76 JAMES MUSPRATT 



impassioned, irresistible. In Lady Macbeth, 

 the Siddons was unrivalled; while O'Neill 

 in her matchless representation of feminine 

 tenderness as Juliet and Mrs. Haller, was 

 faultless." Her character was one of singular 

 modesty and gentleness, she "wore the white 

 flower of a blameless life." She married in 

 1819, William Wrixen-Beecher, M.P. for 

 Mallow, who succeeded to a baronetcy, and 

 the poor little maid of Drogheda, became 

 Lady Wrixen-Beecher. 



James Muspratt came under the spell 

 of her beauty and genius, and although 

 only a young man, was honoured in being 

 able to assist in bringing her before the 

 fashionable Dublin circle. Probably it 

 was at this time that he made the 

 acquaintance of the youth who afterwards 

 became his intimate friend, the humorous, 

 pathetic, romantic, artistic, poetical Samuel 

 Lover. The man to whom he was most 

 drawn was James Sheridan Knowles, the 

 celebrated dramatist, actor and scholar, whose 

 gift of authorship dawned on him when a 

 mere child, and who, when he was but 

 fourteen years old, wrote the extremely 

 popular ballad, "The Welsh Harper." He 

 made his debut also on the boards of the 



