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 tastefulness of design, might have been forgiven; it is however 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 yet 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 collection 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 1814, enumerated 13,766; its houses, 1680.

EXCURSION VI.

Through the Environs of Dublin, by the Circular Road; continued, by Clontarf, to the Peninsula of Howth.

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 Customhouse, alone meeting the eye, and seeming to float upon the surface. Exhalations even of a dangerous nature, suspending all business, and rendering the streets impassable in broad day by their obscurity, have more than 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 constant 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 peculiar clearness at times is not less deserving of notice; the summits of the mountains in Louth, Down, and Armagh, some of which are 60 English miles' distance, being occasionally distinctly visible from the vicinity. The conical tops of the Welsh mountains, also, are sometimes discernible, even from the low margin of the bay; when, their bases being beneath the horizon, they present 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 longcontinued rains, are not unfrequent, particularly in the low grounds of the Liberty; where, in 1744, the poor were entirely dislodged from their cellars, and the bridges on all the rivers and streams running into the Bay of Dublin carried away by the torrents. In December, 1801, above 36 hours' rain swelled the Liffey to an extraordinary height, inundating the city, and destroying many of the bridges. As a proof of the general mildness of the frosts, in comparison with those of London, it has been observed that skaiting is an amusement

* Mr. Walsh records a remarkable phenomenon of this nature, as having taken place a few years back in Townshend-street, and College Green. Here a dense white vapour was observed to issue in flakes and curling wreaths from the pavement: it rose but a few feet above the surface, and then formed small but opaque lakes 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.

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 of 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 communicate 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 of Anglesea, at the distance of two miles and a half south from Holyhead, in six hours; thus effecting what so many had previously attempted in vain to accomplish. 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

* "There be few sickly persons," says Boate, "and Ireland's healthfulness doth further appear by this particular-that several diseases very common in other countries are here very rare, and partly altogether unknown."-Chap. 23, sec. 102.

+ Where the canal passage-boats stop, by which travellers, with whom time is not an object, may obtain a very pleasant conveyance, in two days, to Shannon Harbour from Dublin. The distance thus performed is 63 miles.

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, occupying 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.

Crossing the main cut of the Grand Canal below St. James's parish, (after passing Dolphin's Barn,) and then slightly diverging from our line of road to the right, we enter the suburb distinguished by the name of Kilmainham, but which is in point of fact the county-town, containing the gaol (previously noticed) for the county of Dublin. The latter is a large and well-built erection, on an elevated and commanding site; but a material defect is its construction of lime-stone, in consequence of which the cells, particularly those on the lower story, are often damp in wet weather. It affords every facility for the complete classification of prisoners for debt, for petty fe lonies, and for crimes of a darker complexion; as well as for the employment of numbers in industrious pursuits