st class.

Through the politeness of a gentleman who possesses half the street, I
went over some of the houses, which are extremely spacious, and contain
beautifully-proportioned rooms richly ornamented with carving and
moulding. In what was formerly Mountjoy House I found a dining-room
whose cornices and ceilings were of the most elegant design and
execution. This house had seen many curious scenes. It was formerly the
town-house of the earl of Blessington--whose second title was Viscount
Mountjoy--to whom the whole street belonged. The founder of this family,
Luke Gardiner, rose from a humble origin by energy and intrigue, and his
son married the heiress of the Mountjoys. It was occupied up to 1830 by
the last earl of Blessington, husband of the celebrated literary star.
Soon after their marriage Lady Blessington accompanied her husband to
Ireland, and he invited some of his friends who were ignorant of the
event to dine at his house in Henrietta street. These latter were
somewhat startled when he entered the room with a beautiful woman
leaning on his arm whom he introduced as his wife. Among the guests was
a gentleman who had been in that room only four years before, when the
walls were hung with black, and in the centre, on an elevated platform,
was placed a coffin with a gorgeous velvet pall, with the remains in it
of a woman once scarcely surpassed in loveliness by the lady then
present in bridal costume. This was the first Lady Blessington.

The last of the Irish noblesse in this street was Lady Harriet, widow of
the Right Hon. Denis Bowes-Daly, on whom Grattan passed such warm
eulogies, and who was the original of Lever's happiest creation, _The
Knight of Gwynne_.

It has been a frequent subject of conjecture why the Phoenix Park was so
called. The best explanation seems to be that on a site within its
boundaries there formerly stood, close to a remarkable spring of water,
an ancient manor-house. The manor was called Fionn-uisge, pronounced
_finniske_, which signifies clear or fair water, and this term easily
became corrupted into Phoenix. The land became Crown property in 1559,
and was made into a park in 1662. It was immensely improved and put into
its present shape by the earl of Chesterfield, author of the
_Letters_--one of the best viceroys Ireland ever had--about 1743. The
area is seventeen hundred and sixty acres. With the exception of Windsor
and our own Fairmount, no public park in the world can compa