_Lord Edward Fitzgerald_ (Vol. iv., p. 173.).--Your correspondent R. H.
was misinformed as to the house of Lord Edward Fitzgerald at Harold's
Cross, from the fact of his friend confounding that nobleman with
another of the United Irishmen leaders; namely, Robert Emmett, who was
arrested in the house alluded to. Lord Edward never lived at Harold's
Cross, either in avowed residence or concealment.
R. H.'s note above referred to, provoked the communication of L. M. M.
at Vol. iv., p. 230., who seems to cast a slur upon the Leinster family
for neglecting the decent burial of their chivalric relative. This is
not merited. The family was kept in complete ignorance as to how the
body was disposed of, it being the wish of the government of the day to
conceal the place of its sepulture; as is evident from their not
interring it at St. Michan's, where they interred Oliver Bond and all
the others whom they put to death at Newgate; and from the notoriety of
their having five years later adopted a similar course with regard to
the remains of Robert Emmett. (See Madden's _Life of Emmett_.) But is he
buried at St. Werburgh's? Several, and among others his daughter, Lady
Campbell, as appears from L. M. M.'s note, think that he is. I doubt it.
Some years since I conversed with an old man named Hammet, the
superannuated gravedigger of St. Catherine's, Dublin, and he told me
that he officiated at Lord Edward's obsequies in St. Catherine's church,
and that they were performed at night in silence, secrecy, and mystery.