Glasnevin and Delville
NORTHERN SUBURB. Glasnevin and Delville. At Glasnevin, reached by tramcar from Sackville Street, we visit Delville, the residence of Pat...
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NORTHERN SUBURB. Glasnevin and Delville. At Glasnevin, reached by tramcar from Sackville Street, we visit Delville, the residence of Pat...
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NORTHERN SUBURB.
Glasnevin and Delville.
At **Glasnevin, **reached by tramcar from Sackville Street, we visit Delville, the residence of **Patrick Delany, **and built by him and Doctor Helsham.
It was called originally Hel-Del-Ville. Its minute size is ridiculed in some verses by Sheridan, printed in Swift’s works: Here are two of the couplets:
“You scarce upon the border enter
Before you ‘re at the very centre,
Delville, Glasnevin.gif (9405 bytes)D’Alton *(History of the County of Dublin) *thus” describes Delville in 1838: “A. tall close gate and wall conceal it from the gaze of prying curiosity…Within is the ancient edifice with its bower widow; the old garden walls thickly flowering with the wild snap dragon; the gracefully undulated grounds; the broad terrace on which the peripatetics of another day have glided and philosophized; the magnificent trees on the brink of the rivulet; the fine mount and the turret overlooking the business of the distant city, the dark vault beneath that turret where the first impression of the Legion Club is supposed to have been printed; the temple with its fresco painting of Saint Paul and its medallion of the bust of Stella, by Mrs. Delany; the inscription on the frieze at its front - Fastigia despicit *urbis, *attributed to Swift, and supposed to allude to the situation of this villa; the temples scattered through the little domain, the rustic bridges; the baths; . . .all powerfully mark the taste and elegance that formed and enlivened this scene.”
Mrs. Pendarves, who afterwards became Mrs. Delany, writes to Swift, “The cold weather, I suppose, has gathered together Mr. Delany’s set; the next time you meet may I beg the favour to make my compliments acceptable, I recollect no entertainment with so much pleasure as which I received from that company.”
On July 12, 1743, she thus describes the interior, as its new mistress: “The front of the house is simple, but pretty - five windows in front, two storeys high, with a portico at the hall-door, to which you ascend by six steps, . . on the right hand is the eating parlour, twenty feet long and sixteen and a-half wide, with a projection in the middle which opens thirteen feet and is eight feet deep, with three windows, and large enough for two sideboards; . . on the left hand of the hall is another large room, . . designed for a chapel when we are rich enough to finish it as we ought to do… Beyond the staircase, below, is a little hall, on the right hand is a small parlour where we breakfast and sup; out of it is our present bed-chamber, . . very pretty, and lies pleasantly to the gardens, and as we sit by the fireside we can see the ships ride in** **the harbour.”
Then follows a, description of the drawing-room, with its tapestry, curtains and chairs of crimson mohair, mantle tables and looking-glasses; “the bed-chamber within hung with crimson damask, . . .the closet within it most delightful… This bed-chamber and closet are on the left hand of the drawing-room.”
The editor of Mrs. Delany’s *Memooirs *states that he “read this account of Delville to a lady who knew it well, who had been there in July, 1860, and who stated that it might still serve as a description of the place, also that she had seen quantities of shells in heaps which had evidently been pulled down to repair or alter buildings, but that the former possessors, Mr. and Mrs. Mallet, had, with great care, preserved some rooms as they were.”
Delany was made Dean of Down by interest of the relations of Mrs. Pendarves. His first wife, who died in 1741, brought him £1,600 a-year. Swift tells Pope, Jan. 7, 1737, that “Delany was one of the few men not spoilt by an access of fortune, and praises his hospitality and generosity which often left him without money as before.”
He died in 1768, at the age of 83 or 84, having been nearly 60 at the time of his second marriage. Mrs. Delany went to London at his death, her subsequent career in intimate association with royalty and the court supplying much of the material for her *Memoirs. *She died in 1788, at 88 years of age.