Those in Britain are Cambridge, consecrated in 1101; Northampton, about 1115; Maplestead, 1118; the Temple Church, London, 1185; the small Norman church in Ludlow Castle, and the Earls’ Church at Orphir in Orkney—the only example in Scotland. “The round churches at Cambridge, Northampton, and London,” says Ferguson, “were certainly sepulchral, or erected in imitation of the church at Jerusalem” (History of Architecture, ii. p. 60). Wilson, on the other hand, supposes that the early dry-built beehive houses of the Western Islands may have served as a model for some of the earliest Christian oratories, of which that at Orphir, he remarks, is an interesting example (Prehistoric Annals, ii. p. 369). But there is no analogy whatever between the architectural features of Orphir and those of the beehive houses, nor has it any resemblance to the earlier oratories and chapels of the Western Isles. Footnote 187: Pope’s Translation of Torfæus (Wick, 1866), p. 108. Footnote 188: Sir H. Dryden says this mode of putting on the arch was probably resorted to in order to give a support to the centre on which the arch was built. This seems highly probable, and in some cases it would seem as if the original supports still remain in the shape of two long thin slabs resting on the imposts on either side and meeting in the centre of the arch. See the engraving of the doorway in St. Mary’s Church, Kilbar, Barra, in Mr. Muir’s Characteristics of Old Church Architecture, p. 230. Footnote 189: Caithness and Part of Orkney, an Ecclesiological Sketch, by T. S. Muir, p. 25. Footnote 190: From an expression of Jo. Ben’s it would seem to have been dedicated to St. Peter:—“Weir, insula est parva, Petro Apostolo dicata.” Footnote 191: This church, which was called St. Peter’s in 1726, is called St. Mary’s by Mr. Muir. Footnote 192: Sir Henry Dryden remarks that the same mode of making doorways is to be seen in the chapels at Lybster in Caithness, at Weir, at Linton in Shapinsay, Uyea in Shetland, and in some of the early oratories in Ireland, and suggests the question—Were there doors in these churches, and if so, where were they placed and how were they hung? “It is known,” he adds, “that in many cottages in old time the door was an animal’s hide hung across the opening, and probably this may have been the case in these unrebated church entrances.” The custom of closing the entrances to the places of worship by a skin or heavy curtain survives in the East to the present day. The “veil of the Temple,” covering the entrance to the Holy of Holies, is a familiar illustration of this ancient custom among the Jews. Footnote 193: