racter. I presented my card; he just looked at it, then glanced at me, and with head averted, said, 'So, you are come to draw the human figure.'-I then directed his attention to the back of the card, on which was written, by the gentleman who gave it me, an order to be furnished with drawing materials, and he would pay for them. During his reading he was assailed by a number of boys with their sketches for his opinion; he dispatched them quickly, with-to one, the nose more in, the chin more out; to another, your head is too large-yours has not got the turn-you must place your figure in the centre-dash it out, and begin again! Your mouth is too much open and your eyes shut-you must shut your mouth and open your eyes; having in routine given directions, he finished the reading of the card. Another boy, with a finished drawing as he thought, submitted his production, 'Oh! you have no character-you must labour until you get it, compare it, and amend-es, es !' His yes, yes, was like sounding the letter s twice, the first a long s, the second a small one. Then leaving his desk, he walked to the folding doors which opened to the figure-room, and calling John, he returned in quick pace to his post.-John returned with the materials, and Mr. West sketched a profile of a head, before me, to show me how to begin; he did it very expertly, and with great freedom of hand; he then desired John to place me at a desk with master Shee. So John led me to the desk, and I was most happily placed; for master Shee, though some years my junior, was capable and willing to assist me.. We also drew together at the architectural school, and I was induced to put up a sheet of geometry for the medal, but it was adjudged to master Shee, as was every medal he looked for in any of the schools." The student here referred to was Sir Martin Archer Shee, author of "Rhymes on Art," subsequently elected president of the Royal Academy of London. The Dublin Society continued to meet in Grafton-street regularly until the year 1796, when, having erected more extensive buildings in another locality, they sold their interest in their house here for £3,000, and the buildings known as 112 and 113, Grafton-street have since been erected on its site. The Provost's house, built on a portion of the College gardens, was occupied for a considerable part of the last century (1774 to 1794) by the Hutchinson family, in addition to which the following peers also resided in Grafton-street: Lord Kinsale (1778), Viscount Grandison (1788); the Earl of Dunsany (1786); Lord Newhaven of Carrickmayne (1791), and Lord Massey of Duntryleague. James Reilly, a water-color miniature painter of some emiresided at no. 17 Grafton-street from 1774 to his death in 1788; and in the year 1776 Edward Hudson, a native of nence, Castlemartyr, Co. Cork, the most eminent dentist of his day in Ireland, removed from George's-lane to number 69, Graftonstreet, nearly opposite to Anne-street, where he continued to reside for many years. Distinguished no less for intellectual acquirements than for professional skill, he became the associate of the leading characters of his time, and on the formation of the "Monks of St. Patrick" the important office of bursar to that fraternity was conferred upon him. Curran, in his early struggles, was much indebted to the friendship and liberality of Hudson, who, in predicting the future eminence of his despondent youthful friend, failed not to inculcate such sentiments as we find in the following extract: "Consider now and then, Jack, what you are destined for; and never, even in your distresses, draw consolation from so mean a thought, as that your abilities may one day render your circumstances easy or affluent; but that you may one day have it in your power to do justice to the wronged-to wipe the tear from the widow or orphan, will afford the satisfaction that is worthy of a man. "It would be injustice," says Curran's son, "to suppress another passage. Having a little before chided his friend for neglecting to inform him of the state of his finances, Mr. Hudson goes on: "I think I shall be a man of no small fame to-morrow or * From the period of the opening of Carlisle bridge, the private residences in Grafton-street became gradually converted into shops. The "Black Lyon Inn" was located at the corner of Anne-street (1762), and the " City Tavern" (1787) also stood in Grafton street. The "Incorporated Society for the promotion of Protestant schools" held their committees in this street, previous to the erection of their house in Suffolkstreet (1758); the Tallow chandlers, or "Guild of St. George," had their hall in Grafton-street (1783); and there were also several lottery offices here, of which the best known was the "Lion's office," no. 101, corner of Suffolk-street. The noted Catherine Netterville (1770) had a magnificent residence in Grafton-street, which was the scene of the frightful suicide of Mr. Stone of Jamaica, her insane paramour. A forcible illustration of of the popular error relative to the value of the farthings of Queen Anne was furnished by the consequences of the discovery, in 1814, of one of those coins by George Home, an assistant in the shop of J. Miller, confectioner, no. 3 Graftonstreet. Home's refusal to surrender the coin, received in his employer's shop, was made the ground of a criminal prosecution, and he was sentenced by the Recorder to be confined for twelve months in Newgate, and subsequently imprisoned until he gave up the farthing; the court being ignorant that the scarcest of Queen Anne's farthings is not worth more than five pounds, the generality of them not exceeding a few shillings in value. The wealth subsequently accumulated by the industry of Home enabled him to erect the "Royal Arcade;" his success was, however, popularly ascribed to his having found a farthing of Queen Anne. next day, and though 'tis but the fame of a dentist, yet if that of an honest man is added to it, I shall not be unhappy. Write speedily to me, and if you are in want, think I shall not be satisfied with my fortunes-believe me I shall never think I make a better use of my possessions than when such a friend as Jack can assist me in their uses." With Edward Hudson in Grafton-street resided his cousin and namesake, Edward Hudson, the younger, who gave early indications of superior talents. Moore, who became acquainted with him in 1797, tells us that he was a remarkably fine and handsome young man, who could not have been at that time more than two or three and twenty years of age," and adds that, Though educated merely for the purposes of his profession, he was full of zeal and ardour for everything connected with the fine arts; drew with much taste himself, and was passionately devoted to Irish music. He had with great industry collected and transcribed all our most beautiful airs, and used to play them with much feeling on the flute. I attribute, indeed, a good deal of my own early acquaintance with our music, if not the warm interest which I have since taken in it, to the many hours I passed at this time of my life tête-à-tête with Edward Hudson, now trying over the sweet melodies of our country, now talking with indignant feelings of her sufferings and wrongs." This young dentist became one of the most intimate of Moore's friends, and was the only person entrusted with the secret of the latter having contributed political essays to the leading Irish journal of the day. Moore has himself enabled us to judge how far the origin of his Irish melodies is attributable to Edward Hudson, erroneously, however, stating that the latter was the nephew of his elder name-sake: "It was in the year 1797 that, through the medium of Mr. Bunting's book, I was first made acquainted with the beauties of our native music. A young friend of our family, Edward Hudson, the nephew of an eminent dentist of that name, who played with much taste and feeling on the flute, and unluckily for himself, was but too deeply warmed with the patriotic ardour then kindling around him, was the first who made known to me this rich mine of our country's melodies;—a mine, from the working of which my humble labours as a poet have since then derived their sole lustre and value," Edward Hudson, the elder, had repeatedly declined pressing solicitations to join the society of United Irishmen; his cousin, however, became deeply involved in their plans, and was appointed one of their provincial delegates, in which capacity he was sitting in council when arrested in March, 1798. Of his imprisonment Moore has left the following reminiscence : : "When, in consequence of the compact entered into between government and the chief leaders of the conspiracy, the State Prisoners, before proceeding into exile, were allowed to see their friends, I paid a visit to this gentleman in the jail of Kilmainham, where he had then lain immured for four or five months, hearing of friend after friend being led out to death, and expecting every week his own turn to come. As painting was one of his tastes, I found that, to amuse his solitude, he had made a large drawing with charcoal on the wall of his prison, representing that fancied origin of the Irish harp, which, some years after, I adopted as the subject of one of the melodies : ''Tis believ'd that this harp, which I wake now for thee, Was a Syren of old, who sung under the sea; And who often, at eve, thro' the bright waters rov'd, The beautiful allegorical design here commemorated was not conceived in the gloomy cell of Kilmainham, the sketch made by the prisoner being merely a reproduction of a vignette drawn by the elder Hudson and prefixed to an ode for St. Cecilia's day, written by him and printed for private circulation. The younger Hudson formed one of the Irish state prisoners confined in Fort George, after his liberation from which he retired to America, where he married the daughter of Patrick Byrne, the exiled publisher. The elder Hudson wrote several small political and scientific treatises; by his skill dental surgery was in Ireland first elevated to the rank of a profession; and mainly from his instructions his nephew, Blake,* was enabled pre-eminently to advance our country's reputation in this branch of science. Surgeon Hudson died in 1821, at the age of 79, and those who are acquainted with the modern history of Irish literature, can testify that his intellectual and enlightened tastes have not been impaired in their transmission to his descendants. Wolfe Tone details as follows the origin of his alliance with his wife Matilda, who subsequently exhibited so noble an example of female fortitude and self-devotion : "About the beginning of the year 1785, I became acquainted with my wife. She was the daughter of William Witherington, and Author of the highly valued "Essay on the structure and formation of the teeth in man and various animals by Robert Blake, M.D., being principally a translation of his inaugural dissertation published at Edinburgh, September, 1798," 8vo. Dublin: 1801. lived, at that time, in Grafton-street, in the house of her grandfather, a rich old clergyman, of the name of Fanning. I was then a scholar of the house in the University, and every day, after commons, I used to walk under her windows with one or the other of my fellow students; I soon grew passionately fond of her, and she, also, was struck with me, though certainly my appearance, neither then nor now, was much in my favour; so it was, however, that, before we had ever spoken to each other, a mutual affection had commenced between us. She was, at this time, not sixteen years of age, and as beautiful as an angel. She had a brother some years older than herself; and as it was necessary, for my admission to the family, that I should be first acquainted with him, I soon contrived to be introduced to him, and as he played well on the violin, and I was myself a musical man, we grew intimate, the more so, as it may well be supposed. I neglected no fair means to recommend myself to him and the rest of the family, with whom I soon grew a favorite. My affairs now advanced prosperously; my wife and I grew more passionately fond of each other; and, in a short time, proposed to her to marry me, without asking consent of any one, knowing well it would be in vain to expect it; she accepted the proposal as frankly as I made it; and one beautiful morning in the month of July, we ran off together and were married. I carried her out of town to Maynooth for a few days, and when the first eclat of passion had subsided, we were forgiven on all sides, and settled in lodgings near my wife's grandfather." By a singular coincidence, the informer Reynolds became the husband of the sister of Tone's wife; ; to the latter Lucien Bonaparte alluded as follows in his public oration in 1799: "It is precisely one year since, on the same day and in the same month, a court martial was assembled in Dublin, to try a general officer in the service of our Republic.-You have heard the last words of this illustrious martyr of liberty. What could I add to them? You see him, under your own uniform, in the midst of this assassinating tribunal, in the midst of this awe-struck and affected assembly. You hear him exclaim, After such sacrifices in the cause of liberty, it is no great effort, at this day, to add the sacrifice of my life. I have courted poverty; I have left a beloved wife, unprotected, and children, whom I adored, fatherless.' Pardon him, if he forgot, in these last moments, that you were to be the fathers and protectors of his Matilda and of his children. A few words more on the widow of Theobald; on his children. Calamity would have overwhelmed a weaker soul. The death of her husband was not the only one she had to deplore. His brother was condemned to the same fate; and with less good fortune, or less firmness, perished on the scaffold. If the services of Tone were not sufficient, of themselves, to rouse your feelings, I might mention the independent spirit and firmness of that noble woman, who, on the tomb of her husband and her brother, mingles, with her sighs, |