Chapter 9.

Glasnevin,

once the residence of the celebrated Doctor Delany, where that learned divine assembled his coterie of wits in the Augustan age of Queen Anne; where the patriot Dean and the beautiful and enduring Stella have charmed the feast; where Southern has frequently sojourned; and in whose immediate vicinity Addison, Sheridan, Parnell, and Tickell have resided.

This village may be considered as divided into the old and the new town, both sweetly situated; but the former, though once so recommended and frequented for the salubrity of its air, is, with the exception of four or five houses, a range of ruins. The river Tolka, over which there is a fine bridge, divides them; the new being on the Dublin and improving side: the great objects of interest are, however, in the old.

[343] The church is a plain edifice, but the identical one: with little alteration, in which Dean Delany officiated. A flag in the wall, near the entrance, states that it was rebuilt in 1707. On the floor near the communion table, is a stone commemorative of Andrew Caldwell, who died in 1710; and in the adjacent part of the outer churchyard are the tombstones of several of his descendants. Within the church are also mural slabs, one of white marble, to the memory of George Cockburn, who died in 1773; and near it another for William Orr Hamilton, barrister at law, who died in 1817, aged 36.

In the graveyard are very many monuments worthy of notice: one to the once well known Doctor Barret, a man no less learned than eccentric. He wrote memoirs of Swift, principally in reference to his progress through that only world of the Doctor’s contemplation, Trinity College. By his will in 1821, after bequeathing certain pecuniary legacies and annuities therein particularly mentioned, he devised the whole residue of his property, which was very considerable, to trustees, “for the purpose of contributing towards the relief of the sick and indigent, the poor and naked, without favour or partiality.” Near him lies Sir Henry Jebb, a physician of the less guilty class, who contributed rather to the births than the deaths of the community. Inserted in the outer gable wall of the church is a slab, to the memory of George Clayton, who died in 1695, and to Walter Fitz Simons, who died in 1699; while in a corner of the church-yard is a large monumental stone, [344] commemorative of the before-mentioned Doctor Delany and his lady. She had been first married to Richard Tenison, and died in 1741. The doctor had been a Senior Fellow of Trinity College, afterwards Dean of Down, and died in 1768. The position of this monument is singularly impressive. It is inserted in the boundary wall, that divides the Doctor’s ancient demesne from the graveyard; in the side wall of that very temple hereafter mentioned, which his wife had so affectionately decorated, and where they both had passed the happiest hours of social and domestic enjoyment. Poussin’s celebrated picture of Arcadia, the moral sublimity of the tomb in its perspective, and the touching epitaph, “I too was in Arcadia,” could not be more powerfully illustrated than on this occasion. It was a scene to affect the deepest feelings, and, as the foot glided through the luxuriant herbage of the churchyard, a tremulous and awful sensation seemed to suggest, that the matter; which once composed the frames of those whose graves were beneath, was now, by some vegetable transmigration, freshening in the grass, blooming in the flowers, or drooping in the shrubs above them.

On the central elevation of this deserted village is Delville House, the classic residence alluded to. A tall close gate and wall conceal it from the view of prying curiosity; but these obstacles once removed, and the mind’s eye is rapidly attracted by the ancient edifice with its bower window; - the old garden walls thickly flowering with the wild snap dragon; - the gracefully undulated grounds; - the broad terrace on [345] which the peripatetics of another day have glided and philosophized; - the magnificent trees on the brink of the rivulet; - the fine mount and the turret overlooking the business of the distant city, the beauties of the intervening country, and more solemnly glancing over the churchyard where its remembered owner lies; - the dark vault beneath that turret, where the first impression of the Legion Club is supposed to have been printed; - the temple, with its fresco painting of St. Paul, and its medallion of the bust of Stella, by Mrs. Delany; - the inscription on the frieze at its front, “Fastigia despicit urbis,” attributed to Swift, and supposed to allude to the situation of this villa; - the temples scattered through the little demesne; - the rustic bridges; - the bath; - the lonely willow, dropping its feathery wreaths into the water, amidst the lilies that floated around it; - the venerable mulberry tree; - its surrounding compeers of aged elms and yews and ever-green oaks - all powerfully marked the taste and elegance that formed and enlivened this scene.

Yet could not Dean Swift’s mock description of the whole, addressed to its proprietor, be wholly forgotten:-

Would you that *Deville *I describe?-

Believe me, Sir, I will not gibe;

For who would be satirical

Upon a thing so very small!

You scarce upon the borders enter,

Before you’re at the very centre.

A single crow would make it night,

If o’er your farm he took his flight:

[346]

Yet in the narrow compass we

Observe a vast variety;

Both walks, walls, meadows, and parterres,

Windows and doors, and rooms and stairs,

And hills and vales, and woods and fields,

And hay, and grass, and corn it yields;

All to your haggard brought so cheap in,

Without the mowing or the reaping;

A razor, though to say’t I’m loth,

Might shave you and your meadow~ both.

Tho’ small your farm, yet here’s a house

Full large - to entertain a mouse,

But where a rat is dreaded more

Than furious Caledonian boar;

For if ‘tis entered by a rat,

There is no room to bring the cat.

A little riv’let seems to steal

Along a thing you call a vale,

Like tears a-down a wrinkled cheek,

Like rain along a blade of leek;

And this you call your sweet meander,

Which might be suck’d up by a gander

Could he but force his rustling bill

To scoop the channel of the rill;

I’m sure you’d make a mighty clatter,

Were it as big as city gutter.

Next come I to your kitchen garden,

Which one poor mouse would fare but hard in;

And round this garden is a walk

No longer than a tailor’s chalk;

Thus I compute what space is in it,

A snail creeps o’er it in a minute!

One lettuce makes a shift to squeeze

Up through a tuft you call your trees;

And once a year a single rose

Peeps from the bud, but never blows:

In vain then you expect its bloom;

It cannot blow for want of room.’

[347] In short, in all your boasted seat

There’s nothing but yourself is - great.”

Notwithstanding the ridicule of this description, those gardens and walks were laid out by Doctor Delany, in concert with the celebrated Doctor Helsham; while Walker praises the demesne, as the first “in which the obdurate and straight line of the Dutch was softened into a curve, the terrace melted into a swelling bank, and the walks opened to catch the vicinal country.”

In 1732 Swift, writing to Pope, makes the following mention of Doctor Delany’s mode of living here, after his marriage with the Widow Tenison. - “Doctor Delany behaves himself very commendably, converses only with his former friends, makes no parade, but entertains them constantly at an elegant, plentiful table, walks the streets as usual by daylight, does many acts of charity and generosity, cultivates a country-house about two miles distant, and is one of those very few within my knowledge, on whom a great access of fortune hath made no manner of change, and particlarly, he is as often without money as he was before.” - And again: “Doctor Delany is the only gentleman I know who keeps one certain day in the week to entertain seven or eight friends at dinner, and to pass the evening, where there is nothing of excess either in eating or drink.” In a letter of the following year, the Dean writes to Mrs. Pendarves, “The cold weather, I suppose, has gathered together Doctor Delany’s set; the next time you meet, may I beg the favour to make my compliments acceptable. [348] I recollect no entertainment with so much pleasure as what I received from that company. It has made me very sincerely lament the many hours of my life that I have lost in insignificant conversation.” The winter meetings were, however, principally held at the Doctor’s town residence in Stafford-street, as appears from a letter of Mrs. Pendarves in 1735; “I am sorry the sociable Thursdays, that used to bring together so many agreeable friends at Doctor Delany’s, are broke up. Though Delville has its beauties, it is more out of the way than Stafford-street.”

With all these eloquent appeals of sensation and reflection, the spectator seems influenced by a spell that wafts him up the stream of time, leads him into a bygone century, and even identifies the rustic seat, on which he moralizes, with the same era of “auld lang syne.” The graves give up their dead, and Banquo’s chair was not so spiritually filled, as that same seat on which he fancies the silent worthies crowding, as erst in life they might have crowded. The Athenian madman, however, was not more vexatiously undeceived, than was the author of these pages, when, with the full and wilful enjoyment of this luxury, the unlettered gardener, referring his uncontrollable admiration to the ingenious structure of the seat itself, proudly announced it as the recent production of his own hands. It was the dissolution of a spell, and,

”--- What seemed corporal

Melted as breath into the wind.”

Even with such a repulse from the former [349] mansion of the Dean, there is yet another object in the village, which perpetuates his memory, - a small, circular building of two stories, near the bridge, containing a male and female school, with a small endowment from his bounty. There is also a Sunday-school here for children of both sexes, to which the Bishop of Kildare allows £10 per annum. The number of pupils in the latter establishment was reported in 1834 to be 35. Opposite the latter structure is an alms-house, established in 1723, where four poor widows are lodged, and receive each 1s. 8d. weekly.

Near this, on the bank of the river, are quarries of that species of limestone called blackstone or calp, a substance in some measure peculiar to the county of Dublin, and supposed to form the general sub-soil of the city. It is usually found under a bed of vegetable mould and layer of limestone gravel, and commences with black limestone, in some places separated by layers of argillaceous schist, which descends into calp by an imperceptible transition.

At the Dublin side of the village is a weaving establishment of 12 looms for sail-cloth and canvass.

Half the rectory of Glasnevin being impropriate in the precentor, and the other half in the chancellor of Christ Church, the parish ranks as but a curacy in the deanery of Finglas, to which those dignitaries alternately present. It extends over 999a. 3r. 21p. plantation measure, comprising three townlands, and has compounded for its tithes at so high a rate as £184 per annum, some parts being: assessed thereto [350] at *8s. 2d. per acre. In the Catholic dispensation the parish is in the union of Clontarf. Its population in 1834 was returned as 964 persons, of whom 585 were Roman Catholics. The great part of the land in the parish belongs to the bishop of Kildare as Dean of Christ Church, from which, and even *earlier appropriations of the denomination to the uses of the church, it appears to have derived its name of Glasnevin, i.e. the verdant consecrated ground. The acreable rent is seven guineas in the immediate neighbourhood of the village, lessening in the more remote parts to £3; the wages of labour is from seven to nine shillings per week.

As to the extent of the manor of Glasevin, see *post *at “Grangegorman,” by which name it is more usually called.

In 544 the Annals of the Four Masters record the death of Berchan, Abbot of Glasnoidhen, [The locality is, however, by some referred to the county Kildare.] to whom are ascribed some Irish prophecies, and a small poem in praise of St. Brigid.

In 745, say the Annals of Ulster, died Cialltrogh, Abbot of “Glasnoidhen.”

In 1178 Archbishop Laurence O’Toole granted to the church of the Holy Trinity, i.e. Christ Church (inter alia), a third part of Cloghnei, a third part of Killallin and Lesluan, “Glasneoden,” Magdurnia, &c., which gift was confirmed in 1179 by Pope Alexander the Third, as of “Glasneden with the mill.” Accordingly in Pope Urban’s Bull of the year 1186, Glasnoiden, with its church, is enumerated amongst the possessions of Christ Churcb, and its right thereto was confirmed by King John in 1200, and by Archbishop Luke in 1240, as “the Grange of Glasnevin, with the church and appurtenances.” This church was dedicated to St. Maplas, or as the Repertorium Viride, styles him, St. Movus.

[351] In the taxation of the revenues of Christ Church in 1306, the manor of Glasnevin, therein stated as containing three carucates or land, was rated with its tithes at 48 shillings, [Black Book of Christ Church.] and it is observable, that it is there rated distinctly from “the Grange of Gorman.”

In 1610 John Bathe had a grant of certain premises here, the tithes being’ specially excepted.

The regal visitation of 1615 states the rectory as still impropriate to the church of the Holy Trinity, that Richard Wyburne was curate, and that the church and chancel were then in good repair.

In 1634 John Bathe died seised of 80 acres in Glasnevin alias Clonmell, which he held by fealty only. [Inquis. in Canc. Hib.]

In 1666 James Duke of York bad a grant of Glasnevin 230a. plantation measure, Stuckcoole 120a. like measure, &c. &c.

In 1702 the administratrix of Maurice Berkley made claim (at Chichester House), and was allowed a leasehold interest in part of Glasnevin.

In 1703 Isaac Holroyd of Dublin, merchant, had a grant of the residue of a term for years of the lands called Draycot’s farm in Glasnevia 41a., the, estate of Michael Chamberlain attainted. For a notice of Glasnevin in 1732, see “Santry.”

Some time since, in removing the lumber in one of the out offices of Delville house, a printing-press was discovered concealed among it, which, according to tradition, was used here in 1735 in giving to the world the first edition of Swift’s “Legion Club.” It is generally understood, that this bitter satire was not printed in Dublin, as no one there would undertake its publication, and, as the Dean passed the summer of 1735 at Delville, and the work appeared in 1736, the tradition appears to have some foundation.

In 1759 the Right Honourable Henry Singleton, Master of the Rolls, and who had previously been Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in Ireland, was interred here.

In 1785 Mr. John Rogerson, in his bequest to the Incorporated Society (before alluded to in the “General History of the [352] County of Dublin”), left about 16 acres *at *Glasnevin *(inter alia) *for that object.

In reference to its indigenous botany, Glasnevin presents *salvia verbenaca, *wild clary; *avena flavescens, *yellow oat grass, perhaps some of the finest pasturage of the meadow; with its most congenial companion, *hordeum pratense, *meadow barley; *triticum repens, *couch grass; *scabiosa succtia, *devil’s bit scabious; *sherardia arvensis, *little field madder; *galium palustre, *white water bed-straw; *galium aparine, *goose grass; *alchemilla arvensis, *parsley piert; *potamogeton pusillum, *small pond weed, floating on the surface of the water, and affording an agreeable shelter to the fish; myosotis palustris, Forget-me-not; *myosotis arvensis, *field scorpion-grass; *lithospermum arvense, *corn gromwell, flowering in May, the bark of its root tinges wax and oil of a beautiful red; *primula vulgaris, *common primrose - its leaves are found to serve for feeding silkworms; *primula veris, *cowslip; *anagallis arvensis, *common scarlet pimpernel; *convolvulus sepium, *great bindweed; *viola tricolor, *pansy violet; verbascum thapsus, great mullein, which is said to intoxicate fish, so that they may be caught with the hand; the down is used for tinder; *chenopodium bonus Henricus, *mercury goosefoot; *torilis nodosa, *knotted hedge parsley; *scandix pecten veneris, shepherd’s needle; fumaria officinalis, common fumitory; fumaria capreolata, climbing fumitory; vicia cracca, tufted vetch; trifolium filiforme, *slender yellow trefoil; lotus corniculatus, common bird’s-foot trefoil; euphorbia helioscopia, [353] sun spurge; *alchemilla vulgaris, *lady’s mantle; *blitum perenne, *English mercury; heracleum spondylium, cow parsnip, the stalks of which the Russians not only prepare for food, but also procure from them a very intoxicating spirit; *allium carinatum, *mountain garlic; *allium vineale, *crow garlic, which communicates a rank taste to the milk and butter; *rumex crispus, *curled dock, a troublesome and unprofitable weed; *rumex acutus, *sharp dock; *rumes acetosella, *sheep’s sorrel; polygonum amphibium, amphibious persicaria; *polygonum persicaria, *spotted persicaria; *polygonum convolvulus, *black bind weed; *lythrum salicaria, *purple loose strife; *pyrus malus, *wild apple-tree *spiraea ulmaria, *meadow sweet; rubus corylifolius, hazel-leaved bramble; *papaver somniferum, *white poppy; *anemone Appennina, *mountain anemone, flowering in March, a very ornamental plant; *ranunculus auricomus, *goldilocks; lamium amplexicaule, henbit dead-nettle; *clinopodium vulgare, *common basil; *thlaspi arvense, pennycress; sisymbrium sophia, *fine-leaved hedge mustard.

In the adjoining ditches, the unproductive exhausting *agrostis alba, *marsh bent grass the luxuriant sweet and succulent aira aquatica, water hair grass, the grass which is supposed to contribute chiefly to the sweetness of Cottenham cheese, and the fineness of Cambridge butter; *sium nodiflorum, *procumbent water parsnip; *epilobium hirsutum, *great hairy willow herb; *myrrhis temulenta, *rough cow parsley; *smyrnium olusatrum, *Alexanders; *viburnum opulus, *guelder rose, which, when in bloom, exhibits [354] a singularly fine appearance; ranunculus flammula, lesser spearwort crowfoot; mentha hirsuta, hairy mint; hypericum quadrangulem, squire St. John’s wort; *sparganium ramosum, *branched bur reed. - On the walls and dry grounds, veronica arvensis, wall speedwell; *valeriana rubra, *red valerian; *glyceria rigida, *hard sweet grass; *parietaria officinatis, *wall pellitory; *hedera helix, *ivy; *rumex scutatus, French or garden sorrel, its leaves are of a *gratefully acid flavour; *antirrhinum majus, *great snap-dragon; *cheiranthus fruticolosus, wall flower. - In the hedges, melica uniflora, wood melic grass, a *beautiful little sylvan plant, and perhaps the earliest of our grasses; *solanum dulcamara, *woody nightshade or bitter sweet, flowering in September; *lonicera periclymenum, *common honeysuckle; *geum urbanum, *common avens; *geranium Robertianum, herb Robert; hypericum androsoemum, tutsal; stachys sylvatica, *hedge woundwort; vicia sepium, common bush-vetch; - On the road sides and barks, *centaurea nigra, *black knap-weed; *arum maculatum, *cuckow pint, *centaurea scabiosa, *greater knap-weed; *orchis pyramidalis, *pyramidal orchis.

In the meadow pastures and* *cultivated fields, veronica serpyllifolia, smooth speedwell; veronica agrestis, germander chickweed; fedia olitoria, lamb’s lettuce; *aira coespitosa, *turfy hair grass, the roughest and coarsest grass that grows in pastures and meadows; *chenopodium album, *white goosefoot; *chenopodium ficifolium, *fig-leaved goosefoot *bunium flexuosum, *pig-nut; orchis maculate, spotted palmate orchis; *euphorbia peplus, *petty spurge; *stachys [355] ambigua, *ambiguous woundwort. - In the waste grounds, veronica hederifolia, ivy-leaved speedwell; sagina procumbens, procumbent pearl-wort; *carduus acanthoides, *welted thistle; *gnaphalium germanicum, *common cudweed; *anthemis cotula, *fetid chamomile; *urtica urens, *small nettle; *atriplex patula, *halbert-leaved orache; atriplex angustfolia, narrow-leaved orache; *reseda luteola, *yellow weed; *papaver dubium, *long smooth-headed poppy; *lamium album, *white dead nettle; *cochlearia armoracea, *horse radish; *brassica napus, *rape; *crepis tectorum, smooth hawk’s beard. - In the watery places and streams, angelica sylvestris; *wild angelica; *allium ursinum, *ramsons; cnicus palustris, marsh plume-thistle; *tussilago farfara, *colt’s foot. - In the Bishop of Kildare’s woods, festuca sylvatica, slender wood fescue grass; bromus erectus, upright brome grass; bromus asper, wood brome grass; *rumex sanguineus, *red-veined dock. - In the adjacent old quarries, *convolvulus arvensis, *small bind weed; *daucus carota, *wild carrot; oegopodium podagraria, herb gerarde; *pimpinella saxifraga; *common burnet saxifrage; *trfolium procumbens, *hop trefoil. - In shady places, *glechoma hederacea, *ground ivy.

In the corn fields, *brassica campestris, *wild naven; *sinapis arvensis, *wild mustard; *raphanus raphanistrum, *wild radish; *galeopsis tetrahit, *common hempnettle. - On the road sides, *potentilla reptans, *creepmg cinquefoil; *senebiera coronopus, *swine’s cress; *cardamine hirsuta, *hairy ladies’ smock; *sisymbrium iris, *London wild rocket, so called, because it was [356] supposed to have been generated about London by the great fire in 1666; *bromus mollis, *soft brome grass, the common offspring of bad husbandry and exhausted soils; *bromus sterilis, *barren brome grass; *avena pubescens, downy oat grass; hordeum murinum, *wall barley, a plant, which, when it intrudes in upland grass fields, is most destructive, and the hay in such cases is almost rejected by cattle, as the sharp spines that constitute the beard attach themselves to the mouth of the animal, causing irritation and pain, and teaze the beast, instead of nourishing him; *galium verum, *yellow bedstraw; *equisetum arvense, *corn horse-tail; *centaurea nigra, *black knapweed; *arum maculatum, *cuckow pint. - On the banks of the river, between Glasnevin and Drumcondra, *vinca major, *greater periwinkle: and, on the ditches between this and Finglas Bridge, *campanula trachelium, *nettle-leaved bell flower; *vinca major, *greater periwinkle; *torilis anthriscus, *upright hedge parsley; rubus glandulosus, glandular bramble.

At the city side of the village are

The Botanic Gardens

of the Royal Dublin Society, a most interesting object, situated where was once the demesne of Tickell the poet, the literary executor of Addison, and who came to Ireland as his assistant, when he was secretary to the Earl of Sutherland in 1714. In 1725 Tickell was himself appointed secretary, an office which he filled until his death in 1740. This place was purchased, [357] subject to a ground rent, for the sum of £2,000, from his representatives, for the scientific objects to which it is devoted.

The entrance lodges and connecting gates were erected by a donation of £700 from Mr. Pleasants. and are very handsome. The gardens and their appendages occupy a space of 30 acres the river Tolka forming a sweeping boundary at one side They stand on limestone gravel with a very thin covering of soil, and are enriched with almost every known species of flowers, shrubs, trees, and plants, arranged in their proper classes, and also contain a curious collection of exotics, preserved in glass-houses heated to the temperature of their respective constitutions. “One of these,” says the present able Professor of Botany, Doctor Litton, in a letter which he has communicated on the subject, “has been enlarged, and exhibits one of the most beautiful groups of the vegetable forms that can be seen. Many valuable herbaceous plants,” he adds, “and some beautiful trees have recently been introduced into the open ground, which, it is hoped, will, in a few years, add as much to the scientific value as to the picturesque beauty of the garden.”

Doctor Wade may be said to have been the founder of this establishment. He drew up a memorial to the Irish parliament, upon which various sums have been granted for the object, and acts passed for its maintenance and regulation from the 30th to the 38th year of the reign of George the Third. Certainly no institution could have been devised [358] more important, in a medical and agricultural view, than this colony of plants and flowers. Its utility had been long previously experienced in Sweden, where, with a climate and soil so unfavourable, by the philosophy of Linnaeus’s botanical garden, they naturalized a greater variety of trees, shrubs, corn, and grasses, than has been effected in most of the southern climates.

“The plants,” says Cromwell, in his excursions through Ireland, “are tastefully subdivided into compartments, insulated in green swards, and communicating by pathways, the intervals being filled with scattered shrubs, so that, while the most regular classification is actually preserved, and all the series follow in such succession, that the most minute can be immediately found, the whole presents an appearance of unstudied yet beautiful confusion.” The arrangement and contents of the entire grounds may be conceived from the following detail, as chiefly supplied by Doctor Litton.

I. Hortus Linnaeensis,

divided into *plantae herbaceae and fructicetum et arboretum, *comprising not less than six acres, and situated in the centre of the grounds, admirably illustrating the system of the great naturalist whose name it bears.

2. Hortus Britannicus,

affords an extensive collection of plants indigenous in the British islands.

[359]

3. Hortus Esculentus,

devoted to the experimental cultivation of such plants as are adapted to culinary purposes, and subdivided into those used for their roots, stalks or leaves, flowers, fruit or seeds, or for their leguments or pods. “This department,” says Doctor Litton, “has been latterly much improved, and an orchard added, containing a good collection of the hardy fruit trees, with most of their important varieties.""

4 Hortus Medicus,

containing every plant considered to possess medical properties.

5. Hortus Rusticus,

subdivided into natural and artificial grasses

6. Aquarium Lacustre et Palustre,

a comparatively recent addition. A sheet of water 200 yards in length, but of irregular breadth, has been obtained by excavating the bank of the Tolka, and admitting its water into a little pond covered with aquatics, as are its swampy shores with marsh plants and heaths. American pines and other natives of a transatlantic soil flourish on the banks of this interesting aquarium and of another, yet more modern, filled by the hydraulic machine hereafter mentioned.

7. Cryptogamia.

The results in this division of the garden have not [360] been Commensurate with the expectations originally formed, although the spot selected, being a bank descending rapidly to the river, and studded with high trees to an actually gloomy degree, appears as adapted to the natural propensities of this tribe of plants, as any that could be chosen.

8. Flower Garden,

not remarkable either for the beauty or variety of its productions.

9. Hot Houses and Conservatories for Exotics.

The contents of this department are no less remarkable for variety than beauty: the Cactus Grandiflora, which blows only in the night, and the Domboeia or Pine of Norfolk Island, which, in its native soil, attains the altitude of 200 feet, are, perhaps, the most deserving of remark. A dome has been constructed round the latter, capable of any degree of elevation to which the plant can rise.

The appearance of the grounds and arrangement of the plants have latterly undergone some advantageous alteration. An hydraulic engine has been constructed for raising water from the river for the use of the grounds; many new walks have been formed, and the old reduced so as to afford more space for cultivation; and rock work has also been formed in many parts, for exhibiting the species appropriated to this class of stations. A spot, called the Mill Field, on the north side of the river Tolka, has been recently [361] connected with these gardens, partially planted with willows as a salicetum, and otherwise employed for agricultural purposes. The Professor’s house, which contains the botanical lecture room, and which was the residence of Tickell, happily remains unchanged. The annual expense of supporting these gardens has been stated as varying from £1,500 to £2,000 per annum, including salaries to the Professor, superintendent, two assistants, 12 gardeners, six apprentices, rent, and casual expenditure for alterations, repairs, the purchase of plants, tools, &c. &c.

There is” not a scene in the vicinity of Dublin more instructively pleasing than this. Even he, who ~s unlearned in the science of botany, must admire the beautiful arrangement of the grounds, - the charming undulations, - the fairy glens, - the mounts, - the rock works appropriately furnished, - the ponds and their lovely aquatic occupants - the fountain, - the river walk, terminating in that traditionally marked as Adison’s favourite, and where Tickell is said to have composed his ballad of Colin and Lucy; - the clumps of venerable elms, - the solemn rookery, - the vistas of the city and the bay, and above all the monitory watch towers of that adjacent city of the dead,

Prospect Cemetery.

And well indeed may the visiter, who treads the mazes of its monuments, deem it a city of the dead. Already, though only open about four years, it is said to contain upwards of 16,000 bodies. It comprises [362] rises nine British acres, handsomely planted and laid out with gravel walks, having in the centre a chapel, where prayers are offered for the deceased there interred, while at each corner of the ground is a watch tower, in which guards are nightly kept to prevent the violation of the graves. The Botanic Gardens, living with the beauties of the vegetable creation, and animated by the human groups that frequent them, form at one side a boundary of such striking contrast to this magazine of mortality, as cannot but affect the most thoughtless visitant. There all is laughing, life, and joyous hope, - here lies the youth, once happy too, who looked as confidently to a sunny future - this world is now closed above him. Here the ambition, that possibly in life would have wept to he bounded even by the widest speculations, is straitened in a narrow sodded pit; the pride, that dazzled in its days of nature, is coldly wrapt* *in the mouldering winding sheet; the worm is nurtured in the cheek whose smile was once so joyfully attractive; the infant, whose lisp was a parent’s best prized eloquence, lies cradled in the premature embrace of death. The lovers, the friends, the relatives that worshipped each other through life, now haply slumber side by side, yet know no reciprocity of feeling, no touch of sympathy, no pulse of kindred. If to all those natural reflections the visiter superadds the holiness of solitude and magic of moonlight, they cannot fail to inspire the most chastening reflections, and, like the wand of the prophet, draw tears from the most flinty heart.

[363] The effect of the scene is, however, impaired by the arithmetical gradations of the burial compartments, which are arranged according to the fees paid, and yet more by the letters and figures that mark the walls and tombstones, referring the inquirer, as by longitude and latitude, to the registry of every individual grave.

The road here passes over the

The Royal Canal,

a line of inland navigation, which commences about a mile beyond this point. It was constituted under the 29 Geo. III. c. 33; the 30 Geo. III. c. 20; 32 Geo. III. c. 26; 38 Geo. III. cs. 54 & 79; 43 Geo. III. (Loc. & Pers.) c. xxii; 53 Geo. III. c. 101; 55 Geo.. III. c. 182; and 58 Geo. III. c. 35; and, having been carried far into the county of Westmeath by the original company, was, on their failure, completed to the Shannon at the expense of government. Throughout its course it is 42 feet wide at the surface, 24 at the bottom, and has locks and a depth of water calculated for boats of from 40 to 50 tons burden. At its extremity beyond Phibsborough, there is an extensive basin, entered by an aqueduct, for the use of the boats trading on the line, while at the entrance of that village, a branch communicates with the river Liffey by sea-locks, capable of admitting ships of 150 tons burden.

From the point where these two cuts unite, this line of navigation passes inland near Castleknock, [304] Lucan, and Leixlip, and crosses the Rye, one of the Liffey’s tributaries, on an aqueduct of one arch, supporting a vast body of earth, on the summit of which the canal and trackways pass at an elevation of near 100 feet above the river. It next visits Carton, Maynooth, and Kilcock, crosses the Boyne on a plain but elegant aqueduct of three arches, passes near Kinnegad, encompasses Mullingar, thence by Coolnahay and Ballinacarrig, and in the neighbourhood of Ballymahon, into the Shannon at Tarmonbarry.

Crossing this canal, and leaving at left a strip of land, anciently called “Glasmanogue,” the tourist ,enters the populous village of

Ch. 10. Phibsborough.