The Buildings of County Antrim by C.E.B. Brett, photographs by Michael O'Connell Ulster Architectural Heritage Society/Ulster Historical Foundation £17.50 in UK
"The Temple of Liberty, Learning and Select Amusement" was erected in 1866 as "a free gift to his country" by John Carey, a Presbyterian minister who was charged with having shot another through a church window. The Temple will be unknown to all but a few, as it was demolished many years ago, but its very name encapsulates the spirit and essence of this new book by Charles Brett, who includes it among his selection of County Antrim buildings (which does not include Belfast).
The first chairman of the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, and its president since 1979, Charles Brett admits to taking a liberty in making this a personal anthology rather than a comprehensive survey, with the main emphasis placed on the period up to - but rarely including - our own century. Yet his scope is extensive, ranging in type from Stone Age dolmens to medieval mottes and castles, then churches and houses and on to public buildings, follies, etc., and he is sufficiently eclectic to include such items as the rope-bridge at Carrick-a-Rede, a seaside tin shack and a wind farm.
While making us aware of the variety to be found among the buildings for divine worship, he devotes most of his space to houses and this, one suspects, is where his heart lies. He can put a name on the architects of many of the larger houses, but not so for most of the smaller ones, largely because they probably were not architect-designed. He has a knack of discovering inherent quality in a building, and a sharp eye for the telling detail. His descriptions are succinct, but are also laced with "select amusement", where his obvious love of good food and architecture comes out in culinary comments such as the way that the Druid's Cottage and the dolmen outside its door at Ballylumford go well together, "like melon and Parma ham".
Brett excels in introducing chatty bits about the buildings' former owners, of whom he knew a number, including an eccentric one who taught him how to pan gold in the Bush river when he was only ten years old. But his learning, too, is evident on every page. He has certainly done his homework, quoting extensively from manuscript and printed sources and, moreover, earning our gratitude by giving references for his material at the end of each of his 266 entries.
What becomes abundantly clear from this volume is not only how one county can contain so many interesting and often littleknown buildings, but also how great is their variety and charm. But it would not have been possible for the author to have made this point adequately had he not been fortunate enough to have had the ideal collaborator in the photographer Michael O'Connell, who can conjure up magic from what initially might seem a dull exterior view (interiors are largely excluded for security reasons).
The crispness of his work has been superbly served by Nicholson and Bass, whose quality printing give his black-and-white photos more character and texture than most of the colour reproductions (which are, nevertheless, extremely attractive). He has at least one large photo for nearly every building, which gives the reader ample cause to stop and admire not only the photograph but also the building it illustrates. The superb combination of word and picture make this volume a joy to handle and use, and its extraordinarily reasonable price will surely encourage many to sample some of the buildings of County Antrim which are on public view.
Peter Harbison's most recent book is Ancient Irish Monuments