Part 46 (2/2)

1669), is thus given by Mr. Bonnell, the head collector of Irish customs in Dublin: ”Comparing together the proceeds of the duties for the six years ending December, 1669, received from the several ports of Ireland, they may be thus ranked according to their worth respectively, expressed in whole numbers, without fractions, for more clearness of apprehension:----

”Rate. Ports. Proportion Rate. Ports Proportion per cent. per cent.

1 Dublin 40 { Drogheda 3 2 Cork 10 5 { Londonderry 3 { Waterford 7 { Carrickfergus 3 3 { Galway 7 { Ross 1 { Limerick 5 { Wexford 1 4 { Kinsale 5 6 { Dundalk 1 { Youghal 5 { Baltimore 1 { Sligo 1”

”Killybeg, Dungarvan, Donaghadee, Strangford, Coleraine, and Dingle, are mentioned as ”under rate.”

The linen trade had been encouraged, and, indeed, mainly established in Ireland, by the Duke of Ormonde. An English writer[526] says that 200,000 pounds of yarn were sent annually to Manchester, a supply which seemed immense in that age; and yet, in the present day, would hardly keep the hands employed for forty-eight hours. A political economist of the age gives the ”unsettledness of the country” as the first of a series of reasons why trade did not flourish in Ireland, and, amongst other remedies, suggests sumptuary laws and a tax upon celibacy, the latter to weigh quite equally on each s.e.x.[527] Sir William Petty does not mention the trade but he does mention the enormous amount of tobacco[528] consumed by the natives. It is still a disputed question whether the so-called ”Danes' pipes,” of which I give an ill.u.s.tration, were made before the introduction of tobacco by Sir Walter Raleigh, or whether any other narcotizing indigenous plant may have been used. Until one, at least, of these pipes shall have been found in a position which will indicate that they must have been left there at an earlier period than the Elizabethan age, the presumption remains in favour of their modern use.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ”DANES' PIPES,” FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE R.I.A.]

I shall now give some brief account of the domestic life of our ancestors 200 years ago, and of the general state of society, both in the upper and lower cla.s.ses. Petty estimates the population of Ireland at 1,100,000, or 200,000 families. Of the latter he states that 160,000 have no fixed hearths; these, of course, were the very poorest cla.s.s, who lived then, as now, in those mud hovels, which are the astonishment and reprobation of foreign tourists. There were 24,000 families who had ”one chimney,” and 16,000 who had more than one. The average number appears to be four. Dublin Castle had 125, and the Earl of Heath's house, twenty-seven. There were, however, 164 houses in Dublin which had more than ten.

Rearing and tending cattle was the princ.i.p.al employment of the people, as, indeed, it always has been. There were, he estimates, 150,000 employed in this way, and 100,000 in agriculture. ”Tailors and their wives” are the next highest figure--45,000. Smiths and apprentices, shoemakers and apprentices, are given at the same figure--22,500.

Millers and their wives only numbered 1,000, and the fishery trade the same. The woolworkers and their wives, 30,000; but the number of alehouse-keepers is almost incredible. In Dublin, where there were only 4,000 families, there was, at one time, 1,180 alehouses and ninety-one public brewhouses. The proportion was equally great throughout the country; and if we may judge from the Table of Exports from Belfast before-mentioned, the manufacture was princ.i.p.ally for home consumption, as the returns only mention three barrels of beer to Scotland, 124 ditto to the Colonies, 147 to France and Flanders, nineteen to Holland, and forty-five to Spain and the Mediterranean. There are considerable imports of brandy and wines, but no imports of beer. We find, however, that ”Chester ale” was appreciated by the faculty as a medicament, for Sir Patrick Dun, who was physician to the army during the wars of 1688, sent two dozen bottles of Chester ale, as part of his prescription, to General Ginkles, Secretary-at-War, in the camp at Connaught, in 1691. He added two dozen of the best claret, and at the same time sent a ”lesser box,” in which there was a dozen and a-half potted chickens in an earthen pot, and in another pot ”foure green geese.” ”This,” writes the doctor, ”is the physic I advise you to take; I hope it will not be nauseous or disagreeable to your stomach-a little of it upon a march.”[529] It is to be supposed such prescriptions did not diminish the doctor's fame, and that they were appreciated as they deserved.

A century previous (A.D. 1566), Thomas Smyth seems to have been the princ.i.p.al, if not the only English pract.i.tioner in Dublin; and although he sold his drugs with his advice, his business did not pay. However, Thomas was ”consoled” and ”comforted,” and ”induced to remain in the country,” by the united persuasions of the Lord Deputy, the Counsellors of State, and the whole army. The consolation was administered in the form of a concordat, dated April 25th, 1566, by which an annual stipend was settled on him, the whole army agreeing to give him one day's pay, and every Counsellor of State twenty s.h.i.+llings, ”by reason of his long contynuance here, and his often and chardgeable provision of druggs and other apothecarie wares, which have, from tyme to tyme, layen and remained in manner for the most part unuttered; for the greater part of this contray folke ar wonted to use the mynisterie of their leeches and such lyke, and neglecting the apothecarie's science, the said Thomas thereby hath been greatly hyndered, and in manner enforced to abandon that his faculty.”[530] It was only natural that the English settler should distrust the _leeche_ who gathered his medicines on the hillside by moonlight, ”who invoked the fairies and consulted witches;” and it was equally natural that the native should distrust the Saxon, who could kill or cure with those magical little powders and pills, so suspiciously small, so entirely unlike the traditionary medicants of the country. In a list still preserved of the medicines supplied for the use of Cromwell's army, we may judge of the ”medicants” used in the seventeenth century. They must have been very agreeable, for the allowance of sugar, powder and loaf, of ”candie,” white and brown, of sweet almonds and almond cakes, preponderates wonderfully over the ”rubarcke, sarsaparill, and aloes.”[531] Mr. Richard Chatham was Apothecary-General, and had his drugs duty free by an order, dated at ”ye new Customs' House, Dublin, ye 24th of June, 1659.”

Dr. William Bedell was the first who suggested the foundation of a College of Physicians. On the 15th of April, 1628, he wrote to Usher thus: ”I suppose it hath been an error all this while to neglect the faculties of law and physic, and attend only to the ordering of one poor college of divines.” In 1637 a Regius Professor of Physic was nominated.

In 1654 Dr. John Stearne was appointed President of Trinity Hall, which was at this time set apart ”for the sole and proper use of physicians;”

and, in 1667, the physicians received their first charter from Charles II. The new corporation obtained the t.i.tle of ”The President and College of Physicians.” It consisted of fourteen Fellows, including the President, Dr. Stearne. Stearne was a grand-nephew of Archbishop Usher, and was born in his house at Ardbraccan, county Meath. He was a man of profound learning; and although he appears to have been more devoted to scholastic studies than to physic, the medical profession in Ireland may well claim him as an ornament and a benefactor to their faculty. The College of Physicians was without a President from 1657 until 1690, when Sir Patrick Dun was elected. The cause of this was the unfortunate illiberality of the Provost and Fellows of Trinity College, who refused to confirm the election of Dr. Crosby, simply because he was a Roman Catholic. In 1692 the College received a new charter and more extended privileges; and these, with certain Acts of Parliament, form its present const.i.tution.

In medieval cities the castle was the centre round which the town extended itself. Dublin was no exception to this rule, and in this century we find High-street and Castle-street the fas.h.i.+onable resorts.

The n.o.bility came thither for society, the tradesmen for protection.

Castle-street appears to have been the favourite haunt of the bookselling fraternity, and Eliphud Dobson (his name speaks for his religious views) was the most wealthy bookseller and publisher of his day. His house was called the Stationers' Arms, which flourished in the reign of James II. The Commonwealth was arbitrary in its requirements, and commanded that the printer (there was then only one) should submit any works he printed to the Clerk of the Council, to receive his _imprimatur_ before publis.h.i.+ng the same. The Williamites were equally tyrannical, for Malone was dismissed by them from the office of State Printer, and tried in the Queen's Bench, with John Dowling, in 1707, for publis.h.i.+ng ”A Manuall of Devout Prayers,” for the use of Roman Catholics.[532]

There were also a great number of taverns and coffee-houses in this street; the most noted was the Rose Tavern, which stood nearly opposite to the present Castle steps. Swift alludes to this in the verses which he wrote on his own death, in 1731:--

”Suppose me dead; and then suppose A club a.s.sembled at the _Rose.”_

Political clubs, lawyers' clubs, and benevolent clubs, all a.s.sembled here; and the Friendly Brothers of St. Patrick had their annual dinner at the _Rose_, at the primitive hour of four o'clock, annually, on the 17th of March, having first transacted business and heard a sermon at St. Patrick's.

The first Dublin newspaper was published in this century, by Robert Thornton, bookseller, at the sign of the Leather Bottle, in Skinner's-row, A.D. 1685. It consisted of a single leaf of small folio size, printed on both sides, and written in the form of a letter, each number being dated, and commencing with the word ”sir.” The fas.h.i.+onable church was St. Michael's in High-street. It is described, in 1630, as ”in good reparacion; and although most of the paris.h.i.+oners were recusants, it was commonly full of Protestants, who resorted thither every Sunday to hear divine service and sermon.” This church had been erected originally for Catholic wors.h.i.+p. Meanwhile the priests were obliged to say Ma.s.s wherever they could best conceal themselves; and in the reign of James I. their services were solemnized in certain back rooms in the houses of Nicholas Quietrot, Carye, and the Widow O'Hagan, in High-street.[533] Amongst the fas.h.i.+onables who lived in this locality we find the Countess of Roscommon, Sir P. Wemys, Sir Thady Duff, and Mark Quin, the Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1667. Here, too, was established the first Dublin post-house, for which the nation appears to have been indebted indirectly to Shane O'Neill, of whose proceedings her Majesty Queen Elizabeth was anxious to be cognizant with as little delay as possible. In 1656, it having been found that the horses of the military, to whom postal communications had been confided previously, were ”much wearied, and his Highness' affayres much prejudiced for want of a post-office to carry publique letters,” Evan Vaughan was employed to arrange postal communications, and was made Deputy Postmaster. Major Swift was the Postmaster at Holyhead, and he was allowed 100 a-year for the maintenance of four boatmen, added to the packet boats, at the rate of _8d_. per diem and 18s. per month for wages. Post-houses were established in the princ.i.p.al towns in Ireland about the year 1670, by means of which, for 8_d_. or 12_d_., letters could be conveyed, twice a week, to the ”remotest parts of Ireland,” and which afforded ”the conveniency of keeping good correspondence.”

The Dublin Philosophical Society held their first meetings on Cork-hill, at the close of this century, and it is evident that there were many men in that age who had more than ordinary zeal for scientific research. Dr.

Mullen has left a detailed account of the difficulties under which he dissected an elephant, which had been burned to death in the booth where it was kept for exhibition on the 17th June, 1682. According to Haller, oculists are indebted to him for some important discoveries connected with the organs of vision.[534]

The old Custom-house stood on the site of houses now comprised in that part of Dublin known as Wellington-quay. Here a locality was selected, in the reign of James I., for the purpose of ”erecting cranes and making wharves.” This street, now so busy and populous, was then in the suburbs, and is described in the lease, A.D. 1620, as ”a certain parcel of ground, lying in or near Dame-street, street, in the suburbs of the city of Dublin.” A new Custom-house was erected about the period of the Restoration, with the addition of a council-chamber, where the Privy Council and Committees of the House of Commons were accustomed to a.s.semble. By an order of the Privy Council, 19th September, 1662, the Custom-house-quay was appointed the sole place for landing and lading the exports and imports of the city of Dublin. In 1683 the public Exchange of Dublin was transferred from Cork House to the Tholsel, a building erected early in the reign of Edward II., and described by Camden as built of hewn stone. Here the Mayor was elected on Michaelmas Day, and the citizens held their public meetings. A clock was set up in 1560, no doubt very much to the admiration of the citizens. A new Tholsel or City Hall was erected in 1683, on the same site, and there was a ”'Change,” where merchants met every day, as in the Royal Exchange in London. Public dinners were given here also with great magnificence; but from the marshy nature of the ground on which the building had been set up, it fell to decay in 1797, and a new Sessions-house was erected in Greenstreet.

Nor did the good people of Dublin neglect to provide for their amus.e.m.e.nts. Private theatricals were performed in the Castle at the latter end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, if not earlier. The sum of one-and-twenty s.h.i.+llings and two groats was expended on wax tapers for the play of ”Gorbodne,” ”done at the Castle,” in September, 1601.

Miracle and mystery plays were enacted as early as 1528, when the Lord Deputy was ”invited to a new play every day in Christmas;” where the Tailors acted the part of Adam and Eve, it is to be supposed because they initiated the trade by introducing the necessity for garments; the Shoemakers, the story of Crispin and Crispia.n.u.s; the Vintners, Bacchus and his story; the Carpenters, Mary and Joseph; the Smiths represented Vulcan; and the Bakers played the comedy of Ceres, the G.o.ddess of corn.

The stage was erected on Hogges-green, now College-green; and probably the entertainment was carried out _al fresco_. The first playhouse established in Dublin was in Werburgh-street, in 1633. s.h.i.+rley's plays were performed here soon after, and also those of ”rare Ben Jonson.”

Ogilvy, s.h.i.+rley's friend, and the promoter of this enterprise, was appointed Master of the Revels in Ireland in 1661; and as his first theatre was ruined during the civil war, he erected a ”n.o.ble theatre,”

at a cost of 2,000, immediately after his new appointment, on a portion of the Blind-quay. Dunton describes the theatres, in 1698, as more frequented than the churches, and the actors as ”no way inferior to those in London.” The Viceroys appear to have been very regular in their patronage of this amus.e.m.e.nt; and on one occasion, when the news reached Dublin of the marriage of William of Orange and Mary, the Duke of Ormonde, after ”meeting the n.o.bility and gentry in great splendour at the play, pa.s.sed a general invitation to all the company to spend that evening at the Castle.”[535]

The inventory of the household effects of Lord Grey, taken in 1540, affords us ample information on the subject of dress and household effects. The list commences with ”eight tun and a pype of Gaskoyne wine,” and the ”long board in the hall.” A great advance had been made since we described the social life of the eleventh century; and the refinements practised at meals was not the least of many improvements. A _bord-clothe_ was spread on the table, though forks were not used until the reign of James I. They came from Italy, to which country we owe many of the new fas.h.i.+ons introduced in the seventeenth century. In _The Boke of Curtosye_ there are directions given not to ”foule the _bord-clothe_ wyth the knyfe;” and Ben Jonson, in his comedy of ”The Devil is an a.s.s,”

alludes to the introduction of forks, and the consequent disuse of napkins:

”The laudable use of forks, Brought into custom here as they are in Italy, To th' sparing o' napkins.”

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