Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Picturesque Dublin, Old and New
Far pleasanter is Thackeray's account of his visit to Ireland, which took place in the same year as Carlyle's. It would be impossible that so keen an observer of human nature should not have been alive to the patent faults of the nation. There are occasional sneers at the reverence displayed by the honest Dubliners for great folk, and how they make the most of such a small dignitary as his Excellency, to whose sham Court they go in long trains, the men figuring in very dirty tights. But one cannot feel angry at this, or his funny remarks upon the statue of George I. Peering over the paling in Dawson Street close to the Mansion House, or at the teapot without a spout, the lady with the dubious curl papers, or the window in the Shelbourne Hotel held up by the hearth-brush. There is no ill-nature in the tone of these criticisms; on the other hand, his admiration is genuine for the stately, well-built streets, the prospect from Carlisle Bridge, the Quays, resembling the Paris Quays; while over the Bay of Dublin he gushes: In the morning veiled in mist, towards noon shining under the most beautiful clear sky, which presently became rich with the thousand gorgeous hues of sunset.
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