142

HISTOUT OF ENGLAND.

CIMP.

XII.

lusa.

This country, then uncultivated and uninhabited, is now• enriched by industry, embellished by taste, and pleasing evento eyes accustomed to the well tilled fields and stately manorhouses of England. A new city soon arose which, on accountof its connection with the capital of the empire, was called Lon-donderry. The buildings covered the summit and slope of a hillwhich overlooked the broad stream of the Foyle, then whitenedby vast flocks of wild swans.* On the highest ground stoodthe Cathedral, a church which, though erected when the secretof Gothic architecture was lost, and though ill qualified to sus-tain a comparison with the awful temples of the middle ages,is not without grace and dignity. Near the Cathedral rose thepalace of the Bishop, whose see was one of the most valuablein Ireland. The city was in form nearly an ellipse; and theprincipal streets formed a cross, the arms of which met in asquare called the Diamond. The original houses have beeneither rebuilt or so much repaired that their ancient charactercan no longer be traced; but many of them were standing withinliving memory. They were in general two stories in height;and some of them had stone staircases on the outside. Thedwellings were encompassed by a wall of which the whole cir-cumference was little less than a mile. On the bastions wereplanted culverins and sakers presented by the wealthy guilds ofLondon to the colony. On some of these ancient guns, whichhave done memorable service to a great cause, the devices ofthe Fishmongers’ Company, of the Vintners’ Company, and ofthe Merchant Tailors’ Company are still discernible.**

The inhabitants were Protestants of Anglosaxon blood.They were indeed not all of one country or of one church: butEnglishmen and Scotchmen, Episcopalians and Presbyterians,

* The Interest of England in the preservation of Ireland, licensedJuly 17. 1089.

** These things I observed or learned on the spot.