times gone by to members of the other tribes, such as the Blakes, Arcys, and Joyces; but none are so conspicuous in situation or condition as that of Lynch, and, moreover, all, or nearly all the curious street architecture of Galway requires to be looked for in the back streets and alleys, many of which are essentially foreign in their character. There is a venerable mansion not half a minute’s walk from Lynch’s house with a magnificent sculptured doorway, and the pious motto, “Nisi Dominus domum ædificaverit,” inscribed over it. If any antiquarian visitor will have the courage to explore some of the interiors (no very pleasant task amidst these crowded and dirty beehives), he will find many a noble staircase and gallery trodden in days of yore by Spanish beauties and courtly gallants. Of the walls but little remains, but that little attests the strength of them. It is an archway leading into Spanish Place, which, as we can guess from the name, was an open square by the quay, devoted by the busy Galway merchants to the daily business engagements with their foreign customers. How many a cask of Xeres wine and mellow Muscatel must have been rolled along these flags into the vintners’ cellars hard by, as the vessels disembarked their cargoes here, together with articles of a less bulky and more personal character, such as mantillas for the ladies, or rapiers for the gallants. It was evidently the high change where all the idle as well as busy population floated about, wondering at the fresh arrivals of merchandise, welcoming their Spanish customers who had so boldly ventured to these wild coasts, or discussing the political news from the Court of London, which in those times was almost as inaccessible as Seville itself. The foreigner has not left his impress upon the houses only, but also on the people; for although the locomotive speeds daily across the kingdom from the capital, and as a matter of course brings down in its track the latest “tricks of dress,” the natives have an unmistakeably peculiar garb which would at once strike even a careless traveller. “The mayorasses” are not the only ones now excepted from wearing “gorgiouse aparell,” for I fear that
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