CITY OF LONDONDERRY. 
Towards Ballyarnet, orchards and kitchen gardens are seen, with farms and fences of consider¬ 
able extent, and in good condition. 
The cottiers are miserably poor about Killea, Upper Creevagh, and Lower Creevagh, which 
are mountain townlands, much frequented on account of free turbary being granted with the cabins. 
Whole families are frequently met with, begging for seed potatoes to crop their patch of ground. 
In these townlands several of the farm houses are nearly as wretched as the cabins of the cottiers. 
Windows are frequently seen stopped up with stones, boards, or rubbish. The walls, which are 
built of rough stone, are not even plastered within or without, and the yards are quite filthy. 
Fuel is scarce; high wages are paid for a “dark,” that is, the day’s labour of one man, 
working with the spade in a bog, and sometimes assisted by others with wheelbarrows. In 
Killea, green sods are used, and the gleanings of cut-away bog. The city is partially supported 
with turf from Whitehouse or Ballymagrorty. 
The Presbyterian population resemble their brethren in other parts of the country. Their 
character varies much from the Scotch, and seems to have been formed by the peculiar circum¬ 
stances of colonization in a wild and unsettled country. 
The oldest individuals appear to be about Killea. 
.'Ancient Traditions and Observances. —Fires are lighted on St. John’s Day only by a few 
poor Roman Catholic families. Stations are still performed at Doon’s (correctly Adamnan’s) well 
near Kilmacrennan, and at many others in the county of Donegal, although the practice has ever 
been denounced from the altar. Several of the miracles and traditions current throughout the 
parish are immediately connected with the city. 
Attached to the monastery of Derry was a large round tower, supposed to have been built by 
St. Columbldlle, in which was a silver bell provided by him. After his departure a plot was 
formed to steal this bell ; upon which it rung spontaneously for three days; and, at the moment 
when the thieves arrived, it sprang forth and disappeared in a part of the Lecky property, since 
called the Blue Bell Hill. 
The wells in Derry, popularly called after St. Colurnb, although regarded in remote parts of 
Ireland as a specific for ocular complaints, are of small repute in the neighbourhood. 
In Magazine-street, Derry, stands the Haunted House, called also the Bridge House, from 
a wooden bridge or arch, which, until lately, communicated between the hall door and the city 
wall. According to tradition, a young lady, an inmate of this house, suffered forcible abduction 
from the fairies, but reappeared to the proprietor, and requested him to undertake her rescue on 
the following night. He neglected to comply, and the tradition goes on to say that, on the morn¬ 
ing after the appointed night, certain trees, which stood opposite to the house, were found stained 
with blood, and hung with pieces of human flesh. Strange voices were afterwards heard at night 
in the Bridge House. A female figure, also, in white attire, was seen issuing from a neigh¬ 
bouring cemetery, entering the house, returning to the place from whence she had come, and 
vanishing. This house remained long untenanted : but it is surmised that a party of smugglers, 
by whom the neighbourhood was infested, could have explained its mysteries. 
There is in Killea a heap of stones called “Jenny’s Cairn,” connected with the following- 
catastrophe, which occurred about 1775. A young man named Ramsay, who was attached to 
one Jane Glendinning, understanding that on a certain day she would go to Derry, contrived to 
meet her on her return, and besought her to accompany him to a friend’s house, and remain in it 
until he should have obtained her parents’ consent to their union. His reiterated entreaties being- 
fruitless, he decoyed her to the spot now' marked by the cairn, where he murdered her. His fury 
however, soon yielded to horror. He lay beside the body until morning, and then carried it to the 
nearest house, where he made a confession and surrender. He was subsequently executed at 
Derry. 
There is another cairn in the bed of a rivulet called the “ Priest’s Burn,” from a tradition 
that a priest was killed on the spot. 
The description of the city being now concluded, it is necessary to advert to the few remain¬ 
ing subjects of this section, distributed throughout the parish at large. 
Gentlemen!s Seats. —On descending the Foyle from Derry, the first seat that occurs is The 
Farm, the property of Sir Robert Alexander Ferguson, Bart., the city member. Adjoining The 
Farm is Boom Hall, so called from a boom thrown here across the river in the time of the siege. 
It is the property of the Earl of Caledon, and the residence of the Bishop of Derry and Raphoe. 
Adjoining Boom Hall is Brook Hall, formerly the residence of Sir George Fitzgerald Hill, Bart., 
the present Lieutenant Governor of Trinidad, and now of Henry Bane Beresford, Esq. It is 
remarkable for the beauty of its grounds. Thorn Hill occurs next, the residence of Captain 
Simeon. The last in the line of villas is Ballynagard, the property of Captain Hart. 
