Memorandums made in Ireland in the autumn of 1852 . abitual visitors, and would thus tend to removethe only rational objection I have ever heard urgedagainst the country excursions of our Londoners onthe Sunday afternoons. Monasterboice (which is said to be the moderncorruption of the ancient name of Mainistir-Buithe,Monaster-Boece, Monastery of St. Boetius) is aboutthree Irish miles from Drogheda, and will well repay avisit to it. The ruins, which consist of the remains oftwo small churches, sundry lofty stone-crosses, and around tower, are all contained within a little squarepiece of ground
Memorandums made in Ireland in the autumn of 1852 . abitual visitors, and would thus tend to removethe only rational objection I have ever heard urgedagainst the country excursions of our Londoners onthe Sunday afternoons. Monasterboice (which is said to be the moderncorruption of the ancient name of Mainistir-Buithe,Monaster-Boece, Monastery of St. Boetius) is aboutthree Irish miles from Drogheda, and will well repay avisit to it. The ruins, which consist of the remains oftwo small churches, sundry lofty stone-crosses, and around tower, are all contained within a little squarepiece of ground surrounded by a low wall, standingquite solitary amid the half-cultivated fields. This itsperfect isolation and loneliness, remote from all THE ROUND TOWER. 281 sound of living thing, yet with the recent handi-work of man all around it, adds greatly to thestrength of the mingled impressions which the sin-gular ruins themselves must always inspire. Theyseem not only to lead the mind back to the long-past ages when they formed, as it were, a part of. M onasterbcice. 282 STONE CROSSES. the system of life and living things amid which theywere placed, but to bring down to us and to ourown system of life and action, those very agesthemselves. The Round Tower, as shown in the woodcut on thepreceding page, has been shattered and broken at itstop, partly, it is said, by lightning, partly by the sloweraction of time. It is understood to be 110 feet inheight, and its circumference near the ground is about50. The entrance to this tower is lower than anyother I have seen, being only five or six feet abovethe ground; so that it proved no very difficult taskto enter it. The whole of the interior walls are aswell-hewn and smooth as the exterior; and the stonesare so closely laid one on another, and so well cut,that scarcely any cement is visible. The internaldiameter, at the height of the doorway, is barelynine feet—viz. three rather short paces. The wholespace to the top is perfectly hollow
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