[Illustration: MALAHIDE CASTLE, COUNTY OF DUBLIN.]
An ancient baronial castle, in good preservation and still inhabited by
the lineal descendant of its original founder, is a rare object to find
in Ireland; and the causes which have led to this circumstance are too
obvious to require an explanation. In Malahide Castle we have, however,
a highly interesting example of this kind; for though in its present
state it owes much of its imposing effect to modern restorations and
improvements, it still retains a considerable portion of very ancient
date, and most probably even some parts of the original castle erected
in the reign of King Henry II. Considered in this way, Malahide Castle
is without a rival in interest, not only in our metropolitan county, but
also perhaps within the boundary of the old English pale.
The Castle of Malahide is placed on a gently elevated situation on
a limestone rock near the village or town from which it derives its
name, and of which, with its picturesque bay, it commands a beautiful
prospect. In its general form it is quadrangular and nearly approaching
to a square, flanked on its south or principal front by circular towers,
with a fine “Gothic” entrance porch in the centre. Its proportions are
of considerable grandeur, and its picturesqueness is greatly heightened
by the masses of luxuriant ivy which mantle its walls. For much of its
present architectural magnificence it is however indebted to its present
proprietor, and his father, the late Colonel Talbot. The structure, as
it appeared in the commencement of the last century, was of contracted
dimensions, and had wholly lost its original castellated character,
though its ancient moat still remained. This moat is however now filled
up, and its sloping surface is converted into a green-sward, and planted
with Italian cypresses and other evergreens.
Interesting, however, as this ancient mansion is in its exterior
appearance, it is perhaps still more so in its interior features. Its
spacious hall, roofed with timber-work of oak, is of considerable
antiquity; but its attraction is eclipsed by another apartment of
equal age and vastly superior beauty, with which indeed in its way
there is nothing, as far as we know, to be compared in Ireland. This
unique apartment is wainscotted throughout with oak elaborately carved,
in compartments, with subjects derived from scripture history, and
though Gothic in their general character, some of them are executed
with considerable skill; while the chimney-piece, which exhibits in
its central division figures of the Virgin and Child, is carved with a
singular degree of elegance and beauty. The whole is richly varnished,
and from the blackness of tint which the wood has acquired from time, the
apartment, as Mr Brewer well observes, assumes the resemblance of one
vast cabinet of ebony.
The other apartments, of which there are ten on each floor, are of
inferior architectural pretensions, though some of them are of lofty
and spacious proportions. But they are not without attractions of a
high order, being enriched with some costly specimens of porcelain, and
their walls covered with the more valuable ornaments of a collection of
original portraits and paintings by the old masters. Among the former
the most remarkable are portraits of Charles I. and Queen Henrietta
Maria, by Vandyke; James II. and his queen, Anne Hyde, by Sir Peter Lely;
Queen Anne, by Sir Godfrey Kneller; the Duchess of Portsmouth, mistress
to Charles II.; the first Duke of Richmond (son of the above duchess)
when a child; Richard Talbot, the celebrated Duke of Tirconnel, Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland, general and minister to James II., by Sir Peter
Lely; the Ladies Catherine and Charlotte Talbot, daughters of the duke,
by Sir P. Lely; with many other portraits of illustrious members of the
Talbot family. The portraits of the Duchess of Portsmouth and her son
were presented by herself to Mrs Wogan of Rathcoffy, from whom they were
inherited by Colonel Talbot.
Among the pictures of more general interest, the most distinguished is
a small altar piece divided into compartments, and representing the
Nativity, Adoration, and Circumcision. This most valuable and interesting
picture is the work of Albert Durer, and is said to have belonged to the
unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots. It was purchased by Charles II. for
£2000, and was given by him to the Duchess of Portsmouth, who presented
it to the grandmother of the late Col. Talbot.
As already observed, the noble family of Talbot have been seated in their
present locality for a period of nearly seven hundred years! According to
the pedigree of the family, drawn up with every appearance of accuracy
by Sir William Betham, Richard Talbot, the second son of Richard Talbot,
Lord of Eccleswell and Linton, in Herefordshire, who was living in 1153,
having accompanied King Henry II. into Ireland, obtained from that
monarch the lordship of Malahide, being part of the two cantreds of
Leinster, in the neighbourhood of Dublin, which King Henry had reserved,
when he granted the rest of the province to Richard Earl of Strongbow,
to be held as a noble fief of the crown of England. It is at all events
certain, as appears from the chartulary or register of Mary’s Abbey, now
in the British Museum, that this Richard Talbot granted to St Mary’s
Abbey in Dublin certain lands called Venenbristen, which lie between
Croscurry and the lands of Hamon Mac Kirkyl, in pure and perpetual alms,
that the monks there might pray for the health of his soul and that of
his brother Roger, and their ancestors; and that he also leased certain
lands in Malahide and Portmarnoc to the monks of the same abbey. From
this Richard Talbot the present Lord Talbot de Malahide descends in the
twentieth generation, and in the twenty-fourth from Richard Talbot, a
Norman baron who held Hereford Castle in the time of the Conqueror. The
noble Earls of Shrewsbury and Talbot are of the same stock, but descend
from Gilbert, the elder brother of Richard, who was Lord of Eccleswell
and Linton, and was living in 1190.
There can be no question, therefore, of the noble origin of the Talbots
de Malahide, nor can their title be considered as a mushroom one,
though only conferred upon the mother of the present lord; for Sir
William Betham shows that his ancestor, Thomas Talbot, knight and lord
of Malahide, who had livery of his estate in 1349, was summoned by the
sheriff of Dublin to the Magnum Concilium, or Great Council, held in
Dublin in 1372, 46 Edward III., and again to the Magnum Concilium held
on Saturday, in the vigils of the holy Trinity, 48 Edward III., 1374,
by special writ directed to himself by the name of “_Thome Talbot,
Militis_.” He was also summoned by writ to the Parliament of Ireland in
the same year. If therefore it could be ascertained that this Thomas
Talbot actually took his seat under that writ, it would be clear that his
lineal heir-male and heir-general, the present baron, has a just claim to
the honours and dignity which he has so recently acquired.
The manor of Malahide was created by charter as early as the reign of
King Henry II., and its privileges were confirmed and enlarged by King
Edward IV. in 1475. This, we believe, still remains in the possession
of the chief of the family, but various other extensive possessions of
his ancestors passed to junior branches of his house, and have been long
alienated from his family.
Among the most memorable circumstances of general interest connected
with the history of this castle and its possessors, should be mentioned
what Mr Brewer properly calls “a lamentable instance of the ferocity
with which quarrels of party rivalry were conducted in ages during which
the internal polity of Ireland was injuriously neglected by the supreme
head of government:--On Whitsun-eve, in the year 1329, as is recorded by
Ware, John de Birmingham, Earl of Louth, Richard Talbot, styled Lord of
Malahide, and many of their kindred, together with sixty of their English
followers, were slain in a pitched battle at Balbriggan [Ballybragan] in
this neighbourhood, by the Anglo-Norman faction of the De Verdons, De
Gernons, and Savages: the cause of animosity being the election of the
earl to the palatinate dignity of Louth, the county of the latter party.”
At a later period the Talbots of Malahide had a narrow escape from a
calamity nearly as bad as death itself--the total loss of their rank
and possessions. Involved of necessity by their political and religious
principles in the troubles of the middle of the seventeenth century,
they could hardly have escaped the persecution of the party assuming
government in the name of the parliament. John Talbot of Malahide having
been indicted and outlawed for acting in the Irish rebellion, his castle,
with five hundred acres of arable land, was granted by lease, dated 21st
December 1653, for seven years, to the regicide Miles Corbet, who resided
here for several years after, till, being himself outlawed in turn at
the period of the Restoration, he took shipping from its port for the
continent. More fortunate, however, than the representatives of most
other families implicated in the events of this unhappy period, Mr Talbot
was by the act of explanation in 1665 restored to all his lands and
estates in the county of Dublin, as he had held the same in 1641, only
subject to quit rents. It is said that during the occupation of Malahide
by Corbet it became for a short time the abode of Cromwell himself; but
this statement, we believe, only rests on popular tradition--a chronicler
which has been too fond of making similar statements respecting Irish
castles generally, to merit attention and belief.
Our limits will not permit us on the present occasion to enter on any
description of the picturesque ruins of the ancient chapel and tombs
situated within the demesne, and immediately adjacent to the castle; and
we shall only add in conclusion, that the grounds of the demesne, though
of limited extent, and but little varied in elevation, are judiciously
laid out, and present among its plantations many scenes of dignified
character and beauty.