In pursuance of a design I had long formed of visiting Ireland, I set out from London in May 1775; and taking Bath in my way, a short stay in that city presented a few objects on which I shall venture to make the following observations.
The Circus, which is two hundred and seventy-two feet in diameter, and in the circumference of which is contained a range of a hundred and five windows in each story, would, with a few alterations, make a magnificent amphitheatre for bull-fights, were those exhibitions used in Britain. The watch-box in the centre appears like a common receptacle for the filth of the houses which encircle it. The sharp-pointed obelisk in the middle of the square is a véritable aiguille, and is the only one of the kind in Europe; the paintings and vases in Spring-gardens are execrable to the last degree; and after a virtuoso has had the misfortune of beholding these objects, he may conclude the day in character, by spending his evening at the sign of the Shakespeare and Greyhound.
He may also observe the votive crutches, &c. which are hung up by way of ornamenting the baths, and are so many monuments of the devout gratitude of the patients who have luckily recovered the use of their limbs (though not of their understanding) by using the waters. All these remarks may be obviated by only taking away the watch-box, curtailing the point of the obelisk, white washing the paintings, breaking the vases, un-coupling the Greyhound from Shakespeare, and returning the crutches to the owners.
In Bristol I was entertained with the sight of a rib of a famous dun cow, killed by Sir William Penn: this knight and his rib are both deposited in the church of St. Mary Redcliffe.
I ferried over the Severn at Aust, and proceeded to Chepstow, where I spent a day very agreeably in viewing the gardens of Persfield (which much resemble those of Mount-Edgecumbe near Plymouth), and Tintern Abbey, which is one of the most elegant pieces of Gothic ruins now existing.<1> The bridge at Chepstow is of wood; here the tide generally rises fifty feet.
About thirteen miles from Cardiff, in Glamorganshire, I crossed the celebrated bridge called Pont-y-Pridd,<2> it consists of a single arch, and is probably the largest in Europe, excepting one of those of the bridge del castel vecchio<3> in Verona. The Welsh bridge was built in 1755, by a common mason. The arch is the segment of a circle, the chord of which is an hundred and forty feet; the bridge is eleven feet broad between the parapets. The Italian bridge was built in 1354, and consists of three arches, the largest of which is a hundred and forty-two feet, the next eighty-two and the last seventy.<4>
At Margam, near Neath, I saw the orangerie, belonging to Mr Talbot, containing fifty large orange and lemon trees, and about an hundred and fifty smaller. They are only exposed to the air a quarter of the year; the thickest trunk was nine inches in diameter.
At Abergwilly, near Carmarthen, I observed the singular kind of boats called Coracles. "They are generally five feet and a half long, and four broad, their bottom is a little rounded, and their shape is nearly oval. These boats are ribbed with light laths, or split twigs, in the manner of basket work, and are covered with a raw hide, or strong canvas, pitched so as to prevent leaking. A seat crosses just above the centre, towards the broad end. The men paddle them with one hand, and fish with the other, and when their work is finished, bring their boats home on their backs; at first sight they appear like the shells of so many enormous turtles.'<5> They weigh about twenty-five pounds each. Sir James Ware, in the twenty-fourth chapter of the second volume in folio of his Antiquities of Ireland, gives the following account of these boats "The ancient Irish made use of wicker boats covered with cow-hides, not only on rivers, but sometimes in their navigation on the open seas These little barks were called by them corraghs, probably from the British word corwg, which signifies a boat covered with a hide." That chapter is filled with quotations from Herodotus, Caesar, Lucan, Solinus, Apollin. Sidonius, Virgil, and Pliny, relative to this kind of vessels.
At Aberystwyth, in Cardiganshire, I was informed that there was a small vessel ready to sail for Caernarvon; as the wind was favourable and the weather fine, I easily prevailed on the master, by the promise of half a dozen guineas, to sail with me for Dublin instead of Carnarvon. Accordingly I embarked on the fourth of June 1775, and landed in Dublin after a pleasant passage of forty-three hours; the crew consisted only of the master and two men. The Channel was full of ships, sailing in different directions, and we could distinctly discover both the Irish and Welsh mountains.
The entrance into the harbour of Dublin is one of the most beautiful in Europe; though inferior to the bay of Naples, were it merely from the terrific grandeur of Mount Vesuvius, which there forms a most striking object.
I landed in Ireland with an opinion that the inhabitants were addicted to drinking, given to hospitality, and apt to blunder, or make bulls; in which I found myself mistaken. Hospitality and drinking went formerly hand in hand, but since the excesses of the table have been so judiciously abolished, hospitality is not so violently practised as heretofore, when it might have been imputed to them as a fault.
"Each person now may drink and fill
As much, or little as he will,
Exempted from the bedlam rules
Of roaring prodigals and fools:
Whether, in merry mood or whim,
He takes a bumper to the brim,
Or, better pleased to let it pass,
Grows cheerful with a scanty glass."
Some years ago, (perhaps half a century) when the English language was but little understood by the common Irish, it was not to be wondered at, that they frequently used improper words, and blundered, because, as the Irish was their native tongue, and the English an acquired one, they thought in one language, and expressed themselves in another, the disadvantage of which is obvious; but as at present almost all the peasants understand the English language, they converse with as much propriety as any persons of their class in England, or anywhere else.
Gaming and duelling are also attributed to the Irish, but probably with little foundation. As to the science of gaming, possibly it may prevail in Dublin, as it does in every great city in Europe; and with regard to the art of duelling, a prudent traveller may as easily avoid any such disagreeable encounters there, as elsewhere. National reflections are always both illiberal and unjust; and Churchill was undoubtedly in the right when he said,
"Long from a country ever hardly used,
At random censured, and by most abused,
Have Britons drawn their sport, with no kind view,
And judged the many, by the rascal few."
ROSCIAD<6>
In regard to the fine arts, Ireland is yet considerably behind-hand with the rest of Europe, partly owing to the unsettled state in which that island was, during civil wars and commotions; which to a reflecting traveller offers matter of wonder that it is even so forward. Out of Dublin, and its environs, there is scarcely a single capital picture, statue, or building, to be found in the whole island. Neither is music cultivated out of the abovementioned limits, to any degree of perfection; so that nothing is to be expected in making the tour of Ireland, beyond the beauties of nature, a few modern antiquities, and the ignorance and poverty of the lower class inhabitants; of which more hereafter.
To return to Dublin: "To write of this city with the solemnity of geographical description, would have the appearance of a very frivolous ostentation," and to pass it over as "too well known to admit any description," would be deviating into the other extreme. It is nearly circular, about eight miles in circumference, and, London excepted, is the largest city in his majesty's dominions; situated in 53° 20" latitude, and 7° 30" longitude from London, and is divided into two nearly equal parts by the river Liffey, over which are five bridges; of these Essex-bridge is the most worthy of notice. It consists of five arches of stone, the chord of the middle one is 48 feet; it was begun in 1753, finished in about a year and a half, and cost twenty thousand guineas; the length is 250 feet: the tide rises here, on an average, about ten feet. Queen's-bridge was rebuilt in 1764, and consists of three elegant arches. The other bridges are not worth mentioning, as they are merely conveniences to cross the river, and defy every order of architecture. Another bridge over this river, to the east of Essex-bridge, appears to be greatly wanted.
The square, called St. Stephen's Green, is probably the largest in Europe, each side being upwards of a thousand feet, or near a quarter of a mile in length: the outer walks are gravelled, and planted with trees on each side, and separated from the coach-road by a low wall; the inside is a lawn, in the midst of which is an equestrian statue of King George II in brass, erected in 1758; a great number of snipes resort hither in winter, invited by the swampiness of the Green during that season, and to avoid their enemies the sportsmen.
The houses in this square are so extremely irregular, that there are scarcely two of the same height, breadth, materials, or architecture.
Here are two cathedrals, eighteen parish churches, besides several chapels, meeting-houses, &c.
Neither of the cathedrals are remarkable for their architecture. In that of the Trinity, or Christchurch, the monuments which merit notice, are the following.
That which was erected in 1570 to the memory of Richard Strongbow, who died in 1177. It is spoilt by having lately been painted white.
That of Thomas Prior: it represents his bust between two boys, of white marble, one of which is weeping, and the other holds a scroll; they were sculptured by J. Van Nost in 1756.
That of Lord Bowes, who died in 1767: a statue of Justice, sitting, of white marble, and as large as the life, holds a medallion, with his head in basso-relievo.
And that of the Earl of Kildare, who died in 1743: it consist of four figures, of the natural size, of white marble, carved b. H. Cheere. The Earl lies extended, his lady weeping over him, servant-maid behind, and near her a man wringing his hands, all in their proper dresses.
In St. Patrick's Cathedral is an elegant monument, erected ii 1766, to Dr. Smyth, archbishop of Dublin. Dean Swift was buries in this church.
Near the altar is an enormous pile of wood, with near twenty clumsy wooden images as large as the life, painted in the proper colours, and gilt. These represent Boyle Earl of Cork, and his family, and were built in 1629, and are still allowed church-room!
There are two or three of the parish-churches with modern elegant stone fronts, but without spires or steeples.
The university consists of a single college, dedicated to the Trinity; the building has twenty-three windows in front, is of white stone, and of four stories in height; it was begun in 1591. The library is a large and handsome room; nineteen tolerable marble busts are placed in it; they are those of Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Cicero, Demosthenes, Homer, Shakespeare, Milton, Bacon, Newton, Locke, Boyle, and Swift; of archbishop Usher, of an Earl of Pembroke, of a Dr. Delany, of a Dr. Lawson, of a Dr. Gilbert, and of a Dr. Baldwin. The Irish account of this college concludes thus:
To the east is the Park, for the relaxation of the minds of the young gentlemen, after the fatigue of their studies, and a bowling-green is provided for their amusement, at proper periods: the former, we are of opinion, infinitely exceeds, not only in extent, but rural beauty, any of those public gardens, which are looked upon by the gay and dissipated, as so many earthly paradises. The fellows have also an elegantly laid-out garden, into which no students (fellow-commoners and masters excepted) are admitted, where they may be sequestered from the crowd, and enabled in the midst of solitude, Inter silvas academi quaerere verum.<6>
The provost's house is near the college, and is a handsome building of free-stone.
The parliament-house was begun in 1729, finished in ten years, and cost forty thousand pounds. It is of stone, and is one of the greatest ornaments of the city. The House of Lords is merely a plain room, that for the three hundred commons is octangular, and the benches are gradually elevated above each other.
In College Green is an equestrian statue of King William III and in the garden behind the Lord Mayor's house is one of King George I which formerly was placed on Essex Bridge.
Here are two theatres, one in Crow Street, and the other in Smock Alley; over the curtain of this latter theatre is an ingenious device, being a representation of a ship sailing into a port; the vessel is called "the Smock Alley frigate," and on the sails is written, "for public favour," with "All's well that ends well." And this is the Theatre-royal!
The Lying-in Hospital was finished in 1757, though first founded in 1745, by a surgeon named Mosse: it is one of the handsomest buildings in Dublin, and is supported by grants from parliament, and by private benefactions and legacies. Behind the hospital are public gardens, with a rotunda built in imitation of that at Ranelagh, near London, but on a much smaller scale. Concerts of music are given here three times a week in the summer; and the profits, which are about four hundred pounds per annum, are appropriated to the hospital. The following quotation may probably not be thought impertinent.
"By the account which was published of the old hospital it appeared, that in the space of twelve years, three thousand nine hundred and seventy-five women were delivered therein of two thousand one hundred and one boys, and one thousand nine hundred and forty-eight girls, in all four thousand and forty-nine children, seventy-four women having had twins. Thus there were about twelve males born to eleven females; the proportion of women who had twins was as one to fifty-three three-fourths; of women dying in child-bed, as one to ninety one-third; children still-born, one to thirty-four; children dying in the month, one to seventeen; women delivered from the age of fifteen to twenty-one, four hundred and nine; from twenty-one to thirty-one, two thousand five hundred and forty-two; from thirty-one to forty-one, nine thousand and thirty-five; and from forty-one to fifty-three, eighty-nine: and in the seven following years three thousand four hundred and ninety-five more women were delivered of three thousand five hundred and sixty-one children in the new hospital."
St. Patrick's hospital for lunatics and idiots was founded in 1745, in consequence of about 11,000l. bequeathed by Swift; who unfortunately became a proper object for his own charitable foundation.<7> There are ten or twelve hospitals of more inferior note, as is expressed in the Irish account, in and about Dublin: these are useful, but not ornamental buildings.
The barracks are very large, and are built at the western extremity of Dublin, near the river.
The city basin is a reservoir, capable of holding water to supply the city for some weeks, when the springs from whence it is filled are dry; both the springs and the reservoir were dry whilst I was in Dublin.<8>
At present a new exchange is building in Dublin, which promises to become the greatest ornament of that city; it is situated at the top of the chief street leading to Essex Bridge; and is a square building of white stone with a cupola: the dome is decorated with twelve fluted semi-columns, of the Corinthian order, placed against the walls; and a flight of steps is intended to project considerably into the street.
In Ship Street is a round tower; these edifices, which are peculiar to Ireland, shall be described hereafter.<9>
The places of public resort for amusement, besides the two theatres, and the gardens behind the hospital before mentioned, are the Castle, where there are balls every Tuesday evening in winter; subscription balls; and several places where concerts are occasionally held: and in summer Ranelagh gardens, about a mile out of town; these last are much in the style of the White Conduit House, or Bagnigge Wells near London.
To give a copious catalogue of the pictures which may be seen in Dublin, would be of little service to those who, by being on the spot, have it in their power to recur to the originals, and of little entertainment to those who are far from them: it may be necessary to point out more particularly those which are preserved in foreign countries, in order to inform the curious lover of painting of the existence of such pictures; but, in this case, it is sufficient to name the collections in general.
The Earl of Charlemont is in possession of one of the fines pieces Rembrandt ever painted; it represents Judas repenting and casting the silver pieces on the ground; the figures are about foot in length. Here is likewise a picture by Hogarth, from which no engraving has been made; it represents a lady sitting in desponding air, and an officer offering her his hat full of money and jewels which he has just won of her; eager desire is expressed in his countenance, and in hers repentance and hesitation.
His lordship's library is one of the most elegant apartments in Dublin.
The Earl of Moira's collection is numerous; among the chief pictures are the following:
- A young woman killing a young man, Murillo.
- A small marriage of St. Catharine, by Correggio.
- A few portraits in crayons, by Rosalba.
- A warrior's head, Rembrandt and two or three pieces by Salvator Rosa.
— Stewart, Esq. possesses about a hundred pictures, among which is a large Nativity by Rubens.
Joseph Henry, Esq. has a few pictures; the best are:
- A Madonna as large as the life, by Carlo Dolci, esteemed to be a chef d'oeuvre.
- Two peasants playing at morra,<10> by Giovanni di San Giovanni, one of the only three which he painted in oil.
- Four pictures by Vernet, and two by Pompeio Battoni
- St. Peter and St. Paul, nearly natural size, by Andrea del Sarto.
- A copy of the celebrated picture by Raphael, which is in the Pitti Palace in Florence, known by the name of our Lady of the Chair (la Madonna della Sedia), in crayons, by Charles Martin, an English painter, who lived many years at Florence; he never copied any picture but this, and always from the original.
- Several pictures representing views in and about Naples, Aranjuez, Madrid, &c. painted by Antonio Jolli, in 1750; Among these is a bull-fight; the painter engraved a plate of it for Mr Henry.
Lady St. George's house in Dublin, and the Earl of Ely's, at Rathfarnham, about a mile out of town, contain each a great number of pictures. These are all the collections I saw, or could hear of in Dublin, excepting a few pictures by Mrs. Angelica Kauffman and, as I afterwards found, there were no others in the whole island.
The nobility of Ireland are ranked under the following titles:
- The Lord-Lieutenant.
- Earl of Connaught (Duke of Gloucester).
- Earl of Dublin (Duke of Cumberland).
- A single Duke (of Leinster).
- Fifty-eight earls, forty-four viscounts, and thirty-seven barons; of these, beside the Duke, twenty-one of the first, eight of the second, and nineteen of the last, were created by his present majesty.
- Four archbishops, eighteen bishops, and the Lord Chancellor for the time being.
Thus the house of peers at present (1775) consist of a hundred and sixty-two members, there being four Roman Catholic peers.
The baronets are about sixty in number. There are seventy-five privy-counsellors, of whom thirty-six are private gentlemen; they are all styled Right Honourable.
There is another Right Honourable Lord who is not a peer; namely, the Lord Mayor. It is somewhat singular that there is no order of knighthood peculiar to Ireland: and it may not be improper to remark here, that the number of the titles of Scotland is limited.
At the end of the book from which the above lists were extracted, is a chronological table of "Remarkable Events in the Annals of the City of Dublin', among which are,
"1466: The city visited by a plague.
1477: The like. There are about a dozen more of these unwelcome visits commemorated.
1512: Mayor obliged to go annually, in procession, bare-foot throughout the city, by way of penance, for quarrelling in St. Patrick's church. This penance was continued till the reformation.
1697: Baron van Homrigh, (Lord Mayor) obtained a new collar of SS (the former being lost) value 1000l.
In 1774 an act passed for new paving the streets of Dublin; and in consequence thereof some of these streets are already new-paved; the old paving is, perhaps, the worst of all possible pavings.
Sackville-Street is one of the best in Dublin; it might have been carried up to the front of the lying-in-hospital, which would have rendered it magnificent. In the midst is a mall, enclosed within a low wall.
In the year 1749, it was computed that in the city and liberties of Dublin there were two thousand alehouses, three hundred taverns, and twelve hundred brandy shops.<11> In 1766 the number of houses in Dublin was thirteen thousand, one hundred and ninety-four; so that it is probable that the number of inhabitants surpasses one hundred thousand.
There are many single-horse two-wheeled chaises, which constantly ply in the streets in Dublin; they are called noddies; these, as well as the hackney-coaches, are so insufferably bad, and even dangerous, as to afford matter of surprise that they are permitted to be used.
Goods are conveyed about the city on small two-wheeled cars, drawn by a single horse; the wheels are thin round blocks, each about twenty inches in diameter. The wheels of those cars which are used in the country, are placed at a greater distance from each other than those of the city cars. They are frequently used as vehicles for the common people, on their parties of pleasure; a bed, or a mat, is at such times placed on the car, and half a dozen people sit on it, with their legs hanging a few inches from the ground; they are generally dragged a foot-pace. There are many mules made use of in and about Dublin.