The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1897-05-20
FONTHILL CASTLE.
BUILT BY EDWIN FORREST, THE
WELL KNOWN TRAGEDlAN.

H1s Wife did not Look Forward Go Load
ing the Quiet Life that Her Husband
Desired. The Beautiful Home Brought
No Happiness with Its Completion.
A half-hour's sail up the river from
New York brings the tourist in view
Of the battlemented keep and tower of
Fonthill, rising above the treetops on
the summit of Mount st. Vincent. The
castle Is built of stone In imitation of
the Norman-Gothic structures of the
Middle Ages. and lacks but the moat
and the drawbridge to present a per.
feet picture of an old feudal strong
hold. In all other respects 1t is the
most complete reproduction of n me-
dfaeval castle that can be found In this
country.
FOnthill was erected by Edwin For
rem, the great tragedian, when he was
In the zenith Of his fame, and was in
tended for the happy retreat of his de-
Ginning years. 1t was destined, how
ever, to be intimately associated with
the domestic tragedy that broke up
bfs home and embittered the last days
OF his life. The story of his famous
divorce suit Is too well known to bear
repetition, but it Is not so well known
that the incidents which led up to it
were developed while he was engaged
in laying out his extensive grounds
and building his beautiful Norman
castle at Fonthill. While absorbed in
this work he occupied n handsome
Stone cottage that is still standing on
the grounds, and was, to a certain ex-
tent, living apart from his wife.
II is said that she did not look with
favor upon her husbands plans for the
future. She was of lively, social dis
position, fond of entertaining the
many friends she drew around her by
her charms, while Mr.. Forrest was
quiet and reserved, caring little for
home company outside of a few inti-
mate friends and his own immediate
household. The idea of spending her
remaining days shut up within the
stone walls Of feudal castle, with no
other company than her husband, was
altogether distasteful to Mrs. Forests
imagination; so she passed the greater
part of her time in New York, keeping
open house, while Mr.. Forrest staid at
Fonthill, busy with landscape garden
ers and architects.
At last the castle was finished. and
preparations weres completed for mov-
ing into it, when the discovery came
that led to the ruin of their happiness.
Defeated in his divorce suit, Mr.. For
nest was too much chagrined to con-
template living n solitary life in a
q. home around which his fancy had
weaved so many dreams of domestic
bliss. He determined to part with his
estate, and the Sisters of Charity of
the Roman Catholic faith having Of
fered him 100000 for it, he trans
ferred the land, with all the buildings
upon it, to their ownership. 1t is said
that Mr.. Forrest never passed night
In the home he had planned with so
much solicitude and care. But the
STORY does not end here; it has a tragic
sequel.
George Jameson, an actor, who was
held by many to be responsible for the
domestic infelicities of the FORESTS,
met with a horrible death many years
afterward under the very walls of the
castle that had been built by the man
he is said to have wrdhged. He was
walking down the tracks of the Hud-
son River Railroad one night to take a
train at the Mt. st. Vincent station for
New York, when he was struck by the
engine of an express and instantly
killed.
FOnthill Castle is at present occupied
by an aged prelate of the Roman
Catholic Church. The Right Rev.
Mgr. Bernard O'Reilly, Prothonotary
Apostolic Of the Papal Court, the au-
thor of the Lives Of Popes Plus TX.
and Leo KILL, and of other scholarly
works, is spending the evening of his
days in this quiet, beautiful retreat
Leslie's Weekly.
Raaanna for tho Sanutor,, nm.