ury, continuing through the early churches of Killiney, Moville,
Dalkey, Glendalough and Monasterboice, from before the Norse inroads;
followed by the epoch of Round Towers, or protected belfries, with their
churches, nearly three score of these Round Towers remaining in fair
preservation, while many are perfect from base to apex; and culminating
in Cormac's chapel and the beautiful group of buildings on Cashel Rock.
For the next period, the age of transition after the waning of the
Norsemen and the coming of the first Normans, we have many monuments in
the Norman style, like the door of Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin,
with its romance of Danish conversion and Norse religious fervor.

Finally, we come to the age whose progress we have just recorded, which
covers the whole of the Middle Ages. For this period, which was for
Ireland an epoch of foreign influence much more than of foreign rule, we
have many beautiful Abbeys, built for those foreign orders whose coming
was in a sense a return tide, a backward flow of the old missionary
spirit which went forth from Ireland over nascent modern Europe. The
life of these abbeys was full of rich imaginative and religious power;
it abounded in urbanity and ripe culture of a somewhat selfish and
exclusive type. Yet we cannot but feel a limitless affection and
sympathy for the abbots and friars of the days of old who have left us
such a rich heritage of beauty and grace.

All these abbeys seem to have been formed on a single plan: a cruciform
church symbolized the source of all their inspiration, its choir
extending towards the east, whence the Light had come; the nave, or main
body of the church, was entered by the great western door, and the arms
of the cross, the transepts, extended to the north and south. Here is a
very beautiful symbol, a true embodiment of the whole spirit and
inspiration of the monastic orders. From one of the transepts a side
door generally led to the domestic buildings, the dormitory, the
refectory, the chapter house, where the friars assembled in conclave
under the presidency of the abbot. There were lesser buildings,
store-rooms, granaries, work-rooms, but these were the kernel of the
establishment. The church was the center of all things, and under its
floor the friars were at last laid to rest, while brother friars carved
tombs for them and epitaphs, adding a new richness of decoration to the
already beautiful church.

We may record a few of these