The Sun.
London, England, 1849-08-07 00:00:00

THE QUEEN'S VISIT TO IRELAND.'
(From the Chronicle.)
KINGSTOWN, SUNDAY NIGHT.
In my letter of this morning I informed you that
the arrrival of the royal squadron was hourly expected
at Kingstown. Since the receipt of that dispatch
you have, I hope, been apprised by electric telegraph
that, between six and seven o'clock this evening,
the Victoria and Albert, with the quickest boats of
the squadron, actually anchored in Kingstown
Harbour.
During the day, and particularly during the latter
part of it, Kingstown became crowded to an extent
which I am sure even the " oldest inhabitant" would
pronounce to be without a parallel. All Dublin
came down to the sea side to wait and gaze. The
jetty, with its long-stretching pavilion, was crammed
with eager crowds ; and the northern and southern
sea-walls were dotted over with dusky groups of
spectators.
All the yachts in the harbour—and, as I have said,
their name was legion—wore their respective club-
flags over a display of miscellaneous colours, and some
half-dozen steamers—the Holyhead craft, with their
double funnels and raking masts, each formed out of
one symmetrical stick—and the Dublin mail-boats,
handsome sea-going craft—were all gay with gaudily-
fluttering bunting.
Twice, I think, during the day there were false
alarms of her Majesty's arrival. On the south of
Dublin bay rise successive and many ridges of rocky
and heath-clad hills. One of these, in particular,
commands a fine view along the coast. On the
brown crest of Dalkey-hill—so it is called—is
perched a ruined tower, a grey crumbling pile of
mouldering walls, called Monk's-house. Tradition
says, that of old it was a place of look-out, to give
the adjacent district notice of the approach of the
swift galleys of the Norsemen. Upon the present
occasion the ruin was converted into an extempore
telegraph station. A flag-staff was erected, and
the display of the royal standard therefrom was to
be the signal of the approach of the royal squadron.
The watchman at Monk's-house was, however, an
easily persuaded person, who raised and lowered his
flag upon the slightest provocation; and the conse-
quence was, that two several times, upon the broad
banner appearing above the battlements of Monk's-
house, her Majesty's steamer Dragon directly an-
swered the signal, got under way, and ran out of the
harbour, while the general excitement on the wharfs
and jetties of Kingstown was as infectious as it was
tumultuous.
By three o'clock in the afternoon the crowd upon
the pier and along the shore towards Dalkey was im-
m.nse. The component parts of the throng in ques-
tion appeared to be principally substantial Dublin
citizens, eager, after mass and dinner, to attend to the
claims of a new duty and a new pleasure. Of course
every train from Dublin poured in fresh visitors to
the scene of action, while whole processions of cars
brought down loads of people, most liberally coated
with the dust, which was flying about in a style which
would do honour to a desert swept by the simoom.
About half-past three o'clock this afternoon, the
look •out at Monk's-house raised his significant stan-
dard. In a very few minutes afterwards the Dolphin,
a small coasting steamer, sallied forth—her decks
and paddle-boxes one mass of human beings. She
was speedily followed by the Dragon frigate, which
steamed steadily along. the coast in the direction of
, Wicklow, and very shortly thereafter a detachment
of lug-steamers and yachts were making their way
in the same direction. The wind was meantime
striking the coast from the south-east, just allow-
ing vessels bound to the west to lay their course
along bhe rocky shores. The breeze was not con-
siderable, but the sea was agitated by a short
tumbling swell.
About half an hour after the signal flag had been
hoisted at Monk's-house it suddenly disappeared,
and presently after the steamers which had gone out
were seen wheeling round again into the bay—the
Dragon kept on the longest. At length, however,
she also returned, but, instead of entering the har-
bour, lay head to wind in the offing. It was evident
that the alarm had been a false one, and the crowds
who thronged the jetty began to wonder whether her
Majesty ever would come at all.
At length, however, the true signal was given.
The Dragon immediately set on steam again ; the
small craft again turned their heads to the southward ;
and presently the smoke of the leading ship of the
squadron was seen over the bluff outline of Dalkey
Island.
And here let me pause a moment to describe the
famed Bay of 'Dublin as her Majesty would have
seen. it on her entrance on a bright and summer's
afternoon.

Careering along the coast, she could not have
failed to notice the picturesque irregularity of the
blue Wicklow hills, and the dizzy height of the
precipices which here rise from out the sea. Pre-
sently, stretching across the track of the yacht, the
Royal party could perceive in the distance the
lumpish, yet bold outline of the bill of Howth,
with its white light-house, rising from the fragment
of cliff which projects furthest into the blue water.
Between the position which we imagine the yacht
to hold and the bold coast of Howth lies the Bay of
Dublin.

I am almost afraid to say that I think the reputa-
tion of this harbour somewhat overstated. In the
distance, the hills of 'Wicklow and Howth rise finely
and characteristically from the sea ; the former, in
particular, • heave high—a multitudinous crowd of
conical hills and wavy ridges of purple heather.
Howth is as mountainous, but not so picturesque.
Catching then, there, as it were the horns of the bay,
the eye ranges along the intermediate coast line. Here
comes the dissappointment—it is receding, low, and
unsatisfactory. It shrinks, as it were, out of sight.
On either hand there are bold rocks and stern sea-
beaten precipices. The bay stretches timidly back,
and the eye which scans its outline is only arrested
by the faintly-seen smoke of Dublin, and the white
terraces and stretching piers rising from the sea at
Kingstown.
Entering the bay from the southward, you see
before you one or two rocky islets. The largest—
that crowned by a martello tower—is Dalkey bland,
and two or three smaller patches of sea-beaten rock
extend beyond it. The passage between Dalkey Isle
and the mainland is called " The Sound," and
through it—the strait is scarcely a musket shot in
width—the royal squadron deployed.
The Victoria and Albert led the way. Gliding
along the rocky coast, she skirted the sea face of the
succession of cliffs on which Dalkey stands. Nume-
rous marine villas here look upon the sea. From
the roofs and turrets flags flew, and from more than
one lawn and pleasure-ground cannon pealed, and
groups of spectators, scrambling down to where
the surf washed the slippery rocks, cheered most
heartily.
But her Majesty had at this point of her route an
opportunity of witnessing what must have been to
her quite a novel species of reception. On a bluff
headling, which flings its grey rocks well into
the sea, rises a neat castellated building of stone.
This is the Nunnery of Lorette. Before it down to
the reef stretches a trim green lawn. Upon the lawn
the Postulants, the Novices, 9nd the Sisters were
ranged in their robes of ceremony, the white and
dark dresses forming a picturesque contrast as their
wearers stood in order upon the summit of the cliff,
while in a sweet chorus of female voices they
chanted forth " God save the Queen."
In five minutes thereafter the Bay of Dublin
opened fully upon the royal squadron. The hill of
Ilowth heaved up its blue masses upon the northern
horizon ; the land receded back from it in a long,
tame line; the white lighthouse marked the ex-
tremity of the Dublin harbour ; while immediately
to leeward, across a sea dotted with the white sails
of scores of yachts, there lay extended the massive
sea-walls which engirdle the harbour of Kinstown.
The Victoria and Albert was, as I have stated,
the leading vessel of the royal squadron. The
Banshee and the Fairy followed each other closely.
As the first-named boat closed in with the pier, the
rush of people upon the jetty and the sea-walls
was something tremendous. The whole extent of
pier was a moving mass of human beings, and as the
royal yacht wheeled round into the harbour there
arose, even above the din of cannon, even above the
heavy roar of 32-pounders and the cracking ring
of yacht artillery, a succession of cheers, a re-
iteration of loud, long, roaring shouts of welcome—
acclamations of a more marked and emphatic
character than I can easily describe by words. So
far the reception was admirable. Imagine a sheet of
placid water covered with steamers, shipping, and
yachts—imagine its breakwaters and wharfs crammed
for miles in circumference with throngs of cheering
and rushing people—imagine indeed the whole expanse
one mass of waving hats and handkerchiefs—
and you have some faint idea of the scene which was
presented at the Queen's entrance into the harbour of
Kingstown.
Of course her Majesty remainedev. on board the royal
yacht all night. As thewas erg fell, house after
house in Kingstown unimeinn_aotfed—twinkling
lights gleamed brightly from the
floated
steamers
down utied
ttheir
in the harbour—scores of boats
resting forms—and above all shone
effulgence of a full moon, the soft quiet rays only now
and then broken by the lurid and baleful glare of -D.
blue light burned on board one of the squadron, and
illuminating harbour and shipping with its ghastly
and flickering radiance.
For hours the crowd continued to patrol the
anchored before
quays and gaze at thesquadron
them; but at length they gradually retired, and by
midnight the wharfs were lonely and deserted, and
the royal vessels lay undisturbed and tranquil in the
moonlight.

THE LADING AT KINGSTOWN.
KINGSTOWN, MONDAY MORNING.
Shortly after ten o'clock this morning her Majesty
left the royal yacht, and, amid the acclamations of the

swarming crowds which lined the pier, and the
thunder of heavy guns, set foot for the first time in the
seaport of the capital of her Irish dominions.
The royal squadron passed the night before last in
the Waterford River. No popular demon=tration
whatever took place. Prince Albert only landed with
the children for a stroll.

THE QUEEN'S ENTRANCE INTO DUBLIN.
DUBLIN, MONDAY, QUARTEU TO TWELVE.
The royal procession reached Baggot- street Bridge
at 25 minutes past ten. Here the city keys were
presented by the Lord Mayor. The crowds were
immense all along the line, and the cheering was
most enthusiastic, kept up from house to house and
street to street. I never witnessed anything like
the overflowing enthusiasm of all classes. The
Queen and Prince Albert, who were followed in
another carriage by the royal children, were evi-
dently deeply moved by this extraordinary mani-
festation of popular acclamation, in which all classes
—from the highest to the humblest—participated.
At a quarter past eleven o'clock the procession passed
through Nassau street into College-green, between
the University and the Bank of Ireland. Here the
burst of cheering was almost deafening from the
many thousands in the streets, at the windows, on the
house-tops and the platforms.
At half past eleven the procession had reached
Nelson's Pillar, and that magnificent thoroughfare
Ssckville-street, and passed on towards Rutland-
square, Great Denmark street, Temple-street, Eccles-
street, and on to the. Vice-regal Lodge. The Queen,
her illustrious Consort, and their children, were evi-
dently greatly delighted with the cordiality and rap-
ture of their reception.
The procession, which extended to fully a- mile,
was closed by some thousands of gentlemen on horse-
back.

At twelve o'clock the procession reached the Vice-
regal Lodge, having gone at a rather quick pace
along the North Circular•road. The Lord Lieute-
nant, who attended the procession, conducted her
Majesty into the Lodge.

COURT CIRCULAR.
OSBORNE, AUGUST 1.

This afternoon, at about a quarter past three
o'clock, her Majesty the Queen and his Royal High-
ness the Prince Albert embarked on board the Vic-
toria and Albert, royal steam-yacht. Her Majesty
and his Royal Highness were accompanied by their
Royal Highnesses the Prince of \Vales, the Princess
Royal, the Princess Alice, and Prince Alfred, and
attended by the Viscountess Jocelyn and the Hon.
Caroline Dawson, the Earl Fortescue (Lord Steward),
Lieutenant Colonel the Hon. A. Gordon and the
Hon. C. B. Phipps (equerries in waiting), and Sir
James Clark. Miss Hildyard and Mr. Birch were
in attendance upon the junior branches of the Royal
Family.
The Right Hon. Sir George Grey, having arrived
from Southampton in the Elfin, at the moment of her
Majesty's embarkation, joined the Royal party on
board the Victoria and Albert.

At half-past three the squadron got under weigh,
consisting of the following vessels :—The royal yacht
Victoria and Albert, Captain Lord A. Fitzclarence ;
her Majesty's steam yacht Black Eagle, Master-
Commander Cook ; her Majesty's war steamer Sphinx,
Commander Hewlett; her Majesty's war steamer
Stromboli, Captain Lord A. Beauclerk ; her Ma-
jesty's steam-packet Vivid, Mester-Cornrnander
Smithett. The squadron was saluted by the battery
at Cowes and the yachts lying in the roads.