174 A HISTORY OF 



In 1784, Mr. Conyngham laid before the Society 

 a catalogue of several books in Dutch and other 

 foreign languages, which he had purchased abroad 

 for the Society, they being scarce and valuable. The 

 secretary was authorised to employ Mr. Gabriel 

 Beranger, in translating the titles and indexes. 



Beranger, whose family were French Huguenots, 

 was born at Rotterdam in 1729. Coming to Dublin in 

 1750, he sold prints and kept an artists' warehouse in 

 South Great George's street. He died at his residence 

 in St. Stephen's Green in 18 17, aged eighty-eight years, 

 and was buried in the French cemetery, Peter street. 

 Beranger's special patrons were Colonel Burton Con- 

 yngham and General Vallancey, who obtained for him 

 the post of ledger clerk in the Exchequer Office. 

 Beranger made a number of sketches of antiquities for 

 Vallancey's Collectanea, and a series of these sketches 

 now in the Royal Irish Academy shows the appearance 

 of many buildings that no longer exist. He will always 

 hold a high place in the history of Irish art, " as his 

 accurate and beautiful work preserves with admirable 

 fidelity the distinctive features of many Irish architec- 

 tural remains." Sir William Wilde wrote a memoir 

 of Beranger, 1 with a full account of his labours in the 

 cause of Irish art, literature, and antiquities, between 

 the years 1760 and 1780. A large number of sketches, 

 elevations, landscapes, written descriptions of ruins, and 

 manuscript accounts of his various tours from 1773 to 

 1780 came into Sir William's possession, from which 

 material he was able to compile his very interesting 

 memoir. 



In 1787, Colonel Hamilton was paid a sum of 

 fifty guineas for translating the indexes of thirty-two 

 volumes of the Transactions of the Haarlem and Flush- 



1 Journal R.S.A.I., vols, xi., xii., and xiv. 



