The various notices and inquiries at times in your publication
respecting this lady, including, as they do, some sceptical doubts of
her existence, induce me to trouble you with several particulars upon
this subject, of which I have at sundry times, according to the
admirable suggestion of your motto, "when found, made a note." Some of
them, derived from local antiquarian opportunities, will be new; of all
I shall endeavour to make an intelligible arrangement; and as the
subject will probably extend itself too much for a single article suited
to your pages, I propose to place it under these distinct headings:--Was
there an _old_ Countess of Desmond? Is there _really_ a portrait of her?
And, Who was she?
In reference to the first inquiry, I would observe that the _fact_ of
the existence of such a personage rests upon no modern or uncertain
tradition. This aged lady, according to an account I shall mention
presently, is supposed to have lived to the latter end of the reign of
James I. or beginning of that of Charles I.; and mention is made of her
by Sir Walter Raleigh, in his _History of the World_ (bk. i. p. i. c.
5.), as "personally known to him" as having been married in the reign of
Edward IV. (who died A.D. 1485); and who was living in 1589, and "many
years afterwards, as all the noblemen and gentlemen of Munster can
witness."
Lord Bacon, in his _Natural History_ (cent. viii. sect. 755.) refers to
her thus:
"They tell a tale of the old Countess of Desmond, who lived until
she was seven score years old; that she did _dentize_ twice or
thrice, casting her old teeth, and others coming in their place."
Horace Walpole, in his _Historic Doubts respecting Richard III._ (p.
102.), correcting the "misrepresentations regarding his person," says:
"The _old_ Countess of Desmond, who had danced with Richard,
declared he was the handsomest man in the room except his brother
Edward, and was very well made."
This last anecdote of Walpole's is taken from an account which I
certainly have _seen_ and read, but the name of the authority I cannot
now recollect, which stated that the Countess actually outlived the
"trust term for securing her jointure" (a period generally of
ninety-nine years from the date of marriage), "and was obliged in her
old age to appear in a court of justice to establish her rights; and
that it was _there_ and _then_ she delivered Walpole's anecdote to the
judge and audience." All these different yet concurring testimonies seem
satisfactorily to establish the fact that there _was_ a Countess of
Desmond "passing old."
Then, as to her celebrated _picture_, of which I have frequently seen
the original on _wood_, in possession of the "Right Hon. Maurice
Fitzgerald, Knight of Kerry," and have now a print before me, there are
some particulars and questions which may interest your readers.
The print (same size as the original) is a mezzo-tint, ten inches by
seven inches and a half, and has under it the following inscription:
"CATHERINE FITZGERALD (the long-lived) COUNTESS OF DESMOND, from
an original Family Picture of the same size, painted on Board, in
the possession of the Right Honorable Maurice Fitzgerald, Knight
of Kerry, &c. &c. &c., to whom this plate is most respectfully
dedicated by her very obedient and much obliged humble servant,
HENRY PELHAM.
"This illustrious lady was born about the year 1464, and was
married in the reign of Edward IV., lived during the reigns of
Edward V., Richard III., Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI.,
Mary, and Elizabeth, and died in the latter end of James I., or
beginning of Charles I.'s reign, at the great age (as is generally
supposed) of 162 years. Published as the Act directs, at Bear
Island, June 4, 1806. By Henry Pelham, Esq."
In this print the features are large and strongly marked; the forehead
and upper part of the nose deeply wrinkled, the head covered with a
large full black hood, showing no hair whatever about the face; the
person wrapped in a dark cloak, held by a single button over the breast.
As some of your correspondents speak of portraits of this lady at Knowle
(Vol. iii., p. 341.), Bedgebury, and Penshurst, it may be useful to
compare them with this description, for the following reason.
Horace Walpole, whose "mission" seems to have been to raise "Historic
Doubts," in a letter to Rev. Mr. Cole, dated May 28, 1774, has the
following sentence:
"Mr. Pennant has given a new edition of his former _Tour_, with
more cuts: among others is the _vulgar_ head called the Countess
of Desmond. I told him I had discovered, and proved past
contradiction, _that it is Rembrandt's mother_. He owned it, and
said he would correct it by a note: but he has not. _This is a
brave way of being an antiquary_: as if there could be any merit
in giving for genuine what one knows to be spurious."
This is a very _teasing_ passage. I have no copy of Pennant's _Tour_ by
me; nor do I recollect ever to have seen one with the print here
referred to. Probably some of your numerous correspondents will find
one, and inform us, whether the print in it resembles the description I
have given. It is not at all probable that Pennant's "cut" was copied
from the Knight of Kerry's picture: but _if_ it was copied from any of
those mentioned by your correspondents; and _if_ these be duplicates of
the Knight of Kerry's "family portrait;" and _if_ Horace Walpole's cruel
criticism on Mr. Pennant be correct--then have we all been _shamed with
a sham_. These are a considerable number of _ifs_, upon which this
conclusion depends; but in one thing Walpole is correct: "there is no
merit in giving for genuine what one knows to be spurious."
Of the Mr. Pelham who published the print I have described, there are
some particulars which may interest your readers. He will be found among
the correspondents of the late General Vallancey, whose interest in
Irish antiquities is well known. Mr. Pelham was an ingenious gentleman,
who came to Kerry in the end of the last century, in the character of
agent to the Marquis of Lansdowne; which engagement, after a few years,
he resigned, but continued in the county, a zealous studier of its
antiquities, and intending, as I have heard, either a new County History
or a reprint of Smith's work. He was a good civil engineer, and executed
a great part of a large county and baronial map, afterwards finished by
another hand. Mr. Pelham, who perished prematurely by sudden death, in
his boat, while superintending the building of a Martello tower on Bear
Island, in the River Kenmare, in the very year he published this print,
is said to have been an uncle by half-blood to the present Lord
Lyndhurst, whose grandmother, Sarah Singleton, is said to have married
to her second husband, ---- Pelham, an American--Henry Pelham being the
only issue of her second marriage, as John Singleton Copley, father to
the ex-chancellor, was of her first. In my next I propose to consider
the question, Who was the old Countess of Desmond?