Lady Morgan’s Memoirs
Sir Arthur Clarke to Lady Morgan, 19 May 1857
Tuesday,
May 19, 1857.
My dearest Sydney,
José and I have just returned from taking a sketch of
Drumcondra House, and inclose some flowers, out of your old garden, which is in
great preservation. The house is now the post office, kept by a Mr.
Heith, and his wife remembers two ladies some years ago calling
to see the house;—one was Lady Morgan,
and the other was Lady Clarke.
José will send you the sketch when finished, and
it will look beautiful. Tell little Syd.
I received her letter this morning, and that I will write to her in a day or
two.
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LADY MORGAN'S MEMOIR. |
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I overheard two gentlemen in the United Service Club
yesterday talking of your matinée. One said, he had
often seen the Miss Owensons in Enniskillen, that he knew
their father intimately, and that he was
a handsome man; had the heart of a gentleman, the looks of a gentleman, and the
manners of a gentleman; and that he also knew Dr.
Burroughs, the author of The Night before Larry was Stretched.
Ever yours affectionately,
Robert Burrowes (1756 c.-1841)
Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he was Dean of Cork and a noted Irish wit who denied
writing the song “De Nite before Larry was stretched.”
Sir Arthur Clarke (1778-1857)
Irish physician and fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons; in 1808 he married Olivia
Owenson, sister of Lady Morgan.
Lady Olivia Clarke [née Owenson] (1785 c.-1845)
The younger sister of Lady Morgan who married Dublin physician Sir Arthur Clarke
(1778-1857) in 1808. She wrote songs and a play, and published in the
Metropolitan Magazine and
Athenaeum.
Sydney Jane Inwood-Jones [née Clarke] (d. 1882)
The daughter of Sir Arthur Clarke of Dublin and niece of Lady Morgan; in 1834 she married
first, Thomas French Laurence (d. 1837), and secondly, in 1840, Edward Newton Jones, rector
of Shire Norton (d. 1856).
Robert Nugent Owenson (1744-1812)
Originally MacOwen; Irish actor who performed in London (where he was a friend of Oliver
Goldsmith) and founded theaters in Galway and London; he was the father of Lady
Morgan.
