The _Church Monuments_ are by no means so numerous or so ancient as to afford the antiquary, the genealogist, or the heraldic tourist, that amusement and instruction so frequent in the ecclesiastical edifices of England. Few antique monuments remain, and the authenticity of the so much boasted one of Strongbow, in Christ-church in the metropolis, is very doubtful. Sir R. C. Hoare has stated, p. 13, 14, in a note, the evidence for and against it. There we have the authority of an inscription of the restored monument, by Sir H. Sydney in 1570; to which Sir Richard adds a positive assertion of his being buried there, from Giraldus, but setting against it the "Hic jacet" of a tomb in Gloucester cathedral, recorded by Leland. Sir Richard, himself, doubts the fact of Strongbow having been buried in Dublin, as we do also, but not precisely for the same reason. Sir Richard's doubt springs from the circumstance of the knight on the Christ-church monument bearing a shield argent, on a chief azure three cross crosslets fitchée; whilst the family coat of the _De Clares_, Earls of Pembroke, were Or, 3 chevrons gules. But the fact is, that at the time in question there was a great license in the assumption of coat armour, then just beginning to be hereditary; and indeed there are frequent instances at that period of individuals adopting new coats for particular purposes. The present case is an instance of it; for the coat with the crosses was actually assumed by Gilbert, father of Strongbow, on his return from the Holy Land. The remaining objects of antiquarian research are the CASTLES, which are of various dates. Some of these may be as old as the 11th or 12th century, perhaps older, as it is said that the Scandinavian chiefs introduced stone into their fortified places, and there are several Norwegian _round Castles_ still extant. Ledwich divides them into several eras; first, _old Danish forts_ surrounded with earthen works, to which was afterwards added a keep of stone and lime, and sometimes a circular wall; then piles of building encompassed by a rampart, afterwards called a _Bawn_, and imitated by later colonists; then houses with battlements and turrets, flankers, &c. Of all these there is a great variety, as well as number; and the author quoted is of opinion, that all the castles constructed by British settlers were by British architects. The most remarkable of these will be found described in the following sheets.