Historic Houses and Distinguished Dubliners

Chapter X

**Historic Houses and Distinguished Dubliners **

The Temple, Marino. (14920 bytes)Of the mansions and private residences which once adorned the streets and squares of Dublin, some have been demolished, others have fallen from their high estate as fashion and even respectability have deserted the neighbourhood in which they stand, and an appreciable proportion now afford housing to Government offices and to places of business.

Of the last class, the best remaining specimens are Leinster House, Tyrone House, Charlemont House, Belvedere House, Aldborough House, and Powerscourt House. In the second category may be placed houses in Digges Street, Aungier Street, Cuffe Street, Mercer Street, and York Street on the south side, and Great Denmark Street, Henrietta Street, Dominick Street, Stafford Street, Buckingham Street, and Gardiner’s Street on the north side, built for the occupation of persons of acknowledged position in the social scale, now too often let to weekly tenants; while the once-prosperous Meath Liberties afford too many instances of houses, formerly the residences of wealthy merchants, now fast disappearing piecemeal under the disintegrating effects of tenement occupation.

Leinster House, now in the occupation of the Royal Dublin Society, who purchased it from the Duke of Leinster in 1815 for £19,000 subject to an annual rent of £600, was built about the middle of the 18th century by the 20th Earl of Kildare, from the designs of Cassels, as the town-house of the Leinster Geraldines.

The site was at one time comprised in the lands of the Nunnery of St. Mary del Hogges, which ran side by side with the grounds of All Hallows Priory, now the College Park, and were known as the Mynchen’s (Mynchens - elderly nuns) Fields, or Mynchen’s Mantle. They are mentioned under the latter title in a deed of 1735, but the name was corrupted into Mr. Minchin’s, or Menson’s, fields: the latter designation occurs in a deed of 1871.

Leaded fanlight, Merrion Square. (13931 bytes)The main building of Leinster House has undergone little alteration. Resting on a rusticated basement storey are four Corinthian pillars supporting a pediment and plain tympanum, and having balustrades between the columns. The windows are ornamented with architraves; those of the first storey crowned by pediments alternately circular and angular. On the right and left of the Kildare Street facade are Doric colonnades starting from either angle of the main building. That on the left is surmounted by the new and handsome theatre, in which is one of the finest modern organs in existence, and behind the right-side colonnade appears the semi-circular recess which served to enlarge and light the second-storey room at its northern end. The handsome hall, with its ornamented ceiling, contains some good paintings and pieces of sculpture. Above it the reading-room and library of the Society are magnificent rooms, handsomely ceiled and having their sides adorned with fluted Ionic columns.

Tyrone House, in Marlborough Street, opposite the Pro-Cathedral, was known in the early 19th century as Waterford House, on the creation of the Marquisate in the Beresford family. It was the first private edifice of stone erected in Dublin, having, by a few years, preceded Leinster House.

Like the latter, it is from the designs of Cassels, and is in three store)‘s of hewn granite. The doorway is ornamented by Doric pillars supporting an entablature and pediment, anti above it is a large Venetian window. The fittings of the interior were sumptuous, and the mahogany doors, balusters, and handrail, and the beautiful stucco-work of Cremillon and Francini still attest its former magnificence. The premises are now the headquarters of the Commissionens of National Education, who have added considerably to the original structure.

Charlemont House, in Rutland Square North, was built in 1773 from the designs of James Caulfield, Earl of Charlemont, with the assistance of Sir William Chambers. The Earl, a prominent figure in his day, died here in 1799, aged 71, in a room on the north side towards Granby Row.

The front, of Arklow granite, consists of a rusticated basement and two upper storeys, each of five windows. These are adorned with architraves: those on the first storey have pediments alternately angular and circular, similar to those of Leinster House. The obelisks which flank the doorway once supported lamps, of which Lord Charlemont formerly lighted four, at a cost, paid to the Rotunda Hospital, of sixteen guineas per annum. (Around and About the Rotunda. Sarah Atkinson)

Semi-circular curtain walls, with circular-headed niches surmounted by a balustrade, project from the building on either hand. The building is occupied by the offices of the Registrar-General, and a search-room was added in 1895. The ceiling of the ante-room still retains its stucco-work, but the library, connected by a corridor with the main building, has been dismantled to serve as a census office.

Aldborough House, built in 1797 at a cost of £40,000, was quitted by its owners owing to the dampness of its situation, and was purchased in 1813 for the purposes of a public school termed the Feinaiglian Institute. (From Dr. Feinagle, its German principal. At this school many distinguished alumni of T.C.D. of the past generation received their preparatory instruction) It became the Commissariat Depot for Ireland in 1843. Like the other 18th-century houses already mentioned, it contains some of the beautiful stucco-work distinctive of the period.

Mornington House, now No. 24 Upper Merrion Street, the birthplace of the Duke of Wellington, and afterwards the dwelling-place of the fortunate Dublin woollen-draper born in Merrion Square, who rose through a baronetcy to a peerage as first Baron Cloncurry, is now the office of the Irish Land Commission, and has lost all distinctive features.

Powerscourt House, in William Street, built in 1771 at a cost of £10,000, became, after a short term of occupation, the Government Stamp Office in 1811, and has been for many years the wholesale drapery establishment of Messrs. Ferrier and Pollock.

The best preserved of the Dublin 18th-century mansions is undoubtedly Belvedere House, Great Denmark Street. It was the first house in the new street between the Rotunda Gardens and what is now Mountjoy Square, and was built in 1775 for George Rochfort, second Earl of Belvedere, at a cost of £24,000; and was purchased for a college by the Jesuits in 1841 for the small sum of £1,800 - sic transit gloria mundi.

In 1884 Killeen House, the adjoining town-residence of Lord Fingall, was purchased for the college by its president, the Very Reverend Thomas Finlay, S.J., who in the same year added the gymnasium and the north side of the quadrangle, containing the boys’ chapel, class-rooms, and laboratories, thus enabling the community to preserve the principal rooms in their original state; and the exquisite stucco-work of Venetian artists, and the mantelpieces of genuine Bossi-work have lost little of their beauty.

The handsome organ is adorned with paintings by Angelica Kauffmann. The Venus drawing-room and the Diana and Apollo rooms, now affording accommodation to the College libraries, are maintained as such interesting mementoes ought to be; and the courtesy of the Very Reverend President affords a guarantee that these relics of 18th-century Dublin will not be altogether inaccessible to the curious.

Of those houses which have ‘come down in the world,’ probably the most striking instance is that of Moira House, the once palatial residence of Lord Moira, afterwards Marquess of Hastings, a determined upholder of Irish rights. This house is mentioned by John Wesley in his journal as one of the most magnificent palaces in Europe. It had then three storeys, the uppermost of which has been removed, and the drawing-rooms on the second floor extended the full length of the house. The ‘octagon’ room, with a window the sides of which were inlaid with mother-of-pearl, John Wesley in 1775 ‘was surprised to observe, though not a more grand, yet a far more elegant room than any he had seen in England.’

Here Pamela, wife of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, was the guest of the Dowager-Countess when her husband was arrested at No. 151 Thomas Street. A row of large trees, then extending from Arran Bridge to within 200 feet of Bloody Budge, along the south shore of Usher’s Island, then gave dignity to the site of Moira House. It is now a Mendicity Institution and public wash-house, having passed into the hands of the governors of the Institute for the Suppression of Mendicity in 1826.

The list of notabilities to whom Dublin has given birth is a long one. From Swift to Burke, from Michael William Balfe to Charles Villiers Stanford, from Richard Brinsley Sheridan to James Sheridan Le Fanu, from Sir John Denham to James Clarence Mangan, from Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, to Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington; what a procession of figures, great in every walk of life, has the Irish metropolis given to the English-speaking world!

In such a work as the present it would be idle to attempt to do more than touch on the more noteworthy of Dublin’s distinguished citizens. First amongst these in his intimate connection with the history of his native city is the great Dean of St. Patrick’s. Jonathan Swift, the posthumous child of another Jonathan, steward of the King’s Inns, Dublin, was born in 1667 in the house of his uncle, Godwin Swift, at 7 Hoey’s Court, between Werburgh Street and Little Ship Street, a locality deriving its name from Sir John Hoey of Dunganstown, Coutity Wicklow.

In the words of Lecky’s essay, ‘Of the intellectual grandeur of his career it is needless to speak. The chief sustainer of an English ministry, the most powerful advocate of the Peace of Utrecht, the creator of public opinion in Ireland, he has graven his name indelibly in English history, and his writings of their own kind are unique in English literature.’

Great as a satirist, great as a statesman, he was at least equalled in the latter capacity by Edmund Burke, born at 12 Arran Quay in 1729, and a student of the University outside which his statue now stands. To quote John Morley: ‘Of Burke’s writings … it may be truly said that the further we get away from the immediate passions of that time, the more surprisingly do we find how acute, and at the same time how broad and rational his insight was.’

As an English satirist Swift is probably unequalled, but if Sir Philip Francis be indeed the anonymous ‘Junius,’ Dublin can claim to have produced Swift’s most formidable rival in political satire. Sir Philip and his father, Philip Francis, D.D., were both occupants of the house in which the former was born in 1740.

Poetry is represented by the names of many Dubliners. Sir John Denham, son of the Chief Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland, was born in the Irish metropolis in 1615 His poem of *Cooper’s Hill *holds a high rank in topographical description, and contains one of the best-known couplets in English verse:-

‘Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull;

Strong without rage; without o’erflowing full.’

Thomas Parnell (1679), the friend of Pope and Swift, became Archdeacon of Clogher, and obtained a *succes d’estime *for his poem of *The Hermit, *versified from the *Gesta Romanorum. *The birthplace of Thomas Moore (1779), best known of Irish poets, No. 12 Aungier Street, still as then occupied by a grocer and spirit-dealer, is marked by a paltry bust. The friend and biographer of Byron will always continue to hold a place in the Irish national memory, for the beautiful versification of the *Irish Meoldies *has done much to preserve the folk-song of her people, and to foster their patriotic aspirations.

The ill-fated James Clarence Mangan was born in 1803 at 3 Lord Edward Street, formerly part of Fishamble Street, in a house which bears over a window of the first storey a shield with the arms of the Usher family, in whose possession the house continued until the beginning of the 18th century.

He afterwards lived at 6 York Street, and died in 1849 from cholera contracted in a wretched lodging in Bride Street. His writings are marked by true poetic feeling, and *The Dark Rosaleen *is one of the most touching national ballad-poems in any language.

Nor should the Rev. Charles Wolfe be forgotten, though his modesty left to accident his identification as the author of *The Burial of Sir John Moore. *Last of the Dublin-born poets may be’ placed him whom the sister isle once most delighted to honour. Nahum Tate (1652), poet-laureate to William III., succeeded, in the words of one critic, in performing two wellnigh impossible tasks, degrading the Psalms of David and vulgarising Shakespeare’s King Lear.

The English drama owes to Dublin some of its most prominent authors and actors. First amongst the former stands Richard Brinsley Sheridan, born in 1751 at No. 12 Dorset Street. Most typical of Irish erratic geniuses, the friend of George IV. when Prince Regent, his versatility may be gauged by Byron’s statement that he had made the best speech, that on the Begums of Oude, and written the best comedy *(School for Scandal), *the best opera *(The Duenna), *and the best farce *(The Critic). *In addition to these achievements he attained some fame as a writer of tragedy by his Pizarro.

John O’Keeffe, both actor and dramatist, whose *Recollections *vividly portray 18th-century life on both sides of the Channel, was a prolific writer of farces and operettas, and some of his songs still hold their place in popular collections.

That strange genius, Charles Robert Maturin (1782), the Irish ‘Monk’ Lewis, was author of the drama of Bertram, extravagantly eulogised by Byron and Scott, but now forgotten. His novel, however, of *Melmoth the Wanderer *is known to most students of literature.

Thomas Southerne (1660) was also a native of Dublin, but entered the Middle Temple in London, and soon abandoned law for the army. He served as a captain in suppressing Monmouth’s’ rebellion, and finally settled down as a dramatic author. His plays of *The Fatal Marriage *and *Oroonoko *were favourites with 18th-century audiences, and earned a competence for their author.

William Preston (1753), who assisted in founding the Royal Irish Academy, wrote poems, plays, and essays. One of his tragedies, with the unpromising title of *Democratic Rage, *had some success on the English boards.

Amongst Dublin-born actors; besides John O’Keeffe, arc Spranger Barry, born in Skinner’s Row in 1719, son of a Dublin silversmith, and himself a member of the Goldsmiths’ Company; and perhaps best known to Englishmen of Dublin’s wearers of the buskin, Thomas Doggett, born in Castle Street about the middle of the 17th century, founder of the coat and silver badge to be rowed for annually by six young Thames watermen. The family of Dogoit or Dogot is mentioned in the Anglo-Irish annals of the 13th century.

The elder Macready was the son of a Dublin upholsterer, though his more celebrated son was born in Mary Street, Euston Road, London. Of Dublin actresses we have the beautiful George Anne Bellamy (1731), illegitimate daughter of an Irish nobleman, and Margaret, better known as ‘Peg,’ Woffington (1720), the daughter of a Dublin bricklayer and a Dublin laundress, who at 18 years of age took Dublin by storm in *The Beggars’ Opera, *and charmed all eyes and hearts with her beauty, grace, and ability in a range of characters from ‘Ophelia’ to ‘Sir Harry Wildair.’

Among musicians Dublin’s greatest name is that of Michael William Balfe (1808), composer of that evergreen opera, *The Bohemian Girl, *born in the obscure by-way of Pitt Street, reached from Grafton Street via Harry Street, where the house, No. 10, still bears a small memorial tablet.

In music Dublin can also count Sir John Armstrong Stevenson, born in Crane Lane, 1762, who was long and intimately connected with both the Dublin Cathedrals, but is best known by his setting of Moore’s *Irish Melodies; *John Field (1782), the pianist, originator of the Nocturne, father of the celebrated Russian tenor, Leonoff; Michael Kelly (1764), musician and vocalist, for whom Mozart wrote the part of Basilio’ in the *Nozze di Figaro; *and Thomas Carter (1768), composer of the well-known song, ‘Oh Nanny, wilt thou gang with me.’ The last named was brought up in the choir of Christchurch, and was afterwards organist of St. Werburgh’s.

It has lately been conclusively proved, from a prescription preserved by a Dublin apothecary, that the greatest of English generals, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, was born in 1769 in Mornington House, now No. 24 Upper Merrion Street*.*

Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan (1650), is believed to have been also a Dubliner, and was a direct descendant of William Sarsfield, the warlike Mayor of Dublin, knighted by Sir Henry Sidney. On the rout of the adherents of James II. in Ireland, Sarsfield entered the service of France, and in April 1693 received his Marshal’s baton, but three months later fell mortally wounded in the last charge at the battle of Neer-Winden.

Sir John Doyle (1756), who took part in Abercromby’s Egyptian expedition in 1801, was also a Dubliner; and, within 12 miles of the city, Celbridge House was the home of the notable military arid literary brotherhood of the Napiers, the third of whom, General William Francis Patrick Napier, the brilliant historian of the war in the Peninsula, was born there.

Amongst novelists, in addition to Maturin already referred to, Charles James Lever was born in 1806 at Amiens Street, and educated at Trinity College. He is himself the ‘Frank Webber’ of *Charles O’Malley, *and many of the incidents in his novels are taken from his experiences as a Dublin medical student, and as a doctor in the west of Ireland.

The boarding-house of ‘Mrs. Clan frizzle’ chapter xiii. of *Harry Lorrequer *[see General Articles on this site] is Lisle House, built by Lord Lisle about the middle of the 18th century, and now No. 33 Molesworth Street.

Samuel Lover (1797), author of *Handy Andy, *lived at 9 D’Olier Street, and Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, author of *Uncle Silas, *etc., and editor of the Dublin *University Magazine, *was born in 1814 at 45 Lower Dominick. Street, and afterwards resided at 70 Merrion Square South.

The Reverend George Croly (1780-1860), author of *Salathiel, *etc., a writer possessed of a vivid imagination and somewhat exuberant style, was also a Dubliner.

In painting, George Barrett (d. 1784) and Nathaniel Hone (d. 1784), landscape, and Charles J. Ingham(1797), portrait-painter, uphold the artistic taste of Dublin. To another Dubliner, John Jarvis (1749), is due the execution of Sir Joshua Reynolds’ great west window in New College Chapel, Oxford, and the only less celebrated ‘Resurrection’ window in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor.

In addition to these, Dublin may claim two of the artists engaged on the designs for Alderman Boydell’s celebrated edition of Shakespeare’s works, in the Reverend William Peters, R.A. (d. 1800), and Henry Tresham, R.A., born in High Street about the middle of the 18th century.

In sculpture the great genius of John Henry Foley (1818) is attested by the works from his chisel which adorn the city of his birth; and John Hogan (1800), though born in Tallow, County Waterford, and educated in Rome, regarded Dublin, in which his greatest works are domiciled, as at least the home of his adoption.

Of England’s great modern pro-consuls Dublin has given birth to at least two. Richard Colley Wellesley, Earl of Mornington and Marquess of Wellesley, elder brother of the Iron Duke, thrice Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Viceroy of India 1797-1805, was born in Grafton Street in 1760; and Richard Southwell Bourke, sixth Earl of Mayo, born in Dublin in 1822, thrice filled the office of Chief Secretary for Ireland, and was ruler of India from 1869 to 1872, in which latter year, on the evening of the 8th February, he fell beneath the knife of a convict fanatic at Hopetown in the Andamans. With them may perhaps be included Robert Molesworth, Ambassador to Denmark, temp. Williani III., and afterwards Viscount Molesworth.

Of those patriots who have striven to advance the best interests of their native land the most illustrious of Dublin’s sons is undoubtedly Henry Grattan, born in the parish of St. John in 1746, son of the Recorder of Dublin. The house on Rathmines Road near La Touche (or Portobello) Bridge, the gift of the citizens to one who refused a money tribute for his services, still stands back from the road, an unpretentious structure of red brick.

But his name is not alone on the patriotic register. William Molyneux (1656), the metaphysician, born in New Row, representative in Parliament of Dublin University, and author of *The Case of Ireland, *represents the 17th century along with Dr. Samuel Madden. (1686), one of the founders of the Dublin Society, to whose funds he contributed from 1739 £130 annually in premiums for the encouragement of manufactures and arts, a sum increased to £300 per annum a few years later.

Through his influence mainly was obtained the charter of incorporation of 1750. Trinity College also benefited by his liberality in the quarterly premiums known as ‘Premium Madden’; and his son founded the ‘Madden Prize.’

The misguided though pure-minded Robert Emmett was born in Molesworth Street. Theobald Wolfe Tone was born probably at 44 Stafford Street in 1763, and James Napper Tandy (1740), according to Sir Jonah Barrington, ‘acquired celebrity without being able to account for it, and possessed influence without rank or capacity.’ These share with Emmett the affections of latter-day nationalists: a yearly pilgrimage is made to the grave of the former in Bodenstown, County Kildare, and a site at the junction of Grafton Street with St. Stephen’s Green was allotted in 1898 for the erection of a statue which is not yet in existence.

Of scholars and men of science the list is a long one. Reverend Richard Stanistreet (1545) is author of the treatise De Rebus in Hibernia Gestis, - one of the store houses of early chronicle. A worthy successor may be found in Sir James Ware, born in Castle Street in 1594, and buried in the vaults of St. Werburgh’s Church, ‘without either stone or monumental inscription.’ Reverend Mervyn Archdall (1723) was author of the Monasticon Hibernicum, etc.

Rev. Edward Ledwich (1758), was another well-known antiquary. Charles Haliday, author of The Scandinavian Kingdom of Dublin, was born on Arran Quay in 1789. The same year saw the birth in Dublin of George L. Pettrie, ‘painter, poet, musician, and archaeologist, a contributor in each, and a master in all.’ (Dr. Graves, Bishop of Limerick, Life of Petrie.)

Reverend Charles P. Meehan, a charitable and self-denying parish priest, author of The Fate and Fortunes Tyrone and Tyrconnell, was born in 1812 at 141 Great Britain Street. Omitting living successors the list of antiquaries may fitly close with the name of James Henthorn Todd (1805), described as ‘the sine quo non of every literary enterprise in Dublin.’

In departments of learning, other than archaeology, Dublin has produced such men as James Ussher (1580), author of Annales Veteris et Novi Testamenti, containing an ingenious scheme of Biblical chronology which was generally accepted for over two centuries, and still obtains acceptance with many of the devout. With him may be classed Thomas Romney Robinson, born in the parish of St. Ann in 1793. As a lad he attracted the attention of some men of influence who assisted in his education, and published by subscription a volume of juvenile poems. He became Astronomer-Royal, and acquired a European reputation for varied scholarship.

The name of Sir William Rowan Hamilton, born in Dublin in 1805, closely connected with the Observatory at Dunsink. He is said to have known 13 languages at 12 years of age, and his treatises on ‘Quaternions’ are still standard works.

William Henry Fitton (1780), the Geologist, Dionysius Lardner (1793), author of the once famous Cyclopaedia and a subject for the satirical comments of Thackeray, and Edmund Malone (1741), the painstaking editor of Shakespeare, are deserving of mention in the list of Dublin Worthies, nor should a” place be denied to Anna Jameson; authoress of *Beauties of the Court of Charles II., Memoirs of Early Italian Painters, *etc., who was the daughter of Brownell Murphy, the miniature-painter, and was born in 1794 at No. 36 Golden Lane.

Doorways, Crampton Court. (2004 bytes)Of physicians of Dublin birth, the most eminent are Sir Thomas Molyneux, born in Cook Street in 1661, founder of the Molyneux Blind Asylum in Peter Street, Sir Philip Crampton, who resided at 14 Merrion Square, and whose somewhat unsightly monument decorates the junction of College Street, D’Olier Street, Townsend Street and Great Brunswick Street, and William Stokes (1804), son of Doctor Whitley Stokes. Of him the late Doctor Haughton, Senior Fellow T.C.D., has said: ‘His medical treatises on the stethoscope, the chest, and the heart would be his monument for ever, a monument more lasting than brass.’ To these may be added tile name of Sir Dominic Corrigan.

Of the great English Essayists not the least charming, Sir Richard Steele, the ‘Dick’ Steele of his many friends, was born in Dublin in 1671, and was in many ways the prototype of that amiable, versatile, improvident genius, Oliver Goldsmith.

Finally of benefactors of their native city, to those already mentioned may be added the name of John Stearne, Bishop of Clogher (1660), who built the Printing Office of Trinity College, and bequeathed his whole estate, now estimated at £2,000 per annum, to trustees for charitable purposes.

Of notable persons associated with Dublin the list would be endless. The residence in that city of Steele’s friend, Addison, as Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant and Keeper of the Records, is erroneously commemorated in the title of ‘Addison’s Walk,’ given to the beautiful path between yew-trees in the Botanic Gardens at Glasnevin, as the grounds did not pass into the occupation of his friend Tickell, the poet, until after the death of Addison. (Addison resided, when in Dublin, in the official house of the Secretary iii Dublin Castle. The Secretary’s Lodgings stood on the same side of the Upper Castle Yard as the present Chief Secretary’s Office.-*Journal R. S. A.i *for 1904, vol. xxxiv p. 156.)

Patrick Delany, afterwards Dean of Down, arid husband *en secondes noces *of the celebrated authoress of the *Memoirs, *formerly Mrs. Pendarves, lived at Delville, Glasnevin, with Dr. Helsham. The original name proposed for the house was, from the first syllables of those of its builders, Hel-Del-ville. It is still much as it was when Swift was a constant visitor.

The hiding-place of Robert Emmett, in Mount Drummond Avenue, near the bridge over the canal at Harold’s Cross, may still be inspected by the curious. No. 6 Ely Place, the residence of John Fitz-Gibbon, Earl of Clare, has the iron gates put up by the great Chancellor as a protection against the violence of the mob.

‘Buck’ Whaley, whose celebrated wager as to the time within which he would visit and return from Jerusalem earned for him the sobriquet of ‘Jerusalem’ Whaley, lived at 86 St. Stephen’s Green, now the Catholic University. Lady Morgan resided at 39 Kildare Street, and Mrs Hemans successively at 36 St. Stephen’s Green and 21 Dawson Street, in the latter of which she died. She is buried in the vaults of St. Ann’s Church, in which a memorial window, erected in 1860, marks her resting-place.

Nos. 16 and 17 Harcourt Street, formerly one house, were the mansion of John Scott, Earl of Clonmell, and No.14 (No. 15 not being then built) was that of Sir Jonah Barrington. The large bow-window in the side of the latter then overlooking the premises of Lord Clonmell, and built up in deference to the remonstrances of Lady Clonmell, still remains a passive witness to a long-forgotten feminine feud.

Between Foster Place and Anglesea Street once extended the palatial buildings of Daly’s Club, the internal decorations of which were said to be superior to anything of the kind in Europe. The door, which led by a footpath to the western portico of the Houses of Parliament, is now a window in the offices of the National Assurance Company.

In the lower storeys of Nos. 6 and 7 Christchurch Place may still be seen ‘some of the old oaken beams of the Carbrie House, (The residence of the Earls of Kildare, erected in the 16th century.) which have by age acquired an almost incredible degree of hardness.’

At 67 Rathmines Road, now the Rathmines Public Library, resided George Petrie in the last years of his life. In the inner room he sat crooning over the Irish airs which he had rescued from oblivion.

On the road to Blackrock stands ‘Maretimo,’ still a residence of the Cloncurry family, and ‘Frescati,’ once the dwelling of Lord Edward Fitz-Gerald and Pamela. Of this the following description is given by their daughter, Lady Campbell. ‘Frescati was just bought as a bathing lodge for delicate children. The Duchess (of Leinster, mother of Lord Edward) liked it so much, it was enlarged so as to have rooms for her when she came to see the children; the Bray road ran between the house and the sea, a rocky pretty coast with little bays. Blackrock was quite a small fishing village. They made a sort of tunnel or underground passage to the sea through which the sea water was brought up under the high road, of which I saw the remains, though it has since been blocked up; a little stream ran from the mountains through the place into the sea.’ … ‘The. stables were afterwards sold and turned into villas; the house was let for a hoarding-school for years, and then divided by partition walls, and let into three villas. … There are still the fine ceilings and pillar-room: it must have been a very beautiful house. … Most of the handsome chimney-pieces had been taken down and sold when it was turned into a school. I have traced one or two in houses in Merrion Square.’ (*Edward and Pamela Fitz-Gerald. *Gerald Campbell)

Marino,’ Clontarf, once the residence of James Caulfield, Earl of Charlemont, with its handsome entrance by Cipriani, is now the headquarters of the Christian Brothers in Ireland. The famous art collection once contained within its walls has long since been dispersed. In the grounds stands, supported by long subterranean galleries of groined brickwork, the beautiful Doric building of the Temple, or ‘Casino; (Frontispiece to Chapter X.) whose flooring was of costly inlaid woods.

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