The Robinson Garden at Earlscliffe, Baily, Co. Dublin, Ireland

The Lumsden years
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Former residents
The Lumsden years

 

Earlscliffe in the early part of the 20th century at the time of Sir John Lumsden

The following letter was written to the Irish Times on June 22 1987:

LANDSCAPING A GARDEN

Sir - It was with great interest that I read in the weekend supplement of June 13th, "One man's way to achieve beauty without backache", written by Ella Shanahan. And I feasted on the beautiful picture.

It might be of some interest to keen gardeners to know that approximately 56 years ago my father, the late Sir John Lumsden, bought Earlscliffe from the late Dr Ella Webb. As this superbly sited place of seven acres was virtually shrubless and flowerless, my father set to, to landscape and transform the garden. He had many shrubs planted, not, unfortunately, as beautiful as Dr Robinson's present ones. He also planned several terraces, and in the centre of the main picture one can just glimpse one of the "points" of the St John Cross (my father being the founder and first commissioner of the St John Ambulance Brigade in the Republic of Ireland), the building of which gave my father enormous pleasure.
It was indeed God-sent, that such a skilled artist as Dr Robinson should have bought, nurtured and improved Earlscliffe's garden as he has, and I feel greatly indebted to him, as I greatly loved and appreciated the 18 years I lived there, up to my marriage in 1939. - Yours, etc.,
BETTY L'ESTRANGE,
Lisnalurg House, Sligo

Betty was born Betty Florence Lumsden on 4 October 1909. She married Captain Christopher Carleton L'Estrange on 21 October 1939. [1]

More recently (2006), a grand-daughter of Sir John, Margery Stratton has been in contact. Margery was born and brought up in a small town in Pennsylvania, but spent a memorable year in Earlscliffe in 1935/6. Here is an extract from a recent correspondence with her.

Because I was 12 when I arrived at Earlscliffe and everything about it, the people, the servants, the location was so different than my home in a small town in Pennsylvania everything stands out in my memory.

The paths, and the lawn outside the "Morning Room" facing the Irish Sea are pretty much the same. A putting green was on the lawn and I have many photos of the house and grounds. My father and I arrived on July 21, 1935 and every evening sherry was served on the lawn and we all took our turn at putting while nibbling on cheese crackers and nuts (and I probably drank barley water with lemon squash with a squirt of soda as I was the 12 year old granddaughter). The view of Dublin Bay was so beautiful and when Dad's brother in law Douglas Latta arrived from Ayr to be with his wife Aunt Norah and their two children, Jennifer (4) and Stuart (2) shepherded by a Scottish Nanny, we would all watch from the boat from Scotland going to Dun Laoghaire where he would be met by Grandpa (Sir John) Lumsden or another member of the family as Betty Lumsden still lived at home (she was one of the twins and was about 26 years old). Actually Betty was studying piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London and home for the summer and at holidays. Aunt Norah spent the entire summer there and the Nursery was over the Morning room and during that time Grandpa lived in his "hut" on the hill above the putting green. Granny (Caroline Kingscote Lumsden) had her "hut" across the lawn under the palm tree with a view of the sea. (Now I believe the house faces East and if so then the Baily Lighthouse was Northeast and the sound of the foghorn was a nightly background noise. Another foghorn was south of the Needles.)

In that household were the cook Katie, and parlormaid, Winnie who later married the chauffeur, David, and Mr. and Mrs. Barnes who lived in an apartment between the main house and the barn/courtyard. Mr. Barnes was in charge of the garden and Mrs. Barnes made butter, took care of the chickens, and I have no idea who milked the cow which was out in the pasture. Ninnie was the woman who came to the Lumsdens when Grannie was expecting her first child (my father) born in 1897. She stayed with the family her entire life and was an excellent seamstress and made all the clothes that I wore to school etc.

When we visited Betty's daughter Stella (L'Estrange) Durand, an Episcopal priest who lives in Wicklow in the town of Kiltegan and then Caroline (L'Estrange) Hamilton I learned a lot more -- but they are just a few years older than my eldest son, Bill, who turned 60 in July. The Christmas of 2005 Caroline sent us a book about the Guinness family and we learned so much more about Grandpa from that book.

The book that Margery was referring to was "The Goodness Of Guinness" by Tony Corcoran, published in 2005 by Liberties Press ISBN 0-9545335. This book is an "illustrated social history of the St James's Gate Brewery, including in-depth discussion of the major contribution made by the Guinness company to the welfare of its staff and the wider community." [2]. It contains many stories about Sir John Lumsden and his work at the brewery.

Margery has sent us a fascinating story of Earlscliffe in the 1930s and has given us permission to publish some of the stories. These will be published soon.

Read more about

bullet1850 to today - residents of Earlscliffe House and Gardens

To learn more about the history of the Robinson Garden at Earlscliffe, read the following page:

bulletHistory of the Robinson Garden at Earlscliffe

Disclaimer. Parts of the data found in these history pages has been derived from sources currently available on the internet. In researching the previous owners of Earlscliffe, certain assumptions have been made as to the validity of this internet data. If you believe that some of this data is inaccurate, please use the contacts page to let us know.

References

bullet[1] thePeerage.com A genealogical survey of the peerage of Britain as well as the royal families of Europe http://www.thepeerage.com/p19892.htm
bullet[2] http://www.libertiespress.com/goodness_guinness.html

This page was last updated on 24-Feb-2008 .

 

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