brother, in trying to get from the room, endeavoured to do so by the window, and fell, which was the cause of his death. A reference to 'The Times' newspaper of that day, containing the report of the coroner's inquest, animadverts strongly on the conduct of his brother officer for so acting, and regrets the loss to the service of a brave and valiant officer, who had previously done good service for his country. "W. F." No. V. CERTIFICATE OF BURIALS OF MEMBERS OF THE BLESSINGTON FAMILY. DILIGENT search has been made in the Registry. Book of Burials in St. Thomas's Parish, Dublin, from 1769 to 1854. The following are recorded: Date. 1769. Nov. 17. Right Hon. Charles Gardiner, Esq., aged 49 years. 1781. Sept. 21. 1783. Nov. 25. 1786. Mar. 20. 1791. Feb. 1. 1798. June 15. 1814. Sept. 17. Master Luke Gardiner, an infant. Mountjoy, aged 28 years. 1823. Mar. 29. The Hon. Luke Wellington Gardiner, Vis count Mountjoy, aged 9 years and 4 months. 1839. June 20. Charles John, Earl of Blessington, aged 46 years, Gardiner. 1849. Mar. 27. The Hon. Harriet Gardiner, aged 73 years. Rutland Square. No. VI. THE Annuities, Mortgages, Judgments, and other Debts, Legacies, Sums of Money, and Incumbrances, charged upon or affecting the Estates of the said Charles John, Earl of Blessington, at the Time of his Decease.* Mortgages. From October 17, 1817, to January 1, 1823, £45,077. Legacies. Emily Rosalie Hamilton Gardiner, now the To Count D'Orsay, Assignees of Isabella Binny John Bullock. . Legacy to the Hon. Harriet Gardiner, principal sum to be raised only in the event of her Marriage 1827. Nov. 2. Settlement executed by the Earl of Blessington on the Marriage of his Daughter, Lady Harriet Anne Jane Frances Gardiner, with Count D'Orsay . £ S. d. 18,461 10 9 923 1 6 923 1 6 923 1 6 923 1 6 923 1 6 92 6 2 92 6 2 92 6 2 23,353 16 11 9,230 15 41 40,000 0 0 Annuities. Granted from March 25, 1811, to May 25, 1825, £7,887. Judgments. Easter Term, 1829, amount of, £13,268. Bond Debts. Amount of, £10,337. Promissory Notes, Letters of Acknowledgment, IO U's, &c. Including two items:-June 1, 1825, Assignees of Count *Fourth Schedule appended to the Act for the sale of the Blessington Estates, 9 Vict. cap. 1. D'Orsay, £1280. Sept. 11, 1828, Assignees of Count D'Orsay, £4000.-Total amount, £10,122. Simple Contract Debts due, or claimed to be due, by the said Charles John, Earl of Blessington. Including Claims of Countess of Blessington, £518; Robert Power, Esq., £792; Count D'Orsay, £199; John Howell, £1723.-Total amount, £6712. The FIFTH SCHEDULE referred to in the foregoing Act; CONTAINING The Mortgages and Sums of Money which have been charged by the Lady Harriet Anne Jane Frances, Countess D'Orsay, upon the Estates comprised in the Second and Third Schedules to this Act. 1837. May 11. Mortgage to Miss Emily Rosalie Hamilton Gardiner, now the wife of Charles Whyte, Esq. . 1839. Mar. 30. Mortgage to Simon Jacques Rochard £ S. d. 5,500 0 0 RENTAL OF THE BLESSINGTON ESTATES. FROM THE SCHEDULES OF THE ACT OF PARLIAMENT FOR THE SALE OF THE ESTATES, OF JUNE 18, 1846. Estates situate in the county of Tyrone, in the manors of Newtownstewart and Rash, situate in the Baronies of Strabane and Omagh. Quantity in English acres, 30,221 acres Present rent (1846), £8265 16s. 3d. Estates situate in the Barony of Dungannon, held by lease from the Crown, Quantity in English acres, 2053 acres. Present rent (1846), £1066 15s. lld. : Estates situate in the county and the city of Dublin :Part 1.-Comprising the Lordship of St. Mary's Abbey, and Grange of Clonliffe, and other parcels of ground, situate in the county and the city of Dublin, held under lease. Present rent, £9730 12s. 6d. Part 2.-Comprising the Lordship of St. Mary's Abbey, and Grange of Clonliffe, in the county and the city of Dublin, let to yearly tenants. Present rent, £1764 10s. 7d. Part 3.-Comprising Barrack Street, Tighe Street, George's Quay, Mercer's Dock, Poolbeg Street, and North Strand, the Lands of Glasmainogue, and a Leasehold Interest. Present rent, £1827 15s. 7d. SUMMARY OF THE BLESSINGTON ESTATES RENTAL. All the Estates situate in the county and the city of Dublin. Yearly rent, £13,322 18s. 8d. Property situate in the city of Kilkenny. Yearly rent, £62 3s. 9d. Total of rental of all the properties, including the Tyrone estates above-mentioned, in 1846, estimated at £22,718 14s. 7d. No. VII. GORE HOUSE. GORE HOUSE occupation has had many vicissitudes. The predecessor of Wilberforce was a stingy, money-scraping, government contractor, "who would not lay out a penny to keep his gardens" in order. The mammon-worshipper, who meditated in those neglected grounds on the delights of parsimony, was succeeded by "the Saint," who thus spoke, in his Diary, of his perambulations in the vicinity of his new residence:-"Walked from Hyde Park Corner, repeating the 119th Psalm, in great comfort," (the Psalm of 176 verses), and who thus refers to the house itself:-" We are just one mile from the turnpike gate at Hyde Park Corner... having about three acres of pleasure-ground around my house, or rather behind it, and several old trees, walnut and mulberry, of thick foliage. I can sit and read under their shade, which I delight in doing, with as much admiration of the beauties of nature (remembering at the same time the words of my favourite poet,Nature is but a name for an effect whose cause is God,') as if I were two hundred miles from the great city."* A new meditator, but not so much on the beauties of nature as those of art and literature, one who was more spirituelle in salons than spiritual in Wilberforce's sense of the word, "the gorgeous Lady Blessington," became the proprietor of Gore House. Illustrated annuals and fashionable novels were the result of her meditations in "those pleasure grounds" which served Wilberforce for solitudes, for meditations on Psalms. Lady Blessington was succeeded by Monsieur Soyer. Another species of composition was carried on at Gore House -sauces constituted the chief glory of it. The culinary line had replaced the literary; and every one, during the Great Exhibition, had the entrée of those salons, once so celebrated for intellectual society, who had a few shillings to expend on a dinner à-la-mode. The glory of Soyer, and his soups and sauces, passed away in a short time, and Gore House was turned into a temporary, crowded receptacle of ornamental cabinet work, and studies from the School of Art. A new destination is now about to be given to Gore House and its pleasure-grounds. "The estate purchased by the * Dickens' Household Words, No. 178, p. 590. |