\\\[ <$U!BRARY0/ = 11 I SJol ^ N o Co or WlCKZ OW. I Ji DA v.1 HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE SKETCH OF THE PAST AND PRESENT STATE OF IRELAND. IRELAND, by Caesar and Tacitus distinguished by the name of Hibernia, by Ptolemy, the geographer, called Ivernia, by Diodorus Siculus Iris, and by Strabo lerne, enjoyed, at a very remote period, considerable cele- brity as a seat of religion and learning. After the da\\ n of Christianity in Europe, from the number of erudite and holy men it sent as missionaries to other parts of the world, as yet immersed in Gothic ignorance and dark- ness, this island acquired the dignified title of INSULA. SANCTORUM, or the Isle of Saints a title which it con- tinued to retain during the fifth and two following cen- turies. In the eleventh century it was called Scotia, in common with the modern Scotland ; and " all correct writers," says Archbishop Usher, " in mentioning the two countries, distinguished them by Vetus et rwa Scotia, major or minor, ulterior and citerior." Even so late as the fifteenth century, Ireland is mentioned by foreign writers under this name. Though we cannot give implicit credit to the relations of the Irish historians, in regard to the high degree ot civilization, and the progress of the arts of peace, for which, as they assert, their country was eminent at the distant period alluded to; yet it appears but reu- VOL. I. B PAST AND PRESENT sonable thai these effects should have been in part pro- duced by the ages of tranquillity and prosperity enjoyed by the island, previous to the invasion ordered by Egfrid, King df the Northumbrians, in the seventh century ; when its lands, churches, and monasteries, were laid waste. This irruption, together with those of the Norwegians and Danes, (jhe Ostmen, or "East men, of Irish history,) towards the close of the eighth or the beginning of the ninth century, terminated not merely in the entire sub- jection* of the island to the Norwegian leader, 'I'urgesius- but by the intestine wars which ensued between th. natives and the new settlers, for nearly three hundru years following, occasioned the destruction of thur learned seminaries for which Ireland had been long * justly famous, " whence savage septs and roving barl rians derived the benefits of knowledge, and the blessi- of religion," and reduced the people and the country that state of moral and political degradation, from whit ; owing to the mistaken we had almost said similar ( j policy of the government which succeeded to that of th^ barbaric hordes, they are yet far from having completely emerged. jio At the era of which we are about to speak that the arrival of the English in 1170 the civil conte | 0n tions of Ireland having produced its division into sever j^, petty kingdoms, nominally dependant on the King IIK ) Connaught; Roderic O'Connor, then King of that pij^ vince, and monarch of Ireland, invaded the territory \ m his vassal the King of Leinster, in punishment for t i x . manifold cruelties and acts of oppression by which ty, [aver * According to Giraldus Cambrensis: though later writers Mi, pose Turgesius to have conquered only some considerable portioi i the country. STATE OF IRELAND. tter had made himself odious to the people under his 'mediate sway. This Prince, by name Dermod Mac orogh, flying from the arms of Roderic, sought refuge England ; whence passing into Aquitaine, and throw- g himself at the feet of our Henry the Second, he licited his protection, and took an oath of allegiance. appy to avail himself of so favourable a conjuncture, enry, who even as- far back as 1155 had procured a all from Pope Adrian to authorize his invasion of the ster island, immediately issued an edict (being pre- uded from rendering personal assistance by the war he as carrying on in Aquitaine") importing that he had 'ceived Dermod into his protection, grace, and favour: Wherefore that all they, that to him as oure laufoll man elpe yiehleth into his land him to restore, oure grace t/ oure good loi~e have they thereto." After some delay, ichard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, surnamed Strong- >w from his excellence in archery, a man of courage id address, but of desperate fortunes, espoused the 'iuse of the exiled Prince ; and undertook to lead a body ' men to Ireland in his service, on condition that Dermod iiould give him his daughter Eva in marriage, and set- >e upon him and his heirs the inheritance of the king* '. scarcely stoop to pick up from the ground, his cabin an< STATE OF IRELAND. 5 his food such as would be appropriated for the lodgment and subsistence of our working animals, while he himself, in many instances, performs the various species of labour in England allotted to those useful brutes. Far be from us the wish, from national pride, or for the encourage- ment of prejudices, as prevalent as they are unworthy of us, to overcharge the picture we have drawn: the facts have been before our eyes ; and with sentiments of the sincerest pity we repeat those facts, as a necessary first sketch of the features, prominent to the view of every tourist, in the ilWated country we have under- taken to describe. We have alluded to defects in the government of the country, as the prime source of its complicated wretchedness; and, without the slightest intention of engaging in political disquisitions, or evincing the slightest shade of bias in regard to any political point, we must revert to, and in some measure enlarge upon, the opinion thus generally expressed, in order to render our ideas of the actual state of Ireland in any degree clear to those who may favour us with their perusal, The selfish and exclusive spirit which, immediately upon the conquest of this country, separated " the ineor Irish," as the original inhabitants were insolently called, from the hateful aristocracy of the pale, continued, with very little alteration, (although its distinctions, subse- quent to the reformation, became religious rather than national,) to actuate the reigning administration until the year 1778;* and, truth compels us to add, the traces of this spirit are still but too perceptible in an ' united' * When "some of the most galling and degrading parts of the code of poprry-luws were abrogated." Earl of Darnley's speech in pat- liamtnt, B 3 6 FAST AND PRESENT government, the constitution of which, according to the eloquent Burke, " is not made for great general proscrip- tire exclusions," since " sooner or later it will destroy them, or they will destroy it!" Yet have not those great prescriptive exclusions, by which the immense majority of the Irish population are debarred from every exertion for individual improvement, by the deprivation of the grand prospective solace of all human effort, hope of individual honours and rewards have not those exclusions, by their deep though silent operation for ages, in themselves been calculated to produce that abject disregard for all the comforts and conveniences of life, that slavish awe of wealth and power, which so peculiarly characterize the ' proscribed' many among the poor in Ireland ; together with those tyrannical and over- bearing habits which in that country are as peculiarly, and, we fear, almost universally, the attributes oi' the affluent and favoured few? The reader will perceive that we make no distinct allusion to the chief political question, in regard to Ireland, of the day that we consider the oligarchical settlement of the country by Henry, the tyrannous acts of that otherwise great and enlightened Queen, Elizabeth,* the exterminating policy * Three successive insurrections took p'.ace in Ireland during the reign of this Queen : the last of which, becoming a national warfare, was protracted seven years, and not finally terminated at her death. The extensive forfeitures succeeding every attempt, and the intole- rable oppression of the natives by the recent settlers, rekindled the flames which immature efforts to force the reformed religion upon the country had originally fomented: but though Philip of Spain seconded with all his might the rebel armies, both the Spaniards and Irish were at length universally subdued; and the consequence of this immense bloodshed was only the more complete establishuieut of the English power, than at any previous period, iu Ireland. STATE OF IRELAND. 7 of Cromwell,* the bad faith of the ' constitutional' Wil- liara,t the rigours exercised in the extinction of the recent rebellion,}: and the whole past and present temporal dis- * The rebellion extinguished by this fortunate general had lasted eleven years, commencing' with the general massacre of the pro- testants in 1641 ; and was productive of the most baneful consequences to the peace, union, and prosperity of Ireland. The severe restric- tions imposed on the catholic party had produced a burning' desire for revenge; the protestants were not behind-hand in sanguinary retaliation; the horrors acted on both sides almost surpass belief, and the number of inhabitants who perished in these years was not less than 600,000! The march of Cromwell was one track of devas- tation and bloodshed. After the re-establishment of the protestant interest, the population of the old native Irish was much exceededby that of the old and new inhabitants of the British race. f The battle of the Boyne, with which ended the hopes of the Second Juntes, was succeeded by the treaty of Limerick. In this treaty it was stipulated, that the catholics should " enjoy such privi- leges in the exercise of their religion as were consistent with the laws of Ire'and ;" and " the said Roman catholics" were promised " such further security in that particular as may preserve them from any disturbance upon the account of their said religion." Yet in the face of this first article of the treaty, that code of defensive and preventive statutes was compiled, which extended to the very abolition of this their venerated religion a code which impeded the progress of catho- lic industry, and thwarted every species of laudable ambition among the people of that persuasion ; which exposed them to unnumbered outrages and spoliations, reduced them almost to the condition of slaves, obstructed matrimonial alliances between them and the pro- testants; and, in the end, set the son against the father and the father against the son, and threatened the destruction of every tie of filial and fraternal affection, by the act Cin the reign of Anne) by which it became law that "the elder son of a catholic remaining a catholic, the younger, professing himself a protestant in his father's life-time, should inherit the estate!" I This last rebellion, it must be admitted, was the fruit of political rather than religious differences in the country; and the false glare of the French revolution was undoubtedly the first active stimulant to the long-slumbering elements of civil disunion. The insurrection broke out among the presbyterians of the north ; and the catholics were were tools in their hands. But, precluded from taking up arms 8 PAST AND PRESENT abilities of the catholics, but as so many links in the chain of causes which produced the effects we deplore. Singu- lar, indeed, as unfortunate, has been the fate of Ireland. Though Henry introduced the English laws within the pale, though Elizabeth, finally expunging the Brehon code,* established our system of legislature throughout the country, yet for ages after that period the people in general received no advantages from its establishment : and, notwithstanding the subsequent union of the two countries has wrought out some substantial benefits for Ireland, and has paved the way for greater, the benefi- cent and equalizing spirit of our legal institutions is still far from being generally understood, as well as from operating for the benefit of that class for whose protec- tion laws were principally made, in this hitherto unhappy island. Even now the poorer orders consider an appeal to interest, or the eloquence of a bribe, as the only cer-> tain means of obtaining justice; even now, though high judicial situations are filled by men of undoubted honour and integrity, too many of the petty magistrates oppress, insult, or neglect the populace, as it may suit their on the side of government, the latter, even if loyalty disposed, were in numerous instances compelled by self-defence to enlist under the banners of the rebels ; us they were, by turns, driven froui their homes and means of subsistence by the army, or forced into the passing bauds of the disaffected. As soon as the presbyterians perceived the ascendancy derived, in the progress of events, (from mere numerical strength,) by the catholics, they changed sides, and secretly assisted the government: and this circumstance, uniting with the mild and conciliatory measure s at length adopted under the administration of Marquis Cornwall is, alone preserved the country. * The Brehon laws were those of the aboriginal Irish : so called from the Brehons, or officers by whom they were administered. They were extremely rude and imperfect, suited only to ait early and tur- bulent state of sooiety ; and their chief feature the eric, or line of compensation they allowed for every imaginable crime. STATE OF IRELAND. 9 humours or their convenience ; and the populace, in their turn, finding the " Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law," imbibe feelings of contempt (well masked by seeming obsequiousness) for the magistracy they in other circum- stances would honour; and not unnaturally conceive themselves privileged to redress the wrongs of which they might fruitlessly complain to their superiors. Hence the numerous outrages which disgrace the nightly annals of the country; hence the associations of " Carders" and " Threshers" associations so far from originating in mere disaffection to the government, as is very generally supposed, that they invariably arise out of a spirit of opposition to some attempts of local despotism ; and are the genuine results of the desperate fear and deeply- brooding revenge of men feeling themselves aggrieved, yet deprived of all hope of legal recompence by their natural protectors. Private acts of malice and revenge are indeed the only stain upon the national character of the Irish : and having observed the sources whence they flow, as from a fountain-head of heart-burnings and dis- content, it better becomes the generosity of the English character to palliate than very severely to condemn them. The Irish have been accused also of cruelty and deceit no opinions, if applied to the great body of the nation, can be more erroneous: and though individual instances in support of such opinions should be adduced, yet surely they must be repeated with a bad grace by a people whose government and whose ancestors have both deceived and oppressed, and who themselves but too frequently ridicule and insult them ; whose penal laws 10 PAST AXD PRESENT and whose arbitrary sway have, it is probable, rendered a character, originally open and unsuspicious, jealous, cunning, and distrustful ; and have reduced a frank and noble nation to a state in which prevarication and' cheat- ing become modes of self-defence, and in which the low vices of barbaric life are necessarily and inevitably gene- rated. " To place no trust in a people," says an elegant writer, " is often an effectual way to make them unworthy of trust: and when the Irish find that they are no longer aliens in the lands of their fathers, they will be amongst the most faithful subjects of the British empire."* Strong reasons exist for believing that the native Irish and the Highlanders of Scotland were anciently one people: their customs, manners, language, and super- stitions, bear a resemblance to this day ; and the High- lander converses easily with the ' wild Irishman.' With some limitations, it is true that the Irishman, as well as the Highlander, possesses " the generous and chivalrous spirit the self-subdued mind the warm affection to his family the fond attachment to his clan the Itwe of story and of song the contempt of danger and of luxury the mystic superstition equally awful and tender :" and, observes the writer we have just quoted, " he only requires to be placed in circumstances favourable to moral improvement, in order to exhibit the same lovely picture of simplicity and innocence, of affection and fidelity, that may be seen in the glens and recesses of the north :" although " the Irish peasant (now) does not much excel the savage in just notions of liberty, or in due respect for the laws and civil institutions of man!"f The hospitality of the Irish has become proverbial ; and it is confined to no rank or class, language or religion. * Derwar's Observations on Ireland. f Mr. Newenham. STATE OF IRELAND. 11 Welcome! kindly welcome! is the universal salutation to the traveller who approaches their cabins in the more fre- quented parts, where English is generally spoken; and Ceud milefailte duit! a hundred thousand welcomes is shouted by man, woman, and child, to every visitant, in the native Erse of the mountains. This language, it has been observed, and may be repeated by the way, abounds with terms of endearment another proof of the " mild and tender enthusiasm" proper to the Irish character. It is spoken by 3,000,000 of the people; and, like the vernacular languages of the Welsh and Highlanders, is loved and venerated by all those " to whose infant minds it first conveyed the tender and endearing accents of maternal affection," to a romantic extreme. The mention of the language in common use among so large a proportion of the population, (a population, of which though there are few accurate returns, we are induced to estimate as rather exceeding 6,000,000,) naturally leads us to a subject, in one point of view intimately connected with it, though too generally considered as extraneous. We allude to the state of education among the lower orders of the Irish ; which, in very few instances, that we could discover, at the period of our recent tour, was conveyed in the national tongue of the inhabitants, in which only instruction can by any possibility be effi- ciently received by those who speak it. Schools are suf- ficiently abundant; and immense sums are annually expended in their support ; but the lessons are invariably in English, though intended, as we are warranted in supposing, for the benefit of the poor natives, who are incapable of maintaining a conversation in any language but the Erse ! A fact scarcely to be credited ; and suf- ficient of itself to account for the deplorable ignorance of 12 PAST AND PKESENT the great mass of the people; as well as for the actually increasing prevalence of that language, and that religion, both of which, it is to be presumed, this protestant mode of teaching was intended to exterminate. Should popery indeed be rooted from the island? enlighten the minds of the people, then, in the only way it is possible they can be enlightened ; and the mists of delusion will of themselves fall from their eyes : and though a majority might continue papists in name, there are countless in- stances to prove, that the name alone would neither make them bad men nor disloyal subjects. Should the influ- ence of the priests be abolished ? let the clergy of the established church preach to their benighted flocks in the dialect of the majority* of those they have taken under their spiritual care ; and the flocks themselves, deserting their ignorant and selfish guides, would, in the natural course of things, prefer the teaching of sound learning, dis- interested zeal, and eloquent ability. Or should the Irish language, on the ground of the benefits to be derived from national unity of speech, be extirpated, at least so far as it is a medium of oral communication? still, strange as may appear the means we would devise for this end, we would simply recommend that, by versions of the Bible, Prayer-bookj &c. in that tongue, as well as by teaching, and, for a time at least, preaching also in the same dialect, its temporary cultivation should lead to its final eradication. This has ever been found the only rational method that could be adopted for the extinction of a language, spoken by a class only in a nation, the language of whose government is dissimilar to it; and * We beg to be understood here in a restricted sense ; as speaking only of those parts of Ireland, where the Erse is the dialect of the majority. STATE OF IRELAND. 13 its expediency has been fully shewn both in Wales and in the Highlands, the respective national dialects of which are hourly wearing away, under the like system of cultivation. Indeed, the principles upon which this method is founded, are the principles of our common nature itself; since mankind in general, it is seen, will cling to their native habits the more obstinately for their being proscribed ; since, unless coerced by their rulers, men are naturally prone to imitate their modes of speak- ing as well as of living; and since they, not only obtain a foreign tongue more easily by being first enabled to enlarge their ideas in their own, but, finding the materials of knowledge scanty in the dialect of their fathers, are led to gratify their now awakened thirst for information, by more familiarly acquainting themselves with a lan- guage containing the treasures of that erudition they admire. These remarks are more particularly applicable to the Irish poor, as they are themselves eminently prepared for the reception of a liberal system of education, calculated to supply their wants, without wounding their nationality, or unnecessarily disturbing their prejudices. Their efforts for the attainment of knowledge, the " Majestic tree, that proudly waves " Its branching words, its letter-leaves ; " Whose root is truth, whose stem is power, " And virtue its consummate flower,"* are unremitting and universal ; and inquisitvcencss is among the more obvious of their national characteristics. Unlike the lower classes in many countries, conspicuous only for their boorish stupidity, they are, as a distin- * Dr. Drennan. VOL. I. C -14 PAST AND PRESENT guished member of the British senate, Mr. Curwen, observed, " the most pleasing peasantry in Europe;" arch, vivacious, shrewd, and intelligent. Neither is it any exaggeration, that an Irishman " will walk miles with you to discover whence you come, where you are going, and what is your business: he will appear merry to make you frank, and perfectly untutored and simple, with a design constantly in view."f It should be noticed also, that these people possess no common talent for striking and original remark ; and with this faculty probably is connected the not less amusive habit of blundering ; but, let it be remembered, that their blunders " are never blunders of the heart." With those among the Irish, habituated only to the na- tive dialect, this propensity, it is justly thought, may be ascribed, in a great measure, to the circumstance of their conversing, when with strangers, in one language, while they are at the same moment thinking in the abrupt and highly figurative idioms of another; for in the Erse, which alone in general they perfectly understand, they are not observed to make more blunders than other people. And should it be objected to this apology, that even where no Irish is spoken the natives are equally lia- ble to these Hibernianisms, we have only farther to plead, that a certain dry humour, a considerable degree of enthusiasm, and exuberance of fancy no unpleasing traits of character in a people may, possibly, both with the Irish and Anglo-Irish, be the grand sources of their production, and our consequent entertainment. It may be remarked also, as in some measure corroborating this view of the subject, that among the Highlanders, who are equally distinguishable for enthusiasm and warmth of f Mr. Dewar. STATE OF IRELAND. 15 fancy, though inferior in humour to the Irish, the same propensity has been observed, although in a less degree. A high sense of honour is also so prevalent among these people, as to be entitled to the distinction of a national characteristic: of all professions, that of an informer is the most universally execrated ; and accordingly men of this class are rare in proportion to the contempt and detestation in which they are held. The general honesty existing amidst so much distress, is yet more to be com- mended : as an instance, the potatoes, which are the chief food of the poorer orders, and are generally left embanked in large quantities in the fields, are rarely, even in seasons of scarcity, known to be pilfered. Charity ranks high in their list of virtues: from the very meanest cabins, the shout of welcome extends not less to the common beggar than to the way-faring man. Among a people thus alive to all the generous impulses of feeling, and as eager to be grateful as to give, it were an anomaly in the human heart were they not equally susceptible of resentment: accordingly we find the Irish the warmest and best of friends, and worse foes we cannot readily imagine. And that the scale of morality among such a people should be inconsistent and imperfect, will not be wondered at by such as are acquainted with the influence of national depression upon national character : it should be an axiom in political economy, that " every circumstance, which divests the individual of respecta- bility, either in his own or others' estimation, is inju- rious to his moral interests." The population of Ireland is excessive; evidently exceeding its means of support. Its increase of late years has been out of all proportion to that of capital and means of employment; both of which, in most 16 PAST AND PRESENT countries, are concomitant with, if not the creative sources of, numerical growth in the inhabitants. In 1185, Giraldus Cambrensis tells us, Ireland was without roads, and nearly uninhabited; even in l6'52, Sir William Petty supposed the population not to exceed 850,000 ; yet at the present moment, as already stated, it probably amounts to more than 6',000,000 ! A prodigious in- crease for any country in the time; and particularly for a country circumstanced like Ireland. But perhaps the very circumstances generally supposed to retard population in a country, in Ireland have contributed to augment it. National debasement produces a general disregard for consequences; and poverty becoming, as it were, indigenous to successive generations, appeared to in- spire less horror as the 1 portion of their offspring: mar- riages therefore were early and inconsiderate; and the children, when grown up, being compelled, 'from in- sufficiency of pro\isions in the parental cabin, to seek establishment for themselves, created an increased de- mand for minute subdivisions of land, (from the time of the Brehon laws too prevalent in Ireland;) while this excessive subdivision again afforded " too great a facility to marriage." Thus cause and effect operated and re- operated upon each other; while the aggregate conse- quences were augmented and are yet augmenting by the general desire among persons of landed property to multiply the number of settlers upon their estates, for the purpose of making freeholders ; by a process, both novel and peculiar to this country, which we may here- after take an opportunity of describing. This extraordinary increase in the number of inhabi- tants, has likewise not unfrequently been ascribed chiefly to the introduction of the potatoe in Ireland ; a root, by the STATE OF IRELAND. 17 cultivation of which, v;\\\\e fifteen Irish, it is calculated, are maintained by the same extent of land as is necessary for the support of one English manufacturer, the truth of that position has also been proved, which asserts that "cheap food is not always a blessing." Some again have been inclined to consider the want of manufactures a lead- ing cause of the redundancy as well as of the general misery of the people ; since, as is most true, manufactures have a tendency to create the wants they are instituted to supply; and, by thus teaching improvement in the modes of living, become a relative check to population, when it is foreseen that, consistent with the enjoyment of such and such comforts and conveniences, any great increase in numbers cannot be supported by the soil. But both these causes are resolvable into the primary ones of political debasement, and excessive subdivision of land; as, without the latter, the peasant could not be able to appropriate so small a portion of ground as is equal only to his demands for rent and subsistence upon pota- toes; and, unless politically debased, no nation would be long content with such an utter deprivation of the bles- sings of life, as this mode of subsistence argues ; but would of itself establish the manufactures at home, or the com- merce abroad, necessary to the supply of its growing wants, were industry and enterprise but efficiently pro- tected, and exertion sure of its reward. The state of agriculture in Ireland may in some mea- sure be inferred from our previous remarks; as well as from the established fact, that a large proportion of its inhabitants subsist upon potatoes. Notwithstanding, hr-wever, a considerable quantity of corn is raised, both for consumption in the large towns, and for exportation. But the general system of husbandry is wretchedly bar- c 3 18 PAST AND PRESENT barous; and the redundancy of manual labour, to an English eye, not a little remarkable. Even potatoes, experience in the growth of which, it might be presumed, would have produced absolute perfection in their mode of culture, might be reared by methods infinitely preferable to those here in use. One fourth of the land in tillage is supposed to be applied to the cultivation of this root. The soil is remarkably fertile, excepting that of a very few spots in the island ; so much so, that, as the English agricultural reader will be surprised to learn, three suc- cessive crops of grain, obtained, without manure, from the same land, are considered but ordinary instances of its productiveness, and by no means calcu ated to deteriorate its quality. The general want of capital, for the improve- ment of this branch of industry, is seen, throughout the country, in the smailness of the farms, (the possession of an hundred acres by one person being thought extraordi- nary;) in the want of stock, implements, and out-buiklings ; in the field divested of a hedge, and the gateway stopped by a broken car. Two causes have been assigned for this state of things, as independent of the political situation of the country the prevalence of abnentee-ship among the great landed proprietors, and the existence of middle- men. But the first of these, it is evident, arises out of the primary political cause ; since, but for the supposed insecurity of persons and property, and the general bar- barity of manners, (both of which have been traced to a political origin,) the temptation to living in the sister country would scarcely have occurred to the opulent proprietor, capable of blessing and being blessed by a grateful and affectionate tenantry: and the middlemen are mere excrescences on the soil, the consequences of absentee-ship, in a great measure, and of the long leases STATE OF IRELAND, 19 formerly and still too generally granted ; which rendering k next to impossible to prevent the lands from being re-let, jobbers in land have taken advantage of these circum- stances, to engage large tracts for this especial purpose. But, undoubtedly, whatever may have produced absentee- ship and middlemen, both are diametrically opposed to the agricultural improvement, and the general happiness of the country. In the absence of the head landlords, their agents and middlemen too generally rack the sub- tenants without mercy; and, since the latter know that, whatever improvements they may make upon their farms, they will be rewarded for them at the expiration of their own short leases, by demands for exorbitantly increased rent, or by deprivation of the very lands on which they have spent their money and their time, they force the soil to its very utmost capability of bearing; both with a view to present profit, and in order to obtain easier terms, should they be so fortunate as to have their leases renewed \o them. For the same reason, if they possess the means, they neglect the opportunity to erect barns and other out- buildings; for what men will diminish their actual pro- perty, for the purpose of ultimately increasing their yearly expenditure? Such a system, it must be seen, is, both to the head- Jandlord and sub-tenant to all but the middlemen rtiiuous in all its bearings; yet such is the system almost Universally pursued; and the sacrifice of individual tiappiness is great, beyond all proportion even to that of individual profit, occasioned by it. A class of men whose profession connects them with Agricultural pursuits, and who, generally speaking, Sire the only rural economists who arrive at opulence iu hi-land, are the graziers: but their success is not 20 PAST AND PRESENT to be attributed to any superiority of knowledge or skill; but, partly to the absence of tithes, (tillage land only paying the church dues throughout the island,) and partly to the greatly increased demand for cattle, of late years, for the purposes of exportation. But this circumstance affords only an additional example of the impolitic and vexatious constitution of things; for the great proportion of cultivated land is under tillage, and let to cotter-tenants; these latter therefore (and the majority of them catholics) contribute no less than a full tenth of the scanty produce of their toil, for the support of an establishment of which they are not members; while the domains of the nobility, and the pastures of the wealthy grazier, are exempt from a burden, which in Ireland is literally "a tax upon indigence." \Vewould not encourage, but we must commiserate, the disaffec- tion of a people to the government which protects them not from oppression like this: tithes are a subject upon which, to the honour of the country, we think, all ranks in Ireland those who do not, and, in general, even those who do profit by them arc agreed : all execrate, or, at the least, wish for an equitable commutation of them: and few in England, we conceive, can wonder tit the risings of " Threshers" and " Whiteboys," when they knew them to have originated in resistance to those who, in their extortion of tithes, have sold the cow, or the produce of the potatoe garden, necessary for the support of a clamorous and starving family. Nor need we be surprised, if men, thus goaded to revenge, are incapable of restraining themselves to the object for which jn grn?ral they professedly assemble that of swearing their fellow-sufferers not to submit to so intolerable a burden but if, having weapons of destruction in their STATE OF IRELAND. 21 hands, they raze to the ground, or commit to the mid- night flames, the mansions of their oppressors; and sometimes even murder the tithe-proctors and collectors themselves; accompanying their retributive vengeance "with every mark of unrelenting barbarity. It is, however, an admitted fact, that the presbyte- rians of the north are far more averse to the payment of tithes, than the catholics themselves; and that, in col- lecting it, much more trouble is given by the opposition of the former than of the latter. The presbyterians, as a body, are, in many points of view, highly deserving of respect. Undepressed by the galling restrictions of the popery laws, and possessed of the only national manufacture,* they are an industrious, thriving, and, comparatively, even a wealthy people. But participating just so much in the misfortunes of their country, as to perceive the difference between their own situation, and that of their English brethren; and deriving from their habits of trade, and superior styles of living and appearance, more ascendant minds, and higher notions of self-consequence, than the catholics; they are yet more turbulent and unruly than the members of that religious persuasion. It has been noticed, that they were the principal instigators to the unfortunate rebel- lion of 17J)8. Generally speaking, the personal appearance of the inhabitants of the north is superior to that of their south- ern countrymen. They excel them in stature, are bet- ter formed, and more athletic. The females in general derive from nature no small share of their appropriate loveliness; but, among the poorer orders, the smoke and filth of their cabins, and the rude manual labours to * That of linen. 22 PAST AVD PRESENT which they arc exposed, contribute early in life to deface this fair distinction, and too frequently they are observed to look old in their very prime. " Beauty in the fair sex," says Mr. Curwen, very justly, " is as much prized, and as little taken care of, in Ireland, as in any country in the civilized world." The women are also fruitful mo- thers, and take a pride in the number of their offspring; whom they value besides for their assistance in husban- dry : any number of children below a dozen is not con- sidered a large family. Religious as well as political parties run high in Ire- land ; particularly in the north, where the manners and sentiments inspired by church, kirk, and Roman catho- lic chapel, are more than ordinarily distinguishable. The several congregations differ as much in numbers and appearance as in their religious creeds. This is sometimes strikingly exemplified on the Sabbath in the same town; where the catholic chapel will be crowded to excess with worshippers, to the full as remarkable for poverty as devotion; the kirk well attended, and its occupants all in decent habiliments; the church, if occupied, only by the well-dressed few, and, too gene- rally, all but empty ! The proportion of catholics to members of the established church, for the whole country, is as seven" to one. The miserable pittance derived by the Romish pastors from their flocks, depends mainly upon the abject thraldom in which they are enabled to keep them; therefore, that men so circum- stanced should themselves possess the desire to enlighten those, whose ignorance is the staff on which they lean, and the very means of their subsistence, is too much to expect from human nature. They besides possess the key to the ears and hearts of the catholic fold, by their STATE OF IUELAND. 23 universal acquaintance with the national language. In regard to the clergy of the established church, though, doubtless, numbers of them are eminently zealous in the performance of their official duties, yet the good they effect is, as has been already hinted, limited to those who are capable of understanding English: certainly, however, in a country where the system of jobbing is notorious among the higher classes in general, the clergy have not altogether escaped the imputation of a too exclusive regard to temporalities) and, indeed, if common report is to be believed, the traffic in church preferments has been carried to a scandalous extent in Ireland. But this system, it is to be feared, pervades here nearly universally with those who have least occasion for the benefits to be derived from it ; for in Ireland almost all public works too often projected, or else thwarted in their beneficial operation, for private purposes are literally "jobs." Canals are cut, bridges and roads, are constructed, from the same motive, and with views to the same end : hence it is, that the canal, however magnificent in itself, precedes the extension of commerce, which alone could evince its necessity, by half a century, it is probable, at least; that the road, though exceedingly well made, and indefatigably pre- served, runs just where it is absolutely useless, except . to the proprietor to whose lands it is contiguous ; and who probably obtained the ' presentment' for its con- struction, at the expense of the country, from the grand jury. From this latter abuse, however, some good results, where the roads happen to lie in directions really serviceable they are in general excellent, those maintained by turnpikes being usually the worst. 24 PAST AVD PRESENT Proceeding from the roads to the general surface of the country, we must not omit to mention the bogs not the least remarkable among the natural productions of Ireland. They are very different, both in appearance and qualities, to what is generally understood by the term in England. The soil of the English marshes, we are informed by Mr. Young,* the celebrated agriculturist, is "a black spongy moor of rotten vegetable matter:" that of the Irish bogs, on the contrary, consists of "inert vegetable matter, covered more or less with unproduc- tive vegetables, and containing a large quantity of stag- nant water".f The difference is, according to an eminent statistical writer,} that the rotten vegetable matter of the one produces unrivalled crops of grass, corn, &e. while the inert vegetable matter of the other throws out no kind of plant useful to man. The bogs, -however, are far from being incapable of cultivation ; many of them are gra- dually reclaiming; and at no very distant period, it is probable, all traces of their very existence will have disappeared. At present, they are obstacles, it is tru % , to the extension of a population, already too redundant; and a more serious evil may be the great quantity of land they cover, unproductive, until reclaimed, of neces- sary food: but both these evils, in the existing situation of the country, are more than balanced by their immense resources in the article of fuel. With the poor, the peat- moss they produce is for this purpose a requisite of life ; and the most enviable site for a cotter's cabin is immedi- ately contiguous to a bog. Neither is their vicinity * Annals of Agriculture, vol. xxi. p. 114. f Davy's Letter to the Secretary of the Commissioners, Feb. 1811. 1 Mr. Wakcficld. STATE OF IRELAND. 25 unhealthy ; which seems to result from the insoluble and antiseptic qualities of the peat. The growth of this vege>- table production is slow in proportion to that of the richer grasses; but its progress to the state of putrefaction im- measurably slower. Centuries after it has ceased to grow, something of its original fibre and texture remains visible ; and the growth of one year rising over that of the preceding, time presents the bogs to us, possessing the vast depth to which they now extend. In regard to the sources of their formation, opinions are very various; and all, being founded on very doubtful data, are involved in correspondent uncertainty. Thus much, however, appears highly probable, that their existence may be as- cribed to stagnant water, by some accident or convulsion of nature confined to particular places. It is farther likely, that the immediate causes of such stagnation were the immense forests, which, formerly overspreading the island, by their natural decay, or their destruction by earthquakes, or fire communicated to them by the inha- bitants, retained, from the recumbent position of their intermingled remains, the water, which otherwise would have fulfilled the purposes of only natural irrigation to the soil; while a portion of their vegetable matter, the leaves, branches, &c. advancing rapidly to the state of putre- faction, formed the primary ground-work of the bog. And, in one point of view, this theory is confirmed by the circumstance, that immense trunks of trees are still frequently found buried in the moss, with their under sides entire; their upper parts, judged to have been exposed to the weather until the moss gradually rose over them, having partially suffered from corruption. But a consi- derable difficulty occurs here, if it is asked why a portion only of the primeval forests should have submitted to VOL. I. D 2ft PAST AND PRESEW dissolution and if it be answered that a difference in the ages of the trees, or the action of strong winds, will account for this how the dissolution of a part should have generated a matter, in itself originally composed of putrid elements, which, notwithstanding, should be found 1 a preventive to the dissolution of the remainder? In reply to the latter query, nothing in the least satisfactory has been stated, unless by Mr. Kirwan, who observes, that wherever trees are found in bogs, though the wood may be perfectly sound, the bark of the timber has uni- formly disappeared ; and that the decomposition of this bark forms a considerable part of the nutritive substance of morasses. But Mr. Aiton,* on the contrary, contends that the bark is by no means uniformly found to have disappeared from fossil trees, " at least on the under side," where, it is clear, as the under side of the wood is inva- riably in the best state of preservation, its decomposition must have been most complete, if to that were to be at- tributed the chief agency in the tree's indissolubility. From all which it appears, that this subject is yet far from being undivested of its obscurities: yet nothing is more certain than the existence of a singularly antiseptic quality in these bogs; some curious instances of which will appear in the body of our work. Ireland has been supposed to be peculiarly rich in minerals ; and the whole island is said to be supported on an immense rock, or bed, of granite, which is seen bursting out from some of the high and primitive moun- tains. Precious stones, such as jaspers, amethysts, crystals, &c. have been discovered in various parts; together with good marble; and an abundance, on the northern coast, in the most awful and stupendous forms, * Tiratisf on Moss. *TATE OF IRELAND. 27 of that singular though comparatively useless production of nature, basaltes ; a more particular description of which will be found in our account of the Giant's Causeway. Iron is abundant; and iron-works, so long as the woods supplied fuel for smelting, were extensive in this country. Lead, copper, silver, and even gold, have been met with in various places ; but, were they ever so abundant, lit- tle profit could be made of their farther discovery, from the general want of wood for fuel. Yet that the woods of Ireland formerly waved over its entire surface, will appear probable from some of our previous remarks ; and that this was really once the fact, is proved from authentic records. But much, as in every country of Europe, was destroyed for the pur- pose of extending tillage, as the population gradually advanced ; and here, as in all rude states, at early periods of society, wood, doubtless, was employed to a wasteful extent for firing. The evils resulting from such practices are perceived, by well-ordered governments, and their ef- fects in a great measure obviated, long before their several countries arrive to that excess of nakedness in this par- ticular, for which Ireland has been many years conspi- cuous. Here too the neglect of planting is the more to be deplored, as in no country in the world do trees rise more luxuriantly: their absence necessarily gives a baldness to the views, in many parts, by magnitude and grandeur themselves not easily compensated. Not- withstanding, the mountain, lake, and coast scenery, are not to be surpassed in Europe; and many are the spots of gentler loveliness, to which the pencil can impart no added charm, while the unassisted pen must very inadequately describe them. The general richness of the soil may be inferred from 28 PAST AND PRESENT the abundant results of its worthless management; as well as from the species of produce most common. The very general cultivation of rlax is of itself a proof of this fer- tility; as it is a plant which, in poor land, never attains to perfection. No great diversity, in regard to soil, ob- tains throughout the island. But it may be remarked, that sand is to be met with only in places on the shore ; that clay is rare, and chalk unknown ; though the general sub-soil of the country is limestone, or calcareous gravel. The climate is more equably temperate than that of England ; the summers are cooler, the winters warmer, than ours ; but showers are much more frequent, owing to the prevalence of the westerly and south-westerly winds, which collect the vapours of the vast Atlantic Ocean. On the subject of antiquities we shall dilate as we go along; they are abundant, and some of them peculiar to the island. It may be observed, however, that their number tells audibly the "tale of the times of old ;" and forces upon us the idea of the long-lost happiness and prosperity of Erin: while it need not be concealed, that though the pointed order prevails in the ruins of its reli- gious buildings, yet that in general these bespeak an era, when it had become shorn of its elegant simplicity: of this more, in relation to the numerous remains of abbies, &c. we shall have occasion to describe. Many modifications of these our general remarks, will occur in the course of the "Excursions" parti- cularly in regard to the cities and towns, as yet wholly unnoticed and many exceptions must be made to our general strictures on men, places, and things: but of this our readers may be assured, that we will "nothing extenuate nor set down aught in malice ;" and, in the mean-time, we solicit their attention to our view of the STATE OF IRELAND. 29 extent, topographical and ecclesiastical divisions, of the country, previously to their embarking with us, from Liverpool or Holyhead, for Dublin. LENGTH. Greatest, from noith-east to south-west, or from the two most remote points, Fair-head, in the county of Antrim, to Mizen-head, in Cork, 241 Irish, or rather more than 306 English statute miles. Greatest, along a meridian line, or from the Stags of Cork harbour, to Bloody-Farland Point, in Donegal, 185 Irish, or 235^ English miles. BREADTH. Greatest, from Emlagh-Rash, in Mayoj to Carnsore Point, in Wexford, 163 Irish, or 207 En- glish miles. Greatest, nearly on a parallel of latitude, from Em- lagh-Rash, to the mouth of Strangford Lough, county of Down, 142 Irish, or 182 English miles. Ireland is therefore, next to Britain, the largest island in Europe: yet there is not a spot on its surface fifty miles from the sea. Its geographical boundaries are the Atlantic Ocean on its northern, western, and southern sides; and the Irish Sea, or St. George's Channel, on its eastern. SUPERFICIAL CONTENTS. 32,201 English square miles; 12,722,615 Irish acres; 20,437,974 English NOTE. 1760 yards mate an English, 2240 an Irish mile: 11 Irish miles are equal to 14 English. 4840 square yards make an English, 7840 an Irish acre : 121 Irish acres are equal to 196 English. Measures (and weights also) ditf'er in almost every place even in the same county. D 3 30 PAST AND PRESENT TOPOGRAPHICAL DIVISION. PROVINCES. Four: Leinster, Munster, Ulster, and Connaught; divided into 32 counties; subdivided into 252 baronies; and the baronies into 2436 parishes; as follows : ULSTER, Comprising 1 the nine northern counties: viz. Baronies. Parishes. Antrim, containing 8 . 77 Armagh 5 . 20 Cavan 7 . 30 Donegal 5 . 42 Down 8 . 60 Fermanagh 8 . 18 Londonderry .... 4 . 31 Monaghan 5 . 19 Tyrone 4 . 35 54 332 LEINSTER, Comprising the twelve eastern counties : viz. Carlow, containing . 5 . 50 Dublin 6 . 87 City . 20 Kildare 10 . 113 Kilkenny 9 . 127 King's County ... 11 . 52 Longford 6 . 23 Louth 4 . 6l Meath 12 . 147 Queen's County . . 8 . 50 Westmeath . . 12 . 62 STATE OF IRELAND. 31 Baronies. Parishes Wexford 8 . 142 Wicklow . 6 . 58 97 992 COXNAUGHT, Comprising the five western counties: viz. Galway, containing . 16 . 116 9 . 68 Roscommon . . . . 6 . 56 6 . 39 42 296 MUNSTER, Comprising the six southern counties: viz. Clare, containing . 9 . 79 Cork . 16 . 269 . 8 . 83 Limerick 9 . 125 . 10 . 186 . 7 . 74 59 8i6 Stannary. Ulster 54 . . 332 Leinster 97 . . 992 Connaught .... 42 , , 296 Munster 59 . . Si6 252 2436 The parishes are again divided into town-lands, plough-lands, kneeves, cantrons, &c, 32 PAST AND PRESENT ECCLESIASTICAL DIVISION. Protestant Establishment. PROVINCES. Four: Armagh, Dublin, Cashel, ami Tuam; subdivided into 32 dioceses; containing 33 dean- eries, and 34 archdeaconries. The province of ARMAGH contains ten dioceses: arch- bishoprick of Armagh, bishopricks of Dromore, Down and Connor (united), Derry, Raphoe, Clogher, Kilmore, Ardagh,* and Meath. 663 parishes, 446 churches. The province of DUBLIN containsj?re dioceses : arch- bishoprick of Dublin, bishopricks of Kildare, Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin (united). 658 parishes, 217 churches. The province of CASHEL contains eleven dioceses : archbishoprick of Cashel and bishoprick of Emly (united), bishopricks of Waterford and Lismore (united), Cork and Ross (united), Cloyne, Limerick united with Ard- fert and Aghadoe, Killaloe and Kilfenora (united). 839 parishes, 254 churches. The province of TUAM contains six dioceses: arch- bishoprick of Tuam, bishopricks of Clonfert and Kilmac- duagh (united), Elphin, Killala, and Achonry. 2j6 parishes, 87 churches. The dioceses are here given according to contiguity not rank : for the Bishop of Meath has precedence of all Bishops, and next to him the Bishop of Kildare; the other Bishops according to the dates of their consecra- tion. The Archbishop of Armagh is Lord Primate and Metropolitan of all Ireland ; the Archbishop of Dublin, Lord Primate of Ireland ; the Archbishop of Cashel, Lord Though in this province, Ardagh is at present annexed to the archbishoprick of Tuam. STATE OF IRELAXD. 33 Primate of Munster; and the Archbishop of Tuam, Lord Primate of Connaught. The Archdeacons in Ireland have no visitatorial jurisdiction; but the Bishops hold their visitations annually, and the Archbishop visits his suffragans every third year. Roman Catholic Church. FOUR ARCHBISHOPRICKS. Taking their titles, as in the established church, from Armagh, Dublin, Cashel, and Tuam. TWENTY-T wo BISHOPRIC KS Eight of whose Bishops are suffragans to ARMAGH: viz. those of Ardagh, Clog- lier, Deny, Down and Connor, Dromore, Kilmore, Meath, and Raphoe. Three, suffragans to DUBLIN: viz. Leighlin and Ferns, Kildare, and Ossory. Six, suffragans to CASHEL: viz. Ardfertand Aghadoe, Cloyne and Ross, Cork, Killaloe, Limerick, and Waterford and Lismore. Four, suffragans to TUAM: viz. Achonry, Clonfert, Elphin, and Killala. One, alternately suffra- gan to Tuam and Cashel the Bishop of Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora. The revenues of the catholic sees are, beyond all com- parison, inferior to those of the establishment: indeed, scarcely adequate to the decent maintenance of their several Bishops. To these we subjoin a Glossary of such Irish words as most frequently occur in composition with the modern names of places ; and a Table, shewing the comparative value of English and Irish currency. PAST AND PRESENT GLOSSARY. Agh, a field Ana, Anagh, or Au-in, a river Ard t an elevated spot, or rising ground Ath, a ford Ballin, or Bally, a town, or anyinclosure of habitations Ban, Hane, \\hite, fair Beg, little Ben, an abrupt head, or other summit of a mountain Bun, a bottom, root, or foun- dation Car, Cahir, a city, or large town Carrig, Carrick, or C arrow, a stony soil, a rock Clara, a level, or plain Clogh, or Clough, a large stone 7072, a glade, or smooth pas- ture Croagh, Croghan, a hill pointed at its top Col, or Cul, a corner Corcagh, or Cork, a bog, fen, or swamp Curragh, a marshy plain Deri-ij, a clear dry spot situ- ated in a woody swamp Don, a height, fastness, or for- tress Donagh, a church Drom, a narrow ridge of height* or considerable hills Inch, or Inis, an island Ken, a head Kill, a church, or burial-place Knock, .a single hill, or hillock Lick, a flat stone Lough, a lake, sometimes a pool Magh, a plain Main, a collection of hillocks More, large, great Rath, an earthen mound, a bar- row; less correctly, a mili- tary entrenchment Ross, a point or tract of land projecting into a lough or other waters Shan, old Sliebh, a mountain range, a heathy hill Tach, a house Temple, a church Tom, or Toom, a bush Tobar, or Tubbcr, a well, a spring Tra, a sea-beach, or strand, verge of a river Tullagh, a small elevation, ris- ing ground, or common 'Fully, a spot often flooded STATE OF IRELAND. 35 TABLE OF CURRENCY. English Money exchanged into \ Irish Money exchanged into Irish, at par: l English be- English, at par: l Is. 8d. ing equal to l Is. 8d. Irish. Irish beinj but 1 English. ft Irish. Eug. Irish. ?. English. Irish. tnglish. d d. q.\ *. d. d. d. q. s. 8 8 2 8 8 13 4 8 i 7 1 7 8 via 7781 9 9 3 9 y 15 o ! 9 8 1 9 8613 10 10 3 10 10 16 8 10 9 10 9471 11 11 3 20 21 13 4 11 10 20 18 9 2 3 *. *. d. 30 32 10 8. . d. q. 30 27 13 10 1 1 1 40 43 6 8 1 11 40 36 18 5 2 9 022 50 54 3 4 2 1 10 50 46 3 3 ft 033 60 65 3 290 60 55 7 8 1 4 044 70 75 16 8 4 3 8 1 70 64 12 32 6 055 80 86 13 4 5 4 7 1 80 73 16 11 6 G 6 90 97 10 6 561 90 83 1 6 1 7 077 100 108 6 8 7 652 100 92 6 1 3 6 088 200 210 13 4 i 8 742 200 184 12 3 2 g 099 300 32-i 9 832 300 276 18 5 2 10 10 10 400 433 6 8 10 923 400 369 471 11 11 'll 500 541 13 4 |H 10 1 3 500 461 10 9 12 13 Mil! 650 12 U 3 600 553 16 11 18 14 1 700 758 6 8 13 12 700 G46 3 03 1! a is 2 800 866 13 4 14 12 11 800 738 9 23 15 16 3 900 975 15 13 10 900 830 15 4 2 16 17 4 1000 1083 6 8 16 14 9 1000 923 1 61 17 18 5 17 15 8 1 Ih 19 6 18 16 7 1 18 107 19 17 6 1 EXCURSION I. Bjf the Holyhead Packet to Dublinthe Bay Peninsula and Isthmus of Howth Dalkey Island The Pier Village of Ringsend General Observations on the City, $c. PREFERRING the route to Welsh station, the travel- ler, who now embarks with the mail in the morning, at the period of our first visit to Ireland went on board in. the evening, and generally, if the wind was fair, arrived in sight of Dublin soon after sunrise on the next day. Approached at this early hour, the view is singularly beautiful. Entering the capacious bay, whose points are, to the northward the promontory of Howth, and to the southward Dalkey Island, the city appears im- mediately in front; and, if the smoky clouds have not yet enveloped it, though it must seem wanting in steeples and other evelated buildings, it is a pleasing and inter- esting object. On the left of the bay is seen a rich well-cultivated bank, covered with villages and cottages, and extending from the suburbs to the rocky isle of Dlakey, crowned with a martello tower: among the villages we clearly discover Bullock with its antique castle, Dunleary, and Black-rock: behind them the eye wanders over a delightful variety of villas, woods, and pastures, spread over a country, whose surface,. DUBLIN. 39 with the upper one: this gallery is ascended by an exterior and winding stone stair-case with an iron balus- trade: an octagonal lanthorn surmounts the whole, lighted by large oil lamps, aided by reflecting lenses. From this light-house to the entrance of the bay are 3| miles, so that the whole distance from the entrance to the village of Ringsend, where the pier terminates, is 6| miles. Without the entrance of the harbour is a bar, two miles long by half a mile broad, formed by an accumulation of sand from the north Bull, the projection from which gradually declines to the south-westward : the least depth of water upon this bar, at low-water spring tides, is only five feet. A flag rises from the light-house at half-flow of the tide, to give notice that there is depth for ships to pass it : this is lowered again at half-ebb ; and at night a small light appears under the larger one, for the same purpose, and during the same interval.* From the relative positions of the Bulls and bar just described, the danger from eastern or south-eastern storms to vessels embayed here, must be evident; for, should While Cowper, his most literal translator, as though in despair of attaining to the beauty of this word in the original, endeavours but to imitate it, thus: As when within some deep-mouthed river's bed The stream and ocean clash on either shore Load sounds the roar of waves ejected wide. Those who hare passed between the Bulls, and witnessed the conflict of the stream and ocean at certain times of the flood-tide, - eren in the calmest weather, will acknowledge the accuracy of Homer's onomatopoeia, and Cowper's paraphrase. * An ingenious piece of mechanism invented by the late Dr. M'Mahon, a Roman catholic clergyman, to whom the public are much indebted, deserves notice here; it is simply a wooden frame, with the accompaniment of a bell. When the tide has risen to the proper height for passing the bar, the bell, operated upon by the elevation of the water, tolls the signal when to notify that circumstance to the 40 DUBLIN. the bar happen not to be passable at such times, and the anchors of such vessels unfortunately drag, they are in the most imminent danger of being wrecked on the sands which stretch from Howth to Dunleary. From these circumstances, this noble bay has been the scene of numerous and melancholy losses; but, as the bar is the chief obstacle to the security of the harbour, and as it appears the Directors General of Inland Navigation conceive it possible to effect its entire removal, it is to be hoped that in future such occurrences will be less fre- quent. One part of the plan distinguished by the appro- bation of these gentlemen, is the projection of a new pier from the shore of Clontarf, on the northern side of the bay, to the southern point of the north Bull ; which now form- ing, at the distance of a quarter of a mile from the light-house, the opposite boundary to the entrance-channel of the harbour, is marked for the guidance of mariners by the spit-buoy. A light-house is farther proposed at this point; and, should the plan be fully carried into exe- cution, the total exclusion of the north Bull, (the ingress of the south being prevented by the present pier,) and the expeditious clearance of the sands by the compressed force of the ebb-current against the bar, assisted by ballast-vessels at the proper stations, would, it is sup- posed, soon render the port of Dublin one of the safest, as well as one of the grandest, in Europe. The pier was begun in 1748, and when finished on the original plan, extended 7938 feet from Ringsend to the shipping oft' the harbour. Besides this machine, which of course is particularly serviceable at night, the general tide-tables for the bay, constructed after a labour of three years by the Doctor, and adopted by the Commissioners both of the Custom-house and Coast-office, are a work which entitles him to the gratitude of the present genera- tion and of posterity. DUBLIN. 41 building called the Pigeon-house. It was at first con- structed merely with frames and piles; but in 17-55 the double stone wall, enclosing the present spacious and elevated road, was completed. The frame-work and piles were afterwards extended 98 16 feet farther into the sea; not in a right line with the first pier, but forming with it a very obtuse angle, and still following the edge of the sands which determine the southern mar- gin of the harbour. In consequence of the expense of keeping this work in repair, a wall was commenced in its stead in 176l, and carried inwards from the light- house, (which was first built,) until completed in 1768. Thus a pier, the first in magnitude in the empire, and in that respect not to be equalled probably in the world, was gradually erected: it is truly a work that would reflect honour on any age or nation. One singularity attached to it is, that its walls are constructed of large blocksofhewn mountain granite, wit hortt cement; thestones being alternately headers and stretchers, so dove-tailed into each other, that no single one can be dislodged with- out absolutely breaking it. The pier thus forms a solid mass 32 feet broad at bottom, and 28 at top: its whole length, including the part last erected, being, as already stated, upwards of three miles. For the accommodation of the packets, a basin, 900 feet by 450, was construct- ed at the Pigeon-house, where passengers land ; and an ele- gant hotel erected there for their reception.* On the east * The Holyhead packets now landing their passengers at the new harbour behind the hill of llowth, this basin is little used, except by the Liverpool packets, which proceed a formerly to the Pigeon- house; and tbe Hotel (never opened as such) has been purchased by government, and is converted into offices for the board of ordnance. We have chosen to describe the old approach to Dublin from Holy- hrad, as the more picturesque and interesting. E 3 42 DUBLIN. and south sides of this basin are fortifications, intendedfby government to afford security to the public archives upon any sudden emergency : a battery of 24-pounders defends the approach by the south wall ; guns of the same weight are either mounted on carriages or ranged along the pier; and in barracks built here for a garrison, a body of artil- lery are constantly lodged in readiness. The travellers may either quit the Pigeon-house by the Long-coach (which will convey 16 inside and outside passengers, with their luggage,) or make his selection from among the Jingles* which in general are clamorously proffered, at a variety of prices, by their ill-dressed and squalid-looking drivers. Passing through the decayed village of Ringsend, con- spicuous only for its salt-works constantly enveloped in smoke, the approach to the city, contrasted with the beautiful scenery of 'the bay, is exceedingly disappointing. The appearance of the north and south walls,f is here calculated only to excite ideas of ruin and decay; the marshes reclaimed by these erections from the sea, are as yet destitute of buildings; while the houses on the quay, being with a few exceptions old and neglected, look mean and sombre. As we advance, however, the nu- merous fine public buildings, and some elegant streets, have a powerful tendency to remove these first im- pressions ; and imperceptibly we begin to consider Dublin, what in these respects it certainly is, as fully entitled to its station among the proudest capitals of Europe. * These vehicles obtain their name from their ringing sound when in motion. They hold six persons, who sit sideways, face to face; they have lofty springs, and are four-wheeled carriages, uniformly drawn by a single horse. These, and ihejauniing cars, are peculiar to the city of Dublin. f Built about the year 1711, to confine the channel of the river Anna Lifley (which enters the bay at Ringsend) to its embankments. DUBLIN. 43 On a general view of the city, one advantage it pos- sesses over London is immediately apparent its spacious quays, extending along both sides of the river; which latter, running nearly due east and west, divides Dublin into two unequal parts ; the southern section being the most extensive. Eight bridges preserve the communi- cation between the opposite shores. The handsomest parts of the city, are those to the north-east and south- east; the former, more particularly, being airy, ele- gant, and, to say all in a word, the ' west end of the town' of Dublin. But the part properly the western end of this city, denominated by the citizens the Liberty, is a complete contrast to the portion of the Eu- glish metropolis so called; and not less conspicuously so to its own spacious squares and streets in the situations just described. The streets in this quarter are mostly nar- row ; the lanes and alleys numerous ; and the far greater number of the houses, which are excessively crowded to- gether, occupied by small tradesmen, artisans, the work- ing poor, and beggars; from thirty to fifty, selected from which classes, are often resident in the same habitation; and the accumulation of filth, stench, and every variety of wretchedness resulting from this union of obnoxious circumstances, as well as from some peculiarly offensive habits in the people, is scarcely conceivable.* Two, three, * The rears, or hack-yards, of these houses are in general the only receptacles for the ordure and filth of their numerous occupants. Neither are these and similar nuisances confined to the Liberty ; many other parts of Dublin abound in objects of disgust of the same kind. But that we may avoid giving instances upon our own authority, we se- lect the following from a thousand that occurred to the late Rev. Mr. Whitelaw, vicar of St. Catherine's in this city, who in 1798 was en- gaged in taking a general census of the inhabitants. " When he attempted to take the population of a ruinous house in Joseph's-lane, near Castle-market, he was interrupted in his progress by an inunda- 44. DUBLIN. and even four families, consisting of persons of all ages and sexes, are known to club together as joint-tenants, for the purpose of defraying the rent of a single apart- ment in one of these distressful styes. Not that the scenes of misery induced by modes of existence so nauseating and depraved, are obtrusive, or generally perceptible, to the cursory visitant, who, solely occupied by the grandeur of the public buildings, seldom explores these uninviting abodes; not that numbers even in Dublin itself are so much as conscious of their existence; and we should perhaps shrink from the display of wretchedness so abhorrent, did we not feel it a duty inseparably connected with our undertaking, to place in the true light, and to paint with the colours of reality, every feature in the manners and customs of the people, tending to illus- trate those gradations from the highest intellectual endow- ments and the nicest sense of propriety, to the lowest moral and mental debasement, to be found in their actual character. The police of the cily is, doubtless, highly reprehensible in the permission of these abuses; and how such nuisances as slaughter-houses, soap-manu- tion of putrid blood, alive with maggots, which had, from an adjacent yard, burst the back door, and filled the hall to the depth of several inches: by the help of a plank and some stepping-stones which he procured for the purpose, (for the inhabitants without any concern waded through it,) he reached the stair-case : it had rained violently, and, from the shattered state of the roof, a torrent of water made its way throug-h every floor from the garret to the ground; the sallow looks and filth of the wretches who crowded round him, indicated their situation, though they seemed insensible to the steuch -which he could scarcely sustain for a few minutes."" The poor room-keepers were found apparently at ease, and perfectly assimilated to their situ- ation: filth and stench seemed congenial to their nature; they never made the smallest effort to remove them ; and if they could answer the call* of hunger, they felt, or seemed to feel, nothing else as an incou- yeiiicnce." Wkitflaw and rt"a/*A'* History of Dublin. 45 factories, carrion-houses, lime-kilns, &c. &c. should have been so long suffered to exist in the very heart of this dense population, it surely might be worth their while to enquire. Liquor-shops, a yet greater evil, are equally abundant in the Liberty : in a particular street, more than one third of the whole number of houses are licen- sed dealers in that species of poison, which has been proved to be so active a stimulant to vice and disease in their worst forms, and so inimical to the general well- being of the lower orders of society. In regard to pav- ing, lighting, and cleansing, (the latter only in respect to the high-ways before the houses,) Dublin in general must not be accused of remissncss ; the pavement, in par- ticular, composed in great part of granite from the island of Dalkey, is excellent, and possesses the quality of un- common durability. The Grand and Royal Canals sup- ply the water-works ; and as the Pipe-water Committee have obtained two additional reservoirs from these canals, and have been employed in laying down improved mains in the streets, few cities arc likely to be better supplied with an article so necessary to the conveniences of life. In immediate contiguity with Dublin is its circular road ; which, extending to the length of nearly nine miles, with the exception of a short space and a bridge wanted on the eastern side, surrounds the city: the views from various parts of the circuit, particularly that near Summer-hill, of thcWicklow mountains, the hills of Dalkey and of Howth, the bay, and the islands of Ire- land's Eye and Lambay,is delightful. But we shall com- ment more at large upon these particulars in the separate view we purpose taking of every object of interest in our Excursions through the city and its environs; at present we must content ourselves with more general remarks. 46 DUBLIN. The high antiquity of Dublin is indisputable: that it was a place of some importance even 1600 years back is not to be questioned, since Ptolemy, who wrote A. D. 140, mentions it under the name of Eblana Ca-tta,and places it nearly under its actual parallel. Cir- cumstances relative to it in the year 191 occur also in the Irish historians ; and in King Edgar's charter,* dated at Gloucester in 964, it is called ' the most noble city of Dub- lin.' From the fact that hurdles anciently afforded the only means of access to the lower parts of the town next the river, the Irish to this day give it the appellation of Ath- Cliath, the ford of hurdles ; and Bally-Ath-Cliath, the town on the ford of hurdles.f Eblana, from which the modern Dublin is derived, is a corruption, it has been conjectur- ed, of the true word Deblana, which in the ancient British signifies black water, or a black channel ; the water of the Liffey having, from the boggy nature of its bottom, been discoloured.]: By some natives of the county it is still called Dinelin, and by the Welsh Dinas Dulin, or the city of Dulin. As to its original inhabitants, there is little doubt that they were the Eblani, or Deblani, who in all probability migrated from the opposite coast of Wales. The Mile- sians from Spain also arrived here at a remote period ; but it is universally agreed that the Ostmen, or Danes, first gave to Dublin the appearance of a regular city, by strong buildings and fortifications previously unknown in the island.' The date of this event is uniformly stated to be the ninth century. Some remnants, itis believed, of the walls latest erected * The authenticity of this charter has been doubted; with what reason it is not for us to determine. f See Glossary in our Historical and Descriptive Sketch. J Baxter; Glossar. verb. Deblana. DUBLIN. 47 by these people, are yet visible. From the best ac- counts it appears that their greatest compass was not quite a mile Irish. Yet in the reign of Charles I. it is certain, from the authority of a record in the Rolls Office, that "void grounds," "gardens," " orchards," and " tenements covered with thatch," occupied parts even of this contracted space. Remembrances of the sites of the different gates, by which inlets to the city were given through the walls, are yet preserved ; and are individu- ally specified in the elaborate work of Whitelaw and Walsh before referred to. The first buildings in Dublin were constructed of wattle-work, plastered with clay, and roofed with straw, or flags from the margin of the river. The royal palace of Henry II., in which that King and the Irish Princes kept their Christmas in 1172, was an erection of smoothed wattles; the workmanship, it is true, of unusual elegance. A little before the reign of Elizabeth, the citizens adopted a mode of building more durable and convenient; namely, that of timber in the cage-work style, sufficiently ornamented, and roofed substantially. A house erected after this manner in that Queen's time, was still standing in Cook-street in 1745; but was then taken down to afford space for new buildings. In Rosemary-lane, leading from that street to Merchant's Quay, part of a cage-work house, bearing the date of 1600, cut in the timber, was to be seen in 1766; as well as several houses of this description, of considerable anti- quity, but without dates, in Patrick-street. The only specimen of this style of building remaining so late as 1812, occurred at the corner of Castle-street and Wcr- burgh-street: it was then in good preservation, but, being from its situation a public nuisance, was demolished by 48 DUBLIN. order of the Commissioners of Wide Streets, and the materials sold for ,40. The frame-work was of Irish oak, and, from the date in front, it appeared to have been erected in the reign of Edward II.; the arms were those of the Fitzgerald family. Oliver Cromwell, ac- cording to tradition, occupied this house while he was in Dublin. It is somewhat singular, as a proof of the superior durability of the cage-work houses, that none of the erections in the time of Elizabeth's successor, James, in which brick and stone were first adopted, are thought to be standing at this day. During the period that has elapsed subsequently to these reigns, many changes have taken place in the ap- pearance of Dublin, both within and without the ancient walls. Several of the streets and lanes mentioned by Ware, Stanihurst, and others, have either totally disap- peared, or have suffered such alterations in their names as render them very difficult to be recognised. In l6lO, as appears from Speed's plan of that date, but few build- ings were to be seen on the north side of the river; and indeed the entire space now occupied by the new Custom- house, the Batchelor's Walk, the Ormond and other Quays, was then (the Liffey being only embanked on its south- ern side,) overflowed by its waters, a small part only about the King's Inns, which had been a monastery of Domi- nican friars, exceptcd. This quarter of the city was at that time called Ostman-Town, since corrupted into Ox- man-Town; its eastern boundary was St. Mary's Abbey, its western the church of St. Michan. Grange-Gorman, Stoney-batter, and Glassmanogue, then villages so remote from the city that the sheriffs were accustomed, for their security during seasons of the plague, to hold their courts in the latter, are now united to it. The north-eastern DUBLIN. 49 part of this tract is occupied by Mountjoy and Rutland squares, with many noble streets, of which at that time not a trace was in existence. South of the Liffey, many enlargements also appear to have been made. Crane-lane, Essex-street, Temple- bar, Fleet-street, &c. were formerly within the channel of the Liffey, and a large tract of land, comprehending George's Quay, the City Quay, Sir John Rogerson's Quay, together with the ground taken up by the Grand Canal Docks, have also been recovered from that river. Of a village called Hogges, lying to the eastward, the only relic is the street called Hogg-hill. Hoggin Green, mentioned by Irish historians as a place where crimi- nals were commonly executed, is now entirely occupied by buildings; though the same space, at the period al- luded to, contained only the little village just mentioned, the site of a nunnery founded there by Dermod Mac Morogh about the year 1146, a bridewell for vagrants, and an hospital on the spot where now stands the Bank of Ireland. College Green, and St. Andrew's Church are situated on parts of this ancient green. Westward, the space between Thomas-street and the river was open, and through it ran a stream on which some mills were erected; while southward of the city wall, a very small part only of the now populous tract called the Liberty existed in l6lO. Accessions to the extent of Dublin, it consequently appears, have been made in every direction ; and its additions in point of splendour and magnificence have been yet more considerable. While on the subject of antiquities, we must briefly mention, that St. Mary's Abbey, the site of which in Speed's plan has been alluded to, was a foundation of the Ostmcn, or Danes, about the year 948, and the first- VOL. i. r 50 DUBLIN. fruits of their conversion to the Christian faith. In 171 8, the body of a prelate in his robes, was found in digging up the ruins of this abbey ; it bore no traces of corrup- tion, yet was supposed to have been that of Felix O'Ruadan, Archbishop of Tuam, who was buried here in 1238. An image of the Virgin Mary, with the infant Jesus in her arms, formerly belonging to the abbey, is still to be seen at the Roman catholic chapel, St. Mary's Lane.* The Abbey of St. Thomas stood in that part of the city now called Thomas-court: it was founded for canons of the congregation of St. Victor, by William Fitz-Andelm, butler to King Henry the Second. The Priory of St. John the Baptist was in Thomas-street, and originally an hospital for the sick, founded about the end of the twelfth century by Ailrcd le Palmer. A Roman catholic chapel is erected on part of the site of this priory ; which, besides the infirm- ary containing 50 beds for the sick, was appropriated to both friars and nuns. Here were wrought the vest- ments for the friars of Thomas-court, for the Francis- cans in Francis-street, and for the university of St. Patrick; and a tenth of the wool and flax spun by these religious, was the customary reward of their labours. The Priory of All-Saints stood on that part of Hoggin Green now called Stephen's Green, and was founded in Il66 by Dermod, son of Murchard, King of Leinster, for canons of the order of Aroasia. The Friary of St. Saviour, or Black Friars, founded previously to the year 1218 by William Mareschall, Earl of Pembroke, " for the health of his soul and that A part of the abbey itself, consisting' of four arches, with walls three feet nine inches thick, perforated by Gothic windows, is MONT iu the occupation of Mr. Mazierc, sugar-baker, Mary's Abbey, form- DUBLIN. 51 of hi wife," was situate in Ostmantown, on the spot now called the King's Inns, where that elegant building the Courts of Law, with other offices, form so conspi- cuous an appearance from the opposite side of the river. The Augustine Friary of the Holy Trinity, a very considerable foundation, and the general college for all the friars of that order in Ireland, may date about the year 1259: on its site Crow-street, with its Theatre Royal, now stands. The Carmelite Monastery of White Friars occupied the ground where Aungier-street, White-friars, Longford-street, &c. have been built sub- sequently. The Nunnery of St. Mary de Hogges, it has been stated, was founded by Dermod Mac Morogh in the year 1 146. AH these, and other religious houses of less note, with the accompaniments of the vast possessions attached to many of them, were granted to various persons, and in a variety of ways, by Henry the Eighth, at the dissolution which took place in the reign of that King. Of the ancient custom of ' riding the franchises' or bounds of the city of Dublin, a relic is still preserved in the perambulation of the liberties, made by the Lord Mayor and city officers every third year.* From an ing part of hii stores. The arches are ten feet high, groined and ribbed; the ribs, formed of blocks of stone resembling Portland or Bath stone, spring in threes from the ground, (which seems to hare been raised,) and it is probable they rest upon some capital beneath it. This part of the edifice, which is still very perfect, may have been the chapel of the abbey. * On these occasions, a form derived from an odd incident is regularly observed. In 1668, Sir Michael Creagh, then Lord Mayor of Dublin, suddenly absented himself from the mayoralty; and a valuable gold collar, which had been presented to the city by Charles the Second eight years previously, was no where to be found. Since when the Knight has been constantly summoned, on 52 DUBLIX. inspection of the records and manuscripts extant relative to this practice, the great increase of the city in modern times is apparent. Until within the last 30 years the several corpora- tions, anciently 20, now 25 in number, walked in procession, dressed out in the colours and emblems of their trades, on this as well as on their respective patrons' days ; a ceremonial substituted for the pageants, plays, and religious interludes, anciently represented by them, but which began to grow into disuse soon after the Reformation. The more modern processions are also now discontinued. For many years after the settlement of the English in Dublin, the inhabitants were liable to perpetual disturb- ances from the vicinity of the native Irish to the pale: for which reason the military forces of the city, anciently composed from the 20 corporations, were regularly mustered and exercised four times a year. Some signal actions were performed by them, and consider- the day selected for the perambulation, at the city gates, where courts are opened for that special purpose by proclamation, in the following terms: "Sir Michael Crcagh, Sir Michael Creag-h, Sir Michael Creag-h, come and appear at this court of our Lord the King 1 , holden before the right honourable Lord Mayor of the city of Dublin, or you will be outlawed." At Essex gate this is repeated nine times: but as Sir Michael has ne/er thought proper to appear, or to return the collar, the city has now in its possession another collar, obtained from William the Third, by Bartholomew Vanhomrigh, a Dutch merchant, who was Lord Mayor in 1697. This is worn by the chief magistrate to the present time, and was at the time of its donation valued at 1000. On this day the populace of the Liberty likewise avail themselves of an ancient privilege. When the Lord Mayor with his followers ar- rives at the street called the Cross Poddle, part of which is beyond the bounds of his jurisdiction, a number of the inhabitants obstruct his passage until he has surrendered his sword, which is not returned without a present received from his Lordship, accompauied with a promise to release a prisoner. DUBLIN. 53 able losses occasionally sustained; particularly on Easter Monday, A. D. 1209, which in melancholy remembrance was afterwards called Black Monday, and one of the musters appointed on that day. For the Bristolines of Dublin, to whom Henry the Second originally granted the city, having introduced the sport called hurling of balls among the citizens, a considerable number of them met for this diversion on Easter Monday, near Cullen's Wood, two miles distant from the city. They went unarmed, reckoning upon their previous reduction of 'the rebels,' as they designated the Irish ; but the latter, having notice of the citizens' intention, marched down privately from the mountains, secreted themselves in the wood, and, when their enemies were fatigued with their laborious sport, sud- denly fell upon and killed upwards of 500 of them. It was even necessary to replenish the city by a new colony from Bristol; who for ages after memorialized this misfortune, by marching with a black banner carried in their front, to Cullen's Wood, upon every Easter Monday; and there displayed their arms, and bade defiance to the Irish.* The present corporation of Dublin consists of a Lord Mayor, (denominated Provost in 1308, and first distin- guished by his present appellation in 1665,) and 24 aldermen, who form an upper house; and the sheriffs, with the sheriff's peers, not exceeding 48, and the representatives of the 25 guilds, not exceeding 96, who compose the lower house. The aldermen are all magistrates for the city, and, with the Lord Mayor and * For much valuable information relative to the antiquities, &c. of Dublin, we are indebted to the large work of WLitelaw aud Walsh previously mentioned. F 3 54 DUBLIN. Recorder, are judges of oyer and terminer for capital offences and misdemeanours committed within the district. The board are chosen for life from among the sheriffs' peers, by the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and common council. The office of chief magistrate is annual. Of the guilds, the merchants have the precedence, and after them the tailors : the latter, with the carpen- ters, weavers, goldsmiths, cutlers, and apothecaries, only, have halls appertaining to them respectively. The revenue of the city is ,23,000 per annum; yet the expenditure, it is said, regularly exceeds a sum that cannot be considered inadequate to the purposes for which it should be applied. We must not here omit to notice the Aldermen of Skinner's Alley, who date the institution of their society from the arrival of James II. in l6S8. On this occasio'n the protestant corporation having retired to this alley, (an obscure avenue in the Liberties,) there maintained a semblance of their former state; while the actual authority was vested in the persons of a Lord Mayor and corporation of the Roman-catholic persuasion. The battle of the Boyne restored the ' Protestant Ascend- ancy' in the city; and, to maintain it, this and similar institutions are still kept up: institutions, against which, however, we must beg leave to protest, as unnecessary excitements to the worst passions in men, uniformly found to have their origin in religious differences. For reasons equally strong, an objection might be taken to the homage paid to King William himself, so far as it is the object of these institutions; since nothing is more certain than that this homage is often found to rest not on the foundation which really entitles that monarch- to the DUBLIN. 55 esteem and grateful remembrance of posterity. The officers of the society to whom with all proper deference we apply these remarks, still retain the titles designating the different official dignities of government. They are a Governor, styled " Most Noble," a Deputy Governor, Lord High Treasurer,* Primate, Chancellor, Almoner, Sword and Mace-bearer. The neglected portion of the city denominated the Li- berty, suffers a daily diminution in the remnants of respect- ability yet preserved by it. Even should any who reside here chance to acquire wealth by the efforts of industry, their speedy removal indicates the flow of all consequence and fashion to the eastward. Many indeed are the inducements to a residence in the latter part of Dublin; and did they consist only in the architectural beauties with which the inhabitants are there surrounded, an apology of this nature could scarcely be advanced on stronger grounds by any citizens in Europe. Many of the buildings are in themselves specimens of the highest excellence in the art ; and the scenes presented at several points of view in the city are exceedingly striking. That from Carlisle Bridge, the easternmost on the river, though not fairly put in competition by the citizens with the view from the Place Louis Quinze at Paris, is worthy of particular notice. On the north we have the grand perspective of Sackville-street, (one of the noblest in Europe,) terminated by the Rotunda, and ornamented by the new Post-office and the central pillar erected to the memory of Nelson. To the south, at the end of Westmoreland-street, on the one side appears the * This office has be/in discontinued in the government of the country. 56 DUBLIN. perspective facade of Trinity College, on the other that of the Bank the part formerly the House of Lords. To the east, the front of the Custom-house, an oblique but striking view; and the river itself, which, at high water, confined within its walls of granite, and bearing on its bosom vessels of 500 tons burden, makes an appearance more than correspondent with its breadth. Westward, on either bank fine quays stretch to a long extent, connected by numerous handsome bridges ; that in the fore-ground, consisting of a single elegant arch, is of course conspicuous. Such an assemblage of imposing objects as are here enumerated, presented from a single point of view, is perhaps in few cities to be met with ; while at College Green the spectator must be almost equally impressed with an union of beauty and grandeur far from common. Here the extensive front of Trinity College, the unequalled portico of the national Bank, (the noblest structure Dublin has to boast,) Daly's Club-house, the Commercial-buildings, and the eques- trian statue of William III. upon its lofty pedestal, have an effect, which to be properly appreciated must be seen. The squares, as well as the most spacious and conve- nient streets, the seat of the vice-regal government, and the different places of amusement lying all eastward, are additional temptations to living in their vicinity. London in miniature here perpetually presents itself to the view; and something more (comparatively) than London in the state, splendour, gaiety, and conviviality of the in- habitants. The society is excellent; in the more select circles, particularly, the polish and vivacity of Paris, joined to the wit, raciness, frankness, and hilarity of Hibernia, produce an admirable melange. A change, somewhat DUBLIN. 57 for the worse, is said to have taken place in some of these respects, immediately after the Union ; resulting from the sudden introduction of the more wealthy traders at the levees of the castle, and in consequence to some distinguished circles from which they had hitherto been excluded; but this circumstance, there is little doubt, though it originated in the temporary absence of almost all the rank and fashion of the city, which were immediately removed to the British metro- polis, contributed eventually, as soon as many distin- guished families became again resident, to improve the general tone of society, by a wider assimilation of man- ners, and a greater extension of liberal ideas. Private visiting parties are more prevalent than public amuse- ments; they are more congenial to the warmth and hospitable turn of the Irish character, and far more conducive to the connection of politeness with the social and endearing charities of life, for which the upper class of the Irish are remarkable. The number of inhabitants attached to the learned professions, the pre- sence of an university and of literary societies, the forms of the vice-royal court, and the intermixture of officers of the garrison with the citizens, have all a tendency to promote the spread of urbanity and the modes of refined intercourse. The constant appearance of military pa- rade, it is true, forcing itself upon the observation in most companies, is apt to give the stranger in Dublin an idea of a mere garrison-town. As the port of embarkation for the members of par- liament and other gentry who most frequently visit England, as well as the spot by which English visitants usually arrive, much enlivening eclat, and the usual concomitants of stir and bustle, become conspicuous in 58 DUBLIN. Dublin.* Its trade is besides very considerable; and its exports, in particular, are augmenting. An idea is very prevalent among the inhabitants, that the English language is spoken in greater purity in their city than in any other throughout the British empire. An opinion this, at which the travelled Englishman, whose recollection probably will furnish him with an instance of the same harmless nationality in the good citizens of Edinburgh, must be constrained to smile; while perhaps he will recollect ' Love a la Mode,'t and Sir Archy Mac Sarcasm and Sir Callaghan O'Brallaghan, neither of whom "had the brogue." An affectation of every thing English, and a capricious disposition to admire whatever may be in momentary vogue on our side of the channel, are common foibles with the Irish ; of little consequence, it may be, in themselves, did they not sometimes lead to illiberal jealousy of native merit and talent, however worthy of distinction and patronage. A jealousy of England itself, we may observe, is often incongruously united to this tacit acknowledgment of the superiority of the sister country. Of the population of Dublin, no return has been made since 1814; when the total number of inhabitants appeared to be 175,319: in 1798, according to Mr. Whitelaw's census, the whole number was 170,805. But the city, it is now very generally believed, contains not less than 190,000 souls. Having thus laid before the reader the best information we could obtain by personal observation, or glean from * From these causes hotels are also extremely numerous in this city; more so than in London, in proportion to the relative population of each . t Charles Macklin, the author of this comedy, wag a native of the city of Dublin. DUBLIN. 59 the most authentic sources, upon every important point generally relative to this city, in extent and population the seventh in Europe, we proceed to a particular survey of every object of interest or curiosity in the parishes of St. Werburgh, St. Andrew, St. Mark, and St. Anne; to which we propose limiting our second Excursion. EXCURSION II. Through the Parishes of St. Werburgh, St. Andrew, St. Mark, and St. Anne. SELECTING, from the 19 parishes and two deaneries into which Dublin is ecclesiastically divided, the parish of St. Werburgh, from its centrical situation, as the area of our first labours, the seat of government denominated the Castle, which it contains, naturally claims the pre- cedence of every other object within its boundaries. This edifice, having been almost entirely rebuilt during the last century, retains so little of its ancient lineaments that the site only can be said to identify the modern palace with the original castellated erection. If any part of the building remain in its primeval form, it is the basement of the Wardrobe-tower, over which an ad- ditional story, surmounted by projecting battlements, has been newly erected. The whole now serves as a repository for the statute rolls, the parliamentary, and other national records. 60 DUBLIN". Between this and Birmingham-tower, which has been lately rebuilt, a curtain anciently extended, interrupted by two other nameless towers, one of which has entirely disappeared, and on little more than the foundation of the other is raised an elegant apartment, adapted to the pur- poses of a cabinet by the government. The old Birming- ham-tower remained till 1775; and its demolition in that year proved, from the extraordinary consistency of the cement, a work of considerable difficulty : the present tower, of plain construction, has a lighter appearance, but was infinitely surpassed in solidity by that to which it has succeeded. Two strong round towers, called the Gate-towers, be- tween which was the entrance by a draw-bridge, on the north side, from the city into the castle, subsisted until about the middle of the last century ; when the present chief entrance from Cork -hill and Castle-street was erect- ed on the side of the easternmost : the western tower was taken down in 1750, to make room for a similar but mock entrance, the only object of which was the preservation of uniformity. This, in November 1757, was decorated with a statue of Fortitude, and the eastern gate with a statue of Justice. Meiler Fitzhenry, Lord Justice of Ireland about the year 1205, commenced the building of this fortress, (for such it originally was,) by authority of a patent from his sovereign; but as Henry de Loundrcs, Archbishop of Dublin, put the finishing hand to it about the year 1220, to him it has been usual to ascribe the whole honour of its erection. It was, as it remains, of a quadrangular form, surrounded with a broad and deep moat, since filled up, then partly dry and partly flooded by the tide, and a branch of the little river Dodder. The guard of the cas- DUBLIN. 6l tic was entrusted to a constable, gentleman-porter, and a body of warders, originally pikemen and archers, who, after the invention of gunpowder, were converted into har- quebussiers, or musquetiers, and artillery-men. Thus, until the reign of Elizabeth, when the building became the seat of government, the chief purposes of its maintenance appeared to be those of defence, or the custody of state* prisoners: for the latter objects the two Gate-towers were set apart, and were admirably adapted for it in the great point of security. In 1534, during the rebellion of Tho- mas Fitzgerald, the castle was twice besieged ; and Friar Keating, who was its constable in 1478, having destroyed the draw-bridge, held it out with his warders and other assistants against the then Lord Deputy, Henry Lord Grey. In 1560, Queen Elizabeth issued her commands to the Lord Deputy and council " to repair and enlarge the castle of Dublin, for the reception of the Chief Gover- nors ;" before which time there does not appear to have been any fixed place appropriated to that purpose. But Sir Henry Sidney, who came over as Lord Deputy in 1565, seems not to have been satisfied with what had been done in pursuance of the Queen's mandate; as, two years after his arrival, he further repaired and beautified the build- ing, which until then, we are informed by Hooker, was "ruinous, foul, filthy, and greatly decayed." In the reign of this Queen and that of James I. both the courts of the law and the high courts of parliament were occasionally held within the castle walls; a practice which had also obtained previously, and was repeated in the time of Charles I. The following is an extract of a letter from a Lord Deputy to Mr. Secretary" Coke, dated 23rd of October, 1633. VOL. I. O 62 DUBLIN. " This castle is in very great decay: 1 have been " inforced to take down one of the great towers which " was ready to fall, and the rest are so crazy, as we are " still in fear part of it might drop down upon our heads, " as one tower did, whilst my Lord Chancellor was " here, and had infallibly killed four or five of his " grand-children, had it fallen an hour sooner or an hour " later; I am therefore instantly constrained to fall to " repair, and pull down what would else forthwith fall " of itself, it being of absolute necessity to do so, and " will withall gain some room more than now there is, " the house not being of receipt sufficient to lodge me " and my company. " There is not any stable but a poor mean one, aird " that made of a decayed church, which is -such a " profanation as I am sure His Majesty would not allow " of; besides, there is a decree in the Exchequer, for " restoring it to the parish whence it was taken; I " have therefore got a piece of ground whereon to build " a new one, the most convenient for the castle in the " world; the foundation is already two yards high, and " it shall be finished by the end of June next, with " granaries and all other conveniences. There will be " room for three score horses, and so many good ones I " have in this town already to fill it, and make up such " a troop of horse, I dare say, as Ireland hath not been " acquainted with. " Besides, I have bought as much more ground about ** the castle as costs me ,150, out of which I will pro- " vide the house of a garden and out-courts for fuel, and " such other necessaries belonging to a family, whereof " I am here altogether unprovided ; the bake-house in " present being just under the room where I now write, DUBLIN. 63 " and the wood-reek just full before the gallery win- " dows ; which I take not to be so courtly, nor to suit " so well the dignity of the king's deputy ; and thus I " trust to make this habitation easeful and pleasajit as " the place will afford ; whereas now, upon my faith, it " is little better than a very prison/'* Lord Clarendon, also, in 1686, writing to the Lord Treasurer, says of this " no-castle," " In good earnest, " as it is now, I have no necessary convenient room ; no " gentleman in the Pall-mall is so ill lodged in all re- " spects. I might add, that the keeping up, that is " keeping dry, this piltyful bit of a castle costs an im- " mense deal, of which you shall have a particular " account laid before you." The vice-regal residence continued in this uncomfort- able and unbecoming state to the close of the seven- teenth century ; since when all the great modern improve- ments have been made. It now has the appearance of a considerable and very respectable pile of buildings. It is divided into two courts, termed the upper and lower, of which the upper is principal, and contains the state and private apartments of the Lord Lieutenant, with those of his secretaries and suite ; and although the whole begins to wear a face of age, yet these courts have an air of gran- deur superior to any thing observable in those of the royal palace of St. James's. The upper court is a quadrangle, 2 80 feet long by 130 broad; the buildings around it are uni- form ; but still, in our opinion, their general appearance does not correspond with the dignified official situation of their occupant. Neither have the interior apartments any very striking beauty or elegance to recommend them, beyond the ordinary decorations of delegated authority. * Strafford'i Letters. 64 DUBLIJT. The throne and canopy, covered with crimson velvet, enriched with gilt carved work, and a profusion of gold lace, are in the presence-chamber, formerly the yeo- man's hall. An elegant glass lustre, of native manu- factory, purchased by a late Lord Lieutenant, the Duke of Rutland, depends from the handsome stucco ceiling of this room. The object of greatest notoriety among the citizens, who find admittance to the levees and festivities of the Castle, (an honour of no very difficult attainment,) is the Ball-room, called, since the institution of the Knights of St. Patrick in 1783, St. Patrick's hall. It is, in truth, a noble apartment, 82 feet long, 41 broad, and 38 high; begun under the viceroyalty of Earl Temple, since Marquis of Buckingham. In a rectangle of the ceiling, the paintings of which have great merit, St. Patrick is seen converting the Irish to Christianity in the fifth century : the opposite rectangle (the circle in the middle containing an allegorical design, of which all that can be clearly understood are the figures Liberty, Justice, and George III.,*) represents * A native writer informs us that the central allegory is meant to allude to "the present happy and flourishing state of the country " derived from the two events recorded in the rectangles. We regret to ohserve our highly to he respected authority for this information thus apparently approving of the painter's preposterous flattery to the government, which, for so long a period after its subjection of his country, treated it as a conquered and enslaved colony. But the artist perhaps had never quitted Dublin! and consequently had not enjoyed the opportunity of witnessing in the interior of the coun- try the prototype of that " happy and flourishing state," of which he intended to convey an idea to those of his fellow-citizens who 'trip it on the light fantastic toe' in the hall of St. Patrick. Of a piece with this allegory is the language of the author of the "Traveller's Guide for Ireland" (printed at Dublin in 1815) who, with seeming DUBLIN. 05 Henry II. seated under a canopy, to whom the Irish chieftains are formally tendering their submissions the grand historical event of 1172. Above the cornice of the room, is a series of devices, whose perspective effect from below is extremely judicious: t . whole of these paintings do honour to the fertile composition, truth of drawing, and vivid colouring, conspicuous in the works of their ingenious artist, Mr. Waldre. A gallery for musicians or spectators is raised at each end of the hall. The lower court of the castle is 250 feet long, by 220 wide; but of irregular form, and in appearance very un- equal to the upper one. This court, or lower Castle-yard, as it is frequently called, contains the Treasury, Quarter- Master General's, War Secretary's, and other Offices, with that formerly the Surveyor General's of Lands: the whole inelegant looking buildings, unworthy, as is the Ordnance Office at the eastern side, though containing arms for 40,000 men, of particular remark. In the present office of the Surveyor General of Lands, removed lately to the Wardrobe-tower, is deposited the satisfaction, records " the mortification and degradation of redoubted Irish valour," in the sovereign sway of Dublin for 330 years by the Ostim n ; until, he says, they were "entirely annihilated" by "the invincible prowess of the British valour," from which period com- menced "Ireland's submission to BRITISH sway." The sovereignty of England from the first moment ought to have been, and for the future we trust will be, a source of blessings only to the sister country ; we wish to seethe Iri.sh consider it in this light; but the picture of a nation striving 1 to hug the chains of which at length it is in a great measure divested, is to us offensive in the last degree, and we hope the sentiments to which we have adverted are not to be considered as national or at least as forming a trait in the arittocratical part of the Irieli character. G 3 66 PUBLIN. remnant of that singular and valuable record called the Down Survey, executed in 1657 under the direction of Sir William Petty, and consisting originally of 31 folios of surveys of lands forfeited in this country by the rebellion of 1641. It delineated nearly 29 of the 32 counties into which Ireland is divided, the omissions being Galway, Roscommon, and a considerable part of Mayo, together with a few baronies. The maps of the surveyed baronies were in number 204; and to these were attached plans on a large scale of their several parishes, notifying also the sub- denominations or town-lands. The whole was authen- ticated, and constituted a record at the restoration, under the title of the Down Survey, " from its being laid down by maps on paper, prior surveys being gene- rally by estimation only."* The present imperfect state of this very curious topographical relic, originated in a fire which took place on the 15th of April, 1711, in the old Surveyor General's Office, Essex-street, where at that time it \vas deposited. Of the 31 books of which the work consisted, 18 were uninjured by the flames; but of the remaining 13, four were almost totally destroyed, though one other is nearly perfect, and parts of the rest were preserved. The castle chapel, standing in this court, having be- come so ruinous as to be unfit for its sacred purposes, it was resolved during the administration of the Duke of Bedford to take it down, and erect on its site a more suitable edifice; which, having been completed in seven years, was opened for divine service on Christ- * Wbitelawand Walsl*. DUBLIK. 67 mas-day, 1814. Its cost, including the organ, was 42,000. This building, (73 feet long and 35 broad,) is of calpe, or common Irish black stone, consisting of a choir, without either nave or transept: the archi- tecture, which is Gothic, is in a rich and superior style. Seven buttresses, terminating in pinnacles, highly deco- rated, and springing from four grotesque heads in each, are the supports on either side. A battlement separates the pinnacles; and between the buttresses, on each side, are six pointed windows: a door, in a style uniform with these, appears at the east end, over which the projecting moulding springs on one side from ahead of St. Patrick, and on the other from that of the Irish monarch Brian Boromhe. A tablet surmounts it, bear- ing the legend following. X HANC jEDEM DEO OPTIMO MAXIMO OLIM DICATAM VETVSTATE PENITVS DIRVTAM DENVO EXTRVI IVSSIT JOHANNES BEDFORDI^E DVX HIBERNLE PROREX IPSEQVE FVNDAMENTA POSVIT ANNO A CHRISTO NATO. M. D. CCCVII. The great east window, of richly ornamented archi- tecture, whose canopy springs from the heads of Hope and Charity, and is decorated at its point by a half-length figure of Faith, holding a chalice, rises over the door- way. The superior termination is a fine antique cross. Square towers, containing robing rooms and stairs leading to the galleries of the edifice, rise to the height of the roof at the angles of the eastern end. The principal entrance is on the north side, and sup- ports a bust of St. Peter, holding a key, and over a 68 DUBLIK. window above is that of the poet's " witty, dirty, Dean."* On entering by this door, the effect of the eastern window, adorned with stained glass, (whose subject is Christ before Pilate,) together with that of the whole interior embellishment, is uncommonly striking. Statues of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and busts of the four Evan- gelists, are placed beside this window. Twelve clus- tered pillars, surmounted by capitals covered with foliage, support groined arches springing from grotesque heads to form the roof; the ceiling, richly ornamented with tracery, is painted to resemble stone. The royal arms in the central pannel of the organ gallery, and on either side those of the Duke of Bedford who began, and of the Duke of Richmond who finished the chapel, are beautifully carved in oak: from these are placed alternately, and in chronological series, the arms of all the viceroys from the time of Henry II. with in- scriptions marking the dates of their arrivals and departures. From a shaft resting upon an open Bible, lying on a clustered, richly foliaged, and Gothic base, raised two feet above the floor, ascends the pulpit; whose pannels bear the arms of the Archbishops and Bishops, and four Deans, of the establishment in Ireland ; together with those of the four great royal supporters of the reformed religion, Henry VIII. Edward VI. Elizabeth, and Wil- liam III. More particularly to dwell upon the several beauties of on edifice, calculated from their number and variety to swell our description to an unusual length, might be tedious. But it is a tribute due to Irish talent to observe, that, excepting only the stained glass, which * Swift. DUBLIN. 69 Lord Whitworth purchased on the continent, and the organ, which was made in England, not a portion of the design, sculpture, or general decorations of this tasteful and truly elegant chapel is exotic; a circum- stance which, while it reflects the highest honour upon its architect and the ornamental artists, should teach the Irish to be more just to the merit which English liberality has thus enabled them to appreciate, and which their own generous patronage might excite to efforts yet more praise-worthy. The castle, with its garden, (a small lawn decorated with walks, trees, and shrubs, situated behind the apartments of the Viceroy,) and its other dependen- cies, occupies a space of ground equal to nine acres, four perches. Leaving the vice-regal residence by the principal entrance opposite Cork-hill, we pass the west front of the Royal Exchange, a building which communicates a grandeur of approach to the castle, calculated to in- crease the disappointment excited by the appearance of that mansion itself. The form of this beautiful edifice is nearly a square of 100 feet, having three fronts of Portland stone, in the Corinthian order, crowned by a dome in the centre. The north front is the most perfect: a range of six columns, with their correspondent pilasters and entablature, sustain a noble pediment, highly decorated ; at each side, in the same range, are two pilasters. On account of the accli- vity of the ground on which the Exchange stands, the entrance is by a large flight of steps, and, before it, is a handsome balustrade supported by rustic work : in this front, between the columns, are three entrances, with elegant iron gates, hung to Ionic pilasters. Imme- 70 DUBLIN. diately over the gates, are three windows between the columns, that assist in lighting the coffee room ; on each side of these windows arc two others, all richly orna- mented by architraves, &c. The lower part, between the pilasters, is embellished by rustic work. The west front varies but little from the north, ex- cept in the want of a pediment: a regular range of Corinthian pilasters, with their entablature, are continued throughout the three fronts, and support an elegant balustrade, which is only interrupted by the pediment in the north front: in the centre of the west side is a projection of the entablature, supported by four columns, between which are three handsome glass doors, with Ionic pilasters like those already described; the ascent to them is by three steps only, as the ground at this side is more level. In the upper floor is a range of windows, embellished like those in the north front. Under the pilasters in the east front, are arched windows that light the Brokers' Offices, and a door that communi- cates with them, and the subterraneous vaults of the Exchange. The east front is in a narrow passage called Exchange-alley, and ornamented with pilasters only. " On entering this edifice," says Mr. Malton, whose architectural enthusiasm in describing the public build- ings of Dublin gives interest to his minutest details, " the attention is immediately called to many con- spicuous beauties; but, above all, to the general form. Twelve fluted pillars, of the Composite order, 32 feet high, are circularly disposed in the centre of a square area, covered by a highly-enriched entablature ; above which is a beautiful cylindrical lantern, about 10 feet high, perforated by 12 circular windows, ornamented with festoons of laurel leaves; the whole crowned with a DUBLIN. 71 handsome spherical dome, divided into hexagonal com- partments, enriched and well proportioned; and lighted from the centre by a large circular sky-light. On each side of the 12 columns which support the dome, are impost pilasters of the Ionic order, rising to upwards of half the height of the columns, the same as those which appear on the outside of the building, and covered with a fluted frieze and enriched cornice. The side-walks of the square are covered with a flat ceiling, the height of the impost pilasters, with enriched soffits from the pilasters in the centre to others opposite them against the wall. The columns, pilasters, floor, stair-case, &c. are all of Portland stone, which produces a fine effect. At each extremity of the north side are handsome oval geome- trical stone stair-cases, lighted by oval lanterns, in highly enriched coved ceilings ; by which is access to the coffee and other rooms, disposed around the cylinder of the dome, over the ambulatory below. In the north front is the coffee-room, which is an excellent apartment, extend- ing from one stair-case to the other, lighted by three windows, between the pillars of the portico, and by two oval lanterns, in a coved ceiling, richly ornamented in stucco on coloured grounds. On the west is a large room for the merchants to deposit samples of their wares, called the Brokers' Office, but used as a sitting- room for the Commissioners of Bankruptcy. To the south are the apartments of the house-keeper. On the east is the Merchants' Committee-room, with a convenient anti-chamber. " Opposite the north entrance, between two of the pillars which support the dome, is an excellent statue of his present Majesty, George III., in a Roman mili- 7 2 DUBLIN. tary habit, placed on a white marble pedestal, cast in bronze, by J. Van Nost; it was presented to the mer- chants of Dublin by the Earl of Northumberland, when Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to be placed in the Exchange ; and cost 700 guineas. In a niche in the wall of the west stair-case, is a fine marble statue of the late Dr. Charles Lucas, holding Magna Charta in his hand, standing on a pedestal, whereon is represented Liberty in bas-relief: it is esteemed an excellent piece of art, executed by Mr. Edward Smyth, a native of Ireland; the expense was defrayed by a number of gentlemen, friends of the deceased patriot. " The Exchange was planned and executed under the immediate inspection of the late Mr. Thomas Cooley, architect, from London. * * * * * This was the first introduction of Mr. Cooley to Ireland ; where he executed many works of consequence, both in the metropolis and country, which do him great credit; but, of all, the Ex- change undeniably claims the pre-eminence. ***** Although the Earl of Northumberland was so warm and active to forward the execution, he had not the honour of laying the foundation-stone, which was done, with great ceremony, by his successor, George, Lord Vis- count Townshend, on the 2nd of August, 1769> five years after the parliamentary grant of .12,500 for the purchase of the site; and was opened on the 1st of January, 1779- A considerable sum was raised by the merchants, as a fund for the erection, added to, and completed by means of lottery schemes, conducted by them with the utmost integrity.* The gross amount of the whole expenditure was ,-1.0,000." * " Mr. Thomas Allen having, in 1763, been appointed by patent 73 The ingenious writer of this description, who is author of a folio volume of extremely well executed views of the principal buildings in Dublin, has judiciously di- rected the chief attention of his readers to the interior of this beautiful structure, since in that respect it excels every other in the city, of whose grandeur he raises very elevated ideas. He has, however, omitted to mention, what may justly be deemed a defect in the original plan, the smallness of the edifice in proportion to the purposes for which it was designed: to remedy which, a line of buildings called the Commercial-buildings, but which might not inappropriately have been termed the new Exchange, have been erected by private subscription. The Exchange possesses a great advantage in its situa- tion immediately opposite to one of the principal avenues in the city, called Parliament-street, of which, as well as of Essex Bridge over the Liftey, and a long line of continuation to the end of Capel-street, it commands a fine perspective view. Its appearance, in the approach from Capel-street, is at least equally striking. Directing our steps along Parliament-street, which is to the sinecure place of taster of wines, and endeavouring to enforce a fee of two shillings per ton upon all wines and other liquors im- ported into this kingdom, the merchants of this city formed an association, entered into a subscription, and appointed a committee, to conduct a legal opposition to the measure : the struggle did not last long, nor cost much ; and, turning their thoughts to the best mode of applying the redundant subscription, they unanimously adopted the idea of building a commodious edifice for tin meeting of merchants and traders: such seems to hare been the origin of building this Exchange, and a situation having been fixed upon, the purchase-money, 13,500, was obtained from parliament by the zeal and activity of Doctor Charles Lucas, then one of the city representatives, whose statue, of course, merits the situation it oc- cupies in this beautiful edifice." Wkitelaw and Walsh^ vol. 1. p. 523 VOL, I. H 74 DUBLIN. spacious, and one of the greatest trading thoroughfares in the city, we arrive at Essex Quay, and the bridge just mentioned. Here we observe the quays in general finished with parapets, which, for facilitating the landing of goods, are omitted below Carlisle Bridge, where the merchant and other vessels lie ; but are here added, interrupted only by the conveniences of iron gates, and stone stairs to the water's edge. But these parapets have a rather heavy effect, and their place might have been much better supplied by a light iron railing. The bridge is the noblest in Dublin, being 10 feet wider than West- minster Bridge,* London, of which it is a close, but r from the narrowness of the stream, necessarily a miniature imitation. It has five arches, the whole of hewn stone ; and was completed, after the labour of two years, and at the expense of .20,661, in 1755. But this was the period of the rebuilding, not of the original erection of the bridge: the first Essex Bridge having been raised during the vice-royalty of Arthur, Earl of Essex, in 1676; and from that nobleman it derives its name. Returning through Parliament-street, and again arriv- ing in front of the Exchange, we may notice Dame-street to the eastward, which, from its width, and the splendour of its shops, (inferior only to the best in London,) has an air of considerable importance : but a south-westerly direction through Castle-street to Werburgh-street, con- ducts us to the only other remarkable object in this parish its church. This building was originally deco- rated with the solitary spire which Dublin possessed; but latterly, the timbers upon which it rested having been discovered to be unsound, it was taken down notwith- * Westminster Bridge is 44 feet broad, Essex Bridge 54. DUBLIV. 75 standing a liberal offer from Mr. Johnston, an ingenious architect, who, recollecting the method adopted by Sir Christopher Wren to secure the spire of Salisbury Cathe- dral, would have engaged to support it in the same manner by interior frame-work. As it is, the steeple, which fronts Werburgh-street, deprived of its appropriate termination, as well as of a point of view by the prox- imity of the opposite houses, appears unworthy of par- ticular attention ; though upon more closely observing it, we cannot but perceive the beauty of its three Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite stories. From the situation of the Castle in St. Werburgh's parish, the Lord Lieutenant has a pew in its church, and, by etiquette, seldom attends charity sermons at other places of worship. During the repairs of the Castle Chapel, this circumstance proved a considerable ad- vantage to the parochial poor, as the Viceroy was then very frequently present, and the donations of numbers who attended from curiosity, proportionably swelled the amount of the contributions. The chief feature of the interior is its size, in comparison with that of other churches in Dublin ; it being 80 feet long by 52 wide; and it is characterised by a simplicity both severe and solemn. The galleries are of dark and varnished oak, supported by Doric pilasters; the seats below are of the same gloomy-looking material. The organ over the entrance is the principal ornament, being consi- dered one of the handsomest attached to the parochial churches. The large eastern window over the altar sheds a deadened and " religious light," but the Ionic columns in rear of the communion-table, with alternate compartments of stuccoed drapery and flowers, have an elegant effect. 76 PUBUK. The date of tl^e erection of the church is 1759, when it was rebuilt in consequence of the destruction of the ancient building by fire five years previously. The lat- ter was also a re-erection, the yet more antique edifice, whose site it occupied, having experienced a like fate in 1301, by a conflagration which involved in ruin q, large portion of the then-existing city. Proceeding from this spot by Little and Great Shipr streets, a part of Stephen-street, and Great George's-street, we pass Castle-market (removed in 1782 from the vicinity of the Castle to its present situation, by the Com- missioners of Wide Streets,) and enter Dame-street by that part in the parish of St. Andrew.* This parish is one of the most remarkable in Dublin for fine public buildings, of which we are presented with a remarkable concentratipn, in the view, as we advance, of College Green. Taking these as they occur, the Commercial-buildings, on the northern side, already slightly mentioned, may be first described, This is a simple but very neat edifice, of mountain granite, con- sisting of three stories, with a cornice. The only signs of any architectural order in its front, are the Ionic pillars appended to the centrical door-way : the pediments of the seven windows conspicuous in the middle story, are alternately circular and pointed, and the basement is of rustic work. This building, as previously stated, was erected by subscription, in consequence of the ina- dequacy of the Royal Exchange to the purposes of the merchants; the smallness of that edifice having rendered it necessary to confine the transaction of business with- \ * The population of St. Werburgh's parish was returned in 1814, at 3052 inhabitants; the number of houses, 246. DUBLIK. 7" in its walls to an hqur on three days of the week, for the purchase of bills on London. It was first opened in 1799? having been three years in its progi-ess to completion. The coffieeTroom is {) feet long, by 28 wide : here the principal English and Irish newspapers are constantly provided. There are also apartments for sleeping as in an hotel, but the accommoda- tions are restricted to this and providing coffee, &c. for the pccupants. Here are the Marine Insurance Company's room, the Merchants' private subscription room, the Stock Exchange, &c. Behind, the Commercial and Royal Exchange Insurance Offices, with those where the brokers display their samples, occupy a roomy court. The commerce of Dublin has materially increased since the Union one-eighth, it is supposed, at least and this establishment, in consequence, ha flourished proportionably. The subscribers have not only paid off the loan of 13,OQO, obtained to defray a portion of their first expenses, but are now receiving six per cent, interest for the money, amounting to ^20,000 ? which they sunk in the erection. In a line with the Commercial-buildings, is Daly's Club-house, likewise a neat rather than an elegant building, and constructed of the same description of mountain stone as the former. This once-fashionable club is said to be much on the decline; and, with it, gambling of every description in Dublin so much so, that even card-tables at private houses are becoming uncommon. The spirit of reformation has extended also to the ' social glass,' which, it has been observed, circulates with infinitely less rapidity than formerly, when hospitality was a term synonymous with hard drinking. H 3 8 DUBLIN. An equestrian statue of William III. in bronze, deco- rates the centre of College Green. Great solemnity was observed on the opening of this statue to public view, on the anniversary of the battle of the Boyne, July the 1st, 1701. Since when, until very recently, that day and the 4th of November, (the monarch's birth-day) were commemorated by rejoicings round his brazen representative; but as this custom tended greatly to revive the memory of party distinctions, to the honour of the city of Dublin it has been lately much discoun- tenanced. Still, however, the statue is annually deco- rated with orange-coloured ribbons ; and " by an eftusion of more loyalty than taste," both it and the marble pedestal on which it stands are daubed with a fresh coat of paint in honour of every succeeding ' glorioas first of July/ These practices are at the expense of the Corporation. The statue itself is very respectably executed, and, from the elevation of its pedestal, has at a distance a good effect. The latter has the following inscription: GDMELMO Tertio; Mngnee Britannia;, Franciaj, et Hibcrnia?, Re.?', Ob Religionem Conservatam, Restitutas Leges, Libertatem Assertam, Cives Dublinienses hanc Statuam posuere. An opening immediately opposite to this statue, on the south side of College Green, conducts us to the parochial church, designated from its form, the Round Church. But, correctly speaking, it is in the shape of an oval or ellipsis, 80 feet long by 60 wide. Its gen- eral appearance, derived from this singularity, and the DUBLIN. 79 meanness of its architecture, is such, that few, without positive assurances of the fact, would conceive it could possibly be intended for a protestant church. It has a stone vestibule in front, surmounted by a statue of St. Andrew; but the remainder of the exterior is of brick, recently plastered over to give it a resemblance to a more appropriate material: it has neither spire nor steeple in a finished state; though a fine Gothic steeple, behind the edifice, was commenced in 1793? (when a general repair was found requisite,) but for want of the necessary funds, is not likely to be completed. It was the church originally attached to this parish, which, in its former situation near the castle, had " for divers years been used as a stable for the deputy's horses/'* until " legally evicted" from the government in 1631, and restored to its rightful possessors : it was rebuilt in 1670, and then first occupied its present site. \Vithin, all is in complete contrast to the xmsightly exterior we have just described; here the oval form, which is a blemish without, is made to contribute to the effect of the light proportions and tasteful elegance of the whole arrangement. The gallery, which, unbroken in its corresponding ellipsis but by the organ loft, forms a principal ornament, is distinguished by receding co- lumns, whose appearance is at once graceful and extraordinary: the capitals, decorated with lotus-flowers, and connected with their fluted shafts by work resem- bling cordage, are in imitation, it is said, of Denon's graphic delineations of ruins in Egypt: a band of cord- age also runs beneath the pannels of the entire structure. Certainly the very ingenious architect has offended no eye of taste, by this departure from the established * Strafford's Letters, vol. 1. pp. 61 and SI . 80 DUBLIN. orders; and no reason, we think, can be divined by the warmest admirers of Grecian and Roman architecture, for excluding the styles of that country, from which architecture itself, and every other liberal art, were primarily derived. The expense of rebuilding this church, in which divine service was resumed in March 1807, was little less than 22,000. Re-treading the avenue 'by which we were led from College Green, and following the southern side of the latter, we arrive at the late Post-office, a building more distinguished for the utility of the establishment to which it was attached, than for its own architectural beauty. In consequence of the daily increasing want of room expe- rienced within the contracted limits of this edifice, the foundation-stone of a magnifipent new Post-office was laid in Sackville-street, on the 12th of August, 1815, by the then Lord Lieutenant, Lprd Whitwqrth ; this we shall notice in the proper place. The estimated expense of the new erection is ,60,000. Directly facing this building is the grand front of the national Bank, to the effect of which, in union with that of the beautiful front of Trinity College, it is impos- sible for mere description to do justice. No edifice that we recollect in the British metropolis can be compared, for simple elegance, with this: it is perhaps, in this respect, the chef d 'ecu-ore of our imperial architecture. It was originally the Parliament-house of Ireland; and, while adapted to its first purpose, was so judiciously described by Mr. Malton, that we cannot do better than transcribe his account of such parts of the bujlding as re- main unaltered by the change that has since taken place. " The Parliament-house of Ireland is, notwithstanding the several fine pieces of architecture recently rabed, DUBLIN. 81 the i^oblest structure Dublin has to boast; and it is no hyperbole to advance, that this edifice in the entire, i the grandest, most convenient, and most extensive of the kind in Europe. The portico is without any of the usual architectural decorations, havipg neither statue, vase, bass-relief, tablet, sculptured key-stpne, or sunk pannel to enrich it; it derives all its beauty from a sim- ple impulse of fine art; and is one of the few instances pf form only, expressing true symmetry. It has been with many the subject pf consideration, whether it would not have been rendered still more pleasing, had the dado of the pedestal, above the entablature, been perforated, and balusters placed in the openings ; but those pf the best taste have been decidedly of opinion, it is best as the architect has put it out of his hands. This noble structure is situated on College Green, is placed nearly at right angles with the west front of the college, and the contiguity of two such structures gives a grandeur of scene that would do honour to the first city in Europe. " Ttye inside of this admirable building corresponds jn every respect with the majesty of its external ap- pearance. * * * * Th,e House of Lords is situated tp the right of the Commons', and is also a noble apartment; the body is 40 feet long by 30 wide, in addition to which, at the upper end, is a circular recess, 13 feet deep, like a large nictye, wherein the throne is placed, under a rich canopy of crimson velvet; and at the lower end i the bar, 20 feet square. The room is ornamented at each end, with Corinthian columns, with niches between : the entablature of the order goes round the room, which is covered with a rich trunk ceiling. On the two long sides of the room are two large pieces of tapestry, now rather decayed; one represents the 82 DUBLIN". famous battle of the Boyne, and the other that of Au- ghrim :* they were executed by a Dutch artist, and are esteemed very fine. Here again, the house assembled, from below the bar a high scene of picturesque grandeur is presented; and th4 Viceroy on the throne, appears with more splendour than his Majesty himself on the throne of England. " The parliament-house was begun to be built, during the administration of John Lord Carteret, in the year 1729, in the reign of George II., and was partly executed under the inspection of Sir Edward Lovet Pearce, engi- neer and surveyor-general; but completed by Arthur Ddbbs, esq. who succeeded him in that office, about the year 1739 ; the expense amounting to near 40,000." The Commons'-house, the description of which we have omitted in the foregoing account, appears also to have been " truly deserving of admiration;" but, in the new arrangement of the interior, at the period of the conversion of the edifice into a bank, this beautiful room was demolished, together with the Court of Requests, and on the site of the latter the present Cash- office was erected ; an office which has been pronounced to form " one of the finest rooms in the empire." The House of Lords remains nearly as described by Mr. Malton, but is now called the Court of Proprietors ; it has received a recent addition to its embellishments in a very fine statue of George III. in his parliamentary robes, and decorated with the Orders of the Bath, and of St. Patrick. 2000 were paid for this statue, which is of the finest white marble, to the artist, the younger * Here is a slight mistake : the last mentioned piece of tapestry is a representation, not of the Battle of Aughritn, but the Defence of Londonderry. DUBLIN. 83 Bacon; and, such is the beauty of its execution, we. cannot deem him overpaid. The pedestal is ornamented with sub-figures of Religion and Justice, and bears the simple inscription GEORGIUS III. REX. A beautiful Corinthian portico forms the entrance on the eastern side, and was that used by the Lords when they went to the House, having been erected at their order. This, though evidently an architectural incon- gruity, the columns of the principal front being Ionic, has a very fine effect from College-street, which faces it; and, certainly, the defect is not of consequence to justify the idea of taking it down, and rebuilding it in the Ionic order a measure which has been contemplated. " The western entrance is under a portico of four Ionic columns, and is attached to the old portico by a circular wall, as on the opposite side, but with the addi- tion of a circular colonnade, of the same order and magnitude as the columns of the portico, 12 feet distance from the wall. This colonnade, being of considerable extent, gives an appearance of extreme grandeur to the building, but robs it of particular distinguishing beauties, which the plainer screen wall to the east gives to the porticoes." Thus it appears, as Mr. Walsh notices, " that when this edifice became the property of the go- vernors, the east and west ends were dissimilarly connect- ed with the centre, a circumstance which must have produced a want of uniformity in the front, unpleasing to the eye of the spectator: this defect has been happily removed, and the connection is now effected by circular screen walls, ornamented .with Ionic columns supporting 84 DUBLIN. an entablature similar to that of the portico, and betweeii which are niches for statues^ the whole producing & Very fine effect." The length of the grand portico fronting College Greert is 147 feet, and the building altogether occup'ies an acre and a half of ground. Its flat roof is capable of receiving an entire regiment of soldiers. It is constructed through- out of Portland stone ; and the sum paid for its possession to government, in the year 1802, by the Governors of the Bank of Ireland, was ,40,000, subject to a ground rent, in addition^ of .240 per annum. Trinity College terminates the eastern view from Col- lege Green, and completes- the range of architectural embellishment; by which it is rendered the noblest area in Dublin. The college, like the bank, is built of Port- land stone, and presents a grand front of the Corinthian order to the spectator^ in length 300 feet. Corinthian columns, surmounted by an elegant pediment, ornament the vestibule in the centre; four ranges of windows ex- tend along the front; and the north and south projecting wings, or pavilions, which have an upper story, terminat- ing in a balustrade, have each four Corinthian pilasters, with other appropriate decorations. The vestibule, which is of an octagonal form, and ter- minated with groined arches^ over which is the Museum, conducts to the principal quadrangle (of which there are now bu 1 two, though formerly they were four in number) called Parliament-square. This is in length 32 8 feet, by 210 wide, and contains the theatre, the chapel, refec- tory, apartments for students, &c. all of hewn stone. It takes its name from the circumstance of its having been re-edified by various grants from parliament, amounting in the whole to more than 40,000. DUBLIN,. 85 The theatre is in a style corresponding with that of the grand entrance; the interior is of stucco-work. Be- sides whole-length portraits, attached to compartments' between Composite pilasters, of the royal foundress, Eliza- beth, and of seven celebrated personages* educated in the college, an elegant memorial to Doctor Richard Baldwin, who died Provost in 1758, has been here erect- ed. "A large sarcophagus of black and gold marble supports a white marble mattress, on which the Provost is represented in a recumbent posture, larger than life, with a scroll representing his will, by which he left his fortune, amounting to 80,000, to the university, in the left hand, on the elbow of which arm he supports him- self, and his right hand extended open. Over him leans a female figure, in a mourning attitude, emblematic of the university, up to whose face, expressive of the deep- est woe, he looks with a countenance of resigned complacency ; whilst at his feet there stands a fine figure of an angel, holding a wreath of palm in its left hand, that casts on him a look of ineffable benignity, and points up to heaven as his destination and reward. Behind these figures rises a magnificent pyramid, of variegated Egyptian porphyry. The sculpture of the figures is ex- cellent, the contours chaste, the draperies light and graceful, the attitudes well conceived, and the expression; throughout strong, yet correct: and the whole is a per- formance that does the highest honour to the abilities of Mr. Hewetson, a native of Ireland, settled at Rome, who executed it for the college, at the expense of 2000." The chapel, facing the theatre, presents a front * Primate Usber, Abp. King,Bp. Berkeley, Wm.Molyneaux. esq. Dean Swift, Dr. Baldwin, tin J the Rt. Hon. Johu Forster. VOL. i. i 86 DUBLIN. entirely in unison with it, and the embellishments with- in are no ways inferior. The refectory is a detached Ionic building, of equal merit, containing, besides the dining-hall and anti-room, the apartments of the Histo- rical Society. The library square is inferior both in appearance and dimensions to the other quadrangle. Yet the library itself is a noble building, though from the perishable nature of the stone employed in its erection, it appears fast approaching to decay. The room where the books are deposited, is of very large proportions, being 210 feet by 41, and 40 feet high: the shelves, which are elegantly and commodiously arranged, and the gallery, are of Irish oak, varnished. Twenty-one busts, in white marble, adorn the latter: the volumes are in number 50,000; besides which a collection of 27,000 volumes, known by the name of the Fagel Library,* has a room expressly appropriated to it. The library is open for four hours each day, from 8 to 10 in the morning, and from 12 to 2 in the afternoon ; students who choose it, however, may be locked in for the intermediate hours, in the absence of the librarian. The manuscript-room (over the Fagel collection) con-. * A grant from the governors of ErasmusSmith's schools, enabled the university to purchase this very valuable library at the expense of 8,000 English, after declining it in the first instance from the temporary inadequacy of their funds. It had belonged to Mr. Fagel, of Amsterdam, who conveyed it to London previously to the entry of the French into the former city in 17&4. Bonaparte, then First Consul, had employed an emissary to purchase the best of the books for the national library at Paris, but as the university treated for the whole collection, their ofier was of course preferred. Boili the Oxford and Cambridge universities, to whom proposals had bep:i made on its first arrival iu London, refused to become purchasers -> account of the largeness of the sum demanded. DUBLIN. 87 'tains many curious Irish MSS. and Dr. Barret, the pre- sent vice-provost, discovered there a very antique Greek manuscript of St. Matthew's Gospel, of which he has published a fac-simile. An attempt had been made to obliterate the characters, and over them others had been subsequently written; but the original Greek was still faintly discernible, and wherever it was totally effaced, he has supplied the blanks in his printed copy by points. Here are also a large MS. map of China, by a native Chinese, and in the characters of that country; the four gospels, with a continued Greek commentary, written in the ninth century; the famous Montfortian MS., &c. The collection of apparatus for lectureson natural philoso- phy is very valuable, and was in great part a donation from that active promoter of science the late Primate Robinson. The remaining three sides of the library quadrangle, not occupied by that building, consist of buildings appropriated as lodgings for the students. The museum is a fine room, and is the depository of many curious articles, with a good collection of minerals. One of the most interesting objects contained in it, is the celebrated harp of Brian Boromhe, which, notwithstanding the opinion of Dr. Ledwich to the con- trary, we venture to conceive to be a genuine specimen of the ancient Irish harp. The anatomy-house contains the well-known wax models of the human figure, exe- 'cuted by M. dc Roue, at Paris, and purchased by the Earl of Shelburne, who presented them to the college in 1752. South of the library, the fellows of the college have a good garden, into which the fellow-commoners and masters are alone admitted: the park, containing up- wards of 13 English acres, with a bowling-green, is allotted for |the purposes of recreation to the inferior students. The printing-office, with its Doric portico, and a building containing the anatomical lecture-room and the laboratory, are in this extensive area. The new north wing is a recent addition to the college, intended solely as additional apartments for the students. It is exceedingly bald of architectural decoration, and is technically called by the collegians * Botany Bay.' Trinity College is a university in itself, and is invested with all the privileges and powers, usually attached to those learned institutions. Queen Elizabeth's letters* patent for its foundation, however, expressly state it as intended " to be the mother of a university in a certain place called All-Hallows,* near Dublin ;" and " by the act of settlement, the chief governor or governors of Ireland, by consent of the privy council, were empow- ered to erect another college, to be of the university of Dublin, to be called King's College, and out of the lands vested, or to be vested in the King by that act, to raise a yearly allowance not exceeding ,2000, by an equal charge upon every thousand acres, and therewith to endow the said college, which, was to be governed by such laws and constitutions as, the King, his heirs or successors, should, under the great seal of England, or Ireland, appoint. But this power has not yet been Carried into execution.''! The college is liberally endowed, its estates, chiefly * The college stands on the site of an Augustinian monastery, dissolved by Henry VIII. and by him granted to the Mayor and citizens of Dublin, who readily yielded it, with the lands attached, for the purpose of this erection, at the pathetic appeal of Abp. Loft us, the most active promoter of the work. f Mr. Walsh. DUBLIN. 89 situated in the counties of Kerry and Donegal, and originally consisting of forfeitures to the crown, pro- ducing upwards of 15,000 per annum, The students are of three classes, distinguished by the names of fellow- commoners, pensioners, and sizars. The fellow-com- moners are the sons of noblemen, or private wealthy individuals, and wear a peculiar gown and cap; they have also the privilege of dining at the fellows' table, but for which they pay accordingly; whilst pensioners, at a less expense, possess all the real advantages which the college affords; and, if they conduct themselves with propriety, receive every attention from their supe- riors. The sizars, 30 in number, receive their com- mons and instruction gratis: as vacancies occur, they arc selected after examination from a number of com- petitors: though their situation may appear degrading, yet, by good conduct, they may remove every impres- sion that might be painful, and, in a very short time, by continued diligence, may raise themselves to a higher rank. Some of this class have even risen to the highest honours in the university. The corporation consists of a provost, seven senior and 18 junior fellows, and 70 scholars. The senior fellow is vice-provost. The income of the provost is upwards of .2600, that of a senior fellow generally about 1000, and that of a junior fellow from 500 to 800 per annum. The scholars have the right of voting at the election of the member returned by the college to parliament, with some other privileges and emoluments. The number of students of every denomi- nation is at present upwards of 1300. Considering the length of time that has elapsed since the foundation of this university, and the system of i 3 90 DUBLINi education, admirable upon the whole, pursued in it, it may be thought singular that the number of illustrious characters it has produced, should be comparatively small. But amongst these, it must be remembered, are the names, dear to literature and patriotism^ of Swift, Congreve, Goldsmith, Usher, Berkley, and Burke. Contiguous to the college, on the eastern side of Grafton-street, is the Provost's house, built of free-stone, upon an elegant design, and, next to Leinster House, which we shall presently describe, the noblest private residence in Dublin. The interior is very judiciously disposed, and the offices, which have the appearance ol wings, are neat and commodious. It is connected by a covered gallery, with the Parliament-quare. The Royal Irish Academy House, on the western side of Grafton-street, (a street which has a considerable trad- ing appearance,) is nearly opposite the Provost's house. There is nothing striking in the exterior of this building, but within it is roomy and convenient. The society was incorporated in the year 1786; its object is the pro- motion of polite literature, science, and antiquities; and much curious and valuable information, on subjects of general interest to the country, is consolidated and pre- served in its periodical volumes of Transactions, of which a twelfth has appeared. It possesses a library; and the large room in which the academy meet, is ornamented with very correct portraits of Lord Charlemont (the foun- der,) and the celebrated Irish chemist, Mr. Kirwan. The only other remarkable building in this parish, is the Theatre-Royal, Crow-street, the principal approach to which is from Dame-street. It is a rude and gloomy- looking edifice, externally, but conveniently fined up, DUBLIN. 51 and handsomely decorated, within. It will hold 2000 persons. The silence and decorum preserved during the performances at this theatre, are worthy of notice and commendation. The 'gods' in the gallery, as at Drury- lane, and Covent-garden, are generally the first to ap- plaud and condemn; but, as the citizens say, owing to a nice and discriminative sense of fitness and pro- priety, unknown amongst that part of an audience in London, their approbation or censure is seldom indeed misplaced. A Dublin audience, it is there affirmed, con- stitutes a sort of superior ordeal, which, if an actor can but pass, his pretensions may be considered as founded on a just basis, and his past reputation permanent. The total population of St. Andrew's parish, in 1814, was 7074; the number of houses, 703. Re-passing the grand front of Trinity College from Grafton-street, and proceeding by the eastern portico of the bank, we approach Aston Quay by Westmoreland- street, thus enteringthe parish of St. Mark. Immediately before us is Carlisle Bridge, an elegant structure of three arches, the building of which was commenced in 1791 : its breadth is 48, its length 210 feet. Continuing our n-ute eastward by the river-side, we arrive at Burgh Quay, where is the house of the Dublin Library Society, an institution supported by annual subscriptions, con- taining libraries of reference and circulation, and an apartment devoted to newspapers, periodical publi- cations, and conversation. Nearly opposite the Cus- tom-house, which looks majestically towards us from the northern bank, is the Corn Exchange. A main object of the merchants in erecting this building is said to have been to evade the toll claimed by the Cor- poration upon all corn coming into Dublin, but which, 92 DUBLIN. sold by samples here, is considered exempt from their cognizance. However this may have been, the struc- ture is not such as to do much honour to the taste of those who planned it. In extent and elevation it is conspicuous, but if intended as an imitation of the Com- mercial-buildings, which it appears to be, it is decidedly inferior to its neat original. An internal peculiarity, worth notice, is the material of the hollow Tuscan pillars, 14 in number, which decorate the hall: they are of metal, and were cast and parried entire from Cole- brook-dale, to the site they now occupy on the margin of the Liffey. At the extremity nearly of Sir John Rogerson's Quay, (though separated from it by an enclosure with an iron gate,) and just previous to our approach to the South Wall ? is the Hibernian Marine School; a simply ponstructed stone edifice, but wanting not that degree of elegance always to he obtained by a due regard to proportion. It consists of a centre, 72 feet by 46, and wings, receding its whole depth, each 30 feet by 60. The Marine Society was incorporated in 1755 by a charter, in which is stated that the purpose of its institu- tion was the " maintaining, educating, and apprenticing the orphans and children of decayed seamen in the royal navy, and merchants' service." Bpys here acquire read- ing, writing, arithmetic, and the theory of navigation ; and, after they are completed in this course, are ap- prenticed to masters of merchant-vessels, or embarked in king's-ships, as opportunities may offer. The value of such an institution is apparent, an< i we rejoice to hear that it has been eminently attended with the usefulness anticipated in its formation. Through same as yet, unfinished streets, we reach DUBLIN. 93 Townshend-street, in which are two edifices devoted to charitable purposes; the General Asylum for Female Penitents, which originated in the exertions of a poor Roman-catholic weaver, who first reclaimed by persua- sion a single individual, and then gradually procured the notice and support of the opulent around him : and the Lock Hospital, an extensive but plain stone building of the Doric order, exclusively devoted to the cure of a disgusting disease. Both these institutions are ex- amples of that spirit of genuine philanthropy, which appears in so many of the recent charitable erections of Dublin. By Mark-street we approach the parochial church, situated at its southern end, and distinguished by no ar- chitectural embellishment, but disgraced with the rem- Jiant of a steeple : the interior is roomy and commodious. In the same street is the United Hospital of St. Mark and St. Anne, of utility now only as a dispensary, the funds being at so low an ebb as to be inadequate to the support of any internal patient. It was originally main- tained by subscriptions, which of course must have latterly declined. The number of inhabitants in this parish, in 1814, was 11,066; the houses, 720. Directing our steps through Moss-lane, and turning the angle of the Vice-provost's garden, we enter Har- court Place, whose northern side, with that of Lein- ster-street, constitute a part of St. Mark's parish- boundary ; from whence crossing to Kildare-street, we find ourselves in the parish of St. Anne, inferior in population to that just quitted, (the number of inhabi- tants in 1814 being 8324,) but surpassing it in that of the houses, (in number 7^4 at the same period,) as 9* DUBLIN". well as in the general wealth and splendour of their occupants.* In Kildare-street, opposite the end of Molesworth- street, stands the Dublin Society House, late the princely mansion of the Duke of Leinster. The society, whose original station was in Grafton-street, and who after- wards expended .60,000 upon an erection in Hawkins- street, purchased Leinster House in 1815, and, besides the purchase-money, which was not of inconsiderable amount, laid out very large sums in adapting it to their purposes. But, after all, it may be questioned, whe- ther a palace is an appropriate residence for a scientific body; and, though that should be granted, the policy of removing from a noble and extensive man- sion, fitted up under their own inspection, and with a view to their exclusive objects, to one which, however surpassing it in grandeur, no expense can render so con- venient, is certainly doubtful. The principal front of this building faces Kildare- street, but is separated from it by a spacious court, the en- trance to which is by a rusticated gateway. The back- front looks into Merrion-square, but is separated from it also by a lawn, terminated by a low wall, which appears purposely contrived not to lessen the effect of the edifice * The reader may conceive it singular, that in a parish where there are more houses, the number of inhabitants should be less by nearly 3000 souls than in another where there are fewer ; but he will recol- lect that it is the poorer parts of Dublin which universally are the most populous, on account of the liabit prevalent among- the lower classes of crowding- numbers together in the same habitation, and even in the same room. See our general remarks in Excursion I. A similar disparity (though in a less degree) will be observed on com- paring the relative totals of population and houses in some parishes in London, and indeed in most cities. DUBLIN. 95 as seen from the square. The order of the grand front is Corinthian, supported by Doric colonnades at each angle. In the hall is a fine cast of the Apollo Belvidere, and others. The apartments serve the purposes of a library, museum, lecture-room, laboratory, &c. " In the library are about 10,000 volumes on the fine arts, architecture, Irish history, natural history, agriculture, and botany: on this latter subject every rare and valuable work is to be found, and the botanical col- lection of books exceeds perhaps any other in Europe. Besides, these there are copious collections of the trans- actions of other learned societies. The MSS. which may be consulted, are contained in 17 volumes folio, which are in good preservation. They were entirely collected by Walter Harris, and principally in his own Land-writing; their authenticity therefore depends on the credit due to himself. The first volume of the second series, however, is a collection of Archbishop King's, and considered original; it is chiefly ' de hospitalibus c George II. incorporated it by the title of " The Dublin Society for promoting Husbandry and other useful Arts in Ireland;" but latterly, the arts principally (and DUBLIW. 97 of those many of the polite ones) together with the sciences of botany, chemistry, mineralogy, &c., have occupied their attention, and nearly usurped the place of neglected agriculture. Whether the utility of the society is materially increased by the change, it is not for us to say ; certain it is, that its first labours .were highly commend- able, and productive of solid advantages to the country ; and the fact that " many millions of trees have been planted, many large and extensive nurseries formed in divers parts of the kingdom, under its premiums," alone speaks volumes in its praise. Under such auspices, Ireland might in time regain its appellation of the woody island, and, politically speaking, the empire would not lose by the substitution of sylvan produce in the place of a portion of the redundant population, whose precious and unnatural increase has a direct tendency to pre- vent a very general extension of its growth. The agricultural surveys of the Irish counties, of which 23 have been published, were set on foot by the Dublin Society, and have various degrees of merit: the survey of Kilkenny by Mr. Tighe, that of Cork by the Rev. H. Townsend, and that of 'Londonderry by the Rev. G. V. Sampson, are among the best. The Botanic Garden at Glasnevin, (a village in the environs of Dublin,) which is the property of the society, will be described in a future Excursion. The ' Society for promoting the Education of the Poor in Ireland,' have commenced an establishment in Kil- dare-street, near its southern termination at St. Stephen's Green, whose object is " to diffuse throughout the country a well-ordered system of education, which shall combine economy of time and money, and bestow a due attention on cleanliness and discipline; and the leading VOL. I. K 98 DUBLIN. principle by which it shall be guided is, to afford the same facilities to all classes of professing Christians, with- out any attempt to interfere -with the peculiar religious opinions of any."* The liberal principle forming the distinctive feature of this society, needs not from us a comment. We trust that its means will be found as en- larged as its public spirit, and its success commensurate with both. Parliament has wisely appropriated ,6000 to the fulfilment of its designs. The buildings begun in Kildare-street, consist of a school-room, to contain 1200 children, a printing-office, and a depository for the sale of such books as the society shall publish for the use of their schools, which, in time, it is anticipated, will ex- tend all over Ireland. At the corner of Kildare-street, fronting St. Stephen's Green, is Shelburne House, a venerable fabric, con- verted during a period of disturbance into a barrack for cavalry; but its military occupation has been discon- tinued. Arrived now within the largest square in Europe, although its north side is only included in the parish we are perambulating, we are naturally tempted to commence its particular survey. St. Stephen's Green is nearly an English mile in circumference; but, as is observed by Sir R. C. Hoare, " it is not sufficient that a street is wide, or that a square encloses a spacious area ; a certain regularity and grandeur in the surrounding houses is absolutely necessary to render them -striking: the good effects of symmetry are visible in many of the new squares in London, and still more so at Bath/' Now it is in these qualities of grandeur, regularity, and * Resolutions of the society at their first meeting at the Hohmda , Dublin, Dec. 2nd, 1811. DUBLIN. 99 symmetry, in the surrounding buildings, that St. Ste- phen's Green is particularly wanting: and the conse- quence is precisely such as the observation of the judicious Baronet would lead us to suspect. We cannot, however, continue his description: " A broad gravel walk, separated from the street by a low wall, and from the green by a dirty and stinking ditch, encircles the whole area, which is shaded by trees ;" since, the low wall and ditch have both disappeared, and a light iron palisade now encircles the whole interior area: so that, this and other striking improvements being recently made, Sir Richard might not now express his surprise " that the spirit of taste and improvement so highly con- spicuous in many parts of Dublin, should not have been extended to this fine green a spot so well calculated for public walks, and even in its present uncouth state, and with all its desagrtmens, so much resorted to by the public." On the right of Dawson-street, by which we will retreat from this immense ' surface of a meadow/ as it is called by the writer we have just quoted, the first conspicuous building is the Mayoralty House, an edifice extremely bald of external decoration, and distinguished only as the residence of the chief magistrate. In the garden attached, is an equestrian statue of George I., removed from Essex Bridge, on the rebuilding of that structure, to its present site, in 1798: it is unworthy of particular remark. Contiguous to the Mansion House is the parish church, presenting, notwithstanding its Doric pilasters, an unsightly and unfinished appearance: and it is not recommended by any striking interior embel- lishment. In the same street is the Hibernian Hotel, which having adopted for our abode while we remained 100 DUBLIN. in this city, we can recommend to the tourist as affording, equally with numerous others, every desirable accom- modation. Crossing Grafton and Clarendon-street, by Duke- street, Johnson's-court, and Coppinger-row, we proceed to the Stamp-office, formerly Powerscourt House, in William-street. The narrowness of the avenue in which this mansion is situated, and the coat of universal black (arising from the smoke of the surrounding habitations) with which its front is disfigured, prevent the spectator from immediately perceiving that the archi- tecture is of no common elegance. Lord Powerscourt erected the edifice for his town residence, and after- wards sold it to government for .15,000. " He raised the stone from the mountains on his estate, and engaged Mr. Mack, a stone-cutter, to display all his skill in its erection. It is approached by a flight of steps, formerly leading to a portico supported on four Doric pillars, which is now removed. The first story is enriched with rustic arched windows, and an entablature of the Doric order continued throughout the front to two gateways, surmounted by pediments, which stand as wings to the building. In the centre of the second story is a Vene- tian window of the Ionic order; the other windows are ornamented with their proper architraves and pediments. Above is a cornice with a central pediment, in the tym- panum of which is a coronet. But what peculiarly marks the edifice is a quadrangular building elevated, above the whole, erected for the purpose of an observa- tory, and commanding an extensive view of the bay of Dublin and the surrounding country."* A Stamp-office was first introduced into Ireland in 1774, and the busi- * Mr. Walsh. DUBLIN, 101 ness of this department of the revenue, originally trans- acted in Eustace-street, was removed to the present more eligible situation in May, 1811. Nothing else of interest occurring within the limits of St. Anne's parish, we here concluded our second Excursion, and returned to the Hibernian Hotel. EXCURSION III. Through the Parish of St. Peter, the Deanery of St. Patrick, the Parishes of St. Bride and St. Nicholas Within, and the Deanery of Christ Church. .LEAVING Dawson-street for St. Stephen's Green, (already described,) and tracing its northern side with that of Merrion-row, we enter, by Baggot-street, the extensive, populous, and wealthy parish of St. Peter. Baggot-street is distinguished only for its humble and unpretending, but highly useful, " House of Refuge for Female Servants out of Place," where young women 'suddenly deprived of their usual means of support, and incapable of adopting any other/ pro- vided they can bring ' unquestionable testimonies of their modesty, honesty, and sobriety/ are permitted to reside, until other services can be procured for them ; ' and in the meantime are employed in washing and plain work, &c., receiving a small daily allowance to assist any de- ficiency in their earnings.' Another of these Houses of Refuge exists in Dublin; and those who consider the K 3 102 DUBLIN. temptations to which unprotected females are exposed, upon becoming such ' temporary outcasts," and the humane advantages afforded them by these establish- ments, can scarcely too highly appreciate them. The modern-built Fitzwilliam-street conducts us hence to Meirion-square, the handsomest in Dublin, but in- debted for a considerable portion of its fine effect to the vicinity of the Dublin-Society House, and the lawn in rear of that princely dwelling. The low wall attached to the latter occupies nearly the whole extent of the square on its western side; the other three sides are adorned with lofty, wellvbuilt houses, not precisely uniform in their appearance, nor yet disagreeably contrasted. The northern foot-way is, on summer evenings, the fashion- able lounge for all the gay and wealthy inhabitants of the neighbourhood. This square, though in extent some acres less than St. Stephen's Green, infinitely surpasses it in elegance, and is a principal ornament to the south- eastern quarter of the city. From Merrion-square our walk lies through Holies- street to the Artichoke Road, near the eastern extremity of which, and at the verge of St. Peter's parish, is Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital, frequently called the Clinical Hospital from the lectures given there; the design of its institution being to afford instruction to pupils, connected with the various cases which come under their inspec- tion, as well as to grant medical relief to the sick. There are six professors, (appointed by the act of 1800, in vir- tue of which the building was erected,) one of whom, twice in every week, remarks at large upon the cases of the patients, and explains to the students the principles of his method of cure. The hospital is a neat substantial edifice, consisting of a centre and two projecting wings, DUBLIN. 103 raised by a fund provided out of estates bequeathed by Sir Patrick for the establishment of professorships in the college of physicians : for, the executors having failed to perform his intentions, the trust was, by a decree of the Court of Chancery, awarded to the college, who, besides paying the professors' salaries, were enabled, by the increasing value of the estates, to found this extensive building. A good collection of books, likewise be- queathed by Sir Patrick, is attached to the institution. Contiguous to this spot are the Grand Canal Docks, which, though properly in the environs of Dublin, we may not meet with a fitter opportunity to describe. These docks constitute a large artificial basin, capable of receiving 600 vessels, which may enter it without obstructing the channel of the Liffey, with the mouth of which river it forms a junction by means of locks. This basin is in fact a large harbour, covering an extent of ground equal to 25 English acres, surrounded by noble wharfs, which are intended to be encircled by ware- houses. Its entire length is 3300 feet, from its entrance by the Liffey to the commencement of the cut by which it communicates with the Grand Canal; its greatest width 360 : it is not carried in a ri^iit line from the mouth of the river, but forms a direct angle, stretching to the southward, before it has quite completed half its length. Over the latter branch is a draw-bridge ; and graving docks, three in number, for vessels of various sizes, are attached to the former. The cut of commu- nication, after making a semicircular sweep of three miles round the entire southern district of the city, enters the Grand Canal at a short distance from its south- western extremity, and is crossed by numerous bridges, one of which, called Magnay Bridge, and leading to 104 DUBLIN. the Artichoke Road, is in the vicinity of the Clinical Hospital. Following the line of this cut by its northern bank, about 6 or 700 yards, an unfinished street will conduct us back to Fitzwilliam-street, and, on crossing it, to the square of the same name, possessing little to recommend it beyond its air of cheerful neatness. By another un- finished street, diverging from the south-western angle of this square, we reach Leeson-street, where is the Magdalene Asylum, the principal among the five esta- blishments of its kind to be found in Dublin, and that first instituted, chiefly by the exertions of Lady Arabella Denny. A neat chapel is appended to the asylum, where contributions are every Sunday received from the numerous and fashionable congregations who constantly attend the service ; and the amount of these donations is, we believe, the main support of the institution. Westward of Leeson-street are the " Coburg Gardens," the entrance to which, in Harcourt-street, we arrive at by treading the walk skirted by the trees which form their southern boundary. These gardens, 12 acres in extent, were formerly the grounds of Lord Clonmel, but were opened to the public in May, 1817, under the above appellation, with a grand display of illuminations, fireworks, &c., in imitation of the London Vauxhall, but with a degree of success, we understand, far from equal to the sanguine expectations of the new proprie- tors. In fact, amusements of this kind appear incon- genial with the domestic turn of the Irishman's ideas of social happiness ; society is his delight, but society with him is divested of its most endearing charm, unless enjoyed at his own home, or that of some one among the number of his visiting acquaintances. DUBLIN. 105 From Harcourt-street we have once more a prospect of St. Stephen's Green ; and proceeding by its western side as far as the corner of York-street, the Royal Col- lege of Surgeons, situated at this spot, arrests the atten- tion. It is an elegant Doric structure, of Portland stone and native granite, erected at an expense of ,40,000. The interior consists of a theatre, two museums, dis- secting rooms, and other apartments, the whole ex- tremely well adapted to the objects of the establishment ; and the arrangements and conduct of the institution are such, as to afford advantages to pupils, not to be sur-^ passed perhaps by those of any other of its kind. By York-street we are conducted to Aungier-street, where is the parochial church, entirely wanting in external decoration, though respectable and convenient within. In the same street is the Incorporated Society House, the objects of which institution demand particu- lar remark. The charter granted by George the Second expresses its " intent" to be " that the children of the popish, and other poor natives of the said kingdom (Ireland) may be instructed in the English tongue, and the principles of true religion and loyalty;" the pre- amble having stated <( that in many parts of the said kingdom, there are great tracts of land almost entirely inhabited by papists, who are kept by their clergy in great ignorance of the true religion, and bred up in great disaffection to the government;" and farther, " that the erecting of English protestant schools in those places was absolutely necessary for their conversion." The conversion of the children of popish parents to pro- testantism, being then the avowed object of these schools, the effects of their institution have been found, after the experience nearly of a century, to be precisely lOO DUBLIN. such as a liberal and enlightened spirit would from the first have predicted, as the natural consequences of a scheme fraught with such views, and directed by such means to their accomplishment. Wherever the charter schools have reared their intolerant heads, they have uniformly been regarded by the majority of the papists in their vicinity, as decoys to their children from the allegiance due to themselves, as well as from the revered faith of their ancestors; nothing can induce these poor people to believe that any other than political views were entertained in their erection ; and the advantages to be derived from a system which combines the main- tenance, clothing, and educating of their offspring, are overlooked or disregarded, while the bigotted and party designs of the founders are enlarged upon and ex- aggerated. Even should that sensibility to the benefits of instruction, so prevalent in Ireland, induce them to consent to this estrangement of the interests, habits, and ideas of the children from their own, every precaution is generally used by them, at every opportunity, to instil into their minds their own religious and political prejudices, and to fix in them an aversion to the es- tablishments in which they are reared, and to the language by means of which they are instructed : so that instances daily occur of the youths' relapsing, on their return to their families, into the errors of their native creed, and forgetting the dialect they were taught to read, in the use of that they are subsequently accustomed to hear spoken. It is but justice to the Incorporated Society, however, to observe, that much has been done of late years towards ameliorating the system of their schools, and that some glaring defects in their original constitution have been either softened down or other- DUBLIN. 107 \visc obviated; but while the design of their institution has thus been rendered less palpable and obtrusive, a considerable period must elapse, it is to be feared, before the poor catholic population will view it with feelings less repugnant* The present number of schools dis- persed throughout the country is 37, and that of the children educated in them rather less than 3000, of whom the proportion of Roman-catholics to protestants is about eight to one. In perambulating this parish, we have not gone out of our way to notice the little village-like church of St. Kevin, in Upper Kevin-street, united to St. Peter's, as it possesses nothing to interest the tourist; nor the County Infirmary, or New Meath Hospital, in Long- lane, as the latter building is as yet unfinished, though it promises to be of great magnitude, and corresponding utility. The population of St. Peter's parish, in 1814, amounted to 13,478 souls, the houses were in number 1264. Quitting Aungier-street, by its southern extremity, and proceeding westward through Bishop-street, our first subject of enquiry in the Deanery of St. Patrick is the episcopal palace, converted within the last 25 years into a barrack for infantry; and though the practice of quartering soldiers there has been recently discontinued, a part of the building is still appropriated to the accom- modation of the police patrole. Thus the Archbishop of Dublin has no residence in that city; but his Grace has not much reason to regret the loss of this palace, as of late years it could not have formed a very dignified archiepiscopal abode; and, in answering the purposes to which it is now assigned, it has been found eminently useful. The Deanery House, also in Kevin- 108 DUBLIN. street, is a plain unornamented brick building, fronted by a spacious enclosed court-yard. From this street Patrick-street runs nearly due north ; and on the eastern side of the latter is the venerable Ca- thedral. Of this, and the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, usually called Christ Church, Sir Richard Hoare observes, that though remarkable for their antiquity, they are so " only on that account;" to which he justly adds, that " their state is very bad and precarious, and the ap- proach to each of them filthy beyond measure, and through the very worst parts of the city." St. Patrick's Cathedral, we are farther informed by this gentleman, " is said to have been built by John Comyn, Archbishop of Dublin, on the site of an older building, and dedi- cated by him in the year il90 to St. Patrick. Henry Loundres afterwards changed its ecclesiastical establish- ment, which was collegiate in its first constitution, and erected it into a cathedral about the year 1225, uniting it with the Priory of the Holy Trinity, or Christ Church, and reserving to the latter the prerogative of honour. The chapel of the Blessed Virgin is said to have been built by Fulk de Saundford, who in 1271 was buried in it; the steeple was erected by Archbishop Minot in 1370, who also rebuilt a part of the cathedral which had been destroyed by fire ; and the lofty spire owes its existence to a legacy bequeathed by Doctor Sterne, Bishop of Clogher, in 1750." This spire, we are in- formed by a female traveller, " looks like a vast extin- guisher!"* an opinion, upon the propriety of which we shall not venture a comment, but merely refer the reader to our own view of the cathedral, which will enable him to judge for himself. Taken all together, * Narrative of a Residence in Ireland. DUBLIN. 109 notwithstanding, we must consider the venerable St. Patrick's an interesting pile, although its site, it must be confessed, is particularly injudicious, being the lowest ground in Dublin ; and the heavy dead wall and disgust- ing huts which surround it are certainly no ornamental appendages. But, though inferior in almost every respect to the numerous remains of Gothic architecture in Eng- land, of which latter several have not their equals in any country, yet this cathedral, considered by some to be the most respectable specimen of that style of building in the sister island, is at the least worthy of a better fate, than to be suffered to totter into irretrievable ruin, (which from present appearances seems to be its no very distant doom,) or to be demolished for the purpose of rebuilding it in a more elevated situation. To the latter plan, indeed, the dean and chapter have evinced a decided objection, although they have in a very spirited manner set apart a portion of their incomes towards the creation of a repairing fund ; and their great object is said to be to restore the building in its original form, dimensions, and style of architecture. The steeple and choir, which are either of later date or have been more substantially repaired than the other parts of the building, are alone likely 10 remain entire for any long period -to come; the former, in particular, is still perfectly sound, and a principal ornament to the exterior. The height of the tower is 120 feet, that of the spire which surmounts it 103, so that the whole elevation is 223 feet. The ground all around the ca- thedral is higher by several steps than the tloor of the interior, a circumstance which has been remarked of many other antique buildings, and is the consequence of a gradual accumulation of the external soil. VOL. i. i. 110 Withinslde, the general effect is heavy and monot- onous} and, as may be readily conceived, the timbers with which it has been found necessary to support the roof are no additional embellishment. The nave is 130 feet long, the choir 90, and St. Mary's Chapel 55; the transept 157- In the latter is the chapter-house, in which are suspended the banners and other insignia of the Knights of St. Patrick, deceased; and in a niche of the wall contiguous is the little basin of water, still venerated under the appellation of St. Patrick's Well. The choir and transept are both utterly disfigured by a plain division of plaster. But in the choir, which is still the most pleasing part of the edifice, are the arch- bishop's throne, -the bannefs and insignia of the living Knights of St. Patrick, a striking altar-piece, and hand- some organ, reputed to be the best in the island. On the right of the altar is a ' huge mass of deformity/ intended to perpetuate the memory of 16 individuals of the Boyle family, whose figures in stone, gaudily painted over, occupy the several compartments. The whole is a confused and tasteless jumble of stone, wood, paint, and gilding a disgrace to the choir, and to the sculp- tor (if he may deserve the name) who planned it. Mon- uments scarcely inferior to this in ugliness, are also erected here in remembrance of Thomas Jones, Arch- bishop of Dublin, and of a Viscount Ranelagh; while a plain black marble slab bears a Latin memorial to the gallant Duke Schomberg, who was killed at the battle of the Boyne. " The oldest monument in the nave is that of Michael Tregury, Archbishop of Dublin in 1471 ; it is only a large tomb-stone, seven feet by four, which was dug out of the ruins when St. Stephen's Chapel was repaired in DUBLIN. Ill 1730, and removed by the dean and chapter to its present situation in the western wall, near the entrance: on the stone is represented, in basso-relievo, the bishop in his pontifical habit, with his pastoral staff in his hand sur- mounted by a crucifix ; and round the margin of the stone is the following inscription in old English characters : Jesus est Salvator meus. Praesul Michael hie Bubliniensis mar- more tumbatus. Pro me Christum flagitetis. " Affixed to two contiguous pillars on the south side of the nave are two plain slabs of marble, in memory of Dean Swift, and Mrs. Johnson, who is now well known to have been his wife : the inscription on the slab which marks the spot where the ashes of that great and singular man at length repose, was written by himself, and is expressive ' of that habit of mind which his own disappointments and the oppressions of his country had produced :' Hie depositum est corpus JONATHAN SWIFT, S. T. IX Hujus Eclesiaj Cathedralis Decani, Vbi sa:va Indignatio Uiterius Cor lacerare nequit. Abi Viator Et iinitare, si poteris, Strenuum pro virili Libei tat is vindicatorein. Obiit 19? die mensis Octobris A.D. 1745. Anno JEtatis 7fc? " Over this monument has been placed his bust in marble, sculptured by Cunningham, and esteemed a good likeness; it was the gift of T. T. Faulkner, esq., nephew and successor to Alderman George Faulkner, Swift's bookseller, and the original publisher of most of 112 DUBLIN. his works. The inscription over his amiable and much- injured wife is as follows: Underneath lie the mortal remains of Mrs. Hester Johnson, better known to the world by the name of Stella, under which she is cele- brated in the writings of Doctor Jonathan Swift, Dean of this Cathedral. She was a person of extraordinary endowments and accomplishments of body, mind, and behaviour; justly admired and respected by all who knew her, on account of her many eminent vir- tues, as well as for her great natural and acquired perfections. She died Jan 27th, 1727-8, in the 46th year of her age, and by her will bequeathed one thousand pounds towards the support of a Chaplain to the Hospital founded in this city by Doctor Steevens. " In an obscure corner near the southern entrance is also a small tablet of white marble, with the following 7 o inscription : Here lieth the body of Alexander M'Gee, servant to Doctor Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's. His grateful master caused this monument to be erected iu memory of his discretion, fidelity, and diligence, in that humble station. ObiitMar.24, 172. jEtatis 29."* In this part of the interior there are, besides, two well-executed memorials the one to Doctor Narcissus Marsh, who bequeathed the library contiguous to the cathedral to the public for their free use, the other to Doctor Thomas Smyth ; both estimable archbishops of Dublin. The other monuments are no ways remark- able. Marsh's Library, just alluded to, is open every day from eleven o'clock till three, when graduates and all other persons of genteel appearance are allowed access to it. Previously to the establishment of reading-socie- ties and other similar institutions, the archbishop's bequest proved a very valuable one to the literary in- habitants of Dublin; but the books becoming antique, * Whitelaw and Walsh, vol. I., pp. 481, 482. DUBLIN. 113 and others of a more modern and interesting kind in- creasing daily in circulation, this library is now little visited, unless by the learned few. Harris, in his continuation of Ware's Bishops, mentions it: "I am under the necessity," he observes, " of acknowledging, from long experience, that this is the only useful library in the kingdom, being open to all strangers, and at all seasonable hours. But there is one thing wanting to render it more complete, which is a supply of books, from the time of its establishment there being only lO per annum allotted for this purpose, which is little more than sufficient to keep the books in repair." From this it appears that the library was in considerable estimation at the time Harris wrote, while the defect to which he refers sufficiently accounts for the gradual decline of its utility. St. Patrick's Deanery containing nothing farther to interest, we shall content ourselves with giving the num- ber of its inhabitants and houses in 1814, of which the former were 2246, the latter 149; an d proceed by Patrick-street, skirting the parish of St. Bride, without deviating from our track to visit the parochial church in the street of that name, as it is a plain stone edifice, of which description would be superfluous. Neither is there any thing worthy of remark in this parish, if we except the transformation which has taken place of the Royal Hibernian Theatre in Peter-street, into the Molyneux Asylum for the Blind ; and this we mention only as a further instance of the incongeniality of pub- lic amusements to the habits of the citizens of Dublin; an incongeniality which must appear to be on the in- crease, if we remember that Smock-alley Theatre also is become a parochial chapel, and Ranelagh a convent. L 3 jl4 DUBLIN. In 1814, the number of inhabitants in this parish was 9639, that of the houses 745. It contains several genteel private streets, while the more busy parts are chiefly occupied by merchants and tradespeople. St. Nicholas Within, to which we approach by Ni- cholas-street, is the smallest parish in Dublin, but from its central situation is the abode of many of the more wealthy shop-keepers. The houses in 1814 were in number only 102, the inhabitants 1447. In Nicholas- street is the parochial church, with its tolerably lofty, but, as usual, spireless square steeple : contiguous to it formerly stood the building which bore the name of the Tholsel. This was a massy and not inelegant stone edifice, deriving its name " from the old words toll- stall, i. e. the toll-gatherer's stall or seat, being the place where the collectors attended to receive the toll or custom for such goods as were liable to the city im- posts." It was the Guildhall of Dublin: its destruction has been supposed to have originated in the nature of the ground on which it was built, the substratum being con- jectured to be bog, as in the case of the church of St. Mi chael, the ruins of which were not more than 30 yards distant, and which was ascertained to have owed its fall to this cause. A fact this, which affords a curious proof of the high antiquity of bogs, since both these structures were within the ancient walls, and consequently these subterraneous productions must have derived their ex- istence from forests growing upon this spot prior, it is probable, to the Christian era. The oldest Irish name for Dublin is Drom-Choll-Coil, which means ' the brow of the hazel-wood.' Christ-Church-lane, to which we arrive by pursuing the line of Nicholas-street, contains the cathedral of DUBLIN. 115 that name, the most ancient edifice in Dublin, having been built by a son of one of the kings of the Ostmen about the year 1038. But in 1562, the massy stone roof proving too weighty for its supports, the decayed and neglected walls, that which formed the south side of the nave at length gave way, and the roof of course was involved in its fall. The latter was replaced by mean naked timbers, and the former by a mere blank wall, on which is this laconic inscription : THE : RIGHT : HONORABL : T : ERL : OF : SUSSEX : L : LEVTNT : THIS : WAL : FEL : DOWN : IN : AN : 1562 x THE : BILDING : OF : THIS : WAL : WAS : IN : AN : 1570. The north wall, which has now existed nearly eight centuries, and which is secured for a time by frame-work and a stone buttress, cannot, however, it appears pro- bable, remain to a very distant period, as it has plainly departed from the line of perpendicularity: its fall will be the more to be regretted, as its style is as superior as its antiquity to any part of the cathedral of St. Patrick. Sir Richard Hoare observes that Christ Church " pre- sents several specimens of Saxon architecture. The northern front has an ornamented Saxon portal: the transepts are chiefly of the same order, though we may trace an early introduction of the pointed arch, but still retaining its Saxon decorations; of which we see two good examples in the aisle leading from the transept on the right of the choir. The choir presents a sad medley of Gothic and Italian architecture combined in the most unnatural manner." Externally this cathedral is entirely choked up by mean buildings, and the ruins of the old Four Courts, which llG DUBLIN. latter, yet more anciently, were parts of an episcopal palace. The interior has an air of neatness and de- cency not visible in the sister cathedral, nor indeed very prevalent in the other sacred edifices of Dublin; a peculiarity which in this instance reflects honour on the present dean and chapter. The pavement has been considerably elevated since the erection of the building, to which circumstance it is owing that the basements of the pillars are no longer to be seen. In the nave, against the dead stone wall already mentioned, are se- veral monuments, one of which, bearing figures said to represent Richard Strongbow and his wife Eva, has the inscription following : THIS : AVNCYENT : MONVMENT : OF : RYCHARD : STRANGBOWK CALLED : COMES : STRANGVLENSIS : LORD : OF : CHEPSTO : AND OGNY : THE : FIRST : AND : PRYNCIPALL : INVADER : OF IRLAND : 1169 : GUI : OBIIT : 1177 : THE : MONVMENT : WAS BROKEN : BY : THE : FALL : OF : THE : ROFF : AND : BODYE OF : CHRISTES : CHVRCHE : IN : AN : 1562 : AND : SET : vp AGAYNE : AT : THE : CHARGYS : OF: THE : RIGHT : HONORABLE SR : HENRI : SYDNEY : KNYGHT : OF : THE : NOBLE : ORDER : L PRESIDENT : OF : WAILES : L : DEPVTY : OF : IRLAND : 1570. But doubts have been entertained whether the illus- trious chieftain was actually buried in this cathedral, and, if he were, whether this has been correctly stated to be his monument. Leland mentions an epitaph, " Hicjacet Ricus Strongbow" &c. as occuring on the walls of the chapter-house in Gloucester Cathedral; but the testimony of Giraldus Cambrensis, a contemporary historian, who expressly states that his obsequies were ce- lebrated " in ecclesid Sanctce Trinitatis"* we think should prevent farther question as to the place of his interment. As to the identity of the monument, Sir Richard Hoare * Hiberuia Expugnata, book XI. ch. 14. DUBLIX. 117 remarks that " though the generality of authors seem to think that Strongbow was buried in Christ's Church, still some doubt may be entertained if this effigy has been rightly attributed to him. The knight bears on his shield the following arms, viz. Argent, on a chief azure, three crosses crosslef s Jitchee of thejield. On referring to Enderbie, and also to an ancient manuscript by George Owen, I find that the arms of this chieftain were, Or, three chevrons gules, a crescent for difference. How then can this be the effigy of Strongbow?" In the nave are also an elegant monument to Lord Bowes, executed by Van Nost; another to Lord Lifford, with his arms, and the motto he chose upon being appoint- ed to his high office,* ' Be just and fear not;' and another, surmounted by the bust of Thomas Prior, the father of the Dublin Society, and bearing a scroll on which is re- corded, that ' This monument was erected to Thomas Prior, esquire, at the charge of several persons who contributed to honour the memory of that worthy patriot, to whom his veracity, actions, and unwearied endeavours in the service of his country, have raised a monument more lasting than marble/ The choir has a fine monument to Robert, the nine- teenth earl of Kildare, whose son was created Duke of Leinster; and a plain white marble tablet memorializes the exemplary character of Thomas Fletcher, Bishop of Kildare, to which see the deanery of Christ Church is attached. The transept is still in good preservation: the Chapel of St. Mary, on the north side of the choir, is also in ex- cellent repair, and was the ordinary place of worship for * Both these distinguished noblemen were Lord Chancellors of Ireland. 118 DUBLIN. the parishioners of St. Michael, while their own church was rebuilding. The steeple is a plain square tower, totally divested of the graces of architecture. Christ Church was a priory and convent until the Reformation, when Henry the Eighth converted it into a deanery and chapter, consisting of the dean, a chancel- lor, chanter, treasurer, and six vicars-choral. The coro- nation of the impostor Lambert Simnel, who assumed the title of Edward the Sixth, took place in this cathe- dral in the year 1468. In 1554, Archbishop Brown erected three prebends here; and in 1559, as appears by a statute enacted in the reign of Henry the Sixth, the parliament sat within these venerable walls; while in Christ Church it was also, that the English Liturgy was read for the first time in Ireland on Easter Sunday, 1550. In the constitution of Henry, James the First made some alterations ; from the latter reign the foun- dation having been composed of a dean, chapter, chan- cellor, three prebendaries, six vicars-choral, and four choristers. The population of Christ-Church Deanery in 1814, amounted to 250 inhabitants only; the number of houses 23. EXCURSION IV. Through the Parishes of St. John, St. Michael, St. Andean, St. Catherine, St. Nicholas Without, St. Luke, and St. James. John's parish is of small extent, and contains nothing particularly interesting. Wine Tavern-street, DUBLIN, lip Vi hich adjoins Christ-Church-lane, (where we terminated the preceding Excursion,) extends to the quays of its northern extremity, and to Richmond Bridge, so named from the Lord Lieutenant under whose government it was commenced in the year 1813. In sinking for the foundation of the south abutment of this structure, as we are informed in Whitelaw and Walsh's History, " there were found in the excavations, made four feet below the bed of the river allow water, several pieces of German, Spanish, and British coins, the latter, of Philip and Mary and Elizabeth ; together with cannon-balls, (about 12- pounders,) pike-heads, and other implements of war. These were all lying upon a stratum of sand, about seven feet thick, under which was a bed of clay, eight feet thick, which rested on the solid rock, where the founda- tion was laid. In sinking for a foundation for the north abutment, two very ancient, in appearance, and rudely- formed boats were discovered. These were 18 feet long, from stem to stern. They were caulked with moss, and in one of them was found a large human ske- leton. They were imbedded in a stratum of sand, about seven feet thick, which appeared to have been deposited at once by some great flood, as it was not in layers, and was perfectly free from sediment. It is further remark- able, that the foundation of the old Liffey wall was laid about four feet above these boats and sand-bank, and rested upon them." The bridge has three arches, is entirely constructed of Portland stone, and was raised at an expense of ,25,800. On the key-stones of the archesare well-executed heads, on the one side of the Liffey, Plenty, and Industry, and on the other of Hibernia, Peace, and Commerce. The length is 220 feet, and its breadth surpasses that of all 120 DUBLIN. the bridges of the British capital, being 52 feet. It la altogether a very handsome erection. St. John's parish-church is situated in Fishamble-street, and has a handsome Doric front of hewn stone : it is not otherwise remarkable. The inhabitants of this parish in 1814 were estimated at 4346, the houses at 277- The population consists chiefly of reputable traders, and of the mechanics and artisans dependent on them. High-street, likewise adjoining Christ-Church-lane, forms a principal portion of the little parish of St. Michael. The body of the parochial church has been lately rebuilt in a neat style, but the steeple is ancient. This parish contains no other public edifice. Its inhabi- tants in 1814 were 2011, its houses 130. From High-street, St. Audeon's parish, comprising numerous streets, lanes, and alleys of an inferior de- scription, extends westward to Watling-street (situated on the skirts of the city) and Usher's Island. Here (not to fatigue the reader by the detail of these intervening streets, &c.) is Barrrack Bridge, formerly built of wood in 1761, and, from a fatal affray on it, then called Bloody Bridge, but subsequently constructed of stone, and from its vicinity to the Barracks obtaining its present name. A gateway of Gothic architecture, with four cor- ner towers, is a conspicuous object at this end, and, ac- companied with the country view from the spot, makes an interesting appearance ; it leads to Kilmainham Hospi- tal. The bridge itself is a plain erection of four arches. Queen's Bridge, a neat stone structure of three arches, lies a short distance eastward; it was called Arran Bridge when first built in 1683, but having been de- stroyed by a flood, was re-erected and named after her late Majesty in DUBLIN. 121 The parochial church of St. Audeon has a lofty steeple, though, from its situation, it is little noticed; the whole building being secluded from observation by the surrounding houses. In 1814, the parish contained 4667 inhabitants, and 412 houses. From Queen's Bridge, Bridge-foot-street, extending southwards towards Thomas-street, conducts to the parish of St. Catherine. This parish, which for its ex- tent is excessively populous, (as by the return of 1814, 17>104 inhabitants were found crowded in 1350 houses,) presents a lively picture of the complicated miseries al- ready detailed as appertaining to the worse than St. Giles's of Dublin. Some few affluent manufacturers reside in the principal street just mentioned, but the great propor- tion of the inhabitants are the sickly and squalid room- keepers, whose miserable tenements some of our readers may think we have but too faithfully described. To avoid painful repetitions, therefore, we shall very briefly notice the few additional subjects for remark in this quarter. In Thomas-street is St. Catherine's Church, wanting a steeple, but possessing a handsome front of mountain stone, with semi-columns of the Doric order. Here also is a Market-house, with a basement of piazzas ; an unsightly erection, and a great obstruction to the thoroughfare. By the avenues called St. Thomas Court and Tripoli, \ve reach Pimlico, and the Coombe. On the lower part of the latter stands Weavers' Hall, the interior of which is spacious, and has some curious portraits. Among them is one of George the Second, in tapestry, executed half a century back, at a period when the introduction of that manufacture was unsuccessfully attempted in VOL. I. M 122 DUBLIW. this city: it has an inscription which informs us that this specimen was produced * By John Vanheaver, * Liberty Weaver.' The little area of Weavers'-square may be arrived at from the Coombe by Crooked and Chambre-streets. At its south-western extremity, in Brown-street, is the Ten- ter-house, a spacious handsome building, charitably erected for the accommodation, in wet seasons, of the numerous inhabitants of the Liberties employed in the woollen manufacture, by Mr. Pleasants.* Until this benevolent work was performed, the usual method of drying the cloths and warps was by means of tenters in the open air, an operation attended with incessant in- terruptions in so variable a clime as that of Ireland. " It is on these occasions," says Mr. Walsh, " that the streets of Dublin exhibit to a stranger such an extraordi- nary spectacle. When industry is thus suspended, and the people of this district unemployed, the whole popu- lation emigrate from their desolate homes, and pour down upon the more opulent parts of the city. The passenger is every moment surrounded by groups of * Whose " acts of private beneficence are not less useful, thongfa sometimes tinctured with an amiable eccentricity. Happening one Sunday to hear a sermon of which he approved, he conveyed a re- quest to the preacher that he would suffer him to read the manu- script, which wat readily complied with. The next day he returned the sermon with a letter of thanks, intimating at the same time that he had taken the liberty of adding a note to the passage which particularly struck him. On referring to the place, the astonished preacher found a bank-note for a considerable amount folded in the kaf." H'7fc/ait and Walsh, vol. IJ. p,.Q96. DUBLIN. 123 strange figures, remarkably different from those to which his eye has been accustomed. Their greasy and squalid dress, and pallid faces, strikingly distinguish them ; and a certain cast of countenance on which sickness and famine stamp a ghastly expression, often excites sur- prise and alarm. It is much to the credit of the poor people, that the alarm is unfounded: their distresses often render them importunate, but they never behave with incivility, much less with outrage." An evil of such magnitude has been in a great measure removed by the munificence of the individual, whose name we have with so much pleasure recorded. The edifice in Brown-street is of three stories, crowned with a cupola and spire. The weavers' arms appear in front, and the approach is by a large area laid down with grass-plots, walks, and shrubs; the whole possessing a neat and cheerful appearance. The entire building is artificially heated by horizontal metal tubes, communicating with furnaces on the ground floor ; by means of which the indigent manufacturer, at the trifling cost of 2s. 6d. for a piece of cloth, and 5d. for a chain of warp, (the annual amount of which sums scarcely defrays the expense of coals and necessary items,) is enabled to pursue his work in the most inclement seasons ; while the proprietor, totally renouncing the idea of remune- ration, has vested the establishment in the hands of trustees, for the general benefit; an example of disin- terested generosity rarely paralleled, even in a country where the finer feelings of the heart so often outstrip all mercenary, and sometimes even the necessary prudential views, and where the growth of philan- thropy appears spontaneous. Brick-field-lane conveys us hence to Cork-street, at 124 DUBLIN. the western end of which is the Fever Hospital, an in- stitution admirably planned and conducted with a view to the cure of this disease within its walls, and the ex- termination of contagion in the dwellings from whence the patients have been removed. Such institutions arc calculated to effect all that possibly can be effected, towards the removal of that predisposition to low fever so universal among the Dublin poor; but which, arising as it mainly does from the filthy habits of these wretched beings in their crowded habitations, nothing but the strong arm of a vigilant police can permanently obviate. The edifice is plainly constructed of brick and granite, and consists of two long parallel buildings, and a centre, connected by a covered colonnade. This parish is farther distinguished by the Dublin Free-school House, in School-street, which admits 600 children of all religious denominations for Sabbath, and not less than 800 for daily, instruction; and its utility in the midst of a catholic population, may be very fairly estimated by the liberality of spirit evinced in its founda- tion. Its chief promoters were the quakejs, a consi- derable number of whom are resident in the parish ; and the most remarkable peculiarity in the structure is the apartment allotted to the superintendant, which, by the contrivance of the architect is made to command a view of the four different schools situated on separate floors ; a plan which has been since adopted with success in several of the neighbouring manufactories. Dr. Bell's system is in use here, and its benefits are extensively apparent. In the parish of St. Catherine's also stands the na- tional prison for debtors, known by the name of the Four Courts Marshalsea: it is much too small for its DUBLIN. 125 purpose, and its crowded and offensive state called for the interference of commissioners appointed by the legislature in 1808; since when some of its most ob- noxious features have disappeared. We have purposely omitted the detail of our peram- bulations through the parishes of St. Nicholas Without and St. Luke, as they contain little to interest the gene- ral reader, though that little we shall faithfully describe. The parochial church of the former is in ruins: its population in 1814 amounted to 9409 souls, the houses then being 722. Clothiers, victuallers, manufacturers, and the labouring poor, compose the great proportion of the inhabitants. On the Coombe is one of the schools founded by Erasmus Smith, esq., the governors of which were con- stituted a body corporate by Charles the Second. Their revenue has increased, in consequence of the recent rises in the value of the estates bequeathed to them, till the gross rental at length considerably exceeds ,7000 per annum ; by which circumstance they have been en- abled to erect other schools in various parts of the country, as well as to endow professorships in Trinity College, and to add to the number of boys in Blue-coat Hospital. Perhaps an institution of more vital importance (consi- dered as the first of its kind,) to the future welfare of Ire- land does not exist, than the humble Sunday-School de- pendant on the baptist congregation ofSwift's-alley, in this parish ; which is distinguished, Mr. Walsh observes, by the " remarkable feature" that " a master is provided who teaches Irish, and about 20 of the children avail themselves of his instruction." Pity indeed it is, that in a country nearly one half of whose inhabitants converse in Irish, M 3 126 DUBLIH. a school supplying instruction in that language to 20 scholars should be deemed remarkable, notwithstanding, as by the same respectable authority we are informed, " it is found that they learn to read the language they have been accustomed to speak with greater facility than a foreign one,"* and "they are therefore first taught to read Irish books, and learn to read English through this medium." But about the period of the erection of this school, the Hibernian Baptist Society was also instituted ; whose main object is the establishment of schools throughout the country for the purpose of teaching Irish exclusively : and thus have this denomination of Christian professors obtained the singular honour of commencing a work, which, as to all its objects and relations, may justly be styled national. We must however be permit- ted to remark of this society, that did its Reports adopt a more conciliatory tone towards its popish brethren, than in some instances they have evinced, and did they less openly avow the scheme of particular proselytism, its efforts would in all probability be crowned with greater success. The exertions of the society have been at pre- sent chiefly confined to the provinces of Munster and Connaught, where indeed from the greater prevalence of the Irish language they were most wanted ; and here they have commenced labours, in which their perseve- rance, we trust, will be at least equal to their already obvious utility. The distribution of books in Erse is one among their principal objects, and they have published two grammars of that ancient language. * It may strike the reader with some slight astonishment to observe so natural and obvious a circumstance communicated with so much gravity. DUBLIN. 127 The number of children educated in their schools is upwards of 1000. We may not meet with a more favourable opportuni- ty than the present, for noticing that the Hibernian Bible Society, now auxiliary to the British and Foreign, have been active in the dispersion of Testaments in the Irish tongue; and we hope the English Society, which sup- plied them, will not be backward to publish a version of the entire Scriptures, in the same language. The go- vernment was once hostile to the cultivation of the native dialect, from a view to its ultimate suppression, but their measures were always found to have a di- rectly opposite effect to that which they contemplated. Now that more liberal sentiments are entertained, we have little doubt that Irish, at least as an oral tongue, will of itself expire, in the course, it may be, of another century; provided (which cannot be likely) that it be not again fostered by its proscription, and the English language (by tyranny similar to that anciently exercised) be not once more rendered detestable to men, to whom, at a former period, it conveyed no other ideas than those of the oppressions they laboured under.* The parochial church of St. Luke, on the south side of the Coombc, is a wholly uninteresting structure : the parishioners were estimated by the return of 1814 at 7300, resident in 460 houses. * In the year 1786 occurred the memorable controversy of Father O'Leary with the bishop of Cloyne. His Lordship had proposed that the Irish language should be suppressed, in order that the people might be instructed by the clergyman of the parish : O'Leary sug- gested whether it would not be easier for one man (the clergyman) to learn Irish, than for a whole parish to learn English; aud said his Lordship's proposal reminded him of the echo iu Erasmus, Quid est tv.cttdvtiu.iii, ? oiium. 128 DUBLIN. Meath Hospital, also on the Coombe, is a well-built edifice, with a front of mountain stone: the original building was in Meath-strcet. By act of parliament, with consent of the subscribers to the more recent erection, it was in 1774 constituted the County of Dublin Infirmary, with an allowance of 100 per an- num, to which 6'00 are added by yearly presentment; and the benefits of the institution arc thus extended much beyond the Earl of Meath's Liberty, for the relief of whose poor manufacturers it was at first exclusively designed. The governors are incorporated, and consist of their Graces the Archbishops of Armagh and Dub- lin, the Lord High Chancellor, and the Vicar of St. Catherine's, for the time being: the physicians and surgeons attend gratuitously. Mr. Plcasants, already mentioned to his praise, gave ,6000 to this hospital, to erect an operation-room, and provide additional com- forts for such patients as it is found necessary to subject to amputation. North-westwardly from Cork-street, to which we had conducted the reader, lie the harbour and stores for inland trade of the Grand Canal, from whence this noble work commences. These are in the parish of St. James. This harbour, with the buildings attached, covers an area of more than 23 acres, and the canal it- self is not exceeded in its dimensions by any in the empire; yet we should do wrong to estimate the com- mercial results of the undertaking by its external show of magnificence. Ireland has long possessed the inge- nuity to project national works, even before the neces- sity for them had become manifest; but, having projected, to parliament it has been generally left to execute them ; and their very small comparative proportion of usefulness DUBLIN. 129 has not usually been discovered until after their com- pletion. Even when parliamentary grants, to a large amount, had been made for the purpose of creating an inland navigation through the country, the grossest mismanagement and incapacity in the commissioners appointed to carry on the works, were found, after a series of years, to have rendered the efforts of the legis- lature nearly nugatory; the scheme of bounties to associated companies, therefore, was at last hit upon, and the first apparent effect was the completion of the Grand Canal, by which Dublin is united both to the Shannon and the Barrow rivers, and a communication obtained from sea to sea across the island. But " in England," Mr. Griffith, an Irish gentleman, observes, bounties are " not demanded, nor even thought of, be- cause canals there are the effect of internal wealth and population, of an improved state of agriculture, manu- factures, and commerce ; in Ireland we must look to inland navigation as an efficient cause of producing, or at least as the best means of facilitating, those happy effects : in England it is almost impossible to extend a canal 10 miles in any direction, without intersecting two, three, or more populous towns ; in Ireland, it may be ex- pected, that in the process of a few years, manufacturing towns may be raised on the banks of our navigable waters." The summit level of the line of highest elevation be- tween the capital and the rivers above-mentioned, being only about 202 feet above the level of the harbour in St. James's parish, the execution of this great work was by so favourable a circumstance rendered comparatively ehalf, that even on his fast days he has been known to undertake for this purpose long journeys on foot into the country, without relaxing from the severity of his abstinence, or taking any refreshment except a drink of his usual beverage, milk and water. " The success of his solicitations encouraged him to extend his views. His dwelling-house was contiguous to his little asylum, and room after room was added to it as his means increased ; and at length he had the happiness to see 20 widows comfortably settled in his alms-house. " By his will he devised the building, with 40s. per annum towards its support, to the vicar and church- wardens of the parish of St. James; and an annual sermon preached in behalf of the institution, with the interest of a small sum saved from former collections, are the sources by means of which it is continued on its plan of unobtrusive usefulness." Westward from Bow-bridge, the road to Inchiore leads by Kilmainham Hospital, a royal mansion, built for the accommodation of disabled and superannuated soldiers, delightfully situated on an healthy eminence. This building was commenced under the government of the Duke of Ormond, in the year 1680, and was finished in little more than four years, at an expense of near .24,000. Here was formerly a Priory for Knights Templars, founded by Earl Strongbow, and afterwards conferred on the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, to 136 DUBLIN. whom a stone fountain adjoining the burying-ground of the hospital is dedicated. In l6'SO the remains of this priory were yet visible; and the stones of its chapel were carried with pious veneration by the workmen employed in the erection of the new edifice, to compose the chapel at present attached to the institution. The hospital is quadrangular in its form, enclosing a large area laid out in grass plots and intersected with gravelled walks. Piazzas, forming a range of Doric arches, are connected with the building, and surround this area. Externally, the fronts, three of which are of brick, have nothing remarkable in their appearance; the fourth, or principal front to the north, is of stone, and has the additions of a steeple and spire. The great dining-hall, whose dimensions are TOO feet by 45, occu- pies the centre of the latter front; it is ornamented with muskets, bayonets, &c., disposed, in the same manner as in an armoury, around its walls : over these are 22 portraits, taken at full length, of Charles the Second, William and Mary, Queen Anne, several Lords-Lieute- nant, and others. The chapel forms the east end of the same front, and the house of the governor, who is, by virtue of his office, commander-in-chief of the forces in Ireland, the west end. There are also the deputy- governor's house, an infirmary, and a number of offices, all detached from the principal building. The hospital will contain 400 pensioners; besides whom out-pension- ers, to the number of nearly 3000, have an allowance from the establishment. The new military road, lately finished, communicates with the principal front, (to which the approach is by an avenue of noble trees,) and leads from thence to the quay called Usher's Island: its entrance from this quay DUBLIN. 137 is by a well-executed gate in the Gothic style. From Sarah Bridge, by which Usher's Island is connected with the north bank of the river, we have a view of Phoenix Park, the country-seat of the Lord-Lieutenant. This bridge is called the Dublin Rialto, being, like that so named at Venice, composed of a single arch ; but the dimensions rather exceed those of the famed Venetian structure. Its length is 256 feet, its breadth 38. The key-stone of the arch is 22 feet above high-water mark. It takes its name from Sarah, Countess of Westmoreland, by whom the foundation was laid in June, 1791- In the vicinity of this bridge a commodious barrack for artillery has been recently erected. The parochial church of St. James, situated on the north side of James-street, is a neat stone edifice, but which it is. wholly unnecessary to describe. Contiguous to it is another barrack ; and in an avenue on the same side o'f the street called Stcevens'-lane, is the hospital of that name, a plain quadrangular building, over the entrance of which, on its east side, is the inscription following: RicardusSteevens, M. D. Dotavit. Grissell Steevens soror ejus ./Edificavit, Anno Doin. 1720. The benevolent founder of this hospital " for the relief and maintenance of curable poor persons," having bequeathed his estate for the purposes of the building, his sister, as appears by the inscription, commenced the edifice, and was liberally assisted to complete it by the benefactions of others.* The act of incorporation was * The activity with which Mrs.Stecvens prosecuted this charitable work, was the more to be commended, as the estate was willed to x 3 138 DUBLIN. obtained in 1730. Besides wards for the patients, here are a library, committee room, surgery, theatre, apo- thecary's shop, and laboratory. Over the entrance to the library appears, appended to a recapitulation of the names of the founders, Edwardus Worth Archiater IVibliothecam quain vides Eruditam, uitidam, perpolitam. But it is to be regretted that the doctor's elegant col- lection had not been consigned to some institution where the books would have been used, since, from the un- impaired beauty of their bindings, were we even not otherwise assured of the fact, we should have been na- turally led to infer, " that by the physicians, surgeons, and chaplains" of the hospital they are only looked at. The institution is supported by an annual income, arising from rents, of about .2400, and the yearly grant from parliament of ,500. St. Patrick's Hospital for lunatics and idiots, called also Swift's Hospital from its celebrated founder, stands on the north side of Bow-lane, to which it presents a neat front of mountain stone, but is separated from it by an area inclosed within a substantial wall. This, until very recently, was the only institution of its kind in Ireland which received pauper-lunatics; of whom there are constantly upwards of 100 on the establish- ment; besides about 00 ward and chamber-boarders, who pay an annual stipend for support and medical attendance. The reception of paupers only was con- templated by the worthy dean, in the bequeathment herself, during her life, although she reserved out of it only about 120 per annum for her own support, with apartments in the hospital for her residence. DUBLIN. 139 of his whole property to erect this monument of his considerate philanthropy ; but as the funds were found inadequate to the support of so many paupers as the building would contain, the governors were induced to receive the number of boarders mentioned, the savings from whose payments are made to contribute to the comforts of the poorer lunatics. Near Kilmainham in this parish are the Richmond Barracks for infantry, a very extensive range of build- ings; near to which is the Prison of Kilmainham, a spacious erection of modern date. In 1814, the inhabitants of St. James's parish, were in number 5649, the houses 455. EXCURSION V. Through the Parishes of St. Paul, St. Michan, St. Mary, St. George, and St. Thomas. IHE parish of St. Paul, the first, north of the Liftey, which has been introduced to the notice of the reader, is of some importance, considered as to the number of its inhabitants ; (who in 1814 were estimated at 9560, the houses at 746;) and contains, among other public buildings, the Royal Barracks, not to be surpassed in Europe, for extent, and grandeur of architecture. These barracks, erected by government in the year 1706, occupy an elevated site on the bank opposite to that where stands the parish of St. James, through which we had conducted the reader at the close of the foregoing Excursion. Their situation, if we regard only 140 DUBLIN. its salubrity, is excellent, and possesses a command- ing view both of the city and adjacent country, with the \Vicklow Mountains in the distance. They consist of four squares, of which the Royal Square is the principal, and that most embellished: altogether, they are adapted to accommodate 5000 men. Contiguous to the barracks is the Blue-coat Hospital, originally an extensive but irregular building situated more eastward, and fronting Queen-street, but since rebuilt on its present site in a style of extreme elegance. The date of the first erection was 1670 ; shortly after which Charles the Second bestowed the charter, wherein was expressed, that his Majesty had " granted to the lord-mayor, sheriffs, commons, and citizens of Dublin, and their successors for ever, all that piece and parcel of ground in Oxmantown Green, near the said city, where the intended hospital and school is already built, to be held of his Majesty, as of his castle of Dublin, in free and common soccage, as a mansion-house, and place of abode, for the sustentation and relief of poor children, aged, maimed, and impotent people, inhabiting or residing in the said city of Dublin." But the governors, finding the donations not equal to the support of a cha- rity upon so extensive a scale, were, about the year l6'80, necessitated to confine the benefits of the institu- tion to the sons and grandsons of decayed citizens, and to such only they continue to be extended. The present structure was commenced in 1773, during the viceroyalty of the Earl of Harcourt, by whom the foundation-stone was laid. " It consists of a centre and wings, extending 300 feet, and connected with each other in the rear, by subordinate buildings, of which the lower part is screened from the eye by handsome DUBLIN. 141 circular walls in front, ornamented with niches, balus- trades, and urns. " The central pile, 87 feet by 58, and 43 in height to the parapet, is of the Ionic order, and consists of a rustic basement with two upper stories; in the centre an elegant angular pediment is supported by four Ionic columns resting on the basement story, and over this rises the steeple, from the want of means as yet unfi- nished; a circumstance much to be regretted, as it appears, from the original drawings of Mr. Ivory, (the architect,) uncommonly light and elegant: it was in- tended to consist of two octagonal lanthorns, ornamented with Corinthian and Composite columns, with an inter- mediate stage for the clock, and crowned with a light oval dome, ball, and vane, the latter 140 feet from the ground. The spacious area in front is enclosed with a handsome substantial iron palisade on a dwarf wall, in which there are two gates. " The northern wing, decorated by a turret rising from the roof, is the chapel, which is fitted up with taste and elegance : the breadth and height are each 32 feet, and the harmony of these proportions immediately strikes the eye : it is lighted perhaps too strongly for the solem- nity of religious worship. Over the communion-table is a handsome painting of the Resurrection, executed by Mr. Waldron in 1783. " The southern wing, in its dimensions and exterior decorations perfectly similar to the northern, contains a spacious school-room, 6'5 feet by 32, decorated, or, to speak more justly, disfigured by some portraits in a wretchedly filthy state, removed hither from theTholsel,* with a few belonging to the hospital ; these represent * Of tbis building mention occurs in Excursion III. 142 DUBLIN. George II. and Queen Caroline, William III. and Queen Mary, Queen Anne, General Ginkle, Dean Drelincourt, the city arms, &c. " The rear, or western front, was intended to consist of a centre and wings connected by subordinate build- ings, all of plain substantial masonry, and extending about 350 feet: of the wings, which project 95 feet, that to the south only has as yet been built, and in this we find the dining-hall and principal dormitories. " The exterior elegance and beauty of this edifice are almost sufficient to silence any censure on the principle to which they owe their existence: but when we reflect that the children of decayed citizens, for whose accom- modation and instruction the institution was principally intended, had, from the want of the means of support, dwindled from 170 to 120, we cannot help expressing regret that it was thought necessary to erect a palace for their accommodation. Substantial edifices of plain ma- sonry are, certainly, the most appropriate to institutions where charity is the object, and of which economy should be the leading principle."* The number of boys at present in the school is 150: the annual income, inclusive of the donation of ,1000 from the governors of Erasmus Smith's Schools, amounts to about ,4300. . Proceeding northwards from the Blue-coat Hospital, and making an angle to the east at King-street, we pass St.. Paul's Church, an old rough stone edifice, by much too small for the numerous parishioners to whose use it is applied. Continuing our route in this direction, we arrive at Smithfield, the principal market in Dublin for cattle and hay, forming an oblong square, superior in its appearance to the market of the same name in Lon- * Whitelaw and Walsh's History, vol. I. DUBLIW. 143 don, but smaller, and, on account of the narrowness of its approaches, infinitely less convenient. The num- ber of oxen, sheep, and swine, bought up in this market, and exported alive, amounts annually to 36,000; besides large quantities slaughtered for the same purpose, or for home consumption. The little avenue called Red-cow-lane conducts us hence to Brunswick-street, in which is situated the House of Industry, a very extensive establishment, whose objects are various, and have separate parts of the build- ing appropriated to them. The general plan obtained the sanction of the legislature in 1777, since when .4000 have been annually granted in its support; and as the voluntary contributions by which the institution was formed, have altogether ceased, this sum has latterly become its sole dependance. The act of incor- poration in 1771 states " that Houses of Industry shall consist of four parts: the first, for such poor helpless men as shall be judged worthy of admission ; the second, for women of a similar description; the third, for male vagabonds or sturdy beggars; and the fourth, for such idle, strolling, and disorderly women, as shall be com- mitted to the hospital." By the same act the institution is " ordered and required to seize strolling vagrants, &c. and to commit them to the House of Industry, to be kept at hard labour from two months to four years, according to circumstances, and to inflict reasonable corporal punishment, in cases of refusal to work, or of ill behaviour." But all who come in voluntarily may quit the house when they think proper. In pursuance of the system of coercion, a vehicle, called the black cart, used to be frequently driven about the streets of Dublin, in which vagrants, who by timely notice had not found the means to escape, were carried off to ;he 144 DUBLIN. institution: the cart was usually followed by the mob; and, in the performance of this duty, scenes of mingled ludicrousncss and distress were perpetually witnessed. For a considerable time past, however, the voluntary applications for admission have been so numerous as to render the cart unnecessary: and yet the streets appeared not, until latterly, the less infested with beggars; a circumstance to be accounted for only on the supposition, that mendicants in all parts of Ireland having gradually come to the knowledge of the institution, -their perpetual influx to the capital, either to obtain admission within its walls, or to supply the places of their brethren who had been admitted, occasioned this unceasing restoration of their original numbers, on the very spot where the house was erected for the purpose chiefly of causing their entire disappear- ance. The looks of the needy applicants, who still, \vith the most harrassing volubility, arrested the progress of the passenger, were wretched in the extreme; and their garments in general so tattered, that none could feel surprise at the sarcastic remark of Foote, who was accus- tomed to say " that, till he went to Ireland, he used to wonder what the English beggars did with their cast-oft' rags ; but, upon his arrival in Dublin, he immediately per- ceived that they were sent over to the Irish beggars."* The establishment consists of lodging rooms, dining- halls, work-shops, a warehouse for the sale (at a cheap rate) of articles wrought by the inmates ; the Hardwicke Medical Hospital, detached from the main building; and an extensive edifice, formerly a nunnery, situated in * A considerable alteration for the better has, however, recently taken place in regard to the number, though not in the appearance, of the street applicants for charity; they are now less frequently troublesome in this city perhaps thuu in London. DUBLIN.- 145 the same street, fitted up in 1810 for the reception of surgical patients. The Richmond Lunatic Asylum,* completed in 1815 at an expense of .50,000, may also be considered as attached to the House of Industry, being under the direction of its governors ; as well as the Bed- ford Asylum, for industrious children, who are employ- ed in weaving, spinning, &c.; and, when of a proper age, are apprenticed to various trades. Penitentiaries, for the reform of young criminals of the male sex, and for adult female convicts, both situated in Smith- field, are likewise superintended by the governors of this institution, which receives boys from the former, * The "directions" suspended in ; tije several corridor* of this buil- ding, " to be strictly observed by fire domestics of the institution," are particularly worthy of noiice, as they evince a mild and benevo- lent spirit, strongly contrasting wfth the brutal rigours still too generally adopted in hospitals for 'lunatics: they are as follows. " To allow every patient all the latitude of personal liberty, consis- tent with safiety. To proportion the degree of coercion to the obvious necessity of the case. To use mildness of manner, or firmness, as occasion may require. Ever? cause of irritation, real or imaginary, is to be carefully avoided. The requests of the patients, however extravagant, are to be taken graciously into consideration, and with- held under some plausible pretext, or postponed to a more convenient opportunity. All violence or ill treatment of the patients is strictly prohibited, under any provocation, and shall be punished in the mast exemplary manner. The mild acts of conciliation are to be the constant practice in this hospital. These laws are of funda- mental importance, and essential to the successful management of this institution." The highly Interesting Report of the Select Committee for the Lunatic Poor of Ireland (made to the House of Commons in 1817) proposes " that four orfive distiactasylums, simi- lar to the Richmond, should be erected in different parts of Ireland; and earnestly recommends an entire conformity to the system laid down and acted on here with signal success, having no doubt that the restoration of patients in this malady dt-pcuds inure OH the :idi/{>- tion of a regular system of word trcutuitul than casual iuvdi:al~ prcscription." VOL. I. o 146 DUBLIN. when their good conduct entitles them to such lenity. A large building, which presents a front of 700 feet to Grange-Gorman-lane, contiguous to the House of Indus- try, is nearly completed, and will be called the Dublin Penitentiary: it will in a great measure supersede the use of the institutions in Smithfield just mentioned. Its intention is to afford an opportunity of reformation to felons sentenced to Botany Bay; and such criminals as are found incorrigible to the means here to be adopted for reclaiming them, will ultimately receive the punish- ment at first awarded. The edifice is constructed with a view to "Howard's plan of solitary confinement, with a gradual progress to society , as the convict becomes reclaim- ed :" he " passes from a solitary cell to an apartment con- taining 10 or more persons of his own rank of moral im- provement, with whom he associates, entirely separate from the rest of the buildings; from which he is advanced to large work-shops, and less restraint, as his conduct merits. The cells are in the rear, and the shops in the more cheerful part of the edifice."* These are the only public buildings, of any conse- quence, in the parish of St. Paul : its inhabitants in gene- ral are tradespeople, or legal gentlemen who reside here on account of its vicinity to the Four Courts. The parish of St. Michan, to which we next arrive by pursuing the line of Brunswick-street to the eastward, contained not less than 20,563 inhabitants, and 1488 houses, in 1814. Both the streets and their occupants, in this parish, offer an infinite diversity of appearance ; the latter including every class, irom that of the poorest mechanic to that of the eminent professional man and the merchant, the former rising by every gradation of * Whitelaw and Walslfs History, vol. II. DUBLIN. 147 respectability from the obscure lane and filthy alley. Our course lying across Church-street, we shall here notice the edifice for sacred worship, situated nearer to its southern end ; it is an antique venerable-looking struc- ture, the largest in Dublin, furnished with a square tower. The vaults beneath it possess the remarkable quality of resisting to a great degree the progress of cor- ruption in the corpses interred within them ; a quality originating, it is supposed, in some peculiarity of the soil. The celebrated Doctor Charles Lucas, whose statue so well deserves its honourable situation in the Royal Exchange, lies buried in its church-yard; the inscription on his unadorned tomb-stone concludes with the following lines : Lucas! Hibernia's friend, her joy and pride, Her powerful bulwark, and her skilful guide, Firm in the senate, steady to his trust, Uumoved by fear, and obstinately just, Charles Lucas, born 26 of September 1713, Died November 4th 1771. Still proceeding eastward, we reach the Linen Hall, a spacious building, the principal approach to which is by the street of its name : it is intended for the reception (in its spacious stores) of the linen cloths sent to Dublin for sale ; and contains a coffee-room for factors and tra- ders, and a board-room, for the use of the trustees, by whom the trade throughout the country is regulated, although the institution is merely local, being upon the same plan as the Linen Hall at Belfast. " It is evident," says Mr. Walsh,*'* that linen made part of the dress of the ancient Irish, from the earliest account of their costume, as described in the Islandic Chronicle of A. D. 1129; and so great was their predilection for this fabric, that * History, vol.11, p. 965. 148 DUBLIN. sumptuary laws were enacted by Henry VIII. to re- strain its use. By these laws a shirt or smock was or- dered to contain no more than seven yards of linen cloth : prior thereto the shirt ordinarily contained thirty yards. It was died yellow, but not .with saffron, as Moryson, Spencer, and Camden relate," but "the yellow dye for this purpose was really obtained from the Buidhmor, or great yellow wild woad, a planj, that grew abundantly in all the moist soils of the country, and is used for dye- ing yellow at this day. " It was the great but unfortunate Earl of Strafford, who must be considered as the real founder of the linen manufacture, which was commenced in his lieutenancy in 1642. He found the soil well adapted for the growth of flax, and the Irish women already expert spinners; and so confident was he of his ultimate success, that he embarked no less than ,30,000 of his private fortune, a prodigious sum at that time, in the under- taking. After a few years it justified the sagacity of Lord Strafford, by becoming the staple manufacture of the country." At the back of the Linen Hall, on a patch of ground consisting of about three acres, an edifice is erecting, to be called King's Inn Temple, intended to form the Irish Inns of Court; it will comprise a hall, library, and cham- bers, for the lawyers, who, since the demolition of the King's Inn, for the purpose of erecting the Four Courts upon their site, have been without these appropriate ac- commodations. To the latter circumstance Mr. Wake- field attaches much importance in his observations on the character -of the Irish bar.* " There is a society/' he observes, " with an establishment called King's Inns, * Account of Ireland, vol. II. p. 341. DUBLIN. 149 where students of the law are admitted to the bar; but there are no chambers for transacting business, as in London. Barristers therefore live in all parts of the city, and, during every stage of their profession, mix with so- ciety at large, and participate in the general feelings of the great mass of the people. They do not confine themselves to one court, as is the case in London, but plead occasion- ally in all. Those who have had an opportunity of wit- nessing the severe duties of an eminent barrister in London, know, that from the multiplicity of his business, he is closely confined to his chambers, and secluded from general society ; of course little leisure is afforded him for acquiring a knowledge of mankind or manners ; but in this respect the Irish barrister has the advantage he is in consequence a more agreeable companion in private life." Indeed, gentlemen of the legal profession in Dublin are greatly distinguished for their convivial and social talents: their eloquence is also very generally admired, though it usually is more witty than pro- found has more of the flowers of oratory, than the pre- cision of close and consecutive argument. Congenial with this peculiar style of eloquence is the habit of pun- ning, so prevalent in the Irish courts of law, that the pun, with its accompanying laugh from the auditors, occasions perpetual suspensions of the business in hand, and gives an air of levity to these assemblies as inde- corous as it is striking to an English spectator. Even the judges themselves, and that even on the most solemn trials, are not exempt from the universal rage for exhi- bitions of this degrading kind;* and the absence of the * The following 1 may serve as a specimen. In the year 1798, a judge, who was notorious for his severity to all the prisoners tried, aud for bis gross partiality, had an unfortunate wretch brought before O 3 150 DUBLIN. gown and wig,* (however trifling these appendages of legal solemnity may be considered in themselves,) it has been justly observed, contributes much to divest the courts of that gravity of appearance observable in Eng- land. " Connected with the courts, and who make their constant or occasional residence in Dublin, are 45 benchers, 950 barristers of whom 25 are advocates in the ecclesiastical courts, 2000 attornios, 12 proctors in the ecclesiastical, and eight in ..e admiralty courts, and 50 public notaries." The moral characters of these gentle- men are in general irreproachable, their manners fascinat- ing, their conduct in private life amiable and exemplary. The patriotism of the bar, it is true, has been culled i question; and when we hear, that in their deliberations on the act of union, in grand assembly convened for the special purpose, they came to the magnanimous re- solution " that the annihilation of the parliament of Ireland would be an innovation," we must confess that grounds appear to have existed for the charge. As to the union itself, though, notwithstanding the venal means of its accomplishmentjt we have little doubt of its ultimately- beneficial results to the whole country ; yet we should have observed with satisfaction such gentlemen as were him, (for life or death,) who, in consequence of some accident, had his jaw-bone much enlarged on one side. The judge, ambitious of sporting his wit, could not omit this opportunity, and remarked to the prisoner's counsel, that his " client would have made an excel, lent lawyer, as he had so much jaw." " I do not know," replied the equally facetious barrister, " whether he would have made a g-ood lawyer, but I am sure he would have made a bad judge, for his jaw is all on one side !" * At county assizes. f These means were no secret to the late members of the Irish parliament in general, who, it is pretty well known, did not lose by their concurrence with the measure. IHJBLIN. 151 of a directly contrary opinion, expressing their senti- ments, upon so momentous an occasion, with somewhat more of their accustomed energy. A description of the intermediate streets, extending southward from the Linen Hall to the water-side, will be unnecessary: we shall therefore briefly mention, that Newgate, with the Sessions House attached, and the Sheriffs' Prison for debtors, occur in this direction, being situated in Green-street. They are both, though re- cently erected, small, inconvenient, defective as to their intended purposes, and, notwithstanding some degree of amelioration was effected by the visit of the parlia- mentary commissioners in 1808, still disgustingly filthy, and the practices of their inmates (of Newgate, of course, more particularly) wretchedly depraved. In the latter prison crimes of the most horrid complexion were for- merly committed almost with impunity, and exactions disgraceful to humanity made by the gaoler and turn- keys upon the friends of such unhappy malefactors as perished on the scaffold.* Such abuses will not in future, we trust, in any times or circumstances, be found prac- ticable; but, without a complete re-edification of the building, in a situation less confined, and upon a plan superior both in extent and design to that of the present edifice, filth and disorder, it is to be feared, must pre- vail in a degree, in spite of the most strenuous efforts to prevent them. The magnificent pile of the Four Courts, with the * It was usual to detain the bodies after execution, until an exor- bitant demand for their possession by relatives, &c. was complied with: and, during the period of the rebellion, as upon good authority we have heard, the head of a misled but highly-gifted young man was thus withheld from his friend v until ijO had bevn paid for it* relinquishment! 152 DUBLIN. offices attached, is situated on the Inns' Quay; it is an object of such architectural interest, that its particular description cannot be unacceptable, and this it is impos- sible to give in more appropriate language than that of Mr. Malton. The whole edifice of the Law Courts, and the law offices together, form an oblong rectangle of 440 feet in front, to the river, and 170 feet deep, to the rear. The centre pile, 140 feet square, divides off the law offices, and forms two court-yards one to the east, the other to the west; which courts are shut out from the street by handsome screen walls, perforated by arches. The middle structure contains the four courts of judica- ture of the Chancery, King's Bench, Exchequer, and Common Pleas, with all requisite conveniences for the proper discharge of the various business transacted. On the pediment, over the portico, stands the- statue of Moses: on the one side is Justice, and Mercy on the other. On the corners of the building, over the coupled pilasters, are the statues of Wisdom and Authority, in the attitude of sitting. From the street is an ascent of five steps to the portico, with the great door of entrance in the centre of a semi- circular recess, conducting through an oblong vestibule into the great hall under the dome, into which is a de- scent of three steps. To have a clear conception of the disposition of the various apartments of the inside, as they are arranged around the circular hall, it is neces- sary first to conceive the plan well ; which may be dis- tinctly delineated in the imagination, by figuring a circle of 64 feet diameter, inscribed in the centre of a square of 140 feet, with the four courts radiating from the cir- cle to the angles of the square. DUBLIN. 153 In each of the openings from the circular hall stand four columns, two in depth on each side. In the piers, between the openings, are niches and sunk pannels. The columns around the hall are of the Corinthian order, 25 feet high, fluted the upper two-thirds of the shaft, and stand upon a sub-plinth that contains the steps of ascent into the courts and avenues. The entablature is continued around unbroken, above which is an attic pedes- tal, having in the dado eight sunk pannels corresponding with, and over the eight openings below between the columns. In the pannels, over the entrances into the courts, are historical pieces in bas-relief, representing four great events in the British history : 1 . William the Conqueror establishing courts of justice, feudal and Norman laws, doomsday-book, curfew; 2. King John signing Magna Charta before the barons; 3. Henry the Second, on landing in Ireland, receiving the Irish chief- tains grants the first charter to Dublin; 4. James the First abolishing the Brehon laws, tariistry, gavelkind, gossipred, and publishes the act of oblivion. From the attic springs a dome nearly hemispherical, having a large circular opening in the centre, around which is a gallery. The hall is lighted by eight windows in the dome, over the eight pannels of the attic; between these are eight colossal statues in alto-relievo, standing on consoles, emblematical of liberty, justice, wisdom, law, prudence, mercy, eloquence, and punishment. A rich frieze of foliage takes its rise over the heads of the sta- tues, and extends around the dome. In the frieze, over each window, are 1 medallions of eight eminent ancient lawgivers, viz. Moses, Lycurgus, Solon, Numa, Con- fucius, Alfred, Mango-Capac, and Ollamh-Fodhla. The rest of the dome is enriched with mosaic work, to the opening in the centre. 154 DUBLIN. "The interior of the hall is so extremely beautiful, that no verbal description can convey an adequate idea of it : 'tis simple! 'tis elegant! 'tis magnificent! As the four courts are similar, and of equal dimensions, the descrip- tion of one will answer for all. On rising three steps, and removing a curtain immediately at the back of the columns, the court is entered ; a wainscot screen crosses it, having a door at each extreme for admission of the lawyers, counsel, and witnesses. On each side is a gal- lery~-one for the jury, the other for the sheriff' and other officers. The judges sit in a cove formed by a niche in the end of the court, with semi-elliptical sounding- boards over their heads. Each court is lighted by six windows, three on each side, above the cornice, which is on a level with the cornice over the columns of the hall, Level with the galleries are apartments for the jurors to retire," The building was begun by Mr. Thomas Cooley, architect, in 1776; but he lived only to complete the western wing: it was finished by Mr. James Gan- don. It was the intention of Mr. Cooley to have kept back the middle part, containing the courts, and, by only gently breaking the range, to have preserved one entire court-yard of the space now divided into two, and the ground covered by the centre pile. It is to be lamented that the idea was departed from, as, besides other disadvantages, it prevents so magnificent a struc- ture from being seen to advantage.* The foundation- * Sir Richard Hoare has observed, that " some objections may be made to the architecture of this building, particularly to the dome encompassed by columns, (external view,) which, owing 1 to the base rising so high above the rest of the building, has a very bad effect ; its proportions as a detached temple would be more just: this defect is very visible from the opposite side of the river which is the best situation to view the general efl'cet of the building where the or t, ; - DUBLIN^ 155 stone of the part containing the courts, was laid by Charles, Duke of Rutland, then Lord-Lieutenant, on the 13th of March, 1786: and the whole expense of that, and the subsequent buildings, has been estimated at 150,000. Previously to the erection of this stately edifice, the four law courts were held under one roof in Christ-church- lane: prior to which they were separate and ambula- tory, being held, as convenience and safety made it expedient,* either at Carlow, Drogheda, or in the Castle of Dublin. The foundation of the new and handsome bridge, in the vicinity of the Courts, and in a line with Church-street, was laid in 1816, by Lord Whitworth, from whom its appellation, Whitworth Bridge, is derived. Ormond Market, esteemed by the citizens one of the first in Europe, occurs in this parish : it was erected in 1682. From the southern end of Linen-hall-street, our walk, still eastward, lies through Bolton-street (where it as- sumes a northerly direction) to Dorset-street, near the termination of which is Bethesda Chapel, in the parish of St. Mary, a very fashionable place of worship, erected by Wm. Smyth, esq., a private citizen, at his massive proportions of the dome and colonnade tend to lessen and injure those of the beautiful portico beneath, to which they should be only a second." * Collet's Inns (in George's-lane, without the walls, now Great George's-street) was in ancient times the seat of the Kind's Exche- quer; but "once the Baron sitting- on it solemnly and carelessly, tlie Irish laid hold of the opportunity, rushed in, surprised ihe unarmed multitude, slew all that fell under their power, and ransacked the king's treasure; after which mishap the Exchequer was removed from thence into a place of greater security." Stanihurst t p. 23. The spot long after retained the name of the Exchequer; and Ex- chequer-street, which is contiguous, probably was called after it. 156 DUBLIN. sole expense. To this he afterwards annexed a Female Orphan Asylum, and a Penitentiary for the reception and the employment of women leaving the Lock Hos- pital: the inmates of both these excellent institutions constantly attend the chapel. Perhaps it is to the latter circumstance that Bcthesda Chapel is chiefly indebted for its popularity, as the union of voices (from opposite sides of the edifice) of the sister penitents and orphans is strikingly impressive and affecting. Turning the angle of Frederick-street, Cavendish- row, forming the eastern side of Rutland-square, oc- curs in a right line. The northern side is occupied by Palace-row, in the centre of which stands Charlemont House, an elegant and regular edifice of Arklow stone, which by some judges has been considered superior to the Portland. It overlooks the Rotunda Gardens, which, with the building so called, are open to the public for the benefit of the Lying-in Hospital; the latter a magni- ficent erection, whose back-front, extending to Grauby- row, completes, in conjunction with it, the circumfer- ence of the square, the gardens themselves forming the interior area. These gardens, Mr. Malton remarks, " for the capability so small a spot could afford, are beautiful in a very eminent degree, and contain a variety that is astonishing; in a hollow below a terrace on the north side is an excellent bowling-green, and all around is thickly planted with well-grown elm, disposed in a variety of walks that are really romantic, and afford a delightful recreation to the inhabitants of the neigh- bourhood. They were originally enclosed by a high wall, which was taken down in 1784, and a handsome iron railing, on a dwarf wall, put in its stead : this was done in the administration of his Grace, Charles, Duke DUBLIN. 157 of Rutland, when they were called after him Rutland- square. " The Rotunda, and new rooms adjoining, now form a very distinguishing feature in the city : this noble circu- lar room was built in the year 1757: the new rooms form a pleasing range of building, 101 feet in extent, parallel with Cavendish-row, the east side of the square. The inside of the Rotunda has a very pleasing appear- ance; it is 80 feet in diameter, and 40 feet in height, ' O 7 without any middle support: it is decorated around with pilasters of the Corinthian order, 18 in number, and 25 feet high, standing on pedestals; above which, be- tween the pilasters, are enriched windows, which appear on the outside : the Ceiling is flat, with large and bold compartments: the ornaments of the whole are now somewhat antiquated, but it has nevertheless a grand effect on public nights, when illumined, and filled with the native beauty and fashion of the country. " The new rooms are superb; they consist of two principal apartments, one over the other, 86 feet long by 40 broad; the lower is the ball, the other the supper and tea room. There is a smaller ball-room on the ground floor, which also serves as a room for refresh- ments when the larger is occupied. The upper room is very elegantly enriched; between pilasters against the walls are trophies, where shields of cut-glass and other glittering ornaments have a very brilliant appear- ance. There are several lesser rooms for cards and refreshments. Besides weekly concerts in the winter season, there are here held subscription balls, supported by the first nobility and gently; card assemblies; an'd, every season, a masquerade or two. The entertainments oi the Rotunda during the winter lonu the most elegant vol.. i. r 158 DUBLIN. amusements of Dublin; it is opened every Sunday evening in summer, for the purpose of a promenade, when tea and coffee are given in the superb upper room. The receipts of the whole, after defraying the incidental expenses, go to the support of the hospital."* The Rotunda Gardens were originally planned and laid out by Dr. Bartholomew Mosse, for the express purpose of providing a fund, to arise out of their pub- lic exhibition, for the maintenance of the noble hospital whose erection he contemplated. He had previously opened an Asylum for poor pregnant women, iu George's-lane, (the first attempted in the empire,) but finding it much too small for the reception of the nume- rous applicants, conceived the idea of the princely Lying-in Hospital of Dublin. The benevolent man had already risked his whole fortune in the completion of the garden ; but, undeterred by this obstacle, He raised money for his favourite purpose by lottery-schemes, and on his own credit; and commenced the building in 1751. The entire failure of one of his schemes in 1754, alone induced him to petition parliament in behalf of his laudable undertaking, when the sum of 12,000 was liberally granted him to finish the edifice, with the ad- dition of ,2000 as a personal remuneration. In 1756, the doctor obtained the charter of incorporation; in * The Sunday promenades, at the instance of the Society for Discountenancing Vice, have been discontinued ; and the concerts and other sources of emolument to the hospital having- declined in the public favour, application was made to parliament, in 1803, for its assistance, and the subsequent grants in consequence have amounted to 23,000. The gardens are now open to promenadere ou the evenings of week days, with the attractions of a baud of music and illuminations. Admittance is obtained ut the small dm _ c of a five-penny coin of the country. DUBLIN. 159 1757, the structure was opened for the reception of patients; and, after the lapse of two years only, having much impaired his health by too unremitting attention to his grand object, the philanthropic founder was no more. His bust in the interior surmounts a pedestal, oa which appears the pithy and expressive inscription following: Bart. Mosse, M. D. Miseris Solamen Institult. MDCCLVH. The principal front of the building is to Great-Britain- street: its centre, decorated with four Doric columns on a rustic basement, and supporting a beautiful enta- blature and pediment, the whole crowned with a domed steeple, has a truly elegant effect: ornamental colon- nades communicate with the wings, which have also Doric columns, and vases at top that to the east serv- ing as an entrance to the Rotunda and new rooms, which buildings are connected with the hospital. During the troubles of 1798, and for three years subsequently, the Rotunda and rooms attached were held in requisition by government as barracks. In Great-Britain-street, on the same side as the Lying-in Hospital, is Simpson's Hospital (founded by a merchant of that name) for patients of previous respect- ability and irreproachable character, afflicted with the gout or blindness; with the latter of which the philan- thropist was himself threatened, and with the former severely visited. Mr. Walsh's mention of this institution contains a detail of some circumstances extremely pleas- ing, " A plain but decent suit of clothes is provided ; their food is of the very best kind; their rooms neat; 160 DUBLIN. and if more than one individual occupy the same apart- ment, it only promotes that social gratification which the blind and the lame must feel in mutual society and assistance. It is a singular and interesting spectacle to see this interchange of offices, each making use of that organ of his neighbour of which he is himself deprived. In this way, the patients who are deprived of the use of their limbs by the severity of the gout, are supported by their blind friends, whose motions they direct and guide ; while, in return, a lame patient is frequently seen sur- rounded by a group of the blind, to whom he reads a newspaper which is supplied for that purpose, or some book of entertainment or instruction. In the spring and summer, the gay sound of the flute and violin is often heard from the benches of their little garden, and the whole institution has an air of cheerful content. The patients are freely allowed to walk abroad ; and where- everthey are met in the streets, and recognized by their dress, they never fail to excite, in no small degree, the interest and good-will of the passengers, who are glad to accord to their infirmities any assistance in their power; a feeling which at once evinces a general respect for the character and circumstances of the men, and for the excellent institution which supports and protects them." The Richmond National Institution for the sup- port and employment of the youthful blind, as Simpson's is for the maintenance of the aged thus afflicted, was forjnerly situated in the same street; but, from want of room, the premises have been sold to the governors of the Lying-in Hospital, and others more convenient taken in Sackville-street, where the institution prospers. Instruction is here afforded to the pupils in the arts of basket-making, netting, weaving, c.; and their pro- DUBLIN. l6l ficiency, we understand, has been rapid and surprising. The various articles manufactured are sold for the benefit of the charity. The front of Simpson's Hospital is to the entrance of Jervis-street, in proceeding by which we pass by the Charitable Infirmary, an institution founded in 1728; which, besides supplying medical and surgical assist- ance, with all other necessaries, to the sick and wounded poor, is distinguished by the considerate provision of two distinct wards, where advice, medicine, and beds only, are aftbrded to a rather more reputable class, who, not- withstanding, might experience considerable difficulties in meeting the extraordinary expenses entailed during a period of sickness, by the charges of the usual medical attendants. To the other advantages of this venerable charity was added, the institution of medical and sur- gical lectures, in 1808: the number of pupils who attend them exceeds 70. In 1792, the then governors obtained the act of incorporation, by which they were styled the Guardians and Governors of the Charitable Infirmary, Dublin. Mary-street, which intersects Jervis-street at right angles, derives a degree of importance from its possess- ing Apothecaries' Hall and the parochial church; the former an establishment at which (as at the institution of the same name in London) drugs and chemicals may be procured pure and unadulterated ;* the latter a plian stone edifice, with an addition to Dublin of one more unfinished steeple. * This establishment likewise regulates the profession of phar- macy in Ireland, having the necessary powers vested in it by its charter: its medicines arc prepared under the inspection of a sworu cuurt of directors annually appointed. P 3 162 DUBLIN. In 1814 this parish contained 1670 houses, with a population of 19,2^8 inhabitants: many of the latter are conspicuous for rank and affluence; but all those sub- ordinate classes are here also to be found, which in an extensive city form the connecting links of the great chain of society. An elegant iron bridge, of one elliptical arch, at Lower Ormond Quay, connects the opposite parishes of St. Mary and St. Andrew: it is 140 feet long by 12 wide, being intended for foot-passengers only. If the tourist have adopted our route as far as St. Mary's Church, he has now no alternative (owing to the scattered positions of the objects described in the preced- ing parish) than to retrace his steps from Jervis-street to the Lying-in Hospital, in order, by Cavendish-row and Frederick-street already mentioned, to obtain a sight of the parochial church of St. George, the approach to which is by Beresford-street. This elegant modern edifice thus approached, the elevated steeple, appearing directly in front, is seen to the greatest .advantage ; it is certainly highly creditable to the taste and talents of the architect, Mr. Francis Johnston. Being divested of the usual appendage, a church-yard, and standing in the midst of a tolerably spacious area, with a handsome street and crescent in. front, and well-built surrounding houses, its insulated appearance contributes much to its striking effect. The portico in front consists of Ionic pillars, on which are raised an entablature and angular pediment: very con- spicuous on the frieze is a Greek inscription, signifying f Glory to God in the highest!' The highly graceful steeple and spire rise over the portico ; the cross sur- mounting the latter is 200 feet from the ground. The DUBLIN. 163 Avhole is constructed of hewn stone, and the internal decorations are in a style of corresponding elegance. The spectator placed in front of St. George's Church is immediately impressed with the idea of his arrival in a quarter of the city which taste and opulence have united to embellish : the streets in the vicinity are all .built on a regular plan ; the houses are lofty and elegant; and neither hotels, shops, nor warehouses, obtruding upon the scene, the whole possesses an air of dignified retirement the tranquillity of ease, affluence, and leisure. The inhabitants of this parish are indeed almost exclusively of the upper ranks: their number in 1814 Avas 5100, occupying 590 houses. St. George's Dispen- sary Fever Hospital, in Lower Dorset-street, is at a *.hort distance from the church; an invaluable establish- ment for the poor of the whole city north of the Liffey. By Temple-street and Gardiner's-place we reach Mountjoy-square, recently completed, and a distin- guished ornament to this fashionable part of Dublin: it is regular, elegant, and sufficiently spacious, though inferior in the latter respect to Merrion-square, south of .the river. It possesses, also, the additional recommen- dation of an aspect in which a peculiar neatness appears the result of tasteful simplicity. The upper windows of the houses command, from their elevated site, an exten- sive prospect of Dublin Bay, the Hill of Howth, the "Wicklow Mountains, and surrounding country. In Great Charles-street, diverging from the square, is an elegant chapel, fronted with hewn stone, lately erected for a congregation of Wesleyan methodists, who have three other places of worship in this city. By Rutland-street, facing the Wesleyan chapel, we aic ied to Summer-hill, where we may inspect the Hl-1 DUBLIX. Farming-Society's Repository: " the high reputation and celebrity" of this society, as Mr. Curwen, an expe- rienced agriculturist, very justly remarks, " arc the best evidence of the benefits derived to the country from its labours." " The establishment at Summer-hill," con- tinues this gentleman, " is on an extensive plan for all kinds of (agricultural) improvements; among which is a manufactory for the most approved species of farming implements, which are here sold at reduced prices to practical persons. The society has an experimental farm, about five miles from Dublin, at Ballynasloe, where it has a handsome house, with a most commodious yard for the reception of prize cattle. The meetings in the spring are held in Dublin in the autumn at Bally- nasloe. " The premiums annually distributed by the society are very numerous; and aid from its funds is also extended to the different provincial societies; by which means, though much distributed, each becomes identified with the agriculture of the whole country, while the parent establishment is enabled to direct its attention to those practices which are of the most important consideration. " The Farming Society has an allowance from the state of ,5000 a year, and an annual subscription is paid by the members in aid of the funds. The Right Hon. John Foster is the president; Mr. Wynne, and many other experienced and spirited agriculturists, form the committee. As a point of union, connecting the landed gentry with men of science and practical know- ledge, it cannot fail of producing important results, and extensively diffusing a spirit for improvement." Gardiner's-street and the western portion of Gloucester- street conduct from Summer-hill to the parochial church DUBLIN. 165 of St. Thomas, exhibiting only an unfinished front in the approach by this avenue. It is situated in Marl- borough-street; where is also commenced the metropo- litan -Roman-catholic chapel, whose front, consisting of a noble Doric portico, with its entablature and pedi- ment, is to be in imitation of the temple of Theseus at Athens. The columns of the portico will be six in number, fluted, and without bases, standing on a flight of steps, projecting 10 feet from the three principal en- trances ; and iigures of Faith, Hope, and Charity, will surmount the pediment. The side-fronts are to have each centrical recesses for entrances, faced by colon- nades, and crowned by emblematic figures like the por- tico, while the interior will possess an air of grandeur correspondent with the external decorations. The cost of this structure, defrayed by subscriptions from the Roman-catholic body in Dublin, is estimated at <50,000. The Roman-catholics have nine other chapels in different parts of the city, besides 13 friaries and nunneries, with 32 male and female schools, educat- ing (frequently supporting) in the aggregate 5000 scho- lars, at an annual expense of about ,6000. Dublin is divided by their clergy into nine parochial districts, by the respective inhabitants of which one or more of these schools are maintained; every protestant parish has likewise its school: and it were well if the spirit of rivalry between the two great religious classes were confined to these humble but useful works of charity, in which they are spiritedly emulated by the various dissenting con- gregations. Waterford House is in Marlborough-street, remarkable as the first private edifice (of modern date) in Dublin entirely built with stone. At the end of Marlborough-street, Lower Abbey- l66 DUBLIN. street runs nearly east and west : in the latter is the Dorset Institution, opened by the Duchess of Dorset in 1816, for the employment of poor female children in manufacturing straw-plait, and for the relief of indus- trious but distressed females in general, throughout the metropolis. " Another department receives and gives out work to poor room-keepers, unknown to the persons who send it. This procures employment for many peo- ple who could not otherwise obtain it, as the public institution is pledged for the safety, neatness, and punc- tual return of the work. Thus also many respectable females are enabled to maintain themselves, -whose reduced circumstances require such means of support, but -whose pride would prevent their publicly seeking it."* Traversing Lower Abbey-street to the eastward, the crescent of buildings called Beresford-place is before us, extending in rear of one other of those magnificent piles, for which Dublin is so justly famed. This is thf Custom-house, which, Sir Richard Hoare observes, ft visited from the opposite side of the river, has a very striking effect; and this fine building, combined with * Whitelaw and Walsh's History, vol. II. p. 798. This, and similar traits of delicate consideration, are what so peculiarly distinguish many of the charitable institutions in Dublin. ID England, little allowance is generally made by the more opulent, for the feelings of the distressed female, who, having- seen better days, conceives an almost inconquerable repugnance to solicit or receive needle-work, or other employment, from the hands of those to whom she is personally known, and more particularly, perhaps, from such as the ties of relationship or former intimacy had accus- tomed her to consider but as her natural equals. In Dublin, by means of the Dorset Institution, she readily procures the employment her necessities may require, without the violation of that privacy, which the honourable, though causeless sbame attaching to unmerited want, has, in her views, reudered sacred. DUBLIN. 167 the numerous shipping immediately adjoining it, re- minded me strongly of those subjects which the painter Carnaletti selected at Venice for his pencil." " The Custom-house," says Mr. Malton, " is the most costly, and, excepting the Exchange, the most highly decorated building in the city: whether taken in the general effect, or minutely considered, its appear- ance is magnificent, and, on the whole, it is acknow- ledged the most sumptuous edifice, erected for such a use, in Europe. " The whole building is insulated, exhibiting four deco- rated fronts to view, answering almost directly to the four Cardinal points of the compass. The form is an oblong quadrangle, 375 feet long by 205 feet deep. Within are two courts, east and west, divided from each other by the centre pile, which, 131 feet broad, extends the whole depth, from north to south. It is jointly the house of customs and of excise; and, besides all the offices appropriated thereto, contains apartments or dewlling-houses for the chief commissioners. The north and south are the principal fronts; the east and west, excepting only the returns of the wings at the extremi- ties are large warehouses. The whole is decorated with columns and ornaments of the Doric order, with some innovations, in a bold and good style. " Over the portico, in the centre, is a handsome cupola, on exactly the same plan as those beautiful cupolas at Greenwich Hospital, near London; but of somewhat less dimensions, and differing a little in the decorations of the elevation ; the dome, 26 feet in dia- meter, is quite plain, covered with copper; on the top of which, on a circular pedestal, is a statute of Hope,* This statue, it mubt, we thiuk, be granted by all impartial ob- l6S DUBLIN. resting on her anchor, 12 feet high, and 113 feet from the ground. On the attic story, over the four pillars of the portico, are statues of Neptune, Plenty, Industry, and Mercury. In the tympan of the pediment, in alto- relievo, is represented the friendly union of Britannia with Hibernia, with the good consequences resulting to Ireland: they are placed in the centre, on a car of shell, embracing each other. Neptune, on the right, is driv- ing away, with his trident, Famine and Despair; on the left are sea gods, sounding their shells ; and a fleet of ships at a distance, approaching full sail, to which Hi- bernia is pointing. The frieze of the entablature, over the portico, is ornamented with oxes' heads entire, with festoons from one to the other, supposed to be of their hides. On the key-stones of the arches of entrance, and others corresponding, in all 16, are allegorically re- presented as many rivers of Ireland, under male heads, excepting one, a female, in the centre of the north front, representing the river Anna Liffey; all decorated with what is peculiar to them, or their banks, and executed in a very bold, superior style. " The north front differs considerably from the south; it has a portico of four columns, in the centre, but no pediment. On the entablature, over each co- lumn, are statues, representing Europe, Asia, Africa, and America; in the general effect it is not at all compara- ble with the south, but is seen to great advantage from the noble semicircular area before it. The courts are plain; the whole, with great part of the north, and both the east and west fronts, are built of native mountain servers, is preposterously lar~e in proportion to the dome Which sustains it. DUBLIN. 169 stone ; but the whole of the south front, and all the de- corative parts of the three others, are of Portland." Convenience, as Sir Richard Hoare observes, seems to have been as much consulted in the interior of this edifice, as grandeur of design in the exterior. The Long Room (which, by a species of practical bull, was erected 70 feet square) is a superb apartment, ornamented with two ran- ges of Composite columns, supporting an arched ceiling. " The trial and board rooms, situated on the north front, are also very handsome apartments; particularly the former, being adorned with columns, and otherwise much ornamented. To these, and other public offices in the north range, is access by a very elegant staircase, much admired for its light appearance and novel construction ; the ascent is, on either side, to a half-landing, by steps fixed in the wall in the ordinary manner; but from the middle of the half-landing rises the return-flight to the landing place, appearing between the landings without support, with a railing on each side. The steps of this flight are sustained by their being very thick, and laid on each other in arch joints, forming a semi-elliptical arch, from one landing to the other/' In addition to a wet dock, contiguous to the Custom- house, on its eastern side, which covers two acres (Eng- lish) nearly, with capacious and substantial warehouses attached, two new docks, with stores, are in progress ; but these, like many other extensive undertakings in Ireland, have been very appropriately styled " precautionary ac- commodations ;" the trade of Dublin by no means, at the present moment, requiring them. Near the Custom- house, on the North Strand, the Sunday and Daily School for the parishes of St. Mary, St. George, and St. Thomas, is open to all religious persuasions, and receives VOL. I. Q 1/0 DUBLIN. 340 children of both sexes, of whom 100 are annually clothed. From the Custom-house, a westward direction along the quay brings us to the foot of Carlisle Bridge, pre- viously noticed, leading from which is the most spacious and regular street in Dublin, called Sackville-street. The new Post-office, the foundation of which was laid by Lord Whitworth in 1815, is situated on the west side of this street, and adds much to its general appear- ance of magnificence. It is a grand edifice, mainly constructed of mountain stone ; but the noble portico, 80 feet in length, which ornaments the centre, is of Port- land. Statues of Hibernia, Mercury, and Fidelity, surmount the pediment, whose tympanum bears the royal arms in alto-relievo : the whole building is 223 feet long, by 150 deep. The cost was estimated at .50,000. The Dublin mails are ten in number, and leave the Post-office at eight o'clock every evening, as do die "London. The coaches are extremely well constructed, being equal, if not superior, to those on the English es- tablishment. They carry two guards each, and have occasionally a trooper or two besides as an escort, in the case of their road lying through disturbed districts : the pannels of such as are considered most liable to be attacked, are of sheet iron or copper. Precautions all these, which, as they are still continued, speak volumes as to the supposed existing state of the country. The Nelson Pillar stands centrically in Sackville- street, contiguous to the Post-office. It is, in our opinion, a most unsightly column, and a huge deformity in the grand area to which it might have been made a conspicuous ornament. It can be reconciled to no order ; but this, had it any pretensions to originality or taste- DUBLIN. 171 fulness of design, might have been forgiven; it is how- ever an almost shapeless mass of native black stone and granite, surmounted with a statue of the hero to whose memory it was erected. Many have remarked, with justice, that its situation also is ill-chosen. On the Hill of Howth, its ponderous proportions would have better harmonized with the scenery surrounding it; there, it would have looked in majesty upon the element which the genius of Nelson commanded ; and there it would have afforded the noblest of land-marks to our seamen, at the same time that it stimulated them to vet more heroic ardour in the service of their country. The Dublin Institution is also in Sackville-street, and consists of a library for perusal on the spot, a col* lection of books for circulation among the members, a lecture-room, &c. A feature which distinguishes it from the Dublin Library Society, before mentioned, is .the want, as was purposely intended, of a room for general conversation ; the occasional heat and acrimony of which in the news-room of the sister institution were lamented by many of its members, and the present society formed expressly with a view to avoid them. The Dublin Institution prospers, its members amounting to not less than 600. Nothing farther deserving of notice occurs in the parish of St. Thomas, with the account of which we close our- parochial perambulations: its population, in enumerated 13,7^6; its houses, 1680, EXCURSION VI. Through the Environs of Dublin, by the Circular Road; continued, by Clontarf, to the Peninsula ofHffWth. As, previously to quitting the shelter afforded, in all weathers, by numerous coffee-houses, confectioners', &c. in every principal street of the metropolis, the tourist may be interested in knowing the characteristics of the climate, and general aspect of the sky, of Dublin, we shall preface the present Excursion with a few brief remarks upon this subject. The atmosphere of Dublin, in common with that of Ireland in general, is humid to a degree that usually renders an umbrella the first requisite of the stranger on his arrival. The lower parts of the city, lying on a flat plain, great part of which has been reclaimed from the sea, are also subject to fogs, sometimes of extraordinary density ; while the elevated streets north of. the river are, perhaps, at the same time in the perfect possession of their usual elastic and pure air, wafted by healthful breezes from the ocean or the adjacent mountains. On these occasions, to a person standing at the northern verge of Dublin, a great part of the place appears obliterated by the almost palpable mist; the figure of Nelson on his lofty pillar, and the dome of the Custom- house, alone meeting the eye, and seeming to float upon the surface. Exhalations even of a dangerous nature, suspending all business, and rendering the streets impas- sable in broad day by their obscurity, have more than ENVIRONS OF DUBLIN. once visited the city; when the vapour has been seen bursting from the ground, like steam from a boiling caul- dron.* But these, besides being extremely rare, are seldom of long continuance, owing to the almost Con- stant current of air, either from east to west, or from west to east, along the acclivity of the mountains, and parallel to the direction of the river. Westerly winds are by far the most frequent in Dublin. If, however, the density of the atmosphere in this city have become the subject of frequent remark, its po culiar clearness at times is not less deserving of notice; the summits of the mountains in Louth, Down, and Armagh, some of which arc 60 English miles' distance, being occasionally distinctly visible from the vicinity. The conical tops of the Welsh mountains, also, are somer times discernible, even from the low margin of the bay ; when, their bases being beneath the horizon, they pre- sent the appearance of a cluster of abrupt and lofty islands. But this uncommon atmospheric transparency is almost an unerring indication of the speedy recurrence of rain. Floods, occasioned by sudden and .violent, or by long- continued rains, are not unfrequent, particularly in the low grounds of the Liberty; where, in 1714, the poor were entirely dislodged from their cellars, and the bridges on all the rivers and streams running into the * Mr. Walsh records a remarkable phenomenon of this nature, as having 1 taken place a few years hack in Townshend-strcet and College Green., Here a dense white vapour was observed to issue in flakes and curling 1 wreaths from the pavement: it rose but a few feet above the surface, and then formed small but opaque hikes in different directions: in the vicinity of these, the air was perceptibly colder than in other places, from the absorption of the caloric of the atmosphere. Q 3 17* ENVIRONS OF DUBLIN. Bay of Dublin carried away by the torrents. In Decem- ber, 1801, above 36 hours' rain swelled the Liffey to an extraordinary height, inundating the city, and de- stroying many of the bridges. As a proof of the general mildness of the frosts, in comparison with those of Lon- don, it has been observed that skaiting is an amusement rarely enjoyed by the citizens; while, on the other hand, the heat in summer seldom exceeds 38 degrees of the thermometer. A climate so generally temperate, it might be inferred, must be productive of unusual salubrity in the inhabitants ;* and that the contrary is the melancholy fact, among the poorer orders at least, is to be attributed solely to the superabundant population, and to the filth and low living which extreme poverty engenders, and cf which disease is but the natural consequence. Entering the Circular Road by the south-eastern ter- mination of Leeson-street, and commencing our tour of the city in a westerly direction, we speedily reach Porto-Bello; where, on the bank of the Grand Canal, are the extensive barracks for cavalry, covering 27 acres of ground, including two spacious courts, which commu- nicate with each other, through the range of buildings, by a Central gate. From these barracks, Mr. Windham Sadler, son to Mr. James Sadler, ascended in a balloon, on the 22nd of July, 1817, and, by bold and judicious management, succeeded in reaching the opposite coast cf Anglesea, at the distance of two miles and a half fouth from Holyhead, in six hours; thus effecting what so many had previously attempted in vain to accomplish. " There be few sickly persons," says Boate, " and Ireland's healthful ness doth further appear by this particular that several diseases very common in other countries are here very rare, and, partly altogether uukuown." .Ckap.ZS, sec. 102. EN'VIROXS OF DUBLIN. 175 At Porto-Bello there is also an excellent hotel,* and the new basin for supplying the south-eastern parts of the city with water from the Grand Canal. This spacious reservoir was opened in September, 1812, and is laid down with gravelled walks and shrubberies, with a view to render it a public promenade, like the City Basin. The new House of Correction, a short distance farther on our left, is intended as a substitute for the very poor and inadequate building so called in James-street. It is a massive pile, erected at the expense of ,28,000, occu- pying an acre and a half of ground, and has much of the air of that appropriate gloom, which corresponds with the purposes for which it is erected. Before the main body of the edifice is the keeper's lodge, standing in advance like the outworks of a fortress ; at its angles are projecting turrets, calculated to command the walls as bastions do the curtains of a fortification ; and, when provided with centinels, as is designed, all attempts at escape will be effectually prevented. Over the entrance is a shield of the city arms, three blazing castles, with the motto, Obedientia Civium Urbis felicitas ; and on the front of the main building, the equally ap- propriate inscription, " Cease to do Evil, and learn to do Well." Young vagrants, of both sexes, distinctly lodged and classed, will be confined in this building, and employed in various departments of industry. It is intended to contain, if necessary, 400 persons. * Where ?f this plot, sonic of the officers of the VOL. i. n 182 ENVIRONS OF DUBLIX. house have Small gardens: and here is a range of build- ings containing the laundry, the prison wards for sick deserters, &c. lunatic cells, medical-board stores, with the charncl or dead house. The Wellington Testimonial is as yet unfinished : we shall therefore subjoin Mr. Walsh's account of it as it is to be. Mr. W.'s description is that of the model from a design by Smirke, now in the hall of the Dublin Society's House, being the one selected from a great number, by the committee who conduct the work for the numerous subscribers. " On the summit platform of a flight of steps, of an ascent so steep, and a construction so uncouth, that they seem made to prohibit, instead of to invite the spectator to ascend them, a pedestal is erected of the simplest square form, in the die of which, on the four sides, are as many pannels, having figures in basso- relievo, emblematical of the principal victories won by the Duke. Before the centre of what is intended for the principal front is a narrow pedestal insulated, and resting partly on the steps and partly on the platform. This pedestal supports an equestrian statue of the hero. From the platform, a massive obelisk rises, truncated, and of thick and heavy proportions. On the four facades of the obelisk are inscribed the names of all the victories gained by the Duke of Wellington, from his first career in India to the battle of Waterloo. The \vhole structure is to be of plain mountain granite, without any other decoration whatever. The dimen- sions as follow: base, formed by the lowest step, 120 feet on each side, or in circuit 480 feet. Perpendicular section of steps, 20 feet. Subplinth of pedestal on the top of iteps, GO fcet square by 10 feet high. Pedestal, 56" ENVIRONS OF DUBLIN. 183 feet square by 24 feet high. Obelisk, 28 feet square at the base, and loO feet high, diminishing in the propor- tion of one inch in every foot. Total height of the monument, 205 feet.- A public monument at once magnificent and beautiful, (continues Mr. Walsh) rich and appropriate in its decorations, yet striking and im- pressive in its general effect, is, it must be confessed, not easy to invent or construct. If the ancients are our su- preme masters in any art or science, it is in architecture: the more we deviate from the specimens left by them, the more we run into absurdity and deformity. Now, the obelisk is not classical for a triumphal trophy. If it be; admissible, it must belong to the funereal order, ranking with the pyramid and such mausolea. It origi- nated in Egypt, where it was also used as a gnomon to mark the meridian. Obelisks are already numerous enough in Ireland. The figure, simple as it is, betrays a great poverty of invention. The model seems to have been borrowed from those little obelisks made of spar, the common ornaments of chimney-pieces, which the monument in question resembles in every thing but size and polish. But the obelisk form is not the only ob- jection to the Wellington Testimonial. Its base, composed of an inclined plane of inconvenient steps, is abrupt and unsightly. The pedestal, with the basso-relievos, though the least exceptional part, resembles a huge tomb-stone, to which a minor pedestal is attached, like an excrescence, on which is placed the eques- trian statue, that contrives to conceal the figures sculptured on the front entablature, whilst the shaft of the obelisk is remarkably clumsy. Judging there- fore from the model, the tout ensemble produces an effect 184 ENVIUOXS OF DUBLIN. singularly heavy, bald, and frigid." With all possible deference to the author of these opinions, we must, however, remark that, judging from our own view of the model, his animadversions appear somewhat too severe: the obelisk form may not have been that best suited to the intended testimonial, but we cannot but consider the effect of the pillar, so far as completed, imposing. The steps, however, by which an ascent to the pillar is ob- tained, do not harmonize with the general effect, chiefly because, on account of their inconvenient height, which a due regard to proportion rendered necessary, recourse has been had to rounding and sloping, in order to facili- tate the spectator's rise. The site, forming the highest ground in the park, is that formerly occupied by the Sa- lute Battery, and was given by the Board of Ordnance to the Wellington Committee with a view to the erection of this trophy. In rear, stand the remains of another for- tress, called the Star Fort; with the citadel, a polygon of considerable diameter, and, as the work of the Duke of Wharton, when Lord-Lieutenant, sometimes called Wharion's Fulli/. It is said that the eccentric viceroy in- tended this as a retreat from the disturbances he appre- hended in Dublin, in consequence of an attack upon King William's statue, in College-green, shortly after his arrival; but his fears proving groundless, the design was never completed. There is another erection of this na- ture within the park, called the powder magazine, which is a regular square fort, built in 1738. It has ' demi- bastions at the angles, a dry ditch, and draw-bridge: in the centre are the magazines for ammunition, well secured against accidental fire, and bomb-proof; in evidence of which, no casualty has happened since their ENVIRONS DUBLIN. 185 construction. The fort occupies two acres and 33 perches of ground, and is fortified by 1O 24-pounders : as a farther security, and to contain barracks for troops, which before were drawn from Chapcl-Izod, an addi- tional triangular work was constructed in 1801.' The Hibernian School, stands near the south-western angle of the park, and commands an extensive and cheer- ful view. It was founded in consequence of a petition to his Majesty, presented, in 1769, from the then Lord Primate, and the most distinguished among the nobility, gentry, and clergy of Ireland, stating that " upon the death of non-commissioned officers and private men in the army of the said kingdom, &c. great numbers of children had been left destitute of all means of subsistence; that a subscription had been set on foot in the year 17^4, for raising a fund to support the establishment of an hospital, in order to preserve children left in such circumstances from popery, beggary, and idleness; that the subscribers had received great encouragement from parliament and the public: and said petitioners prayed, that his Majesty would be gra- ciously pleased by letters patent under the great seal of the said kingdom of Ireland, to incorporate said peti- tioners, and other subscribers to the said charitable institution." The Hibernian Society was thereupon incorporated " for maintaining, educating, and appren- ticing the orphans and children of soldiers in Ire- land, for ever;" and " in order more effectually to promote the ends of the institution, his Majesty was graciously pleased to grant a new charter to the society, (in 1808) by which they are empowered to place in the regular army as private soldiers, in such corps as from R 3 186 ENVIRONS OF DUBLIN. time to time his Majesty shall please to appoint, but with their own free consent, the orphans and children of soldiers in Ireland for ever." The school consists of a. centre, connected by subordinate buildings with wings, forming altogether a plain front of rubble-stone, plastered and dashed on the exterior, the length of which is 30O feet; there are besides a detached dining-hall, infir- mary, and chapel. The latter is usually attended by the vice-regal family, when resident at the lodge. To the school a farm of about 19 acres is attached, cultured by a certain number of the boys, with the assistance of a gardener and two labourers; and which, without requiring such a degree of attention from the scholars, as to deprive them of the hours devoted to in- struction in useful learning, as well as in some branches of trade, produces to the institution a profit of .500 annually. The female children are employed in works suitable to their sex; their course of education is similar to that of the boys ; and both, when of a proper age, are apprenticed to various trades, or as servants, &c.: but of late years a martial spirit has been sedulously cul- tivated among the male pupils, although their parents almost universally prefer their being put out to some trade, that may enable them to acquire a future main- tenance, to their embarking in the profession of a soldier. The Phoenix Pillar, which stands in the centre of an area where four great avenues meet, and from which there are entrances to the vice-regal lodge and those of the chief and under secretaries, was erected by Lord Chesterfield, during his lieutenancy. Its height is 30 feet, including the phcenix at the summit; tho column ENVIRONS OF DUBLIN. 187 of the Corinthian order, fluted, and highly ornaracnto <1. On the east and west sides of the pedestal are the fol- lowing inscriptions: CrVIVM OBI.BCTAMENTO CAMPVM RVDKM KT INCVLTVM OliXAHI IVSSIT PHIL1PPVS STANHOPE, COMBS DE CHBSTEHF1BLD PROREX. IMPRNXIS SVIS POSVIT PHII.IPFVS STANHOPE, COMKS DE CHESTEHFIELD, PROHEX. It is somewhat singular, that the imaginary bird, from which the park is generally supposed to drrivo its appellation, and in allusion to which this column was undoubtedly erected, bears no relation to the name of the manor, from which it is actually called. This, in the Irish tongue, was Fionn-uisge, signifying clear or fair water, and which, being pronounced Finniskt, so nearly resembled, in the English articulation, the word P/ucnii; that it either obtained that name from the first English settlers, or was by them speedily corrupted into it. The 'fair water* was a chalybeate spring, which still exists in a glen near the grand entrance to the vice-regal lodge, and has been frequented from time im- memorial for its imputed salubrity. " It remained, how- ever, in a rude and exposed state till the year 1800, when in consequence of some supposed cures it had effected, it immediately acquired celebrity, and was much fre- quented. About five years after, it was enclosed, and it is now among the romantic objects of the park. Jt is approached by a gradual descent through a planted avenue. The spar is covered by a small structure of 183 ENVIRONS OF DUBLIN*. Portland stone, on which sits a colossal eagle, as the emblem of longevity. This appropriate ornament was erected by Lord Whitworth. Behind the spring, under the brow of the hill, is a rustic dome, with seats round it for the accommodation of those who frequent the spa; in the back of which is an entablature (a tablet) with the following inscription: This seat, Given by her Grace, CHARLOTTE DCCHBSS OF RICHMOND, For the Health and Comfort Of the Inhabitants Of Dublin. August 19, 1813. The Duke of Richmond and Lord Whitworth used this spa with much benefit, and their example has been followed by the citizens of Dublin. In the summer nearly 1000 persons frequent it every week. The price for the season is five shillings, and for a single tumbler one penny.* Quitting the Phoenix Park at its north-eastern boun- dary, and again entering the Circular Road, we pass the Female Orphan House on our left, an ex- cellent institution, originating in 1790 in the benevo- lent exertions of two ladies, Mrs. Ed. Tighe, and Mrs. Ch. Este. The commencement was of course humble; but these amiable women had almost immediately the heartfelt satisfaction to see a noble institution rise from t cir limited establishment, supported by liberal subscriptions, and by grants from parliament: by the assistance of the latter, a detached chapel has also been recently erected. The situation of the house is airy ....... * Mr. WaUli, II. 130(5. ENVIRONS OF DUBLIN. 189 and healthy, having in front an area planted with trees and shrubs, and in the rear a large garden. The pre- sent number of the children is l6o. We now cross the branch of the Royal Canal, which communicates with the spacious harbour adjoining Brunswick-street. This canal boasts a noble aqueduct over the great north-western road, which is inscribed : FOSTER AQDBDOCT. Serus in coclum redeas diuque per ora, &c. An intended compliment to the Right Hon. John Foster; but, by an unlucky position of the name and the inscription, the words ' serus in coefum redeas' are addressed to the aqueduct. Like the Grand Canal, which flows round the southern half of the city as this does the northern, it is on a large scale; being 42 feet wide at the surface, 24 at the bottom, and having locks and a depth of water calculated for boats of from 40 to 50 tons burden. Its object was a still-water navi- gation from the capital to the same noble river, the Shannon; but as the Grand Canal was directed towards the middle and lower parts of it, so this was pointed towards its source, more particularly with a view to the beds of coal and iron found in that vicinity: the ex- pected profits of the collieries and iron-works, however, have failed, the produce being undersold by that of Cumberland. The canal was completed, (in conse- quence of the company having stopped payment after carrying it as tar as Coolnahay, about six miles from Mullingar,) at the expense ot government, in 1817; the latter conducting it about 24 miles iarther to Tarmon- bury on the Shannon, The incapacity or mismanagement 190 ENVIRONS OF DUBLIN. of the ' Undertakers' was sufficiently evident in 1796; when the grant of ,66,000 from parliament, in ad- dition to the ; 134,000 subscription of the Company, with other large sums borrowed, were expended on a line of 15 miles from Dublin to Kilcock! But this only affords another proof, that Ireland is not qualified to carry on great national undertakings by private companies. ' The experience of ages,' it has been ob- served, ' has qualified English financiers, in private life, to manage the concerns of a company in a national \rork; and the English character of prudence, thrift, and regularity, so opposite to the Irish, sanguine, ven- turous, and extravagant, in pecuniary affairs, wou!4 alone draw a distinction between the two countries in the mode of conducting public works/ The other branch of this canal which enters the capi- tal, falls into the spacious docks north of the Liffey, and communicates with that river by sea-locks, capable of ad- mitting ships of 150 tons burden. From the point where the two branches unite, the canal passes near Lucan and Leixlip; crosses the Rye Water, a stream tributary to the Liffey, on an aqueduct of one arch, supporting a vast ban!: of earth, on tne summit of which the canal and track-ways pass, at an elevation of near 100 feet above the river; visits Carton, Maynooth, and Kilcock; crosses the Boyne on a plain, but elegant aqueduct of three arches; passes near Kinnegad, (to which a lateral branch of two and a half English miles is in- tended;) circles round Mullingar; and from Coolnahay, a little farther, is earned to the Shannon as before men- tioned. It has been urged by some, that had the line of this canal been more northerly at its commencement, EXVIROXS OF DUBLIN. 1 fl t Charlemont-house, Dublin ; and his remains were conveyed to the family vault in the ancient cathedral of Armagh. He coiu- 'poscd this simple and modest epitaph for himself: " Here lies the Body of James, Earl of Chnrlemont, a sincere, zealous, and active friend to his Country. Let his posterity imitate him in that aloue, and forget His manifold Errors." 196 EXVIROXS OF DUBLIN. Being intimate with all the celebrated men of his time, there arc still some living who remember how long hi$ seat at Marino was the temple of taste, science, and hospitality. The village of Clontarf is rendered conspicuous by its Charter School, the dome of which is a prominent object: it is the great resort of bathers from the north side of the city. Its rear is intersected by pretty roads, called green lanes, laid out with neat villas for the ac- commodation of company in the summer months. Once a celebrated fishing town, a particular spot was called The Sheds, from the number of wooden huts erected there for the purpose of drying fish; and Clontarf is yet famous for its mine, and still more so for the memora- ble battle fought here between the Irish and the Danes, on Good Friday, in the year 1014; in which the latter vere defeated, and " Brien the glory and grace of his age," fell, but in the arms of victory. This closing achieve- ment of the veteran monarch, whose " hand was bent on war, but whose heart was for the peace of Erin," has been already more than once alluded to in these pages; and various are the spots in the island which, in one way or other, associate themselves with the memory of this illustrious chieftain and prince, to have produced whom were glory enough for ancient Ireland. For though we are perfectly aware, that many are our highly to be respected opponents in opinion not only as to this hero, but in relation to many facts and circum- stances attaching to the ancient history of the Island; yet we can but remember, in regard to Brien, (as we think there is the sanction of sufficient probability to EXVIROXS OF DUBLIN. 1<)7 believe) that, in war, victory pursued his path ; in peace, the arts embellished his repose; and that property respected, oppression punished, religion venerated, inavsion crushed, literature encouraged, and law main- tained, were the characteristics of an age, which it is a fashion with too many modern Irishmen to talk of as unlimitedly barbarous, but of which the historian must speak with delight, and the monarch may study with improvement. Bricn Boromhe, or Boru, as the name is commonly pronounced, is computed to have been born in the year 926; and passed through the usual course of educa- tion appropriated to the sons of the Irish kings, in which Avar, literature, and politics, formed the necessary basis on which to ground the instruction of the future ruler. His first essay in arms was in the capacity of general to his brother Mahon, King of North Munstt-r, when he entirely routed a numerous and almost overwhelming body of Danes, who had made a plundering incursion into the country under his protection. Soon after this vic- tory, an insurrection in Munster ending in the violent death of Mahon, Brien ascended to the vacant throne, and his first efforts were directed to the punishment of his brother's murderers; in which he completely suc- ceeded, although the conspirators had called the com- mon enemy, the Danes, to their assistance. Becoming, in p6'S, king of both Munsters, he speedily cleared them from the invaders, and re-established their former privileges. He gave new vigour to the laws by sum- moning a feis, or parliament, at Cashell ; caused the ruined churches and monasteries to be rebuilt, and tht- bishops and clergy to be restored to their livings, s 3 1J>8 ENVIRONS OF DUBLIK. His annual revenue, as King of Munster, was such a* is calculated to give an imposing idea of the riches of Ireland in his time: a particular account of it is contained in the Leabkar na Cleart, or Book of Rights, which O'Halloran has translated. The jealousy with which Brien was regarded by the other sovereigns of the island, as well as by Malachie, the chief monarch, of whom the others held their states by fealty, was equalled only by the malicious aggressions they made upon his territory ; these at length terminated in the issue to which justice and reason pointed ; the generous magnanimity of Brien was contrasted with the passive temporising spirit of Malachie, and the crown of Ireland became our hero's, not by conquest alone, but at the earnest petition of the wisest and best in the nation for his assumption of it. From that moment, the reign of Brien, which may properly be said to Have com- menced in 1001, presents an assemblage of every virtue which can endear the heart, and every talent which can exalt the man. He re-edified the theological and Tilean colleges, opened new academies, erected public libraries for the use of indigent students, animated timid merit by well grounded hopes, and patronized with steady zeal all professors of the liberal arts. Among the latter, he was particularly attached to music, and he himself excelled in the practice of that delightful science. His favourite harp, on which he is said to have played on the eve of the battle so glorious to his own and his country's fame, although 30 fatal to himself, is still preserved, as has been noticed, in the museum of Trinity College, Dublin, and is a fine memorial of the scientific and mechanical skill of the Irish artist* in his ENVIRONS OF DUELIN. 199 reign. It is an universally received tradition in the county of Clare, where he was born, that the beautiful air Thugamuir fein an samhra lin, " We brought sum- mer with us," was his favourite composition, and that he played it on this occasion, both in allusion to the time of the year in which the battle was fought, and the prospect of prosperity to Ireland from the anticipated expulsion of the Danes. The power of the Danes was indeed effectually broken in this engagement, and never afterwards revived so as to need foreign assistance to complete its overthrow ; and happy had it been for Ire- land, had her princes, after the death of Brien, improved the repose his victories had purchased for them, by treading in his footsteps, instead of replunging their country into civil dissentions, and thereby hastening its declension to that state in which it was found by the English under Henry II., when the once highly culti- vated soil, and no less cultivated mind, had been converted apparently into physical and mental dest-rts. But the bright era of Irish history, which commenced at a period of which there are few authentic records, appears to have virtually terminated in the year 815, when the country was subdued by the Danish leader Turgesius; the gleam of national prosperity during the reign of Brien, was as transient as the ray of sunshine, which sometimes bursts momently from the dark horizon, though the day is fast setting in undistinguishable gloom : a succession of such monarchs as Brien, could alone, perhaps, have restored the country to the early illumination reflected on it by the united splendour of its arts and arms. With the recollections, however, of such a reign as was that of this monarch, and of the sanguinary field which, at 200 ENVIRONS Of DUBLIN. the age of eighty-eight, closed his glorious career, who can pass through the little village of Clontarf without feelings of interest and respect? " Long his loss shall Erin weep, " Ne'er again his likeness see, " Long her strains in sorrow steep, " Strains of immortality!? 1 * The views, both coastwise and inland, as we sweep round the north side of the bay to Howth, are singularly beautiful. On arriving near Kilbarrack Church, indeed, which stands on the left side of the road, the appearance of the country, constrastcd with its richly cultivated surface nearer Dublin, is bare and desolate. We now traverse the low sandy isthmus by which the Hill of Howth is connected with the main land; but which, from its flat- ness, and not having been hitherto discoverable, the promontory has appeared an island of imposing form. Formed entirely of the sands which the tidesxjf succes- sive ages have here collected, the isthmus is sterile to that degree, that no trees of any kind will grow on the original soil ; a few patches of potatoes, forced by ma- nuring with sea-weed, are nearly the only signs of cul- tivation visible upon it. Kilbarrack Church is a not uninteresting ruin; and the adjoining church-yard being still used as a cemetery, one of the graves was .N * Gray. It is asserted in Bunting's first collection of thelrisli Me- lodies, that it was this battle of Clontarf, and the death of Brien, Allied gave the sbuject to our elegant poet of the * Fatal Sisters.' This ode is given in the original Norse, with a literal Latin tran>l:i- tiH, in Bam. Hist. Orkney Islands, 1808. ENVIRONS OF DUBLIN. 201 prettily decorated, when we visited it, with an ornament of fantastically wreathed osiers, about a yard in height, with numerous shreds of white paper attached : such decorations, we were informed, commonly denote that a young unmarried woman is interred on the spot thus marked for the eye of the passenger. Southwards, across the bay, independent of the beauty of a vast surface of water constantly enlivened by the appearance of ships under sail, Dublin, and in the distance the Wicklow mountains, are seen from a parti- cular point to great advantage, skirting the horizon with the most picturesque outline imaginable, while villas, interspersed through a rich and wooded country, descend from them to the remote edge of the bay. The north- ward prospect now begins to- embrace a w r ider range, bounded by the mountains of Mourne, distant 40 Irish miles, and including, near at hand, the rugged rock called Ireland's Eye, -and, at a short distance farther, the island of Lambay. Fronting us is the little fishing-town of Howth, consisting of a single street running along the edge of the cliff, and a congregation of huts at its base ; and on the right, the white battlements of the venerable mansion of Lord Howth, called Howth Castle, emerge from the dark wood in which it is embosomed : the estate over which it appears constructed to reign, in- cludes the whole peninsula of Howth, containing 1500 square acres (Irish,) and, without increase or diminution, has continued for more than six centuries in his lordship's family, having been their residence since the arrival of the first adventurers from England. The name of the earliest of these, of this family, was Sir Armory Tristram, " and the adventures recorded of his life, and received HA 202 ENVIRONS OF DUBL'lN. authentic, are more extraordinary than those of any hero in romance. Happening to meet with Sir John do Courcy, who was married to his sister, in the church of St. Mary, at Rouen, he there made a compact with him, that whatever they should win in any realm, either by conquest or otherwise, should be divided between them. On the faith of this agreement, they sought adventures together through Normandy, France, and England, and finally proceeded to Ireland, where the first land they made was Howth. De Courcy was confined by illness to his ship, and the command devolved on Sir Armoricus, who having pushed to shore, was opposed by the Irish at the bridge of Evora, and a fierce encounter ensued, in which seven sons, nephews, and uncles of Sir Armo- ricus were slain. The Irish were finally defeated, and the land and title of Howth were allotted to him as his share of the conquest. The bridge of Evora, where this battle is said to have been fought, crosses a moun- tain stream, which falls into the sea on the north side of Howth, nearly opposite the west end of Ireland's Eye. In clearing out the foundation for the new parish church, erected a few years ago near this spot, a quan- tity of bones were discovered scattered over an extensive space: and, in the neighbourhood, an antique anvil, with bridle bits and other parts of horse harness. It is conjectured, with some probability, that the armourers' forge was erected on this spot, where the knights were accoutred preparatory to the battle. Sir Armoricus, after a variety of other perilous and wild adventures in Ireland, was surrounded by a superior force in Con- naught. His knights were inclined to avail themselves of their horses, and save themselves by flight ; but their ENVIRONS OF DUBLIN. 203 leader, dismounting, drew his sword, and kissing the cross of it, thrust it into his horse's side : his example was followed by all the knights except two, who were sent to a neighbouring hill, to be spectators of the ap- proaching combat. The Normans were cut off, not'* man escaping besides the two who afterwards testified the circumstances of the heroic transaction. Some time after, the original family name of Tristram was changed to St. Lawrence, for the following reason: One of them, commanded an army near Clonturf, against the common invaders, the Danes. The battle was fought on St. Lawrence's day, and he made a vow to the Saint, com- mon in those times, that if he were victorious he would Assume his name, and entail it upon his posterity. The Danes were defeated, and his vow was religiously pre- served.* Another romantic circumstance is related of this family. The celebrated Grana Uille, or Grace O'Malley, was noted for her piratical depredations in the reign of Elizabeth. Returning on a certain time from England, where she had paid a visit to the queen, she landed at Howth, and proceeded to the castle. It was the hour of dinner, and the gates were shut. Shocked at an exclusion so repugnant to her notions of Irish hospitality, she immediately proceeded to the shore, where the young lord was at nurse, and seizing the child, embarked with him, and sailed to Connaught, where her own castle stood. After some time, however, she restored the child, with the express stipulation that the gates should be always thrown open when the fa- mily went to dinner, a practice which is observed, at this day."t * WbitcJaw and Walsh, II. 12o6. f Clogher's M.S. quoted by Lodge, III. 180. 204 ENVIRONS OF DUBLIN. The castle is a long buttlementcd structure, flanked by square towers at each extremity, and approached by a large flight of steps, which are modern. A spacious hall extends along the whole front of the building, ornament- ed within by the weapons and armour of ancient days, and, among the rest, is the identical two-handed sword with which Sir Armoricus Tristram, the first English proprietor already mentioned, defeated the Danes. In a chamber, to which a flight of steps leads from the hall, is a painting said to represent the abreption of the young Lord Howth. A female is mounted oa a white horse, receiving a child from a peasant; above-, the sky seems to open, and a figure is represented looking down on the group below. The picture how- ever, appears to allude to some other subject, though tli tradition of the castle refers it to this. In this room is a bed in which William III. slept, and which is pre- served exactly as it then was, in remembrance of thai circximstance. In the saloon are some good portraits; among others, a full-length of Dean Swift in his robes, with the " Draper's Letters" in his hand; the figure of Wood is crouching beside him, and his halfpence arc scattered about: the hangings of this apartment remain as they were first placed upwards of a century ago, and their appearance is such as to corroborate this rather curious fact. Over a door-way to a range of offices, connected with the west end of the castle, is a curious inscription, containing the initials of Christopher, the twentieth Lord of Howth, usually called the Blind Lord, and of Elenor Plunket, whom he married; their arms arc impaled on a shield in the centre, with the mOtto of the Howth family, and the date, laGl. The original ENVIRONS OF DUBLIN. 205 castle of Howtb, now a ruin, is situated on another part of the domain. In a meadow adjacent to the castle, to the south- east, may be seen a large Cromlech, or Druidical Altar* consisting of a ponderous mass of unhewn rock, 14 feet long, 12 broad, and 6 thick, resting in an inclined po- sition upon vast shapeless masses of the same material. The position of the upper stone was originally more horizontal than at present, one of the supporters having broken with its weight, and thus occasioned it to rest with one edge upon the ground ; but the superincumbent mass, in all these curious relics of antiquity, many of which exist in Ireland, is more or less inclined,t and the stones of which they are composed are universally unmarked with the impression of any implement. Though generally attributed to the Druids, Sir James Ware is disposed to refer their origin to a yet more re- mote period than that at which they flourished, deducing them from the practice of the patriarchs, who were commanded to employ no tools in the construction of their simple altars, How such immense fragments should have been disposed in an artificial form, at an age when we are taught to believe that the powers de- rived from mechanics were unknown, must ever remain a subject for astonishment: the conjecture is at the least ingenious in regard to this monument, as it rests' in a hollow, that the perpendicular stones were sunk in * Called by tlie natives of Howtb, Fin's Quoit, in allusion to tbc supposed derivation of itg position the force of Fiti M'Coinhl (or Fingal) 's arm, when engaged on that spot with a Dane. f A circumstance in which the word cromlech, literally a crooked or bending stone, originated. VOL. I. T 206 ENVIRONS OF DUBLIN. pits under the principal mass as it lay on the ground, and that the earth being afterwards dug away, it was left supported on these rude pillars. The town of Howth is inhabited by a singularly hardy and healthy race of men, generally above the common height, who, until very lately, were noted smugglers, and several of the fathers and grandfathers of the present race, are frankly stated by them to have died of wounds received in the pursuit of that illicit calling. In one encounter of this kind, it is narrated, a Howth man who had fallen, was found to have owed his death to the lodgment of a sleeve-button in his heart; a reve- nue-officer, whose ammunition was expended, having loaded his pistol with this extraordinary bullet. The remains of the venerable Abbey or College of Howth occupy a romantic site, on the cliff over- hanging the sea. Though its history is nearly buried in obscurity, it is generally supposed to have been built by Sihtric, a Danish prince, in 1038. The ruins are enclosed in an area of 189 feet by l6S, defended on the north and east sides by a rampart, and on the opposite by a deep moat, the usual appendage of ancient religious edifices, being constructed either for their protection, or as courts whither the tenants of the clergy resorted for justice. The area is now a church-yard. The church contains a curious monument for Christopher, the thirteenth Lord Howth, erected iu 1430; and an inscription ' To the Memory of Ann Flin/ which includes the following lines: A friend that loved thy earthly form when Ucre, Erects this stone to dust he held most dear ENVIRONS OF DUBLIN. 207 Thy happy genjus oft his soul reviv'd, Nor sorrow felt he till of thee depriv'd: Peace to thy gentle shade, and endless rest To thy fair soul, now numbered with the blest! Yet take these tears mortality's relief, And, till I share thy joy, forgive my grief: These little rites a stone, a verse receive, 'Tis all a father, all a friend can give. Deceased September ]8, 1766, Aged near 21 years. Mr. Lawrence Flin, bookseller in Limerick, who composed this epitaph, was a native of Howth, where his family are possessed of two houses on insulated spots in the centre of Lord's Howth's property, sup- posed to be reservations made to their ancestors, and held as a tenure coeval with that of the family of Tris- tram. His remains are deposited near those of his beloved daughter. The belfry of this edifice is ascended by stairs on the outside to the roof. Several of the vaults have at different times been made repositories for smuggled goods, which have been repeatedly disin- terred by the proper authorities. The ruins on the south side of the enclosure, consist of the remains of a hall, kitchen, and seven cells. Some of the latier have been thatched, and now afford shelter to poor families. Howth Castle contains the bells anciently belonging to the abbey, they having been found on a recent search made tor them in the former structure, when the metal was wanted for cast- ing a bell for the new church of Howth a neat edifice. A tradition that these bells were yet in existence in the castle, led to their discovery in a remote apartment; but as they were deemed too curious, from their inscription* COS ENVIRONS Of DUBLIN. in old Roman characters, to be melted down, they were retained by Lord Howth, and a new bell provided for the church. They are three in number; and a farther tradition states, that they were cast in Italy, and pre- sented to the abbey immediately after its foundation, which was upwards of a century before the arrival of the English. Howth, in the Irish M.SS. is known by the name, once doubtless most appropriate, of Bin Eider, or the Cliff of the Eagle. It is seven miles distant from Dub- lin. A neat Roman-catholic chapel has been recently erected in the town. Just below the eminence on which stand the ruins of the Abbey, the |>iers form ng the new Harbour of Howth extend in a direction towards Ireland's Eye, and, as forming a national work of great magnitude, though of comparatively questionable utility, they merit the par- ticular attention of the tourist. The want of security in Dublin Bay has long been felt as no common misfor- tune, and the sacrifices of lives and property, from this circumstance, have been annually very great. The sound between Ireland's Eye and Howth, seemed to possess many natural advantages for an harbour that should remedy some important defects in the bay ; together with disadvantages which, in that warmth which has been remarked in the prosecution of other novel works in this country, appear to have been over.ooked or disregarded. In order properly to appreciate both the former and the latter, the situation of this sound should be clearly understood. The eastern entrance, about half a mile in width, lies between two ledges of rocks, >vhich advance to it on either side, the one from Howth, UNVIRON'S OF DUBLIN. 209 the other from the south-eastern point of the island. From the north-west point of the island runs a similar ledge, leaving between it and the sand-bank under Howth a like entrance; and upon these foundations,, thus grandly laid by nature, it was proposed in one of the plans presented to erect the piers, leaving the pas- sages as already formed, and simply marking the limits of the masonry by beacons, while the whole sound be- tween the island and the peninsula would have formed a single capacious basin. Had this plan been carried into effect, the contiguity of the sound to the open sea, its great depth at low water, its pure bottom for a very sufficient extent, its natural enclosures, and the vicinity of a hill-stream from Howth, so situated that it might at a trifling expense be conveyed into boats and the holds of small vessels, all presented so many recommenda- tions of this harbour, that nothing perhaps could coun- terbalance them, except the circumstance, that it must btill have been difficult of access in storras precisely the occasions on which its services were most wanted, on account of Dublin harbour being placed in the like predicament, by the bar across its entrance at low water. But the plan actually adopted, besides retaining this objection, (which, indeed, it was impossible to obviate) includes others which, upon the more enlarged but not more expensive scheme, would undoubtedly have been less apparent. The deepest and best anchorage the sound affords, is left without the pier; one third of the space within is dry at half-ebb, and two thirds at low water; at the latter time, the deepest part near the en- trance., is only 12 feet; and it consequently denies ad- mission to most of the foreign ships trading to Dublin, T 3 210 ENVIRONS OF DUBLIV* as they usual draw from 13 to l6 feet of \\ater. Add to this, that the bottom is rocky and then, that this magnificently constructed harbour should have become in effect little more than a packet-station for the Holy- head mails to and from Dublin, will not appear ex- tremely surprising. To the packet-business, certainly, the work has proved eminently useful, saving these vessels the time which, unless the wind was west, used generally to be sacrificed to the labour of working out of the bay; while if the wind blew fresh from the east or north-east, or from the north at neap tides, they could not sail at all. Now it is true, they can be regularly dispatched at a fixed hour every night, with any wind, and in weather when it would be impossible to quit the Pigeon-house dock.* The harbour, as constructed, consists of a pier run- ning out from Howth upon the eastern ledge of rocks to the distance of 1503 feet, a return from it in a north- west direction of 990 feet, (at the end of which is a handsome light-house,) and a westward pier of the length of 2020 feet, which runs from the shore to meet the return, but leaves a space of 300 feet for an entrance. The eastward pier is 38 feet high, 200 feet Westerly winds blow, on an average, for eight months in the year. Boate notices this circumstance, and in a manner shewing 1 that the art of navigatiug packet-rigged vessels, with any wind when once at sea, was unknown in his time. " Commonly," he ob- serres, " there is no need of a wind to be wafted over to England, where, on the contrary, those who out of England will come over nto Ireland, very ordinarily are constrained to waste two or three vceks, and sometimes five or six weeks; yea, it hath fallen out so more than once, that in two whole months there hath not been so much east wind as to curry ships out of England into Ireland." Acrt. flat. p. U6. EVVinONS OF DUBLIN. 211 wide at the base, and 85 at high-water mark; and tha westward 36 feet high, 170 feet wide at the base, and 80 at high-water mark; their surfaces form spacious roads, and along their edges run parapet walls : the area en- closed within these vast masses of masonry is 52 English acres. Rude fragments of rock, which were conducted by railways down the steep promontory above, form the bases of the interior of the wall, but the foundation of the fronts of mountain granite consists of blocks of red grit-stone, brought from the quarries of Runcorn in Cheshire. Diving-bells were necessarily employed in placing the first massive stones at so great a depth be- low the surface of the water. The cost is said to have been little less than 700,000. Ireland's Eye, and Lambay, farther north, are small islands to which repeated allusion has been made in this volume. The former lies about one mile from the north side of the Hill of Howth, is nearly half a mile in length, and considerably more than a mile in cir- cumference. On it are still to be seen the ruins of a church, said to have belonged to an abbey founded here by St. Nessan towards the end of the sixth century, in which the saint passed his life in devotional exercises, and where the venerated book of the Four Gospels, called the ' Garland of Howth' was preserved " that book," says Archbishop Allen, in his Liber . Niger, " held in so much esteem and veneration, that good men scarcely dare take an oath upon it, for fear of the judg- ments of God being immediately shewn on those who should forswear themselves." This islet is an appen- dage to the estate of Lord Howth, and is particularly marked by an immense fragment of great altitude at its 212 ENVIRONS OF DUBLIN. eastern extremity, which appears to have been rent from the main cliff by some violent convulsion of nature. It affords pasturage to cattle, which tradition says were formerly driven to it by a causeway extending across to Howth. It is noted for a fine breed of goshawks, which build among its rocks ; and presents a singularity to the botanist in the garden rose (rosa villosa) growing wild on various parts of its surface. Lambay rises into a considerable ridge about two miles from the coast, and is from three to four miles iu circumference. It has a castle, built by John Challener in the reign of Edward VI., and yet in good repair. In the reign of Elizabeth, the island was granted to Arch- bishop Usher, from whose representatives it was pur- chased by the Talbots of Malahide; and in the latter family it still continues, the castle being their usual residence for some months during summer; and its libe- ral proprietor is one other of those enlightened Irish gentry, who in the most emphatic sense may be said to ' deserve well of their country/ The archbishop resided on the island for some time, and composed here several of his works. It contains eight resident families, and is very generally susceptible of cultivation. Among its natural productions may be enumerated an abundance of rabbits, sea-pies, and puffins: the Cornish chough (corvus graculus) with red bill and shanks, also fre- quents this island. Porphyry is so abundant that tho whole substratum is thought to be composed of it. On leaving the town of Howth, the traveller may as- cend the road which leads over the hill, and enjoy from it a new and interesting prospect of the islands, town, har- tynir, ruins, and a martello to\vcr,-below ; or he may visit, ENVIRONS OP DUBLIN". 213 at some distance beneath, the singular precipice called Puck's Rock, appearing to have been insulated by some convulsion, which, also cleaving it nearly in two, left in it the present deep perpendicular fissure. Few have courage to venture into this chasm, but from boats an imaginary colossal figure is often viewed on the face of the rock, near the summit, recorded in a legendary tale to be an evil spirit, who, venturing in days of yore to assail the holy St. Nessan in his retreat at Ireland's Eye, was struck by the saint on the forehead with the sacred ' Garland of Howth' (which by good luck he was employed in reading) and by the force of the blow transmitted to the opposite coast, where the rock split with the weight of the gigantic figure he had assumed, and he was left secured in the fissure. In the course of centuries, he has by his struggles nearly succeeded in disengaging his body and arms, though one leg still remains firmly wedged in its place of confinement. The limestone found in great abundance on this part of the coast, is in many places very curiously imbedded with fossil shells. Not far distant, at the eastern ex- tremity of the peninsula, on a steep cliff, stands the old light-house, now discontinued; and the new road lately made from hence leads to the southern point of the pro- montory, where a second light-house was erected some years back, the site of which, says Mr. Walsh, " is rendered interesting by a traditionary anecdote. It is a small promontory, nearly detached from the main by a steep cavity. The little peninsula thus formed, from its constant and bright verdure was called the Green Baittt, which in Irish signified a town, or enclosed habitation. Here, it is said, a remnant of the Danish army retired 214 ENVIRONS OF DUBLIN. after the battle of Clontarf, insulated the promontory, and defended themselves till they were carried off in their vessels. It is certain that the excavation had all the appearance of an artificial fosse, before the ancient marks were obliterated by the road, and the works of the present light-house constructed upon it."* Slieu Martin, a conical eminence near the centre of the peninsula, has a large cairn on its summit, and near its base the ruins of a very ancient church, or oratory, dedicated to St. Fenton. On Carric-mor, an eminence of less magnitude just beneath, a signal-post has been erected, to communicate with the pigeon-house on the opposite side of the bay. From St. Fehton's Oratory, a narrow road leads down the hill, till it meets the main road near Kilbarrack Church; and by this, if he thinks proper, having noticed every thing worthy of observation that has occurred in the course of this Ex- cursion, the traveller may return with us to Dublin. As remarks have reached us relative to some obser- vations occurring in the present volume, which have appeared to favour particular opinions in religion and politics, notwithstanding the disavowal of all party bias made in our introductory chapter, we may perhaps be permitted to offer a few words in explanation of the line of conduct, which in this respect we have thought it right to pursue. The modem situation of Ireland has * Vol. II. p. 1266. ENVIRONS OF DUBLIJT. so grown out of its past religious and political relations, and the state of the country at the present moment exhibits so many features, for which it is impossible to account without reference to these subjects, (the very mention of which we would- for our own parts have gladly proscribed) that a writer is placed in no common difficulties, who has undertaken a work of this nature, with a view to rendering it of a character superior to a mere matter-of-fact detail, but whose first wish at the same time is to avoid giving offence to readers of any class in the country attempted to be described. To succeed in both these objects, it appeared primarily necessary to generalize our remarks of this kind, when called for; but in aiming at this, we are aware that, in a few instances, we have been misapprehended in conse- quence of that very aim. Our statements have been too general in those instances; want of room, in a work whose limits are circumscribed, as well as adherence to the system mentioned, preventing the detail of such exceptions to general statements, as were perhaps ne- cessary, to be particularised in order to the perfect elucidation of our design. With this candid and ready avowal, we trust our Irish readers will be satisfied j ac- companying it as we do with the assurance, that we shall feel the experience afforded by the past, a monitory caution for the future. At the same time we must be permitted to observe, that the remarks alluded to, as forwarded from the other side of the Channel, in one instance originated in a simple typographical error; and in another, having been led to the exposition, for mere argument's sake, of the opinions entertained by a party iu religion, the same want of room just complained of, 2l6 ENVIRONS OF DUBLIN. while it operated to the exclusion of our own setimeatx, induced the application of those party opinions to us '. who, we are proud to say, are of no party but that vrhich, including as we think the wisest and the best of men, respects the religious and political rights of all, and iu an especial manner desires the union of all on the broad basis of religious and political equality. The passages alluded to will be particularised, and corrected, in. the Errata which it will be necessary to append t the concluding rolume for the Province of Leinstcr. END OF VOL. I. WUhani # Maldun: PRINTED BY P. YOUNG MAN. University of California Library Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. Phone R 310/82 APR 1 1 2005 jw HEWERS//, 4'tlU J i 1\0 10 : ^ ^/OJ ITVD-JO^ <;OF-CALIFOR(> V ~J\