circumstances, as well as from some peculiarly offensive habits in the people, is scarcely conceivable.* Two, three, 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 apartment 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 * 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 select 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 engaged 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 inundation 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 through 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 stench which he could scarcely sustain for a few minutes."-"The poor room-keepers were found apparently at ease, and perfectly assimilated to their situation: filth and stench seemed congenial to their nature; they never made the smallest effort to remove them; and if they could answer the calls of hunger, they felt, or seemed to feel, nothing else as an inconvenience."-Whitelaw and Walsh's History of Dublin. 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 city is, doubtless, highly reprehensible in the permission of these abuses; and how such nuisances as slaughter-houses, soap-manufactories, 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 licensed 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 wellbeing of the lower orders of society. In regard to paving, lighting, and cleansing, (the latter only in respect to the high-ways before the houses,) Dublin in general must not be accused of remissness; the pavement, in particular, composed in great part of granite from the island of Dalkey, is excellent, and possesses the quality of uncommon durability. The Grand and Royal Canals supply 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 are 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 the Wicklow mountains, the hills of Dalkey and of Howth, the bay, and the islands of Ireland's Eye and Lambay, is delightful.-But we shall comment 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. 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 Civitas, and places it nearly under its actual parallel. Circumstances 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 Dublin. 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 AthCliath, the ford of hurdles; and Bally-Ath-Cliath, the town on the ford of hurdles.† Eblana, from which the modern Dublin is derived, is a corruption, it has been conjectured, 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 Divelin, 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 Milesians 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, it is believed, of the walls latest erected * The authenticity of this charter has been doubted; with what reason it is not for us to determine. + See Glossary in our Historical and Descriptive Sketch, by these people, are yet visible. From the best accounts 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 individually 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 antiquity, 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 Werburgh-street: it was then in good preservation, but, being from its situation a public nuisance, was demolished by 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, according 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 appearance of Dublin, both within and without the ancient walls. Several of the streets and lanes mentioned by Ware, Stanihurst, and others, have either totally disappeared, or have suffered such alterations in their names as render them very difficult to be recognised. In 1610, as appears from Speed's plan of that date, but few buildings were to be seen on the north side of the river; and indeed the entire space now occupied by the new Customhouse, the Batchelor's Walk, the Ormond and other Quays, was then (the Liffey being only embanked on its southern side,) overflowed by its waters, a small part only about the King's Inns, which had been a monastery of Dominican friars, excepted. This quarter of the city was at that time called Ostman-Town, since corrupted into Oxman-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 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, Templebar, 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 |