An early monumental stone remains in the cemetery, a few yards to the north of the less ancient church. The inscription is in the Irish language and character, and reads in English, ‘A prayer for Ruarchan.’ A simple flagstone, inscribed with a name, and sculptured with the sacred symbol of Christianity, such as the early Christians were accustomed to place over the grave of an eminent man, forms a striking contrast to the tablets which too often disfigure the walls of our cathedral and parish churches. Many remains of this class lie scattered among the ancient and often-neglected graveyards of Ireland; but they are every day becoming more rare, as the country stone-cutters, by whom they are regarded with but slight veneration, frequently form out of their materials modern tombstones, defacing the ancient inscriptions. A characteristic example of a portion of an inscribed slab is here given; it is from Iniscaltra, an island in Lough Derg, for many centuries a celebrated burial-ground. In several cemeteries found in connection with the earlier monastic establishments of Ireland, graves frequently occur, formed of flat stones placed edgeways in an oblong figure and covered with large flags, after the pagan fashion. Were it not that in several instances the stones at either end of the enclosure have been sculptured with a cross, they might be supposed to indicate the site of a pagan cemetery, which the early Christians, for obvious reasons, had hallowed by the erection of a _cill_. The direction of the grave is generally east and west; but in the cemetery adjoining the very early church at Saint John’s Point, in Co. Down, and at Kilnasaggart, the graves are arranged in the form of a circle, to the centre of which the feet of the dead converge. [Illustration: Plan of Cemetery, Kilnasaggart, near Jonesborough, Co. Armagh.] The cemetery at Kilnasaggart consists, as the plan here shows, of two concentric circles of low flat graves radiating towards the centre, at which stands a small pillar-stone. The outer circle is 55 feet in diameter, and at the north edge is the well-known Pillar-stone. This originally contained an Ogam inscription, which was defaced, probably when converted to Christian uses. It has a number of incised crosses, and an Irish inscription to St. Ternoe.[126] A similar mode of interment, which occurs at Town-y-Chapel, near Holyhead, in Wales, is referred to in the _Archæological Journal_, vol. iii.; and it is worthy of remark that the place where the graves are found appears to have been the scene of a battle, fought about A.D. 450, in which many Irishmen were slain. CHAPTER XIII. ROUND TOWERS. OPINIONS FORMERLY CURRENT WITH REGARD TO THE ORIGIN AND USES OF THE ROUND TOWERS--THEIR CHARACTERISTICS--DOORWAYS, WINDOWS AND APERTURES--EXAMPLES AT CLONDALKIN, MONASTERBOICE, KILDARE, DEVENISH.