The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 12, September 19, 1840

by Various

THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.

Number 12.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1840.

Volume I.

THE TOWN OF ANTRIM.

Travellers whose only knowledge of our towns is that derived in passing through the principal street or streets, will be very apt to form an erroneous estimate of the amount of picturesque beauty which they often possess, and which is rarely seen save by those who go out of their way expressly to look for it. This is particularly the case in our smaller towns, in which the principal thoroughfare has usually a stiff and formal character, the entrance on either side being generally a range of mud cabins, which, gradually improving in appearance, merge at length into houses of a better description, with a public building or two towards the centre of the town. In these characteristics the highway of one town is only a repetition of that of another, and in such there is rarely any combination of picturesque lines or striking features to create a present interest in the mind, or leave a pleasurable impression on the memory. Yet in most instances, if we visit the suburbs of these towns, and more particularly if they happen, as is usually the case, to be placed upon a river, and we get down to the river banks, we shall most probably be surprised and gratified at the picturesque combinations of forms, and the delightful variety of effects, presented to us in the varied outline of their buildings, contrasted by intervening masses of dark foliage, and the whole reflected on the tranquil surface of the water, broken only by the enlivening effect of those silvery streaks of light produced by the eddies and currents of the stream.

Our prefixed view of the town of Antrim may be taken as an illustration of the preceding remarks. As seen by the passing traveller, the town appears situated on a rich, open, but comparatively uninteresting plain, terminating the well-cultivated vale of the Six-mile-water towards the flat shore of Loch Neagh; and with the exception of its very handsome church and castellated entrance into Lord Ferrard’s adjoining demesne, has little or no attraction; but viewed in connection with its river, Antrim appears eminently picturesque from several points as well as from that selected for our view—the prospect of the town looking from the deer-park of Lord Massarene.

In front, the Six-mile-water river flowing placidly over a broad gravelly bed, makes a very imposing appearance, not much inferior to that of the Liffey at Island-bridge. The expanse of water at this point, however, forms a contrast to the general appearance of the stream, which, although it brings down a considerable body of water, flows in many parts of its course between banks of not more than twenty feet asunder. The vale which it waters is one of the most productive districts of the county, and towards Antrim is adorned by numerous handsome residences rising among the enlivening scenery of bleach-greens, for which manufacture it affords a copious water-power. Scenes of this description impart a peculiar beauty to landscapes in the north of Ireland. The linen webs of a snowy whiteness, spread on green closely-shaven lawns sloping to the sun, and generally bounded by a sparkling outline of running water, have a delightfully fresh and cheerful effect, seen as they usually are with their concomitants of well-built factories and handsome mansions; and in scenery of this description the neighbourhood of Antrim is peculiarly rich. The Six-mile-water has also its own attraction for the antiquary, being the Ollarbha of our ancient Irish poems and romances, and flowing within a short distance of the ancient fortress of Rathmore of Moylinny, a structure which boasts an antiquity of upwards of 1700 years.

In our view the river appears crossed by a bridge, which through the upper limbs of its lofty arches affords a pretty prospect of the river bank beyond. In building a bridge in the same place, a modern county surveyor would probably erect a less picturesque but more economical structure, for the arches here are so lofty, that the river, to occupy the whole space they afford for its passage, must rise to a height that would carry its waters into an entirely new channel.

But the principal feature in our prospect is the church, the tower and steeple of which are on so respectable a scale, and of such excellent proportions, as to render it a very pleasing object as seen from any quarter or approach of the town. It would be difficult to say in what the true proportions of a spire consist, whether in its obvious and practical utility as a penthouse roofing the tower, or in its emblematic aptitude aspiring to and pointing towards heaven. Still, every cultivated eye will remark how much more dignified and imposing is the effect of a spire which is only moderately lofty, as compared with the breadth of its base, than that of one which is extremely slender. We would point out the spire of St Patrick’s Cathedral, for example, or that before us, on a smaller scale, as instances of the former sort. Any one acquainted with the proportions of those attenuated pinnacles which we so often find perched on the roofs of churches erected within the last ten years, cannot be at a loss for examples of the latter. The church itself at Antrim is, however, rather defective in point of size, as compared with its nobly proportioned tower and spire.