CLANRICARDE

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 143, 17 June 1916, Page 16

CLANRICARDE

THE ARCH-EVICTOR TRAGEDY OF IRELAND'S LAND WAR.

In its obituary on the late Lord Clanricarde, the Daily Mail furnishes a most interesting picture of this curious recluse and his treatment of his Irish tenantry. He succeeded to the title in. 1874, and it was then that he paid his last visit to his Irish estates. Portniimna Castle, near Longlirea, one of the finest houses in Ireland, was finally so neglected that it was alleged the rain penetrated into the family vault. His Irish estates reached from Athenry to Woodford, and were about 56,000 acres. Everywhere on the estate it was possible to obtain a story of a tragedy in the Land War. Successive Governments dealt with land purchase, but Lord Clanricarde was adamant, and it was only within the past two years that he was beaten in the final court of appeal and his estates bought for £238.210. THIRTY'YEARS' STRIFE. His arbitrary action was a thorn in the flesh to the Conservative Government thirty years ago, and Sir Michael HicksBeach, the Chief Secretary, refused the forces of the Crown.to aid Lord Clanricards in evicting tenants, reminding him that property had its duties as well as its rights. During this time Lord Clanricarde was a. recluse.

After Mr. ■ Wyndham's land schema was taking effect in Ireland, a Bill was introduced into the Commons to expropriate the Clanricarde estates. This was in 1907, when Mr. Birrell said : " I would take from him the management of the estates, which, in my opinion, he' is wholly incompetent to hold." Lord Clanricarde replied on one of his rare appearances in the House of Lords. "The blue patch in the dirty sky," he said, " is that the- Bill will at last deck the brow of Mr. Birrell with legislative laurels, but even such blessings may be bought too dear at the price of a, Bill so tainted with inept, callous levity." He had an icy reception, and went back to his art collection.

Born in 1832, he was with Labouchere at the Embassy at Paris for a time, but retired in 1863. One of his last public appearances was at a Red Cross Sale at Christie's. 'He was a descendant of tho great Canning, and never married.

QUAINT HAT AND CLOAK.

It was difficult to realise of late years that the quaint, almost miserly, dressed figure frequenting art sales-rooms could have been one of the best-dressed men about town in the mid-Victorian era. If his treatment of the Irish tenantry enjoined on them a most drastic dietary,: Lord Clanricirde, despite his £30,000 a year, certainly set them an example. He transported his mid-Victorian silk hat into the delicate finery of this century. It was a very tall hat without fur or gloss and with\ the smallest, straightest brim. His cloak could not resist the ravages of time, yet darning cotton was requisitioned to heal a breach in the shoulders. Art collectors would wait at his rooms with choice bric-a-brac, and would shiver with cold because his lordship would not spend a few shillings on coal.

Lord Clanricarde was never seen in a vehicle. His walks took him daily to Regent's Park. There on a public seat —not one of the chairs for which Id was charged—would sit the owner of some 60,000 acres and an over-growing and hoarded fortune watching the squirrels.

He carried himself into a cold and frigid loneliness. His sole companions were his china and pictures, in the collection of which he showed a wonderful business acumen. He was a law to himself, with ways and ideas singulaTly his own. His manner was cold and his tongue could be very biting. ! Living in rooms in the Albany-cham-bers, off Piccadilly, he spent no more than a pound or two a week, save when he went to the saleroom and bought a picture or a bit of pottery. Art was the only thing he ever spent money on, and this he would sell again if good opportunity offered. Valuable old pictures were stored in. these rooms, often without frames. It is said that one old master was fastened on a door with nails., GEM AND TAPE NECKLET. , "The last time I saw him," says one who knew him, "he had on his old silk hat and carried a bulky and bulging umbrella of which the ferrule end was worn down to the wood. He had on an. old blue coat wide in the tails and trousers very bagged and shabby. He always walked with his head well forward, giving him a round-shouldered look.

"His hair, thin but long and greyish, stuck out at the back from under his hat. He had very hard, grey-blue eyes set deep under heavy grey eyebrows. He was a sticking man to look at, and his gaze was chilling. They say that he never gave away a £5 note, and that if he lent money he expected a good return For some reason he generally carried round his neck a precious stone fastoned on a piece of tape. He was fond of skating and often visited rinks."

With the death of Lord Clanricarde the title of marquis became extinct, but that of Earl of Clanricarde goes under a special remainder, to his cousin the Marquis of Sligo. The latter's grandmother was a sister of the -thirteenth Eavl of Clanricarde, created a marquis in 1825.