The Heir of Kilfinnan, by W.H.G. Kingston.
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The book opens with our hero, Dermot O'Neil, out fishing in a small boat
that he usually went with his widowed mother in. The catch being good
he went up to the nearby castle, the abode of the Earl Kilfinnan, where
he easily sells his fish, and is asked to come back with more the next
day. Being a good-looking and well-mannered 12-year-old, he wins the
admiration of the Earl's daughter and her cousin, who offer to teach him
to read. When they go back to London they get the local Protestant
minister to take him on, much to the annoyance of Father O'Rourke, who
does not like his Catholic parishioners to be able to read.
Eventually the boy goes to sea. At some point in his career he decides
to give up his Irish name, and takes an English one, Denham. Several
incidents in which he distinguishes himself occur, and he is given the
chance of becoming a midshipman, from which rank he duly rises by
examination to Lieutenant. Meanwhile the Earl has obtained a position
in the West Indies of Lieutenant-Governor of one of the islands, since
he had been finding it hard to make ends meet from the revenues of his
estates in Ireland. There are occasions on which Denham has to call on
the Earl and his family, but is not recognised.
Time goes on. The Earl's son and heir dies of an illness and is much
lamented: he had been at sea pretty much as an equal in promotion with
Denham. The Earl's time in the West Indies is up, and he and his family
return to Ireland. Denham's ship visits Kilfinnan Bay, and he walks on
shore, where it is possible he may have been recognised by O'Rourke and
by a demented woman, who is not as mad as she seems.
After several more exciting events, which we will not spoil for you, the
Earl dies, and to everyone's surprise Denham is not only revealed as our
original young acquaintance, Dermot, but the lawyer states that Dermot's
father was in the line of succession to the Earldom. This makes Dermot
the new Earl. Cheers all round, but who wants to be saddled with a
derilict castle and a bankrupt estate?
A beautifully written book, one of Kingston's best. It is very hard to
see why it is so little known.
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THE HEIR OF KILFINNAN, BY W.H.G. KINGSTON.