ae 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 89 
The Origin, Characteristics, and Dialect of the People in the Counties of 
Down and Antrim. By the Rev. A. Hume, D.C.L., LL.D. P.S.A. 
The district comprising the counties of Down and Antrim, of which Belfast is the 
natural centre, is one which has exercised a most important influence on the des- 
tinies of the human race in these islands. In Down, the patron saint made his first 
convert, and there his ashes repose ; in Antrim, the real Ossianic poems are supposed 
to have existed. In Down was the ancient Ulidia, from which the extended name 
Ulster is derived; in Antrim was the ancient Dalradia, the name of which was 
applied to a large portion of modern Scotland. Ireland was originally known as 
Scotia, or Scotia Major; and, when the name was superseded at home, it was 
retained by our enterprising colonists to Argyle and Lorn, and afterwards extended 
to all North Britain, after the conquest by Kenneth in the ninth century. The 
line of kings descended from Fergus the son of Erc, not only mingled its blood 
with the Saxon and Norman royal lines of England, but afterwards inherited the 
sovereignty of Great Britain; so that Queen Victoria traces an authentic descent 
from the petty chieftains of this neighbourhood in the fifth century. 
More than a thousand years afterwards, the debt of colonization was repaid, at 
the time of the Plantation of Ulster. The Anglo-Saxon population had been so long 
separated into two branches, the English and Scotch—differing in country, laws, 
religion, manners, prejudices, &c.—that they must be regarded as two peoples, and 
not one. If to these we add the remnant of the native Irish, there are three distinct 
elements, from the composition of which, in different quantities and situations, the 
inhabitants of the two counties are derived. 
These localities are the following :—the Irish, in the hilly districts, as in the 
_“Glynnes ” [glens] of Antrim; and the Irish-speaking population in the neigh- 
bourhood of Cushendall. There are a few in almost every parish, and several in the 
great towns. In Down, few occur north of Downpatrick and Ballynahinch; they 
then converge to the mountains of Mourne, by the parish of Loughin-island. In 
the past generation, Irish was frequently spoken in the markets of Downpatrick, 
Castlewellan, Dromara, and Ballynahinch ; now itis rarely used as a separate mode 
of communication. In the districts of the Celts they preserve their traditional anti- 
pathies, though they assimilate in language ; and the terms “ Irish,”’ ‘‘ Scotch,” and 
“ English,’’ are used currently by the nearest neighbours in reference to ancestral 
origin. ; 
The Scottish immigration followed two natural routes—by the Mull of Cantyre to 
the County Antrim, near the Causeway ; and by the Mull of Galloway to the County 
Down, by Donaghadee. From the earliest time, coracle skiff and coaster must have 
passed in this way, and the two distinct streams ran right across the counties. In 
_ Down, the Scotch current is traceable by Comber, Killileagh, Saintfield, and Anna- 
hilt, nearly to Hillsborough ; also, by Castlereagh and Purdysburn, to near Belfast. 
In the County Antrim, the course is by Ballymoney and Ballymena, up to the town 
of Antrim, and over the back of Devis and the Cave-hill. 
The English settlers occupied mainly the low countries, such as the basins of the 
Lagan and Bann, and the banks of Lough Neagh, Belfast was originally an English 
town, but its external increase has been mainly from the two Scottish districts. 
Lisburn was a small English and Welsh colony ; it is now practically an English 
town. In one barony of Antrim, of 128 townlands, the population is all of English 
origin; and Aghalee, Ballinderry, &c., look like parts of England. 
At various points the different races meet, but refuse to mingle. There are English, 
Irish, and Scotch quarters in several towns, such as Downpatrick and Carrickfergus ; 
and the Lagan, near Lisburn, separates the two races. In one half of -the parish 
of Hillsborough the people are all Scotch, in the other they are all English. A hill 
near Ballynahinch separates the two races; and the island of Rathlin has its two 
promontories occupied, one by the Irish, the other by the English and Scotch. 
‘ The religion, habits, customs, &c., may all be deduced from this distribution. In 
religion, for instance, the rule is, that the English are Episcopalians; the Scotch, 
Presbyterians ; and the Irish, Roman Catholics. The lines of Scottish population 
may be marked on the map by a double chain of Presbyterian meeting-houses, while 
in the English districts they are rare or unknown. In fourteen Presbyteries of the 
General Assembly, seven of which are in each county, there are upwards of 200 con- 
gregations. If to these we add other Presbyterian congregations not connected 
