THE
Archaeological Journal.
JUNE, 1845.
NOTICE OF THE CROSS-LEGGED SEPULCHRAL EFFIGIES, EXISTING AT CASHEL.
BY GEORGE DU NOYER, ESQ.,
Fellow of the College of St. Columba, county Meath.
At Cashel, in the county Tipperary, there have been preserved four monumental effigies which have not hitherto, as it appears, been brought before the notice of antiquaries. They are, however, highly deserving of attention as authentic and interesting examples of costume, illustrative of a period of mediæval sculpture, of which scarcely any works of a similar kind exist in Ireland, and entitled, on account of the taste, vigour of design, and masterly execution which they display, to rank amongst the best remains of the same age and description which are to be found in England. They present also this novel feature, that three of the effigies, representing females, are, as well as the figure of the knight which is pre- served with them, cross-legged, a peculiarity of monumental design hitherto wholly unnoticed.
To persons who desire to study the mediæval remains which exist in Ireland, it will appear strange that, numerous as are the works which have been compiled on the subject of Irish antiquities, writers have confined themselves almost exclusively to those ecclesiastical remains which may claim a date more or less anterior to the coming of the English, or that they have theorised to an interminable extent upon the relics of pagan times which have been preserved in Ireland. The works of the mason or the sculptor, but more particularly the latter, which maybe attributed to the Anglo-Normans, or were produced under their influence, have either been wholly overlooked, or examined in such a manner as would lead to the conclusion that the writers deemed them unworthy of serious
