THE SKETCHER.

Otago Witness, Issue 1956, 20 August 1891, Page 35

THE SKETCHER.

ARTHUR MACMURROUGH KAVANAGH. This " noblest son of a kingly race " was the descendant of an illustrious family. The Kavanaghs trace their origin to the legendary Feusia of Scythia, coeval with the Tower of Babel. In the eleventh century they became known as Mac Murrough, or the sons of Murroagh. In 1167 Dermot Mac Murrough, then King of Leinster, made the mistake of inviting the Normans over into his principality, for which mistake he paid by being forced to resign his pretensions as an independent sovereign. His son Donell, nicknamed Kavanagh, or " The Handsome," resumed the royal claim, and a descendant, Art Mac Murrough, succeeded In re-estab-lishing his sway over a large part of the territories of which his ancestor had been dispossessed. It was, therefore, as an Irishman of Irishmen, scion of a race that for three centuries had ruled and influenced Ireland, that the subject of this biography was born in 1831 at Borris House, an ancient manor house on the slope above the River Barrow. For 300 years this had been the chosen seat of the family. It is a castelated stone structure of great strength, which, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, twice sustained a regular siege, and twice repelled its assailants gallantly. "From the outset," says Mr Kavanagh's cousin Sarah L. Sfceele, in her biographical work, recently published, "it was manifest that his up-bringing must be different from that of other men, born, as he was, without limbs. But it soon became apparent that his was a nature that would rise above every disqualification and fit him to bear no common part in the battle of \ife." "Born without limbs" is a vague phrase. In Arthur Kavanagh's case it probably means without legs and with stumps of arms, as we are subsequently told that he became an ardent fisherman, a first-rate shot, and a ready and voluminous writer. These pursuits cannot be carried on by the aid of the front teeth only, It would seem that Miss Steele shrank from further particularising of the physical disabilities which gave her hero and his friends so much pain ; but to our thinking more exact details on this point would add to the interest of the narative and accentuate more strongly the gallantry of the sonl which made such a brave fight against the ills of fortune, and invariably came off winner in the conflict.

Strapped to his saddle, Mr Kavanagh became one of the boldest of hunters and crosscountry riders. All his life long be could ride any horse, however wild and intractable. He was fond of animals, and possessed the strange attraction for them which is the attribute of a few. To human beings he was equally irresistible. Even in his disabled childhood he was easily the leader and the hero of the sturdy boys and girls who surrounded him, and his friends loved him with the tenderest affection. His education was, of course, conducted by private tutors. At the age of 15 he was sent on an extended tour through Egypt, Syria, and the Holy Land, which occupied the greater part of three years. Later he undertook a still more extended journey— through Scandinavia and Russia, down the Volga to Northern Persia and Kurdistan, and so by the Persian Gulf to Bombay and Bewar. He returned to Ireland in 1853 after an absence of nearly five years. Of these journeys we have copious records from journals and home letters, but they are of little interest. Mr Kavanagh did not possess l'esprit de plume. He dismisses much that in other hands might be made infinitely interesting with a few dry touches. Such exciting adventures, for example, as the attempt to blackmail the travellers in the small Persian village of Riaz, when Arthur saved the party by spnrring his horse into the gateway, which the armed villager-* were attempting to olose, and defending it with big rifle till all were

safely through, he chronicles in a ourt paragraph. Of the hunting experiences in India we learn little beyond tbe game record : "23rd April — Bag, one tigress, five spotted deer." "28 — Bag, four tigers, one bear." In 1855 Mr Kavanagh married his cousin, Frances Mary Leithley, and settled at Borris House, which had devolved upon him the previous year at the death of his older brother. There for many years the husband and wife led a life of happy usefulness. Seven sons and daughters were born to them, and the care of their tenantry afforded unceasing occupation and interest. " A Landlord of Landlords," said Sir Charles Russell at the Parnell trial, and Mr Kavanagh deserved the title. He made himself a father to his people ; he was their adviser, friend, and unfailing helper. Gradually the tumble-down cottages on the estate were replaced by comfortable structures; water powers were utilised, and handicrafts introduced. " Borris lace," the makiDg of which was taught by Mrs Kavanagh, attained celebrity and commanded a ready sale.

" With all that pertained to the management of an estate, whether farming or forestry, his acquaintance was practical and minute. Breakfast over, he would repair to the courtyard behind the house and take his seat on a stone bench surrounding the old oak tree that stands almost in the centre. There, like a chieftain in the midst of his vassals, he would sit patiently listening to all who came from far and near, with their tales of perplexity and grievance, to seek counsel or redress. Many a curious piece of family history or story of impending feud could that old tree reveal. But it could also tell of the invariably just decision, given with the cheerful, sympathetic smile and words that robbed even an adverse ruling of all sting. That his intervention in these private concerns was, in those days at least, valued by his tenants, Is shown by the name it procured among them of the ' Father Confessor,' and was still further proved by the fact that many of them on their death-beds left their daughters to him as his • wards,' knowing that their trust in him would be justified be his solicitude for their welfare and settlement in life."

Mr Kavanagh was returned to Parliament in 1866 as member for the County of Wexford, and two years later he was elected member from Carlow. This seat he filled for 12 years. In 1877 his eldest son, Walter, attained his majority, and it was on the occasion of the dinner and ball given to the tenantry in celebration of the event that Mr Sweetman, J.P., paid this tribute to Mr Kavanagh : — " He has now been over us for upwards of a quarter of a century and during that period I defy— l was going to say, his enemies, but I really believe he has not one— I defy anyone to show one single act of harsh treatment on his part to any of his tenantry. On the contrary, his kindly feeling towards them and his anxiety to promote their prosperity and increase their comforts are proverbial." Two years later this tenantry, so indebted and warmly attached, were induced by .threats and promises to return a stranger to represent the "Model County" in Parliament, and Mr Kayanagh lost his seat, amid many demonstrations of ingratitude and vindictiveness. " Tbe wound thus inflicted he felt most deeply, and it saddened his life till its close." " The sharpest part of it is the belief that is forced upon me that the majority of my own men broke their promise to me," he writes his wife. "My confidence in them is gone, and a great interest and pleasure in home life goes with it. That is the poisoned stab. If I could have believed them true, the actual defeat would be easy to bear, because I have nothing that I can see to be ashamed of in it. But to have to look forward to passing the rest of my life among them is almost more than I can do." He never relaxed his efforts for their good, however. Thenceforth his labours for the public weal were confined to correspondence, public addresses, and the preparation of papers for the use and instruction of the Government. Earnestly opposed to the Home Rule Party and the National League, he worked strenuously on the formation of the Land Corporation, which, it was hoped, would neutralise the Land League, and confer untold blessings on the country. The rehabilitation of the English Church in Ireland, after its disestablishment, engrossed much of his time and thought. A man of the deepest religious convictions, Mr Kavanagh was also a man of catholic tolerance. His personal faith was strong and entire. In 1859 he writes : — " It is aye hard to place one's whole trust and confidence in God. I do not think the trust you should try to feel is that God will avert anything, but to trust implicitly that what he orders is for the best ; to feel that He is your nearest, dearest, firmest friend ; that when you are in trouble you can, as it were, put your hand out and lean on His Almighty arm — this alone can take tbe sting from earthly sorrow ; but it does take it indeed."

On Christmas Day, 1889, this noble life cams to its close in London, where Mr Kavanagh had gone for medical advice. " Not to the sound of the weird singing of the banshee that tradition assigns a* herald to a Kavanagh's death, but to the music of the Christmas anthems before the throne, he entered his Father's home to hear the welcome words, ' Well done, good and faithful servant.' " No braver man ever lived. " The physical privations, which would have crushed the fibre of a weaker nature, served but to crown his moral completeness."