On this day in 1789, Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington, was born at Knockbrit between Cashel and Fethard. She was a writer, journalist and society hostess whose friends and acquaintances included Charles Dickens, Lord Byron and Earl Grey.
After moving first to Clonmel and then to England, Margaret Power (as she was christened) met Charles Gardiner, soon to be earl of Blessington, sometime around 1810. They married in 1818 and she became countess of Blessington and changed her name to Marguerite.
Lady Blessington soon established their richly furnished home as a leading venue for London society. Her beauty, intelligence and charm attracted the leading statesmen, artists and writers of the day including Lord Palmerston, Earl Grey and Thomas Lawrence. Lawrence’s portrait of Lady Blessington was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1821 to sensational effect.
In addition to social success, she began to write and in 1822, published her first work, a collection of four essays entitled ‘The Magic Lantern, or Sketches of scenes in the metropolis’. In August 1822, the Blessingtons set out on a continental tour that lasted for the rest of the decade. They settled briefly in Genoa where she formed a close relationship with Lord Byron.
The Earl’s death in 1829 seriously diminished Lady Blessington’s income, yet on her return to London in 1830, she re-established a brilliant social salon in Mayfair. Her circle of acquaintance widened, as the Disraelis, Charles Dickens and Captain Marryat, among others attended her soirees.
To ease her financial worries, she once again turned to writing, including travel-writing and a diverse range of journalism. Two of her novels, ‘Grace Casssidy, or The Repealers’ (1833) and Country Quarters (posthumously published in 1850) were set in Ireland. In 1832, she wrote a serial for the New Monthly Magazine entitled ‘Journal of Conversations of Lord Byron by the countess of Blessington’, which was published as a book in 1834 and is still valued by biographers of the poet.
As she continued to publish regularly, her prodigious work rate exacted an increasing toll on her health. Despite her output, her financial worries persisted and in 1849, the Irish famine having drastically reduced her income from the Blessington estates in Ireland, she was declared bankrupt.
Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington, died from a stroke on 4 June 1849 in Paris. She is buried in Chambourcy cemetery there. Today she is remembered in Clonmel by the so-called ‘Lady Blessington’s Bath’- a stretch of water between the Old Bridge and Suir Island where she is said to have bathed as a child.
Sources:
Michael Ahern, Figures in a Clonmel Landscape (2006) p144
https://www.dib.ie/bio.../gardiner-marguerite-margaret-a3425
On this day in 1989, the newly renovated Swiss Cottage in Cahir became a National Monument and was opened to tourists and the general public.
The Swiss Cottage was built in the early 1800s by the Earl of Glengall in a secluded corner of his 700-acre estate. It was designed by renowned architect John Nash; whose works include Buckingham Palace. The building had fallen into disrepair by the 1980s but was still considered to be one of the finest examples of a rustic, ornamental house in Ireland or the UK.
The improvement works, coordinated by the OPW, cost approximately £400,000 and relied largely on a programme of voluntary work by local groups, craftsmen and some 100 FAS trainees. The interior was designed by Sybil Connolly and the roof, thatched with river reeds, was restored by Waterford thatcher Hugh O’Neill. It was officially opened to the public by Brendan Daly T.D. on 1 September 1989.
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Sources:
Irish Press, 01/09/1989, p9.
Irish Independent 02/09/1989, p1.
