The _Squares_ and _Streets_ are often spacious. College Green has a statue of K. William III. in the centre. Fitzwilliam Square, small but pretty. Merrion Square, open and airy, with some good buildings. Mountjoy Square enjoys a most extensive prospect, and is elegantly laid out. St. Stephen's Green is the largest square in Europe. Sackville Street is also the widest street, having been originally a Mall, with houses built on each side. Great, however, as these are, Sir R. C. Hoare passes on them some severe criticisms, by no means unfounded. In the _Environs_, see the Royal Canal and City Basin; ride round the circular road for good views of the city; visit the light-house at the extremity of a pier upwards of 3 m. in length; and ride over the Phœnix Park, 7 m. in circumference. _Excursions_ from Dublin, to the extent of a day's ride, may be arranged in 4 directions, N.E., S.E., S.W., and N.W. In the N.E., Beldoyle is a pleasant little village 6 m. near the Hill of Howth, with enchanting marine prospects. Clontarf, a neat village 2-1/2 m., a fashionable bathing-place. Here fell Brian Boru, the Irish king, in a battle with the Danes (1014). See the Castle and Ch.; also some lead ore in the neighbouring quarry. Drumcondra, a pleasant village, nearly unites with Dublin on the northern verge. The old Ch. is neatly modernized, and contains a handsome monument to the memory of Mr. Coghill, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the last century; but the picturesque tourist will be more interested by the grave of the late antiquary, Francis Grose, whose graphic hand here moulders in the dust. See the superb mansion of Santry, 1 m.; and the view from Cloghran Ch. on a lofty eminence. Howth, 7 m. E., is well worth visiting from the metropolis on account of its extensive prospects. See the Light-house; the rocky island of Ireland's Eye; the ancient Castle of the Earls of Howth; the ruins of an ancient Chapel. The botanist will also find several medicinal and fragrant plants among its rugged cliffs. Howth House presents a venerable picture of antiquity to the eye of taste. The surface of the peninsula on which it stands is sterile; but swelling into a lofty hill is usually denominated the Hill of Howth: its shores are rocky and precipitous, indented with creeks for small craft, and abounding with gloomy caverns in which seals and porpoises are often seen rolling their unwieldy bodies. Howth contains several religious fragments worthy of notice. The ruins of the Ch. are extensive and picturesque, and there is something interesting in tracing the vestiges of the ancient monastery which once stood close to its hallowed walls. Entering at the S. door the visitor passes into a hall, out of which a door opens into the church shaded by venerable foliage. Beyond this is the kitchen, with the ruins of several apartments. Close by it is an ancient moat; and a small rivulet flows beneath the old battlemented wall.