Читать книгу The Sunny Side of Ireland - John 1844-1912 O'Mahony - Страница 9

In Dame-street most of the Irish banks have their offices. At the end of the street furthest from the College is the City Hall. The building was originally the Royal Exchange, but in the middle of the nineteenth century it was handed over to the Dublin Corporation. The Corinthian columns which form the portico are very handsome. The entrance is modern, the older structure having given way in "the troubled times," while a crowd of citizens were beguiling the time watching a public whipping of a malefactor from the steps. The centre hall is crowned with a decorated dome. The hall contains statues of O'Connell, Under-Secretary Drummond, Grattan, and Dr. Lucas, a publicist in eighteen-century Dublin. The Council Chamber is well furnished, and some of the portraits of former Lords Mayor are very fine. Immediately behind the City Hall is Dublin Castle, far from being the imposing structure those familiar with its history may suppose. The Lower Castle Yard is entered from Palace-street. It contains the Birmingham Tower, a modern structure replacing the fortress, some of the walls of which still stand, from which the fiery Red Hugh O'Donel, Prince of Tyrone, escaped. The Castle Chapel is beside the Tower, and permission to visit it is easily obtained. Among the things of interest in the chapel are the emblazoned arms of all the Irish viceroys. The wood work throughout is Irish oak, and there are ninety heads in marble to represent the sovereigns of England. St. Patrick's Hall, the Throne-room, and the Long Drawing-room are the most important of the State apartments. While in the vicinity of the Castle, St. Patrick's Cathedral should be visited. Founded so long ago as 1190, this cathedral, dedicated to the Apostle of Ireland, has had a chequered history. Mostly Early English in architecture, modern styles have been grafted on the building without consistency or unity of ideal. The monuments are many. Dean Swift's bears an inscription written by himself and breathing the hatred of oppression and love of liberty characteristic of the writer—

"Hic depositum est corpus

JONATHAN SWIFT, s. t. d.

Hujus Ecclesiae Cathedralis Decani

Ubi saeva indignatio

Ulterius cor lacerare nequit

Abe Viator

Et imitare si poteris

Strenuum, pro virili,

Libertatis vindicatorem,

Obiit 19° die mensis Octobris, A.D. 1745,

Anno Aetatis 78."

Hard by is a white marble slab in memory of her whose name must be for ever associated with that of Swift—"Stella." Ten minutes' walk through Patrick-street will bring one from St. Patrick's to the most interesting ecclesiastical structure in Dublin—Christ Church Cathedral. An old Danish foundation, fire and time laid hands upon the original building. Its restoration is a triumph of architectural genius in the reproduction of thirteenth-century English Gothic. Strongbow's tomb is the famous monument of the place. The Crypt contains, besides other antiquities, the old City stocks, which is some three centuries old. Other places worth seeing in the city are the Four Courts, the Custom House, the Pro-Cathedral, Marlborough-street, St. Michan's Church and Churchyard, and the Church of St. Francis Xavier, Gardiner-street. The general architecture in the streets is incongruous, and the modern "improvements" not always desirable. In the back streets here and there the quaint gables as old as Queen Anne still survive, but the Dutch houses have almost entirely, and the Cage houses have entirely, disappeared.

Photo—Lawrence, Dublin.