Patrick's Church, sixty struggling and idle fellows were taken up and obliged to assist in repairing the church and building the steeple, who, when the work was over, returned to their old trade of begging, but were banished out of the diocese." In 1660 twelve bishops were consecrated at one time here, and amongst them was the celebrated Jeremy Taylor. When William III. came to Dublin after his victory at the Boyne, he went with his army to St. Patrick's to return thanks for his victory. It was also visited by George IV.,

in 1821, where he presided at the installation of Knights of Saint Patrick. St. Patrick's, like other cathedrals, has had a long history. The Catholic churchmen and architects of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries left their marks on it. So had the great Earl of Cork, Strafford, Cromwell, and many a vandal destroyer and vandal-like

restorer.

At last, in our own day, the venerable pile exhibited many symptoms of decay, externally and internally. In this conjuncture one of the worthiest and wealthiest of the citizens of Dublin, Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness, Bart., came forward with the munificent offer of restoring the cathedral at his own expense. The works were accordingly commenced, and after several years the reparations were completed at a cost of over £156,000. Amongst

the principal features of re-edification were the replacing of the old window of the north transept by one of three lights, with lancet heads corresponding with that of the south transept, and restoring all the triforium and clerestory windows of the north transept, and making them to harmonise with those of the south. The old approach to the church was closed, and a new one substituted through a finely moulded doorway in a spacious projecting groined porch between two buttresses. Inside, the floor, which had been filled up some feet, was reduced to its original level, and paved with encaustic tiling. The nave and aisles of the choir and transepts, which had been sadly disfigured, were also scraped and cleaned, and the Lady chapel beautifully restored. And in the tower a fine clock with chimes of bells was placed, having dials eight feet in

diameter.

The church was re-opened in 1865, with great ceremony, the Lord Lieutenant and many distinguished persons attending. Since then a ceremonial of great magnificence took place within its walls on the 18th of April, 1868, when the Duke of Abercorn, the Lord Lieutenant, installed the Prince of Wales as a Knight of the Order of St. Patrick. Never, perhaps, have the citizens of Dublin witnessed a more gorgeous spectacle. Sixteen Knights of the Order attended in their rich robes, and the Princess of Wales, Prince Teck, Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar, and the Duke of Cambridge were present to witness the ceremony. Notwithstanding all that Sir Benjamin Guinness has done for the cathedral, it is hidden and disfigured by the squalid streets of tottering houses that surround it.

With this cathedral is imperishably connected the memory of its great dean, Dr. Jonathan Swift, whose monument is to be seen in the southern aisle of the nave, over the door of the vestry. He was born on the 30th of November, 1667, in Hoey's Court, now a dilapidated and wretched locality near Castle Street, in a house which some years since was demolished. The posthumous child of an Irish barrister who died poor, he entered Trinity College in 1682, and graduated there in 1686. As private secretary to Sir W. Temple, he went to England and took his M.A. at Oxford. Returning to Ireland, he took holy orders, and fought thenceforward manfully the battle of life. He commenced authorship, and became a political power, and in 1713 was appointed Dean of St. Patrick's. We shall not pursue his history: it is too well known. The friend of Pope, Arbuthnot, gay Oxford and Bolingbroke, beloved by two women, both of whose hearts he broke, this great intellect gave way; and he who had guided the destinies of a nation, and achieved a fame that will last as long as the English language, passed, during four years, through raging lunacy to idiotcy, and in that condition died in 1745. Politician, patriot, and man of letters, he possessed an insight into politics deep, extensive, and accurate; his patriotism was incorruptible, intrepid, and practical; as a satirist and wit,

his power was tremendous; he wielded the thunderbolt that felled to the earth, and the lightning flash that scathed, and burned, and shrivelled up its victim.

Westward ho! and we are in the "Coombe," running from Francis Street to Meath Street. This is classical ground; it formed the great avenue to the interior of the "Liberties of Dublin "-so called from certain immunities and privileges conferred upon an elevated tract of ground on the western side of the city. About a century since this district contained a population of 40,000, who had attained a high degree of wealth by their silk and woollen manufactures, which were brought here by industrious French refugees, who sought an asylum here after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and at that period they had 3,400 looms in

full employment. Of this famous and flourishing community, nothing now remains but large houses falling into ruin, with remains of architectural ornaments, and a small branch of poplin and tabinet manufacture, almost exclusively confined to this place, and well known through the Empire for their beauty and excellence. Happily, of late years these have been revived and raised to their pristine prosperity by the enterprise of the Frys, the Pims, and others. But, in the days we speak of, the people of the Liberties had a separate jurisdiction—their manor courts, seneschals, and prisons; and very jealous were they of all their rights; so that when the mayor, attended by the twentyfive corporations, went forth with the citizens, "well horsed, armed, and in good array," in great pomp and ceremony, to perambulate the boundaries of their city, or to "ride the fringes," as it was called, the Liberty men assembled at the Cross Poddle, or some other boundary-spot, and made a show of strongly opposing the invasion. They seized upon the sword-bearer of the corporation, wrested from his hand the civic weapon, and, having thus established their seeming right to resist encroachment, the sword was restored on condition of receiving a present as a tribute, and liberating a prisoner." Then permission. was given to the procession to move on.

Traversing Meath Street we enter Thomas Street, that runs westward. It has sad memories connected with it in the troublous times. Here Lord Edward Fitzgerald was arrested, after having for a week eluded his pursuers. On the 19th of May, 1798, Major Swan and Captain Ryan entered the room of the house where Lord Edward was in bed. Lord Edward jumped up like a tiger; Swan fired a pistol at him without effect. Lord Edward fought desperately with a dagger, stabbing both of them, Ryan mortally. Then Major Sirr, with a picquet of soldiers, came in and shot Lord Edward through the arm. was then secured, conveyed to the castle, and thence to Newgate, where he died of his wound.

He

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The northern termination of Meath Street enters Thomas Street, turning westward, through which we come to James' Gate, where Messrs. Guinness and Son occupy an immense tract of ground southward and northward in their great brewery. There is no commercial establishment of the kind to surpass it in the Empire for extent of premises, superiority of machinery, skill of arrangement, and largeness of production. The works stretch northward to the Quay, to which porter is conveyed on a private railway to a wharf, and there shipped into their steam-lighters, that take it down to the mouth of the river. And now back through Thomas Street, which is rapidly reviving under the influence of trade, to the Corn Market, once one of the most important localities in the ancient city, and leading from which to Nicholas Street is Back Lane, memorable as the locality in which the United Irishmen held their meetings. Here the Tailors' Hall, now used as their school - house, was at that time one of the largest public rooms in the city, and there the society met till 1791, when they were dispersed by the sheriff and their papers seized. Amongst the members were Theobald Wolfe Tone, James Napper Tandy, and Archibald Hamilton Rowan, names which afterwards became notorious as leaders in the Rebellion.

Down Nicholas Street, and we are in Christ Church Place, with the cathedral on its northern side. Skinner's Row, "Vicus Pellipariorum," it was anciently called, and was a place of great importance, for here dwelt the citizens who dealt in hides and leather, and drove a brisk trade with the Continent long before the Anglo-Norman invasion. It had its pillory at one extreme, and at the other its Tholsel, where the mayor was elected at Michaelmas, and the citizens held their meetings and elected their members of Parliament. The Parliament, too, assembled there from 1641 to 1648, and even occasionally during the reign of Charles II.; and here, too, the "merchants most did congregate," having yet no exchange. But all this glory is departed and has made room for the modern improvements in the front of Christ Church.

High on the summit of that hill at the top of Wine-tavern Street stands the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, now known as Christ Church Cathedral. Time out of mind, and long before the conquest of Ireland, it was founded and endowed by divers Irishmen whose names are unknown. In 1038, Sitric, chief of the Dublin Northmen, gave to Donogh, bishop of the Irish and Danes of that city, the site for a church, where the present edifice stands. The nave and wings of the cathedral were constructed by the bishop, who erected an episcopal palace near it. It soon acquired great sanctity, being the depository of several miraculous relics, and also a wonderful cross, which, Giraldus Cambrensis assures us, on one occasion spoke in testimony of an appeal made to it as to a certain contract, "in the presence of many citizens then standing by." Nay, as strange a story is recorded to have taken place. "A certain archer amongst others made an offering of a penny to the cross, but on turning his back the money immediately flew after him; whereupon he took it up and carried it back to the cross, when the same thing again happened, to the surprise of many who witnessed it. The archer thereupon publicly confessed that on the same day he had plundered the archbishop's house, which is located in this church; and restoring all the stolen goods, he with great fear and reverence carried back the penny to the cross for the third time, and it then remained there without further

movement." Giraldus recounts many other such miracles which he says at the first arrival of the English by this most venerable cross."

were performed

Another relic was subsequently deposited here, the "Baculus Jesu," or "Staff of Jesus," believed to have been given to St. Patrick by a pilgrim who received it from Christ, though Dr. Laingan conjectures it was only the saint's walking-stick. At all events, it was held in high veneration, and down to the Reformation witnesses were frequently sworn upon it. After the Reformation, Archbishop Brown, finding that "the Romish reliques and images took off the common people from the true worship," caused this staff to be publicly

burned. In 1162, Archbishop Laurence O'Toole converted the secular Canons of the Holy Trinity into Canons regular, and, with the aid of Strongbow and others, built the choir, the steeple, and two chapels. A controversy for precedence between the Prior and Canons of Christ Church and the Dean and Chapter of St. Patrick was composed in 1300 on the following terms:-"That the Archbishop of Dublin should in future be consecrated and enthroned in the Priory of the Holy Trinity; that each church should be styled Cathedral and Metropolitan; that the Convent of the Holy Trinity should have the precedence in all rights and concerns of the Church," and so forth.

A bell-tower of stone was added in the reign of Edward III., and also a chancel, with episcopal throne, the great window on the eastern side of the high altar, and three other windows on the southern side. Froissart describes the knighting of four Irish princes in this church by Richard II. in 1395. In 1512, Gerald, eighth Earl of Kildare, erected a