MANNERS. 107 



than any thing we commonly fee in England, having nothing 

 of that incivility of fulien fiience, with which ib many Eng- 

 limmen feem to wrap theuifelves up, as if retiring within their 

 own importance. Lazy to an excefs at ivork, but fo fpiritedljr 

 active at play-, that at burling which is the crickej of favages, 

 they fliew the greateft feats of agility. Their love of fociety 

 is as remarkable as their curioilty is infatiable ; and their hof- 

 pitality-to all comers, be their own poverty ever fo pinching, 

 has too much merit to be forgotten. Pleafed to enjoyment 

 \\ith a joke, or witty repartee, they will repeat it with fuch 

 exprflion, that the laugh will be univerla!. Warm friends 

 and revengeful enemies , they are inviolable in their fecrecy, 

 and inevitable in their refentment ; with fuch a notion of ho- 

 nour, that neither threat nor reward would induce them ro 

 betray the fecret or perfon of a man, though an opprefTor, 

 whole property they would plunder without ceremony. >riard 

 drinkeis and quarreSfome ; great liars, but civil, fubrmflive 

 and obedient. Dancing is fo univerfal among them, that there 

 are every where itinerant dancing-mafters, to whom the cot- 

 tars pay fixpence a quarter for teaching their families. Be- 

 fides the IrifK jig, which they can dance with a moft luxuriant 

 expreffion, minuets and country dances are taught $ and I even 

 heard fotne talk of cotillons corning in. 



Some degree of education is alfo general ; hedge fchools, as 

 they are called (they might as well be termed ditch ones, for I have 

 leen many a ditch full of fcholars) are every where to be met 

 with, where reading and writing are taught ; fchools are alfo 

 common for men ; I have leen a dozen great fellows at fchool, 

 and was told they were educating with an intention of being 

 priells. Many ftrokes in their character are evidently to be af- 

 cribed to the extreme opprcilion under which they live. IF 

 they are as great thieves and liars as they are reported, it is 

 certainly owing to this caule. 



If from the lowed clafs we rife to the higheft, all there is 

 gaiety, pleafure, luxury and extravagance ; the town life at 

 Dublin is formed on the model of that of London. Every night 

 in the winter there is a ball or a party, where the polite circle 

 meet, not to enjoy but to fweat each other ; a great crowd 

 crammed into twenty feet fquare gives a zeft to the agrctnents 

 of fmall talk and whift. There are four or five houles large 

 enough to receive a company commodioufly, but the reft are fo 

 fmall as to make parties dttellable. There is however an 

 agreeable fociety in Dublin, in which a man of large fortune 

 will not find his time heavy. The llile of living may be guef- 

 fed from the fortunes of the refident nobility and great com- 

 moners ; there are about thirty that poflefs incomes from feven 

 to twenty thoufand pounds a year. The court has nothing 

 remarkable or fplendid in it, but varies very much, according 

 to the private fortune or liberality of difpofition in the Lord 

 Lieutenant- 

 la 



