kingdom of Ireland, in the
most peaceful and prosperous times, yielded to the Stuarts. The town
is adorned by broad and well built streets, by fair gardens, by a
Corinthian portico which would do honour to Palladio, and by a Gothic
college worthy to stand in the High Street of Oxford. In 1689, the city
extended over about one tenth part of the space which it now covers,
and was intersected by muddy streams, which have long been concealed
by arches and buildings. A desolate marsh, in which the sportsman who
pursued the waterfowl sank deep in water and mire at every step,
covered the area now occupied by stately buildings, the palaces of
great commercial societies. There was only a single street in which two
wheeled carriages could pass each other. From this street diverged to
right and left alleys squalid and noisome beyond the belief of those
who have formed their notions of misery from the most miserable parts
of Saint Giles's and Whitechapel. One of these alleys, called, and, by
comparison, justly called, Broad Lane, is about ten feet wide. From
such places, now seats of hunger and pestilence, abandoned to the most
wretched of mankind, the citizens poured forth to welcome James. He was
received with military honours by Macarthy, who held the chief command
in Munster.

It was impossible for the King to proceed immediately to Dublin; for the
southern counties had been so completely laid waste by the banditti whom
the priests had called to arms, that the means of locomotion were not
easily to be procured. Horses had become rarities: in a large district
there were only two carts; and those Avaux pronounced good for nothing.
Some days elapsed before the money which had been brought from France,
though no very formidable mass, could be dragged over the few miles
which separated Cork from Kinsale, [173]

While the King and his Council were employed in trying to procure
carriages and beasts, Tyrconnel arrived from Dublin. He held encouraging
language. The opposition of Enniskillen he seems to have thought
deserving of little consideration. Londonderry, he said, was the only
important post held by the Protestants; and even Londonderry would not,
in his judgment, hold out many days.

At length James was able to leave Cork for the capital. On the road,
the shrewd and observant Avaux made many remarks. The first part of the
journey was through wild highlands, where it was not strange that there
should be few traces of art and