Victorian Chicklit - Jane Austen's Irish Connections

CDfm

I spotted this book review a while back on Jane Austen's Irish connections

The Irish Times - Saturday, December 24, 2011Tale of Austen's spirited nieces related with verve

• Spirited but stoic: Marianne (May) Knight; her aunt was Jane Austen

JERUSHA McCORMACK
LITERARY HISTORY: May, Lou and Cass: Jane Austen’s Nieces in Ireland By Sophia Hillan Blackstaff Press, 294pp. £16.99
ON A BLEAK hilltop in Co Donegal is an almost forgotten headstone. Dedicated to Marianne Knight, it is overgrown with nettles and wild flowers, listing towards that of her younger sister Louisa. A few kilometres distant, in the town of Letterkenny, another grave marks the last resting place of their younger sister, Cassandra.
May, Lou and Cass, as they were known in life, were Jane Austen’s nieces; not only her nieces but favoured companions during the last 16 years of her life. Growing up nearby, in the great house of Godmersham Park, they were frequent visitors to Aunt Jane. She played with them, they did their sewing and reading together, and, in later life, they recorded their memories of an aunt who clearly preferred the company of children, and those of her own family, above all others.
“Children of the same family, the same blood, with the same first associations and habits, have some means of enjoyment in their power, which no subsequent connections can supply,” Austen observed in Mansfield Park. Her society assumed that relations between siblings and cousins would be more lasting – and more intimate – than those contracted by marriage. Such families, extending as webs that stretched over counties and countries, held brothers and sisters who married into the far reaches of empire or served its armies or navy as close as the heart would allow.
Not even the iron boundaries of class could defeat such fierce affections – although lack of money often did the more precarious business of marriage. May, Lou and Cass were the daughters of Jane Austen’s older brother, Edward. Adopted by the Knights, a wealthy childless couple of the neighbourhood, Edward eventually inherited the great house of Godmersham Park as well as the family name. It is a storyline that Austen adopted for her novel Emma . There the diplomatic manoeuvres of Frank Churchill, moving between the family of his birth and that of his eventual inheritance, mirror those of Edward, who never allowed his good fortune to obstruct the flow of family from one house to another. May, Lou and Cass inhabited Austen’s home at Chawton Cottage as fully as they haunt her novels.
Like all of Austen’s heroines, they were spirited, but spirits ruled by stoic discipline. They would have need of it. Although daughters of the great house, they would never inherit. Marriages could not be made without money, yet “a single woman, with a very narrow income, must be a ridiculous, disagreeable, old maid! The proper sport of boys and girls,” as Austen’s Emma remarks.
Austen herself had no income, unlike her mother and sister, Cassandra: each left a small legacy on the death of her husband or fiance, respectively. Without such prospects, Jane’s niece Marianne would live out her long life as one of the overlooked heroines of the age, the maiden aunt: managing households, rearing her nieces and nephews, nursing the sick and elderly – the linchpin of the extended Victorian family.
The younger sisters, Cass and Lou, always close, were bound by a common fate. When Cass was 20, Lord George Hill proposed marriage. As the youngest son of Lord Downshire, his future depended entirely on his widowed mother, the formidable marchioness. Her verdict on Cass: “No money – all charms.” But Cass, like Anne Elliot in Persuasion, held to love even when all hope seemed lost. Lord George devoted himself to his career. When he returned eight years later, he proposed again, this time successfully. After they married, they set out for Ireland, where Lord George’s family had their seat at Hillsborough Castle.
Ireland in those days was a dark, mysterious place. As Austen warned another niece, writing about Ireland was risky, as “you know nothing of the Manners there . . .” So alien was the place that, at the wedding, Cass’s brother wrote of her as a “sacrificial lamb”. Although Cass never had actually to live in Ireland, she died here – like her own mother, within days of childbirth. Now father to four children under the age of seven, Lord George asked her sister Louisa to take over their care, later making her his wife.
Meanwhile, his own circumstances had changed. Following his mother’s death, in 1836, Lord George had inherited enough to invest in a large estate in the remote hinterland of Gweedore, to which he now removed his entire family.
The story of how Louisa – later joined by her older, unmarried sister Marianne – coped with this raw and turbulent place would make a novel in itself. For his part, brought up in Ireland and familiar with its ways, Lord George proved for the most part an exemplary landlord, even during the Famine and the political disruptions that followed it – although he could be ruthless when it came to anyone setting up against his various enterprises.
A memorial in the small Anglican church in Bunbeg records how Lord George “devoted his life and fortune to civilize Gweedore and to raise its people to a higher social and moral level”. The phrasing of the memorial, which was vandalised during the Troubles, exposes much about the troubled relations between Ireland, England and the British Empire.
How these histories are straddled by this one family, eventually involving all three Austen nieces, is exceptional. Many of its plots and subplots already appear in Austen’s novels. Others are so unexpected, and yet inevitable, that if they were written as fiction no one would believe them. It is a tribute to Sophia Hillan that her far-reaching and scrupulous research has unearthed such a compelling hidden history. Like a true Austen aficionada she tells it with verve – and with an ear for its many, and often plangent, ironies.

A little less tragic than the Bronte's http://www.bronte.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=104&Itemid=114

MarchDub

Austen's connections with Ireland are interesting. And maybe sentimental.

One of her best known characters 'Mr Darcy' [Pride and Prejudice] is said to be based on an early - but terminated - relationship Jane Austen had with Irishman Tom Lefroy. Lefroy went on to become a member of the Irish bar and Chief Justice in Ireland. He called his first daughter Jane.

I know, bring out the hankies...

Manach

An interesting looking book. So long as it does not feature Zombies, Vampires, Sea-Monsters etc, that the Jane Austen craze is unleashing upon us.

CDfm

Jane's Irish beau was a barrister named Thomas Lefroy and he was her Mr Darcy.

Austen fans speculate what would have happened i they had married.

Anyway , here is something on Jane's Ireland.

Most Janeites find the brief story of Jane Austen and Thomas Langlois Lefroy (1776 to 1869) fascinating (Austen-Leigh & Le Faye 85-87). Maybe she was a little in love with him and he with her. You may be interested to hear more about Thomas Langlois Lefroy. He did marry well, and did have a long and successful legal career in Ireland. The following information is from a book by F. Erlington Ball (354 - 355). We are told that he was "called to the Irish Bar in 1797, married Mary, only daughter and heiress of Jeffrey Paul of Silver Spring, County Wexford in 1799, published / edited legal texts, followed the Munster circuit for some years, afterwards did equity practice only, became a King's counsel in 1816, was presented with the freedom of Cork in a silver box in 1825, became a doctor of laws in 1827, was a conservative in politics, was elected member of Parliament for Dublin University (Trinity College) seven times, erected a country seat at Curryglass, County Longford, was promoted to the chief justiceship, resigned his seat on the bench at the age of ninety, died in 1869 at his other residence Newcourt near Bray, and was remarkable for the strength of his religious convictions." We are told that he "was an evangelical Churchman of the most pronounced type who had expressed detestation of Catholic Emancipation" (288). Catholic Emancipation, which I will explain elsewhere, was certainly opposed bitterly by many, including George the Third, over many years, but by the time it was passed in 1829 it was obviously essential to Britain's ability to govern Ireland, and so opposition to it was no longer as acceptable as it had been.
If Jane Austen and Tom Lefroy had been able to marry, would she have been happy? I think that she would have been able to accept his extreme conservative and evangelical views, as long as he stayed in the Anglican Church, which he did. Maybe the terrible poverty she would have seen in Ireland would not have horrified her as it did Jonathan Swift. In Emma, Jane Austen gives a lovely description of Emma's compassionate attitude towards the poor and says Emma "always gave her assistance with as much intelligence as good-will" (86). But then Emma says, "If we feel for the wretched, enough to do all we can for them, the rest is empty sympathy, only distressing to ourselves" (87). But doing "all we can" is subjective, and Emma does not suffer any real financial deprivation from the help she gives the poor. I see Jane Austen as able to live in Ireland, in the upper middle-class, prosperous circle that was Tom Lefroy's, do her duty and bring up her children, but I do not see her as having time and opportunity to write novels, let alone get support and approval from her husband to do so.
The political situation in Ireland in Jane Austen's lifetime was very dynamic and complicated and can only be summarized in this paper. There were many different groups, each with its own agenda.
A Catholic middle-class was emerging in the cities and demanding relief from those penal laws that were still in force. The Presbyterians in Ulster felt that the British Navy could no longer protect them in case of invasion (Fitzgibbon 67-68). This was because, in 1778, Britain being at war with America and France, the American sea captain John Paul Jones sailed the U.S.S. Ranger into Belfast Lough, where he fought and captured a British warship, H.M.S. Drake, and took her as a prize to Brest.
The Presbyterians were also angry because of the remaining penal laws that applied to them. They emigrated in great numbers to North America (47-48).
There was growing agrarian violence because of an increasing population and struggles for land. The American and French revolutions profoundly affected the country both in practical and ideological ways (Moody & Martin 232-236). Practically it led to the removal of British troops to fight in America. They were replaced by homegrown Protestant militias that the British government did not control. These militias became the United Irishmen, from both the north and the south of the country, and ultimately sought French help and rose in rebellion. Before that happened the Irish Parliament gained greater independence for itself. In 1782 most of the legislation that made the Irish Parliament subservient to the British Parliament was repealed. This was a great source of pride and pleasure to the Irish Anglicans, but they were still not willing to admit Catholics. This short-lived Parliament (1782 to 1800) is known in history as Grattan's Parliament after its most eloquent and effective member, Henry Grattan. The Jacobin and revolutionary fervor generated in Ireland by the French and American revolutions called for liberty, equality, and political independence.
At first it was thought that these could be achieved by peaceful means, but the British government was hampered by its fear of foreign invasion and by the intransigence of the Irish and British Parliaments. It tried conciliation mixed with repression. The end result was the Rising or Rebellion of 1798. One French fleet with troops had attempted an invasion in 1796 but was scattered by storms, having evaded the British Navy (Fitzgibbon 119-120). In 1798 another group of French succeeded in landing but was quickly defeated, and a third fleet was captured at sea by the British Navy.
The rebellion planned for 1798 was badly coordinated and turned into isolated skirmishes. The rebels were defeated and many were executed. Local Protestants were killed by the insurgents. The total death toll is estimated at about thirty thousand. The end result of all this was that the Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger, decided to abolish the Kingdom of Ireland and set up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. He persuaded the members of the two houses of the Irish Parliament to vote for union by bribing those who were reluctant with pensions, peerages, and places — that is, jobs. To give them their due, many believed it would be the best solution. It would abolish the trade restrictions that hampered Ireland's commerce and would bring free trade. Catholic Emancipation was also implicitly promised but was not achieved until 1829.
The Act of Union came into effect January 1, 1801. Ireland was allotted one hundred of the six hundred odd seats in the Westminster Parliament and Dublin ceased to be a capital city. What part, if any did Jane Austen's brothers play in this period in Ireland? Her sailor brothers were not involved in fighting the three French fleets that tried to invade the country (Hubback 21-57), but her brother Henry was sent to Ireland with his regiment in 1799 in the wake of the 1798 rebellion. He was there for seven months (Tomalin 152). The Irish Catholics, led by Daniel O'Connell (1775 to 1850) spent the years 1801 to 1829 agitating by legal means for emancipation. They finally achieved it and were able to sit in the House of Commons (O'Ferrell 15-65). They then started campaigning to repeal the Union, again led by Daniel O'Connell (68-131). They did not succeed. O'Connell lived to see the Great Irish Famine, and died broken-hearted in 1847.
And now a few comments on other aspects of Irish life in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Many beautiful buildings went up in Dublin including the Four Courts — the law buildings — and the Custom House, both on the River Liffey (Moody & Martin 240-242). Lovely squares of Georgian houses were built. After the Act of Union the nobility and aristocracy basically moved away to the center of power — London. Some of these houses were taken over by the new upper class — doctors and lawyers — and some became terrible slums which were not cleared until the nineteen fifties. Leinster House, the town house of the Duke of Leinster, the premier Irish peer, is now the Irish Dáil or Parliament, and the original House of Parliament is now the Bank of Ireland.
The oldest general hospital in Ireland, Dr Steevens's Hospital, was founded in Dublin in 1733, funded by a bequest from Richard Steevens (Craig). He was the son of an English immigrant of the Commonwealth period. The hospital was still there when I was growing up. In recent years it has become part of the Regional Hospital System.
In 1757, Dr. Bartholomew Mosse opened one of the first maternity hospitals in the world, the "Rotunda", north of the Liffey (Craig). It is still there and has an excellent international reputation. Dr. Mosse raised the money for it by lotteries, plays, concerts and oratorios, and some of this aspect also lives on. The Gate Theatre is still part of the complex. Both Richard Steevens and Bartholomew Mosse had a deep love of their fellow men, and a great sympathy for the poor.
In spite of the many problems, the period was one of expanding commerce. Agricultural produce was in demand during the wars with America and France. Canals were built, the Grand Canal and the Royal Canal, connecting Dublin to the Shannon (Moody & Martin 234). The population grew rapidly, because armies no longer ravaged the land and destroyed the crops. Potatoes, the main sustenance of the poor, are a complete food when combined with milk, and potatoes were easily grown and produced more food per acre than any other crop. The country people also had a plentiful source of heat — peat, called turf in Ireland.
The Irish Gaelic language was losing ground to English, and was spoken mainly by the rural population (Ó'Murchú 25). But much folk poetry was still being written in Irish Gaelic (O'Tuama & Kinsella 13).
The houses of the rural Irish tended to be one-room cabins. We have a reproduction of one from Arthur Young's "Tour in Ireland," 1780 (Bartoletti 6).

This is a reproduction of the home of Maria Edgeworth's family from Irish Pictures, London Religious Tract Society 1888 (20). The contrast between the two is telling.

And now we come to deal with some of the references to Ireland and the Irish from Jane Austen's works. In The Watsons there is a discussion between Emma Watson and her host Mr. Edwards. We learn that Emma's aunt has married an army officer, Captain O'Brien and gone with him to Ireland. Mr Edwards says "I do not wonder that you should not wish to go with her into that country, Miss Emma" (326). Later on Emma's brother Robert Watson says "A pretty piece of work your Aunt Turner has made of it!" (351). Captain O'Brien is obviously regarded as a fortune hunter, and the marriage as likely to be very unfortunate for his wife. The Watsons was written in 1804, soon after the 1798 Rebellion that accounts for Mr. Edwards' remark — at this stage Jane Austen may have regarded Ireland as a dangerous place to live. If Captain O'Brien was a Catholic the penal laws would have prevented him from rising in his profession — he could never have become a Colonel. So he may have been on the lookout for a rich wife. His still being in the army as a Captain suggests that he was a good bit younger than his wife.
In Persuasion we get an unflattering picture of the Dowager Vicountess Lady Dalrymple and her daughter Miss Carteret. "There was no superiority of manner, accomplishment, or understanding" and "Miss Carteret, with still less to say, was so plain and so awkward, that she would never have been tolerated in Camden-place but for her birth" (150). The text suggests that the title is old, not one of those conferred as a bribe to pass the Act of Union, but the depiction of these cousins may partly reflect the loss of respect for Irish titles which the new creations generated, and may also reflect the ambiguous position of the Anglo-Irish. In Ireland they were regarded as English, and in England they were regarded as Irish. Of Captain Wentworth, Lady Dalrymple says "A very fine young man indeed! More air than one often sees in Bath. —Irish, I dare say" (188). Is this just Lady Dalrymple's partiality, or a reflection of the tendency to see Ireland and the Irish as "the other" to whom traits and attributes both good and bad can be assigned, or is it a lingering memory of Tom Lefroy? The miniature of him painted by Engleheart shows him to have been handsome (Cecil 74).
Frank Churchill gives us an example of the tendency to ridicule the Irish, in Emma. He says that Miss Fairfax has done her hair in a very outrée fashion. "I must go and ask her whether it is an Irish fashion" (222). In Mansfield Park Maria Bertram is angry because her sister Julia and Henry Crawford so much enjoyed their trip to Sotherton. Henry says "Oh! I believe I was relating to her some ridiculous stories of an old Irish groom of my uncle's." Then he says "I could not have hoped to entertain you with Irish anecdotes during a ten mile drive" (99). In Jane Austen's time the ethnic jokes were pretty savage and they were mostly directed against the Irish.
In Emma, Miss Bates makes the remark that first interested me in the subject of this paper. We hear that Jane Fairfax's guardians, the Campbells, are going to visit their daughter in Ireland. The picture sketched of the Dixons' life in Ireland is a peaceful and happy one. Ballycraig was probably beautiful; the word is Gaelic and means a home or townland on a mass of rock forming part of a cliff or headland, so the place was by the sea. Miss Bates says of Mrs. Dixon that she was impatient to see her parents" for till she got married last October, she was never away from them as much as a week, which must make it very strange to be in different kingdoms, I was going to say, but however different countries" (159). This sums up accurately the effect of the Act of Union 1801. It gave me great pleasure to see that Miss Bates was intelligent and read the newspapers with understanding. Miss Bates tells us that the Campbells were crossing from Holyhead in Wales to Dublin. The boats carried the mail as well as passengers, and the service was efficient. Emma wonders as to the "expedition and expense of the Irish mails" (298). She could have been told that the service was very good also.
The Irish car mentioned during the outing to Box Hill (374) was also known as a jaunting car. It had two long benches with guardrails, one on each side, facing outwards, and was used to drive visitors in places of scenic beauty such as the Lakes of Killarney.
We are told that a set of Irish melodies came with the mysterious new piano in Emma (242). In Pride and Prejudice, Mary Bennett, playing the piano, "was glad to purchase praise and gratitude by Scotch and Irish airs" (25). Jane Austen copied out some Irish airs for her own use. Her interest may have had something to do with Tom Lefroy, but also may have been due to timing.
The following account is from "Ireland of the Welcomes" magazine. In the eighteenth century the Irish harpers were a dying breed, and their music was in danger of being lost. Some Belfast gentlemen decided to make an effort to record it. They issued a general invitation to all traditional harpers to gather in Belfast July 10 to 13, 1792, and promised that some remuneration would be given to all. Ten Irish harpers, one woman and nine men, and one Welshman came, and for three days performed their music. The person appointed to record it was a young student, Edward Bunting. It was an inspired choice. He worked on the transcriptions for the rest of his life and his first collection of "The Ancient Music of Ireland" was published in 1796. Celtic music today is very popular worldwide and owes a great debt to Bunting. In 1992 a bicentennial International harp festival was held in Belfast — not eleven harpers but hundreds.



http://www.jasnanorcal.org/ink8.htm

This piece here goes thru life in Gweedore under Lord George Hill Landlord Husband of Austen's nieces

Needless to say the early nineteenth century inhabitants of Gweedore were not disposed to much outside interference in their way of life and the lack of roads made it difficult for the landlords, agents and the constabulary. In Lord George Hill's view the area at this time "was ruled by a few bullies, [and] lawless distillers, who acknowledged neither landlord or agent; and the absence of anything like roads effectively kept civilization from the district, and prevented people bringing more land into cultivation."[3] About 1834 "two revenue police parties" were "beaten and disarmed" and "fifty constabulary were repulsed and forced to give up collecting tithe."[4]

Without interference from Landlords, the people were able to graze the whole area, and land was divided up by a system known as "rundale." This was an ancient form of land division that, despite its faults, allowed everyone access to the best land, water and common grazing. It also allowed subdivision of lots to accomodate the need for sons to have their own farms. Naturally, Lord George Hill emphasised the bad aspects of the Rundale system, saying that it resulted in "fights, trespasses, confusion, disputes and assaults....these evil, in their various forms were endless."[5] These problems are present in any society, to some degree; there is no need to assume that Lord George Hill was entirely correct. The rundale system provided the basis for strong community feeling based on kinship, shared hardships and a common religion, and these things made life in such clachan communities possible.

One disadvantage of the Rundale system was that holdings were often scattered small plots, spread over a wide area and, because of this, holdings were not fenced, creating additional problems with wandering stock. Houses were clustered into "clachans," a group of houses of the families who tenanted the surrounding Rundale. Apart from the grazing of sheep and cows the land was cultivated for potatoes (to eat) and oats (to pay the rent). The fields were improved by the addition of sand and seaweed, to fertilize and break up the peaty soil. Houses in the clachans were often just one room, with the family living at one end and the animals living at the other. Grazing of animals was also done on a rotational basis and families often moved with their animals between mountain pasture, lowland and the islands.

Farming was the main activity of the people and, despite the proximity of the ocean, they did very little fishing. The Government (1837) noted that:

"On the mainland in Guidore (sic) District there are not now any fishermen. The Islanders on the Coast contrive to exist, and to increase and multiply beyond measure, on the produce of the soil (potatoes), and to pay their rent and taxes; but in seasons of dearth, which occur on and average of every fourth year, they are as destitute as the poor on the mainland. Famines have occured on the islands only when experienced on the coast."[6]

Lord George Hill ascribed the lack of fishing to competition from boats from other areas and the price of salt, needed for the preservation of fish, was also prohibitive, as it had to be brought long distances to Gweedore.[7] Transport between the islands off the Gweedore coast was effected by "curraghs", an unsteady craft made of skins stretched over a frame. These curraghs were often big enough to transport animals although the potential for disaster in these cases was quite high.[8]

Lord George Hill described the condition of the peasantry, previous to his arrival in Gweedore, as "more deplorable than can well be conceived; famine was periodical, and fever its attendant; wretchedness pervaded the district."[9] Certainly there was hardship in Gweedore, but whether it was as bad as Lord George Hill describes is hard to tell. It was Lord George Hill's purpose, in his book Facts from Gweedore, to show what an improvement in farming methods and the lives of the tenantry he had effected through his "benevolent stewardship." Facts from Gweedore, has to be read keeping the authors intention of describing his own "successes" in mind, however it is still an interesting account of life in the area.

Fr. McFadden, longtime Parish Priest of gweedore, was more acerbic in his estimation of the value of Facts from Gweedore, and quoted approvingly:

"This is a summary of the alleged facts from Gweedore, which might, perhaps, with more regard to truth and accuracy be called "Fictions from Gweedore", conceived, arranged, and printed by the Lord of the Soil himself, to dispose public opinion, to receive with equanimity the shock and outrage imparted to it by the cruel, not to say, unjust action of doubling the rents, appropriating immemorial rights, and otherwise oppressing an already rackrented and harrassed tenantry."[10]

Another testimony to the hardship of life in the Gweedore area came from Patrick McKye, a National Schoolmaster, who, in 1837, made a petition to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, saying that the people of Gweedore were the "most needy, hungry and naked condition of any people" in his experience.[11] Fr McFadden, of course, discounted the testimony of McKye, quoting the Estate bailiff to the effect that the people of Gweedore were "more comfortable and better off before the time of Lord George Hill than they are today."[12] Like Lord George Hill, Fr Mc Fadden also had an axe to grind and his purpose was to show how detrimental to the tenantry was the advent of Lord George Hill, who was guilty of "tyranny and oppression against his tenants".. and "spoliation and appropriation" of their lands.[13] Fr. McFadden's view of life before 1838 in Gweedore was rosy:

"Before the advent of Lord George Hill, Gweedore had no history, -at least no history recorded in the suffering and sorrows of an oppressed and landlord ridden people. In this regard there was a profound peace. There was amongst its inhabitants comfort, if not actual comfort, at least equal comfort with their neighbours and the rest of Ireland, and comnfort much above their present condition, as testified by the bailiff, who is not accused of leanings to the popular side. Before the advent of Lord George Hill there were no appeals year after year. There were no wails of distress and starvation ascending from the valleys of Gweedore season after season. But after his arrival there has been going on a bitter war from that day to this."[14]

In 1838 Lord George Augustus Hill[15] purchased land in Gweedore and over the next few years expanded his holdings to 23,000 acres, including a number of offshore islands, the largest of which was Gola island.[16] He estimated that his lands had about 3,000 inhabitants, of which 700 were rent payers.[17] Unlike previous landlords who often left their holdings and people alone, Lord George Hill came to stay, and set about to improve the roads and bridges. He had an advantage in that he knew the Irish language, the main language of the people of the area.[18]

The first road into Gweedore was constructed in 1834 when the Board of Works constructed a road from Dunlewey to the Gweedore River and Lord George Hill further improved the roads on his estate. At Bunbeg Lord George Hill constructed a harbour and corn store and a general merchandise store. By purchasing grain at the prices prevailing in Letterkenny, Lord George Hill hoped to curb the practice of illicit distillation, which he perceived was one of the prime causes of distress in the area. The suppression of illicit distillation was one thing in which Lord George Hill had to admit he wasn't as successful as he would have liked.[19] Quite conveniently, although not mentioned by Lord George Hill or his admirers,[20] the purchasing of grain from the tenants would have given them money with which to pay their rent. Potatoes were grown for their own needs.

About 4 miles from Bunbeg, up the Clady River, Lord George Hill constructed a hotel, which he surrounded by a model farm. Early editions of Hill's book were subtitled With hints for Donegal Tourists, and this was, apart from demonstrating his agricultural improvements, the other purpose for writing Facts from Gweedore; he wanted people to come and stay in his hotel.[21]

Hill also set up a shop in Bunbeg selling just about anything,[22] and imported a scot named Mason to open a bakery. Lord George Hill was not for the "free market," and made sure that no one else opened up in opposition to him.[23] Margaret Sweeney was evicted for trying to set up a bakery without permission.[24]

Another of Hills' initiatives was to contract the London firm of Mssrs Allen and Solly, who set up an agency in Bunbeg, to supply wool and purchase knitted products. It was estimated that the income derived from the sale of knitted products contributed £500 per year to the local economy.[25] (The Gweedore people had always made their own homespun clothing and knit their own socks and stockings, for which they kept sheep.)

Almost immediately on taking up his land in Gweedore, Lord George Hill set about to improve the agricultural practices of his estate. His tenants naturally were not so inclined to share the landlord's view of what was good agriculture and this became a bone of contention for many years even though Lord George Hill was pretty much succesful in abolishing the rundale system. Even he admitted that the reoganization of the farms was "a difficult task, and much thwarted by the people, as they naturally did not like that their old ways should be disturbed or interferred with...the opposition on the part of the people to the new system was vexatious and harrassing."[26]

Hill had the area surveyed during 1841-1843, and then began to allot new holdings to each tenant. The new holdings were a compromise between landlord and tenant. Hill's original plan was to "square" the farms but this aroused so much oppostion that each tenant's holdings were aggregated into strips rather than squares. The strips were arranged so that they included infield and outfield and access to water, the advantages conferred by the old rundale system. This necessited the abolition of the clachan arrangement of houses and new houses had to be built on each holding (at the expense of the tenants). The landlord outlawed the building of any further new houses, any further subdivision of land, or the sale of land. Not that the tenants actually owned the land anyway, but they brought and sold what was known as "tenant right." The inability to subdivide was a bone of contention and after it was prohibited the first time, the tenants were again given notice not to subdivide in 1844.[27] Under these circumstances, providing land for sons was impossible and the only option for them was emigration.

Despite being prohibited the practice of subdivision went on. In 1888 there were 800 official tenancies on the Hill estate which increased the next year to 920, due to sub-tenants being recognized as official tenants, after a settlement negotiated between the Landlord and the Parish Priest.[28] This gives some indication of the need of the people.

In a further attempt to improve his land, Hill began offering prizes for the best kept cottage, the best vegetables, the healthiest livestock, the best butter. This was not, in the first year, taken up by the tenants but it seems that they did improve their efforts to win "premiums" and Lord George Hill considered this to be a successful innovation. He was quick to disqualify anyone who had been involved in illicit distillation, anyone with a conviction for breaching the peace and anyone guilty of not paying rent without the encouragement of "compulsory measures."[29]

Despite the efforts of the Landlord the basic economy of the Gweedore area was still one of subsistence, and an almost complete dependence on the potato for food. This subsistence farming made the occurence of crop failure a time of hardship and hunger. There were partial crop failures in 1831, 1837, 1854 and 1856, and a complete crop failure in the years of "the famine" (1846-48). There were probably other years of hardship as well. McKye's petition, of 1837, mentions the "general prospect of starvation, at the present prevailing among them [the people of Gweedore], and that originating from various causes, but the principal cause is the rot or failure of seed in last years crop, together with a scarcity of winter forage, in consequence of a long continuation of storm since October last, in this part of the country."[30] In 1845, the potato blight struck the whole of Ireland, affecting the west particularly hard.

Gweedore was no exception. The following year was even worse. One observer wrote from Gweedore in 1847:

"I have just returned after a day of painful exertion...in one house I found a family of fourteen - the eldest fourteen years of age, the youngest nine weeks - the mother unable to leave her bed since its birth. They had not a morsel of food in the house... I went to another house to inquire about a young woman who had been employed on the public works and had gone away ill during the severe snow storm. On reaching home she complained of great coldness; her mother and father made her go to bed (the only one in the house); she fell into a sleep from which she never woke. This day her poor mother died also, and there are two of the children who, I am sure, will not be alive by tomorrow, to such a state are they reduced from bad and insufficient food.

Lord George Hill is doing all that a man can do...He is occupied from morning till night...sparing himself neither trouble nor personal fatigue.[31]

Lord George Hill's efforts included appealing to the Society of Friends (the Quakers), the Irish Peasantry Improvement Society of London and the Baptist Society for funds. Contrary to Government policy of the time, which was to maintain the price of grain at market prices, Lord George Hill sold grain below cost and sooner than directed, and thereby avoided the delays which proved disastrous in other areas.[32] The newly constructed corn mill at Bunbeg was pressed into service and ground 688 tons of indian corn to help alleviate the effects of the failure of the potato harvest.[33] Lest it be believed that Lord George Hill was all unalloyed generosity, Fr McFadden pointed out that:

"He [Hill] got over £700 from Government for grinding Indian Corn in 1847!! The meagre outdoor relief he gave to some tenants of a stone of meal in the week or fortnight, was to keep them out of the workhouse."[34]

Probably due to the efforts of the Landlord, and the availability of edible seaweed, there was not a great loss of population in the Gweedore area compared with other parts of Ireland. In fact the census figures of 1851, compared to 1841, show a modest increase in the population of the Gweedore area. Some undoubtedly did die because the lack of the nutrition provided by the potato was not replaced by Indian Corn or seaweed. In the parish of Tullaghobegley (of which Gweedore is the western section) there was a decrease in population of less than 1% from 1841 to 1851. On eighteen of the most populous of Lord George Hill's townlands there was an 8% increase in population over the same period which is testimony to his successful efforts to ameliorate the famine in Gweedore.[35] Other parts of Tullaghobegley parish fared less well.

Lord George Hill described the effects of the famine saying:

"The Irish people have profited much by the Famine, the lesson was severe; but so were they rooted in old prejudices and old ways, that no teacher could have induced them to make the changes which this Visitation of Divine Providence has brought about, both in their habits of life and in their mode of agriculture."[36]

Such an opinion demonstrates a breathtaking arrogance that is hard to beat. It stands as support to Fr McFadden's opinions of Lord George Hill.

The famine was a turning point in Irish history and led to perhaps a million people dying of starvation and to mass emigration. Both these effects seem not to have affected Gweedore as much as the rest of Ireland, however life did not improve for the inhabitants of Gweedore and they continued to live an economy of subsistence, which led to continued hardship. Emigration from Gweedore seems not to have been in large numbers until later on. The famine also contributed to the increase of influence of the Catholic Church in Ireland, and in this Gweedore was no exception. The Catholic Priests of the area took on a leading role in advocating on behalf of the people and here they were partially succesful, their efforts resulted in the House of Commons appointing a select committee to look into the claims of destitution in Gweedore.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~donegal/chapter_one.htm

I wonder if he gave away free soup.

MarchDub

Found this photo of the Tom Lefroy's residence Carrig Glas House in Longford. I actually drove by there a few years ago and it was being refurbished. They were also building a new housing estate in the grounds. Wonder if that is one of our ghost estates now? Anyone know?

Set on 660 acres of lush pastures, rolling meadows and mature woodlands filled with ancient oaks, beeches, ash trees and sycamores, Carrigglas is one of the last remaining walled estates in Ireland.

With its celebrated avenue and Palladian courtyards designed by James Gandon, who also created The Customs House and Four Courts in Dublin; and a magnificent Victorian Gothic manor house by Daniel Robertson, who was responsible for the famous Italian Gardens at Powerscourt; Carrigglas has been described by Homes and Gardens Magazine as “truly delightful” and “a treasure”.

Originally the seat of the Bishop of Armagh, Carrigglas became the home of the Huguenot Lefroy family in 1837, remaining in their ownership until now. Thomas Lefroy, who commissioned Carrigglas, was a friend of the novelist Jane Austen. They were romantically involved for a time, and it is believed that she based the character of Mr. Darcy, hero of Pride and Prejudice on him.

http://www.carrigglas.ie/index.php