472 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academ;/. 



statesmen in the intervals that great affaii's afforded. Here Strafford,, 

 in the earlier years of his rule, diverted himself with hawking, or with 

 such substitute for his favourite sport as he was forced to improvise in 

 a couutry seat in which, as he laments to his fi-iend Cottington,^ 

 " there hath not been a partridge within the memory of man." " To- 

 morrow," he writes, " I pm-pose with a cast or two of spar-hawks to 

 take myself to fly at blackbirds, ever and anon taking them on the 

 pates with a ti'ench. It is excellent sport, there being sometimes two 

 hundred horse on the field looking on at us." On Ormond's surrender 

 of Dublin to the Parliament in 1647, the Phoenix passed into the hands 

 of the Parliamentarians, but on the Viceroy's return in June, 1649, when 

 he lay before Dublin prior to the disastrous battle of Eathmin.es, he 

 summoned the House to suiTcnder, and it was delivered up, but only 

 to be reoccupied a few weeks later by the victorious forces of the Parlia- 

 mentary General, Michael Jones. ^ In 1652 Sir Hierome Sankey, one of 

 the gi'eediest of the Cromwellians, seems to have secured a promise of 

 the place, and a siuwey of the manor of TCilmainham was ordered by 

 the Parliamentary Commissioners ; but it does not appear how far this 

 affair proceeded.^ Later, the Phoenix was the constant abode of Henry 

 Cromwell, many of whose letters are dated from thence. He appears- 

 to have been fond of the place and added considerably to the building, 

 which, even before his improvemements, was described by Sir William 

 Petty as a veiy stately house and in good repair.* Oiinond, on being 

 reinstated as Viceroy, gave order for the building of a hall and 

 stables ; and Lord Orrery,^ who, as one of the Lord Justices, pending 

 Ormond's arrival, had charge of the improvements, suggested the 

 addition of a chapel ; but, except as to the stables, these designs were- 

 not proceeded with, the larger schemes involved in tho formation of 

 the Park rendering them in part unnecessary. 



We have now reached the time of the making of the Park, but 

 before proceeding with the stoiy it may be convenient to trace the 

 subsequent history of the old Phoenix House. The Duke of Ormond 

 was the last Viceroy to utilise the place as a residence, and his occupa- 

 tion must have terminated about 1665, when the Viceregal seat was 

 moved, as will shortly be seen, to Chapelizod ; but the gardens and 

 stables were maintained for many years. The house itself seems tO' 



1 " Strafford Letters," vol, i., p. 162. 



2 Letter of ArtL.m- Blackwell fi-om Dublin, July 11, 1649, Carte Papers, 25, 35. 

 ^Harding, " On Surveys in Ireland," Trans. RJ.A. 



* Orrery's " State Letters," vol. i., p. 62 ; Down Survey. 

 ^On-ery's " State Letters," vol. i.. p. 62. 



