The Dublin Society (now the RDS)

Dublin Society.**

This valuable institution originated in the private meetings of a few eminent men, Dr. Prior, Dr. Madan, and others, 1781, for scientific purposes, and was supported solely by their subscriptions for eighteen years. On April 2nd, 1749, George II. granted a charter of incorporation, as the “Dublin Society, for promoting Husbandry and other useful Arts,” and 5001. per annum; since which period, parliament have lent liberal patronage and support: it is governed by a president (his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland), and six Vice-presidents.

The Governors and Company of the Bank of Ireland are Treasurers; the officers are, two Secretaries and an Assistant, a Solicitor, Professor and Lecturer on Botany and Agriculture, Professor of Chemistry, and an Assistant, Professor and Lecturer of Mineralogy, Mining Engineer, Lecturer in Experimental Philosophy, Professor and Lecturer in the Veterinary Art, Librarian, Corrector of the Press, Master of the School for Ornament and Landscape Drawing, Master of the Figure School, Master of the School for Architectural Drawing, Master for Sculpture, and Head Gardener at the Botanic Garden, Glasnevin.

There is a General Meeting every Thursday at two o’ clock. Annual Courses of Lectures, open to the public, are delivered by the Professor and Lecturer, from whom and the House-keeper, tickets can be had. Chemistry; 1st Course commences the first Tuesday in November; 2nd Course, first Tuesday in January. Mineralogy; first Monday in March. Natural Philosophy; 1st Course, first Tuesday in March. . 2nd Course, first Tuesday in May. Botany, 1st Course, first Monday in May; 2nd Course, second Tuesday in June. Mining, first Tuesday in February. Veterinary art, first Monday in May.

The following departments are open to the Public:- Museum on Mondays and Fridays from twelve to three. Room of Statuary and Elgin Casts, Tuesdays and Saturdays from twelve to three. The Library, on introduction to the Librarian. Botanic Garden, on Tuesdays and Fridays from twelve to four; but, a member can introduce visitors at any time.

The subscription to become a member of the Society for life, is 30 guineas; the number of members is about 500.

One object of the institution is, to encourage improvements in agricultural science and practice. Premiums are granted to planters of nurseries; and such is the effect already produced, that many millions of young trees have been planted, and extensive nurseries formed.

To Botany they have given liberal encouragement; having purchased a considerable piece of land at Glasnevin, about one mile from Dublin, at the north side of the city, which they have disposed as a botanic garden, with great judgment; and an eminent professor delivers lectures at their rooms in the garden, during the spring season. This garden, laid out and designed by the late professor, contains 27 acres, 20 perches English, or 16. 2. 39. Irish acres; and is inferior, in size, to but one of the same description, that is, the Botanic garden of Jamaica: the ground has every advantage in quality of soil, and aspect of its banks, and is watered by a well-supplied stream, the river Tolka. The classification of the plants is as follows:-

The Linnaean garden, which contains two divisions, - Herbaceous plants, and shrub-fruit; and forest-tree plants.

Garden arranged on the system of Jussieu.
Garden of Indigenous plants (to Ireland), disposed according to the system of Linnaeus.
Kitchen Garden, where six apprentices are constantly employed, who receive a complete knowledge of systematic botany.
Medicinal plants.
Plants eaten, or rejected, by cattle.
Plants used in rural economy.
Plants used in dyeing.
Rock plants.
Aquatic and marsh plants. - For which an artificial marsh has been formed.
Cryptogamics.
Flower garden, besides extensive hot-houses, and a conservatory for exotics.

Near the centre of the garden, stand the professor’s-house, and lecture-room, where lectures are delivered in the spring, and of which one end communicates with the conservatory for the purpose of more easily introducing any of the exotics required at lecture. The lectures commence in May, and continue to September; the hour of attendance, eight in the morning, three days in the week. The introductory lecture is delivered at the Society’s house in Dublin; the garden is open to the public on Tuesdays and Fridays; on other days, an order from a member of the society, procures immediate admission.

The Botanic Establishment comprises a Professor, a Superintendant, two Assistants, twelve Gardeners, an six apprentices.

The Veterinary Establishment is similar to that in London; there are two eminent lecturers, and a veterinary museum.

One of the most important objects of this institution, is the cultivation of mineralogy; to promote which the society purchased, in the year 1792, the museum of Leske, professor of Natural History, at Marburg, a distinguished pupil of the illustrious Werner; this collection was subsequently improved by Kirwan, the Irish Philosopher. The classification of the minerals is Werner’s, and is as follows:- 1. Characteristic collection. 2. The Systematic. 3. Geological. 4. Geographical. 5. Economical.

The Irish minerals form a distinct collection, distributed according to the arrangement of the thirty-two counties, and is called “Museum Hibernicum.” This valuable collection of specimens is open to students at all hours, and to the public on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from 12 to 3 o’clock. Sir Charles G. S. Giesecke, is the present professor.

The Drawing School, is divided into three departments; landscape, figure, and architecture, to which is added a school of sculpture or modelling; over each of these a different master presides, who gives instruction three times each week, and three hours at each sitting. The pupils of the figure-school, are occasionally provided with a living figure, to perfect their sketches of the human frame, and all this is gratuitous. About two hundred pupils partake of this advantage, and from the exhibitions of native genius and education presented at the annual display of drawings formerly made in the society’s house, the beneficial consequences were manifest.

The first regular place of meeting used by the society, was in Shaw’s-court, till October 1767, when they removed to a convenient building which they had erected in Grafton-street; from this latter place they removed in 1796, to Hawkins-street, where they had built an edifice for their Repository, Laboratory, Galleries, Library, &c. In 1815, they purchased the mansion of the Duke of Leinster, in Kildare-street, for the sum of 20,000l, eleven of which have been paid off since. This is one of the most noble private residences in Europe; the entrance is from Kildare-street, through a grand gate-way of rusticated architecture, leading into a spacious court. The front of this palace is ornamented with four Corinthian columns on a rusticated basement story, and is crowned by a pediment, with a plain tympanum; between the pedestals of the columns are balustrades. The windows are ornamented by architraves, and those of the first story have circular and angular pediments alternately; at the rear of the building is a lawn of great extent, separated from Merrion-square by a low wall, and occupying the greater part of the western side of the square. The hall is a noble lofty room, and has an elegantly ornamented ceiling; at the end, you pass between large pillars into a long gallery at right angles to the length of the hall, in which are the board-room, news-room, secretary’s apartments, &c. **

Hall**. - In three squared niches above the front arcade are large busts of Nero, Vespasian, and Brutus; over one of the doors on the right hand side, are busts of Mithridates, Alexander, and Homer; and on the adjacent chimney piece those of Plautilla, the Farnese Hercules, and Gaeta. Above one of the doors on the opposite side, are busts of Commodus, Pompey, and Marcus Aurelius; and above the other, those of two Senators, between which stands Ariadne. In the recesses of the arcades are Clythia and Niobe’s daughter. There are also statues of the Belvidere Apollo, Venus de’ Medici, and Caligula, resting on pedestals.

But the most interesting works in this part of the buildings, are the performances of several young artists educated in the Society’s schools; among whch a bust of Young the tragedian, by Behnes, is admirable. This young artist purposes to evince his gratitude to the institution, by presenting them with a statue of his present majesty, which he is now executing, and which is to be placed in the new drawing school. Prometheus chained to the rock, by Gallagher, is a classical conception, and is executed with ability. The busts of the late Serjeant Ball, Hamilton Rowan, - Reeves, Esq., Rev. Mr. Taylor, and Mr. Farren the comedian, have all been admired for their style, but more particularly for the extreme accuracy of the likenesses; and are all by the pupils of the Society’s schools. **

Gallery of Statuary, Busts, &c**. - This collection occupies two rooms; and is as favourably disposed as the very awkward and imperfect accommodation which these apartments afford, can admit of.

The first room contains casts from the Elgin Marbles, consisting of ornaments taken from the Friezes of die Parthenon at Athens. There are also the Metopes of the exterior frieze, representing the Centaurs and Lapithae,

Near the entrance door, a reclining figure, in large life, much mutilated, represents Theseus or Hercules; and opposite is the Ilissus. The horse’s head is tolerably perfect and very fine.

The second room contains Statues of a Faun, a Gladiator, Bacchus, a Roman Slave, a Grecian Venus; the Laocoon, and Belvedere Apollo, Pugilists, Venus de’ Medici (the gift of I. Weld, Esq.), and Antinous: with the following busts, Niobe’s son, Ariadne, a River God, Antinous, a Vestal Virgin, Niobe, and Susanna. **

Inner Hall**. - Within the arcade in the great hall, and at either side of the door leading to the secretary’s room, conversation and board rooms, are statues of Apollo de’ Medici and Flora, on handsome pedestals. On the left is the door leading by the principal staircase, to the Library and Museum. Concealing a disused doorway, whick opened into the state parlour, is a figure of Susanna in large life; and on the landing at the foot of the stairs, is a painting on a large scale, a copy by Tresham (who was instructed in the Society’s school), from Michael Angelo’s Last Judgment; and on the right, as you ascend, is a model of the celebrated wooden bridge, at Schaffhausen in Switzerland, presented to the Society in 1771, by Lord Bristol. The original, which was destroyed by the French in their retreat from Switzerland, was 365 feet in length; and consisted of two arches, whose chords measured, the one 172, the other 193 feet, which *appear *to spring from a pier in the centre, the remains of a stone bridge. On the next landing is a figure of Mercury seated on a pedestal. **

The Library**. - At the head of the stairs are the doors of the Library and Museum. The former is a noble apartment in the western wing, 67 feet by about 30 (independently of a semi-circular recess), and surrounded by a light gallery. Here is an excellent collection of about 12,000 books, particularly rich in Botanic works; amongst which is a very valuable work in four large folio volumes, “Gramitia Austriaca,” by Nicholas Thomas Host; the gift of the Duke of Bedford, when Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The MSS. are bound in 17 vols: most of them are copies of those of Bishop Sterne, made by Walter Harris, the historian; from whose widow they were purchased for £500: they contain copies of the Annals of Innisfallen and Multifernan, and several tracts on ancient Irish history. The only original documents known to exist in this collection, are those which formerly belonged to Archbishop King. Harris’s catalogue of these MSS. is imperfect.

On pedestals, in the piers of the recess, stand two well-executed marble busts by Van Nost, of Dr. Prior and Dr. Madan, the founders of the Society. There is a series of volumes in the Library, of which the Society may not improperly be styled the Authors, viz. the County Surveys; works undertaken at their instance, and published at their expense; some of which are deservedly esteemed. The Survey of Galway has been added to the series in 1824. **

The Museum**.-This interesting and instructive collection occupies six rooms en suite.

The First Room contains a miscellaneous assemblage of curiosities. In a glass case, near the western window, is a mummy in a very perfect state of preservation. The interior of the coffin-lid is adorned with grotesque figures and hieroglyphic characters, whose colouring is exceedingly vivid. Near this is a figure clad in the armour of one of the Tiger-guards of Tippoo Sultan.

A curious Earthen Urn is shown, found by the Bishop of Derry near his seat, Vaughan, on Lough Swilly; it was full of bones and ashes, and beneath the stump of an oak tree, which was probably some centuries buried in the earth. In one of the flat cases may be seen, a curious ancient Irish regal sceptre, made of iron, inlaid with gold, which was found in a bog in the county of Clare. This relic was much admired by his majesty, when he visited the Museum, and he is said to have examined it minutely.

In the case of Irish curiosities, an old Bassoon is preserved, found in the ruins of Dunluce Castle. In the same case is a small brass figure, the head, arms and legs of which were formally moveable; and a large silver Brooch with Ogham inscriptions on the back (described by Gen. Valancey in his Collectanea, who asserts these characters to be the names of certain Irish Kings) with several ancient Irish weapons.

Around the room, on little brackets, stand four brazen Lamas, taken from a Temple at Nepaul in Hindostan, by Lieutenant Boileau, whose life paid the forfeit of his temerity, being shortly after poisoned by the Indians to punish what they deemed sacrilege.

A very beautiful specimen of the Igneus Ibis, i. e. the glossy Ibis, This is one of three shot by Colonel Patrickson, near Ballymulney-House in die county of Longford. Here is also a Golden Oriale, killed in the town of Wicklow, by Counsellor Coates : this bird is chiefly an inhabitant of Spain.

In the windows are some very beautiful specimens of stained glass, the gift and performance of Mr. M’Alister, who attained considerable eminence by his revival of this long lost art. (“The windows (of Lismore Cathedral) are of stained glass, richly and exquisitely executed, the work of a native artist, George M’Alister of Dublin, who devoted his youth and talents to discover the lost art of painting on glass, and who died at an early age, after having made himself master of the secret.”-Ryland’s History of Waterford; p. 337. This young artist who died at the age of 26, in 1812, was the son of Mr. John M’Alister, head porter of the University. The principal of his works are in the windows of the Cathedral of Tuam; where are full-length figures of the four Evangelists; Moses holding up the serpent in the Wilderness; the arms and crest of the Waterford family; one of the members of which, the Lord Decies, was Archbishop, at the period of the insertion of these windows: with various ornaments in the remaining windows.

See Gent’s. Mag. July, 1812.)

In the centre of the room stands an interesting model of Stonegenge and close by is another model of as strange an Irish curiosity, a circular building, called the stairs, discovered inthe county of Kerry, not many years since. In 1787 Gencral Valancey attempted an explanation of its former application; and in 1811 Mr. Leslie Foster, and Mr. Rochfort commissioners for reclaiming the bogs in Ireland, procured careful sketches of the whole, from which this model was copied. The supposition of its having been a Milesian Amphitheatre is not confirmed by any reasoning of a satisfactory nature. Some pearls found in various rivers through the kingdom are also exhibited here. The best have been found in the River Bann in Ulster, and may probably explain the derivation of this river’s name, “Ban signifying white.”

Second Room. Here the animal kingdom is displayed, arranged in six classes. 1. Mammalia. 2. Aves. 3. Amphibia. 4. Pisces. 5. Insectae. 6. Vermes. Here is a great variety of shells, butterflies and beetles, and of the most beautiful species. Over one of the cases lies extended the stuffed skin of the very Boa Constrictor, described by M’Leod in his “Voyage of the Alceste.” A yellow-breasted Martin; a large Otter, shot in Bray river, with a trout in his mouth; and a Chamois in the warm clothing with which nature protects him from the rigours of the wintry season, in his Alpine country, presented by the Archduke John of Austria, are the most important objects in the second room.

The Third Room contains the mineralogical portion of the collections. In this apartment are two very beautiful models of Chinese state pleasure-boats made of ivory, mother of pearl, &c. the one representing a bird, the other a beast.

In the Fourth Room are developed the Natural History of Greenland and the habits of the natives, in a very accurate manner. On one side is a Greenlander’s hut, supplied with all its accustomed furniture, at the entrance of which stand the dwarf inhabitants. Around, in splendid cases, are innumerable mineralogical specimens from the same terra inhospita; and in one of the windows are the head and tusks of that extraordinary animal, the Walrus.

Many other interesting curiosities and natural productions are contained in this apartment, all of which were collected by the present professor of Mineralogy, Sir Charles Giesecke, during a residence of three years in Greenland and the Northern regions; of whom there is, over the door opening to the corridor, an admirable portrait, by Sir H. Raeburn.

The Fifth Room contains the remaining, or geological part of the original Leskean collection. Besides the mineralogical specimens in this apartment, there are some very interesting antiques presented by the late George Latouche, Esq. Amongst these are text large Etruscan Vases; one case of smaller ones; a case of various small urns, ornaments, and figures, all from the ruins of Pompeii. There are also 74 paintings on Vellum, the subjects of which are copied from the different designs upon the Vases. There are three bronze figures, a Bacchanalian, a very beautiful Venus, and a mutilated figure not unlike the usual statue of Caracalla. Here is also a collection of Siberian polished stones, presented to the Society by Lord Whitworth (when Lord Lieutenant, 2nd January, 1817), to whom they had been given by the Empress Catherine of Russia.

The Sixth Room, is the Museum Hibernicum; and contains mineralogical and geological specimens from the 32 counties of Ireland. Some Irish gold from the Crohan Kinshela mine in the county of Wicklow, and a facsimile of the largest piece ever found there. There are several parts of the Irish Moose Deer’s antlers over the cases in this room, and one or two busts and figures. A small figure of the right Hon. John Foster (now Lord Oriel), and busts of Archduke John of Austria, and Sir Charles Giesecke; the latter are not part of the Museum property.

The Chemical Laboratory is finished in the most modern and improved manner, and the apparatus is of the most scientific description, such as the present learned professor is entitled to: here, an annual course of public lectures is delivered, and there is accommodation for 400 auditors.

The Apartments appropriated to the use of members, are all *en suite *on the ground floor. They are the Board and Conversation rooms, Ante-room, and Secretary’s office, or Sub-committee room. The Board-room is a noble apartment, a little too low, but otherwise of fair proportion, 67 feet by about 36, with a rich ceiling, supported by columns at each end. In a spacious semi-circular recess stands a fine canopied President’s chair, richly carved and gilded, a memento of Ireland’s departed greatness, having formerly been that of the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons: and here, too, is a full-length portrait, by Sir W. Beechy, of a nobleman, who once so ably filled it, Lord Oriel, better known as the Right Hon. John Foster. Corresponding with this, is a portrait of Richard Kirwan, the face of which was painted by Hamilton.

Over the chimney-pieces are two small frames containing banditti scenes (small life), in white marble, the one by Smyth, the other by Kirk. In the original grand entrance to this spacious room, and directly opposite to the President’s chair, is a bust of his present Majesty, who visited this institution in August 1821.

The Board-room communicates with the Conversation-room, an apartment of considerable, though much inferior, dimensions, where is a portrait of a once distinguished member, and very meritorious antiquarian, General Valancy. Here are likewise a series of 42 architectural drawings from classic remains of antiquity, by Mr. Tracey, made at the expense of Henry Hamilton, Esq., of Fitzwilliam Square.

In the Ante-room is a portrait in crayons, of Counsellor Wolfe; and two marble busts, one of Lord Chesterfield, the other of Mr. Maple, the first Secretary to the Society. In the Secretary’s room is the collection of paintings presented by Thomas Pleasants, Esq. to the Society together with a portrait of himself, by Solomon William.

In the collection are the following:- The Visitation of the Shepherds; the Dream; Narcissus; Joseph and Mary; two landscapes by Barrett; two large battle pieces; two smaller battle pieces; the Magdalene in a Wilderness; St. Paul preaching; the Holy Family; Peg Woffington, by Sir Joshua Reynolds; Head of Captain Ram, by Hogarth, &c. Also two plates of plaster of Paris Medals, Swift, (said to be a faithful likeness), Malone, Sparks, Woodward, Ryder; and a statue of Handel.

The Drawing schools are at present held in the offices of Leinster House, but will, in the course of this year (1825), be transferred to a range of buildings erecting for their reception, under the superintendance of the society’s architect, Mr. Baker. The entrance is beneath the northern colonnade adjoining the lawn: the entire building measures 127 feet, disposed in the following manner: a vestibule 20 feet by 10, a stair-case, leading to a spacious and lofty gallery 90 feet by 30, in which the collection of statuary will be arranged. In a niche at the end of this noble apartment, will be placed Behnes’s statue of his Majesty. On the basement story is the school-room, 40 feet by 30, where the pupils are gratuitously instructed in architecture, landscape and figure-drawing, by eminent masters. There are two other apartments, one for making drawings, the other models from life. All the apartments are warmed by heated air; the front is towards the lawn, and is neatly finished to imitate granite.

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