217 chance, not merely to amuse a section of English society transplanted to Dublin for a few weeks in winter. Happy is the Vicereine who has the knack of bringing witty and amusing people together at her dinners. It is expected in Ireland that things should be gay and bright, and that a joke or a bon mot be received encouragingly. A Catholic priest often is hard to beat at after-dinner stories. It is, however, unnecessary to place him in the immediate vicinity of an ultra-Protestant clergyman. This was the favourite plan of one Vicereine, who thus thought to bridge over religious animosities. The jovial Mr. Creevoy nearly had his appetite spoiled at a Dublin Castle dianer by the " settled gloom " of my Lady Anglesey and " the forbidding frown of the Lady Pagets." '^^~ :--:j--^ :ii..„4.„„^ u^^ The incident illustrates what LADY OF QUALITY she may be called upon to decide whether some " Widow M'Ourk " is qualified for an old age pension. The Dublin season keeps her occupied from January to March with the State Drawing Rooms, dinners, and receptions. The season culminates with St. Patrick's Ball, which is held on March 17 in the splendid mirror-lined hall of the Castle, which bears St. Patrick's name. This is the time of times for debutantes who at recent Drawing Rooms passed the presence of their Excellencies. Then they appear in full glory of Court plumes and veils, many of which get rather damaged in the hours after supper, when the Viceregal party retire, and dancing grows fast and furious. Only the spirits of an Irish girl would be equal to grappling with the difficulties of disarranged plumes. In days The Banquet Hall, Dublin Cas:le jnriice, Dublin a Vicereine should not be. On this particular occasion the Lord-Lieutenant came gaily to the rescue, and told stories, properly spiced with gentlemanly invective, about the people who came to the garden of his old house at Waterloo to see where the leg which he had lost was buried. The company was highly satisfied, and drank wine with his Excellency and with each other on the best of terms. The Vicereine's Work The Vicereine must be an indefatigable worker. Innumerable bazaars and balls and visits to hospitals, convents, colleges, schools, and national manufactories will fill in every crevice of time. In addition, there is every day an enormous post-bag with which she ancj her secretaries have to deal. Possibly gone by the regulations for St. Patrick's Ball were less formal than to-day, and there are accounts of lively scenes when the guests picnicked on the floor of the supper- roonis. Kissing the Viceroy Perhaps it was because the Irish debutante is often so pretty that the fashion of kissing the Viceroy continued late in the history of Dublin Drawing Rooms. The custom of the salute on the cheek ceased at St. James's in the reign of George IV., but so late as the 'seventies it continued in Dublin, and was in full force during the viceroyalty of the Duke of Abercom, " Old JNIagnificent," who, it is said, sometimes stopped the Drawing Room while he combed and scented his beard, disarranged by thes inodest salutes of the
