564 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 137. 



Omitted in List, Vol. v., p. 181. 



1833. T.N. Talfourd 

 1841. J.V.Thompson 



W. Wlghtman 



1842. 

 1844. 

 1850. 



C. Cresswell 

 F. Pollock 

 Ld. Campbell 

 J. Jervis 



Magna vis veritatis. 



Nee idtra nee citrd. 

 \ JEquam servare men- 

 \ tern. 



Leges juraque. 



Jussa capessere. 



Justifies tenax. 



Venule nee aura. 



Errata, 

 1843. N.R.Clarke "1 For metuis read me- 



J. B. Byles J init. 



1847. For E. N Williams read E. V. Williams ; 

 and for libere read liberi. 



J.E. 



THE OLD COUNTESS OP DESMOND. 



(Vol. v., pp. 145. 323.) 



In your Number of " N. & Q."^ of April 3rd, 

 there are some curious and interesting remarks by 

 the Knight of Kerry, respecting that wonder 

 for length of days, the old Countess of Desmond, 

 in which he gives the copy of an inscription on an 

 ancient painting, stating that in the year 1614, 

 and in the 140th year of her age, she appeared at 



the court of King James, to seek relief in conse- 

 quence of the House of Desmond having been 

 ruined by attainder. That this statement in the 

 inscription is erroneous, can, I think, be proved by 

 the following circumstances, which also seem to 

 me to afford some light on the most obscure partfr 

 of the question. 



I have at this moment before me a work, whicli 

 has been for many years in the library of my hus- 

 band (the Rev. E. A. Bray, the Vicar of this place), 

 and highly prized by us both, namely, a most per- 

 fect and beautiful copy of Sir Walter Raleigh's 

 History of the World, published in 1614. I here 

 give the date from the engraved title-page, which, 

 is of an allegorical description : 



" THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD." 



" AT LONDON ; PRINTED FOR WALTER BVRRE." 



•'1614." 



In this volume. Chapter V. (of " the first Booke 

 of the first Part"), page 66., " Of the long Lives 

 of the Patriarchs, and some of late memory" after 

 enumerating several celebrated persons who lived 

 to great ages, Raleigh thus speaks of the old 

 Countess : — 



" I myself knew the old Countess of Desmond of 

 Inchiquin, in Munster, who lived in the yeare 1589, 

 and many years since, who was married in Edward I V.'s 

 time, and held her joynture from all the Earls of Des- 

 mond since then ; and that this is true, all noblemen 

 and gentlemen of Munster can witnesse." 



From this passage I think it can be shown, that 

 the reader can draw no other inference than that 

 the Countess of Desmond was dead at the time Sir 

 Walter Raleigh wrote it. In his heading to the- 

 chapter he speaks of some of " late memory ;" and 

 the words " many years since" evidently mean that 

 she lived many years after 1589.* We do not 

 know at what precise period the above passage 

 was penned ; but we learn from Sir Walter's Pre- 

 face, that he composed this great and admirable 

 work whilst a prisoner in the Tower (from which 

 he was liberated in 1616). In that preface he 

 speaks with deep feeling and regret for the loss of 

 Prince Henry. He says the Pi-ince read part of 

 the work ; and that he wrote it " for the service of 

 that inestimable" youth. We know that Henry 

 died in November, 1612. The passage, therefore, 

 about the " old Countess," which occurs in a very 

 early part of the book, there can be no doubt, was 

 written before 1612, and the entire work pub- 

 lished in 1614. If, therefore (as I think no one 

 can doubt, from the manner in which it is worded), 

 the old lady was dead when Sir Walter wrote 

 about her, it is not possible she could have visited 

 the court of King James in 1614. 



As Raleigh says "I myself knew the old Countess 



* In his History of the World, Raleigh frequently 

 uses the word since as we use the word after. 



