Editing Howth (section)

===19th century===
[[File:George IV footsteps Howth.jpg|thumb|left|Imprint of [[George IV]]'s footsteps on the West Pier]]

In the early 19th century, Howth was chosen as the location for the harbour for the mail packet (postal service) ship. Construction began in 1807.{{sfn|Bennett|2005|p=131}} One of the arguments used against Howth by the advocates of [[Dún Laoghaire]] was that coaches might be raided in ''the badlands of [[Sutton, Dublin|Sutton]]'' (at the time Sutton was open countryside).{{ref|fewer-walk}} However, due to [[silting]], the harbour needed frequent [[dredging]] to accommodate the packet and the service was relocated to Dún Laoghaire in 1809, after £350,000 had been spent on Howth.{{sfn|Bennett|2005|p=131}} English King [[George IV]] visited the harbour in August 1821, which is remembered today by an imprint of his shoes (see left picture) carved by a local stonemason on the West Pier.<ref name=it-sea-here-an-irishman-s-diary-on-howth>{{Cite news|title=Sea here – An Irishman's Diary on Howth|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/sea-here-an-irishman-s-diary-on-howth-1.3536486|last=Oram|first=Hugh|date=20 June 2018|access-date=29 July 2020|work=[[Irish Times]]|archive-date=1 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201201160450/https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/sea-here-an-irishman-s-diary-on-howth-1.3536486|url-status=live}}</ref>

Irish poet and writer [[William Butler Yeats]] was a resident of Howth in the 19th century. There is a [[blue plaque]] dedicated to Yeats at Balscadden House on Balscadden Road which was his cottage home from 1880 to 1883. The plaque contains the [[couplet]] “I have spread my dreams under your feet/ Tread softly because you tread on my dreams” from his poem '[[Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven]]' (1899).<ref>{{cite web |title=Take on Nature: The poet, the rock and the Rocker at Howth Head |url=https://www.irishnews.com/lifestyle/2020/08/29/news/take-on-nature-the-poet-the-rock-and-the-rocker-at-howth-head-2049204/ |publisher=Irish News}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/rocky-path-to-the-lighthouse-1.68308|title=Rocky path to the lighthouse|website=The Irish Times|access-date=21 March 2021|archive-date=23 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923040437/https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/rocky-path-to-the-lighthouse-1.68308|url-status=live}}</ref> Howth would feature in Yeats writings. The first time is the 1893 essay 'Village Ghosts' recounting the paranormal folklore of the village and the second is in the poem 'Beautiful Lofty Things' (1938); "[[Maud Gonne]] at Howth station waiting a train".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Yeats |first1=W.B. |title=Selected Poems |date=2015 |publisher=Alma Classics |page=122}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Yeats |first1=W.B. |title=Beautiful Lofty Things |url=https://www.poetryireland.ie/publications/poetry-ireland-review/online-archive/view/beautiful-lofty-things |website=Poetry Ireland}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Fifteen years in the making at Howth |publisher=Irish Independent |url=https://www.independent.ie/life/home-garden/homes/fifteen-years-in-the-making-at-howth-39117596.html}}</ref>