Semi-weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1852-1853, 1853-05-28
DON'T TALK OF OLD WOMEN.


DON'T TALK OF OLD WOMEN.
The London Quarterly Review for April contains
IN interesting article respecting esold Countess
# Desmond, who died in the reign of James thesl
First and who Is said to have pronounced Richard
he Third as handsome she ever danced
with. By many persons the tale Of this venerable
matron IS regarded as fiction. But the evidence
adduced in the Review proves conclusiyey that
such person really existed; that she appeared AT
Court when nearly century and half old and
that she finally died, not from the exhaustion OF
age, but in consequence of falling from a cherry
tree and injurng her thigh, so that she caught a
fever, which carried her off.
This tough old dowager seems to have been born
in 1864, in the midst of the famous War OF the
Roses, which so long ravaged England She came
of good Irish family, that is Of one originally
English, but long naturalized in Ireland. Early
in life she visited the Court of London where her
beauty attracted attention; for at one OF Ed
ward the Fourth's balls she danced with the Duke
of Gloster subsequently Richard the Third. Soon
after she married the third son of Thomas, eighth
earl of Desmond, a powerful family of Irish MOBILES
In 1928 her husband, then in his seventy ffth year,
succeeded to the title, as twelfth earl OF her name
In 1884 he died. His countess received for her
jointure thealands and castle of Inchiquin, which
she held to within a few days of her death, more
than seventy years subsequently. Wasn't she a
trump?
The generations in which she lived were stirring
times all through and Ireland particularly was a
constant scene of turmoil. What fund of tradi-
ton her gossip must have been Her youth was
almost contemporary with the last crusade; while
her old age saw the settlement of Virginia. She
could remember the murder of the princes in the
Tower, the discovery of America, the first preach
ing of Luther, the burning of Cranmer, the defeat
of the Armada, and the conspiracy of Quo Fawkes.
lol 81. lol oil Of
man existence, when the fatal battle of Flodden
field was fought; yet she survived to behold a
king of Scotland mount the throne of England
nearly century later. Eight earls Of Desmond
ruled, with almost prncely sway, in Ireland, du-
ring her long term of existence She saw many
rebellion in her native island, and no less than
two dynastic revolutions in England itself. In her
old age she dSpossessed of her ointure lands,
By the forfeiture of the entire Desmond estates, in
consequence of the treason of the sixteenth earl
and being thus reduced to poverty, repaired to
London for redress, walking all the way from Brs-
te to the capital on foot Aportrat of her, paint
ed during this visit survives, and is we'll authenti-
Gated. What a woman!
The article in the Quarterly gives striking pic
ture of the wild life led in Ireland during her day.
We must 60 to the hills of Kurdistan to find any
thing corresponding to it in our time. Of these
troubles the Countess appears to have had her
royal state with her husband; at another she was
so poor that she had to walk to market, five miles
distant, having servant. Annutants, dowagers
and life-tenants proverbially said to be long
lived, but this mediae old Countess takes the palm
of all her class she held her onture for seventy
years. Sir Walter Raleigh, who knew her, and is
one Of those whose testimony proves her great
age, may be said, in sense, to have had hand
in her death, for he it was that first introduced
cherry trees into Ireland. Had the luscious fruit
been kept out of the island, or had it been long
enough there to become common, this ancient lady
would probably not have given. in till she had seen
Charles the First beheaded, or James the Second
sent into exile. Don't talk of old women, after a
specimen like this
1t was the age, however, for " old folk" Parr,
and several Others, about that tme appear to have
been engaged in a conspiracy against death and,
though they all caught at last, they generally
held out till they were century and half old.
In these days of progress we cannot pretend to
rival such doings. What with steamboats, blowing
up, and railroad trains going down; what with
allopathy, homeopathy, aud other pathics, he is as
lucky man who can survive till seventy, much less
to twice seventy, like the old Countess of Dcs-
mond. Philadelphia Bulletin.