96 A HISTORY OF 



accommodation in Kildare street, but, as will be seen, 

 nothing was derived from their disposal. In August 

 1820, Henry Harris, lessee of the Theatre Royal, 

 made a proposal. Considering the expense he would 

 be put to in converting the place into a theatre, he 

 found that he could not afford to pay any purchase 

 money, but was willing to take an assignment at a rent 

 of £610 a year, to which the premises were subject. 

 This offer was accepted, and the Society freed itself 

 from further liability with regard to a place that was 

 ill contrived, and which, from damp, was not suited 

 for the purposes of the Society, which expended a vast 

 sum in trying to make the premises meet all require- 

 ments. On the disposal of the place to Harris, a 

 bill was filed in Chancery on the 18th of August 

 1820, by the Society of Irish Artists against the 

 Dublin Society and Henry Harris, for an injunction, 

 restraining them, as the exhibition room was in use for 

 exhibiting their works. The plaintiffs in the suit were 

 Thomas C. Thompson, Charles Robinson, T. J. Mul- 

 vany, William B. Taylor, Joseph Peacock, John Banim, 

 and William Mossop, but it does not appear to have 

 come to anything. 



Some account of the Hawkins street premises at 

 the time of their being given up has been preserved, 1 

 from which it appears that the front and sides of the 

 completed buildings of the Society included a quad- 

 rangular area, 97 feet in length. The facade to 

 Hawkins street was of hewn granite, with a centre 

 and two wings, each of two stories, with Doric pilasters, 

 without bases, and the centre ended in an attic story 

 above the entablature. The door was of the Doric 

 order, and in a niche above was a figure of Minerva, 

 with a cornucopia ; on the shield at her feet was an 



1 Whitelaw and Walsh's History of Dublin, ii. 957. 



