Glenarm Castle: 1824

GLENARM CASTLE, THE SEAT OF ANNE CATHERINE, COUNTESS OF ANTRIM suo jure, FROM ENGRAVINGS BY JOHN PRESTON NEALE

"This noble edifice stands on the sea-shore, near the bay of the same name, in a situation remarkable for its natural beauties."

"In Plate I is represented the principal entrance to the Castle, over a bridge, which formerly led to the town of Glenarm, a new bridge, seen in the distance in our View, has been erected under the direction of the present proprietors, nearer to the sea, with a better access to the town; and, by the skill of W Morrison, the architect, a grand and imposing effect has been given to the Mansion by the erection of a gateway, corresponding in appearance with the remains of the ancient castle."

"THE general view of this noble building is given in Plate II in which the opposite side of the entrance gateway and old bridge is seen; under is a Fall of Water."

"The Castle here presents a most noble appearance; its curious towers and gable rising behind the walls which enclose it."

"The mansion has been lately rebuilt by William Morrison."

"It has been in the possession of the noble family of MacDonnell for some centuries."

"A monastery was also built at Glenarm in 1465, by Robert Bisset, a native of Scotland, which, together with the lands belonging thereunto, were granted to Alexander MacDonnell, an ancestor of its present owner."

Click to Enlarge

Thomas Milton (1743-1827), also engraved the Castle (above) ca 1790.

First published in June, 2020.

Ulster: A Journey

Serendipity is "the gift for finding valuable objects of art etc by chance," according to my trusty Nuttall's dictionary.

In this case, it was a modest, second-hand paperback book: Ulster: A Journey Through The Six Counties, by Robin Bryans.

We were staying at a hotel in Puerto Pollensa, Majorca, in 2004.

In the residents' lounge there was a shelf containing magazines and books which other residents weren't taking home with them, and I discovered this wonderful little paperback.

Its origin was the Norfolk County Library, of all places!

It was dated the 10th January, 1992, and stamped "Withdrawn For Sale, 30p."

This isn't  really a guidebook: it's an anecdotal travel book, the author's personal and intimate journey through some exceptionally interesting parts of the Province.

Bryans had a wonderful way with words, to the extent that much of his prose sounds poetic in its composition, if that's not a contradiction in itself.

It was first published in 1964, though this edition was dated 1989.

First published in March, 2010.

BH Memoirs: III

REMINISCENCES OF LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOHN MATTHEW BLAKISTON-HOUSTON DL (1898-1984), OF BELTRIM CASTLE, COUNTY TYRONE, AND RODDENS, COUNTY DOWN, BORN AT ORANGEFIELD HOUSE, KNOCKBREDA, NEAR BELFAST.

HE SERVED IN THE FIRST AND SECOND WORLD WARS; WAS AIDE-DE-CAMP TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF AUSTRALIA, 1929-30; HIGH SHERIFF OF COUNTY DOWN, 1944; DEPUTY LIEUTENANT OF COUNTY DOWN, 1946; HIGH SHERIFF OF COUNTY TYRONE, 1954.

In March, 1924, I went home on a year’s leave on full pay.

DERMOT KAVANAGH also got a year’s leave.

I’m sure we were the last two officers in the British Army ever to be granted a year’s leave, except for special reasons.

Colonel Geoffrey Lockett had once praised me and said, “If ever you want anything, let me know,” so when the leave-book came round I put down March 1924 to March 1925.

The Colonel, of course, sent for me and asked me for my reasons and I reminded him of his promise.

He signed it, saying, “Of course the Brigadier will turn it down.”

However, it so happened that Mouse Tomkinson had just been appointed to the Brigade a few days before.

He came with one reputation – that he was in the habit of getting more leave than anyone else in the Army.

I suppose he thought he would not like to feel that his first act as Brigadier-General was to turn down two poor fellows leave – so it went through.

My parents were living at Finlaystone, near Glasgow in the winter and at Roddens in the summer.

My brother, George, was working in the Clyde Shipping Company in Glasgow.

I went with my father grouse-shooting and spent part of the winter hunting in County Meath.

Tommy Ainsworth [Sir Thomas Ainsworth Bt] and HOLMPATRICK were joint masters that year.

Ireland was still in an unsettled state.

The Government of Ireland Act had been passed in 1922 but the Free State Government were having trouble with the Republican element and there were frequent clashes between the IRA (Irish Republican Army) and the Free State Army.

I stayed with my uncle, GEORGE FOWLER, at Kells.

The Republicans had painted up on his wall, “FOWLER PREPARE FOR DEATH,” but that did not appear to worry my uncle.

My aunt used to tell an amusing story,

One day a taxi drove up to the National Bank in the small town of Carrickmacross, and three men got out. 

The leader produced a dirty bit of paper and presented it to the Manager. 

Written on it was “These men have been ordered to protect you, IRA.” 

Rumour flew round the town that the IRA had sent some men to protect first. 

The IRA leader replied that his orders were to protect the National Bank but he’d see what he could do to oblige, if the Manager stayed in the Bank and waited after closing hours. 

He left his two assistants in the National Bank and went on up to the Bank of Ireland. 

When he got to the strong room he took over the keys and gave the Manager a gentle push and locked him inside. 

The taxi drove up and collected the swag from both banks and proceeded on its way to Drogheda.

My aunt had another story about an unfortunate gentleman who had his house burned down by the IRA.

The house was a complete ruin but in the fire one wall had taken on a dangerous lean.

He received a letter from the IRA instructing him to take down this dangerous wall forthwith as it was endangering the lives of the people searching for “souvenirs” in the ruins.

In August, 1925, my brother George was accidentally drowned while shooting duck at Finlaystone.

His death was a great blow to me.

First published in January, 2015.  Extracts by kind permission of RP Blakiston-Houston OBE JP DL 

Antrim Castle: 1824

ANTRIM CASTLE, COUNTY ANTRIM, SEAT OF THOMAS HENRY, SECOND VISCOUNT FERRARD, FROM AN ENGRAVING BY JOHN PRESTON NEALE

"Antrim Castle adjoins the town from whence it takes its name; a view up the principal street of which is commanded from the parapet of the adjoining terrace garden, ascended from the Castle yard by a handsome flight of stone steps."

"It is enclosed from the town by a gateway, and stands on a walled terrace, overhanging the river Sixmilewater, which flows into the vast waters of Lough Neagh, within sight of the Castle, at about the distance of a quarter of a mile."

"This castle is among the few found to be preserved in Ireland, of those erected in pursuance of the injunctions of the grant made by JAMES I for the protection of the colonies or plantations then about to be established."

"The building was raised, as appears by an inscription, on a large carved mantel of stone, covering the centre of the principal front, in the year 1613, by Sir Hugh Clotworthy, and has been subsequently altered according to the different tastes of its successive proprietors."

"The front of the Castle is also decorated with the armorial bearing of the family, and those of their alliances, surmounted by the royal arms of England, and a carved head, in relief, of CHARLES I."

"THE suite of rooms is extensive and modern, the entire Castle having undergone a thorough repair in the time of the last Earl of Massereene."

"The exterior towards the Court has been recently restored by the present possessor to the character of the period in which it was originally erected."

"Few places in Ireland command greater power of beauty, or extent of drive."

"Its demesne and deer-park stretch along the shores of Lough Neagh for above two miles, ornamented with fine old timber and copse wood, covering every headland, down to the river edge, with various plantations, calculated to blend in the scenery of as rich and highly cultivated  a county as any to be found in Ireland."

"The view over the lough towards the south is bounded only by the horizon, which towards the west it rests on the distant Tyrone and Derry mountains, and the nearer woods of Shane's Castle, the ancient seat of the Earl O'Neill, whose towers project into the lough itself."

"These two fine domains, indeed, embrace, with their woods and pleasure grounds, the whole of the bay of Antrim, an extent of six or seven miles."

"The gardens are on the same side of the river with the Castle."

"An ancient bridge of six arches, represented in the plate, leading to the park and outgrounds, is overlooked by one of those old mounts, ascended by a winding path, erected in strict accordance with Bacon's notions, being, as he recommends, "some forty feet high."

"THE gate-house, leading from the town of Antrim to the Castle Court, has been also added by the present possessor, and is remarkable for the sympathetic hinges on which the massive gates are opened and closed."

First published in June, 2020.

BH Memoirs: II

REMINISCENCES OF LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOHN MATTHEW BLAKISTON-HOUSTON DL (1898-1984), OF BELTRIM CASTLE, COUNTY TYRONE, AND RODDENS, COUNTY DOWN, BORN AT ORANGEFIELD HOUSE, KNOCKBREDA, NEAR BELFAST.

HE SERVED IN THE FIRST AND SECOND WORLD WARS; AIDE-DE-CAMP TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVORNOR-GENERAL OF AUSTRALIA, 1929-30; HIGH SHERIFF OF COUNTY DOWN, 1944; DEPUTY LIEUTENANT OF COUNTY DOWN, 1946; HIGH SHERIFF OF COUNTY TYRONE, 1954.

IN 1908, at the age of ten, I went to school for one term at Mourne Grange, near Kilkeel, County Down.

I remember the journey well because we travelled in an Argyll motor car, and a great deal of stopping was necessary to allow the car to cool off on the hills.

Next term I went to Arnold House, Llandullas, North Wales, and stayed there until I went to Eton in September, 1911.

My career at Eton was not a very distinguished one: I got my Lower Boats, and passed most of my trials and made many friends, but I can’t claim that my school-days were the happiest days of my life.

In any case I was only there four years and left in December, 1915, after passing into Sandhurst, rather unexpectedly.

I had been in Army Class from the time I became an “Upper,” and I now realised how very narrow and specialized this Army Class modern school was.

It is only within the last few years that I have read any English Literature.

Of Shakespeare, of Milton, Thackeray, and of other English Classics I knew nothing.

My brother, George, was eighteen months younger than me.

We shared a room together at Bookers’ House.

The winter holidays were spent at Roddens where we used to hunt two days a week with the Ards Harriers.

CAPTAIN DICK KER was Master, and his son David hunted them.

As the Kers lived outside the hunting country my father turned his laundry into a kennels and much of our time was occupied in exercising hounds.

My father took some 42,000 acres of Grouse Shooting at Pettigo, County Donegal, for five years from 1912.

We lived in The Agency, a house in the village of Pettigo.

We were allowed to ask some of our friends from Eton over, so the house was packed from the 12th of August till the end of the summer holidays.

Two parties, each of two grown-ups and a boy shot each day over dogs, and two boats with the remainder of the party fished Lough Derg for brown trout.

It was four miles of mountain road from Pettigo to the Lough.

The Lough is one of the most beautiful in Ireland, about four miles by five, with over a hundred islands.

It is set like a blue gem in the midst of the soft brown or purple of the hills of County Donegal.

With hardly another human habitation to be seen the natural beauty of the landscape is broken by the great mass of churches and hotels clustered together on Station Island.

Here, each year up to 10,000 Roman Catholic pilgrims congregate between 1st July and 15th August to do penance at the St Patrick’s pilgrimage.

 *****

ABOUT 1909 I was invited by the Lady Londonderry of the day who, I think, was Lady-in-Waiting to The Queen, to stand on the balcony at Windsor Castle to witness the landing of the first aeroplane ever to fly across the English Channel, and it landed on Runnymede, driven by Blériot.

I was accompanied by young Bonar Law, another Eton Boy, whose father was then Prime Minister.

After passing into Sandhurst I spent about a month staying in County Meath with my aunt, Mabel Fowler, and hunting with the Meath Hounds.

BRYAN FOWLER, my cousin, who was just my age, had passed into Woolwich at the same time and so we hunted in couples.

General Powell was then Master of the Meaths.

On the days we were not hunting we were shooting snipe with my uncle, George Fowler.

In January, 1916, I went to Sandhurst.

I was only to spend seven months there as I was commissioned into 11th Hussars in August 16th, 1916, a fortnight before my eighteenth birthday.

I enjoyed my seven months at Sandhurst. It was a hard school.

As cavalry cadets we were posted to “K” Company.

Major Lomer commanded the company and John Hinde, 15th Hussars, and Jack Nettlefold was very strict and severe.

My father had given me a polo pony and, instead of keeping him in Pitchell’s livery stable, I took stabling at a “Pub” in Camberley, and looked after ponies for LUMP ALTAMONT (6th Marquess of Sligo), Blandford (9th Duke of Marlborough) and Scabbard Sword, who later on succeeded me as Adjutant of the Cheshire Yeomanry, as well as my own.

It certainly taught me something of the mysteries of Horse-mastership.

We passed out in August, 1916, and I was posted to the 12th Reserve Cavalry Regiment at Warburg Barracks in Aldershot.

Looking back my method of joining up is amusing.

 *****

AT THAT TIME I was very interested in cockfighting and had several cocks at walk in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

I brought two cocks with me to Aldershot.

Most of the time they were kept in large cages in the officers’ quarters in the passage outside my room.

Later, I suppose for sanitary reasons, they were transferred to the miniature range Nissen hut.

On Sunday mornings it was the habit of our commanding officer, Colonel Ronnie Brooke DSO (elder brother of Lord Alanbrooke and uncle of SIR BASIL BROOKE, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland) to carry out a tour of inspection of the Barracks after Church parade.

For the inspection my game cocks had been hidden in front of the target, but just as the Commanding Officer and his staff were leaving, the range of cocks gave a loud “Cock-a-doodle-do”.

The CO had gone out but wondered why his staff were tittering behind him.

I was in Eric Crossley’s Squadron “C” and soon CHARLES MULHOLLAND (later 3rd Lord Dunleath) returned to the Reserve Regiment after being very badly wounded in the early days of the War.

He became 2nd i/c "C" Squadron.

His younger brother, Harry, was also there as a lieutenant and Hotchkiss Gun instructor.

Towards the end of 1916 I conducted a draft out to Rouen.

I remember how cold the weather was.

The ice was so thick on the Seine that we had to have a thick skinned tug to proceed us.

The only person I knew in Rouen was my uncle, Charlie Blakiston-Houston, who was Major in Command of the Ulster Division, RASC.

Uncle Charlie was a well known character wherever he went.

I did not know his address but asked the first Frenchman I met on the Docks.

He immediately replied “Oui, Oui,” and personally conducted me to the suburbs of Rouen where my uncle had his camp.

He was such a character that he had made himself very well know in Rouen.

He was most unorthodox in his methods of dealing with his men and addressed them all either by their Christian names or as “My Dear."

About the middle of 1917, I was sent on draft leave preparatory to joining the 11th Hussars in France, but as I was still under 19 years old, unknown to me my mother wired Charles Mulholland, and I was waylaid and brought back to Aldershot.

About this time an appeal appeared in Regimental Orders for volunteers for the Heavy Branch, Machine Gun Corps, which later became the Tank Corps – I sent my name forward.

Horsed cavalry at this period of the war was not a very satisfactory arm of the service to belong to.

Trench lines and barbed wire entanglements made their employment in their true role virtually impossible and more often than not they were employed dismounted.

In August, 1917, I was seconded and posted to the 13th Battalion of the Tank Corps, and was stationed at Wareham and Bovington Camps in Dorset.

For the next five months we worked very hard forming the Battalion and attending innumerable courses.

At the end of January, 1918, we sailed as a half-trained unit to continue our training near St Pol in the Pas de Calais.

First published in January, 2015.  Extracts by kind permission of RP Blakiston-Houston OBE JP DL

The May Baronetcy

The family of MAY, anciently De May, traces its descent to John de May, who came to England with WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, and, for his services, obtained considerable grants of land in the counties of Kent and Sussex. His descendants were seated for many generations at Kennington, in Kent; and subsequently at Wadhurst, and other places in Sussex.

From William May, second son of Thomas May, of Wadhurst, descended

SIR HUMPHREY MAY (1573-1630), Vice-Chamberlain to JAMES I and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster; and also

SIR THOMAS MAY, of Mayfield, Sussex, whose eldest son, Thomas May, a celebrated poet, died unmarried, and whose second son,

EDWARD MAY, settled at Mayfield, County Waterford, and married Margaret, daughter of Arthur O'Donnelly, of Castle Caulfield, County Tyrone; the grandson of which marriage,

EDWARD MAY (c1672-1729), of Mayfield, MP for County Waterford, 1715-29, wedded Elizabeth, daughter and co-heiress (with her sister, Anne, Countess of Tyrone), of Andrew Richards, of County Kilkenny.

Mr May was succeeded by his son,

JAMES MAY (c1697-c1734), MP for County Waterford, 1725-34, who espoused Lætitia, daughter of William, 1st Viscount Duncannon.

Mr May left, with a daughter, Elizabeth Richards, wife of Thomas Carew, of Ballinamona, and granddaughter of Thomas Carew, of that place, a son and successor,

JAMES MAY (1723-1811), of Mayfield, MP for County Waterford, 1759-97, who was created a baronet in 1763, designated of Mayfield, County Waterford.

Sir James married Ann, daughter of Thomas Moore, of Marlfield, and niece of Stephen, Earl Mount Cashell, and had issue,

JAMES EDWARD, his heir;
HUMPHREY, 3rd Baronet;

Thomas, dsp;

Charles, died unmarried;

GEORGE STEPHEN, 4th Baronet;
Mary Tottenham.

He was succeeded by his eldest son,

SIR (JAMES) EDWARD MAY, 2nd Baronet (1751-1814), MP for Belfast, 1801-14, who married firstly, in 1773, Eliza Lind née Bagg, of St George, Holborn, Middlesex; and secondly, ca 1809, Elizabeth, daughter of Francis Lumley, of Passage, County Waterford.

He had issue, two illegitimate daughters and two illegitimate sons,

Stephen Edward;
Edward Sylvester (Rev), Vicar of Belfast, 1809;
Anna, m George, 2nd Marquess of Donegall;
Elizabeth, m Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Verner.

The eldest son, Sir Stephen Edward May JP DL (1781-1845), of 1, Donegall Place, Belfast, following his father's death in 1814, believing himself to be the rightful successor to his father's baronetcy, styled himself "Sir Stephen May Bt."

Sir Stephen, MP for Belfast, 1814-16, received the honour of Knighthood, in 1816, from Charles, 1st Earl Whitworth, Lord Lieutenant.

Sir Edward, erstwhile Collector of the Revenue of the port of Waterford, was succeeded in that lucrative and important office by his younger brother,

SIR HUMPHREY MAY, 3rd Baronet, of Maypark, High Sheriff of County Waterford, 1798, who wedded, in 1784, Jane, daughter of the Rev James Grueber.

Sir Humphrey dsp 1819 in France, and was succeeded by his brother,

SIR GEORGE STEPHEN MAY, 4th Baronet (1764-1834).

Sir Humphrey had married Jane Grueber in 1784. She survived him; however, it seems, she would not continue to reside at Maypark, hence, in Ramsey’s Waterford Chronicle of 1819, an advertisement appeared that Maypark was to be let on such terms and for such a period as might be agreed upon or the interest would be sold.

The baronetcy expired in 1834 following the decease of Sir George Stephen May, 4th and last Baronet.

*****

In 1795, George, 2nd Marquess of Donegall, married Anna, daughter of Sir Edward, described as "a moneylender who also ran a gaming house". 

He managed to get Lord Donegall - then styled Lord Chichester - released from a debtors' prison in 1795 and offered his daughter Anna in marriage, an obligation which his lordship felt obliged to accept.

The couple came to Belfast in 1802 to escape his debtors and brought the May family with them.

Anna (May), 2nd Marchioness of Donegall, had been under-age at the time of her marriage and should have had the permission of the courts in 1795 but this had not been sought; so, as a consequence, the marriage was declared unlawful. 

Edward Street in Belfast was named after Sir Edward May; as was Great Edward Street, May Street and May's Market.

Sir Edward pioneered the reclamation of land from the edges of Belfast Lough; however, more infamously, he was regarded as the man who desecrated the graves of those buried at St George's graveyard at High Street and Ann Street in order to sell the land for the development of Church Street and Ann Street in Belfast. 

May's Dock in Belfast was also named after Sir (James) Edward May, brother of Lady Donegall.

Sir Edward reclaimed the land to form May's Dock from the original bed of the river and the high water line was where Great Edward Street now continues into Cromac Street.
 

The principal seat of the Mays was once Maypark House in County Waterford, now a nursing home. 

Maypark House was built in 1783-84 and named after Humphrey May, who gave his name to Mayfield (near Portlaw) and was MP for Waterford from 1757-97. 

The house was evidently built around the time that Sir Humphrey married Jane Grueber.

Sir Humphrey died approximately seven years after the death of his father, Sir Edward.

Lady May, after the death of her husband and father-in-law, obviously decided to move out of Maypark.

Wherever Lady May was moving to, she had no use for her furniture.

It is not clear, from research, whether of not Sir Humphrey and Lady May had been living in France at the time of Sir Humphrey’s death.

There is no record of a "Jane May" of Waterford to be found after approximately 1820. 

It would appear that she may have moved away from Waterford after her husband’s death.

It is probable that Lord Waterford bought the place for, in the Waterford Chronicle of 9th June, 1827, there was an advertisement announcing "the sale of Lady May’s furniture of Maypark....”

Maypark is listed as being in the occupancy of George Meara in the Slater’s Directory of 1846.

The property consisted of house, offices and land with a total area over 46 acres.

It was valued at £181.

The house appears on the 1840 Ordnance Survey Map with a farm.

The area down to the river is identified as a rough area, possibly marshland.

Some areas are heavily planted.

In the 1909-10 Thom’s directory a Herbert Gough is listed as resident at Maypark.

The house was converted to a private hospital sometime after 1910 and before 1938.

First published in January, 2011. May arms courtesy of the NLI.

BH Memoirs: I

REMINISCENCES OF LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOHN MATTHEW BLAKISTON-HOUSTON DL (1898-1984), OF BELTRIM CASTLE, COUNTY TYRONE, AND RODDENS, COUNTY DOWN, BORN AT ORANGEFIELD HOUSE, NEAR BELFAST

HE SERVED IN THE FIRST AND SECOND WORLD WARS; WAS AIDE-DE-CAMP TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF AUSTRALIA, 1929-30; HIGH SHERIFF OF COUNTY DOWN, 1944; DEPUTY LIEUTENANT OF COUNTY DOWN, 1946; HIGH SHERIFF OF COUNTY TYRONE, 1954

I was born on 31st August, 1898, at Orangefield, Belfast.

ORANGEFIELD was then the home my grandfather, John Blakiston-Houston.

He was the father of twelve children.

His wife (my grandmother) was then dead, and about half of his children were married and away.

My aunt Nina, the eldest unmarried daughter, acted as housekeeper and hostess.

Entertaining was done on a large scale and it was not uncommon for twenty people to sit down to dinner.

My father and mother lived then at Charlesfort, Kells, County Meath, in the winter for the hunting, and at Roddens, Ballywalter, County Down, twenty miles from Orangefield by the sea in the summer months.

Roddens House, near Ballyhalbert (historic OS map)

I remember Charlesfort well as we lived there every winter till 1907 when John Watson, the famous master of the Meath Hounds, died.

There must have been stabling for twenty horses in the yard and several friends of my father used to come and stay most winters with their horses, for three weeks or a month at a time.

A regular visitor was my father’s cousin, CHARLIE O'HARA, from County Sligo.

He brought with him a team of small horses, all of which he’d bred himself.

John Hand was the Stud Groom, one of the real old-fashioned sort.

He had a sure cure for every horse ailment.

There were some other attractive characters about Charlesfort: Johnny Fox, the gardener, was a great friend of ours as children.

He used to unlock the door of the little ivy-covered apple house and produce an apple apiece.

The box hedges were a feature of the Charlesfort garden, and one of them nicely trimmed, must have been fifteen feet high.

Another favourite was his wife, Mrs Fox, who looked after the hens and turkeys and who always wore a shawl and a red skirt, as did most of the country women in County Meath in those days.

Wages were not high then: Johnny Fox, the head gardener, got 10/- a week; and one, Willy Gahan, with a wife and seven children, got 7/-.

He lived in a labourer’s cottage for which I expect he had to pay 1/6 a week in rent.

These labourers' cottages usually had half an acre of land.

On this he grew vegetables and probably kept fowl and a coupe of goats which spent most of their time grazing on the sides of the roads.

In many cases these cottages carried “turbury” rights with them.

This gave the occupier permission to cut a bank of turf.

However he must have had a hard struggle.

The biannual move of the family from Roddens to Charlesfort and vice versa was a memorable undertaking.

The horses and polo ponies often travelled the 100 miles by road, stopping at friends' houses for two or three nights en route.

I remember my mother once driving the pony “Puck” up in the Tub or Governess Cart.

We children usually travelled by train to Belfast where we were met by the Orangefield brake [van] and taken to stay the night there.

For the remaining twenty miles to Roddens one of the farm floats from Orangefield was usually borrowed for the luggage, while a Public Long Car, drawn by two horses, was hired to covey the servants, Nanny and us children, accompanied by “Joker” the goat, and “Cooky” the rough-haired fox terrier.

Bradshaw's Brae was a severe tax on the horses and most of the party were expected to dismount to lighten the load.

From Roddens my father used to drive up to play polo at Orangefield twice a week.

He usually went the whole twenty miles by road in a dog-cart and drove back at night.

The polo ponies were kept at Orangefield and the polo ground was on my grandfather’s property.

My father was very fond of driving and was a very good “whip” with a four-in-hand.

Two coaches were kept at Orangefield and nearly every spring a coaching tour was arranged.

The party consisted of the members of the family, my aunts, and uncles, and their friends.

One year they visited the Highlands of Scotland and another they toured County Kerry and County Limerick.

Between times the coach was only taken out to go to point-to-point races and I remember how proud I was once, when I was older, being allowed to “handle the ribbons” on the way to Comber Races.

At Roddens, we children used to play on the farm and on the shore, and occasionally go fishing on the sea or on the Strangford Lough.

We also spent a good deal of time riding with my father.

First published in January, 2017.  Extracts by kind permission of RP Blakiston-Houston OBE JP DL