prizes on the parlour table, and a feather bed and 

 closed windows in every bedroom. 



* 



Coming to our own town of Belfast, what was it 

 like in 1863? The population was about 122,000, now 

 it is nearly 438,000. There were no typewriters, no 

 telephones, no safety bicycles, no trams, no taxis, no 

 aeroplanes, no public parks, no Royal Avenue, no 

 Botanic Avenue, no Victoria Street, no Lombard 

 Street, no Albert Memorial. 



The town had three bridges — the Queen's, the 

 Ormeau, and the Albert (commonly known as ''the 

 ha'penny bridge," because until recently it had been 

 owned by a private Company who charged a toil on 

 the traffic). The Queen's Bridge, built in 1842, took the 

 place of the old "Long Bridge," which consisted of 

 twenty one arches and was eight hundred and forty 

 feet long. A local poet wrote of it — 



"Spanning the Lagan, now we have in view, 

 The great Long Bridge, with arches twenty-two." 



He explained in a footnote that it had only 

 twenty-one, but for the sake of rhyme he had to add 

 another arch! 



The most prominent man in the town was John 

 Rea, a police-court attorney of eccentric character. 

 He cultivated a style of advocacy that would not be 

 tolerated to-day; his forcible removal from Court was 

 of frequent occurrence- He described himself as an 

 "Orange-Fenian," and was the idol of the riff-raff and 

 hooligan element of the population. Someone has 

 described him as "a great burly figure, with massive 

 shoulders supporting a strong pugnacious head, 

 aggressive side-whiskers, .... and a nose that 

 sniffed the battle from afar." There is a story 

 told of him that on one occasion he was in Omagh 

 defending some Orangemen accused of a misdemea- 

 nour, and, elated by his success on their behalf, they 



