good height, rather tall than of the middle size. He began very early in his life, even before he was of age, to shine forth in the world, and continued to blaze during the whole reign of George the First. He bethought himself very happily of one extravagance, well suited to his disposition: he insisted upon an exclusive right to one board at Lucas's Coffee-house, where he might walk backwards and forwards, and exhibit his person to the gaze of all beholders, in which particular he was indulged almost universally; but now and then some arch fellow would usurp on his privilege, take possession of the board, meet him, and dispute his right; and when this happened to be the case, he would chafe, bluster, ask the gentleman his name, and immediately set him down in his table-book as a man he would fight when he came to age. With regard to the female world his common phrase was, they may look and die.' In short, he was the jest of the men, and the contempt of the women. This unhappy man, being neglected by his relations in his lunacy, was taken into custody during his madness and confined in Bridewell, Dublin, where he died."

The notorious Colonel Henry Luttrell was assassinated, in 1717, while proceeding by night in a hackney chair from Lucas's Coffee-house, the yard behind which was the scene of numerous duels; on such occasions the company flocked to the windows to see that the laws of honour were observed, and to lay wagers on the probable survivor of the combatants. Thomas Harbin and Pressick Ryder, printers, who occupied a portion of old Cork House, issued, in 1725, a periodical called the "Dictator;" and also published the first edition of Tickell's ballad,

"Of Leinster, famed for maidens fair,
Bright Lucy was the grace;

Nor e'er did Liffy's limpid stream

Reflect a sweeter face."

Ryder subsequently absconded, having printed a pamphlet against Government, who issued a proclamation offer

of

ing one thousand pounds for his apprehension. Under the name of Darby he passed many years in England as an itinerant player. His son, Thomas Ryder, subsequently became one of the most celebrated actors of the age, and manager Smock-alley Theatre. The upper apartments of Cork House were set for various purposes: Christopher Plunket, an expert fencing-master, kept his school in 1749 "over the old Exchange;" and above the coffee-house, till 1767, was the academy of Bernard Clarke, one of the original contributors to the "Freeman's Journal;" about the same period a collection of wild beasts was exhibited in a large apartment over the coffee-room. Lucas's Coffee-house continued to be frequented until July, 1768, when old Cork House, which, with the contiguous buildings, had long obstructed the thoroughfare of the locality, was finally demolished under the Act for making wide and convenient passages to the Castle. The sum paid by Parliament to purchase the then existing interests in Cork House amounted to £8329 3s. 4d., of which £3251 10s. was allocated to the treasurer of the Cathedral of St. Patrick, whose claim to the ground was based on the grant of the church of St. Marie del Dam, made to his predecessor in office in the early part of the thirteenth century, as noticed at page 2.

Contiguous to the eastern side of Lucas's Coffee-house, and nearly on the site of the present Exchange Court, stood Swan-alley," so named from the "Swan tavern," which, in a satire published in 1706, is described as

66

"A modern dome of vast renown,

For a plump cook and plumper reck'nings known:
Raised high, the fair inviting bird you see,
In all his milky plumes and feathered lechery ;-
Here gravely meet the worthy sons of zeal,
To wet their pious clay, and decently to rail:
Immortal courage from the claret springs,
To censure heroes, and the acts of kings:

Young doctors of the gown here shrewdly show
How grace divine can ebb, and spleen can flow;
The pious red-coat most devoutly swears,
Drinks to the Church, but ticks on his arrears;
The gentle beau, too, joins in wise debate,
Adjusts his cravat, and reforms the state."

In the first years of the eighteenth century a society called the "Swan-tripe Club," used to assemble here; its principal members were Dr. Francis Higgins, Prebendary of Christ's Church, a political character, who, in 1712, was tried and acquitted on a charge of being a disloyal subject and a disturber of the public peace; Dr. Edward Worth, noticed in our account of Werburgh-street; Archdeacon Perceval; and two lawyers, named Echlin and Nutley, both of whom were subsequently promoted to the Bench. The Swan-tripe Club was presented by the Dublin Grand Jury in 1705 as "a seditious and unlawful assembly or club, set up and continued at the Swan Tavern, and other places in this city, with intent to create misunderstandings between Protestants, &c., and that contrary to several votes of Parliament in this kingdom; of the 25th of May, 1705, which tended to promote the interest of the pretended Prince of Wales, and to instil dangerous principles into the youth of this kingdom."

A contemporary letter on the presentment, signed Richard Lock, remarks on this subject:-"Now, for my part, I do believe that most gentlemen have met in companies at the Swan, and other taverns in town, one time or other; but that ever any seditious or unlawful assembly or club, as above mentioned, met or contrived in these or other places, is what I never saw or knew of. And more particularly for those gents that I have usually kept company with (who, generally speaking, for quality and learning, are equal to the best in the kingdom, several of them being members both of the House of Commons, and the Lower House of Convocation), I do declare, upon the faith of a Christian, that in all the meetings that we had, they

were as unconcerned in the matters contained in that presentment as any gentleman whatsoever." In Swan-alley were several gambling-houses, frequented by sharpers and gamblers. George Hendrick, alias "Crazy Crow," porter to several of the bands of musicians in town, and one of the most eccentric of the notorious Dublin low-life characters of his day, dropped dead in this alley in 1762. He had been fined and imprisoned in 1742, for having stolen corpses from St. Andrew's churchyard; a large and spirited full-length etching, representing him laden with musical instruments, appeared in 1754, and was sold through town by himself, with the following inscription:

"With look ferocious, and with beer replete,

See Crazy Crow beneath his minstrel weight;
His voice as frightful as great Etna's roar
Which spreads its horrors to the distant shore,
Equally hideous with his well-known face,

Murders each ear-till whiskey makes it cease."

Notwithstanding the incessant efforts of the Lord Mayors to reform the abuses in Swan-alley, by seizing and burning in public the "stamps," or gambling-tables, the locality continued to retain a deservedly infamous character until its final demolition, preparatory to the erection of the Royal Exchange.

On Cork Hill were held the early meetings of the Dublin Philosophical Society, of the foundation of which William Molyneux writes as follows, in 1694 :

"About October, 1683, I began to busy myself in forming a Society in this city agreeable to the design of the Royal Society of London. I should not be so vain as to arrogate this to myself, were there not many of the gentlemen at present listed in that Society, who can testify for me, that I was the first promoter of it; and can witness how diligent I was therein. The first I applied to, and communicated my designe, was the present (1694) Provost of the College, Dr. St. George

Ashe, who presently approved of the undertaking, and assisted heartily in the first efforts we made in the work. I first brought together about half a dozen that met weekly in a private room of a coffee-house on Cork Hill, merely to discourse of philosophy, mathematics, and other polite literature, as things arose obiter, without any settled rules or forms. But, our company increasing, we were invited by the Rev. Dr. Huntington, then Provost of the College, to meet in his lodgings. And there we began first to form ourselves in January 1683-4; and took on us the name of the Dublin Society. Choosing for our first President Sir William Petty; and for their farther encouragement, confirmation, and settlement, I," adds Molyneux, "took on me to be their Secretary, and managed their correspondence, diary, and register.”

"Jacob's Ladder," on Cork Hill, is noticed in 1701; and in this locality were "Solyman's Coffee-house" (1691), "St. Laurence's Coffee-house" (1698), and the "Union Coffeehouse" (1708), where pamphlets were published, and books sold "by way of raffling," generally at 5 P. M.

The taverns on Cork Hill were the "Globe," on the site of which three houses were erected in 1729; the "Hoop" (1733), in which a musical society used to hold their meetings; the "Cock and Punch-bowl" (1735), where a Masonic Lodge assembled on every second Thursday; and the “Eagle Tavern," one of the most noted in Dublin. In this establishment, kept in 1733 by Lee, and in 1745 by Duff, were held the dinners of the "Aughrim Club," and the "Sportsmen's Club;" the "Hanover Club" assembled on every Wednesday evening in the "Eagle," which also was the meeting-place of a Masonic Lodge.

Richard Parsons, first Earl of Rosse, and his associate, James Worsdale, the humorous painter, were reported to have established a "Hell-fire Club" in the "Eagle Tavern," about the year 1735. In 1755 the Duke of Hamilton and his Duchess (Elizabeth Gunning) visited Dublin, and sojourned at the