[Illustration: NEW BRIDGE, COUNTY OF KILDARE.]
It is a curious circumstance, that while among the most humble and
illiterate, as well as among the high and educated classes of society in
Ireland, a certain degree of interest and respect is usually felt for
the ecclesiastical and military remains of past ages, those of a purely
useful character, as ancient bridges for example, excite no corresponding
sentiments, and are destroyed without causing the slightest feeling of
regret in the minds of any portion of society. Strange, however, as this
may appear, the fact is undeniable, as the recent destruction of Thomond
Bridge at Limerick, and the intended destruction of other ancient bridges
on that noble river and elsewhere, sufficiently testify; and in a few
years more there will, in all probability, scarcely remain in the country
a single example of monuments of this class. Yet it cannot be said that
such memorials of the progress of civilization in past ages are without
their hallowing associations, or that their moss-stained and ivy-mantled
arches are less pleasing to the lover of the picturesque than those of
the ruined castle, church, or abbey. Who that has ever seen the ancient
bridge of Limerick, with its fifteen arches, exhibiting every variety
of form, its horizontal line contrasting so admirably with the upright
forms of the adjacent objects, and calling up in the mind recollections
of the finest landscapes of Claude--who, we say, that has enjoyed this
pleasure of a refined taste, but will hear testimony to the truth of
our assertion, and regret the circumstances which have given birth to
it? Who, in like manner, that has ever seen the ancient bridge which
forms the embellishment of our present number, but would deeply lament
its destruction? Yet such was the fate to which it was doomed, but a
few years since, by a county grand jury, and from which it only escaped
through the influence of the worthy proprietor of St Woolstan’s, Richard
Cane, Esq., who, in a spirit equally honourable to his taste and his
nationality, declared that sooner than permit so interesting a monument
of antiquity to be destroyed, he would build a new bridge at his own
expense. Alas! that we have not amongst us a greater number of gentlemen
of his taste, wealth, and spirit!
Despite of its contradictory name, New Bridge is the oldest bridge now
remaining on the beautiful Liffey, and, with the exception of the ancient
Bridge of Dublin, which was taken down and rebuilt some years since, is
probably the first bridge of stone ever erected on it. From Pembridge’s
Annals, as published by the Father of British antiquaries, William
Camden, we learn that this bridge was erected in the year 1308, by John
le Decer, the Mayor of Dublin in that year, at his own expense. So that
by a curious and not uninteresting coincidence, it owes its erection to
one worthy and patriotic citizen of Dublin, and its preservation, after a
lapse of more than five hundred years, to another.
New Bridge is situated in the barony of North Salt, about one Irish mile
south-west of the town of Leixlip. It consists of four arches, some
of which are semicircular and others pointed; and, like most ancient
bridges, it is high and extremely narrow. Mantled with luxuriant ivy, and
enriched with the varied and mellow tints of so many centuries, it is
in itself an object of great picturesque beauty; but these attractions
are greatly enhanced by the quiet yet romantic features of the scenery
immediately about it--particularly the woods and the ruins of the
venerable Abbey of St Woolstan, of which we shall give some account in a
future number.