Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1885-05-07
Mutes of Trareliu GMtppe.
OBSERVATIONS ON IRELAND.
BY REV. r. LATHAM.
Written for the Yorkville Enquirer
ra,.4l oo-o4 DolEont tho coi1th ho n L

BY REV. R. LATHAM.
Written for the Yorkville Enquirer.
Northeast of Belfast, on the south bank
of Belfast Lough, is situated the old town
Bangor. From Belfast, it is distant about
thirteen miles. Bangor is in county Down.
The name Down is said to be a corruption
of Dunum, which means hilly country.
In "Survey" written more than a hundred
and forty years ago it is thus described: /:
s'The whole county is remarkable for the
number of its hills, being compared to
wooden bowls inverted, or eggs set in salt,
from whence it took the name DoYn, which
signifies hilly situation"
BY common consent Down is regarded as
one of the finest counties in Ulster Province
and by its inhabitants it is regarded as the
Yorkshire of Ireland. There can be no
question about the excellency of the soil,
the beauty of the scenery, and the thrift
and industry of the inhabitants of this sec
ton of Ireland. Evidences of great wealth
are numerous; on the other hand evidences
of great poverty are not wanting. Here
I may remark that one of the features of
Ireland, and the same is true of England
and Scotland, is that the extremes of wealth
and poverty are at great distance. In
America the mass of the white people are
neither very rich nor very poor. Such is
not the case in Ireland. The rich are very
rich, and the poor are very poor, and there
is, apparently, very little prospect of their
ever being able to better their condition.
Some of the large farmers in the British
Isles pay more rent than the gross income
of our largest Southern farms. Here may
remark that in each of the British Isles, for
tunes are the result of the accumulations of
many generations. Here in the United
States the mass of the rich men of the coun-
try began life poor-many of them misera-
bly, poor. In Great Britain instances of
large fortunes being accumulated in single
life time are rare, and generally such tor
tunes have been made in some of the Colo
nies. Young men of energy SO to Australia
and in short time amass large sums of
money, come back to Ireland or Scotland or
England and invest in property and spend
the remainder of their lives in ease and lux
ury. 1t is rare thing, however, for man
who is born poor in Ireland to die rich, un-
less he leave the country.
In County Down there are quite a num-
ber of flourishing towns. Among these, in
some respects, the most noted is Bangor.
Not on account of the number of it's inhab-
itants, for it contains only about two thOus-
and five hundred inhabitants, while Newry
contains over fifteen thousand inhabitants
and Ballymacarret more than twenty-five
thousand. With Bangor, as we'll as with
many other towns, "'tis distance that lends
enchantment to the view" Bangor has a
history which reaches far back into the past,
and it once had an importance which few
other towns on the island possessed; Ire
land is called the "Isle of Saints" and Ban
cor the "City of Saints" According to ira
ditional history Bangor was founded about
the middle of the sixteenth century by St.
Comgall.
, A school, which became celebrated all
over Europe, was soon after it's founding,
established at Bangor. This school, it is
claimed, gave rise to the world renowned
Oxford College of England. The claim is
set up-whether we'll founded or not / do
not know-that when Alfred founded Ok
ford he sent to the school at Bangor, Ireland,
for teachers. l suppose an Englishman
would deny this, but it is certainly claimed
by some of the Irish to be fact. For gen.
erations past the English in particular, and
generally the rest of the world, have been
disposed to regard with feeling which
more than family resembles contempt both
Ireland and the Irish. Perhaps this is ac-
counted for by the fact that the human fami-
ly generally hate those whom they have
maltreated more bitterly than they do
those by whom they have been maltreated.
This is strange freak, but human nature
is full of freaks.
At present Bangor is engaged, to a limited
extent, in the cotton and linen trade. 1t is
q bathing place of considerable resort, espe-
cially to the inhabitants of Belfast. Small
pleasure steamboats, are constantly running
between Belfast and Bangor. These boats
run several times each week day, and al
though the Irish, as a rule, are strict Obser-
&c +bo Co hot nf IN
the Sabbath.
In the mind of the Scotch Irish Presbyte-
rians, the name Bangor is always associated
with Robert Blair. ''You must see Bangor
You have heard of Blair of Bangor" said a
native of Belfast, as we walked down Done
gal street. George Washington is not more
Intimately associated with Mount Vernon
in the minds Of the American people, than
Robert Blair is with Bangor, in the minds
of the Presbyterian population of England.
Brice of Broad Island, Blair of Bangor,
Stuart of Bronshane, Cooke of Belfast, and
Paul of Carrickfergus, are names which send
a thrill through every Presbyterian's bosom.
Cooke is in the Presbyterian church of Ire
land all that Chalmersis in the Presbyterian
church of Scotland.
town of Irvine, in Scotland, in 1898. At
that time Elizabeth was Queen of England,
and James the Sixth, King of Scotland. In
his eighteenth year, or in 1911, he entered
the University of Glasgow, and in 1Gl4 grad
uated. During the period that he was in
the University, his brother William was a
regent, that is a teacher of the arts and
sciences, to the lower classes in the Universe
ty. After graduating, Robert Blair taught
school for two years, and then became the
successor Of his brother William, who set
tied as pastor Of Dumbarton congregation.
For various reasons, the people of some
sections of the United States should feel an
interest in Robert Blair He was Scotch
Irishman. So were many Of the first set
tiers of the United States. In addition to
this, many of the Blair family came to
South Carolina, both before and after the
Revolutionary war. One of the relations of
Robert Blair settled on the Lancaster side of
Catawba river, on the hill east of Landsford.
Here he built mill and the ford was called
Blair's ford until about the time of the Rev.
OlutiOnary war. At Blair's mill CORVALLIS
obtained supplies for his army, when on his
way to Charlotte. Another Blair, a relation
of Robert Blair, settled at Camden, South
Carolina. After the Revolutionary war,
Captain John Blair settled in Yorkville
In Bullock's Creek township, in York coun-
ty, there are number of Blairs. All these
are blood relations of Blair, of Bangor.
The original Blair settlement in Ireland,
wasin Ulster Province. There are some of
them still in Ballymena. They are all of
Scotch descent, and some of them were men
of note in their day. Robert Blair, of whom
propose to write a few things, still lives in
the memory Of the Scotch-Irish, no matter
where they are, and his name will continue
to live in the memory of the Scotch-Irish as
long as the "three nicked shamrock" con-
tinues to grow. Itisnot proposed to do any
thing more at present than mention, very