so much.

But perhaps in many respects Charlemont House has the most interesting
recollections connected with it of all the _grand-seigneur_ mansions of
the Irish metropolis. It was here that the first earl of Charlemont,
the best specimen of a nobleman that Ireland has to boast of, passed the
greater portion of his later life. Lord Charlemont's name is to be found
in all the memoirs of eminent political and literary men of his time. He
was the friend of Burke and Johnson, a popular member of _the_ club, and
a munificent patron of literature and art. But more than all this, he
stuck bravely to his country, and to no man in Ireland did the Stopford
motto, _Patriae infelici fidelis_, more correctly apply. Had more of his
order been like him, what a different country might Ireland have been!

I found Charlemont House full of painters and glaziers. The mansion,
which was retained _in statu quo_ by the late earl, although, for fifty
years no member of the family had slept there, has now been sold to the
government, and is being prepared for the accommodation of the survey
department. The mouldings of the beautiful ceilings are still extant in
some of the rooms, although what once was gilt is now white-wash. The
library is much as it was, minus the very valuable collection of books,
which were sold some time since by the present earl, and fetched a large
sum, albeit many of the most valuable were destroyed in a fire which
broke out at the auctioneer's where they were deposited in London.[3]

With his friend Edmund Burke, Lord Charlemont maintained a close
correspondence. One of Burke's published letters relates to an American
gentleman, Mr. Shippen, whom he was introducing to the hospitalities of
Charlemont House, and whom he describes as very agreeable, sensible and
accomplished. "America and we," he concludes, "are not under the same
crown, but if we are united by mutual good-will and reciprocal good
offices, perhaps it may do almost as well. Mr. Shippen will give you no
unfavorable specimen of the New World."

From the middle of the last century Henrietta street,[4] on the north
bank of the Liffey, was the residence of many of the leading members of
the aristocracy. The street is a _cul-de-sac_, with the King's Inn (the
Temple and Lincoln's Inn of Dublin) at the farther end. The houses are
extremely spacious and richly ornamented; in fact, far finer in point of
proportion and design than ordinary London houses of the fir