to be an object of affection with anybody except Lady A. Denny,[1] to whom I owe any good I either learned or imbibed in the early part of my education. My grandfather died leaving the foundation of three families. His eldest son[2] inherited the family estate, which would amount to £20,000 a year at this time if it had not been dissipated by his son, the present Earl of Kerry,[3] who is likely to die leaving a very ancient title without an acre of land out of so much which has escaped so long. His second son, my father, inherited from him what then amounted to nearly £3000 a year, and, being improvable, now produces about £6000 a year, which my father left to my brother on account of my inheriting from him the Petty Estates, for want of heirs male under the will of my grand uncle, Henry, Earl of Shelburne.[4]
"My father was forty-five years old when he emerged from the state of slavery and feudal habits which have been described. He had been bred at Westminster School, and I do not know by what accident, passed some time afterwards in the south of France, but was obliged to spend most of his years in attendance upon his father in his Court of Lixnaw, where he could not acquire many new ideas in an ignorant neighbourhood,
- ↑ Lady Arabella Fitzmaurice, sister of John, Earl of Shelburne, married Mr. Alfred Denny, grandson of the Earl of Coningsby, and died in 1785. She left a curious will of which the following is an extract: "With regard to my own person my desires are very moderate: that I may not be buried till I am certainly dead; that I may be permitted to lie on my bed for 72 hours, and longer, if no signs of putrefaction appear, and that change happening, that I may be put into a leaden coffin, and my jugular veins opened, and then enclosed in an oak coffin, and conveyed to the church of Tralee on a hearse with but one mourning-coach; two servants and the driver of each carriage to be allowed their expenses on the road, the servants 4s. 4d., and the drivers 2s. 8d. per day for fourteen days only, being full time for their return. I leave my chamber clock to Sir John Hort because he values time and makes a good use of it." Dr. Priestley describes Lady Arabella Denny as a woman of "good understanding and great piety." She is also frequently mentioned in Wesley's Journals.
- ↑ William, second Earl of Kerry, died in 1747. The third family mentioned by Lord Shelburne is that of his younger brother, who married Mary O'Brien, Countess of Orkney in her own right. Her grandson succeeded to the title.
- ↑ Francis Thomas, third Earl of Kerry, dissipated the greater portion of his inheritance and invested part of it in French assignats. On his decease in 1818 the title of Earl of Kerry, with the Kerry property reduced to the burial-place of Lixnaw passed to the younger branch of the family then represented by Henry, third Marquis of Lansdowne. (See an article by Mr. Alger in the English Historical Review, x. 40, October 1891.)
- ↑ Henry, Earl of Shelburne, died in 1751.
