THE ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY 97 



Irish harp, with the motto, Nostri plena laboris. 1 In 

 the interior was a broad room, 39 by 25 feet, lofty, 

 well-lighted, and richly ornamented, with a square 

 lantern. There were two spacious apartments for the 

 Leskean museum and the gallery for Irish speci- 

 mens. Then a noble and well-proportioned gallery, 

 90 by 30 feet, well lighted by three elegant lanterns, 

 round which were disposed the Society's busts and 

 statues, the group of Laocoon ending the vista. Off 

 this were the drawing schools. The library occupied 

 three rooms. The exhibition room was lofty and 

 spacious, the light being so disposed from the roof 

 as to display the paintings to the best effect, and, next 

 to the Louvre, it was considered the finest of its kind 

 in Europe. In the rear of the quadrangular court 

 were the chemical laboratory and the lecture-room, 

 around which was a gallery with seating accommodation 

 for eight hundred people. 



It had been suggested that a new front might be 

 erected on the south side of the building, to corre- 

 spond with Trinity College, as the origin of a fine 

 square, into which eight streets would lead, and in the 

 centre of which might be erected the Wellington 

 trophy. 2 The Society's house would then not only 

 have been near the most central but also the most 

 ornamental part of the metropolis. It was said that 

 a sum of over ^60,000 had been expended on the 

 Hawkins street buildings, and the account concludes 



1 When the Theatre Royal was burned, almost the only part 

 left standing was the stone facade, which had been erected by the 

 Dublin Society. The figure of Minerva (or Hibernia), by E. Smyth, 

 which occupied a niche over the entrance, was removed, and placed 

 on the old gateway of Leinster House. It is now in the colonnade, 

 outside the door of the theatre. 



2 There was some idea of erecting the trophy in commemoration 

 of Wellington's victories in the open space where the Crampton 

 memorial now stands 



