The Walls of Derry.

From the Illustrated Dublin Journal, Volume 1, Number 34, April 26, 1862

In the beginning of the seventeenth century Sir Henry Dockwray founded the city of Londonderry from which time it was esteemed a place of considerable importance. During the various sanguinary events which darken the page of Irish history, it underwent many mutations of fortune, but into the events which led to those, or the results, it is not the province of this journal to enter.

From no other place that we know of can so just a conception be formed of the manner in which the chief towns and cities throughout the country were fortified in former times--as the walls which are rather more than a mile in circumference, though built in the year 1617, are still in a good state of preservation; and the gates and bastions still present much the same appearance as they must have done at the time of the siege. The walls which form a noble terrace and are now the great promenade for the fashionables of the city, consist of a thick rampart of earth, faced with stone, and flanked with bastions--a parapet breast-high running round them. They are from fourteen to thirty seven yards in breadth, and from twenty to twenty five feet in height. Within the walls are four main streets, the centre forming a kind of diamond or square, and at the termination of each a massive archway and gate, similar to that represented above, to two of which portcullises were attached.

The view of the city of Londonderry from a little distance is extremely fine. From the magnificent sweep which the Foyle takes around it, it appears as if standing on an island, completely separated from the mainland. It is built on a hill--on the very summit of which stands the Cathedral with its towering spire and being surrounded with high battlemented walls, has the appearance of a regular fortification.