The Romance of the Irish Stage Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1897 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III. Public spectacles--Receiving the Viceroy--A gorgeous spectacle--King William's statue--Dining with the Lord Lieutenant on Twelfth Day--A strange custom--Places of recreation--Some eccentric characters--A wise woman--An Irish lord at home--Lord Rosse and his practical joke. The population of the capital, at this time estimated at a hundred and fifty thousand, was continually gratified with public spectacles, the pomp and circumstance of which feasted their eyes, the colour, display, and grace of which appealed to imaginations that would have been as vivid, luxurious, and sensuous as those of Oriental peoples, but for the perpetual gloom of the skies that overshadowed and the mournful rhythm of the seas that surround this isle. Amongst such spectacles was the entrance of the Viceroy--frequently changed in days of political uncertainty--into the kingdom he was PROCESSION OF THE TRADES to govern. On the signal being given of his arrival in Dublin Bay, the Privy Council, Judges, Officers of State and of the Household, together with the nobility, hastened to the sea shore in coaches outnumbering three hundred, not to speak of troops of horsemen, whilst the throng of the populace on such occasions was prodigious; they presently holding on to the wheels and trappings of the coaches containing the Lord Lieutenant and his suite, so that the journey to the Castle, which could have been made in thirty minutes, generally occupied four hours. Then at night great and small guns were fired, bonfires made the streets luminous, whilst wine and ale were freely given to the people at the expense of the Primate and the nobility. The procession of the Trades was a spectacle that caused the greatest excitement of all, and was witnessed once every three years, when pe...