Henry VII., Henry VIII., and Elizabeth, but there seems reason to assign them in this instance to Henry VIII. The details of ornament in the carving are so identical with some of the work at the church, that there is no doubt both were executed at the same time, and probably by the same hands; but the church is a large one, and the work of rebuilding it was continued over a long period, so that it is difficult to fix an exact date. The dripstones are enriched with ornament; one of the windows built in has perpendicular tracery, and the old gurgoyles are placed up again. The following extract from the will of Dominick Lynch, 1508, shows that the work at the church was then going on, and this seems a probable date for that of the house also:—"Item. I order the said Stephen to finish the new work begun by me in the church."[1]
Another house, called Castle Banks, bears the date of 1612. It has a fine Jacobean fireplace with the family arms, and a good doorway round-headed, with a label over; the spandrels and corbels well carved; the corbels of the Irish tongue-shape, with foliage springing from the points.
Another house of Elizabethan character bears the date of 1627 over the gateway, with the names Martin Brown and Maria Lynch, and their respective coats of arms.
Several of the Elizabethan doorways in this town are ornamented with sculpture in stone, and the interlaced patterns, popularly called Runic, are used in them, showing that this kind of ornament was used in Ireland throughout the whole of the mediæval period. In some instances this interlaced work is found at the back of the head, on corbel heads terminating dripstones, and is continued for some distance along the wall as an ornament, as if it had been intended to represent the long hair of the Irish ladies plaited, for the women of the lower classes in this part of Ireland have very long and beautiful black hair, and pride themselves not a little upon it.
The peat-bogs, in which large oak trees have frequently been found, and various other indications, show that a large part of Ireland was formerly covered with oak forests. Irish oak formed an important article of trade during the middle ages; many roofs of churches and halls of this material are to be met with in various parts of England and the Continent; and frequent mention of Irish oak occurs in French chronicles; it was much prized, and was frequently employed in making boxes or coffers for relics or other purposes. The want of drainage and the neglect of keeping open the natural outlets seem to have been the causes of the destruction of these forests and the conversion of them into bogs.
- ↑ Hardiman's History of Galway, p. 235.
