Harold's Cross, Terenure, Fortfield, Templeogue House, Rathfarnham and Ranelagh.

SOUTHERN SUBURB.

Harold’s Cross - Terenure - Fortfield - Templeogue House - Rathfarnham - Ranelagh.

Starting from the southern side of the Clanbrassil Bridge across the Canal - whither the “Kenilworth Square” tramcar conducts us from College Green - we turn, opposite the distillery, into **

Mount Drummond Avenue. **Here, on the left, half shrouded in ivy, is the house in the immediate vicinity of which Robert Emmet Mt. Drummond Ave.gif (8741 bytes)was arrested at about seven in the evening of the 25th of August, 1803. Madden, in his *United Irishmen, *gives Major Sirr’s account of the arrest, “as subsequently given in evidence on his trial, to the following effect”: “On the evening of the 25th of August he went to the house of one Palmer, at Harold’s Cross; had heard there was a stranger in the back parlour; rode there accompanied by a man on foot, who knocked at the door. On its being opened by a little girl, the daughter of Mrs. Palmer, the major alighted and ran immediately into the back parlour; he desired the woman and the little girl to withdraw, and then asked the prisoner his name.

He said it was Cunningham. The man who accompanied the major was then left in charge of the prisoner by the major, while he went into the next room to make inquiries of Mrs. Palmer, who said the prisoner’s name was Hewitt.

The major then went back and asked him how long he had been there; he said he came that morning. He had attempted to escape before the major returned, for he was bloody, and the man said he had knocked him down with a pistol.

The major then went to Mrs. Palmer, who said the prisoner had’ lodged there for a month. He judged he was a person of importance… The major then went to the Canal Bridge for a guard, having desired them to be in readiness as he passed by. He placed a sentry over the prisoner, and desired the non-commissioned officers to surround the house with sentries while he searched it.

‘The major then examined Mrs. Palmer, and took down her account of the prisoner, during which time he heard a noise, as if an escape were attempted. He instantly ran to the back of the house, as the most likely part for him to get out at; he saw him going off and ordered a sentinel to fire, and then he pursued the fugitive, regardless of the order.

The sentry snapped but the musket did not go off. He overtook the prisoner, and he said, ‘I surrender.’ The major searched him, and found some papers on him.”

The account current in the neighbourhood is that Emmet - presumably knocking over the second sentry - mounted to the top floor, and jumped from the window at the gable end of the building on to a hayrick, and had succeeded in getting over the wall at the end of a long garden, before he was taken. (See concluding paragraph of “The Priory,” on this page.)

Emmet was 24 years of age when executed. He is described as slight in person, with regular features, and high but retreating forehead, with eyes bright and full of expression, and a sallow complexion.

Our next point of interest is two miles distant; the tram road extends a mile and a quarter of that distance to Terenure, the remainder can be traversed on foot or in steam tramcar. **

Fortfield, **formerly the country seat of **Barry Yelverton, Lord Avonmore, stands a **short way from the main road on the right; approached by a byroad, on the left of which will be seen the red-brick lodge. It is a substantial square edifice with a portico. Here Lord Avonmore is assumed to have lived almost entirely after his elevation to the bench, as no record is found of any house in Dublin occupied by him after he left Ely Place. (See Route III.)

Three-quarters of a mile or less from Fortfield, on the main road we come to a quaint, old-world-looking structure presenting a circular tower at one corner to the road, approached through iron gates, and by a long straggling path across a narrow stream, the general aspect suggesting that some change for the worse must have taken place since Mr. Fitzpatrick penned the subjoined description.

Templeogue House.gif (8567 bytes)This is **Templeogue House, **(pictured, right) which was for about two years **the home of Charles James Lever. “Templeogue **House,” says Mr. Fitzpatrick (*Life of Lever) *“is described as the former resort of the Knight Templars, and is one of several mansions in which King James is traditionally said to have slept on the night of his defeat at the Boyne. Its great courtyard, with the impregnably high walls and gate piers twenty feet high, the old Dutch waterfall, terraced walks, gigantic grottos, extensive gardens, and avenues of trees, attest its former importance. Its sweeping avenue is entered by a massive old iron gate, between high piers tipped by globes of granite.”

Lever came to live here on his becoming editor of the Dublin University Magazine in 1842. Mr. Fitzpatrick says that he “held aloof from general society in Dublin… Genial men whom he brought to his house made it most enjoyable. Men of wit **and letters were by degrees recruited, generally summoned by such welcome missives as ‘Come and dine to meet the Magazine’ . . Lever liked cards, and many a night until the small hours the play ran high.

Tie once played all night at Kingstown intending to leave Ireland by the morning boat, but the chances of the game chained him to his seat, and he let the ship depart and continued to play all that day until the rapidly tolled bell of the evening boat led him at last to desist and run.”

One guest, as reported by Pearce, Lever’s amanuensis, “after playing whist with Lever until the small hours had to make some public examination at the University, and had barely time, on arrival at Trinity, to slip on his gown and hasten into the hall, where, seated in his arm-chair, he exclaimed, in the midst of a perfect silence, ‘Now, then, play!”’ The following story of M’Glashan, the publisher, “the only bookseller Lever ever praised,” is given as recorded by Hayman, by Mr. Fitzpatrick: “The last time I dined at his house was at one of the ‘menagerie feeds’

• all the staff, great and small, were present. Lever told with infinite drollery that a little while before at a similar festival, the Scot, fearing to be made ‘fou’ by the wild Irish scribblers, left the dinner at which he was present to join the ladies in the drawing-room.

After a while the company heard unearthly noises iii the pantry just behind the dining-room. They listened and they wondered. What could it be? Were there really ghosts in the house, as had been whispered in ancient traditions. But, summoning courage, they went *en masse, *and found that worthy M’Glashan had, under the impression that he was going upstairs to the ladies, ascended shelf by shelf of the pantry, and was now lying full length on the uppermost, kicking furiously at the ceiling and side walls, and expressing surprise that he ‘could. not get upstairs.’ They were as sober as judges, the cannie Scot *was *‘fou’”

Though an admirable conversationalist, Lever is reported to have been not very happy in *repartee. *It is not surprising to find in a man of his temperament that he was “sometimes very indolently inclined” and that he “was negligent and careless about correcting his proofs.”

In the winter of 1844, wearied and worried in his post of editor, and afflicted with the gout, he relinquished his office and left Dublin to reside in Italy. Mr. Fitzpatrick denies emphatically that there was any truth in the rumours circulated at the time that “Lever was over head and ears in debt and found it wise to cut,” and states on the authority of Judge Longfield that “so far as could be ascertained, when leaving Ireland, Lever did not owe a pound.”

Occasional visits were paid by Lever to Dublin in later years. He died at Trieste, in 1872, at the age of 62.

A** **short distance on the way back from Templeogue House a bridge crosses the Dodder, by which access may be gained to a road running almost due south from Rathfarnham, on the right of which, approached by a long, winding drive from the lodge gate, stands **The Priory, **the suburban retreat of John Philpot Curran.

It was** **so designated, as we learn from D’Alton’s *County of Dublin, *from Curran himself having been the prior of a convivial society called “The Monks of the Screw.” Lord Charlemont, Hussey Burgh, and Grattan were among the members. Curran was Master of the Rolls during his residence here, and visitors from among his legal friends were frequent. “There were beds prepared for the guests, a precaution by no means inconsiderate. When breakfast came it was sometimes problematical how the party were to return. If all was propitious, the carriage was in waiting; if a cloud was seen, however, the question came: ‘Gentlemen, how do you propose getting to court?’ Ominous was the silence which ushered in the summons:

‘Richard, harness the mule to the jaunting car, and take the gentlemen to town.’ One of this worthy animal’s most favourite pastimes was to carry the company into a pool of water which lay by the road side! Of course the host knew nothing of the mule’s jocularity, and most certainly it never was suggested to him by any refusal of an invitation to the Priory.” -Phillips’ Curran and His Contemporaries.

From the same source we learn that “ostentation was a stranger to his house, so was formality of any kind… His habits were peculiar-some of them, perhaps, eccentric. For instance, an old person was scarcely ever seen within his dwelling… The aspect of old age depressed him, while youths’ joyousness seemed to revive his own. Of his early bar associates whose countenances indicated the ravages of time, I never remember one as a guest at the Priory.”

A search was made here for treasonable papers after the apprehension of Robert Emmet, who was known to be engaged to be married to Curran’s daughter; his arrest being, in fact, the consequence of his emerging from his concealment in the Wicklow Mountains for an interview with her before escaping to France. He afterwards went to a house at Harold’s Cross, where he was taken. (See top of this page.)

Near the entrance gate of the Priory, on the other side of the road, stands **Silverton. Here James Henthorn Todd **died in 1869. (See beginning of Route I.)

Rathfarnham Castle.gif (9500 bytes)A walk of about a mile brings us to **Rathfarnham Castle, **(pictured, left) or rather to the lofty entrance gate to its grounds; high walls conceal it on all sides from the village, but a fair view is to be obtained from a point a few hundred yards further on the Dublin road. It was built by Archbishop Loftus, who lived 1534-1605, and was the residence also of his grandson, **Dudley Loftus, **who defended Dublin from the incursions of the Irish of the Wicklow Mountains, was made a judge of the Prerogative Court, and, notwithstanding his learning, was “accounted an improvident and unwise person,” of whom some notable person said, “He never knew so much learning in the keeping of a fool.” **

Francis Blackburne **(see Route III) died here in 1867. The property still remains in the possession of the family.

The “Rathmines” tramcar runs direct from Rathfarnham to College Green.

Another short excursion southward is by “Clonskeagh” tramcar from College Green to a short distance from the point where the railway crosses the Ranelagh Road. Here, on the right of Cullenswood Road, is **Elm Park, **the residence of **Major Sirr, who, **as Town-Major of Dublin effected the seizure of the Press newspaper and the capture of Lord Edward Fitzgerald in 1798, and of Robert Emmet in 1803.

He is described as overbearing and imperious, of great bravery, but, with a prudent regard for the safety of his person in his exceptionally hazardous vocation, accustomed to wear a coat of mail under his ordinary dress. He had the reputation of a connoisseur in the fine arts. In the latter part of his career he was a police-magistrate. He died in 1841, at the age of about 82.

At a distance of half a mile, standing back from the road on the right, is a row of small houses called **Woodville. No. 2 **was the last home of William **Carleton, **and the scene of his death. (See North-East Suburb.)

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