Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Narrative of a residence in Ireland during the Summer of 1814, and that of 1815 (Author: Anne Plumptre)

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The Lying-in Hospital — The Rotunda — The Foundling Hospital — The Blue-Coat Hospital — Kilmainham Hospital — Other charitable Institutions — The House of Industry — The Beggars — The Black Cart — Sir Arthur Clarke and his Baths — Singular Talent of Lady Clarke — College of Surgeons — Markets — Potatoes.

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The charitable institutions of Dublin are very numerous, and well regulated: none among them is more deserving of particular notice than the Lying-in Hospital. This excellent charity owes its origin to the exertions of Dr. Bartholomew Mosse, once a celebrated surgeon and accoucheur in Dublin. Struck with the unfortunate and comfortless situation of poor women at such a moment, of which, probably, from the nature of his profession he had too often ocular demonstration, in the year 1745 he took a house in George's-street for their reception, and supported it for some time entirely at his own expense. Like many other patriotic undertakings, the utility of which has in the end been universally acknowledged and applauded, a great popular clamour was at first raised against this institution; but at length the benefit derived from it was so palpable, that not only was the voice of opposition silenced, but the popular cry became as warm in its favour as it had once been against it; and the number of patients applying for admission was so great, that the original house was by no means competent to receiving them. Many charitable and well-disposed persons now came forward to aid the Doctor's benevolent purpose; some with benefactions, others with annual subscriptions, till at length he formed the plan of erecting the present Hospital. He took a long lease of the ground on which it stands, and the first stone of the building was laid in 1751, by the then lord-mayor of Dublin; while, the better to secure the probability of supporting his new foundation, he expended a considerable sum of money in laying out a portion of the ground as a garden for public amusement. But in the prosecution of plans so extensive he had soon exhausted his own means, and was obliged to have recourse to raising money on credit, as well as

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to devise other schemes for procuring it. In a lottery he was tolerably successful; but, another scheme entirely failing, in the year 1755 he applied to Parliament for assistance, and obtained a grant of 6000l. The following sessions, on renewing his application, another grant was afforded him of a like sum; and at the same time a vote was passed giving him 2000l. for his own use, as an acknowledgement of his laudable and benevolent exertions. The same year he obtained a charter from King George the Second, incorporating a number of the principal noblemen and gentlemen of Ireland as governors of his new establishment, and appointing him Master for life. On the 8th of December 1757 it was opened for the reception of patients.

To the Hospital has since been attached a building, of a circular form, thence called the Rotunda, where are rooms for public amusements, as balls, concerts, or exhibitions of any kind, with a theatre for public lectures; and from the profits yielded by these different objects, combined with those afforded by the gardens, and collections made at the time of service in the chapel, the Hospital is principally supported. The gardens are open every night during the summer as a promenade, with a band of music and lights, each person paying sixpence at entrance, and they are much frequented even by very good company. About seventy thousand patients have been admitted since the opening of the Hospital, nineteen of whom have had three children at a birth, and one four. The building exhibits in the exterior a happy medium between excessive plainness and idle ornament, and nothing can be neater or more comfortable than the wards for the reception of the poor women. The chapel is very prettily fitted up; and as it is open to the public on Sundays, is much attended. The square in which this Hospital and garden stand is now called Rutland-square, from its having been much improved and embellished under the patronage of the Duke of Rutland when he was Lord Lieutenant. Since the death of Dr. Mosse, a new master of the Hospital is elected every seven years.

The Foundling Hospital is a very extensive institution, established upon a truly noble and liberal principle, — the idea of removing every inducement to the neglect or destruction of infant innocence, which poverty or shame might prompt. But since the best of purposes must unavoidably be liable to perversion, so abuses had crept in here, which rendered it necessary some years since to establish such restraints as might at least very much correct, if not totally

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prevent them. Till that time all children were indiscriminately taken in; nothing was requisite but to deposit the child in a cradle fixed for the purpose at the principal entrance. This facility of admission occasioned children to be sent thither from all parts of the country; nay, they were even brought from England; the importation of them was, as I have been credibly informed, become a regular branch of traffic among the inferior traders between Dublin and Liverpool. By the present regulation, the person must knock at the door and deliver in the child; and though it is received without any questions being asked, yet the bearer being obliged to show him- or herself, has been found a very great check upon the former illicit practices.

The Hospital stands in a very airy situation, on the south side of the river, quite at the western extremity of the town. It was first founded in 1704; and, after various experiments for supporting it, a tax of one shilling in the pound upon the rent of all houses within the city was granted, with some additional duty upon inns, taverns, porter-houses, and the like. The establishment is extremely well conducted, and the children all look perfectly clean, healthy, and happy. The infants are for the most part sent into the country, to the care of nurses provided for the purpose, where they remain till they are six years old; but the nurses are required to present them at the hospital once a year, when they come for their salaries, that the directors may be assured proper care is taken of them.

The Blue-coat Hospital was originally intended for the support of the aged and infirm poor of the city, as well as for the education of children; but the funds proving inadequate to the support of so enlarged a plan, it is now confined to the education of boys. The sons of reduced freemen have the preference before all others, with the exception of about fifty, who being on particular foundations, the persons appointing them are left entirely at liberty in their choice. The children are lodged, fed, clothed, and instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, till they arrive at a proper age to be bound as apprentices. A mathematical-school is supported in the hospital by the corporation of merchants, for instructing a certain number of boys in navigation, who at a proper age are apprenticed to merchants or captains of ships, to be trained to the sea-service. Kilmainham Hospital is a fine institution, standing in a delightful airy situation,

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just without the western end of the town. It is for the reception of invalid soldiers, and will hold four hundred pensioners. A great number of out-pensioners are also supported by it — The land on which this hospital stands formerly belonged to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, who, as well as the Knights Templars, had in their days of prosperity possessions in almost every county in Ireland. A stone fountain adjoining the burying-ground of the hospital is dedicated to the first-mentioned knights. Tasso, in his Gierusalemme Liberata, enumerates the Irish as among the nations that followed his hero to the crusade. Fuller, in his Holy Warre, mentions the priory of Kilmainham for hospitalers, and says that the Irish after Henry the Second's conquest of their country soon began to look towards Palestine; "Yea," he adds, "the concert of Christendom could have made no musick in these wars if the Irish harp had been wanting."

St. Stephen's Hospital supports seventy aged persons, decayed housekeepers, tradesmen, and servants, besides being an infirmary for the sick.

Swift's or St. Patrick's Hospital, founded by Dean Swift, is well known as an asylum for unfortunate lunatics and idiots.

The Royal Military Infirmary in the Phoenix Park is for the reception of sick and wounded soldiers.

Mercer's Hospital, founded by Mrs. Mary Mercer, is an infirmary for the sick poor: so also is Meath Hospital, but confined to those belonging to the Earl of Meath's liberty.

There are two Fever Hospitals, one in Cork-street, the other in Saint George's parish; — two Lock Hospitals, in Townsend-street and in Dorset-street; two Magdalen Asylums; — an Asylum for female orphans between five and ten years of age; — an Hospital for blind and gouty men; — and one for persons labouring under incurable diseases, which holds fifty patients.

Near Clontarf is a Charter School, where a hundred-and-twenty boys are lodged, fed, clothed, and educated in the Protestant religion.

Lately have been instituted schools for the education of the children of soldiers and of seamen.

There are, besides, several Dispensaries, with an Institution for promoting Vaccination; and a variety of minor associations for different purposes of benevolence.

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The Asylum for Instructing the Blind, instituted by the Duke of Richmond, must not be passed over without being particularized.

Nor must the House of Industry. This is a most excellent, extensive, and well regulated establishment for the reception of the poor; — all are admitted who desire it, no recommendation is required; but they must submit to the rules of the house. They are not permitted to live in idleness: they are classed according to their abilities, conditions and deserts, and are employed in a variety of occupations. The children are kept separate from the grown persons; and there is an infirmary for the sick, considerably removed from the receptacles of the healthy. There are also a number of cells for lunatics; — I think about fifty. The people are entirely maintained here; and the works carried on nearly support the establishment: many things manufactured or made in the house are to be purchased there.

With an asylum like this to resort to, it is a shame that such an object as a beggar should be seen in the streets; yet are there swarms; and so wretched and tattered is their appearance, that it is impossible not to recur immediately to the celebrated saying recorded of that arch-wit Foote, "that he used to wonder what the English beggars could do with their cast-off rags, till he went over to Ireland, and then he perceived that they were sent to the Irish beggars." Scarcely can a carriage stop at a shop, or a well-dressed person enter one, but the door is immediately surrounded by a number of these miserable-looking beings, whose clamours and importunities exceed those of the English beggars in equal proportion with the wretchedness of their appearance. A sort of caravan is often sent round the town, known by the cant name of the Black Cart, to take up persons found begging, and carry them to the House of Industry. The moment the beggars spy this vehicle at a distance, away they sculk into some place where they can lie concealed, nor venture forth again till a long time after it has disappeared. Sometimes, however, it will catch them unawares, and they are carried away: but there is nothing they dread so much; — to them working and being well kept, is greater misery than their rags and wretchedness, while indulged in their beloved indolence. The cart is always followed by a great mob of people, particularly children.

It is indeed a truth too striking to be passed over unnoticed, how much worse is the appearance of the lower classes in Ireland than in England!

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That in sending their cast-off rags to Ireland, the English beggars should forget the shoes and stockings, might not excite much astonishment, nor would it perhaps appear a subject of remark; but a stranger, from the southern division of Great Britain at least, — though the same impression might not be made on one from the northern, — must be exceedingly struck at seeing people walking about the streets without shoe or stocking, though not otherwise very poor and wretched in their appearance. This is more especially the case with the women, among whom such a spectacle is the most revolting. I have even seen in the north of Ireland, very well dressed women, in clean white gowns and smart bonnets, walking along the public road without shoes or stockings; they were tied up in a handkerchief and carried in their hands, ready to be put on when they touched on the place of their destination, which perhaps was a fair. I did not observe this among well-dressed women in the south; but the north is half peopled by Scotch families, it is therefore not surprising that Scotch manners should prevail so much more among them. Another peculiarity which I observed in the dress of the women is, that, alike in the heat of summer as in the cold of winter, they walk about in long cloth cloaks; and that not only such as come absolutely under the definition of the poor, but women who rise a step higher in society, as inferior tradespeople and the like.

Though not coming under the description of charitable institutions, yet as an object of great public utility must be mentioned the Baths established within a few years by Sir Arthur Clarke. Too far from the Bay to obtain a supply of sea-water, unless by means of very expensive works, he forms, as a substitute, an artificial sea-water, by dissolving rock-salt in fresh water, which is said to be equally efficacious with the salt element itself. There are both hot and cold baths fitted up with the utmost neatness, and with every accommodation that can be wished by those who are to use them. He has also medicinal baths, made by imitating certain natural springs, the composition of which is well known. This establishment was thought to reflect so much credit on the undertaker, that it obtained him the honour of knighthood, which occasions the wags to give him the appellation of the Knight of the Bath, while on Lady Clarke,?since the publication of Mr. Walter Scott's poem,?has been conferred the title of the Lady of the Lake.

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Sir Arthur is by profession a surgeon, and is of great eminence. His lady was a Miss Owenson, sister to Lady Morgan. She is very musical, and possesses a singular talent, approaching to ventriloquism, of imitating in singing two very different voices, so that it is scarcely possible to suppose they do not proceed from separate performers. The first time that I was entertained with a specimen of this talent, was in a large party at the house of her sister Lady Morgan, a few days after my arrival in Dublin. The company were in two. rooms; and I happened to be engaged earnestly in conversation in the different room from that where the music was, when I heard, as I thought, rather an extraordinary kind of duet, in the form of an eclogue between a man whose voice was become rough from advance in years, and a squeaking little girl. I own this appeared to me rather an odd performance to introduce, since there was nothing in the singing of either party very much to amuse or gratify the company. How was I astonished when I found the whole to be executed by the same person, and that a lady whose natural voice, unlike either of the characters she assumed, is pleasing and melodious! Like the College of Surgeons in London, whose establishment is in the largest square of that large city, Lincoln's-Inn- Fields, the incorporated Surgeons of Dublin have theirs in the largest square of this metropolis, Stephen's Green. The College of Surgeons is a handsome modern building, and one of the great ornaments of the square. It includes a good library, a theatre for lectures, a dissecting-room, and a museum for anatomical curiosities. Dublin possesses men of great talents and eminence in every branch of medical science. There are eleven markets in this city: Ormond market, on Ormond Quay; Castle market, in George's street; Patrick's market, in Patrick-street; Clarendon market, in William-street; Meath market, in Hanbury-lane; and Norfolk market, in Great-Britain-street. These are all general markets, and are plentifully supplied with butchers' meat, poultry, fish, vegetables, fruit, &c. &c, at a cheaper rate than in London, particularly the fish, poultry, and eggs. Besides these there is the City market, in Blackhall-row, where little else is sold than mutton, lamb, and pork;?Fleet market, in Townsend-street, which on the contrary is principally a beef-market, and supplies the shipping;?Spitalfields market, chiefly for bacon;?Smithfield, for live cattle, hay and straw;?and lastly

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the Corn market. This is now held near the Great Canal harbour. Potatoes, as the staple article of food throughout Ireland, are of course in profusion in all the markets; they are much cheaper than in London: the yearly consumption in Dublin alone is computed at about thirty-five thousand tons. This vegetable forms no less a constant dish at the tables of the rich, than the poor; the only difference is, that they are served in a more luxurious way, fresh ones being brought in hot two or three times in the course of the dinner; they are always served up with the skins on. Eggs are equally a constant part of an Irish breakfast.

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