On Dublin

Fri 21 Aug 1747: I was desired to see the town and the college[in Dublin]. The town has scarce any public building except the Parliament House which is at all remarkable. The churches are poor and mean, both within and without. St. Stephen’s Green might be made a beautiful place, being abundantly larger than Lincoln’s Inn Square. But the houses round about it (besides that some are low and bad) are quite irregular and unlike each other. And little care is taken of the green itself, which is as rough and uneven as a common.The college contains two little quadrangles, and one about as large as that of New College in Oxford. There is likewise a bowling-green, a small garden, and a little park, and a new-built handsome library. I expected we should have sailed on Saturday 22, but no packet-boat was come in. In order to make the best of our time I preached this day at noon, as well as in the evening. It was not for nothing that our passage was delayed. Who knows what a day may bring forth?