"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 classes. 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 class, 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 principal 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 principally 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 principal, if not the only English practitioner 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 shillings, "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 title 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 constitution.

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 fashionable resorts. The nobility 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 publishing 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 publishing "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 assembled at the Rose."

Political clubs, lawyers' clubs, and benevolent clubs, all assembled 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 fashionable church was St. Michael's in High-street. It is described, in 1630, as "in good reparacion; and although most of the parishioners 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 worship. Meanwhile the priests were obliged to say Mass 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 fashionables 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 principal towns in Ireland about the year 1670, by means of which, for 8d. or 12d., 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 assemble. 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 Green-street.

Nor did the good people of Dublin neglect to provide for their amusements. 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 shillings 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 Crispianus; the Vintners, Bacchus and his story; the Carpenters, Mary and Joseph; the Smiths represented Vulcan; and the Bakers played the comedy of Ceres, the goddess 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. Shirley's plays were performed here soon after, and also those of "rare Ben Jonson." Ogilvy, Shirley'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 "noble 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 amusement; 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 nobility and gentry in great splendour at the play, passed 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 fashions 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 Ass," 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."

The English edition of the Janua Linguarum of Comenius, represents the fashion of dining in England during the Commonwealth. The table was simply a board placed on a frame or trestles, which was removed after the meal to leave room for the dancers. Old Capulet's hall was prepared thus:

"A hall! a hall! give room, and foot it, girls!
More light, ye knaves, and turn the table up."

The head of the table, where the principal person sat, was called the "board-end;" and as one long table was now used instead of several smaller ones, the guests of higher and lower degree were divided by the massive saltcellar, placed in the centre of the table. Thus, in Ben Jonson, it is said of a man who treats his inferiors with scorn, "He never drinks below the salt." The waiters, after settling the cloth, placed the spoons, knives, forks, bread, and napkins beside the trenchers. The butler served out the drink from the cupboard, the origin of our modern sideboard. The "cobbord," erroneously supposed to have been like our modern cupboard, is specially mentioned amongst Lord Grey's effects. Lord Fairfax, in his directions to his servants, written about the middle of the seventeenth century, says: "No man must fill beer or wine the cupboard keeper," and he should know which of his "cups for beer and which for wine, for it were a foul thing to mix them together." There was another reason, however, for this arrangement—much "idle tippling" was cut off thereby; for as the draught of beer or wine had to be asked for when it was needed, demand was not likely to be so quick as if it were always at hand. There were also cups of "assaye," from which the cupbearer was obliged to drink before his master, to prove that there was no poison in the liquor which he used. The cupboard was covered with a carpet, of which Lord Grey had two. These carpets, or tablecovers, were more or less costly, according to the rank and state of the owner. His Lordship had also "two chares, two fformes, and two stooles." Chairs were decidedly a luxury at that day. Although the name is of Anglo-Norman origin, they did not come into general use until a late period; and it was considered a mark of disrespect to superiors, for young persons to sit in their presence on anything but hard benches or stools. The Anglo-Saxons called their seats sett and stol, a name which we still preserve in the modern stool. The hall was ornamented with rich hangings, and there was generally a traves, which could be used as a curtain or screen to form a temporary partition. The floor was strewn with rushes, which were not removed quite so frequently as would have been desirable, considering that they were made the repository of the refuse of the table. Perfumes were consequently much used, and we are not surprised to find "a casting bottel, dooble gilte, for rose-water," in the effects of a Viceroy of the sixteenth century. Such things were more matters of necessity than of luxury at even a later period. Meat and pudding were the staple diet of the upper classes in 1698. Wright[[536]] gives a long and amusing extract from a work published by a foreigner who had been much in England at this period, and who appears to have marvelled equally at the amount of solid meat consumed, the love of pudding, and the neglect of fruit at dessert.

We are able, fortunately, to give a description of the fare used during the same period in Ireland, at least by the upper classes, who could afford to procure it. Captain Bodley, a younger brother of the founder of the famous Bodleian Library in Oxford, has left an account of a journey into Lecale, in Ulster, in 1603, and of the proceedings of his companions-in-arms, and the entertainment they met with. His "tour" is full of that gossiping, chatty, general information, which gives an admirable idea of the state of society. This is his description of a dinner: "There was a large and beautiful collar of brawn, with its accompaniments, to wit, mustard and Muscatel wine; there were well-stuffed geese (such as the Lord Bishop is wont to eat at Ardbraccan), the legs of which Captain Caulfield always laid hold of for himself; there were pies of venison and various kinds of game; pasties also, some of marrow, with innumerable plums; others of it with coagulated milk, such as the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London almost always have at their feasts; others, which they call tarts, of divers shapes, materials, and colours, made of beef, mutton, and veal." Then he relates the amusements. After dinner they rode, and in the evening they played cards, and had, "amongst other things, that Indian tobacco of which I shall never be able to make sufficient mention." Later in the evening "maskers" came to entertain them; and on one occasion, their host gave them up his own "good and soft bed, and threw himself upon a pallet in the same chamber."[[537]]

The large stand-bed, or four-post, was then coming into use, and was, probably, the "good and soft bed" which the host resigned to the use of the officers, and which, if we may judge by the illustration of this piece of furniture, would conveniently hold a considerable number of persons. The pallet was placed on the truckle-bed, which rolled under the large bed, and was generally used by a servant, who slept in his master's room. The reader will remember the speech of Mine Host of the Garter, in the "Merry Wives of Windsor," who says of Falstaff's room: "There's his chamber, his house, his castle, his standing-bed and truckle-bed."

However interesting the subject may be, there is not space to go into further details. The inventory of Lord Grey's personal effects can scarcely be given as a picture of costume in this century, for even a few years produced as considerable changes in fashion then as now. Dekker, in his Seven Deadly Sinnes of London, describes an Englishman's suit as being like a traitor's body that had been hanged, drawn, and quartered, and set up in several places; and says: "We that mock every nation for keeping one fashion, yet steal patches from every one of them to piece out our pride, and are now laughing-stocks to them. The block for his head alters faster than the feltmaker can fit him, and hereupon we are called in scorn block-heads." The courtiers of Charles II. compensated themselves for the stern restraints of Puritanism, by giving way to the wildest excesses in dress and manners. Enormous periwigs were introduced, and it became the fashion for a man of ton to be seen combing them on the Mall or at the theatre. The hat was worn with a broad brim, ornamented with feathers; a falling band of the richest lace adorned the neck; the short cloak was edged deeply with gold lace; the doublet was ornamented in a similar manner—it was long, and swelled out from the waist; but the "petticoat breeches" were the glory of the outer man, and sums of money were spent on ribbon and lace to add to their attractions.

The ladies' costume was more simple, at least at this period; they compensated themselves, however, for any plainness in dress, by additional extravagances in their head-dresses, and wore "heart-breakers," or artificial curls, which were set out on wires at the sides of the face. Patching and painting soon became common, and many a nonconformist divine lifted up his voice in vain against these vanities. Pepys has left ample details of the dress in this century; and, if we may judge from the entry under the 30th of October, 1663, either he was very liberal in his own expenditure, and very parsimonious towards his wife, or ladies' attire was much less costly than gentlemen's, for he murmurs over his outlay of about £12 for Mrs. Pepys and £55 for himself. The country people, however, were attired more plainly and less expensively, while many, probably—

"Shook their heads at folks in London,"

and wondered at the follies of their superiors.

The arms and military accoutrements of the period have already been mentioned incidentally, and are illustrated by the different costumes in our engravings, which Mr. Doyle has rendered with the minutest accuracy of detail. This subject, if treated at all, would require space which we cannot afford to give it. The Life Guards were embodied by Charles II, in 1681, in imitation of the French "Gardes des Corps." The Coldstream were embodied by General Monk, in 1660, at the town from whence they obtained their name.

From an account in the Hamilton MSS., published in the Ulster Archæological Journal, it would appear that it was usual, or, at least not uncommon, for young men of rank to go abroad for some time, attended by a tutor, to perfect themselves in continental languages. It need scarcely be said that travelling was equally tedious and expensive. A journey from Dublin to Cork occupied several days; postchaises are a comparatively modern invention; and Sir William Petty astonished the good people of Dublin, in the seventeenth century, by inventing some kind of carriage which could be drawn by horses. With his description of the condition of the lower classes in Ireland at this period, I shall conclude this chapter. The accompanying figure represents the costume of the Irish peasant about the fifteenth century. The dress was found on the body of a male skeleton, in the year 1824, which was preserved so perfectly, that a coroner was called to hold an inquest on it. The remains were taken from a bog in the parish of Killery, co. Sligo. The cloak was composed of soft brown cloth; the coat of the same material, but of finer texture. The buttons are ingeniously formed of the cloth. The trowsers consists of two distinct parts, of different colours and textures; the upper part is thick, coarse, yellowish-brown cloth; the lower, a brown and yellow plaid.

"The diet of these people is milk, sweet and sour, thick and thin; but tobacco, taken in short pipes seldom burned, seems the pleasure of their lives. Their food is bread in cakes, whereof a penny serves a week for each; potatoes from August till May; muscles, cockles, and oysters, near the sea; eggs and butter, made very rancid by keeping in bogs. As for flesh they seldom eat it. Their fuel is turf in most places." The potatoe, which has brought so many national calamities on the country, had been then some years in the country, but its use was not yet as general as it has become since, as we find from the mention of "bread in cakes" being an edible during a considerable part of the year.