Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1889-10-04
THE HOME OF PARNELL.
A Rarely Beautiful Spot Near the
Far-famed yale of Avoca.
How the Landed Possessions of the
Great UncrOwned King of Ire
land Now Appear.
Chicago journal .

er-Charles Stewart Parneu
The grand old house with its white walls
and plllared portico was shimmering in the
sunshine that fell redly upon it from the
west Itlooked lonely and deserted, much
of its old time glory having apparently
been lost with the lapse of recent years
The grounds were not in good order and the
handsome garden on the north side of the
mansion was overgrown with weeds. A
tall fruit tree had fallen and crushed
through a costly hot-house and its branch
es had forced their way through one of
the windows of the mansion. The mansion
itself, large three-stOry structure Is solid
ly and plainly built The portico is
handsome one, and above it Is the crest
motto of the Parnell family From the
| lordly height upon which it stands one of
the fairest views in all the fairy land of
Wicklow can be obtained From the rear
entrance to the house the hill slopes down
almost precipitously till it bathes its feet
In the gurgliug. moaning, weirdly dancing
waters of the Avonbeg On the far side
of the river the pine-clad hills rise sharply
up to the height of ID thousand feet, thus
forming a shadowy legend glen that winds
through woody hills and rocky gorges until
three miles further south it widens out
into the far-famed Vale of Avoca To the
west. hills rise above hills in endless tiers.
through which the glen of the Avonbeg
| winds with the course of the stream. first
into the beautiful woody vale of Clara. and
terminating in the song-famed valley of
Gendalough All these stretched around
in full view of the writer's eye from the
grassy bank on which he sat close beside
the home of the great Irish leader. 1t was
classic ground, too, every inch of it. Not
a sod of those green and smiling valleys,
not shade of those spreading woodlands
that had not witnessed a fierce and bloody
struggle for supremacy between Celt and
| Saxon; every rock has from time to time
proven a shelter to the outlaw battling
for his own; every glen and mountain-hold
has been a refuge and resting-place for
| the
EXPIRING SPIRIT OF LIBERTY.
A fierce and gallant race were these
| Irish cIansmen that for centuries owned
and ruled these lovely glens-so fierce and
sturdy, indeed. that they were never brok-
en- and demoralized as other Irish septs
and clans were. by Norman steel.
| The O'Byrnes. of Wicklow, or Lilman-
tain; as it was anciently called, fought for
| their hills and more bravely, stubbornly
and successfully than any other sept of
| their countrymen, and to-day they till the
green fields and valleys of Wicklow as of
| yore, for it is an old saying that the names
| OF every third man you meet In Wicklow
is O'Byrne. Ganet Byrne, the present
member of Parliament Tor the Western
Division of Wicklow, is lineal descend
ent of :" the O 'Byrne" the ancient chieftain
of the sept and a goodly representative he
is of the race. To the north of Parnell's
home on the Avonbeg is the ford of Rath
drum. The latter place is small but very
| ancient village which stood ON those very
banks 200 years or more ago when the
| English Lord Deputy Essex was defeated
by the O'Byrnes under their chieftain
| teagh McItugh, and driven with much
| loss back to the town of Glenealy On the
| march thither the English forces had to
pass through a very wild and woody glen,
where they were overtaken by the swift
| foot hlllsmen and cut to pieces. the Lord
| Deputy narrowly escaping with his life
| This place Is still known as ''the Deputy
| ass. The vale of Glendylough was the
| scene of many a wild adventure of Mich
ae Dwyer, the Wicklow hero. who kept
alive in his native mountains for several
| years after the rebellion of 1899. the spirit
that the defeat of Vinegar Hill in Wexford
| crushed throughout the remainder of the
! island 1t is small wonder that young Par
nell, as he grew up among those lovely
scenes and stirring memories, should i'm
bibe with the very air he breathed lofty
| spirit of patriotism. His family sur
| rOmdlngs, however, were not favorable to
such IA result, for although his ancestor
was the last speaker of the old Irish Par
| Lament and his father, Sir John Parnell
was man of liberal principles and a
model landlord, yet the family was dis
| IL i
mosphere of Conservatism.
| Parnell owns all of the lovely glen of the
! AvOnberg, and the peasants for miles
around owe HIM fealty as
THE LORD OF THE SOIL.
| But his estate terminates and that of his
/ cousin, the Earl of Wicklow. begins at the
meeting of the waters in the vale of Avoca.
} This man s name is Howard, and he is a
! true type of the blue-bloOded British aris-
! tocrat. His estate stretches for some miles
down the vale until about a mile below
| Arklow 1t joins the property of the Earl of
| CarySfort, a first cousin of Mr.. Parnell, and
! another rich conservative. Indeed. Carys-
! fort is bitter Unionist and Tory. He
| bears striking personal resemblance to
| the Irish leader. but the likeness ends on
! the outside: the two men S hearts are cast
| in different moldS.
! 1t was among such family associations as
| these that the childhood and youth of
! Parnell was passed. but his Judgment was
not biased by them. The mothers infiu-
ence was removed from the early boyhood
! of Parnell for the American blood of the
| daughter of Old lronsideS revolted against
| the airs of these naughty aristocrats, and
| she withdrew to her native land In his
| boyhood Parnell was a good deal of an
| athlete. and was pasSionately fond of
| cricket. He was somewhat bad tempered
| III those days, and woe betide the member
of his team who made bunder or a false
! play. He succeeded. however in getting
| together one of the finest cricket teams in
| the United Kingdom, the Avondale eleven
| being celebrated all over the country. The
| club was mainly composed of the young
! peasants OF the surrounding country, the
| champion batsman being Pat Gaffney of
! Rathdrum. When Parnell and his team
played in Dublin and in England, Gaff-
/ ney s prowresS with the willow made the
! Britons stare. and the old men in Rath-
| drum still point out the distant trees
over which the young mountaineer drove
| a ball delivered by a crack university
| bowler when the result of the game
depended on his stroke. The beauti-
| ful cricket grounds are the only
part of the Avondale demense still kept
in good repair. But to return. Parnel1's
FIRST APPEARANCE IN PUBLIC
after emerging from boyhood into man.
hood was as High Sheriff of Wicklow.
This Is purely honorably office in Great
Britain and Ireland and is scarcely in
ferior in dignity to that of Judge Of
Assize. The High Sheriff is appointed
each year by the Lord Lieutenant His
badge of office is a white wand. and his
duty consists Of swearing In the Grand
Jury a week before the AsSize opens and
lecturing them upon the fiscal C.,.eies they
have to perform He. it Is. who formally
escorts the Judge of Assizes to his seat
in the court and orders the Grand Jury to
report. The office is never filed BY one Of
the mere people, none but the mobility"
daring TO aspire to such high preferment
No one. of course. Is ever appointed to the
position unless his conservative principles
and loyalty to the crown and constitution
are thoroughly assured.
Young Parnell at this time was not re-
! publican in his ideas be was not even
home-ruler. He had previously served for
| couple of years as an officer In Her
/ Maias-v's militia and ba v-aS IN -an.