Lady Parson gaves up the lead cistern she uses for salting beef to be melted down for bullets, and the besieging army is finally repulsed. The sieges leave their mark on the park as well as on the castle, and the lines from which the castle is besieged can still be seen leading to Cromwell's Hollow. In spite of these disturbances the beginnings or the Formal Gardens are laid out at this time and the Famous Box Hedges are planted. The wives and daughters of the house grow vegetables, collected medincinal remedies - those for the curing of 'green wounds' and 'bruises inward or outward caused by fall or blow' presumably proving useful in times of trouble. In a firm hand with uninhibited spelling they wrote cookery reciepes for preserving their fruits and vegetables for 'chicking frigasee' and 'harticoake pie'.
Peace returns to Birr.
Sir William Parsons, the second baronet, establishes a friendship with the composer Handel, who gaves him an engraved walking stick in consideration of the patronage which led to the Messiah being first performed in Dublin. Sir Williams grandson, another Sir William, the fourth baronet, begins to landscape the park. He turns bog into lake, plants beech trees and removes the last of the old towers of the original fortress so as to complete the sweeping view of his beautiful park. He also devotes much of his time to the Volunteer movement which sprang up towards the end of the eighteenth century, ostensibly to defend Ireland from the threat of French invasion, but effectively to force the English Government to give concessions to the Irish Parliament. The buildings in Emmet Square and Emmet Street are developed in the town square fashion.