103 



dence, the elaborately minute references to which, at the end of each 

 volume, attest his industry and good taith. The writer of a work con- 

 structed on the plan of Mr. Gilbert's History of Dublin, has occasion to 

 display the most diversified information and research. He touches upon 

 the general political history of the country in past centuries ; he intro- 

 duces biographical notices of distinguished men ; he records and loca- 

 lizes interesting events in the history of religion, letters, science, and 

 art. In each of these departments the reader will find in Mr. Gilbert's 

 history new and precise information, not to be met with elsewhere in 

 print. As illustrating the wide range of subjects treated of under their 

 respective localities, I may cite the account of the Tribe of Mac Gillamo- 

 cholmog (vol. i., p. 230), traced through unpublished Gaelic and Anglo- 

 Irish records from the remote origin of the family to its extinction in the 

 fifteenth century ; while, as a specimen of the work in a totally diffe- 

 rent department, I may refer to the history of Crow-street Theatre, as 

 giving the only accurate details hitherto published of that once-noted 

 establishment, verified by original documents never before printed, from 

 the autograph of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and other dramatic celebri- 

 ties. Mr. Gilbert has interwoven in his work numerous original biogra- 

 phies of eminent natives of Dublin. He has supplied notices of painters, 

 engravers, and medallists, with catalogues of their works, never before 

 collected, and not to be found even in books specially treating of these sub- 

 jects. He has given us a history of the Parliament of Ireland and the 

 Parhament House ; he has recorded the origin and progress of the Royal 

 Dublin Society, the College of Physicians, and the Royal Irish Academy ; 

 he has also introduced notices of remarkable literary works published 

 in Dublin, with information respecting their authors. A complete ana- 

 lysis of Mr. Gilbert's volumes would bring into view other interesting 

 classes of subjects which I have left unmentioned ; but my enumeration 

 of the topics treated of in the work is sufficiently ample to show that it 

 embraces a most extensive field. To combine such multifarious details 

 into a narrative attractive to a general reader, and at the same time sa- 

 tisfactory to the historical inquirer, seeking precise and authentic infor- 

 mation, was not an easy task. Mr. Gilbert is acknowledged to have 

 succeeded eminently in attaining this twofold object. He has produced 

 a work which has been, and will continue to be, read with interest, and 

 referred to as an authority, not only by partial friends and brother Aca- 

 demicians, but by all who may, in our own time or in future genera- 

 tions, studyft.tlie history and antiquities of the city of Dublin. 



Me. Gilbert, — I present to you the medal which the Council of 

 the Royal Irish Academy has awarded to you as the author of a scholar- 

 like work on the History of Dublin. You have removed from Ireland 

 the national reproach of having no history of its metropolis. The vo- 

 lumes which you have produced furnish accurate and copious informa- 

 tion on the history of every part of the city of which they treat. Let 

 me express the hope that the sympathy in your labours shown by this 

 Academy will encourage you to continue them. To the exertions made 



