DUBLIN. 5 



could not have done. The information I 

 before received of the prices of living is cor- 

 rect. Fifh and poultry are plentiful and very 

 -cheap. Good lodgings almoft as dear as 

 they are in London ; though we were well 

 accommodated k dirt excepted i for two guineas 

 and an half a week. All the lower ranks in 

 this city have no idea of Englifh cleanlinefs, 

 either in apartments, perfons, or cookery. 

 There is a very good fociety in Dublin in a 

 parliament winter — a great round of dinners, 

 and parties -, and balls, and fuppers every 

 night in the week, fome of which are very 

 elegant, but you almolt every where meet 

 a company much too numerous for the fize 

 of the apartments. They have two afTem- 

 blies on the plan of thofc of London, in 

 Fifh.ambie-ft.reet, and at the Rotunda ; and 

 two gentlemens clubs, Anthry's and Daly's, 

 very well regulated; I heard fome anecdotes 

 of deep play at the latter, though never to 

 the excefs common at London. An ill- 

 judged and unfuccefsful attempt was made 

 to erlablifh the Italian Opera, which exifted 

 but with fcarcely any life for this one winter; 

 of courfe they could rife no higher than a 

 comic one. La buona Figliuola, la Frafca- 

 tana, and il Gelofo in Cimento, were re- 

 peatedly performed, or rather murdered, ex- 

 cept the parts of Seftini. The houfe was 

 generally empty and miferably cold. So much 

 knowledge of the ltate of a country is gamed 

 by hearing the debates cf a parliament, that 

 I often frequented the gallery of the houfe 



of 



