THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.
| Number 15. | SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1840. | Volume I. |
THE TOWN AND CASTLE OF LEIXLIP, COUNTY OF KILDARE.
Localities are no less subject to the capricious mutationsof fashion in taste, than dress, music, or any other of thevarious objects on which it displays its extravagant vagaries.The place which on account of its beauties is at one periodthe chosen resort of pleased and admiring crowds, at anotherbecomes abandoned and unthought of, as if it were an unsightlydesert, unfit for the enjoyment or happiness of civilizedman. Some other locality, perhaps of less natural oracquired beauty, becomes the fashion of the day, and after atime gets out of favour in turn, and is neglected for someother novel scene before unthought of or disregarded. Yetthe principles of true taste are immutable, and that which isreally beautiful is not the less so because it has ceased to attractthe multitude, who are generally governed to a far greaterextent by accidental associations of ideas than by any abstractfeelings of the mind.
Perhaps it is less attributable to any characteristic volatilityin the character of the inhabitants of our metropolis,than to the singular variety and number of the beautifullocalities which surround our city, and in emulous rivalry attractour attention, that this inconstancy of attachment toany one locality is more strikingly instanced among ourselves,than among the citizens of any other great town with whichwe are acquainted. But, however this may be, the fact isunquestionable, that there is scarcely a spot of any natural orimproved beauty, within a few miles of us, which has not inturn had its day of fashion, and its subsequent period of unmeritedneglect. Clontarf, with its sequestered green lanes,and its glorious views of the bay—Glasnevin, the classicalabode of Addison, Parnell, Tickell, Sheridan, and Delany—Finglas,with its rural sports—Chapelizod, the residenceof the younger Cromwell—Lucan, Leixlip, with their oncecelebrated spas, and all the delightful epic scenery of theLiffey—Dundrum, with its healthy mountain walks and atmosphere,and many others unnecessary to mention, all experiencingthe effects of this inconstancy of fashion, have foundtheir once admired beauties totally disregarded, and the admirationof the multitude almost wholly transferred to a wildand unadorned beauty on the rocky shores of Kingstown andBullock, which our forefathers deemed unworthy of notice.But let that beauty take warning from the fate of her predecessors,and not hold her head too high in her day of triumph,for she too will assuredly be cast off in turn, and findherself neglected for some rival as yet unnoticed.
Of such unmerited inconstancy and neglect there are nolocalities in the neighbourhood of Dublin which have greaterreason to complain than the village of Lucan and that whichforms the subject of our prefixed embellishment. As theestablishment of peace in Ireland led to an increase of civilization,which exhibited itself in improved roads and vehiclesof conveyance, and the citizens, emerging from their embattledstrongholds, ventured to enjoy the pleasures of nature andrural life, Lucan and Leixlip, with the beautiful scenery inwhich they are situated, became the favourite places of resort;and their various natural attractions becoming heightenedby art, were