he bates
'em all!"

Here the band played 'Come back to Erin,' and the scene was
indescribable. Nothing could have induced me to witness it had I
realised what it was to be, for I wept at Holyrood when I heard the
plaintive strains of 'Bonnie Charlie's noo Awa' floating up to the
Gallery of Kings from the palace courtyard, and I did not wish Francesca
to see me shedding national, political, and historical tears so soon
again. Francesca herself is so ardent a republican that she weeps
only for presidents and cabinet officers. For my part, although I am
thoroughly loyal, I cannot become sufficiently attached to a president
in four years to shed tears when I see him driving at the head of a
procession.

Chapter VI. Dublin, then and now.

'I found in Innisfail the fair,
In Ireland, while in exile there,
Women of worth, both grave and gay men,
Many clerics, and many laymen.'
James Clarence Mangan.

Mrs. Delany, writing from Dublin in 1731, says: 'As for the generality
of people that I meet with here, they are much the same as in England--a
mixture of good and bad. All that I have met with behave themselves very
decently according to their rank; now and then an oddity breaks out, but
never so extraordinary but that I can match it in England. There is a
heartiness among them that is more like Cornwall than any I have known,
and great sociableness.' This picturesque figure in the life of her day
gives charming pictures in her memoirs of the Irish society of the time,
descriptions which are confirmed by contemporary writers. She was the
wife of Dr. Delany, Dean of Down, the companion of duchesses and queens,
and the friend of Swift. Hannah More, in a poem called 'Sensibility,'
published in 1778, gives this quaint and stilted picture of her:--

'Delany shines, in worth serenely bright,
Wisdom's strong ray, and virtue's milder light.
And she who blessed the friend and graced the page of Swift,
still lends her lustre to our age.
Long, long protract thy light, O star benign,
Whose setting beams with added brightness shine!'

The Irish ladies of Delany's day, who scarcely ever appeared on foot in
the streets, were famous for their grace in dancing, it seems, as the
men were for their skill in swimming. The hospitality of the upper
classes was profuse, and by no means lacking in brilliancy or in grace.
The humorous and satirical poet