The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1849-06-10

Would that God would inspire hearts and souls
when the last and closing ofss brief and bitter
tragi. comedy shall come upon us,
luke the Roman in the capitol. an.
and conclude the several parts slIoted US with the
The Napier Family.
The appointment of Sir Charles Napier to the
command of the British forces in India having
attraction to the Napier family, the following will
From the Dublin rress.l
The Naplers, OF Msrchstoun are one OF the old
celebrated inventor of logarthms, was Inealy de-
| scended from Sir Alexander. Napier, who held
courtly offices in the reign of James III. of Scot
| land The family intermarred with several of the
first patrcian houses, and was ennobled In 1871.
| The sixth Lord Napier was twice married, and
the gallant Commodore Sir Charles Napier is the
eldest son Of the sixth lords second son Charles,
who was also naval officer The sixth lord mar
ried, secondly, in 1850 Miss Henrietta Johnston,
| of Dublin, who had issue by him George Napier,
who became colonel in the army. He was
| man of considerable talents, soldier of daring
courage, and possessed considerable knowledge Of
| the art OF war. lie served III the American war in
| l777, and was afterwards on the Earl of Mora's
staff in the Duke of York's expedition. lie be-
came comptroller OF military accounts in Ireland,
| and was also town major of Dublin for some time.
| While he was residing in Ireland, about the Pc
riod of ISL, he made the acquaintance of the cele
brated Tom Connolly, of Castletown, the first Irish
| commoner of the day in point of family and for
tune Connolly. was at the head of the country gen
tlemen in parliament, and possessed considerable
influence He had married Lady Louisa Lennoy,
| the second daughter of the second Duke of Rich
mond, and there resided at Castetown, with Lady
Louisa Connolly, her younger sister, one of the
| most remarka woman of her time. That younger
sister was the celebrated Lady Sarah Lennox, of
| whom George the Third was so enamoured that it
was believed he would have made her his Queen.
| She was woman of dazzling and magnificent
beauty, and her manners were most captivating
She the first of her who inspired the heart
Of King George with tender passion, and his adj
mratl ion of her was no secret. Lady Sarah's eld-
est sister Qhe Lady Carolne) was married to
Henry Fox, the first Lord Holland and father of
under the tutorage of her brotherin-law Fox, than
whom more artful man of the world never lived,
and the young Lady Sarah spared no pains to cap
tivate the heart of her youthful sovereign. She
used to appear every morning, in the spring of
I16l, In fancy habit, making hay in the lawn of
Holland house, close to where the King would
PsssIVide Walpo!e's George Ill.,, vol: I, p 64.)
man., though the intimacy had gone so far
that Lady Sarah did not despair Of Receiving the
crown from her royal admirer. Lady Sarah, how
| OF her bridesmaids, and she afterwards married
Sir, Thomas Bunbury, of Suffolk. :" Her union
with clergyman's son, in preference to some Of
the greatest matches th IN me kingdom, proved"
passion in her." Did Wapole think that one of
the Suffolk Bunburys was disparaged by having
been In molly orders!
- The marriage did not prove happy one. 1t was
| dissolved by act of Parliament, on May IA, lT6-
(Coinss Peerage, by Sir Egerton Bridges, vol. l,
page 2l0) She afterwards resided with her sister,
| Lady Louisa Connolly and her residence in Ire
land was rendered more attractive to her, from the
fact that another of her sisters, Lady Emilia Len
nox had married James, twentieth Earl of Kildare,
and afterwards first Duke of Leinster. Lady
to the bed of her iege lord, and mother of the
Inflated Lord Edward Fitzgerald, her fifth son. 1t
| is observable that the second Duke of Richmond,
father of the Countess of Kildare had not less than
| twelve children, of whom the eleventh was the
| beautiful Lady Sarah new spoken OF. In society
at Castetown, Lady Sarah met the Hon. Colonel
George Napier, before mentioned, and was united
| to him at BengrOve, in Sussex.
Castletown, in Kildare, was one of the most splen-
| did residences then in Ireland. MIR. Connolly main
tanned extraordinary hospitality, and arranged his
house on the plan which Mr.. Mathew, of Thomas
town Castle, first exhibited, of having coffee
room for his guests, where they might live as at
hotel, and nothing to pay. (See Sheridans life
of Swift.) The whole country about Castletown
man of taste and reflection. There flows the LIZ
| fey, and yonder Is the spot, sacred to true
mance-more strange than any fiction! There, I'M
der those trees stood Vanessa's bower, and there,
| too, IS the garden where, to quote from Gratan's
| fine lines
.'The stern satirist and the witty maid
,r Talked pretty love- nor yet Profaned the shade"
There. on that sloping bank, in the grounds of
Celbridge Abbey, did the famous orator of ireland
pace to and fro, meditatng those sublime speeches
which carried the palm of superior eloquence in
of Fox in England, and of Mirabeau in France!
Vanessa's bower, and Henry Grattan's haunt
what associations of romance and history join
ed to that lovely spot The very scenery itself is
muses. by the river which flows on as calmly as
when Swift strolled with the beautiful Vanessa
on Its margin; or when the great patriot Of Ire
land dreamed true dreams while he soothed his ex-
ont nd min ~ ifC pr1nrrl EhnrA
not, perhaps, another spot in Ireland sacred to so
many sentimental associations! (See, for partIcu-
lars about this interesting place, Scott's Life of
Swift second edition, 1924, p. 2i6; Monck Mason's
"IIibemia Antigua" p 3l6 Grattan's Life, by his
land, vol. 81 49,
Not far from the spot associated with the names
of Swift and Gratan is Oakley Park the residence
of Mr.. Maunsell QIigh Sheriff in lS4D. In l7Sl,
Oakley Park belonged to Mr. Connolly, of Castle
town: and was let by him to Colonel Napier, who
married Mr.. Conoly's slster-in-law, Lady Sarah.
There they dwelt together, and there was born their
third son, William Francis Patrick Napier the in
comparable military historian. The eldest son,
Charles, the hero of Scinde, was born at White
hall, on the 10Th of August, 1882. The second,
nav SIR George Thomas, K.C.B., &c. &C., 3Oilf
June, 1884; and the historian, 18th Dec, 1885.
Burke's Peerage, 7s4)
Besides these children were Richard, Fellow of
All Souls College, Oxford; Henry Edward, who
died captain in the navy 1896; and Emily Louisa,
who married, oddly enough, the. present Sir
Henry. Bnnbuy, of Suffolk. nephew of Lady
Sarah's first husband, and second son of the
celebrated caricaturist-( Burke's Baronetage, p.
I46.
Lady Sarah Napier was q very remarkable
woman, and In Moores Life of Lord Edward Fitz-
gerald (vol. 2 p; Z3O supra),, will be found some
very interesting letters from her pen, which attest
her mental vivacity and genius. She writes from
Castletown to her brother, the Duke of Richmond,
not long after Lord Edward Fitzgerald died.
.'This whole week august, 1881 has been passed
in accusing, Judging, condemning, and running the
characters and properties Of poor Edward and his
family, and on Sunday Lord and Lady Castle
dine and stay here; so that all Dublin will hear
that the very people who passed the week IN
plungng daggers into poor Lousa's heart haIlow
the seventh day by junket to her house % The
sisters were uncommonly attached to each other,
as may be seen from the correspondence in Moore's
biography of Lerd Edward, Fitzgerald, and the