The Fish-Shamble-Street - St. John's-Lane - Copper-Alley - Saul's-Court.

**Chapter 2.

The Fish-Shamble-Street - St. John’s-Lane - Copper-Alley - Saul’s-Court.**

Fish-Shamble-Street - so called from having been the place where fish was, in early times, exposed for sale to the citizens is styled in ancient documents “Vicus Piscariorum,” “Le Fishemel Stret,” “Le Fyschamlys,” or the “Fish Street.”

Cambrensis, in the 12th century, notices the great abundance of fish on all the coasts, and in the lakes and rivers of Ireland; and in the year 1356 we find the Government prohibiting, under penalty of imprisonment, the sale of fish anywhere in the city except in the shambles, and at a proper hour of the day. The forestalling of fish was carried to such an extent at this period by dealers, - described as “forstallatores, privati mercatores, broggatores,” and others called “braggers and loders,” - that the citizens were obliged to pay exorbitantly for it on fast-days; to remedy which the King appointed four Commissioners to supervise the various harbours from Holmpatrick to Dublin, and to take special care all fish was forwarded for sale direct to the Fish shambles; they were, moreover, empowered to enter the houses of suspected persons, and to imprison such as were found guilty of forestalling fish. Down to the commencement of the 17th century, the buildings on the Western side of Fishamble-street did not extend Southwards beyond St. John’s Church, which, being consequently considered as forming portion of the Skinners’ Row, or “Bothe Street,” is frequently styled in medieval documents the Church of St. John the Evangelist, of “Bothe Stret,” or “del Bowe Stret.” This name appears to have arisen from the street having been originally comprised of booths, styled *Bothes *in the English of the 14th century, a name explained by Tyndall as signifying “houses made of bowes;” which is further confirmed by the remarks contained in the proceedings of the Privy Council, in 1630, with the parish of St. John, which state that “antientlie there was a fish-market in Fishamble-street, and that the shambles occupied by the fish-venders were not houses, but “voyde buildings,” or booths. The lower portion of the present line of street, stretching to the Wood Quay, was anciently called “St. Tullock’s-lane,” from the church of St. Olaf, Corruptly styled St. Tullock, which stood close to it at the end of Fishamble-street. Among the relics of the convent of the Holy Trinity, Dublin, was preserved a portion of the clothes of St. Olaf, King and national Saint of Norway, patron of this church, which was a rectory in connexion with the monastery of St. Augustin, at Bristol; and in documents of the 15th century the parish is styled that of “St. Olave the King.”

St. John’s Church, Originally dedicated to St. John the Baptist, but subsequently transferred to St. John the Evangelist, appears to have been originally founded by a native Irishman named Giolla Michell, the son of Giolla Muire, by whom it was conferred, before the close of the 12th century, upon the priory of the Holy Trinity. An ecclesiastical taxation, levied about 1294, states that St. John’s was then unable to support any burthen; but in 1306 the church was valued at one hundred shillings per annum.

In 1350, a license in mortmain was granted by Edward III, permitting Richard Knight, chaplain, to assign one dwelling house in the parish of St. John to the parson and inhabitants of that parish, for the enlargement of the parish church, and for the erection of a new chapel in honour of the Virgin Mary; in which, by their Charter, granted in 1417, the Corporation of Tailors were authorized to found a chauntry, for which the church received an annual rent of twenty shillings, which continued to be paid until the present century; and the escutcheon of the guild is still suspended in the church.

In 1530 the church of St. Olaf was taxed with an annual payment of twelve pence to the Archbishop; and Dr. Alan, about the same period, notices that it was insufficient for the support of a chaplain; accordingly, the institution was dissolved and suppressed in the reign of Henry VIII., and Sir Anthony St. Leger and the Council united the parish to that of St. John, to which was also granted the property of the old church, particularized as follows in a Concordatum dated 10th February, 1589:-

“The churche of St. Tullocks, 13s. 4d.

The preests chamber 13s. 2d.

A parcell of land called Brownyston Harriston, in the county of Meath, per ann 20s’. Irish.

A garden lyenge without Darrisgate in the cittye of Dublin 4s’. Irish.

One messuage or house in Oxmanton, per ann., 10s.

A house withe the appurtenances upon the Wood-key, per ann 26s. 8d.

One other house on the Wood Key, per ann.,  26s. 8d.

One other lease of Collyes house in the Castle strete, per ann., 25s. 8d.

A writer in the year 1587 mentions St. Tullock’s as being then converted to profane uses, and adds, that “in this church,” in old time, the familie of the Fitz Simons was for the most part buried. The paroch was meared from the Crane castell to the fish shambles, called the Cockhill, with Preston his innes, and the lanes thereto adjoining, which scope is now united to Saint John, his paroch.”

James I., in 1612, granted to Christopher Bysse, Esq., “the Rectory, Church or Chapel of St. Olave, otherwise St.Tullock’s, with the site and churchyard, and two houses or stables built there.”

Notwithstanding these grants, the parish of St. Olaf is frequently referred to in legal documents of the 17th century; and so late as 1702 the churchwardens of St. John’s leased to Alice Dermot, at eight pounds per annum, “an ancient house, called the Priest’s Chamber of St. Olave’s, alias St. Toolog’s, situate in Fishamble-street,” the lessee undertaking to erect a new house on its site.

The church of St. John, rebuilt by Arland Ussher in the 16th century, seems to have been made prebendal by Archbishop Browne in 1544; but the charter of James I., in 1604, specially names and appoints Barnabas Boulger the first “canonical prebendary” of St. John’s.

A document of 1589 notices that the “parishioners of St. John’s were than greatly increasing, and that the Church needed to be supplied with helpes for the enlargement of the quyere and other necessarie and nedefull employments.”

Among various disbursements for the repairs of the church in 1622, we find the following items:-” Paid to Quyne the joiner for setting up the King’s-arms in the chancell, 20s. Paid for three yards of green broad-cloth for a carpet for the communion-table, besides 17s. John the sexton collected of the parishioners, 20s. Paid for a pulpit cloth of brown velvet tawny, with a silk fringe, 50s. Paid to the plasterer for writing the armes and colouring the same, 10s.;” and in 1639 £65 10s.was contributed towards building a steeple and setting up a ring of bells.

A report in 1639 states the annual value of the benefice to be £60, and that “the church is in good reparation and decencie,” adding, that “the most of the parishioners arc Protestants, and duly frequent their parish church, yet there are great store of Papists there.”

The churchwardens, in 1633, granted the Prebend a residentiary house in Fishamble-street, which was confirmed by the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church, and by letters patent, dated 9th April, in the ninth year of Charles I.

John Atherton, subsequently appointed Bishop of Water-ford, was Prebend of this church from 1630 to 1635, and on the 5th of December, 1640, the night of his execution, he was buried, “according to his desire, in the remotest or obscurest:part of the yard belonging to St. John’s Church.”

Atherton was succeeded as Prebendary of St. John’s by Hugh Cressy, who officiated here till appointed Dean of Leighlin in 1638. He subsequently became a convert to ‘the Roman Catholic religion, and distinguished himself as a controversial writer.

At a synod, held in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1639, Albert Skinner was sentenced to stand under the pulpit in St. John’s Church during service; and the parochial registry, which commences in 1619, contains “the names of the poor English, who, having fled to this citie for refuge, and dyed in the parish of St. John’s, were buried since 30 December, 1641;” also, “a catalogue of the poor souldiers who were buried in St. John’s since 24 April, 1642.”

In 1680 the parish resolved, “that the church of St. John was in great decay,” and that they thought “it fit to be pulled down so far as there was absolute necessity, and that it should be rebuilt with all convenient speed.” Samuel Rothery and Michael Cook, the undertakers of the building, were bound by their contract to take down with due care all the old monuments in the church, for the replacing of which, however, no stipulation was made; and Thomas Bladen, the Prebendary, took possession of the monument of Lord Roper, “in satisfaction of arrears to him due for the standing of the said monument.” The rebuilding of the church having been completcd in 1682, a vestry, held on the 14th of June of that year, resolved that, “it being thought and adjudged necessary, for the honnor and creditt of the parish, that (whereas the said parish church being repaired or new built, must be restored according to the laws and customs ecclesiasticall) an handsome dinner or treat be made for the entertainment of the Lord Archbishop and others the orders and persons thereabout concerned, and some few of the parishioners, with the churchwardens, to attend at such treat or dinner, at the charge of the said parish, and out of the stock thereof. Be it enacted, as hereby it is enacted, that the expense thereof be paid or laid out by the churchwardens out of the parish stock, and be allowed them on their accounts.” Accordingly, the sum of £5 11s. 10d. is entered as “paid for a consecration dinner,” and the accounts also include the following items;- Paid John Winery for the sun-dial and cutting, £1 5s.; Mr. Carney, for guilding and finishing the sun-dials, £2 6s.; for painting and guilding St John’s picture, 10s.; for silk and silver fringe, taffaty, flocks, leather, and making the pulpitt-cushion and sixteene other cushions for the Church, £2 13s. 6d.”

James Bonnell, the religious Accountant-General, was interred in St. John’s churchyard in 1699, his funeral sermon having been preached by Edward Wetenhall, Bishop of Kilmore. Among the parochial records is preserved a bond in £30, by Thomas Newman, clockmaker, to the churchwardens of St. John’s, in 1704, for keeping in order “one watch with two dyalls,” set up by him on the east side of the church.

In the early part of the last century certain guilds used to assemble here on the festivals of their patrons, whence, having heard a sermon preached for the occasion, they marched in procession to dine at some public tavern.

The church, however, fell to decay towards the middle of the last century, and the parishioners being unable to defray the expense of rebuilding it, the Irish Parliament, in 1763, granted a sum of £1,000 for the erection of the present edifice, which contains neither monuments nor remains of antiquity.

An ancient Breviary belonging to this parish is now preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, where also is deposited a series of parochial documents, the earliest of which is a grant in 1249, from William Cumin to Geoffrey de St. Audoen, of his land in Dublin, lying between the ground of Almer Le Wilde and that of Jordan the smith.

The area of St. John’s parish is 11 acres, three roods, 16 perches, and contained in 1851 296 houses, and 3,483 inhabitants.

St. John’s-lane, extending from the southern side of St. John’s Church to Cock-hill, was, in the 16th century, mainly occupied by wine-taverns and vintners’ cellars, many of which are described as located under Christ Church, from the Dean and Chapter of which they were held. In 1548 the Cathedral leased to Arland Ussher, merchant, the “wine-tavern under the said church, which the said Arland then enjoyed.” In 1590 George Thornton, Captain of the “King’s ship,” obtained a lease of a house in St. John’s-lane, wherein Richard Donnogh, merchant, dwelled; and we find a demise in 1594 to Richard Ussher, in consideration of four pounds English, of “a wyne-tavern cellar under the church, with the house and bawne thereto belonging.” In a parochial assessment for 1626 the following wine-cellars in this lane are enumerated:- Mr. Malone, for his cellar; Mr. Kennedy, for the “Dragon” cellar; Mr. Thomas Coleman, for the “Redd Stagge;” Mr. Mapas, for the “Redd Lyon;” Alderman Doude for his house and cellar; Mr. Segrave, for the “Starr” cellar. In 1629 we find here the “cellar called Hell,” the “Shipp” cellar and house, kept by Matthew Dillon, and Mr. Malone’s cellar, styled the “Half-moon.” At the same period Thomas White rented, at five shillings yearly, “a place near the church in St. John’s-lane called the Priest’s Chamber.”

Various butchers, in the 17th century, erected stalls against the walls of the church in St John’s-lane; but in 1682 several of these buildings on its eastern side were pulled down, having been presented as a nuisance by the Court of King’s Bench, and the parochial authorities made an order that no stalls nor shops should be thereafter erected against the church. A tennis-court, kept in this lane from the time of James I., has of late been converted into a timber-yard. Close to St John’s Church, in a recess named “Deanery Court,” stands the house erected for the Deans of Christ Church, in which died, in 1742, Thomas Morecraft, the “Will Wimble” of the “Spectator,” whose family appears to have been connected with the parish, the register of which records that John Morecraft was buried in St. John’s on the 26th September, 1648. In 1770 the Exchequer Office was removed from Castle-street to this building, which, after passing through various changes, was, in 1842, converted into a parochial school by the Rev. E. S. Abbott.

The large house on the immediate right of the entrance into “Deanery Court” was, towards the middle of the last century, the residence of an apothecary named Johnson, whose two sons, Robert and William, were successively elevated to the Irish Bench. “Old Mr. Johnson, the father of these two gentlemen, when upwards of 60, procured,” says Barrington, “a diploma as physician, to make the family genteeler. He was a decent, orderly, good kind of apothecary, and a very respectable, though somewhat ostentatious, doctor, and, above all, a good orthodox, hard-praying Protestant.”

In Fishamble-street resided Christopher Ussher, Ulster King-at-Arms, 1588-1597; Str Dudley Norton, Principal Secretary of State, 1612-1615; Sir Edward Fisher, 1621; William Dongan, Recorder of Dublin, who died in 1622; Sir Thomas Cary, 1629; and Sir Thomas Ryves, King’s Advocate to Charles I., author of “Regiminis Anglicani in Hibernia Defensio,” and who, after having distinguished himself as a writer, took up arms in his old age, and received many severe wounds in the Royal cause. In this street was also the residence of Sir Francis Annesley, created a baronet in 1620, being the second in Ireland on whom that title was conferred; in 1628 he was advanced to the dignity of Baron of Mount Norris, by which name he is better known in history. During the Earl of Strafford’s administration Annesley was tried by a council of war, and condemned to death, for an unguarded expression uttered in the presence chamber of the Castle. The King’s letter, in 1636, informs us that “it had been held fit to cause his stuffy door to be sealed up by the Committee, who have the cognizance of that business; and it is likewise conceived that the view and perusal of his papers may be of use.” He remained a close prisoner in the Castle until a royal pardon was granted to him in 1637. His son Arthur, born in. Fishamble-street in 1614, and baptized in St John’s Church, became a member of the Oxford Parliament in 1643, was deputed as Commissioner into Ulster in 1645, under the great seal of England, and was the chief of the party to whom the Marquis of Ormond surrendered Dublin in 1647. In 1670 he was chosen President of the new Council of State, having had a considerable share in bringing about the Restoration, for which, in 1661, he was rewarded with the title of Earl of Anglesey. So great was his influence at that time that he was said to have declined the post of Prime Minister of England. He sat in judgment on the regicides, and was one of the three Commissioners appointed to report concerning the settlement of Ireland: after which, in 1673, he was advanced to the great office of Lord Privy Seal, and died in 1686. Several of his writings are extant; but his history of the affairs of Ireland during his own times is supposed to have been destroyed, as it revealed unpleasant facts, Anglesey, through life, having been noted for boldly expressing his manly and liberal sentiments. He was the first nobleman in Great Britain who formed a large library, which, although intended to remain in his family, was sold by auction soon after his death. This sale was rendered remarkable by the discovery in the Earl’s collection of his autograph note in a copy of the “Eikon Basilike,” asserting that book to be the composition of Dr. Ganden, a statement which has caused much literary disputation.

Sir James Ware, Auditor-General, and father of the learned writer of the same name, died suddenly as he was walking through Fishamble-street in 1632. The Irish House of Commons, in 1634, ordered one William Gowran, who had affronted one of their members, to be carried presently to the Sheriffs of Dublin, who were required to cause him to be presently whipped in Fishamble-street, where the offence was committed.

“In August, 1649,” says a local writer of the 17th century, “Oliver Cromwefl came with his army into Ireland, and brought over with him one Netterville, a Romish priest, supposed to be a Jesuit, who at his first coming to Dublin obtained a billet to quarter on Matthew Nulty, merchant tailor, then living in Fishamble-street, near the Conduit, where-on the pillory then stood, signed by Oliver’s own hand. Nulty, wanting convenience in his then dwelling-house, furnished a room in an empty house of his next adjoining for Mr. Netterville; where he had not lodged many days but Nathaniel Foulks (captain of the city militia, who lived at the Horseshoe in Castle-street) came to Nulty, and challenged him for entertaining a priest who daily said mass in his house. Nulty (being surprised at this news) declared it was more than he knew; and therefore he speedily acquainted Netterville with what the captain said; whereto he replied, ‘I am so, and my Lord General knows it; and tell all the town of it, and that I am here, and will say mass every day.’ This Netterville was Oliver Cromwell’s great companion, and dined frequently with him. He was of the family of Lord Netterville of Ireland, a great scholar, and delighted much in music.

The hero of the above anecdote appears to have been Nicholas Netterville, son of the first viscount of that name. He taught philosophy in France for many years with great credit and was esteemed one of the best speakers and divines among the Irish Jesuits. Father Netterville took a prominent part in the debates relative to the adoption of the Irish Remonstrance in 1666, at which period he is noticed as having been in the habit of going through Dublin dressed as a cavalier, with a sword by his side. He was appointed chaplain to the Duke of Tyrconnell when Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and died shortly afterwards at Dublin, where he had been Superior of the Jesuits.

Arnold Boate, M.D., brother to the author of “Ireland’s Natural History,” resided in Fishamble-street in 1643, as did Anthony Gratan, or MacGratan, appointed churchwarden of St. John’s in 1641, and apparently the predecessor of Dr. Patrick Grattan, whose grandson, James Grattan, was also a resident in this street.

Dr. Patrick Grattan, admitted a Senior Fellow of the University of Dublin in 1660, is described as a venerable and well-beloved clergyman, the father of seven sons, to all of whom he gave a liberal education, and, at the same time, says Dr. Delany, “as I have often heard the old Bishop of Clogher declare, kept hospitality beyond both the lords who lived on either side of him; though both reputed hospitable. One of these brothers was an eminent physician, another an eminent merchant, who died Lord Mayor of the city of Dublin: the youngest was first a Fellow of the College of Dublin, and after master of the great Free School at Enniskillen. The eldest was a justice of the peace, who lived reputably upon his patrimony in the country. The three other brothers were clergymen of good characters, and competently provided for in the Church. Two of them Swift found in his cathedral; nothing was more natural than that he should cultivate an acquaintance with them. A set of men as generally acquainted, and as much beloved, as any one family in the nation. Nay, to such a degree, that some of the most considerable men in the Church desired, and thought it a favour to be adopted by them, and admitted *Grattans.”

• “*The Grattans had a little house, and their cousin Jackson another, near the city, where they cultivated good humour and cheerfulness, with their trees, and fruits, and sallets: (for they were all well skilled in gardening and planting) and kept hospitality, after the example of their fathers. The opinion which Swift had of the Grattans will best be judged of by the following little memoir:- When Lord Carteret Came to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant, Swift asked him, Pray, my *Lord, *have you the honour to be acquainted with the Grattans? Upon my Lord’s answering that he had not that honour; Then, pray, my Lord, take care to obtain it, it is of great consequence: the Grattans, my Lord, can raise 10,000 men.” The hospitality of the family is chronicled in one of Dr. Sheridan’s poems, commencing,

“My time, O ye Grattans, was happily spent

When Bacchus went with me, wherever I went;

For then I did nothing but sing, laugh, and jest;

Was ever a toper so merrily blest!”

James Grattan, who continued to reside in Fishamble-street till 1757, was appointed King’s Counsel in 1747; and his son, the famous Henry Grattan, was baptized in St John’s Church on the 3rd of July, 1746.

On the Western side of the street stood “Molesworth,” court,” so called from having been the residence of Robert Molesworth, the first of that family who settled in Dublin, where he became a merchant, after having served in the wars of 1641 under his brother Guy; and by making subscriptions to the amount of £1,500, he obtained an allotment of 2,500 acres in the baronies of Moghergallin and Lune, county of Meath, Having acquired the confidence of Government, he was appointed in 1653 to take subscriptions for the relief of the poor of Dublin; and in the same year, the Surveyors of the revenue and stores were ordered to contract with him for the cloth and necessary materials for a thousand tents. “Also, the inconveniences attending the public, and the many sufferings and losses of the merchants, by the want of stationed ships to serve all public occasions on the coast, being very great, the Commissioners sought to redress them; and to that end, in 1654, agreed with Mr. Molesworth for the victualling, from time to time, such ships at Dublin as should be designed for that service, with provisions of all sorts, both for quality and price, as the victuallers did the Protector’s ships in England; the Commissioners having often experienced the greatest want of ships of force here to arise from their frequent retiring to Chester, Liverpool or elsewhere, to victual, where they generally lay for a long time, pretending the want of wind to come from thence: to prevent which they took that course for their present victual on any emergent occasions, and he contracted with them to supply 200 men aboard the *Wren *Pink, the *Greyhound, *and other frigates, appointed for guard of the Irish coast.”

Here, in 1656, was born his son, Robert Molesworth, Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of Denmark in 1692, one of the earliest advocates of civil and religious liberty, and the friend and associate of Locke; Shaftesbury, and Molyneux. His “Account of Denmark” was first published in 1694, in which year it went through three editions, and has since been translated into most of the European languages. “Lord Molesworth’s Account of the Revolution in Denmark,” says Horace Walpole, “totally overturned the constitution of that country, and is one of our standard books.”

From the press of John Harding of Molesworth-court, publisher of the “Dublin News Letter,” issued in 1724 Swift’s fabulous “Drapier’s Letters,” which arrested the ruin with which Ireland was threatened by the English ministers, who, for the enrichment of a courtesan, and with the design of insidiously undermining the liberties of this kingdom, endeavoured to oblige the Irish people to receive, as current copper coin, the base money manufactured by William Wood of Staffordshire.

Harding became the victim of a Government prosecution for publishing the “Drapier’s Letters,” and was cast into prison, where he died. His sufferings have been chronicled in a poem entitled “Harding’s Resurrection from Hell upon Earth,” which says that

“He’s brought to such a wretched pass

He’d almost take the English brass.”

A contemporary Dublin song, unknown to Swift’s editors, and entitled “A Poem to the whole People of Ireland, relating to M. B. Drapier, by A. R. Hosier, printed on the Blind Key by Elizabeth Sadleir, 1726, contains some particulars relative to Harding, and tells us that -

“To hearten him the Drapier sent to him in jail,

To tell him, he’d quickly get home to his wife;

But scarce could he find one to stand for his bail,

Which struck to his heart, and deprived him of life.

He left, with his widow, two children behind,

And little, God help her! to keep them from starving;

But hop’d, for the Drapier’s sake, friends she would find,

Or that for his own merit they’d think her deserving.

But, now for the widow; if some good man wou’d preach,

In her favour, a sermon, scarce one in the town,

But freely (in order to help her) wou’d reach,

Some, sixpence, a shilling, and some, half-a-crown.”

Harding’s widow, Sarah, was ordered by the House of Lords to be taken into custody, in October, 1725, for having printed a poem named “Wisdom’s Defeat” which, commenting on some circumstances connected with the passing of the address to the King from the House of Lords, was by them declared to be “base, scandalous, and malicious, highly reflecting upon the honour of their House, and the Peerage of this Kingdom.” The sheriffs of the city of Dublin were ordered to direct “the said scandalous pamphlet to be burnt by the hands of the common hangman; and that they see the same done between the hours of twelve and one, before the gate of the Parliament House, and also before the Tholsel of the city.” The persecuted distributrix of political satire survived her imprisonment, and, in 1728, published the “Intelligencer,” a journal conducted by Swift and Dr. Sheridan.

The prison of the Four Courts Marshalsea was subsequently kept in “Molesworth-court,” and while confined here in 1750, W. R. Chetwood issued a collection of old English plays; and his “Life of Ben Jonson” was published in 1756, “for the author, at the green door, at the entrance to the Four Courts Marshalsea.” From the same prison Hugh Maffett of the Middle Temple, dates his English version of the “Catiline and Jugurthine of Sallust,” published at Dublin in 1772. In the dedication of his work to Francis Charles Viscount Glerawly, Maffett observes, for “errors of the press and other casual irregularities, I plead the compassion of my friends, for I did not write in the soft lap of retirement and peace, but amidst all the inconveniences of a prison, in sickness and sorrow, and while the calls of the day were still echoing in my ears.” This gaol having fallen to decay, the Marshalsea of the Four Courts was, in 1777, removed from “Molesworth-court,” which is now a heap of ruins.

Towards the close of the reign of Charles II., the General Post Office of Dublin was transferred from High-street to Fishamble-street. A proclamation of James II., dated from the Castle of Dublin, 30th November, 1689, states that complaints had been made by the Postmaster-General of Ireland, that divers abuses had been committed by several couriers and others riding post, and by some other persons who presumed to open the post-mails and letters, and that several Postmasters been disabled from keeping horses and servants sufficient for their purpose, by reason of their being burthened with quartering of soldiers, which, if not remedied, might prove a great hindrance to the King’s service, and a great lessening of the profits of the Post Office. “‘To prevent therefore the like mischiefs for the future, We,” adds the proclamation, “have thought fit, by the advice of our Privy Council, to publish and declare that our will and pleasure is, that no Post-master shall be obliged to furnish any horses for any person or persons whatsoever going from this our city of Dublin to any other part of this kingdom, unless such person or persons have a warrant for that purpose, sign’d by the Duke of Tyrconnell, captain-general of our army, or by one of our secretaryes, or to furnish any horses for any person or persons whatsoever coming from any other part of this kingdom to our said city of Dublin, unless such person or persons have a certificate from the governor or other commander-in-chief of such town or port as he or they do come from, that they are employed in carrying some dispatches that relate to our immediate service. And our further will and pleasure is that all persons whatsoever who shall ride post within this our kingdom, shall pay at the rate of three pence sterling per mile for every horse they shall make use of, which sum they shall pay down at every stage, before they take horse, and that they and every of them (without the consent of the owner) shall not ride the horses they take at one stage any further than to the next post town; where they shall leave them and their bridles and saddles with the post-master there, nor shall they nor any of them ride any other way but the usual and accustomed post rode. And our further will and pleasure is, that no person or persons whatsoever shall presume to open any of the post-mails, or any post-letters, but such as shall be to them directed and delivered out by the several post-masters appointed for that service. And our further will and pleasure is, that no officer or soldier, horse, foot, or dragoon, shall be quarter’d in the house of any postmaster who doth not keep a publick inn or house of entertainment; and that ‘no person whatsoever do take or seize, upon pretence of paying for it or otherwise, any hay, corn, or strawe, that such post-masters shall keep for the use of any of their post-horses; and where any such post-masters do keep any publick inns and stables, they or any of them shall not be over-burthened with the quartering of horse or dragoons, but every one of them shall be always left sufficient stable roome and forage for the number of six horses, to be by them kept for the use of the post. And We,” concludes the King, “do hereby strictly charge and command all our officers, military and civil, and all other our loving subjects whatsoever, that they and every of them be ayding and assisting to the several post-masters in the due execution of these presents, and do seize and apprehend all such persons as they shall finde transgressing in the premises, in order to bring them to justice as disturbers of our peace, and contemners of our royall commands.”

During the Irish wars of the Revolution, the letters were dispatched to Ginkell’s camp from the General Post Office in Fishamble-street, on the nights of Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Next to the Post Office was a mathematical school, kept in 1701 by Solomon Grisdale and Jonathan Hill; and in 1709, after the removal of the Post Office, a newspaper, called the ” Flying Post,” was published in the “old Post Offic eyard.”

The “Crown Tavern” and the “Post Office Coffee House” also stood in this street. Opposite to the former was the office of the “Dublin Mercury,” a newspaper published in 1705; while the latter, having been closed in 1703, was tenanted by Cornelius Carter, the publisher of a large number of tracts and broadsides, which frequently brought him into trouble.

“I next rambled,” says John Dunton in 1698, “to Mr. Carter’s in Fishamble-street; I had but just time to bid Carter adieu, but will say at parting - he’s a genteel, honest printer, is like to marry a beauty: I heartily wish him’ courage, for ‘faint heart never won fair lady;’ and he can’t but conquer, for he’s a witty man, and charms a thousand ways.” The following document connected with Carter illustrates the mode in which “elegies” and “dying speeches” were concocted in the early part of the 18th century

“The Examination of the Revd. Mr. Edwd. Harris of Fishamble-street taken before the HonbleWm. Caulfield; Esqr., one of the Justices of his Majesties Court of Kings Bench.

Who, being duly examined, sayth that on Thursday morning last, being the 24th instant, Cornelius Carter, a printer who lives in Fishamble-street, sent one Sweeny, a servant of his, to this Examt, to desire him to write an Elegy on Col. Henry Lutrell, deceased, that the Examnt. made answer hee could not, being an intire stranger to the life and actions of the said Col. Henry Luttrell, but that if the said Carter would send this Examt. a history of the life and actions of the said Lutrell, he, this Examt, would make an Elegy; that in some short time after the said Sweeny brought a written paper to this Examt, as from the said Carter, to the effect and purport following, vizt., that Henry Lutrell and Symon were brothers, that Symon alwaies stood firm to King James’s cause, went to France with him and died there; that Henry forsook his master, and betrayed a pass near Aghrim, that he was afterwards tried at Limbrick, that Tyrconnell and Sarsfield were of the Court Marshall; that he abused them on his tryal and called them cow-boys; that he had 500 per annum from King William for his good services, and his brother’s estate; that he kept several misses, and disinherited a sonne by a former miss, but left him £3,000; that he declared on his death-bed he was married to his last miss, and left her £300 per annum; that he made Lord Cadogan his executor with others; that he was to be hanged or shott, but was repreived by the suddaine surrender, from that time till Tuesday, the 22d of October, 1717. This Exmt. flirther sayth, that upon the receipt of the said paper, and at the desire of the said Carter, he, this Examt, did compose an Elegy on ye said Col. Henry Lutrell, and sent the same to the said Carter; that the said Carter, as soon as he heard that Col. Lutrell was shott, desired this Examt. in case the said Lutrell died, to make an Elegy on him; and after the said Lutrell died, desired this Examt alsoe to make the said Elegy. Sayth that upon the receipt of said paper from the said Carter, this Examt. delivered the same to two of his scholars, and ordered them to make a coppy of verses on the said Lutrell, which they accordinly did; but the said verses which the scholars made, being soe balde and virrulent, this Exaffit thought them not fitt to be printed, and thereupon this Examt made the said Elegy. Sayth he never made any Elegy before, but one upon the late Bishop of Derry, and never got a penny for writing either; or for teaching the said Carter’s sonne, who is at schoole, with this Examt. The Examt. further sayth that on Thursday night, the 24th instant, he went to Carter’s owne house, to see if the said Elegys were printing; and saw the said Carter at the press working off the said Elegys himself, and further sayth not.

Edwd. Harris. Capt. cor me 300 die Octobris.

1717 W CAULFEILD.

100l to prosecute next terme in Banco Regis.”

Carter, who appears to have been a victim to prosecutions against the press, was attached in 1721 for printing the Lord Lieutenant’s speech to Parliament; and in 1727 he and his wife were imprisoned for publishing some false intelligence relative to Gibraltar.

In Fishamble-street were the “Swan Tavern” (1639), the Ormond’s Arms” (1662), the “Ossory” (1664), and the “Fleece Tavern” (1666). The locality of the latter, on the western side of the street, is still indicated by “Fleece-alley,” which, in the last century, was chiefly occupied by velvet eavers, man of whom were distinguished for the beauty and richness of the fabrics which they manufactured.

Here, in the reign of Charles I., was the “London Tavern,” which in 1667 is described as “a timber house slated, a base court, a back building more backward, and a small garden in Fishamble-street.” In this tavern was the office of Joseph Darner, a noted usurer, who in a contemporary elegy is described as follows:-

“He walk’d the streets, and wore a threadbare cloak;

He” dined and supp’d at charge of other folk;

And by his looks, had he held out his palms,

He might be thought an object fit for alms.

So, to the poor if he refused his pelf,

He used them full as kindly as himself.

Where’er he went, he never saw his betters;

Lords, knights, and squires, were all his humble debtors.

And under hand and seal, the Irish nation

Were forced to owe to him their obligation.

Oh! London Tavern, thou hast lost a friend,

Though in thy walls he ne’er did farthing spend;

He touched the pence when others touch’d the pot;

The hand that sign’d the mortgage paid the shot.”

Little has hitherto been generally known of the history of this remarkable individual, although his wealth and the extent of “Darner’s estate” have long been proverbial in Ireland. Born in 1630, he early entered the service of the Parliament, and was advanced to the command of a troop of horse by the Protector, who selected him on two occasions to transact secret negotiations with Cardinal Mazarin. On Cromwell’s death Darner, retired to his friend Lockhart, then the English Ambassador at the Court of France, and was present at the marriage of Louis XIV. Deeming it unsafe to reside in England after the Restoration, owing to his former connexion with Cromwell, he sold some of his property in the counties of Somerset and Dorset, and, taking advantage of the cheapness of land in Ireland, purchased large estates in this country;

“His whole conduct,” says a writer of the last century; “shows his great abilities and resolution; and so extremely happy was he in constitution that he never felt any sickness till three days before his death, 6th July, 1720, at the great age of 91 years.”

Dying unmarried, he bequeathed his property in Ireland to John, the eldest son of his brother George. It has since passed into the Portarlington family, and would probably never have come into the Incumbered Estates Court if Darner’s heirs had observed the injunctions of their wise relative, who specially desired that they should reside on the lands which he left them in Ireland.

From a Roll of the second year of Queen Anne it appears that Thomas Connor of Dublin, gent., purchased for £80 the “London Tavern in Fishamble-street, with a court and back building, and a slated timber house and garden thereto belonging, demised by Robert Johnson, Esq., to Ignatius Brown, attainted, from May, 1675, at £30 rent.”

The “London Tavern” was kept by Timothy Sullivan, a Kerry man, noted for his kindness to natives of that county, who flocked to him in considerable numbers. The house appears to have been destroyed by a fire which broke out in 1729, in the “London Entry” between Castle-street and Fishamble-street; the greater part of the buildings in those streets and in Copper-alley, close to the back of the “London Entry,” ‘being then composed of timber or “cage-work.”

The iron gate of the passage leading to the old Four Courts of Dublin stood about 10 yards from the present south-west corner of Fishamble-street. The widening of the upper part of the western side of Fishamble-street, and the adjacent alterations, totally obliterated this passage, which was known as “Hell.”

From the year 1563 a branch of the Plunket family resided on the western side of Fishamble-street, in a large cage-work house, bearing on its front two coats of arms - one of Plunket, the other that of Plunket impaled with the escutcheon of his wife. This house, which belonged to the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church, was converted about the commencement of the eighteenth century into the “Bull’s Head Tavern,” kept successively by landlords named Potter, Wood, and Patten. In this establishment, which was one of the most frequented in Dublin, a musical club, called the “Bull’s Head Society,” used to assemble on every Friday evening: the subscription was an English crown each; and after performing a concert the members concluded the night with “catch singing, mutual friendship, and harmony,” the series of musical performances for each year being regulated by a committee. The, annual dinner of the Society was held in December; the season for their entertainments closed in May; and the proceeds were allocated to various laudable purposes. Sometimes they were given to the Dublin Society for premiums; but more generally a committee was appointed to visit the various gaols of the city, and compound for the liberation of the distressed incarcerated debtors, large numbers of whom were thus restored to liberty. For the same charitable object plays were occasionally performed under the superintendence of the Society, which originated from a, club formed about 1710 by Gregory Byrne, a well-educated Dublin shopkeeper, who, with some of his friends, used to assemble for the purpose of performing vocal and instrumental music, under the presidency of Patrick Beaghan, at the sign of the “Cross Keys” in Christchurch-yard, whence the meetings were transferred to the “George” in Fishamble-street; the latter tavern, kept by Mr. Levieu, being suddenly closed, the club assembled for a time at the “Bull’s Head,” but subsequently returned to the “George.” The principal members of the Society at this period were Alderman James Malone, who had been state printer to James II.; Laurence Whyte, teacher of mathematics, and a poet of some merit; John Neal, or O’Neil, music publisher, and his son William.

On Beaghan’s death in 1723, John Neal was chosen president of the club, which was then removed to the “Bear Tavern” in Christ church-yard, where the members organized a plan for discharging the liabilities of confined debtors, and assumed the name of the “Charitable and Musical Society.” The number of members of the club rapidly increased after this period; and many noblemen and commoners of high rank having joined it, the “Bear “‘was found too incommodious for the meetings, which were thence transferred to the “Bull’s Head.” The state of the Society during the presidency of John Neal is thus alluded to by one of the members:-

“While honest Neal the mallet bore,

Who filled the chair in days of yore,

There lawyers met, and eke physicians,

Attorneys, proctors, politicians;

Divines and students from the College,

Men full of speculative knowledge;

Captains and coll’nel’s all in red,

Who in the school of Mars were bred.

Some beaux and prigs, with nice toupees,

With wast-coats lac’d down to their knees;

Some poets, painters, and musicians,

Mechanicks, and mathematicians,

For tradesmen there gave no offence,

When blessed with manners or good sense;

Some gentlemen, some lords and squires,

Some Whigs, and Tories, and Highflyers;

There Papists, Protestants, Dissenters,

Sit cheek by jole, at all, adventures,

And thus united did agree

To make up one Society.

That some drink jill, and others beer,

Was all the schism they had to fear.

The Governor, in elbow chair,

Presided with majestick air,

His mallet, with diffusive sound,

Proclaiming silence all around;

Meanwhile the mug just like the ocean,

Was always in perpetual motion

Several members of the choirs of both cathedrals were connected with the “Bull’s Head” Society and in 1741 the Dean of St. Patrick’s requested his sub dean and Chapter to punish such vicars as should appear at the “Club of Fiddlers in Fishamble-street,! as songsters, fiddlers, pipers, trumpeters drummers, drum-majors, or in any sonal quality, according to the flagitious aggravation of their respective disobedience, rebellion, perfidy, and ingratitude. “I also,” adds Swift “require my sub-dean to proceed to the extremity of expulsion, if the said vicars should be found ungovernable, impenitent, or self-sufficient, especially Taberner, Phipps, and Church, who, as I am informed, have, in violation of my sub-dean’s and Chapter’s order in December last, at the instance of some obscure persons unknown, presumed to sing and fiddle at the club above mentioned.”

In the “Bull’s Head” Tavern, early in the 18th century, the anniversary dinners and banquets of the various guilds and public bodies of the city were generally held, and on such occasions, a congratulatory poem was usually presented to the assembled parties. Many of these documents contain much local information, but being of an exceedingly perishable nature, very few of them have been preserved. One of them, now before us, is printed in red ink on a large sheet of paper, and hears the following title:-” A Poem in honour of the Loyal Society of Journeymen Shoemakers, who are to dine at the Bull’s Head in Fishamble-Street, on Tuesday, October the 28th, 1726, being the anniversary of St. Crispin, written by R. Ashton, S. M., a member of the Society. John Blackwood, Master; Thomas Ashton and William Richardson, Stewards.”

Robert Ashton composed a large quantity of fugitive verses on various local topics, and wrote the well-known play of the “Battle of Aughrim, or the Fall of Monsieur St. Ruth;” relative to the author of which even the Rev. Mr. Graham, by whom it has been lately republished, possessed no information.

The “Bull’s Head” Tavern was also much frequented by the Irish Freemasons, whose history is as yet a total blank. James King, Viscount Kingston, who had been the Grand Master In England in 1729, was in 1730 the first who filled the office of Grand Master of the Irish Freemasons; and in 1731, at the “Bull’s Head” Tavern, on Tuesday, the 6th of April, he was again unanimously chosen and declared Grand Master for the ensuing year. Their records further inform us, that “On Wednesday, 7th of July, 1731, was held a Grand Lodge in ample form. When the Right Worshipful and Right Honourable the Lord Kingston was installed and proclaimed aloud, Grand Master of Masons in Ireland, and was most cheerfully congratulated and saluted in the ancient and proper manner: his Lordship was pleased to appoint Nicholas Nettirvill, Lord Viscount Nettirvill, his Deputy. The Grand Lodge (as is their ancient practice in Ireland) chose the Honourable William Ponsonby, and Dillon Pollard Hampson, Esqrs., for Grand Wardens, who were all declared, congratulated, and saluted.

“Tuesday, 7th of December, 1731. Grand Lodge in ample form. When the Right Worshipful and Right Honourable the Grand Master took the chair, attended by his Deputy and the Grand Wardens, the Right Honourable Thomas Lord Southwell, Sir Seymour Pile, Bart., Henry Plunket, and Wentworth Harman, Esqrs.; with many other brethren of distinction. The journal of the House, and several rules and orders for the better regulation thereof being read, his Lordship was pleased to signify his concurrence thereto, signing them with his name.”

The “Lodge-hall” of the Grand Lodge was held in Fishamble-street in the year 1768, when the Earl of Cavan was elected Grand Master, and the following were appointed officers of the Lodge -George Hart, Deputy Grand Master; John Latouche, Senior Warden; John Jones, SeniorWarden; Holt Waring, Grand Treasurer; and Major Charles Vallancey (afterwards editor of the “Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis”), Grand Secretary.

The members of the Bull’s Head Musical Society having raised sufficient funds by subscription, decided on erecting a hall for the performance of their concerts. This building was executed under the superintendence of Richard Castells, architect of Leinster House and other elegant edifices. On Friday, the 2nd of October, 1741, the Music Hall was opened for the first time, with a concert “for the entertainment of the members of the Charitable and Musical Society;” a ball was held in it on the next night; and fashionable “assemblies” were continued there on every Saturday evening during the season, which commenced in October and terminated in June.

Of the interior of the new Music Hall, the following con-temporary description has been left by one of the members of the Society:-

As Amphion built of old the Theban wall,

So Neal has* *built a sumptuous Musick Hall:

The one, by pow’rful touches of his lute;

The other, by the fiddle and the flute.

Join’d with some others of harmonic sound,

He rais’d this lofty fabric from the ground;

Where heaps of rubbish in confusion stood,

Old walls, old timber, and some rotten wood;

From their old chaos they new forms assume,-

Here stands the Hall, and there the drawing-room,

Adorn’d with all, that workmanship can do

By ornaments and architecture too.

The oblong area runs from east to west,

Fair to behold, but hard to be exprest;

At th’ eastern end the awful throne is plac’d,

With fluted columns and pilasters grac’d,

Fit for the noblest President to rest,

Who likes the arms of Ireland for his crest.

In diff’rent classes, at the western end,

Musicians with their instruments attend;

While they diffuse their harmony around,

The concave arch reverberates the sound.

The architect has here display’d his art,

By decorations proper for each part:

The cornice, dentills, and the curious mould,

The fret-work, and the vaulted roof behold;

The hollow arches, and the bold design,

In ev’ry part with symmetry divine.

There stand fine mirrors to reflect the fair,

Lest they forget themselves, or where they are;

The precious curl and lappets to adjust,

And to remind them that they are but dust.”

Handel, driven by ‘the goddess of dulness to “the Hibernian shore,” arrived in Dublin on the 18th of November, 1741, six weeks after the opening of the Music Hall, and issued the following public notice of his intended performances:-

“At the new Musick Hall in Fishamble-street, on Wednesday next, being the 23rd day of Dec., (1741). Mr. Handel’s Musical Entertainments will be opened, in which will be performed L’Allegro il Penseroso, il Moderato, with two Concertos for several instruments, and a Concerto on the Organ. To begin at 7 o’Clock. Tickets for that night will be delivered to the Subscribers (by sending their Subscription Ticket), on Tuesday and Wednesday next, at the place of Performance, from 9 o’Clock in the Morning till 3 in the afternoon; and attendance will be given this Day and on Monday next, at Mr. Handel’s House in Abby-street near Liffey-street, from 9 o’Clock in the morning till 3 in the afternoon, in order to receive the subscription money, at which time each Subscriber will have a ticket delivered to him, which entitles him to three tickets each night, either for ladies or gentlemen.

“N.B., Subscriptions are likewise taken in at the same place. Books may be had at the said place, price, a British sixpence.”

Six days after this performance, Handel gave the following account of his success in a letter to Charles Jennens, of Gopsall Hall, who had selected the words of the “Messiah:”-

“The Nobility did me the honour ,to make amongst themselves a subscription for six nights, which did fill a room of 600 persons, so that I needed not sell one single ticket at the door, and without vanity the performance was received with a general approbation. Signora Avolio, which I brought with me from London, pleases extraordinary. I have form’d another tenor Voice, which gives great satisfaction, the basses and counter-tenors are very good, and the rest of the chorus singers (by my direction) do exceeding well; as for the instruments, they are really excellent Mr. Dubourgh being at the head of them, and the music sounds delightfully in this charming room, which puts me in such spirits (and my health being so good) that I exert myself on the organ with more than usual success. I opened with the Allegro, Penseroso, and Moderato, and I assure you that the words of the Moderato are vastly admired. The audience being composed (besides the flower of ladies of distinction, and other people of the greatest quality) of so many bishops, deans, heads of the College, the most eminent people in the law, as the Chancellor, Auditor-General, &c. &c., all which are very much taken with the poetry, so that I am desired to perform it again the next time. I cannot sufficiently express the kind treatment I receive here; but the politeness of this generous nation cannot be unknown to you, so I let you judge of the satisfaction I enjoy, passing my time with honour, profit, and pleasure. They propose already to have some more performances when the six nights of the subscription are over, and my Lord Duke (of Devonshire) the Lord-Lieutenant (who is always present with all his family on those nights) will easily obtain a longer permission for me by Ms Majesty; so that I shall be obliged to make my stay here longer than I thought.”

Handel’s second entertainment was given in the Music Hall on the 13th of January, 1741-2; and on the 20th of the same month, by order of the Lord Lieutenant, his third performance took place, consisting of “Acis and Galatea,” his Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day, “with several concertos on the organ and other instruments,” commencing at seven o’clock; and the announcement concludes as follows:-

“Gentlemen and Ladies are desired to order their Coaches and Chairs to come down Fishamble-street, which will prevent a great deal of inconveniences that happened the night before.

“N. B. There is another convenient passage for chairs made since the last night. There is a convenient room hired as an addition to a former place for the footmen; it is hoped the ladies will order them to attend there till called for.”

The oratorio of “Esther” was produced at the Music Hall on the 3rd of February, on the seventh of which month Handel commenced there his second series of entertainments. The “Messiah,” rehearsed in the Music Hall on the 8th of April, was publicly performed there at 12 a.m. on the 13th of that month for the benefit of the Charitable Infirmary and Mercer’s Hospital, the sum collected for which, on the occasion, amounted to nearly £400. The audience exceeded 700 in number, the stewards of the Charitable Musical Society having requested the ladies to come without hoops, and the gentlemen to lay aside their swords.

Although an attempt has been recently made to argue that the “Messiah” was first publicly performed in Dublin, no adequate evidence has been yet adduced to disprove the contrary assertion of Mainwaring, the contemporary and biographer or the composer, and the statements of Mr. Gardiner, authorr the work entitled “Music and Friends.”

Handel produced his oratorio of “Saul” at the Music Hall on the 25th of May, and sailed from Dublin on the 13th of August, 1742, his last performance here having been the “Messiah,” on the 3rd of the preceding June.

After Handers departure, entertainments of various kinds continued to be performed in the Music Hall, where a company of singers, under the management of Dr. Arne, appeared in 1743.

Handel’s “Judas Maccabeus” was performed for the first time in the Music Hall on the 11th of February, 1748, for the benefit of the Lying-in Hospital, by special command of the Earl of Harrington, then Lord Lieutenant.

In 1750 the annual subscription of the members amounted to £300, for which sum they engaged Lampe, the composer, Pasquali, the eminent violinist, and a host of other accomplished musicians, who formed part of the “Smock Alley” Company.

The concerts of the Charitable Musical Society for the relief of poor debtors were generally performed at the Music Hall. The cost of a ticket was half a guinea, which likewise entitled the holder to be present at the rehearsals, which took place at 12 o’clock in the’ day. A vast amount of good was effected by this Society, which, from its formation to the year 1750, released nearly 1,200 prisoners, whose debts and fees exceeded £9,000; in addition to which, a certain sum was presented to each debtor on his liberation. The annual average of prisoners thus relieved amounted to 160.

Neal, the music publisher, who, in conjunction with Mrs. Hamilton and Mrs Walker, was the manager of many fashionable entertainments, added, in 1751, a “very elegant additional room” to the Music Hall. The balls, at this period generally styled “Ridottos,” were carried on by subscriptions; for admission to a series of four of these entertainments a gentleman paid three guineas, which entitled him to tickets for two ladies and himself for each night. A single ticket for a lady cost one crown, and for a gentleman, half a guinea. The interior of the Hall was on those occasions lighted by wax candles; the doors opened at 7 p.m.; the “Beaufets” at 10, and the supper-room at 11 o’clock.

In 1757 the masque of “Acis and Galatea” was performed in the Music Hall by male and female amateurs of the first rank for the benefit of the “Charitable Loan,” and in the same year Thomas Sheridan delivered here an oration, advocating the establishment of an academy for the public instruction of the youth of Ireland.

At the Music Hall were held the meetings and concerts of the “Musical Academy,” founded by Lord Mornington in 1757, and which in four years, by loans of small” sums of about four pounds each, relieved nearly 1,300 distressed families. This academy comprised “persons moving in the highest sphere of society;” all professors or mercenary teachers of the art were strictly excluded. Their meetings were held at the Music Hall in Fishamble-street; and their proceedings were regulated by a body of statutes: they were divided into three degrees - Academics, Probationers, and Associates. They met once in each week for private practice; once in each month they held a more public meeting, to which a select number of auditors were admitted by tickets; and once in each year they made a public display of their talents for the benefit of some charity, to which all persons who paid were admitted. On these occasions crowds were naturally attracted, as well by the talents as by the consequence of the performers. They saw on the stage all rank obliterated, profession disregarded, and female timidity overcome in the cause of charity; while noblemen, statesmen, lawyers, divines, and ladies, exerted their best abilities, like mercenary performers, to amuse the public. The Musical Academy continued its’ meetings for many years, but by the death of several of its male, and marriage of its female Academics, its principal supports were gradually withdrawn, till at length this curious and interesting society was dissolved, and charity lost a powerful and profitable advocate?’

The statutes of the Musical Academy, enacted in 1758, were as follow:-

“1. This Academy shall be composed of ladies patronesses, and of ladies and gentlemen. Vocal and instrumental performers of music only to be elected by ballot.

“2. The male academics only shall have a right of suffrage in the Academy.

“3. All power of enacting, altering, or annulling, any statute or statutes shall rest solely in the male academics.

“4. No public mercenary performer, professor, or teacher of music, shall ever be admitted into any rank of the Academy on any account whatsoever.

“5. Ladies and gentlemen vocal and instrumental performers shall be admitted by ballot under the title of Probationers.

“6. Gentlemen instrumental performers shall be admitted by ballot under the title of Associates.

“7. The ladies patronesses, female academics, and probationers, male probationers, and associates, shall be exempt from all expenses of the Academy, but obliged to an exact conformity to their statutes.

“8. Appoints a president, four vice-presidents, and secretary.

“9. A standing committee of nine.

“10. An indefinite number of auditors to be admitted to be present at all concerts in the Hall.

“11. The Academy to meet every Wednesday at seven o’clock, from November to May.

“12. In every month there shall be three Wednesdays of private practice, and one or more of public performance. On these last strangers shall be admitted by tickets.

“13. On evenings of private practice members may admit friends, who are on no account to be admitted again during the season.

“14. No man to be admitted, except by the foregoing statute, unless to be a performer (not a professor), and actually capable and willing to give a specimen of his talents in the musical piece of the evening.

“15. The voluntary absence of any academic for four successive evenings shall be understood as a resignation.

“16. Married male academics shall have the privilege of introducing their wives at every musical performance.

“17. Once in the year a public musical entertainment shall be exhibited by the Academy for the benefit of the Charitable Loan, or any other which shall be deemed more worthy.

“18. All debates decided by ballot.

“19. A copy of statutes to be handed to every member, that all may know and expect no other than the privileges annexed to their several ranks.”

The following were the principal members of this Society:-

President, Earl of Mornington; Vice-President, Kane O’Hara. Leader of Band, Earl of Mornington. Violin players, John Neal, Ed. B. Swan, Rt. Hon. Sackville Hamilton, Count M’Carthy, Rev. Dean Bayley, - Connor, Dr. Hutchinson. Tenors, - Candler, &c. &c. Bassoons, W. Deane, Col. Lee Carey, &c &c. Violincellos, Earl of Bellamont, Hon. and Rev. Arch. Hamilton; Hon. and Rev. Dean Burke (afterwards Archbishop of Tuam), Sir John Dillon. Flutes, Lord Lucan, Captain Reid, - Watson, Rev. Jos. Johnson. Harpsichord, Rt. Hon. W. Brownlow, Dr. Quin, Lady Freke, Miss Cavendish, Miss Nichols. Lady Patronesses, Countess of Tyrone, Countess of Charleville, Countess of Mornington, Lady Freke. Lady vocal performers, Rt. Hon. Lady Caroline Russell, Mrs. Monck, Miss Stewart, Miss O’Hara, Miss Plunket. Gentlemen vocal performers, Hugh Montgomery Lyons, Thomas Cobb.

Fashionable assemblies were held at the Music Hall in 1762, where at the same period a series of concerts were given by the Passerini family, at which Pergolesi’s “Stabat Mater” with other foreign music was produced; and some members of the Dublin Society in 1766 proposed to take the building for the use of their institution. Breslau, the famous conjurer, exhibited his feats in 1768 at the Music Hall, where, in the same year, the “Mecklenburgh Musical Society,” assisted by the choirs of both Cathedrals, gave concerts, patronized by Lord and Lady Townshend, for the benefit of the poor confined debtors in the various prisons. Sheridan, at the same period, delivered a” course of evening lectures here on the art of reading. William Neal, one of the original members, and treasurer of the old “Bull’s Head Society,” and who appears to have finally become proprietor of the Music Hall, died at a very advanced age in December, 1769. A contemporary styles” him a “gentleman very justly esteemed by all those who had the happiness of his acquaintance, for his great humanity and friendship;” and his son, Surgeon John Neal, was considered one of the first private violin performers in Europe. The following programme of a concert for the benefit of the Lock Hospital, in 1769, exhibits the character of the musical performances in Dublin at that period:-“On Tuesday the 31st of this instant January, and Saturday the 4th of February, 1769, at the great Musick hall in Fishamble street, will be performed:-

“Mr. Pope’s ode on Saint Cecilia’s day, set by Dr. Murphy. Between the first and second acts of the Ode will be introduced an interlude of catches and glees, preceded by a medley overture, viz.

“First catch. ‘Jack, thou’rt a toper,’ for three voices. Set by Mr. H. Purcell.

“First glee. ‘Gently touch the warbling lyre,’ for four voices. Harmonized by Dr. Hayes.

“Second catch. ‘Good neighbours be quiet’ for four voices. Set by Dr. Arne.

“Second glee. ‘Fair and ugly,’ for three voices. Set by Dr. Travers.

“Third catch. ‘Heark ye, my dear,’ for three voices. Set by Dr. Arne.

“Third glee. ‘Old I am,’ for three voices. Set by Dr. Travers.

“Fourth catch. ‘Here lies judge Boate,’ for four voices. Set by Dr. Hayes.

“The interlude to end with a grand chorus of “‘God save great George our King.’

“The catches and glees to be accompanied by instrumental parts, composed on purpose by Dr: Murphy, and performed in a manner quite new, and much approved of. The principal vocal and instrumental performers are the first in this kingdom. The whole to conclude with a grand ball, where the ladies and gentlemen will appear in fancied habits of Irish manufacture, and all the rooms will be illuminated with different coloured wax lights.

“Five tickets two guineas, or single ticket half a guinea.

“Tickets to be had at the Hospital and Musick hall.”

The “Constitutional Free Debating Society” began to assemble in the Music Hall in the year 1771; their debates commencing at eight in the evening, and generally terminating at 10. The speaker stood while addressing the meeting, and any member who broke silence was liable to expulsion. Crowds of the most fashionable persons attended to hear the orations, and seats were provided in the orchestra for the ladies. The number of members exceeded 800, a medal, value four guineas, being awarded every fourth evening to the author of the speech most highly approved. On the Tuesday evening preceding the disposal of the medal, the Society decided on six questions to be argued on the night of speaking for the prize: these questions were written and balloted for, and whichever was drawn became the subject of debate.

Lord Townshend made some ineffectual efforts to suppress this Society, one of the most prominent members of which was Henry Lucas, son of the celebrated Tribune. The freedom which they claimed in debating may be judged from their having decided here, after some brief declamations, that “the removal of Lord Townshend from the government of Ireland would be the most speedy way to redress our grievances.”

Towards the close of the year 1771, a similar club, called the “Ciceronian Society,” held its meetings at the Music Hall.

Ridotto balls were held here in 1773 and 1774; the rooms being elegantly fitted up, and decorated with transparent paintings by Roberts and Tresham. On these occasions the carriages and chairs entered Fishamble-street from Castle-street, the former turning down Copper-alley to the door of admittance there. In going away, the carriages went from the Music Hall to Smock-alley, and the chairs through Copper-alley to the upper Blind Quay. Subscription Balls, under the management of the chief of the Irish nobility, continued to be held here for many years. The inhabitants of the neighbourhood, however, complained that they were totally deprived of sleep by the great and incessant clamour of the chairmen and servants at the breaking up of those assemblies. A public procession of the chief Roman Catholics of Dublin was made from the Hall to the Castle, in 1773, to present an address to Lord Harcourt; and in 1774, John Walker, author of the “Pronouncing Dictionary,” who for some time kept school in Dublin, delivered a course of lectures on English pronunciation in the ” Supper Room” of the Music Hall.

The first masquerade ball held in Ireland took place on the 19th of April, 1776, in the Music Hall; which on the 27th of January, 1777, was opened as a theatre, having been fitted up in an elegant manner for that purpose by a company of actors under Vandermere, in opposition to the other theatres. Their first performance here was the “Wonder;” but the entire dependence of the company having been placed in the success of Sheridan’s “Duenna,” Ryder, manager of the Theatre Royal, procured the words of that opera through a short-hand writer, and brought it forward, with some slight variations, under the name of the “Governess;” and the Fishamble-street company, having failed to obtain legal redress, were obliged to forego their opposition. The following contemporary description of a masquerade at the Music Hall on the eve of St. Patrick’s Day, 1778, exhibits the mode in which those entertainments were then conducted:

“About twelve at night the company began to assemble; and at two, the rooms were quite full, upwards of 700 persons being present. The motley groupe afforded much entertainment; they displayed a variety of taste, elegance, and splendour, in their dresses, and were supported with a fund of wit, humour, and vivacity. The following were the most conspicuous characters:- The Duke of Leinster appeared as a fruit-woman, who changed her oranges for shamrocks, as Patrick’s day advanced - and afterwards a physician - both of which characters were well supported. Mr. Gardiner, as an old woman, carrying her father in a basket, and her child in her arms. This was considered as one of the best and most laughable Masks in the room. Mr. Gardiner, at supper, was in a black domino. Mr. Sackville Hamilton, a French Governante, well dressed and inimitably supported. Mr. Burgh and Mr. O’Reilly, as Hussars. Mr. Yelverton, a Methodist preacher, characteristical, masked with judgment. Counsellor Doyle, a friar, well supported. Lord Ely, a hermit. Lord Glerawly, a sideboard of plate. Counsellor Day, a cook maid, very well supported. Lord Jocelyn, a house maid. Counsellor Caldbeck, a sailor. Mr. Handcock, half abbé, half officer - a very laughable character. Mr. Hunter, a French soldier. Mr. Coote, a battle axe guard. Captain Southwell, a rifle-man. Mr. Boswell, as Douglas. Mr. Finlay, senior, a huge fashionable lady. Mr. Finlay, junior, an American Warrior. Mr. Eyres, St. Patrick, with a piper. Sir Richard Johnston, in the character of Pan, allowed to be an excellent mask, though he neither sang nor played the bagpipes. Mr. Robert Alexander, the Great Mogul. Lord Antrim, a Highlander. Mr. Lyster, a Judge in his robes, a very good mask and very humourous. Mr. Marsden, a most excellent miller. Captain French, first as Diana Trapes, which afforded much entertainmentand afterwards in the character of Tancred, elegantly dressed. Sir Vesey Colclough, a sweep-chimney. Mr. Rowley, Isaac, in the Duenna. Mr. Scriven, a Bussora. Mr. Wilson, in the character of an old poet repeating and distributing humorous Verses. Mr. W. Finey, in the character of a magician. Mr. Byrne of Cabinteely, Pam, or the Knave of Clubs, very picturesque. Mr. Baggs, in the character of Linco. Mr. Mossom, Zanga. Mr. Knox, as a female gipsey. Mr. Geale, as a grand Signior. Mr. Penrose, as Tycho. Mr. Bellingham, a Sailor. Mr. James Cavendish, as Mercury. Mr. M’Clean, a Dutchman. Sir Michael Cromie, a Sailor. Surgeon Doyle, a good piper. Captain Barber, a butterfly-catcher. Mr. Broughill, a malefactor going to an Auto da Fe. Mr. Archdall personated the man with the charity-box on Essex-bridge, and collected £5 9s. 10d. for the confined debtors. An excellent Harlequin who was metamorphosed to a Shylock. Mr. Pollock as Diego, the curious stranger of Strasbourg, from the promontory of noses, as mentioned in Tristram Shandy’s tale of Slawkenbergius. The gravity, courtesy, and humour which Sterne so happily contrasted in his description of Diego, was well supported by this mask, and on his nose, which was a nose indeed, there appeared the following inscription, ‘This nose hath been the making of me.’ His dress was a Spanish habit, and crimson satin breeches with silver fringe. Among the female characters which deserve to be mentioned, were - Mrs. Gardiner in the character of Sestina the Opera singer, a most inimitable mask; she sung one of Sestina’s songs. Lady Ely, as a wash-woman. Mrs. F. Flood, a child and doll. Mrs. Crofton, a young miss, well dressed and characteristical. Miss Gardiner as a Florentine peasant. Miss Graham, a female savage, and afterwards a dancer. The two Miss Normans, witches. Miss Evans and Miss Saunders, two Dianas. Miss Beston as a nun. Mrs. Trench as a house-maid. Miss Blakeney and Miss Whaley as Night. Miss O’Connor, Night. Miss Stewart, an Indian Princess, with a great quantity of jewels. From seven o’clock in the evening till 12 at night, the following houses were open to receive masks: Lord Roden’s, Mr. Rowley’s, Mr. Aylmer’s, Mr. Kilpatrick’s, Mr. La Touche’s, Lady Arabella Denny’s, and Counsellor Davis’. At these several houses the masks were entertained with wine and cakes, and among the rest there was an inimitable old beggarman, who excited charity in the breasts of the compassionate; he was dressed in a rug cadow, and liberally supplied with viands from the fair hands of Nuns, Dianas, and Vestals. He was accompanied by Jobson with a Nell, two characters supported with remarkable vivacity, and well dressed. The decorations of the rooms were admirable, and formed a suite, the effect of which, as to convenience, singularity, and ingenuity, was exceedingly pleasing. The company did not begin to retire until five, and it was half an hour after eight before the rooms were entirely cleared.”

In 1780 the first Irish State Lottery was drawn at the Music Hall. On such occasions it was usual to place at the box entrance the large mahogany wheel whence the numbers were drawn by two boys from the Blue-coat Hospital, the public not being admitted to the interior of the building. Balls and masquerades continued to be held here till 1782, when the floor of the “Grove room” suddenly gave way, and wounded many people assembled there relative to the election of a member of Parliament for the city of Dublin.

The apartments called the “Grove rooms” stand on the left of the stage, forming at present the scene and green rooms. The upper “Grove room” was generally used as a wardrobe when the building became a private theatre.

This accident, and the entertainments at the Rotunda, turned the stream of pleasure from the Music Hall, which was taken by the Honourable Society of King’s Inns, who, finding the building not suited for their purposes, subsequently relinquished it. In 1793 it became a private theatre, under the management of the Earl of Westmeath and Frederick E. Jones, afterwards lessee of the Dublin Theatre Royal.

J. D. Herbert, an artist and amateur, who performed here, gives the following account of the circumstances which led to the Music Hall having been selected for this purpose:

“Jones told me of a notion he had conceived of getting up a private theatre on an elegant and extensive plan, that would require premises of great space, and asked me if I could direct him to any building that might suit his purpose. I mentioned Fishamble-street. He observed there would be a good subscription from persons of the first rank, and he should feel obliged if I would accompany him to view it. I accordingly attended him, and on our way I pointed out the great advantage of having a shell so appropriate for his plan that he could decorate it as he wished, but that must not be made known until he got it into his possession; and that I thought it might be had a bargain, from its having been some time on hands with the proprietor. We arrived, and found the owner at home. Saw the house and all its appurtenances. We inquired the lowest terms. It was to be let by lease at £80 per annum. Mr. Jones, in a hasty manner, decried its value, and said £60 was enough, and he would give no more: his offer was as hastily rejected, and he turned on his heel and went away. I spoke to the proprietor civilly, and excused Mr. Jones on the score of incompetency to estimate its true value; and I added, that I would advise him to agree to the rent of £80, and if I should succeed we would return. I then followed Mr. Jones, pointed out the necessity of securing it, for, should the owner learn who were to be the performers, double that sum would not be taken. I advised him to return, and let me write a few lines of agreement, have it signed, and I should witness, and give earnest: to all of which he consented, and the next day he got possession, then set men to work to make the house perfectly secure to receive an audience. Lord Westmeath induced Valdré, an Italian artist, to direct the ornamental parts, to paint the ceiling and proscenium, also some capital scenes. I added my mite, and painted two figures, Tragedy and Comedy, for the front; also a chamber of portraits for the School for Scandal. When finished, so splendid, tasteful, and beautiful a theatre, for the size, could not be found, I may say, in the three kingdoms: indeed, I never saw anything comparable with it on the Continent. The subscribers now thronged the first men in the land, and from these were selected the performers, who were for the greater part worthy of the house. The *dramatis personae *were as follows:- Captain Ashe, Mr. Charles Powell Leslie, Mr. Cromwell Price, Mr. Lyster, Mr. Westenra, Mr. Humphrey Butler, Col. Robert Howard, Mr. Thos. Goold, Mr. M’Clintock, Mr. Allen M’Clean, Mr. J. Crampton, Col. Edward Nugent, Col. Barry, Lord Westmeath, Sir Charles Vernon, Mr. Frederick Falkner, Sir Edward Denny, Mr. Wandesford Butler, and Mr. Hamy Stewart, &c?”

A contemporary has left the following correct description of the internal arrangement of this theatre:- “The interior of the house formed an ellipse, and was divided into three compartments - pit, boxes, and lattices, which were without division. The seats were covered with rich scarlet, and fringe to match, while a stuffed hand-rail carried round gave them the form of couches, and rendered them particularly agreeable for any attitude of repose or attention. The pilasters which supported the front of the boxes were cased with mirror, and displayed various figures on a white ground, relieved with gold. The festoons were fringed with gold, and drawn up with golden cords and tassels. The ceiling was exquisitely painted. In the front was a drop curtaain, on which was depicted an azure sky with fleeting clouds, from the centre of which was Apollo’s lyre emerging in vivid glory; on each side were the figures of Tragedy and Comedy, appearing between the pillars in perspective, to support a rich freeze and cornice; in the centre was the appropriate motto, ‘For our Friends.’ The stage and scenery were equally brilliant; and that nothing might be wanting to complete the costume, servants in rich and costly liveries attended on the stage and in the box-rooms, to accommodate the company. The orchestra was filled with amateurs and professors. The male characters were performed by gentlemen subscribers, but the female by public actresses engaged for the purpose. In effect, everything that could contribute to the splendour and elegance of the ornament, the excellence of the performance, and the decorum of the company, was scrupulously attended to. The house opened for the first time on the 6th of March, 1793, with the Beggar’s Opera and the Irish Widow. Among the performers, Captain Ashe and Lord Westmeath were particularly distinguished. His Lordship’s performance of Father Luke, in the Poor Soldier, was considered a masterpiece, and gained for the noble representative the celebrity of having his portrait in that character exhibited in all the print-shops and magazines of the day. The audience were always distinguished by rank and fashion, but, by the rules of the theatre, were almost entirely females, no gentleman who was not a subscriber being on any account admitted.”

The parts in those plays were allotted as follows

BEGGAR’S OPERA -Captain Macheath - Captain Ashe; Peach’em - Capt. Browne; Lockit - Capt. Stewart; Mat-o’the-Mint - Mr. H. Butler; the Gang - Lord Thurles, Mr. W. Butler, Mr. Holmes, Mr. Vernon, Mr. Herbert, Mr. Rochfort, Lord Cunningham, Mr. Whaley, Mr. Talbot; Filch - Mr. Howard; Lucy - Mrs. Garvey; Mrs. Peach’em - Diana Trapes; Mrs. Slammekin - Mrs. Dawson; Women - Mrs. Wells, Miss Atkins, Miss Kingston, Miss O’Reilly; Polly-Mrs. Mahon.

THE IRISH WIDOW:- Whittle - Mr. Howard; Sir Patrick O’Neil - Mr. Nugent; Nephew - Capt. Witherington; Bates - Mr. Holmes; Thomas - Capt. Browne; Kecksey- Capt. Stewart; The Irish Widow - Mrs. Garvey.

The following were the dramatis person~ in The Rivals, as performed here in 1793:- Sir Anthony Absolute - Mr. Lyster; Capt. Absolute - Capt. Ashe; Falkland - Mr. Witherington; Bob Acres - Mr. Howard; Fag - Mr. Humphrey Butler; Coachman - Mr. Vernon, of Clontarf; Jacob Gawkey - Capt. Hamilton; Sir Lucius O’Trigger - Mr. F. Jones. Women - Miss Campion, Mrs. Dawson, Mrs. Garvey.

This company continued their performances here till 1796. The Music Hall has been occasionally used in the present century for various entertainments, on a scale very different to the style in which they were conducted before the Union.

Major Robert Wood, in 1666, held a house in Fishamble-street, “commonly called the sign of the Bell;” an Inquisition of 1690, notices a house here called the “Old Walls,” in the tenure of Alderman John Preston; and about the same period a poultry market was located on the eastern side of this street. The “King’s Head” in Fishamble-street was kept by Thady Connor in 1675; and copper tokens are extant, issued here in the same century by Arlanter Ussher and John Puller, merchants. Near St. John’s Church was the school of Ninian Wallis, M. A., author, among other works, of “Britannia Concors; a Discourse in Latin, both prose and verse, concerning the advantages of the British Union, for the security of the Protestant interest in Ireland, 1707.”

At the “great room” of the Philharmonic Society, opposite to St. John’s Church in Fishamble-street, Dr. Arne, his wife, and the accomplished Mrs. Cibber, gave several concerts in 1742, beginning, generally, at seven p. m. Mrs. Arne, on those occasions, was usually accompanied by the performance of her husband on the violin; and “between the acts of his serenatas, operas, and other musical performances, he introduced comic interludes (after the Italian manner), amongst which were Tom Thumb, the original burlesque opera, com posed by him; the Dragon of Wantley; Miss Lucy in Town, &c., intended to give relief to that grave attention necessary to be kept up in serious performances.”

The concerts of the Philharmonic Society for the year 1744 included - “Solomon, a serenata; Esther; Athalia; Acis and Galatea; Israel in Egypt; Alexander’s Feast, by Handel; Solomon; Lockman’s Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day; David’s Lamentation over Saul and Jonathan; and Hart’s Pindaric Ode, by Boyce:” and lectures on philosophy and other subjects were frequently delivered at the Philharmonic Room in 1749, the usual hour for their commencement being six p. m. Among other performances here may be noticed-” Solomon’s Temple: an oratorio. The words by Mr. James Eyre Weeks; -the music composed by Mr. Richard Broadway, Organist of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin. Performed for the benefit of the sick and distressed Freemasons.”

A. school of great reputation, was kept in this street by John Gast D. D1, who became curate of St. John’s in 1744, and while officiating here published his Grecian History, a work recommended by the University of Dublin. In 1761 he was removed from St. John’s to the living of Arklow, to which was added the Archdeaconry of Glendalogh and the parish of Newcastle. He exchanged Arklow for the parish of St. Nicholas Without in 1775, and died in the year 1788. Gast was of French extraction: his father, Daniel Gast, a Huguenot physician, left Saintonge, in Guienne, in 1684, to escape the persecution, and settled in Dublin with his wife, Elizabeth Grenoilleau, a near relative of the author of “L’Esprit des Lois.”

Cornelius Kelly, a humorous fencing-master, who resided in Fishamble-street in the early part of the last century, was reputed the best swordsman of his day; and at a public match at London in 1748, he signally defeated the most expert professional fencer in Great Britain. A practical joke played by Kelly upon Oliver Goldsmith, who was induced from his representation to take the house of Sir Ralph Fetherstone at Ardagh for an inn, is believed to have suggested the plot of “She Stoops to Conquer.”

William Maple, chemist, of Fishamble-street, was summoned to give evidence, in 1723, before the House of Commons, relative to the composition of the metal in Wood’s halfpence; and in 1727 the Irish Parliament presented him with £200 “as an encouragement for discovering a new method of tanning leather by a vegetable, the growth of this kingdom;” on which he published in 1729 a pamphlet of 39 pages, under the title of “A Method of Tanning without Bark,” dedicated to Speaker Conolly and the House of Commons. The proposed substitute for bark was the root of tormentilla erecta, or septfoil, called [two old Irish words missing. KF] by the native Irish, who appear to have been acquainted with its chemical properties long previous to Maple’s era. Maple was subsequently one of the originators of the Dublin Society, to which he acted as Secretary and Registrar till his death in 1762, at the age of 104 years.

At the “Three Tuns”in Fishamble-street, kept in 1742 by James King, there was a daily ordinary, with two substantial dishes of meat, at eight pence per head. The sitting justices of the city of Dublin transacted their business here till 1767, and the Rolls Office was held in this street till 1786.

In the last century the manufacture of wicker baskets was carried on extensively in Fishamble-street, one of the artificers engaged in which was father to “Tom Echlin,” a noted city wit and choice spirit, whose portrait, admirably etched from a design by R. Hunter, was twice published. A local print in 1754 thus notices his death:-” Thursday night, died of a violent match of funking, - a taste much in vogue with the eminent smoakers of tobacco, - that facetious good fellow and hearty cock Thomas Echlin, remarkable for his vivacity and drollery in the low way, for eating of living cats, leaping into the river in frosty weather, and performing many shocking and unnatural tricks to please, or excite wonder: his death was as violent as all the actions of his life, having funked to that degree, that the sweat poured from his face in drops as large as Rouncival peas, and vomitted blood of which he died; the picture of this wonder in his sphere at his best state, was published in an etched print, with the just emblems of his ambition, a decanter and glass at his elbow, and a pipe in his right hand.”

J. Kinnier, printer and paper-maker “at the Green Man” in Fishamble-street, was an extensive publisher of street ballads about 1785; and the late James Clarence Mangan, author of the “Anthologia Germanica,” was born in this street in 1803.

“Copper-alley,” erected on a portion of the ground anciently known as “Preston’s Inns,” received its present name from the copper-money there coined and distributed by Lady Alice Fenton, widow of Sir Geoffrey Fenton, a writer of considerable merit, and Secretary of State in Ireland from 1581 till his death in 1608.

Lady Alice Fenton, “whose religious and charitable courteous life was an example to her sex,” was the daughter of Robert Weston, one of the Lords Justices and Chancellor of Ireland from 1567 to his death in 1573; and we are told, that he was “so learned, judicious, and upright in the course of judicature, as in all the time of that employment he never made order or decree that was questioned or reversed.” The Lady Catherine, daughter of Sir Geoffrey Fenton, became the wife, in 1609, of Richard Boyle, the first Earl of Cork. Her effigy, with those of her parents, husband, and children, is preserved in the “Boyle monument” in St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

In 1610 Sir Geoffrey’s only son, William Fenton, was in possession of “the old house or toft called Preston’s Inns, with all the barns, backsides, and places thereto belonging, upon which were then built certain houses or tenements near Alderman John Forster’s ground; with an orchard or garden on the south of the said house, in the tenure of Lady Alice Fenton, widow; two gardens near the same, extending to Croker-lane, west, to the land of St. John’s Church and Castle-street, south, and to street near Isod’s Tower, east, upon which gardens several houses were lately built by Sir Geoffrey Fenton, Knight, deceased, then called Lady-rents, otherwise Copper-rowe, together with the street between the said houses, extending to the street near Dame’s-gate, in the tenure of the said Lady Fenton.” In 1619 Sir William Fenton, Knight, held also “the 12 messuages or tenements and gardens in Copper-alley, as also the street or lane called Copper-alley, together with a straight passage or lane under William Hampton’s house, leading from Copper-alley to Scarlet-lane,” now Upper Exchange-street.

Sir John Temple states, that on the 22nd of October, 1641, previous to the intended seizure of Dublin by the Irish, “the conspirators, being many of them, arrived within the city, and having that day met at the Lion Tavern, near Copper-alley, and there turning the drawer out of the room, ordered their affairs together, drank healths upon their knees to the happy success of the next morning’s work.”

Redmond Maguire, of Enniskillen, in his examination on” the 1st of November, 1641, preserved among the manuscripts of Trinity College, Dublin, deposed “That this examinant did ride along to Dublin with the Lord Maguire on Friday evening, and having putt up his horse, waited on him to the Redd Lyon Tavern in Copper-allie that evening, there being in his lordship’s company Captain MacMahon and divers others in scarlett and scarfes, whose names he knoweth not, and there remained drinking for the space of an hour, and after that went into the town with the young men who attended on my lord, and did drink with them, and after that came to his lordship’s lodging at Nevill’s house, in Castle-street, where he did drink with some of his lordship’s servants until nine of the clock that night, and thence departed to his own lodging at one Betagh, his house in the Back-lane.”

Edward Harris and Henry Yeates, of Copper-alley, issued tokens in the seventeenth century; and Francis Stoyt, merchant, resident here, was attainted by the Jacobites in 1689. Andrew Crooke, at the ” sign of the Royal Arms” in Copper-alley, was the King’s printer-general for Ireland from 1693 to 1727; here also were the printing offices of Thomas Hume (1715) and of Samuel Powell, at the “sign of the Printing Press,” 1717. From the early part of the last century Copper-alley was noted for its eating-houses, one of the most frequented of which was the “Unicorn Tavern.” A passage opened through Copper-alley to the Music Hall during Handel’s visit in 1742, though long closed, is still discernible.

The “Copper-alley Gazette,” occasionally published in 1766 in the “Freeman’s Journal,” contained a satirical account of the proceedings of the politicians of the day under feigned names. A woman, known as “Darkey Kelly,” who kept an infamous establishment in this alley, was tried for a capital offence about 1764, sentenced to death, and publicly burned in Stephen’s Green. Her sister, Maria Llewellin, was condemned to be hanged in 1788, for her complicity in the affair of the Neals with Lord Carhampton. Till about 10 years ago there stood, on the north-western side of Copper-alley, a very large brick mansion, popularly styled the “Maiden Tower,” which contained such a labyrinth of rooms, galleries, and doors, that it was almost impossible for any person to discover the mode of descent from the upper stories, unless accompanied by a guide acquainted with the intricacies of the building.

Saul’s-court,” on the eastern side of Fishamble-street, takes its name from Laurence Saul, a wealthy Roman Catholic distiller, who resided there at the sign of the “Golden Key,” in the early part of the last century. The family of Saul or Sail was located near Cashell early in the 17th century.

James Sall, a learned Jesuit, during the wars of 1642, protected and hospitably entertained Dr. Samuel Puilein, subsequently Archbishop of Tuam, who, during the Protectorate, encountered Dr. Sall in England, preaching under the disguise of a Puritan shoemaker. Andrew Sail, a Jesuit “of the fourth vow,” Professor in the Irish College of Salamanca, and afterwards at Pampeluna, Placentia, and Tudela, was appointed Superior of his Order in 1673, and in 1674 publicly embraced the Protestant religion in Dublin. Sall, who is said to have been the first Irish Jesuit who renounced the Roman Catholic faith, obtained considerable preferment in the Established Church, and died in 1682, leaving behind him many controversial works. He was the intimate friend of Nicholas French, Roman Catholic Bishop of Ferns, who lamented his heterodoxy in a work entitled “The Doleful Fall of Andrew Sall,” 1674. “I loved the man dearly,” says French, “for his amiable nature and excellent parts, and esteemed him both a pious person and learned, and so did all that knew him.”

About 1759 Laurence Saul was prosecuted for having harboured a young lady named Toole, who had sought refuge in his house to avoid being compelled by her friends to conform to the Established Church; and the Chancellor, on this trial, made the famous declaration, that the law did not presume that an Irish Papist existed in the kingdom. In a letter to Charles O’Conor, who had advised him to summon a meeting of the Catholic’ Committee, for the purpose of making a tender of their service and allegiance to Government, Saul wrote as follows:- “Since there is not the least prospect of such a relaxation of the penal laws, as would induce one Roman Catholic to tarry in this house of bondage, who can purchase a settlement in some other land, where freedom and security of property can be obtained, will you condemn me for saying, that if I cannot be one of the first, I will not be one of the last, to take flight from a country, where I have not the least expectation of encouragement, to enable me to carry on my manufactures, to any considerable extent? ‘Heu, fuge crudeles terras, fuge littus avarum!’ - But how I will be able to bear, at this time of life, when nature is far advanced in its decline, and my constitution, by constant exercise of mind, very much impaired, the fatal necessity of quitting for over friends, relatives, an ancient patrimony, my *natale solum, *to retire perhaps to some dreary inauspicious clime, there to play the schoolboy again, to learn the language, laws, and institutions of the country; to make new friends and acquaintances; in short, to begin the world anew. How this separation, I say, from every thing dear in this sublunary world would afflict me I cannot say, but with an agitated and throbbing heart. But when Religion dictates, and Prudence points out the only way to preserve posterity from temptation and perdition, I feel this consideration predominating over all others. I am resolved, as soon as possible, to sell out, and to expatriate; and I must content myself with the melancholy satisfaction of treasuring up in my memory the kindnesses and affection of my friends.” Saul soon after quitted his native land and retired to France, where he died in October 1768.

Early in the present century a suite of rooms in Saul’s-court was occupied by the “Gaelic Society,” founded in December 1806, for the preservation and publication of ancient Irish historical and literary documents, by the subscriptions of members. The principal persons connected with the movement were Theophilus O’Flanagan, of Trinity College, Dublin; Denis Taaffe, author of the “History of Ireland,” written as a continuation to Keating; Edward O’Reilly, compiler of our most complete “Irish Dictionary;” William Halliday, author of a “Grammar of the Gaelic Langnage,” published in 1808, and translator of the first portion of Keating’s “History of Ireland;” Rev. Paul O’Brien, author of ”’ An Irish Grammar;” and Patrick Lynch, who wrote “A Life of St. Patrick,” and “A Short Grammar of the Irish Language.”

The Gaelic Society only effected the publication of a single volume, which was edited by their Secretary, O’Flanagan, and contained, among other documents, the ancient historic tale of the “Death of the Children of Usnagh,” which furnished Moore with the subject of his ballad-

“Avenging and bright fall the swift sword of Erin.”

Another portion of the same book supplied the theme of the poem,-“Silent, O Moyle, be the roar of thy water.”

“Whatever may be thought of those sanguine claims to antiquity which Mr. O’Flanagan and others advance for the literature of Ireland, it would be a lasting reproach,” says Moore, “upon our nationality, if the Gaelic researches of this gentleman did not meet with the liberal encouragement they so well merit.”

O’Flanagan, was, however, comparatively ignorant of the more obscure Celtic dialects; and necessitous circumstances unhappily induced him to accommodate his interpretation of certain ancient Irish documents to suit the purposes of Vallancey and other theorists of his day. Although the Gaelic Society published but one volume, it called forth the talents of scholars, who, having achieved much, when we consider the spirit of their time, demand our respect for having exerted themselves for the preservation of native Irish literature at a period when it was generally neglected.

To Chapter 3. Gilbert Index