Two Saint Johns in Hampstead: 200 years of controversies at Saint John’s, Downshire Hill

Saint John’s Downshire Hill, Hampstead … a proprietary chapel that is not a parish church in the Diocese of London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

There are two Church of England churches in Hampstead that are named Saint John: Saint John-at-Hampstead which is dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist, and Saint John’s Downshire Hill.

Saint John-at-Hampstead is the ancient parish church on Church Row, and I was writing about yesterday. Saint John’s Downshire Hill is not actually a parish church but a proprietary chapel.

The two Saint John’s in Hampstead have very different histories, styles of worship and values. To add to the confusion, but there is also a debate about the patronage of Saint John-at-Hampstead: was the saint in question Saint John the Baptist or Saint John the Evangelist?

I decided to visit both churches – or the church and the chapel – when I was in Hampstead last week.

>Saint John’s Downshire Hill, Hampstead … facing what should be the liturgical east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Saint John’s Downshire Hill, Hampstead, is a proprietary chapel rather than a parish church in the Diocese of London. It is in the Parish of Saint Stephen with All Hallows, and, although most people refer to it as Saint John’s Church, it is legally and formally a chapel. Nor should it be confused with Saint John-at-Hampstead, on Church Row.

As much of the area was being developed in the early 19th century, a new church was considered an essential for the new houses and their residents. Downshire Hill was laid out at the beginning of the 19th century and the street was probably named after Wills Hill (1718-1793), 1st Marquess of Downshire. He was Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1768-1772, the period leading up to the American War of Independence, and his Irish estates included Hillsborough Castle, Co Down, now the official government residence in Northern Ireland, and Blessington House, Co Wicklow, which was burned down in 1798.

Later residents of Downshire Hill included the artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the actress Peggy Ashcroft and the Irish-born scientist John Desmond Bernal.

A site on Downshire Hill was bought from the Manor of Belsize in 1812 by a group who handed the site on in 1817 to a three people: the Revd James Curry, who financed the project; Edward Carlisle, a lawyer; and William Woods, a speculative builder who was involved in developments in Hampstead and other parts of London.

Curry offered to pay the cost of the building if he was appointed the minister. The new chapel was dedicated to Saint John, indicating, perhaps, that it was originally planned as a chapel of ease for the parish church of Saint John-at-Hampstead.

The building was completed in 1823, but Curry had fallen ill by the time the first service held on 26 October 1823. Instead, the first minister was the Revd William Harness (1790-1869), a classical scholar and a friend from school days of the poet Lord Byron.

Curry died soon after the opening, Woods gave up his interest in the building in January 1824, and Harness left in 1825 when his popularity as a preacher brought him an invitation to become the incumbent of Saint Peter’s Church, Regent Square (1826-1844). The four ministers who succeeded Harness each remained for only a short period.

The property was bought in 1832 by the Revd John Wilcox (1780-1835), who admired George Whitefield, a key figure in the revival in Britain and America in the 18th century. Wilcox saw Downshire Hill as the ideal place to carry on Whitefield’s evangelical legacy and put the evangelical tradition associated with the chapel on a firm footing.

Saint John’s Downshire Hill, Hampstead … facing what should be the liturgical west end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Wilcox immediately met strong opposition from the Revd Samuel White, who had been the Vicar of Saint John-at-Hampstead since 1807 and who disagreed strongly with the Calvinist teachings of Wilcox. White’s permission was needed to hold services and to preach sermons in the parish, and Downshire Hill was in his parish.

White accused Wilcox of neglecting the two churches where he already ministered and charged him with illegally officiating in a private chapel without the consent of the local incumbent. Wilcox threatened that without White’s approval he would preach as a dissenter. But, when Wilcox ignored White’s demands, White began formal proceedings against him.

The consistory court ruled in favour of White, but local feeling was on the side of Wilcox. The poet John Keats, who was living nearby in what is now Keats House, referred to White as ‘the Person of Hampstead quarrelling with all the world.’ A petition was signed by influential local people including the then Lord of the Manor of Belsize, Lord Galloway, and the writer Sara Coleridge, a daughter of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The court ruling stood, and the chapel stayed closed until 1835. The chapel remained controversial in church circles in the years that followed, and Wilcox remained in the area, teaching local children at Saint John’s Church School, which he founded on Downshire Hill at his own expense.

The Bevington organ in the west gallery was built in 1873 and installed in 1880 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

When Wilcox died in December 1835, the trustees of Saint John’s Downshire Hill were able to appoint an alternative minister who had White’s approval. The Revd John Ayre was the minister for 20 years there, from 1835 and 1855, and was the longest-standing minister there for many years after. In 1851, 1,370 people attended a service at which the Archbishop of Canterbury preached.

Meanwhile, Samuel White had died in 1841, the area was growing rapidly, and there was a need for a new parish church. Saint John’s was proposed as the new parish church in 1863, but this was rejected on the grounds that the church was too small and the site too small to build a larger church.

Instead, a new parish church, Saint Stephen’s Church, was built nearby at Rosslyn Hill and the Revd Joshua Kirkman of Saint John’s Downshire Hill became the first Vicar of Saint Stephen’s.

Canon Henry Wright (1833-1880), was secretary of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) was the minister of Saint John’s from 1872 until he drowned in Coniston Lake. The Revd Robert Baker Girdlestone (1836-1922), the first Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford (1877-1889), was at Downshire Hill in 1889-1903.

Saint John’s faced financial difficulties during World War I, and in 1916 the freehold was bought by Henry Wright’s son, Albert Leslie Wright, who then leased the church to the congregation at a nominal rent. When he died in 1938, he appointed the Church Pastoral Aid Society (CPAS) as trustees to ensure the church continued to maintain an evangelical traditions.

Later ministers included: the Revd Jakób Jocz (1947-1956), who was born in Tsarist Lithuania, became President of the International Hebrew Christian Alliance and then was Professor of Systematic Theology at Wycliffe College, Toronto; Canon Douglas Butcher (1957-1960), a canon of Cairo Cathedral; the Revd Douglas Paterson (1962-1965), who later joined the Rwanda Mission; and Bishop Kenneth Howell (1972-1979), a former Bishop of Chile, Bolivia and Peru.

Typical of its time … the distinctive black and gold clock below the bellcote was made by John Moore of Clerkenwell in 1823 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Grade I listed building, with its Regency stuccoed and cream painted façade, looks more like a church typical of its period in New England. It has a Doric porch, portico and cupola. The distinctive black and gold clock below the bellcote was made by John Moore of Clerkenwell in 1823, its simple bold design typical of that period.

Inside, the vestibule has a double staircase. The main part of the church has a five-bay nave with galleries on three sides and no chancel. During restoration work in the 1960s, a frieze of biblical texts that had been obliterated in 1923 was rediscovered decorating the gallery and reredos and repainted in the original gold lettering.

The original wooden box pews have been moved to the sides of the church, below the galleries, or to the church hall. The Bevington organ in the west gallery was built in 1873 and installed in 1880.

The East Window (1882) depicts the eagle of Saint John the Evangelist (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The East Window, dating from 1882, depicts the eagle of Saint John the Evangelist. Under it, the reredos frames the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles’ Creed, although these are obscured by a large drop-down screen. When I visited last week, there was no communion table and no pulpit. Perhaps they were moved during renovations in 2003-2004, and instead there is a raised stage with a small, fold-away table and two comfortable chairs.

During the 19th century, there were up to 50 proprietary chapels in London. Today, Saint John’s Downshire Hill is the only proprietary chapel remaining in the Diocese of London, one of only a handful in the whole of England. The running costs are met entirely by the congregation. It is financially separate from the Church of England, and does not contribute to or receive from funds in the Diocese of London.

The chapel is in the conservative evangelical tradition, and has passed resolutions rejecting both the leadership and the the ordination of women. Alongside Saint Luke’s Church, Hampstead, and churches such as All Souls’ Church, Langham Place, it looks for alternative episcopal oversight to the Bishop of Ebbsfleet, Rob Munro.

Looking out into the world? … a window below one of the galleries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The church website refers to the church as the people ‘who have received forgiveness and new life through the death and resurrection of Jesus’ and says the building is ‘a place for God’s people to meet to pray, sing, encourage each other and hear teaching from His word, the Bible.’

Article 19 of the 39 Articles, ‘Of the Church’, says: ‘The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ's ordinance …’

It is difficult to see how this chapel fits in with this understanding of the Church, to see or find out where ‘the Sacraments be duly ministered’ or to see where the ‘Word of God is preached’ in a way that distinguishes a sermon from a television interview or a cosy fireside chat on a stage that gives priority to space for a performance with modern musical instruments.

Apart from a fold-away table and two comfortable chairs, there is no sign of a pulpit or altar, of word and sacrament in Saint John’s Downshire Hill, Hampstead (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Revd Tom Watts has been the senior minister of Saint John’s since 2018. The ‘Church Staff’ include David Rue, Associate Minister for Families, Corinne Brixton, Associate Minister for Women, and Aaron Ku, Assistant Minister. But there is nothing on the noticeboards or the website to indicate whether they are ordained or lay ministers.

The congregation has owned the building since 2003, when it bought it from the Wright family trustees who had owned it and leased it since World War I. The present trustees, who have legal oversight of the governance of Saint John’s Downshire Hill, are Daniel Barlow, Gareth Burns, Abi Naidu and Christopher Onaka.

The website refers to meetings, and says members of the congregation ‘meet together twice on Sundays’, at 10:30 and 6 pm, with both ‘meetings’ involving ‘music, prayer and the reading and teaching of the Bible’ and with the ‘focus on learning more about the God of the Bible, His Son Jesus Christ and what His word has to say about Him and our lives in relation to Him.’

But I could not find out anywhere when the Holy Communion or the Eucharist is celebrated at Saint John’s Downshire Hill, Hampstead. I wondered whether it is a mere conincidence that the only parts of the lettering that were rediscovered when the gallery and reredos were being redecorated and that are largely obscured by a large screen standing where the altar or holy table should be are those dominical words relating to the need to celebrate the Eucharist or the Holy Communion reguarly.

Stairway to heaven? … the vestibule in Saint John’s Downshire Hill has a double staircase (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Last updated: 12 May 2026 (correctionof typos)

The Iveagh Gardens, one of the best-kept secrets in Dublin, and the challenge to defend human rights

The Iveagh Gardens in Dublin were designed by Ninian Niven in a mixture of the ‘French Formal’ and the ‘English Landscape’ styles (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Tucked away behind the south side of Saint Stephen’s Green and National Concert Hall on Earlsfort Terrace, the Iveagh Gardens are among the finest, but least known, of Dublin’s parks and gardens. I only got to know the gardens in recent years, and so it was a pleasure to have time to explore them with Charlotte when we were back in Dublin for a quick overnight visit at the end of last week.

The Iveagh Gardens claim to be Dublin’s best-kept secret. They were designed by Ninian Niven in 1865 as the grounds for the Dublin Exhibition Palace – a space ‘where the citizens might meet for the purposes of rational amusement blended with instruction’. But for too long, this open area close to Harcourt Street and Hatch Street was a private garden, owned at different times by the Guinness family, when they also owned Iveagh House, and then by University College Dublin, with its main building on Earlsfort Terrace, now the National Concert Hall.

The Iveagh Gardens are an oasis of tranquillity and beauty near the city centre, close to Saint Stephen’s Green and Grafton Street. They include cascades, rustic grottos, sunken lawns, fountains, woodlands, a maze, a rose garden, rockeries and archery grounds.

The Maze in the Iveagh Gardens is a miniature copy of the maze at Hampton Court in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Iveagh Gardens is a national property, rather a municipal park, almost completely surrounded by buildings making the place a little difficult to find. I was staying on Harcourt Street on Friday night, opposite the former site of the High School, and entered the Iveagh Gardens from Upper Hatch Street and left at Clonmel Street.

The site was known as Leeson’s Fields in 1756, when it was owned by Joseph Leeson (1701-1783), 1st Earl of Milltown. He gives his name to Leeson Street and built Russborough House, near Blessington, Co Wicklow. Some years later, Lord Milltown leased the land to John Hatch (1720-1797), MP for Swords and the principal developer of Harcourt Street and Hatch Street in 1777-1784.

Hatch, who was an ancestor of the playwright John Millington Synge, sold the site to John Scott (1739-1798), 1st Earl of Clonmell, as his private gardens, and it became known as Clonmell Lawns. Scott was the Attorney General and then Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, and due to his heavy drinking he was known as ‘Copper-Faced Jack’ – remembered in the name of a night club in the area, Copper Face Jack’s.

He gave Clonmel Street its name and his subsidiary title of Lord Earlsfort gives Earlsfort Terrace its name. An underground passage brought Lord Clonmell Earl from his house on Harcourt Street to the gardens without him having to walk on Harcourt Street or Clonmel Street.

There was a plan to continue Clonmel Street through the site of the gardens, linking Harcourt Street to the newly-built Earlsfort Terrace. But this plan never materialised; nor was Lord Clonmell’s tunnel found during archaeological explorations when the Luas line was being built.

Lord Clonmell’s house on Harcourt Street later became the National Children’s Hospital, and is now modern offices. Meanwhile, when he died in 1798, his title and his properties, including Clonmell Gardens, were inherited by his 14-year-old son, Thomas Scott (1783-1838), as the 2nd Earl of Clonmell. The estate was sold in 1810 and when the gardens were opened for public use in 1817 they were named Coburg Gardens after the royal family of Saxe-Coburg.

The entrance to the Coburg Gardens was then from the south side of Saint Stephen’s Green, known as the Royal Horse Bazaar. Several Orangemen were badly injured during a major riot in the park in August 1835. The gardens had fallen into disrepair by 1860, when they were used for grazing sheep and dumping waste.

The Iveagh Gardens were acquired by the Guinness family in 1862 and opened to the public in 1992 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness (1798-1868) acquired the 17-acre site when he co-founded the Dublin Exhibition Palace and Winter Garden Company in 1862 to provide a permanent exhibition of Irish arts and manufactures as well as public reading rooms, flower gardens, and a gas-lit winter garden, modelled on the Crystal Palace in London. He transferred the site to the company, and it was the venue for the Dublin Exhibition Palace and Winter Garden, officially opened by Prince Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1865.

The Iveagh Gardens were designed by Ninian Niven in 1865, as an intermediate design between the ‘French Formal’ and the ‘English Landscape’ styles. A large sunken lawn near the Earlsfort Terrace entrance is one of only two purpose-built archery fields in Ireland. At its east end was a pond and boating tower, now inside the walls of Iveagh House. The cascade, or waterfall flows over an immense rockery, with rocks from each of the 32 counties. The maze is a miniature copy of the maze at Hampton Court in London.

The horticulturist and landscape gardener Ninian Niven (1799-1879) worked for most of his life in Ireland, but was born in Kelvingrove, Glasgow. He came to Ireland in 1827 as the head gardener of the grounds of the official residence of the Chief Secretary for Ireland in the Phoenix Park. Over the course of eight years, he developed his landscaping skills and remodelled the garden.

He became the curator of the Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin in 1834. Four years later, visitor numbers had risen from 7,000 a year to over 20,000, and he established the first horticultural training courses. In 1838, he established the Garden Farm nursery in Clonturk Lodge, Drumcondra.

Niven designed the gardens of many Irish country houses, influenced by his visit to France in the 1830s. In the Phoenix Park, he designed the gardens of the Viceregal Lodge, now Áras and Uachtaráin, the Chief Secretary’s Lodge, and the Under-Secretary’s Lodge, as well as the People’s Garden.

A large sunken lawn near the Earlsfort Terrace entrance is one of only two purpose-built archery fields in Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Sir Benjamin’s sons, Edward Cecil Guinness (1847-1927), later Lord Iveagh (1891), and Arthur Edward Guinness (1840-1915), later Lord Ardilaun (1880), bought back the Iveagh Gardens and the buildings in 1870. The site hosted an exhibition of Irish arts and manufactures in 1872. However, this was not a success, the Winter Gardens were sold and removed to England in 1882, and the gardens returned to private ownership and the Guinness family.

Lord Iveagh sold the buildings in 1883 to house the new Royal University of Ireland, but the Guinness family continued to own the gardens. The buildings were adapted after University College Dublin (UCD) was set up in 1908, and the present façade on Earlsfort Terrace was designed by the architect Rudolph Maximilian Butler and built in 1918.

When Éamon de Valera was both Taoiseach and chancellor of UCD, he began talks with Rupert Guinness, 2nd Earl of Iveagh, about the state acquiring Iveagh House at 80 Saint Stephen’s Green and the Iveagh Gardens. The request was turned down in 1937, but Lord Iveagh offered the house and gardens as a gift to the nation in 1939, insisting the Iveagh Gardens must not be built on and must remain a ‘lung’ for Dublin. His gift was accepted and Iveagh House became the Department of Foreign Affairs, while the Iveagh Gardens were re-united with UCD’s buildings on Earlsfort Terrace.

With growing student numbers, UCD had plans in 1961 to build on the Iveagh Gardens. Instead, however, UCD moved to Belfield, the gardens were saved, and eventually they were placed under the management of the Office of Public Works (OPW) in 1991. The OPW aimed to conserve and restore the park, maintaining Ninian Niven’s layout. The Iveagh Gradens opened to the public in 1992, the waterfall or cascade was restored in 1996, and a new entrance from Upper Hatch Street opened in 2003.

Elizabeth O’Kane’s sculpture of Count John McCormack, close to the National Concert Hall on Earlsfort Terrace (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

In the north-east corner and – appropriately – beside the National Concert Hall, is Elizabeth O’Kane’s 2008 sculpture of Count John McCormack (1884-1945). His voice and charisma made him the most successful concert performer of the early 20th century. He was the first artist to record the World War I song ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’. Later, the French Government awarded him the Légion d’Honneur and he was made a papal count by Pope Pius XI in 1928.

Nearby, close to Iveagh House and the Department of Foreign Affairs, a memorial commemorates the lives of human rights defenders who have been killed because of their work.

The memorial was inaugurated on International Human Rights Defenders Day, 9 December 2020, by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, and the Front Line Defenders Executive Director, Andrew Anderson.

The memorial, designed by Grafton Architects, is an Ogham garden with five standing stones, etched with ancient Irish Ogham script, each representing a native Irish tree. The space is enclosed by a crafted metal screen with plaques, bearing the words of people who gave their lives for their causes. They include Bety Cariño, who spoke at a gathering of human rights defenders I attended in Dublin Castle in 2010, and who was shot dead two months later during a peaceful protest in Mexico.

On this side of the Iveagh Gardens, a gate leads into the Readers’ Garden and the Museum of Literature Ireland in Newman House. But more about these tomorrow, hopefully (see HERE.

The memorial commemorating international human rights defenders was inaugurated in 2020 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

A tangled family tree saw the loss of a great house, art collection and family titles

Russborough House, near Blessington, Co Wicklow, home to generations of the Leeson family and the Earls of Milltown (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I was writing yesterday about the scandals surrounding the marriage of George Townshend, 3rd Marquess Townshend, and how, without legislative parliamentary intervention, Tamworth Castle and his family titles almost passed to the illegitimate children of his estranged wife and her bigamous partner.

But at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, a tangled family tree saw one of the great Irish country houses, Russborough in Co Wicklow, and its great collection of art pass out of the hands of the Leeson family, and the rightful heirs to the title of Earl of Milltown pass into obscurity.

The Leeson family fortune was made by Joseph Leeson, a Dublin brewer who owned a brewery behind his house on Saint Stephen’s Green and engaged in property speculation.

His son, Joseph Leeson (1711-1783) travelled on grand tours of Europe in 1744 and again in 1750, amassing on his travels a large art collection of paintings, sculpture, furniture, and antiques which would later furnish Russborough House, near Blessington, Co Wicklow.

Joseph Leeson became Baron Russborough of Russborough (1756), Viscount Russborough (1760) and Earl of Milltown (1763).

His titles passed in succession to his sons, Joseph Leeson (1730-1801), as second earl, and Brice Leeson (1735-1807) as third earl, and then to Brice’s grandson, yet another Joseph Leeson (1799-1866), as the fourth earl.

The fourth earl’s three sons then inherited Russborough and the titles one after another: Joseph Leeson (1829-1871), fifth earl, Edward Leeson (1835-1890), sixth earl, and Henry Leeson (1837-1891), seventh earl.

Henry Leeson (1837-1891), 7th Earl of Milltown, a Dublin barrister, was Vice-Chamberlain of Ireland (1859-1862) and Chamberlain to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1862-1874). He never married, and he had only lived at Russborough for ten months when he died on 24 March 1891.

None of these three brothers had any children, and the sixth earl’s widow, the former Lady Geraldine Stanhope, continued to live at Russborough until she died in 1914. While she lived on at Russborough, a series of wrangles and claims to the family titles followed, one after another.

The coat-of-arms of the Earls of Milltown in frosted glass in Russborough House (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The first claimant to the title was John Leeson (1827-1905), a railway official in India. He was a son of Major Joseph Leeson (1796-1847), a major in the East India Company and a grandson of Hon John Leeson (1767-1835), who in turn was the second son of the third earl.

John Leeson, the claimant to the title of 8th Earl of Milltown in 1891, was married twice in India, and was the father of two daughters, who lived in the Punjab. For some reason, however, John Leeson never legally pursued his claims to the titles. He had no sons, and his younger brother, Henry Corbett Leeson, had already died on 29 September 1887. So, when John Leeson died on 25 January 1905, the claims to the Milltown title ought to have passed to his nephew, Henry Leeson’s son. However, Henry’s son was never traced in India and he remains unnamed in the family trees produced by genealogists.

Questions were raised about the validity and legality of marriages in India, and how to prove these legally. But part of the problem may have been created by a Victorian form of prejudice and racism unwilling to accept what were known as ‘Anglo-Indian’ families.

Instead, the claims to title of Earl of Milltown were assumed by John Leeson’s second cousin, Robert William Frederick Leeson (1842-1906). This Robert Leeson was a son of the Revd Joseph Leeson (1813-1850), who was born in Dublin and became Vicar of Fishlake, Yorkshire, and Chaplain to Lord Cloncurry, and a grandson of Captain the Hon Robert Leeson (1772-1842), third son of the third Earl of Milltown.

Robert Leeson was seven when his father the vicar died. His claims were difficult to pursue because he could never prove a negative: that Henry Corbett Leeson had no legitimate male descendants who stood between him and inheriting the titles.

Robert never married, and although he had two sisters, he had no brothers to continue claiming the family titles. He died at the age of 62 on 19 June 1906 of tubercular disease after a fall while attempting to board a tramcar.

Since then, no further claimants to the Milltown titles came forward. Yet it is possible that there are many living descendants in the male line of the Hon Robert Leeson (1773-1850), who was the fourth son of the first Earl of Milltown.

His many male children and descendants included Sir William Edward Leeson (1801-1885), Genealogist of the Order of Saint Patrick. So, undoubtedly, there are probably many male descendants of the Leeson family living today who are potential or prospective claimants to the title of Earl of Milltown. The title, therefore, should be regarded as being dormant rather than extinct.

Meanwhile, the Milltown collection of art in Russborough eventually came into the hands of the National Gallery of Ireland originated from Russborough house, Blessington, Co Wicklow. Designed by Richard Castle, Russborough, was built for Joseph Leeson (1711-1783), the first Earl of Milltown, in 1763.

In 1897, the widowed Lady Milltown, still in her mid-50s, wrote to Sir Walter Armstrong, then director of the National Gallery of Ireland, to offer the Milltown collection at Russborough to the gallery in memory of her late husband. The offer was accepted and an extension, completed in 1903, was built to house the collection.

However, Lady Milltown and Armstrong argued over his attribution to Pater of works from the collection which she believed to be by Watteau. A long delay ensued before the collection was delivered to the gallery in March 1906.

Further confusion and ill-feeling were created by the number of varying schedules or inventories that were created from the initial offer that Armstrong had approved by Sir Walter Armstron, to the delivery to the gallery of a much large volume of paintings and artefacts in 1906.

Lady Milltown was not satisfied with the arrangements made by the gallery board to house the collection and corresponded with them, through her solicitors, detailing her complaints and demands for changes.

Lady Milltown was convinced the gallery had not honoured the terms of the agreement. The correspondence continued until late 1913, and the matter remained unresolved when she died on 5 January 1914.

Later that year, however, the board of the gallery approved a loan of paintings, furniture, and other works from the Milltown Collection to Sir Edmund Turton (1857-1929), a Tory MP and a nephew of the fifth, sixth and seventh earls, who was then living at Russborough House. The loan from the Milltown collection to Turton would cause much confusion in the years that followed. The Turton loan continued until 1929 when Turton’s widow contacted the gallery about the condition of some of the paintings.

It became evident that there was no exact inventory of the loan. In December 1929, Thomas Bodkin, the director of the gallery, wrote to Lady Turton: ‘I have been trying … to reconcile the scattered and somewhat formless inventories which we possess of the pictures, furniture, and other articles which the board of the National Gallery lent to your husband.’

Efforts to establish a definite inventory and to assist Lady Turton in returning some of the loan continued until 1931 when Russborough House was sold to Captain Daly. The balance of the Turton loan was finally returned by Captain Daly in 1934, with the exception of paintings by George Barrett that were to remain on loan at Russborough.

Russborough was later bought by the Beit family, the Milltown collection remained the property of the National Gallery of Ireland, and no-one came forward to secure a provable claim to the title of Earl of Milltown.

The Library in Russborough House, near Blessington, Co Wickow, with one of the three stucco ceilings in the house by the Lafranchini brothers (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Winter begins to close in on the mountains and the valleys

Winter skies near Blessington, Co Wicklow, this evening (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

Autumn has turned to winter, and it was a cold and frosty morning this morning, with temperatures hovering between 0 and 2 as I left the house for Christ Church Cathedral.

I was the deacon at the Cathedral Eucharist this morning, reading the Gospel (Luke 23: 33-43) and assisting at the administration of the Holy Communion.

Today, the Sunday before Advent (20 November 2016) marks the Feast of the Kingship of Christ. The Dean of Christ Church, the Very Revd Dermot Dunne, presided at the Eucharist, and the setting was the Mass in G by Franz Schubert (1797–1828), sung by the Cathedral Choir.

Later, four of us went to lunch in Mykonos, the Greek taverna nearby in Dame Street. But by early afternoon, it was obvious that darkness was soon going to close in, and two of us decided to travel up into the Dublin and Wicklow Mountains for a brisk walk in the sharp early winter weather in the Glenasmole Valley.

The Glenasmole Valley is home to the Bohernabreena reservoir and waterworks and is managed by Dublin City Council. The reservoirs supply water to about 35,000 households in the southern central part of Dublin city.

Glenasmole is about 5 km from Tallaght. The Glenasmole valley is a designated Special Area of Conservation and has several different habitats, some of which are listed under the EU habitats directive.

Glenasmole was formed during the ice age by a glacier and consists of two valleys. The higher valley was shaped by upland and lowland glaciations. The lower valley is more deep and narrow.

The Glenasmole Valley features in Irish mythology and the many stories and legends about Oisin, Fionn and the Fianna.

The Bohernabreena Waterworks, stretching from Bohernabreena to Casltekelly, were built in 1883-1887 and work began on the reservoirs in the 1880s to serve three objectives: flood control, a supply of drinking water and water to the mill owners in south Co Dublin.

There are two reservoirs. The upper lake with cleaner water from the lower, non-peaty slopes of the mountains provides drinking water; the lower lake contains peaty water from the upper slopes the supplied the numerous mills down the Dodder.

The stone-faced channel that runs parallel to the upper lake brings water directly to the lower lake. The water is then brought to Ballyboden, 7.5 km away, for treatment.

Over 100 years ago, the two lakes were quite bare around the edges. Now, with a mixture of planting and natural colonisation, there is a mixture of larch, Scots pine, Corsican pine, Douglas fir, hazel, birch, ash and sycamore.

Recent proposals by the National Assets Management Agency to sell of much of the Glenasmole Valley has upset many people who enjoy outdoor walks in this part of the Dublin and Wicklow mountains and threatens proposals for the development and expansion of the Wicklow Mountains National Park.

This park has been developed carefully and strategically over the past 20 years and is one of the great conservation stories in Ireland. The aim is to eventually have a national park of 75,000 acres, but NAMA is planning to sell the 5,000 acres of land it holds and that make up a key element of the planned park.

The sale was proposed by NAMA even though this is a Special Area of Conservation and is of minimal commercial value.

Dusk turns to darkness in the Glenasmole Valley this evening (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

As dusk turned to darkness, we drove on from Glenasmole to Blessington in West Wicklow. Because I was working in London on Thursday and Friday, I had missed the light snow that fell in this part of Ireland at the end of last week. There was still some snow covering the peaks of the higher mountains, but the sky was clear and the temperatures were dropping as the winter darkness enveloped the mountains and the valleys, and the clear, dark blue skies, with some reflections of the long-set sun, gave a deep and colourful background to the bare trees.

The Collect of the Day:

Eternal Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven
that he might rule over all things as Lord and King:
Keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit
and in the bond of peace,
and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The kidnapped schoolboy who inspired novels is still remembered in Bunclody

James Annesley (1715-1760) … the schoolboy from Co Wexford whose story inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Kidnapped’

Patrick Comerford

Two recent visits to Bunclody and Camolin, Co Wexford, brought back memories of a story I first told over 35 years ago. The tale of James Annesley, the kidnapped heir, and his wicked uncle, Richard Annesley, is a story told in many families with roots in Bunclody. I first heard this story when I was a child, and I first wrote about it in a feature on the River Slaney in The Irish Times [27 July 1980].

It is a story of attempted murders, bigamous marriages, a penniless heir who became a street urchin, the kidnap of a former Bunclody schoolboy, slavery in America, suspicious killings, a punch-up at the races, and protracted court cases.

Francis Annesley (1585-1660), MP for Lismore, Co Waterford, was one of the 11 proprietors in a plan for the Plantation of Wexford

This story is more gripping than the novels it inspired, and it begins in the early 17th century, with Francis Annesley (1585-1660), who was once MP for Lismore, Co Waterford. He received large grants of land and was one of the 11 proprietors in a plan for the Plantation of Wexford.

Although the Plantation of Wexford never developed, the Annesley family became wealthy landowners. Francis received the titles of Baron Mountnorris (1629) and Viscount Valentia (1642), and the Annesley estates stretched into every province. In Co Wexford, they included the Manor of Annesley, later Camolin Park, and Castle Annesley, near Kilmuckridge.

Complicated family tree

Arthur Annesley (1614-1686) became Earl of Anglesey in 1661 and one of the richest landowners in Co Wexford

After the restoration of Charles II, Francis Annesley’s estates in Co Wexford passed to his eldest son, Arthur Annesley (1614-1686), who became Earl of Anglesey in 1661. In Dublin, he acquired land between his town house in College Green and the River Liffey, and this was later developed as Anglesea Street. He had a large family of 13 children, and in the generations that followed, his estates and titles passed through a complicated line of descent that is often difficult to unravel.

Anglesea Street is named after the first Earl of Anglesey was once the financial heart of Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

His eldest son, James Annesley (1645-1690), was MP for Co Waterford (1666) before inheriting the titles and estates, including Camolin, in 1686. His eldest son, also James Annesley (1674-1702), became the second earl in 1690 and inherited Camolin when he came of age in 1695. In Westminster Abbey in 1699, he married Lady Catherine Darnley, an illegitimate daughter of King James II. But they separated two years later when she accused him of cruelty and trying to murder her.

Camolin Park House, at the heart of the Annesley estates in Co Wexford, was demolished in the last century (Photograph: collection Tommy Redmond/Dan Walsh)

In 1702, Camolin and the titles passed to James’s next brother, John Annesley (1676-1710), 4th Earl of Anglesey. By 1703, he was one of the largest landowners in Co Wexford, with over 24,000 acres in Camolin, Ferns, Bunclody and elsewhere. But John had no sons, and Camolin and the titles passed to his next brother, Arthur Annesley (1677-1737). Arthur had been MP for New Ross in Ireland and for Cambridge University in England at the same time, and later became Governor of Co Wexford (1727).

Castle Annesley, near Kilmuckridge, Co Wexford, is now in ruins (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

However, the Annesley estates in Bunclody and Carrickduff had passed earlier to his late uncle, Altham Annesley (1650-1699), who became Lord Altham in 1681. Lord Altham’s widow Ursula held onto the Bunclody estates when he died in 1699, and eventually, through a complicated line of succession, his younger brother, the Very Revd Richard Annesley (1655-1701), became third Lord Altham.

But Richard never inherited the Bunclody estates and never sat in the House of Lords. In the Church of England, he was a canon of Westminster Abbey (1679) and Dean of Exeter Cathedral (1681), and when he died in 1701 he was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Rake and gambler

Dunmain House, near Gusserane, Co Wexford, where James Annesley was born in 1715

Dean Annesley’s eldest son, Arthur Annesley (1686-1727), became fourth Lord Altham, when he was only 15 and already a rake and a gambler. By the age of 18, he was married and widowed, and in 1707 he married his second wife, Mary Sheffield, an illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Buckingham.

Arthur lived a dissolute life and squandered his inheritance. He moved to Ireland in 1710 because of the lower cost of living and rented Dunmain House, near Gusserane, south-east of New Ross, from Margaret Pigott Colclough. Arthur and Mary separated briefly, but they were reconciled in 1713, and on 15 April 1715 Mary gave birth in Dunmain House to a son and heir, James Annesley. When the child was baptised in the house, Mrs Colclough was one of his godparents.

Two years later, Lord Altham accused Mary of having an affair with a neighbour, Thomas Palliser, and in a scuffle Altham’s servant struck off Palliser’s earlobe. But it was a charade staged by Altham so he could turn Mary out of house and home. She stayed briefly in New Ross before she fled to England, where she lived in extreme poverty until her death in 1729.

Arthur’s debts continued to mount, but he was unable to get his hands on the family estates. Some had passed to a distant cousin, others were tied up in family trusts, and in November 1719 his widowed aunt, Ursula Lady Altham, leased for ever to James Barry 10,000 acres in Co Carlow and in the Barony of Scarawalsh, Co Wexford, for “£4,000 and 20 broad pieces of gold.” The estates formed present-day Bunclody and Carrickduff, and the Maxwell-Barry family named the town Newtownbarry.

James Annesley spent part of his childhood in Bunclody and went to school there (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Murder and kidnapping

The wandering heir … a Victorian illustration of Lord Altham’s heir James Annesley wandering the streets of Bunclody or Dublin

In 1720, Arthur moved to Carrickduff, on the Carlow side of Bunclody, with his new mistress, Sally Gregory, and sent his young son James to a school run by James Dempsey in Bunclody. In 1722, they moved from Carrickduff to Dublin, but Sally took a dislike to James, and the boy was thrown out of the house and left to roam the streets. He briefly attended a school run by Barnaby Dunn in Werburgh Street, but fended for himself, running errands for students at Trinity College Dublin, and found shelter in the home of John Purcell, a butcher, on Arran Quay.

In Dublin, James Annesley briefly attended a school in Werburgh Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Lord Altham died suddenly in Inchicore on 16 November 1727. Sally Gregory and Arthur’s younger brother Richard were both suspected of poisoning him, but there was no autopsy and no investigations, and Arthur was buried in the crypt of Christ Church Cathedral two nights later at public expense.

Arthur Annesley was buried at night in the crypt in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, after his suspicious death (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Young James was now the heir to his father’s titles and debt-encumbered estates. But he also stood in way of his avaricious and ambitious uncle, Richard Annesley (1693-1761), who was once tried as a highwayman and was known as the “greatest rogue in Europe.”

After his father’s death, James Annesley was kidnapped near Essex Bridge in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Richard arranged to have the boy kidnapped near Essex Bridge in Dublin, declared he was dead and assumed the title of Lord Altham. Ten years later, with the death of his childless cousin Arthur in 1737, Richard also assumed the Irish titles of 7th Baron Mountnorris and 7th Viscount Valentia, and the English titles of 6th Baron Annesley and 6th Earl of Anglesey, with seats in both Houses of Lords, and also became Governor of Co Wexford.

But his kidnapped nephew would return to challenge his claims and to question the legitimacy of his marriages.

After his kidnapping, James was sold as an indentured servant in 1728 on his uncle’s orders. After 12 years of virtual slavery in Delaware, he escaped in 1740 and made his way on foot to Philadelphia where he found passage on a merchant ship to Jamaica. There he enlisted as a midshipman on HMS Falmouth under Admiral Edward Vernon.

When he was discharged in 1741, James settled in England. There, while out shooting sparrows near Staines in 1742, he killed a poacher. During his trial, he told the court dramatically: “I claim to be Earl of Anglesey and a peer of this realm.” Last-minute testimony proved the shooting was accidental, and James returned to Ireland to claim his birthright.

In the ensuing court case, Richard Annesley claimed James was not the legitimate son of Mary Sheffield, but the illegitimate son of Joan ‘Juggy’ Landy. James, for his part, said Joan was his wetnurse, and witnesses said Joan’s own child had died at the age of 3 or 4.

The court ruled in favour of James in 1743. Now the family estates and titles were rightfully his, but Richard refused to give up the battle. James narrowly escaped an assassination attempt and then was beaten up by hired thugs at the Curragh Races. His uncle was convicted for these offences in Athy, Co Kildare, in 1744, but continued to call himself Lord Anglesey.

However, poverty prevented James from enforcing the court rulings, and he died in England at the age of 44 in 1760. He had married twice, but his only son, Bankes Annesley (1757-1764), died at the age of 7 before ever claiming his rights.

Bigamy in Camolin

Richard Annesley (1745-1824), former MP for Irishtown and Blessington, was a cousin and near contemporary of the scheming Richard Annesley

Meanwhile, the de facto Lord Anglesey continued to enjoy his estates and his titles until he died at Camolin Park on 14 February 1761. However, legal doubts surrounded the legitimacy of his own children and their rights to succeed to his titles and properties. A serial bigamist, he had married at least four women, including Ann Prust (1715), Ann Simpson (1715), Juliana Donovan (1741 or 1752), the daughter of a Camolin publican or a Wexford merchant – depending on the rumours of the day – and Anne Salkeld (1742).

The cases depended on whether a marriage certificate dated 1741 was made out in 1752 and backdated on purpose. In 1765, the Irish courts ruled that Arthur Annesley (1744-1816), the only son of Richard and Juliana, was legitimate and he inherited Camolin and his father’s Irish titles as 8th Viscount Valentia. But in 1771, the English courts denied his legitimacy. Unable to claim his father’s English peerages, Arthur still became Governor of Co Wexford (1776-1778) and was given the Irish title of Earl of Mountnorris in 1793.

Annesley Bridge in Dublin is named after the other Richard Annesley (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

His was a near-contemporary of his namesake and second cousin, Richard Annesley (1745-1824), former MP for Irishtown, Kilkenny, and Blessington, Co Wicklow, who gave his name to Annesley Bridge in Dublin and became 2nd Earl Annesley in 1802.

Lady Lucy’s Wood … a lingering memory of the Annesley family in Bunclody (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Meanwhile, the Annesley connection with Newtownbarry or Bunclody was revived in 1789 when Lady Juliana Lucy Annesley (1772-1833), daughter of Arthur and granddaughter of the wicked uncle Richard, married Colonel John Maxwell-Barry (1767-1838), later 5th Lord Farnham, in 1823. His father, Bishop Henry Maxwell, built Saint Mary’s Church in Bunclody.

Lady Lucy’s Seat in Bunclody was named after her, the Millrace Hotel is built on the site of Lady Lucy’s Wood, and the rooftop restaurant is known as Lady Lucy’s Restaurant.

The story that scandalised polite society in the 18th century inspired Sir Walter Scott’s Guy Mannering (1815) and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped (1886). A more recent racy account was published in America by Roger Ekirch, Birthright – The Story that Inspired Kidnapped (2010).

Dunmain House remains a private family home. The Annesley family sold Camolin Park in 1852, the house was demolished in the 20th century, and Camolin Park is now a national forest.

Camolin Park is now a national forest park (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Canon Patrick Comerford lectures in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. This feature was published in the ‘Church Review’ (Dublin and Glendalough) in February 2016.

A tour of Russborough House in the rain to delight historians of art and architecture

The Library in Russborough House, near Blessington, Co Wickow, with one of the three stucco ceilings in the house by the Lafranchini brothers (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

Patrick Comerford

What do you do on a rainy summer afternoon?

I was in Saint John’s Church, Sandymount, this morning, presiding at the Sung Eucharist and preaching.

But it had been raining all morning, and when I left at early lunchtime there was no sign of the downpour easing.

A walk on the beach was certainly out of the question, and so instead two of us headed back through Knocklyon, and then out through Bohernabreena and Blessington to spend an afternoon in Russborough House on the edge of the Wicklow Mountains.

I had been to Russborough earlier last year, on another rainy afternoon, and had a double espresso during that visit, but I had never been on a tour of the house.

Russborough House, near Blessington, Co Wicklow, on a wet August afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

Russborough is one of Ireland’s truly great houses. It was built in the 1740s by Richard Castle for Joseph Leeson, a wealthy Dublin brewer. As Castle’s masterpiece it represents one of the most architecturally significant neo-Palladian buildings in Ireland.

Leeson, who later became 1st Earl of Milltown, embarked on two extensive Grand Tours to Italy, commissioning and acquiring paintings in Florence, classical statues, and splendid rococo gilt furniture, to adorn the house and to complement its decoration.

Much of the stucco ceiling work in Russborough House may be the work of the Lafranchini brothers (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

Much of the plaster work is attributed, without certainly by the great Swiss-Italian stuccodores, the Lafranchini brothers Paolo and Filippo. They were among the earliest and great stucco artists in Ireland, and their work in Russborough includes the ceilings of the library, saloon and music room.

Russborough was home to a curious cast of characters from Joseph Leeson, the idiot 2nd Earl of Milltown, to Joseph Leeson, the dysfunctional 4th earl, who spent almost the entire family fortune at the racetrack, and his formidable wife. Their son eloped with a farm girl.

The coat-of-arms of the Earls of Milltown in frosted glass in Russborough House (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

The Earls of Milltown remained at Russborough until the early 20th century when the last countess donated its contents to the National Gallery of Ireland. The house passed to a nephew of the 4th Earl of Milltown, Sir Edmund Russborough Turton, whose widow later sold the house and estate to Colonel Denis Daly.

In 1952, Russborough was bought by Sir Alfred Beit, whose family made its fortune in the gold and diamond mines of South Africa, and Lady Beit. They brought with them their internationally acclaimed art collection, including works by artists such as Murillo, Vermeer and Velázquez.

Several well publicised robberies in the 1970s and 1990s did not deter the Beits from two public generous bequests to the people of Ireland. They donated major works of art to the National Gallery of Ireland, while the house and its collection were passed to the Alfred Beit Foundation.

Our tour began in the Dining Room, with its Italianate mantelpiece decorated with a mask of Bacchus supported by the vine. The dining table was made in the 1930s and the mirror dates from the reign of George II.

We then moved on the entrance hall. While all the other rooms on view have covered ceilings that bring down the cornice and frieze by two or three feet, the hall is rectangular and gives the impression of greater height than the other rooms. In fact, they are all have a uniform height of 20 ft.

The two niches on either side of the Kilkenny black limestone fireplace contain 18th century French stone busts of an unknown lady and gentleman by Pajou (1730-1809). In the two niches on the north wall are busts of Sir Alfred and Lady Beit. The glass chandelier, which forms a pair with the chandelier in the saloon, is by Perry of London (ca 1820).

There are two paintings by the Genoese artist Alessandro Magnasco (1681-1747), one depicting Saint Augustine and his vision of the Christ Child, and the other Saint Francis of Assisi preaching to the birds and the fish.

The Drawing Room in Russborough House has fine plaster mouldings made to display Vernet’s marine paintings (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

The Drawing Room was probably completed in the mid-1750s, after the rest of the house was finished and after the death of Richard Castle in 1751 to accommodate four marine scenes by Joseph Vernet. The pictures represent morning, afternoon, evening and night. The fine wall plaster mouldings were made to receive them in their present frames, which are the original ones.

The ceiling is the work of an anonymous stucco artist known as the Saint Petersburg Stuccodore.

But the main focus in the room is a copy of The Triumph of David by Guercino – Leeson may have seen the original in Rome in the Galleria Colonna.

The barrel-vaulted ceiling in the Tapestry Room (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

The Tapestry Room has a barrel vaulted ceiling. It is an unusual choice of room to display a state bed made for Richard Arkwright, the inventor of the Spinning Jenny. The Soho Tapestry, dating from around 1720, represents Mogul characters and fantasies. The mantelpiece shows Aesop’s fable of the dog and the bone: a dog carrying a bone was crossing a stream and saw a much larger bone reflected in the water; to get it, he dropped his bone in the water and of course ended up without either.

Aesop’s greedy dog with a bone in the Tapestry Room )Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

This room once displayed The Moorish Kitchen Maid and Christ at Emmaus, both by Velasquez. Today, the main painting in the room is a portrait of an unknown female sitter by the French artist Andre Derain, and few visitors probably notice the signed Picasso in the corner.

Looking out on the rain from the Music Room in Russborough House (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

The Music Room also has a ceiling by the Lafranchini Brothers, but is very different from the others with a more geometrical form that has the effect of a sounding board. The pianos, one Steinway and one Bluthner, are encased in matching inlaid rosewood.

Androcles and the Lion … the mantelpiece in the Saloon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

The Saloon is the largest room in the house. It too has a superb plaster ceiling by the Lafranchini brothers, decorated with of putti or angels. The chandelier is a pair to the one in the front hall.

The mantelpiece, probably by Thomas Carter of London, represents the story of Androcles and the Lion, flanked by Homer and Plato. The room also has a portrait of Thomas Conolly of Castletown House by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

The Library has another of the three stucco ceilings by the Lafranchini brothers. This room, which is probably my favourite room in the house, once displayed Goya’s portrait of Dona Antonia Zarate, a Spanish actress who had the distinction of being painted twice by Goya – the other portrait is in the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg.

The stucco plasterwork in the Staircase Hall appears to be the work of Irish apprentices and pupils (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

The plasterwork in the Staircase Hall is probably by Irish apprentices and pupils. Mixed with garlands are the masks of hounds and other trophies of the chase, and in a rectangular plaster frame on the left of the door from the front hall is a caricature of the 1st EarI of Milltown.

The domed oval lantern upstairs in Russborough House (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

Upstairs, we saw the domed oval lantern and visited some of the bedrooms, with their spectacular views of the parkland, the Blessington lakes and the Wicklow Mountains. Indeed, these views were one of Leeson’s reasons for choosing this location for building his house.

We visited the basement before finishing our visit with a late lunch in the Tea Rooms – including the requisite doubles espressos. As we were leaving we also visited the Hippodrome, a former riding school restored by the Beits.

The Hippodrome or former riding school was restored by the Beits (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

It was a guided tours to excite and inspire historians and lovers of art and architecture, from the beauty of the Lafranchini ceilings to the collection of art, furnishings and ornaments.

There are guided tours of the house every hour, on the hour, from May to September, and on Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays in April and October.

The view of the Co Wicklow countryside inspired Joseph Leeson’s choice of site for his new Palladian mansion near Blessington, Co Wicklow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

Even the glamorous and famous need love and crave approval

The exhibition on Marilyn Monroe runs for a week in Newbridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Patrick Comerford

I was badly in need of a B12 injection this week, and the foggy, misty morning have been playing silly games with my lungs and my symptoms of sarcoidosis. I expected to have to queue a long time at my GPs after leaving work late yesterday evening, but to my delight I was seen quickly, and hope the injection takes effect soon.

Late this morning, two of us drove along the shores of the lakes at Blessington and Poulaphouca in West Wicklow and north Kildare. I had never been in Pulaphouca House beside the reservoir, and thought it might be an interesting place for lunch.

But by the time we arrived in seemed to be closed, and so we continued to drive along the shoreline, with the promise of a return visit.

The lakes and the reservoir were formed between 1937 and 1947 by damming the River Liffey at Poulaphouca as part of the Electricity Supply Board’s project to build a second Irish hydroelectric station, following the building of Ardnacrusha on the River Shannon.The reservoir is one of two major sources of Dublin’s water supply, the other is the Vartry Reservoir in east Wicklow.

Between 1938 and 1940, 76 houses were demolished, and the bridges at Humphreystown, Baltyboys and Burgage blown up, in anticipation of the flooding of the valley for the Poulaphouca hydroelectric power station.

We returned back by Russborough House to Blessington, and then decided to turn down to Naas and to continue on to Newbridge, Co Kildare, where we had lunch in Silver Restaurant before visiting the Museum of Style Icons in the Newbridge Silverware Visitor Centre.

A first visit to the Newbridge Silverware Visitor Centre (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

I have little or no interest in style, fashion or jewellery, but Ryan Tubridy had been talking on his show this morning about the latest exhibition on Marilyn Monroe, and this is certainly the sort of museum I have never visited before.

I was surprised to learn that the Museum of Style Icons is now rated as one of the top five free tourist attractions in Ireland. The museum regularly hosts visiting collections from around the world and hosts numerous collections and artefacts relating to the lives of the Stars of the Silver Screen and many modern day artists.

They include Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Princess Grace, Maureen O’Hara, Ava Gardner, Jayne Mansfield, Princess Diana, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson, Michael Flatley, the Beatles, Bob Dylan and many more.

A postcard to Audrey Hepburn’s father in Dublin from his grandson in Switzerland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

I never knew that Audrey Hepburn’s father once lived in Merrion Square Dublin; I had forgotten how young Princess Diana was when she married; and I wondered in an idle but humorous moment why the items relating to Elizabeth Taylor were nor exhibited beside those from Michael Jackson.

‘The Lost Archives of Marilyn Monroe’ is an exhibition for one week only in Newbridge. The exhibition began today (21 November) and continues until next Friday (28 November).

This is the only European exhibition of the items before they are auctioned in Hollywood on 5 and 6 December. The exhibit includes a selection of love letters sent to her and that were found under her bed after she died.

The exhibition includes tender, sensitive and moving love letters exchanged by Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

The collection is a remarkable look into the private life of Marilyn Monroe and features many personal items never before seen by the public. This collection was originally given to her mentor and coach Lee Strasberg who later were given as gifts to a friend. They include love letters, photographs and personal items, and these mementos offer a rare glimpse into her private life.

The collection was stored away until recently and includes love letters written to Marilyn Monroe from her third husband Arthur Miller. These sensitive and moving love letters, written during their courtship and marriage, are personal, emotional and captivating, and in these letters Arthur Miller expresses his love and encourages a despairing Marilyn Monroe.

It was a step back in time, but also a reminder of how even the glamorous and famous need love and crave approval.