On the Doorway of the Round Tower of KildareAuthor(s): Samuel FergusonSource: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Polite Literature and Antiquities, Vol. 2 (1879- 1888), pp. 91-93Published by: Royal Irish AcademyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20651501 .

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Ferguson?On the Doorway of the Round Tower, Kildare. 91

XX.?On the Doorway of the Round Tower of Kildare. By Sir

Samuel Ferguson, LL.D.

[Read, November 8, 1880.]

A lofty church tower stood at Kildare in the time of Giraldus Cam brensis, who speaks of it as being then a very ancient monument. The round tower still standing there is primd facie the same edifice. But its doorway exhibits a kind of ornamentation which, if old in the last quarter of the twelfth century, when Giraldus wrote, would give too early a date for the supposed commencement of that style in architectural decoration called

Romanesque. Dr. Petrie there fore argued, as regards the Kil dare tower, that either the Roma

nesque style had developed itself here earlier than archaeologists

generally would be willing to ad mit, or else that the tower itself should be regarded as a new struc ture built since the time of Cam brensis; though this latter hypo thesis rests on no authority, and receives no support from the author.

Other investigators have got over the difficulties involved in the dilemma by suggesting that the doorway is an

" insertion";

and, in evidence of that view, point to appearances of newer

masonry surrounding it, and

spreading over a large surface between it and the ground.

I am unable to concur in this theory; and, as the reasons on

both sides appear to rest on no

thing definite, I have asked leave to place before the Academy the particular grounds on which, as it seems to me, this doorway should be regarded as part of the original structure.

It stands at a height of about fifteen feet from the ground, and is now accessible by a stair-ladder with a handrail leading to an external landing or balcony from which every part of the work can be satisfac torily examined.

Fig. l.

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92 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy.

It is what is called a "recessed" doorway of three orders or grada tions of members, of which the two internal orders are perfect, and

exhibit the ornamental work in question. The first or external order has disappeared, its place having been supplied by the same rough rubble masonry which shows over the rest of the newer surface. As

far as concerns the doorway, it is obvious that this new masonry goes no deeper than the thickness of the first order ; for it abuts against the dressed red sandstone jambs and arch of the second order which pro

ject behind it. Plainly enough there has, to that extent, been a repair ing of dilapidation both of the surface of the tower and of the outer order of the doorway. But this new work exhibits no appearance of having been executed at different times, and the internal orders exhibit no appearance of ever having undergone the least disturbance,

though, of course, it might be said that, consistently with present ap pearances, there may have been an original insertion, the external members of which may have subsequently mouldered away, and that the primary new work due to the insertion may have been overlayed and hidden from observation by the secondary work due to the repair ing of that dilapidation; and, but for the further fact about to be adduced, it might be difficult to give these hypotheses, gratuitous and fanciful as they are, any other answer than that, in the absence of

evidence to the contrary, the presumption is that things remain in statu quo ante.

The theory of an insertion of one opening in lieu of another implies, however, a process of underpinning to sustain the weight of

the wall after the withdrawal of the support given by the first doorway, and a further process of removal of the incumbent masonry to a suf

ficient height to give head-room to the workmen employed in putting in the new arch. It has been mentioned that the new work sur

rounds the doorway and spreads thence downward to near the ground. But above, where the new work ought to appear, if any such opera tion as is suggested had ever taken place, not only is there no trace of new work beyond the few inches necessary for making up the outer rim of the first recess, but this part of the surface of the tower still carries on its face, altogether undisturbed and obviously in its original state, the old drip-stone or hood moulding for preserving the work below from the weather. It is of the gabled form, such as is used for the protection of other doorway-opes in other Irish ecclesiastical

remains?Killeshin, Freshford, Clonfert, Eoscrea?and is nowhere, so far as I know, employed save in connexion with arched and deco rated work in the same style with the ornamentation here. Nothing can be more distinct than the evidence afforded by this member and by the surface it projects from, that the original masonry of the tower has never been disturbed over the crown of the present doorway arch

beyond the shallow rim of external rubble-work above described. Dr. Petrie has not gone into this question of "insertion

" farther

than by noticing the suggestion as gratuitous, and appealing to the evidence of the monument itself. He has, however, carefully shown

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Ferguson?On the Doorway of the Round Tower, Kildare. 93

the new work over the external jambs and over the head of the outer arch in his drawing of the doorway, reproduced from the Academy's Transactions (vol. xx., p. 208) above.

I am able in one detail to make a slight correction in Petrie's enlarged drawing of one of the details. He has shown the capitals of the inner pilasters as consisting of a double arcade with contained stems and foliage. He may easily be excused for failing to make out the lines of a surface so abraded, and in a position so difficult for obser vation. I present a cast, from which it will be seen that the design is somewhat different. The forms which he regarded as semicircular

Fig. 2.

appear here as of Gothic design ; but they seem to be parts of a floral rather than an architectural composition. A flower on a stem rises between the arcades, giving something of the effect of the honeysuckle ornament. I also present another cast, showing the entire accuracy of his drawing as regards the decoration of the soffete.

On the resulting question, whether the whole tower be not of a date posterior to the time of Cambrensis, I content myself with ob serving, that of the other works with which its gabled canopy con nects it, some are known to be older, and none to be later, than that

epoch.

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