings in a scientific manner.

M. DIDRON, the learned secretary of the Comité Historique des Arts et Mocuments, under the French government, is going on regularly with the publication of the Annales Archéologiques. The work holds the same place in France as the Archæological Journal does here. We hope from time to time, through the kindness of the editor, to be able to communicate some of its splendid illustrations to our readers. Whoever takes an interest in continental antiquities should subscribe to it. It appears every month, in 4to. is profusely illustrated, and costs only 28s. per annum. Professional men will do well to get the Manual of Christian Iconography, lately pubished by M. Didron; a most curious and useful work, the subject of which is quite new to most British amateur antiquarians.

M. A. BRIZEUX, a Breton poet of the present day, has been recently publishing some French verses, on Celtic subjects, in the 11th volume of the Revue des deux Mondes. Without assigning any particular merit to the lines in question, which are only a fugitive specimen of his metrical powers, we take an interest in them from the circumstance that they shew a Celtic feeling still to exist in France, and that they prove the existence of Celtic literature in that country. M. Brizeux mentions the death of a poet (shall we call him a bard?) named Ives Gestin (Yestin?) as having lately taken place; and informs us that he was the author of "the Life of St. Corentin," which he styles "a little chef d'œuvre of the Celtic language." We have not yet seen the work here alluded to, but we cannot omit pointing it out to the notice of our readers.

Reviews.

1. The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, anterior to the Anglo-Norman Invasion. By GEORGE PETRIE, R.H.A.; V.P.R.I.A. 8vo. 2d Edition. It is no small honour to the state of Archæological knowledge in the united kingdom, and it confers unusual lustre on the Royal Irish Academy, that we should have amongst us a gentleman capable of producing a work of this kind, and that it should have appeared under the auspices of that learned society of which he is one of the vice-presidents. When so much learning, labour, research, and artistical skill, are united in one person, and when the result of those enviable faculties is a book like that which we are noticing, we may truly be proud of the high standing which archæology must have assumed to render its appearance possible. Laplace said of his great Mécanique Céleste, that only a few mathematicians in England could read it; and we might apply a similar expression to Mr. Petrie's book; for we doubt whether there are many antiquaries, on either side of St. George's channel, who are competent by their reading to appreciate his mass of authorities, or to visit the monuments, and to meditate upon them, as he has done.

The object of the learned and accomplished author is to give an account of the early architecture of Ireland, in doing which he lays open to us a real mine of new antiquarian and historical matter, so surprising and so tempting as to induce, we have no doubt, numbers of English antiquaries to flock into Ireland, and to see its interesting remains for themselves. He also goes at full length into the question of the round towers, and establishes most satisfactorily, as far as we are able to judge, that their primary object was to serve as belfries, but that they also were used as "ecclesiastical keeps." We have not the space to follow Mr. Petrie into even a sketch of the masterly line of argument he adopts to maintain this position; let every body get the book, and read it for themselves.

This work is, however, peculiarly valuable to Welsh antiquarians, from its treating of the early cells, or churches, of the Irish saints, similar, no doubt, to what we still find in some parts of Wales; and, from the information we perceive to be hence derivable, we expect that a totally new light will be thrown on many of the primeval remains of Cambria. Those circular houses which we find in such numbers on our mountains, and which are still called by Rowland, Cyttie'r Gwyddelod, or "the Irishmen's cottages," swarm in the west of Ireland; and are described by Mr. Petrie in great detail. Owing to the obliging courtesy of that gentleman, we are enabled to present our readers with two highly interesting illustrations, referring to this particular class of remains; and we quote, at the same time, in explanation of them, the author's words:

That these buildings were, as I have already stated, erected in the mode practised by the Firbolg and Tuatha De Danann tribes in Ireland, must be at once obvious to any one, who has seen any of the pagan circular stone forts and bee-hive-shaped houses still so frequently to be met with, along the remote coasts, and on the islands, of the western and south-western parts of Ireland, into which little change of manners and customs had penetrated, that would have destroyed the reverence paid by the people to their ancient monuments-the only differences observable between these buildings and those introduced in the primitive Christian times being the presence of lime cement, the use of which was wholly unknown to the Irish in pagan times, and the adoption of a quadrangular form in the construction of the churches, and, occasionally, in the interior of the externally round houses of the ecclesiastics, the forts and houses of the Firbolg and Tuatha De Danann colonies being invariably of a rotund form, both internally and externally. It may interest the reader to present him with two or three characteristic specimens of these singular structures, of different styles and eras, and which have

been hitherto unnoticed. The annexed view will give a good idea of the general appearance of the round and oval houses erected in pagan times, and of which there are some hundreds still remaining, though generally more or less dilapidated. The next example is of somewhat later date, being one of the houses erected by the celebrated St. Fechin, who flourished in the seventh century, at his little

monastic establishment on Ard-Oilean, or High Island, off the coast of Connamara, in the county of Galway. This building, like the preceeding one, is square in the interior, and measures nine feet by seven feet six inches in height; the doorway is two feet four inches wide, and three feet six inches high. The material of this structure is mica slate, and, though its external appearance is very rude, its interior is constructed with admirable art. (pp. 129-132.)

As an example of these most interesting structures, which, the historian of Kerry

truly says, "may possibly challenge even the Round Towers as to point of antiquity," I annex a view of the oratory at Gallerus, the most beautifully constructed and perfectly preserved of those ancient structures uow remaining; and views of similar oratories will be found in the succeeding part of this work.

This oratory, which is wholly built of the green stone of the district, is externally twenty-three feet long by ten broad, and is sixteen feet high on the outside to the apex of the pyramid. The doorway, which is placed, as is usual in all our ancient churches, in its west-end wall, is five feet seven inches high, two feet four inches wide at the base, and one foot nine inches at the top; and the walls are four feet in thickness at the base. It is lighted by a single window in its east side, and each of the gables was terminated by small stone crosses, only the sockets of which now

remain.

That these oratories, though not, as Dr. Smith supposes, the first edifices of stone that were erected in Ireland,- - were the first erected for Christian uses, is, I think, extremely probable; and I am strongly inclined to believe that they may be even more ancient than the period assigned for the conversion of the Irish generally by their great apostle Patrick. I should state, in proof of this antiquity, that adjacent to each of these oratories may be seen the remains of the circular stone houses, which were the habitations of their founders; and, what is of more importance, that their graves are marked by upright pillar-stones, sometimes bearing inscriptions in the Ogham character, as found on monuments presumed to be pagan, and in other instances, as at the oratory of Gallerus, with an inscription in the Græco-Roman or Byzantine character of the fourth or fifth century. (pp. 132-134). Of such anachoretical, or heremitical establishments, one of the most interesting and best preserved in Ireland, or perhaps in Europe, is that of St. Fechin, on Ardoilen, or High Island, an uninhabited and almost inaccessible island off the coast of Connamara, on the north-west of the county of Galway. Of this curious monastic establishment I transcribe the following account from my notes, made in the year 1820, when I visited the island, in the summer of that year, with my respected friend, Mr. Henry Blake of Rinvile.

Ardoilen, or High Island, is situated about six miles from the coast of Omey, and contains about eighty acres. From its height, and the overhanging character of its cliffs, it is only accessible in the calmest weather, and even then, tire landing, which can only be made by springing on a shelving portion of the cliff from the boat, is not wholly free from danger: but the adventurer will be well rewarded for such risk; for, in addition to the singular antiquities which the island contains, it affords views of the Connamara and Mayo scenery, of insurpassable beauty. The church here is among the rudest of the ancient edifices which the fervour of the Christian religion raised on its introduction into Ireland. Its internal measurement, in length and breadth, is but twelve feet by ten, and in height ten feet. The doorway is two feet wide, and four feet six inches high, and its horizontal lintel is inscribed with a cross, like that on the lintel of the doorway of St. Fechin's great church at Fore, and those of other doorways of the same period. The east window, which is the only one in the building, is semicircular-headed, and is but one foot high, and six inches wide. The altar still remains, and is covered with offerings, such as nails, buttons, and shells, but chiefly fishing hooks, the most characteristic tributes of the calling of the votaries. On the east side of the chapel is an ancient stone sepulchre, like a pagan kist vaen, composed of large mica slates, with a cover of limestone. The stones at the ends are rudely sculptured with ornamental crosses and a human figure, and the covering slab was also carved, and probably was inscribed with the name of the saint for whom the tomb was designed, but its surface is now much effaced; and as this sepulchre appears to have been made at the same time as the chapel, it seems probable that it is the tomb of the original founder of this religious establishment. The chapel is surrounded by a wall, allowing a passage of four feet between them; and from this, a covered passage, about fifteen feet long, by three feet wide, leads to a cell, which was probably the abbot's habitation. This cell, which is nearly circular, and dome-roofed, is internally seven feet by six, and eight high. It is built, like those in Aran, without cement, and with much rude art. On the east side there is a larger cell, externally round, but internally a square of nine feet, and seven feet six inches in height. Could this have been a refectory? The doorways in these cells are two feet four inches in width, and but three feet six inches in height. On the other side of the chapel are a number of smaller cells, which were only large enough to contain each a single person. They are but six feet long, three feet wide, and four feet high, and most of them are now covered with rubbish. These formed a Laura, like the habitations of the Egyptian ascetics. There is also a covered gallery, or passage, twenty-four feet long, four feet wide, and four feet six

This day is published by

WILLIAM PICKERING, Piccadilly,

The following Series of the

gooks of Common Prayer,

from Edward VI. to Charles II. forming Six Volumes, small folio. Reprinted in Black and Red Letter, by Whittingham.

1. The First Book of Edward VI.

The booke of the common prayer and adminiftracion of the Sacramentes, and other rites and ceremonies of the Churche: after the vle of the Churche of England. LONDINI JN OFFICINA Edouardi Whitchurche. ANNO DO. 1549. Menfe Martii.

2. The Second Book of Edward VI.

The Boke of common prayer, and administracion of the Sacramentes, and other rites and Ceremonies in the Churche of Englande. Londini, in officina Edvvardi Whytchurche. Anno 1552.

3. The First Book of Queen Elizabeth.

The Boke of common praier, and adminißration of the Sacramentes, and other rites and Ceremonies in the Churche of Englande. Londini, in officina Richardi Graftoni. Anno 1559.

4. King James's Book as fettled at Hampton Court.

The Booke of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, And other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England. Imprinted at London by Robert Barker, Printer to the King's moft Excellent Maieftie. Anno 1604.