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which was waiting for us: it was completely filled inside and out: it carried thirty passengers with all their luggage. There was little danger of being run away with, even with mettlesome horses: to do ours justice, they were not of that description: from their steady and venerable appearance, they might have drawn the archbishop of Dublin himself. As may well be conceived, the air in the inside was insufferably close and oppressive: from the paleness of many of the faces around me, it was easy to see that sickness had not subsided. One gentleman remarked that he was always sea-sick in a stage-coach. I regret I did not find out to which of the countries he belonged: his speech was what is termed Irish, but I think his accent was English. This, however, is not a certain criterion to judge by; most travellers returning from England, to prove that they have been there, and to display their superiority over their untravelled countrymen, affect an English accent and pronunciation. As they are generally ignorant of the rules, they make ridiculous mistakes accordingly; oftentimes pronouncing het and hend for hat and hand; teeble and steeble for table and stable.—We passed through Ringsend, a small village almost in ruins. Though it is only a mile and a half from Dublin, we were more than half an hour in getting to the Mail-Coach Hotel, in Dawson Street, where the coach stops. The distance from the Pigeon-house is four miles our fare for ourselves and luggage was three shillings and four-pence each. The Mail-Coach Hotel, I think, is a good house; I am sure it is a dear one: we were charged three shillings English (three shillings and three-pence) each for breakfast: it is fair to acknowledge, however, that it was a sumptuous one

-tea, coffee, eggs, ham, &c. &c.: and I dare say some of the company, whose bowels were empty after their late evacuation, took the full value of their money.This was too expensive a place for me; I therefore took private lodgings.

I called in the course of the morning on some people I had formerly known; they received me with all the kindness so congenial to the hearts of Irishmen.—I had two invitations to dinner for that day, but declined them. Both the gentlemen who gave them were married; and Dublin dames, I knew, no more than London ones, like to be taken unawares : besides, the motion of the vessel was still in my head, and wine and whisky punch I feared would not make it steadier. I preferred, therefore, dining in silence and solitude in the Ormond Tavern, Capel-street. The last of these expectations was in some degreee realised, for I had a box to myself, and I should have known better than to expect the former : silence is no more the virtue of man in this, than it is of woman in any country; there were about twenty people in the room, all eating, all speaking, and, except myself, nobody listening.—I repeat, verbatim and literatim, a conversation which a gentleman held with an acquaintance in an opposite box:"Is this Doctor B. there? I didn't see you before, because I didn't look that way; I drink your health, sir.” "I pledge you, sir, in porter: here, waiter, you d-d wriggled-eyed bastard, why don't you bring me my wine, I say ?"

you get your health, my honey ?" dling; playing at cards with you,

"Well, and how do

"Troth, but midand a drop of the

native, has done it no good. Bad luck to your own soul for the head-ache you gave me yesterday, with

laughing at your old stories, and drinking your new wine." "And how did you like the play the other night?" (It was Love in a Village, and Mrs. Dickons sang.) "In troth, I would have liked it better, only for you: you said you would meet me at the Cock, and so I went away to look for you before the singing began, but the devil a cock or a hen could I find you at." "How do you like Mrs. Dickons ?" "How should I tell that, that had only set my two looking eyes on her, and went away just as she was opening her mouth like a lark in a summer's morning; but I can tell you one thing, by J-s, she has dd blacklooking gums of her own."-In addition to this treat of calves-head, I had a comfortable dinner of fish and stewed veal; (I must here mention, as an inducement to epicures to visit this country, that Dublin has fish in much greater perfection, perhaps, than any other capital in Europe) the wine was excellent; I drank more than I intended on going in, but the conviviality was so general, that I thought it did not become me to be an exception to it.-Foote was once asked if he had ever been at Cork, during his residence in Ireland? No, he said, but he had seen many drawings of it.-I witnessed a good number in the course of the evening, and nearly finished a bottle myself: no bad libation to the Zephyrs who bore me in safety among a people who unite, so gracefully,

"The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine,"

CHAPTER IV.

General appearance of Dublin---Historical observations-The Castle College Library-University-Severe studies.

Dublin.

I WALKED about the streets for some hours this morning, and saw little alteration in them since I was here last. It was predicted, by some of its violent opposers, that the Union would cause grass to grow in the streets of Dublin: these political prophecies have not yet been fulfilled; I see nothing green in the streets, though I do a number of geraniums in the windows, which give a delightful fragrance to the air, and breathe the perfume of Arabia on the banks of the Liffy. There is something inexpressibly graceful in the appearance of this town to a stranger; he is forcibly struck with the strong likeness it bears to London, of which it is a beautiful copy-more beautiful, in truth, in miniature than the gigantic original. Like a watch set in a ring, it charms with its fairy distinctness, its light and airy construction: the streets are wide and commodious, the houses uniform, lofty, and elegant: Sackville-street is a noble avenue, a hundred and twenty feet wide, terminated by the Rotunda and public gardens; nor do I know any square in London that equals Merrion-square for beauty and uniformity of appearance. The river is open to the view in the whole of its course through the city; and the quays, when properly embanked, will form a walk superior, perhaps, to any thing of the kind in the uni

verse.

-The Liffy, however, is but an inconsiderable stream, and only remarkable for having the metropolis seated on its banks: it rises in the county of Wicklow, and discharges itself into Dublin Bay a little below the city, and is navigable for vessels of three hundred tons up to the new custom-house at Carlisle Bridge. This bridge is a very fine one; it consists of three arches, the centre is forty-eight feet wide, and the two extreme arches, seventy feet, six inches. The breadth of this bridge is remarkably spacious, being sixty feet between the balustrades: it is therefore wider by ten feet than that of Westminster. There are several other bridges, none of which have any thing to recommend them, except Essex Bridge, first built in 1676, but taken down in 1753, and rebuilt, in an elegant form, after the model of Westminster Bridge.

Dublin is a place of great antiquity: Ptolemy, who flourished in the reign of Antoninus Pius, about the year 140, says it was anciently called Aschiled. In 155, Alpinus, whose daughter Auliana was drowned in the Liffy, changed the name from Aschiled to Auliana: it was afterwards named Dublana, and Ptolemy calls it Eblana. Dublana, whence comes Dublinum and Dublin, is evidently derived from Dub-leana, "the place of the black harbour or lake," or rather "the lake of the sea,"-the Bay of Dublin being frequently so called. The Irish call it Dromchollcoil, "the brow of a hazel wood." And in 181, Eogan, king of Munster, being on a royal tour, paid a visit to this place, which was then called Atha CliathDubb-Line," the passage of the ford of hurdles over the black pool." King Edgar, in the preface to his charter, dated 964, mentions Ireland, with its most

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