442 
stood the market, would, by being stored for some years, become of 
more value than ‘New Rose’* of the present year, and brands of fifteen or 
twenty years past rival in price and attraction vintages of the same 
dates, while tubs of bog-butter would literally prove nuggets of gold! 
Should these possibilities become realities, though this paper may 
fail in its intended purpose, it will not have been written in vain. 
With, however, that conscientious impartiality that all historic in- 
quiries should command, I feel bound to state that this implied opinion 
of Lord Bacon is directly impugned by the present representatives of old 
Thomas Parr, who in the ‘‘ Life’”’ they have published of him (we are 
to presume from his original documents) state, ‘‘ that during Parr’s stay 
with the Earl of Arundel he was introduced to the celebrated Countess 
of Desmond, to whom, it is believed, Parr gave a supply of the medicine 
by which he maintained his vigour to such an extreme period of life; and 
this is extremely probable, as the Countess lived to the amazing age of 
145 years.” 
We are thus called to exercise our judgment between a fact implied 
and a fact probable,—the rival merits of an outward application on the - 
human frame of animal matter, and an inward action on the human 
frame of vegetable matter—between the butter firkin and the pill-box. 
The result is immaterial to my inquiry; and, unconscious of bias, I must 
say, I think that the firkin carries most weight. 
Lord Bacon’s next notice is in his ‘‘ Sylva Sylvarum ; or, A Natural 
History in ten Centuries.’? London: folio, 1627; page 194, century 8, 
‘‘ Experiments in consort touching Teeth,’’ No. 755.—‘‘ They tell a 
Tale of the old Countess of Desmond, who lived till she was seven score 
years old, that she did dentire twice or thrice: casting her old Teeth, 
and others coming in their place.” . 
We now pass on to Fynes Moryson’s visiting Youghal in 1618, 
and note what he learned there respecting the Old Countess, then dead. 
And it will be observed, that Lord Bacon is entirely indebted to Mo- 
ryson for the information of the Countess’s age, and renewing of her 
teeth. Sir Walter Raleigh only mentions her being married in the reign 
of Edward IV., and this era accords with her reported age at Youghal. 
I think the two, but quite dissimilar, notices mutually support and 
confirm each other. 
From ‘‘ Fynes Moryson, his Ten Yeeres’ Travel,’’ &c., folio. London, 
1617, Part u., Book i, chap. iL, p. 299. ‘‘ Ireland.’’—‘‘ In the yeere 
1613, by the intreaty of my brother Sir Richard Moryson (Vice-Presi- 
dent of Mounster), and out of my desire to see his children God had 
given him in Ireland (besides some occasions of my private estate), I 
was drawne over againe into Ireland, where we landed the ninth of 
September, miraculously preserved from shipwrack. For at nine 
of the night, (beinge darke at that time of the yeere), we fell upon 
the coast of Ireland, and not well knowing the coast, but imagin- 
* The highest brand in the Cork butter market. 
