along the slob of the river... Reservoirs and Aqueduct... Light- ing the City... Markets... Population... Shipping... Trade... Ma- nufactures.... Revenue.... Navigation of the Foyle....Salmon Fishery of the Foyle... Lawsuits for the right of possession, between the Bishops and the Irish Society; with the price and quantity of Salmon taken... Conclusion of the second Section of Statistics, commencing with the Plantation... And, finally, the Rebellion of 1798...not any bad consequences in Derry, with the exception of two or three solitary cases... Prosperity of the City then, generally. with the comforts, conviviality, &c. but an attentive observer of all the changes the along the slob of the river... Reservoirs and Aqueduct... Light- ing the City... Markets... Population... Shipping... Trade... Ma- nufactures.... Revenue.... Navigation of the Foyle.... Salmou Fishery of the Foyle... Lawsuits for the right of possession, between the Bishops and the Irish Society; with the price and quantity of Salmon taken... Conclusion of the second Section of Statistics, commencing with the Plantation... And, finally, INTRODUCTION. SECTION. L-In submitting the Statistics of Derry to the Public, the Compiler presumes that he has no apology to make. Being unconnected with, and uninfluenced by, any party, publicly or privately, he is not subject to the nod of any one; and therefore claims the privilege of stating, fairly and honestly, things as they have been, so far as they may be necessary to illustrate the Statistics of Derry. Opprobious epithets of every kind, applied to sects or parties of any denomination, have been scrupulously avoided, as they could not tend, in the least degree, to strengthen truth, or to invalidate falsehood. Considering it his duty, as a Derryman, to pay particular attention to the early history of the Town, he has endeavoured to arrange the progress and facts set forth in the scanty and scattered records to be met with in regular succession, down to the period of the Plantation in anno 1613. With the Plantation came a new Era. The City erected, brought into existence a new order of both men and manners, laws and institutions. Hence the Statistics have gradually assumed something of a regular shape, though not as yet systematically recorded. The object of the present volume is, to supply the deficiency. Since the commencement of the present century, the writer can, with more confidence, depend on his own testimony, having been a silent but an attentive observer of all the changes that have taken place, and of all the improvements effected. In selecting the materials necessary, he has been studiously careful not to overstate nor underrate the authorities of others. SEC. II. On the Western side of the Foyle, and on the summit of a precipitous eminence, in latitude 54° 59' N. and longitude 7° 19' W.* stands the City of Derry—in the * Ordnance Survey. Diocese of Derry, and Barony of Tirkeeran, it is the last station in the North-West Circuit of Assize. Following the course of the river, Derry is about 14 miles from Lifford, at which town the Foyle takes its name, being formed there by the confluence of the Mourne and Finn, four miles from the junction of the river with Lough Foyle, 22 miles from the ocean, and about 143 miles from Dublin by the present mail coach road. In approaching the City in any direction, but particularly on the south-east side of the river, the stranger or tourist is at once struck with its romantic situation. Viewed from what side soever, its elevated and insulated position, backed by mountains; its ranges of buildings ascending above each other from the bank of the river, and terminated by the lofty spire of its venerable Cathedral; its far-famed and time-worn battlements, and the towering Testimonial, erected to the memory of the gallant Walker and his brave associates in arms; its long-connecting line of bridge-all combine to wrest the attention of the traveller, and to awaken historical reminiscences of the ever-memorable struggle and triumph, of 1688-9. And whether it be regarded in relation to its singularly picturesque appearance, or to its historical associations, Londonderry is not inferior, in point of interest, to any other city or town in Ireland. |