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XCV1 SOME NOTICE OF THE
accidental meetings. Often, on my way home from the
courts, by the Southern quays, I have met Mr. Haliday, on
his way from the Bank of Ireland, Corn Exchange, or tho
Ballast Board, to his counting house, on Arran-quay. He
would then turn back, and accompany me a good distance
for the pleasure of conversing. When we reached the
place where we ought to part, I, in return, would accom-
pany him back, but he was a man of such courtesy that he
would insist on leaving me to the parting point nearest to
my own house, and thus often took a third walk, and so we
spent our time in the escorting
of each other. Mr.
Haliday always walked by the Southern quays, though his
house of business was on the other side, as being quieter,
and leaving him better opportunity to observe the Liffey.
Often was he meditating where " the Hurdle ford " was
placed, or contemplating the shelf of rock to be seen at low
water, above Essex-bridge, towards the Four Courts (sup-
posed to be the ford where Lord Thomas Fitzgerald passed
with his company on horseback to throw down his defiance
to the Council, in Mary's-abbey, and renounce his allegiance
to Henry VIII., in 1534), whilst he was supposed by the
citizens, who knew him, to be occupied with the price of
wheat or the rise or fall of public stocks.
When some special business would take him to London
his partner, Richard Welch, his wife's nephew (since his
death his worthy representative), would say to him, " Now,
don't forget to go down at times to the '
Baltic Coffee
house,' among the Greeks, and see the Mavrocordatos, the
Rallis, the Castellis, the Rodocanachis, and try and pick up
a few commissions or some cargoes of wheat." While he
was away they could scarce get a word from him, and,
when he returned, he was obliged, somewhat ashamed, to
confess that he had spent more time at the Public Record
Office with his friend Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy, Deputy
Keeper of the Records, or at the British Museum, than
among the Greeks, at the Baltic Coffee House. But at