THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.
| Number 17. | SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1840. | Volume I. |
NEW BRIDGE, COUNTY OF KILDARE.
It is a curious circumstance, that while among the most humble and illiterate, as well as among the high and educated classes of society in Ireland, a certain degree of interest and respect is usually felt for the ecclesiastical and military remains of past ages, those of a purely useful character, as ancient bridges for example, excite no corresponding sentiments, and are destroyed without causing the slightest feeling of regret in the minds of any portion of society. Strange, however, as this may appear, the fact is undeniable, as the recent destruction of Thomond Bridge at Limerick, and the intended destruction of other ancient bridges on that noble river and elsewhere, sufficiently testify; and in a few years more there will, in all probability, scarcely remain in the country a single example of monuments of this class. Yet it cannot be said that such memorials of the progress of civilization in past ages are without their hallowing associations, or that their moss-stained and ivy-mantled arches are less pleasing to the lover of the picturesque than those of the ruined castle, church, or abbey. Who that has ever seen the ancient bridge of Limerick, with its fifteen arches, exhibiting every variety of form, its horizontal line contrasting so admirably with the upright forms of the adjacent objects, and calling up in the mind recollections of the finest landscapes of Claude—who, we say, that has enjoyed this pleasure of a refined taste, but will hear testimony to the truth of our assertion, and regret the circumstances which have given birth to it? Who, in like manner, that has ever seen the ancient bridge which forms the embellishment of our present number, but would deeply lament its destruction? Yet such was the fate to which it was doomed, but a few years since, by a county grand jury, and from which it only escaped through the influence of the worthy proprietor of St Woolstan’s, Richard Cane, Esq., who, in a spirit equally honourable to his taste and his nationality, declared that sooner than permit so interesting a monument of antiquity to be destroyed, he would build a new bridge at his own expense. Alas! that we have not amongst us a greater number of gentlemen of his taste, wealth, and spirit!
Despite of its contradictory name, New Bridge is the oldest bridge now remaining on the beautiful Liffey, and, with the exception of the ancient Bridge of Dublin, which was taken down and rebuilt some years since, is probably the first bridge of stone ever erected on it. From Pembridge’s Annals, as published by the Father of British antiquaries, William Camden, we learn that this bridge was erected in the year 1308, by John le Decer, the Mayor of Dublin in that year, at his own expense. So that by a curious and not uninteresting coincidence, it owes its erection to one worthy and patriotic citizen of Dublin, and its preservation, after a lapse of more than five hundred years, to another.
New Bridge is situated in the barony of North Salt, about one Irish mile south-west of the town of Leixlip. It consists of four arches, some of which are semicircular and others pointed; and, like most ancient bridges, it is high and extremely narrow. Mantled with luxuriant ivy, and enriched with the varied and mellow tints of so many centuries, it is in itself an object of great picturesque beauty; but these attractions are greatly enhanced by the quiet yet romantic features of the scenery immediately about it—particularly the woods and the ruins of the venerable Abbey of St Woolstan, of which we shall give some account in a future number.
P.