474 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



years' captivity at Chester. Liberated in 1658 Eustace returned to 

 Ireland, but was forbidden the exercise of his profession at the bar, at 

 which, prior to these troubles, he had reached the rank of Prime 

 Serjeant, and, at the Restoration, his sufferings were held to have 

 earned his advancement to the highest judicial office in Ireland.' 

 Eustace was old enough to remember the unfulfilled plans of Falkland 

 for the enclosure of the Crown lands of Kilmainham, and Ormond, full 

 of schemes for the improvement of Dublin, had a ready ally in a 

 Chancellor whose own seat at Harristown was reckoned among the 

 stateliest homes in Ireland. It is, perhaps, doing the old gentleman 

 no injustice to surmise that his satisfaction in the laying out of His 

 Majesty's deer-park was not diminished by the circumstances that the 

 scheme could not be effectually carried out without his own consent and 

 co-operation, and that it presented an opportunity for the advantageous 

 disposal of his property at Chapelizod. Be this as it may, it is certain 

 that the first official mention of the Phoenix Park occurs in a King's 

 letter, dated December 1st, 1662, directed to the Lord Lieutenant, 

 which ratifies the pui'chase from Eustace of 441 acres contiguous 

 to the Phoenix demesne, being part of the manor or lordship of 

 Chapelizod, which the Chancellor had recently acquired.^ 



The original extent of the Crown lands held with the Manor House 

 of the Phoenix cannot have been much above four hundred acres. But 

 'hj an agreement entered into at the same time as the arrangement 

 with Eustace about a hundred acres lying to the north-west of the 

 Phoenix demesne, and known as the lands of l^ewtown, were acquired 

 for a sum of £3000.^ This purchase was not completed until 1671, but 

 the lands, which included the site of the present Yiceregal Lodge, were 

 at once taken over and walled in. Thus the Park, as at first con- 

 templated, comprised little more than a thousand acres. This was 

 speedily found to be insufficient, and in May, 1663, a further king's 

 letter* authorised the purchase fi'om Eustace of ' ' the whole manor and 

 house of Chapelizard with the town and lands thereunto belonging, 

 amounting in the whole to 590 acres with several other lands which be 

 most convenient to enclose in a park." The purchase-money was 

 fixed at a maximum of £10,000, the precise sum being left to arbitra- 

 tion. By the same authority the Lord Lieutenant was further directed 



' For a detailed notice of Sir Maurice Eustace, see " Some Notes on the Irish 

 Judiciary in the reign of Charles II.," hy Francis Ellington Ball. 

 2 Ormonde MS. 



•' Howard's " Exchequer and Revenue of Ireland," vol. ii., p. 261. 

 * King's Letter, 23rd May, 1663. Ormonde MS. 



