The city outside the walls.

Chap. V.

Of the growth and increase of the city of Dublin without the walls.

Sect. I.

Whoever takes the pains of comparing the two maps annexed to this work, namely, one published by Mr. Speed in 1610, and the other by John Rocque in 1759, will readily perceive the great growth and increase of the city of Dublin without the walls, since the former of these periods. At that time the river Liffey was not imbanked by quays on the north side, and only a part of it on the south.

The ground now called the Bachelor’-walk, the two Ormond Quays east and west of Essex-bridge, the Inns-quay, Arran-quay, and Back-quay, taking up in the whole an extent of ground of above 5,000 feet, on which are many commodious, and some stately houses erected, was then covered with ouse, and overflowed by the tides, except a small part about the King’s-inns, which had been a monastery of Dominican friers. Mary’s-abbey was then the extent of that part of the town (called Ostman-town, corruptly Oxman-town) to the east, and north-east from thence to the ship-buildings, containing Capel-street, Abbey-street, Mary’s-street, Jervis-street, Stafford-street, Henry-street, Great Marlborough-street, Henrietta-street, Bolton-street, Dominick-street, Dorset-street, Drogheda-street, Cavendish-street and Sackville-street.

This last mentioned street requires a larger description than this place will admit of; which for elegance of plan and architecture exceeds any street in London. These, with a great number of other streets and lanes have been since laid out in that quarter. On the other side, to the west, Michan’s-church and Church-street, (so called from thence) were for the most part the bounds, and all westward of them,* *as far as the Barracks and Montpelier-hill, taking in Bow-street, Smithfield, Hay-market, Channel-row, King-street, Queen-street, Linen-hall-street, Anne-street, Lurgan-street, Coleraine-street, and many other streets and lanes have increased on this tide. Grange-Gorman, Stonybatter, and Glassnemenoge, now united to the town, were then villages at some distance from it, in the latter of which places the sheriffs of Dublin have been known to hold their courts in the times of the plague, and particularly in the year 1575 (Lib. Alb. Eccl. S. Trin. Dub. MS.), as being remote from the city.

On the south side of the Liffey the city bath been likewise much enlarged since the year 1610. The space of ground now occupied by Crane-lane, Essex-street, the Custom-house, Sycamore-alley, Temple-bar, Fleet-street, Aston’s-quay, and Lazer’s-hill was then under the dominion of the water, and George’s-quay with a large tract of many acres, (now good meadow ground) from the lower end of Lazer’s-hill to Rings-end-bridge has in our memory been recovered from that element. Dame-street contained then only a short range of buildings on the north side, and extended no farther than to the precincts of the Augustin-monastery, not 300 feet in length, opposite to the end of George’s-lane. The dissolution of that religious house made room for enlarging the city eastward, the precincts whereof were first converted into gentlemens houses and gardens, such as the lord chancellor Eustace’s, John Crow’s, and others, which were again demolished in our memory, and converted into several streets, as Eustace-street, Crow-street, at the end of which near Temple-bar has lately been erected the new theatre-royal on the place where the said monastery formerly stood, Fownes’s-street, and others.

The parts opposite to the then Dame-street were tne principally taken up by St.** *Andrew’s church, and church-yard, which at that time stood very near to Dame’s-gate, and on a part of the site of that church and church-yard Castle-lane, and the houses adjoining were laid out, and on the remainder the Castle-market was built by alderman William Fownes and Thomas Pooley, esq; so lately as the year 1704. The church of St. Andrew was before that time removed further eastward near the college, where it now stands. George’s lane was nearly the extent of the suburbs to the east, and was then but slenderly built, and thinly inhabited; though we are told by Mr. Stanihurst (Description of Ireland in Holingshed, p. 23); “that it was antiently a place of more consequence, but *that the inhabitants thereof being daily and hourly molested and preyed on by their prolling mountain neighbours, were forced to suffer their buildings to fall into decay, and to embay themselves within the city walls.”

The same writer adds, “That a place therein (called at the time of his giving that account in 1586) Collet’s-inns was in antient times the seat of the* *king’s exchequer, but that once the baron fitting in it solemnly and carelessly, the Irish laid hold of the opportunity, rushed in, surprised the unarmed multitude, slew all that fell under their power, and ransacked the king’s treasure; after which mishap the exchequer was removed from thence into a place of greater security.”

That author gives no account when this accident happened: but it appears from records, that the site* *of the old exchequer was on the 28th of July 36 Edw. III. (1362) granted in custodium to the prior and friers of the Augustinian order in Dublin, (which lay in the neighbourhood of it) for the profits whereof they accounted in the 17th year of Richard II. (1393) as appears by a pipe roll of that year in Birmingham tower. The place nevertheless, though abandoned as to its original use, retained the name of the exchequer long after, which it communicated to a lane called Chequer-lane, built in the year 1610, and extending from George’s-lane to Grafton-street.

Stanihurst proceeds (Description of Ireland in Hollingshed, p. 23.), “That there was in that lane (namely, George’s-lane) a chappell dedicated to St. George, likely to have been founded by some worthy knight of the garter; that the mayor, with his brethren, was accustomed with great triumphs, and pageants yearlie on St. George’s feast to repair to that chappell, and there to offer; but that the chappell had beene of late razed, and the stones thereof by consent of the assemblie, turned to a common oven; converting the antient monument of a doutie, adventurous, and holie knight, to the coal-rake sweeping of a puf-loafe baker.” [puf?KF] This chapel was under the care and government of a master and wardens, and supported chiefly by* oblations; for *which reason the parliament thought proper to take it under their protection, and by a statute (Rot. Cancel. 36 Hen. VI. No. 19) provided, “That whatever person in the county of Dublin should make any prey upon the Irish enemies, exceeding 40 cows, should deliver one cow, or five shillings in money, towards the reparation of St. George’s chappell in Dublin, and an action was given for the recovery of the same to the master and wardens thereof,”

A village, called Hogges, lay without side the city walls, and eastward of George’s-lane, in which a nunnery under the invocation of the B.** **V. Mary was founded by Dermod Mac-Morough, king of Leinster, about the year 1146, before the arrival of the English in this kingdom. It is not improbable that the village took its rise as well as name from the nunnery: For Ogh in the Irish language signifies a virgin ; and, removing the aspirate, H, the word by an early corruption may pass into Hogges, as much as to say the place of the virgins. Be this as it may, the village is mentioned in several early charters; particularly in one made about the year 1200 **by Sir Jeffery de Constantin to the abbey of Tristernagh (Archives of Tristernagh, MS. chart. I.) in the county of Westmeath, whereby he grants to the said abbey one messuage without the walls of Dublin, near the village of Hogges, the foot-steps or traces of the name whereof still remain in a street called Hogg-hill and Hoggin-green, whereon St. Andrew’s church now stands, which took up a large space of ground extending to the river Liffey, is often mentioned by the Irish historians, as the common place for the execution of criminals, among whom, to give one instance, Adam Duff O-Toole was in the year 1327 burned here for heresy and blasphemy .(Campion’s Hist. of Irel. p.86. Chron. in Hollingsh. p. 69.)

Part of this green is now called College- green, from a college founded there by queen Elizabeth in the latter end of the 16th century, on the site of the monastery of All-Saints. This village is now united to the city, and the whole green taken up by buildings; though at the period mentioned, scarce any thing but that little village, the sites of the said religious houses, a Bridewell for the reception of vagrants, and an hospital, where the parliament-house now stands, were to be seen.

A place also on this green was antiently called Hoggen-butt, where the citizens had butts for their exercise in archery; and near them was a small range of buildings called Tib and Tom, where possibly the citizens amused themselves at leisure times by playing at keals or nine-pins. This practice seems to be hinted at by an old proverb, though not applied to this place, namely, he struck at Tib and down fell Tom,*** ***We find theft buildings called Tib and Tom, mentioned in the will (Prerog. Office.) of Richard the first earl of Cork, as mortgaged to him by Theodore lord Dockwra, and the lady Anne his mother for £300, and rented from the mortgagee by Sir Philip Percival at £24 pounds per annum.

On the east and south of George’s-lane (the churches of St. Peter and St. Stephen, and the college excepted) little was to be seen but enclosed fields. Stephen’s-green was then so called, which took its name from the neighbourhood of the church of St, Stephen, and no improvements were on it; nor was there then any open street or passage from thence to the college but round through George’s-lane.

A part of Keivan’ s-street was indeed then built, and some residentiary houses of the prebendaries and canons of the cathedral of St Patrick, together with the archbishop’s palace. From hence the reader will have a just idea of the growth and increase of the city in these quarters, when he sees, that Chequer-lane, William-street, Clarendon-street, King-street, Grafton-street, Anne-street, Duke-street, Dawson-street, Molesworth-street, Kildare-street, Frederick-street, Merrion-street, Leinster-street, Nassau-street, Clare-street, the buildings about Stephen’s-green, (which is one of the finest squares in Europe) being almost an English mile in circumference, York-street, Aungier-street, Peter-street, Cuffe-street, with many other streets and lane have been added to it since the period aforementioned.

The same thoughts will occur when he views the west and south-well parts of the town, and sees what few streets or buildings then extended westward or southward of Newgate, except Francis-street, James’s-street, and Thomas street, and the precincts of churches and religious houses. **

SECT. II.**

Besides the growth of the city and suburbs in streets, lanes, and alleys, since the time mentioned, it hath also been wonderfully improved in buildings both public and private.

Within the walls of the city, the castle hath indeed lost its antient strength, but hath assumed a more graceful form, and better fitted for the settled times of peace and tranquillity. Within that compass is to be seen a stately tholsel, erected in the year 1683, and adapted to the business of commerce, wherein are chambers laid out for holding the general assemblies of the city, the quarter sessions, and other courts for the administration of justice, and where the records of the city both antient and modern are preserved with great care. Near to the former was erected in the year 1695; a commodious building called the Four-courts for the dispatch of the publick justice of the nation.

What alterations the city has received in respect to private buildings, has been seen before, and there are in it several stately houses, most of the principal streets arc well built and very little inferior to those in London, and the houses are well adapted to the uses of trade and of the several families inhabiting in them.

The public buildings without the walls of the city are, the Royal Hospital of Kilmainham, a large and elegant building, erected in the year 1684 for the reception of aged and maimed soldiers its form is quadrangular, finely seated on a rising ground at the west end of the town near the river Liffey.

The Blue-coat-boys hospital in Oxmantown for the maintenance and education of decayed citizens* *children, situate at the west end of the city near the barracks, built in the year 1670. Stephens’s-hospital, a fair, large, and commodious building, for the maintenance and cure of the sick and wounded, at the west end of the city, on the tide of the river Liffey. Mercer’s-hospital in Stephen-street, and the Charitable Infirmary on the Inns-quay for the fame purposes. An hospital for Incurables on Lazer’s-hill. The Poor-house. Lying-in-hospital. An hospital for lunatics.

The Barracks, the largest and handsomest building of the kind in Europe, in which are generally quartered four battalions of foot and one regiment of horse; most pleasantly situated at the west end of the town, and on the north side of the river, having an agreeable prospect of the water, the fields, the city and neighbouring mountains.

Add to these a stately Custom-house, five bridges, of which Essex-bridge, a most stately and masterly performance, newly re-built according to the model of that at Westminster, with balustrades of stone and foot passages on five arches of most curious workmanship, and a large and elegant house for the habitation of the lord mayor for the time being, but these will be handled more at large hereafter. The two cathedrals and the college will be taken notice of in separate chapters, and the parliament-house not passed over in silence.

The stately houses of the nobility and gentry are too numerous to be described; and therefore we shall content ourselves with naming the few following. About Stephen’s-green are Abercorn-house, now inhabited by lord Joscelyn, the earl of Lanesborough’s, the earl of Shelburne’s, Mr. Whaley’s, and the late bishop of Clogher’s. In other parts of the town, the earl of Tyrone’s, lady Alice Hume’s, Mr. Trevor’s, Mr. Putland’s, the earl of Charlemount’s, the houses in Sackville-street, Cavendish-street, Dominick-street, Kildare-stret*, *Dawson-street, Molesworth-street and many other streets which are imporving in elegance of buildings, which art not exceeded by many other cities in Europe.

But above all a house built by the marquiss of Kildare, perhaps the noblest city residence in the British dominions.

From its present state may be fairly inferred, that the character of Nobilissima Civitas given to Dublin by king Edgar’s charter in the 10th century, is now truly applicable to it. It is about 10 miles in compass, the second city in his majesty’s dominions, and the fifth, perhaps the fourth, in Europe.

To Chapter VI. Harris Contents.