EXCURSION V. Through the Parishes of St. Paul, St. Michan, St. Mary, St. George, and St. Thomas. THE parish of St. Paul, the first, north of the Liffey, 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 its salubrity, is excellent, and possesses a commanding view both of the city and adjacent country, with the Wicklow 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 charity upon so extensive a scale, were, about the year 1680, necessitated to confine the benefits of the institution 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 circular walls in front, ornamented with niches, balustrades, 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 unfinished; a circumstance much to be regretted, as it appears, from the original drawings of Mr. Ivory, (the architect,) uncommonly light and elegant: it was intended to consist of two octagonal lanthorns, ornamented with Corinthian and Composite columns, with an intermediate 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 solemnity 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, 65 feet by 32, decorated, or, to speak more justly, disfigured by some portraits in a wretchedly filthy state, removed hither from the Tholsel,* with a few belonging to the hospital; these represent 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 buildings, 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 accommodation 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 masonry 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. * Of this building mention occurs in Excursion III. 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 London, but smaller, and, on account of the narrowness of its approaches, infinitely less convenient. The number 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 building 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 incorporation 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 committed 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 the institution: the cart was usually followed by the mob; and, in the performance of this duty, scenes of mingled ludicrousness 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 disappearance. The looks of the needy applicants, who still, with 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 accustomed to say 66 that, till he went to Ireland, he used to wonder what the English beggars did with their cast-off rags; but, upon his arrival in Dublin, he immediately perceived that they were sent over to the Irish beggars. The establishment consists of lodging rooms, dininghalls, 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 than in London. |