Blackrock, Carysfort House, Frescati, Booterstown.

South-East Suburb.

Blackrock - Maretimo - Temple Hill House - Carysfort House - Herbert Terrace - Frescati - Booterstown.

Taking the “Blackrock” tramcar from College Green to the village of that name, and following the Kings-town road a short distance we reach, on the left, nearly opposite the church, a length of tree-shaded wall, with iron-plated gates, and a stone inscription:

Maretimo, Blackrock.gif (11457 bytes)“Maretimo.” The plain but extensive structure within was the residence of Lord Cloncurry, of whom some account will be found later in this chapter. He died here in 1853. The house is the residence of the present Earl, but the formerly extensive grounds are now built upon or let for other uses.

A little further on, at the junction of Temple Road, on the right, we follow the line of a high wall on the left, passing an old entrance now blocked up. and reach an iron gate set back in a semicircle. Within stands a white stone mansion with balustraded roof. This is **Temple Hill House, **or as it has been also called, Neptune, the residence of **Lord Clonmell **(see Route II) at the close of his life, which was shortened, as some say, by the chagrin which he experienced owing to the action of one Magee, editor of the *Dublin Evening Post, *whom, by a *fiat *he had severely handled.

Magee purchased a small piece of ground close to and in front of Lord Clonmell’s mansion, and named it Fiat Hill. “He had amassed, as he stated, some-where,” says Phillips Curran and His Contemporaries) about £14,000, ten of which he settled on his family and ‘the remainder, with God’s **blessing, he meant to spend on Lord Clonmell.’

Accordingly, placards appeared all over Dublin inviting the inhabitants to a great *Olympic pig-hunt *to be given at Magee’s exclusive cost.” Here the most ludicrous games and exhibitions took place: dancing dogs in barristers’ costumes, ass races - the jockies wearing wigs and gowns. “The scene,” says Phillips, “is not describable; Donnybrook never saw its equal, and Clonmell, almost in fits, marked the gradual operation of the poteen by the comparative unanimity of the uproar.”

The climax was the pig-hunt. “Away went the frighted and infuriated animals, and away went their pursuers, scarcely less excited, and away soon went the hedge of Temple Hill, and all the decorations of the grounds and gardens.”

It was said Magee went mad with his victory. Lord Clonmell, however, lived for eight years after, and political disquietude is assigned as a more probable cause of the broken health from which he suffered.

It is recorded that, meeting with a chimney-sweep whose smiles beamed through his sooty skin, he said, with a sigh, “I would rather be a young sweep than an old judge.”

Reports of his death were frequent prior to that event. Once, when he was really very ill, a friend remarked to Curran, “Well, they say Clonmell is, going to die at last. Do you believe it?” “I believe,” said Curran, “he is scoundrel enough to live or die as suits his own convenience.”

He died in 1798, on the day before the outbreak of the rebellion. His age was 59.

Returning to the village by the Temple Road, on the left is Carysfort Avenue. At a little distance on the right in this road is **Carysfort House, formerly the country residence’ of William Saurin. **(See Route II.)

In the village, by the main street, is **Herbert Terrace. **At **No. 4 **died **Denis Florence M’Carthy, **author of “Poems, Ballads, and Lyrics,” whose latest work, an ode for the Centenary of Thomas Moore, was recited to vast audiences in Dublin. He was a member of the Irish Bar, but never practised.

Returning on foot towards Dublin we pass on the left a row of villas, one of which, facing the entrance to the public gardens by the bay, as indicated on its gate-posts, is called **Frescati. The **adjoining house, formerly shared the title and the approach, and a part of the combined structure was occupied for a year by Lord Edward Fitzgerald.

He writes to his mother, May 6, 1793 “Wife and I are come to settle here; we came last night, and are enjoying the little book-room with the window open, hearing the birds sing, and the place looking beautiful. The plants in the passage are just watered, and with the passage door open, the room smells like a green-house.

Pamela is now working at her frame and upon the two little stands are six pots of fine auriculas, and I am sitting in the bay window with all those pleasant feelings which the fine weather, the pretty place, the singing birds, the pretty wife, and Frescati gives me.”

In another letter he says: “I am here constantly. Pam. has not been in town since we came. In June, 1794, he had removed to Kildare, having previously given up gardening, of which he was very fond, because there was a rumour that the Viceroy was in treaty for the house. He writes, “I hated that all my trouble should go for that vile Lord W--- and my flowers to be for aides-de-camps, chaplains, and all such followers of a Lord Lieutenant.”

A walk of about half a mile brings us to Booterstown, turning off at a sharp angle on the left is **Booterstown Avenue. At No. 3 **resided **Dr. Richard Madden, **the accomplished writer of travels and biography, and whose most important book *(Lives of the United Irishmen) *has been of the greatest service in the compilation of this work.

The son of a Dublin merchant, Mr. Madden was, until 1850, employed chiefly in the colonial branch of the government civil service, principally the department connected with the suppression of the slave trade, “winning the unreserved approbation of Lords Glenelg, Palmerston, Russell, Daly, and Normanby, as well as eliciting the admiration of such members of his own profession as Gregory, Cooper, Brodie, Johnson, Crampton, Kirby, and O’Reilly” *(Dublin University Magaziune, *1887). Dr. Madden died here in 1886, at the age of 88. **

Celbridge** is 12 miles distant from Dublin, and a mile and a half from the Celbridge Station, on the Great Southern and Western Railway, with Kingsbridge Station as the point of departure. **

Celbridge House, **near the village, is memorable as the residence of Colonel and Lady Sarah Napier, with their eight children, of whom the sons were Charles, afterwards General Napier, conqueror of Scinde; George, afterwards General Sir George Napier, Governor at the Cape; **William Francis; **Richard, who. became a Queen’s Counsel; and Henry of the Royal Navy.

The house was called by the country people “The Eagle’s Nest,” on account of the remarkable features and high spirit of the Napier boys. “Colonel Napier,” says H. A. Bruce in his *Life of William Francis Napier, *“was, himself, cast in the true heroic mould; he possessed uncommon powers, mental and bodily; his capacity for war, science, and for civil affairs was great.”

William was educated, with his brothers, at a large grammar school in Celbridge, the master of which is described as a “passionate, ill-judging man.”

The writer above-quoted tells the following interesting anecdote of the future hero William: “Charles, William’s eldest brother, organized his school-fellows as a volunteer corps… On the occasion of one of their drill parades, William Napier, then a boy of eleven, being insubordinate under arms, was, by order of his young commander, tried by a drum-head court-martial and sentenced to some penalty to which the culprit would not submit. His brother, Charles, accordingly ordered in true Roman spirit, for he loved the offender dearly, that he should be drummed out of the corps.

This was carried into effect, but in a disorderly manner, with hooting, and when the mob closed on the young recusant, William, his fiery nature revolting against the insult, whirling a large bag of marbles like a sling discharged them amid the crowd, and then, charging, broke the obnoxious drum, and forced his most prominent assailant, greatly his superior in age and size, to single combat.

Although getting far the worst of it, and badly hurt in the fight, William, still refusing to** **give in, was restored to the ranks by his brother for the pluck he had shown.

A drive or a walk of about three miles, almost due south from Celbridge, takes us to **Lyons, **the residence of **Valentine Lawless, Baron Cloncurry, who came to the title on the death of his father, while himself a prisoner in the Tower (see Merrion Street, **Route III), and settled here in 1811.

“I had my wife’s three children and my own,” he writes *(Personal Recollections) *“a large family, at Lyons, and in all that related to my individual concerns, there were few happier or more contented men… I erected a fine place, and employed an army of men, at a cost, indeed, of at least £200,000… My domestic circle was ever a joyous one, and seldom failed to be enlarged by the addition of four or five friends from among those who sympathised or bore with my unfashionable National politics.”

Rowan, Grattan, and Curran, were among his guests here. Lady Morgan *(Memoirs) *records a visit here, June, 27, 1830. “Returned from Lyons-Lord Cloncurry’s, a large party-the first day good, Shiel, Curran, and Jack Lattan… After all, Lord Cloncurry is the drollest of the droll; he makes me laugh more than any one, . . made me die by the simple way he told me that when the Duke of Northumberland was coming to stay a few days at Maretimo, he said to Lord Cloncurry, ‘Do not put yourself to any inconvenience for my people (his servants), they never drink either port or claret.’ “Upon my word,’ said Lord Cloncurry, ‘I am very glad to hear it, for with me they will only get small beer.’”

King George was entertained here when he visited Ireland. Among his occupations Lord Cloncurry projected, in 1827, a ship canal from Dublin to Galway, a scheme which was carried out on similar lines 36 years after.

His *Personal Recollections *appeared in 1849, and the bad taste displayed in the publication of the contemporary correspondence they contained called forth some severe comments. Of the physical characteristics of Lord Cloncurry the writer has not been able to meet with any description. He died at Maretimo, his residence at Blackrock (see earlier in this chapter), in 1853, at the age of 80.

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