_The Countess of Desmond_ (Vol. ii., pp. 153. 186. 219. 317.).--Touching
this venerable lady, the following "Note" may not be unacceptable.
In the year 1829, when making a tour in Ireland, I saw an engraving at
Lansdowne Lodge, in the county of Kerry, the residence of Mr. Hickson, on
which the following record was inscribed:--
"Catherine Fitzgerald, Countess of Desmond (from the original in the
possession of the Knight of Kerry on Panell).
"She was born in 1464; married in the reign of Edw. IV.; lived during
the reigns of Edw. V., Rich. III., Hen. VII., Hen. VIII., Edw. VI.,
Mary, and Elizabeth; and died in the latter end of James' or the
beginning of Charles I.'s reign, at the great age of 162 years."
On my return home I was much surprised and gratified to find in my own
house, framed and glazed, a very clever small-sized portrait in crayon,
which at once struck me a a fac-simile (or nearly so) of the engraving I
had seen at Lansdowne Lodge.
Your correspondent C. in p. 219. appears very sceptical about this female
Methuselah! and speaks of a reputed portrait at Windsor "as a gross
imposition, being really that of an old man"--
"Non nostrum tantus componere lites:"
but I would remind your correspondent C. that such longevity is not
impossible, and the traditions of the Countess of Desmond are widely
diffused. The portrait in my possession is not unlike an old man; but old
ladies, like old hen pheasants, are apt to put on the semblance of the
male.