mmm 
CITY OF LONDONDERRY. 
racterized his conduct dnring life. On the death of her second husband Mr. Gwyn’s mother 
removed to Derry, where she and her son opened a grocer’s shop on the slender capital oi <£50. 
In the course, however, of a few years they had realized £500, by dint of rigid economy. 
Mr. Gwyn’s property continued to increase, and his beneficence kept pace with it. When pos¬ 
sessed of much wealth his habits were as frugal as when he was poor, and he was as rigorous 
as before in making a bargain. Even the saving of a penny was an object to him ; not, how¬ 
ever from a penurious motive for accumulation, but from a desire to enlarge the sphere ot his 
benevolence. This is apparent from the circumstance, that, although for many years his great 
object was to become the founder of a splendid endowment, he never rejected the immediate 
claims of the poor, but entertained a considerable number of pensioners to the hour oi his 
death. Mr. Gwyn, who was originally a Protestant, became a Presbyterian from conviction ; 
but his compassion for what he considered the errors of others, did not interfere with that 
liberality of sentiment, which might he expected from such active benevolence. He died on 
the 1st of August, 1829 .—[Information communicated by the Rev. Wm. Moore, of Derry). 
Section 3.—Progress of the Town—Present State as to Streets, Buildings, 
etc- 
The Walls. —It will have been seen, from the preceding annals of Derry, that the ori¬ 
ginal English town, erected by Sir Henry Dockwra, was burned and destroyed by Sir Cahir 
O’Dogherty in 1608, and that the present may properly he considered as deriving its origin 
from the Londoners’ plantation, which was an immediate result of that catastrophe. It appears 
certain that of Dockwra’s town, within the walls, nothing had survived when the present was 
commenced hut the ruins of the church, which originally belonged to a monastery of Angus- 
tinians, and was subsequently repaired for the use of the London colony; and without the 
walls, on one side, a small castle or fortalice which had originally belonged to 0 Donnell, and 
on the other, the ancient round tower belfry of Columb’s Abbey. All these have long since 
disappeared. In point of extent Dockwra’s town was not more than half of that originally laid 
out by the Londoners, and now comprised within the walls ; hut it will he seen from the an¬ 
nexed copy of the original plan, drawn by Griffen, and preserved in the MS. chamber ol 
Trinity College library, that it appears to have been his intention to have extended the town 
towards the south, in a nearly equal portion; and, in a military point of view, this position 
would undoubtedly have been more judicious than that afterwards adopted,, which, by de¬ 
scending to the river, left it exposed to the fire of shipping. These imperfections in the new 
fortifications did not escape the notice of the commissioners appointed by Charles the 1st, m 
1628, to inquire into and report on the Londoners’ plantation in the city and county. “ W e 
have viewed,” they state, “ all the fortifications in and about the city of Londonderry, and do 
find a stone wall of 20 feet high well Tampered within with earth, and 8 bulwarks ; but the city 
itself is so ill situated that both the walls, houses, and. streets lie open to the command of any 
shipping that shall come to the harbour, and also to divers hills about the town, and to many 
other inconveniences, so that in our judgment it is not a place of defence, nor tenable if any 
foreign enemy were to come before it.” . 
Happily, however, the strength of the defensive works of Derry are now of little import¬ 
ance,—and (with their useless artillery, wisely preserved as memorials of the deeds they 
have performed or witnessed) in their present appearance, surrounded by inhabited houses, and 
assuming the character of beauty and ornament, they exhibit the most grateful picture to the 
eye of humanity—a state of peace and security in little danger of being ever disturbed. 
The walls of Derry are now its most ancient remains. By the original compact between 
the crown and the corporation of London in 1609, it was stipulated that they should be 
finished on the 1st November, in the year following; but, though commenced, they weie not 
entirely completed for several years after. They were laid out and built under the direction of 
Thomas Haven, an engineer of London, sent over for the purpose, and the total cost of their 
erection, “including ports, or gates, with all materials and workmanship, was £8,-357.. ^ lhe 
original character of these walls will be seen in the annexed plan, made by Haven m 1621, 
copied from the original drawing in the MS. chamber, Trinity College, and m the following 
account as given by Pynnar in 1618-19:— .. . 
“ The city of Londonderry is now encompassed about with a very strong wall, excellently 
made, and neatly wrought; being all of good lime and stone; the circuit whereof is 284| 
perches, at 18 feet to the perch; besides the four gates, which contain 84 feet; and m every 
place of the wall it is 24 feet high; and 6 feet thick. The gates are all battlemented, but to 
two of them there is no going up, so that they serve to no great use, neither have they made 
any leaves for their gates ; but make two draw-bridges serve for two of them, and two poi 
cullises for the other two. The bulwarks are very large and good, being in numbei nine, 
