BUILDINGS. 
reputed to have helongod to Sir Cahir O'Doherty : it was, in 1616, presented to the mayor of 
Derry by the city of London. 
In addition to the assizes, sessions, and mayor’s court, the county and other meetings are 
held in the Court House. 
Public Institutions. 
The Gaol, which is situated in Bishop-street, without the gate, is very commodious and 
at present exceeds the wants of a district in which crime is comparatively rare. The extent of 
the front is 242 feet, and the entire building, including the yards, is 400 feet in depth. Part of 
the front is coated with cement, part is built of Dungiven sandstone. It was erected by Messrs. 
Henry, Mullins, and M'Mahon, between 1819 and 1824, and was first occupied on the 16th of 
August, in the latter year. The expenses of its erection, which had been estimated at £27,000, 
amounted to £33,718, Irish currency; and those of its support are defrayed from grand jury 
presentments. Working-tools, however, are provided from the profits of the work itself. 
The front part is occupied by debtors and female prisoners. A little within it is the gover¬ 
nor's house, 60 feet by 28, which is surrounded by a panoptic gallery, and includes the 
chapel and the committee-room. It stands between two buildings, 60 feet by 20, which were 
designed for female prisoners, but, being found unsuitable, are now appropriated to culprits 
sentenced to hard labour ; they are called correctional prisons. 
The Crown Prison, which is nearly semicircular, is separated from this group by airing- 
yards, at a distance of 84 feet. The entire gaol contains 179 single cells, and has room for 
368 prisoners, when more than one sleep in the same cell. There are in the gaol 26 work and 
day-rooms, and 20 yards. Apart from the main building there is an hospital. 
The Custom-House was originally a store. It was built in 1805, by Mr. John A. Smyth, 
from whom it has been, since 1809, rented by government, at first as a king’s store, hut since 
1824 as a custom-house. The premises comprise some extensive tobacco and timber yards, 
laid out at different periods. They now extend in front 450 feet, and are generally 25 deep ; 
hut a part of the timber yard extends to the depth of 240. The annual rent is £1419 4s. 6d. 
and the tenure is for ever. 
The Linen-Hall, which was built about sixty years ago, is in an obscure situation. It 
consists of a court measuring 147 feet by 15, which is enclosed by small dilapidated houses. 
In these the cloth is paid for, after being purchased under sheds, and on stands placed in the 
court. The sealing-room is on the opposite side of the street. 
The Barracli, which was built for a regiment of infantry, is inadequate both in extent 
and accommodation. Its site is damp, the yard being occasionally overflowed by the river. 
The erection of a new barrack having been long contemplated, ground has been provided in 
Clooney, a townland of Clondermot. 
The Magazine was erected by Sir William Smith, formerly assistant royal engineer in 
this district, on the site of O’Donnell’s Castle, (See History). It is well built, and said to he 
bomb proof. The magazine was formerly under the care of the ordnance storekeeper. It 
came next into the possession of Sir George F. Hill, who obtained from the Irish Society a 
lease of the plot on which it stood—the government, as is supposed, having about this time 
resigned their claim on it in his favour. He afterwards disposed of it, and it now belongs to 
Mr. Robert Young, who has occasionally rented it to the government. There is nothing depo¬ 
sited in it at present, the ammunition of the troops being kept in the barrack. 
The Bridge, although wooden, is the boast of Derry. It was begun in 1789, by Lemuel 
Cox, of the firm of Cox and Thompson, of Boston, in New England, near which city they 
had constructed wooden bridges over waters as deep and rapid as the Foyle at Derry, and of 
greater breadth. In 1790 it was opened for foot passengers, and in the spring of 1791 for 
vehicles. 
Its length is 1068 feet, and its breadth 40. The piles of which the piers are composed, 
are from 14 to 18 inches square, and from 14 to 18 feet long. They are made of oak, and 
the head of each pile is tenoned into a cap piece, 17 inches square, and 40 feet long, supported 
by three sets of girths and braces. The piers, which are 16f feet asunder, are bound together 
by thirteen string-pieces, equally divided, and transversely bolted: on the string-pieces is 
laid the flooring. On each side of the platform there is a railing, 4^ feet high, and a broad 
footway, provided with gas-lamps. Between the middle of the bridge and the end next to 
the city a turning-bridge has been constructed, in place of the original draw-bridge. Some 
contrivance of this kind is necessary, the inhabitants of Strabane having a right to the free 
navigation of the Foyle. 
The city and its reservoir being at opposite sides of the river, the water has to be con¬ 
veyed across the bridge by pipes. There is a toll-gate at the end next to the city. 
On the 6th of February, 1814, a portion of the bridge, extending to 350 feet, was carried 
