2

niSTOET OE ENGLAND.

CHAP.

XVI.

1690 .

some aspect and odour of long lines of human dens far inferiorin comfort and cleanliness to the dwellings which, in happiercountries, are provided for cattle. No other large Irish townis so well cleaned, so well paved, so brilliantly lighted. Theplace of domes and spires is supplied by edifices, less pleasingto the taste, but not less indicative of prosperity, hugefactories, towering many stories above the chimneys of thehouses, and resounding with the roar of machinery. The Bel-fast which William entered was a small English settlement ofabout three hundred houses, commanded by a stately castlewhich has long disappeared, the seat of the noble family ofChichester. In this mansion, which is said to have borne someresemblance to the palace of Whitehall, and which was cele-brated for its terraces and orchards stretching down to the riverside, preparations had been made for the King’s reception. Hewas welcomed at the Northern Gate by the magistrates andburgesses in their robes of office. The multitude pressed onhis carriage with shouts of “ God save the Protestant King.”For the town was one of the strongholds of the ReformedFaith; and, when, two generations later, the inhabitantswere, for the first time, numbered, it was found that the RomanCatholics were not more than one in fifteen.*

The night came: but the Protestant counties were awakeand up. A royal salute had been fired from the castle of Belfast.It had been echoed and reechoed by guns which Schomberghad placed at wide intervals for the purpose of conveyingsignals from post to post. Wherever the peal was heard, itwas known that King William was come. Before midnight all

* London Gazette, June 19. 1C90; History of the Wars in Ireland byan Officer in the Royal Army, 1690; Villare Ilibernicum, 3090; Story’sImpartial History, 1691; Historical Collections relating to the town ofBelfast, 1817. This work contains curious extracts from MSS. of the seven-teenth century. In the British Museum is a map of Belfast made in 1685,so exact that the houses may be counted.