THE MIRROR
OF
LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.
| VOL. XII, NO. 333.] | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1828. | [PRICE 2d. |
FIRE TOWER
Throughout Scotland and Ireland there are scattered great numbers ofround towers, which have puzzled all antiquarians. They have oflate obtained the general name of Fire Towers, and our engravingrepresents the view of one of them, at Brechin, in Scotland. It consistsof sixty regular courses of hewn stone, of a brighter colour than theadjoining church. It is 85 feet high to the cornice, whence rises a low,spiral-pointed roof of stone, with three or four windows, and on the topa vane, making 15 feet more, in all 100 feet from the ground, andmeasuring 48 feet in external circumference.
Many of these towers in Ireland vary from 35 to 100 feet. One at Ardmorehas fasciæ at the several stories, which all the rest both in Irelandand Scotland, seem to want, as well as stairs, having only abutments,whereon to rest timbers and ladders. Some have windows regularlydisposed, others only at the top. Their situation with respect to thechurches also varies. Some in Ireland stand 25 to 125 feet from the westend of the church. The tower at Brechin is included in the S.W. angle ofthe ancient cathedral, to which it communicates by a door.
There have been numerous discussions respecting the purposes for whichthese towers were built; they are generally adjoining to churches,whence they seem to be of a religious nature. Mr. Vallencey considersit as a settled point, that they were an appendage to the Druidicalreligion, and were, in fact, towers for the preservation of thesacred fire1 of the[pg 194]Druids or Magi. To this Mr. Gough, in hisdescription of Brechin Tower,2 raises an insuperable objection. Butthey are certainly not belfries; and as no more probable conjecture hasbeen made on their original purpose, they are still known as FireTowers.
For this curious relic we are indebted to Mr. Godfrey Higgins's eruditequarto, entitled "The Celtic Druids," already alluded to at page 121 ofour present volume.
SOME ACCOUNT OF STIRBITCH FAIR.
BY A SEPTUAGENARIAN.
(Stirbitch Fair, as our correspondent observes, was once the Leipsic orFrankfurt of England. He has appended to his "Account" a ground plan ofthe fair, which we regret we have not room to insert; the gaps or spacesin which, serve to show how much this commercial carnival (for such itmight be termed) has deteriorated; for the remaining booths were builton the same site as during the former splendour of the fair. Ourcorrespondent accounts for this "decay, by the facilities of roads andnavigable canals for the conveyance of goods;" the shopkeepers, &c,"being able to get from London and the manufacturing districts, everyarticle direct, at a small expense, the fair-keepers fi