Notable Irishwomen

by Catherine Jane Hamilton

Notable Irishwomen

By C. J. Hamilton

Author of "A Flash of Youth," "Women Writers:
Their Works and Ways."

DUBLIN: Sealy, Bryers & Walker
94, 95, 96 Middle Abbey Street.

DEDICATION

To

Her Excellency the Countess of Dudley,

who has taken

such a Keen and Practical Interest in the

Progress of Irishwomen,

this Book is, with kind permission,

Respectfully Dedicated.

CONTENTS.

		page
I.	The Beautiful Gunnings— Maria Gunning, Countess of Coventry. Elizabeth Gunning, Duchess of Hamilton, afterwards Duchess of Argyll	1
II.	Elizabeth Farren (Countess of Derby)	19
III.	The Countess of Cork and Orrery	32
IV.	Mary Leadbeater	45
V.	The Ladies of Llangollen	58
VI.	Maria Edgeworth	70
VII.	Lady Morgan	89
VIII.	Mrs. Tighe, author of "Psyche"	104
IX.	Eliza O'Neill (Lady Becher)	114
X.	Mrs. S. C. Hall	129
XI.	Lady Dufferin	142
XII.	Catherine Hayes	154
XIII.	Lady Wilde	173
XIV.	Julia Kavanagh	190

PREFACE

These articles on "Notable Irishwomen" originally appeared serially, and attracted so much attention that it has been considered advisable to reproduce them in a complete form.

The list is by no means an exhaustive one: many notable lives still remain to be chronicled, more especially those of Margaret Stokes, the well known writer on antiquarian subjects, Mrs. Hungerford and Mrs. Alexander (Hector), the popular novelists, Augusta Holmes, the musician and composer, and "Ethna Carbery," that sweet Irish singer, whose loss we still deplore. But the lives that are given in this volume will abundantly show that during the transition period from the middle of the eighteenth to almost the end of the nineteenth century. Irishwomen have exercised a potent and, on the whole, a beneficent influence on society, on the stage, on the concert-room, as well as on the peaceful realms of literature.

It may be well to add that this book is not only compiled by an Irishwoman, but is also published, printed and illustrated in Dublin. For dates, the "Dictionary of National Biography" has been mainly consulted, and also that excellent work, "Webb's Compendium of Irish Biography," Other authorities are Walpole's "Diary and Correspondence," E. Owen Blackburne's "Illustrious Irishwomen," Lord Dufferin's Memoir of his mother, Frances Gerard's "Some Celebrated Beauties of the Eighteenth Century," Mr. Percy Fitzgerald's "Kings and Queens of an Hour," and Gilbert's "History of Dublin."

The illustrations are principally taken from portraits in the National Gallery of Dublin, permission having been obtained for the purpose.

One portrait, that of Miss Farren, has been copied from a coloured print of Bartolozzi, now in my possession.

From painting by F. Cotes, R.A.

MARIA GUNNING, COUNTESS OF COVENTRY.