citizens of Edinburgh, must be constrained to smile; while perhaps he will recollect 'Love a la Mode,'* and Sir Archy Mac Sarcasm and Sir Callaghan O'Brallaghan, neither of whom "had the brogue." An affectation of every thing English, and a capricious disposition to admire whatever may be in momentary vogue on our side of the channel, are common foibles with the Irish; of little consequence, it may be, in themselves, did they not sometimes lead to illiberal jealousy of native merit and talent, however worthy of distinction and patronage. A jealousy of England itself, we may observe, is often incongruously united to this tacit acknowledgment of the superiority of the sister country.

Of the population of Dublin, no return has been made since 1814; when the total number of inhabitants appeared to be 175,319: in 1798, according to Mr. Whitelaw's census, the whole number was 170,805. But the city, it is now very generally believed, contains not less than 190,000 souls.

Having thus laid before the reader the best information we could obtain by personal observation, or glean from the most authentic sources, upon every important point generally relative to this city, in extent and population the seventh in Europe, we proceed to a particular survey of every object of interest or curiosity in the parishes of St. Werburgh, St. Andrew, St. Mark, and St. Anne; to which we propose limiting our second Excursion.

* Charles Macklin, the author of this comedy, was a native of the city of Dublin,

EXCURSION II.

Through the Parishes of St. Werburgh, St. Andrew, St. Mark, and St. Anne.

SELECTING, from the 19 parishes and two deaneries into which Dublin is ecclesiastically divided, the parish of St. Werburgh, from its centrical situation, as the area of our first labours, the seat of government denominated the Castle, which it contains, naturally claims the precedence of every other object within its boundaries. This edifice, having been almost entirely rebuilt during the last century, retains so little of its ancient lineaments that the site only can be said to identify the modern palace with the original castellated erection. If any part of the building remain in its primeval form, it is the basement of the Wardrobe-tower, over which an additional story, surmounted by projecting battlements, has been newly erected. The whole now serves as a repository for the statute rolls, the parliamentary, and other national records.

Between this and Birmingham-tower, which has been lately rebuilt, a curtain anciently extended, interrupted by two other nameless towers, one of which has entirely disappeared, and on little more than the foundation of the other is raised an elegant apartment, adapted to the purposes of a cabinet by the government. The old Birmingham-tower remained till 1775; and its demolition in that year proved, from the extraordinary consistency of the cement, a work of considerable difficulty: the present tower, of plain construction, has a lighter appearance, but

was infinitely surpassed in solidity by that to which it

has succeeded.

Two strong round towers, called the Gate-towers, between which was the entrance by a draw-bridge, on the north side, from the city into the castle, subsisted until about the middle of the last century; when the present chief entrance from Cork-hill and Castle-street was erected on the side of the easternmost: the western tower was taken down in 1750, to make room for a similar but mock entrance, the only object of which was the preservation of uniformity. This, in November 1757, was decorated with a statue of Fortitude, and the eastern gate with a statue of Justice.

Meiler Fitzhenry, Lord Justice of Ireland about the year 1205, commenced the building of this fortress, (for such it originally was,) by authority of a patent from his sovereign; but as Henry de Loundres, Archbishop of Dublin, put the finishing hand to it about the year 1220, to him it has been usual to ascribe the whole honour of its erection. It was, as it remains, of a quadrangular form, surrounded with a broad and deep moat, since filled up, then partly dry and partly flooded by the tide, and a branch of the little river Dodder. The guard of the castle was entrusted to a constable, gentleman-porter, and a body of warders, originally pikemen and archers, who, after the invention of gunpowder, were converted into harquebussiers, or musquetiers, and artillery-men. Thus, until the reign of Elizabeth, when the building became the seat of government, the chief purposes of its maintenance appeared to be those of defence, or the custody of stateprisoners: for the latter objects the two Gate-towers were set apart, and were admirably adapted for it in the great point of security. In 1534, during the rebellion of Thomas Fitzgerald, the castle was twice besieged; and Friar Keating, who was its constable in 1478, having destroyed the draw-bridge, held it out with his warders and other assistants against the then Lord Deputy, Henry Lord

Grey. In 1560, Queen Elizabeth issued her commands to the Lord Deputy and council" to repair and enlarge the castle of Dublin, for the reception of the Chief Governors;" before which time there does not appear to have been any fixed place appropriated to that purpose. But Sir Henry Sidney, who came over as Lord Deputy in 1565, seems not to have been satisfied with what had been done after in pursuance of the Queen's mandate; as, two years his arrival, he further repaired and beautified the building, which until then, we are informed by Hooker, was "ruinous, foul, filthy, and greatly decayed." In the reign of this Queen and that of James I. both the courts of the law and the high courts of parliament were occasionally held within the castle walls; a practice which had also obtained previously, and was repeated in the time of Charles I.

The following is an extract of a letter from a Lord Deputy to Mr. Secretary Coke, dated 23rd of October, 1633.

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"This castle is in very great decay: I have been "inforced to take down one of the great towers which "was ready to fall, and the rest are so crazy, as we are "still in fear part of it might drop down upon our heads, as one tower did, whilst my Lord Chancellor was here, and had infallibly killed four or five of his grand-children, had it fallen an hour sooner or an hour "later; I am therefore instantly constrained to fall to repair, and pull down what would else forthwith fall "of itself, it being of absolute necessity to do so, and "will withall gain some room more than now there is, "the house not being of receipt sufficient to lodge me "and my company.

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"There is not any stable but a poor mean one, and "that made of a decayed church, which is such a profanation as I am sure His Majesty would not allow "of; besides, there is a decree in the Exchequer, for restoring it to the parish whence it was taken; I

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"have therefore got a piece of ground whereon to build 66 a new one, the most convenient for the castle in the "world; the foundation is already two yards high, and "it shall be finished by the end of June next, with granaries and all other conveniences. There will be room for three score horses, and so many good ones I "have in this town already to fill it, and make up such a troop of horse, I dare say, as Ireland hath not been "acquainted with.

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"Besides, I have bought as much more ground about "the castle as costs me £150, out of which I will pro"vide the house of a garden and out-courts for fuel, and "such other necessaries belonging to a family, whereof "I am here altogether unprovided; the bake-house in

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present being just under the room where I now write, "and the wood-reek just full before the gallery win"dows; which I take not to be so courtly, nor to suit "so well the dignity of the king's deputy; and thus I "trust to make this habitation easeful and pleasant as "the place will afford; whereas now, upon my faith, it "is little better than a very prison." ""*

Lord Clarendon, also, in 1686, writing to the Lord Treasurer, says of this "no-castle,"-"In good earnest, "as it is now, I have no necessary convenient room; no gentleman in the Pall-mall is so ill lodged in all re"spects. I might add, that the keeping up, that is keeping dry, this pittyful bit of a castle costs an im። mense deal, of which you shall have a particular "account laid before you."

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The vice-regal residence continued in this uncomfortable and unbecoming state to the close of the seventeenth century; since when all the great modern improvements have been made. It now has the appearance of a considerable and very respectable pile of buildings. It is divided into two courts, termed the upper and lower, of which the upper is principal, and contains the state and

* Strafford's Letters,