nge had been made in compliment to
a bust of William the Third, which adorned the front of one of the
houses, but for long after the place was much more associated with the
well than with the House of Orange. The waters of the well were
popularly supposed to have wonderful curative and health-giving
properties, and it was much used. It dried up suddenly in 1729, and
gave Swift the opportunity of writing some fiercely indignant national
verses. But the water was restored to it in 1731, and it still exists
in peaceful, half-forgotten obscurity in the College grounds.

Dawson Street, off Nassau Street, had only newly come into existence.
It was called after Joshua Dawson, who had just built for himself a
handsome mansion with gardens round it. He sold the house in 1715 to
the Dublin Corporation, to be used as a Mansion House for their Lord
Mayors. Where Molesworth and Kildare Streets now stand there was at
this time a great piece of waste {82} land called Molesworth Fields.
Chapelizod, now a sufficiently populous suburb, was then the little
village of Chappell Isoud, said to be so called from that Belle Isoud,
daughter of King Anguish of Ireland, who was beloved by Tristram. The
General Post-office in Sycamore Alley had for Postmaster-general Isaac
Manley, who was a friend of Swift. Manley incurred the Dean's
resentment in 1718 by opening letters addressed to him. The postal
arrangements were, as may be imagined, miserably defective. Owing to
the carelessness of postmasters, the idleness of post-boys, bad horses,
and sometimes the want of horses, much time was lost and letters
constantly miscarried.

[Sidenote: 1714--Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Belfast]

The amusements of Dublin were those of London on a small scale. Dublin
was as fond of its coffee-houses as London itself. Lucas's, in Cork
Street, was the favorite resort of beaux, gamesters, and bullies. Here
Talbot Edgeworth, Miss Edgeworth's ancestor, whom Swift called the
"prince of puppies," displayed his follies, his fine dresses, and his
handsome face, and believed himself to be the terror of men and the
adoration of women, till he died mad in the Dublin Bridewell. The yard
behind Lucas's was the theatre of numerous duels, which were generally
witnessed from the windows by all the company who happened to be
present. These took care that the laws of honorable combat were
observed. Close at hand was the "Swan" Tavern, in Swan Alley, a
district devoted