9 8 A HISTORY OF 



as follows : — " This large edifice is now abandoned, its 

 collections removed to an inconvenient distance, and 

 crowded into ill-adapted rooms. The Society, having 

 expended vast sums to render one house unfit for 

 any other purpose, have purchased another which no 

 money will render suitable — a splendid edifice well 

 calculated for the mansion house of the Lord Mayor, 

 but ill-adapted indeed for the residence of science and 

 philosophy." 



LEINSTER HOUSE 



In ancient times portion of Kildare street and Kil- 

 dare place, together with part of St. Stephen's Green, 

 formed what was known as the Mensons' or Mynchens' 

 fields, which were the property of the Nunnery of St. 

 Mary del Hogges, founded for elderly nuns of the 

 better classes, known as Mynchens. 1 The district, at 

 the beginning of the eighteenth century, was called 

 the Molesworth fields, having been acquired by that 

 family, to which belonged Robert, John, and Richard, 

 first, second, and third Viscounts Molesworth ; the 

 first distinguished by his writings in defence of liberty, 

 the second as a successful ambassador, and the third 

 as a warrior who served in all the campaigns in 

 Flanders. An Act of Parliament, passed in 1725, en- 

 abled the Molesworth family to make leases of certain 

 portions unbuilt on, including the site of Kildare 

 House — the present Leinster House. 



Soon after succeeding to the title in 1744, James 

 FitzGerald, twentieth Earl of Kildare, decided on 

 erecting a town house on this part of the Molesworth 

 fields, which he had purchased from the third Lord 

 Molesworth for ^1000. He commissioned Richard 



1 Minch, a nun. The nunnery at Littlemore is still called the 

 Minchery. 



