GEO
of Wexford. He was High Sheriff of the county, and for six years represented Enniscorthy in Parliament. When the In- surrection broke out in 1798, he accepted the post of Commissary-General in the in- surgent army ; and when Wexford was re- occupied by the royalists, he was tried by court-martial for complicity in the insur- rection, and executed on Wexford bridge, 28th June 1798. The Cornwallis Corre- spondence states : " It was clearly proved that he had joined what he believed would be the winning side." He suffered death with great composure. The bodies of Gro- gan, Colclough, and Bagenal Harvey were thrown into the Slaney, and their heads were spiked on the Court-house. Some followers dragged the river at night and rescued the remains. Grogan's body was secretly buried at Kathaspick, near Johns- town. His estates were escheated to the Crown, but eventually restored to his brother upon the payment of heavy legal charges. His brother Thomas fell fighting on the royalist side at the battle of Arklow, 87 154 331
Grose, Francis, a distinguished Eng- lish antiquary, was born in Middlesex in 1 73 1, After publishing several works on the antiquities of England, he came over to Ireland, and commenced the neces- sary drawings for a similar work on this country ; but he died of apoplexy in Dublin, 1 8th May 1 79 1 , aged 60, ^^^^t and was buried in Drumcondra graveyard. The results of his labours, supplemented by engravings from drawings in the collection of Right Hon. William Conyngham, were edited with prefaces and descriptions by his friend Edward Ledwich, in 2 vols. 4to. — the An- tiquities of Ireland, by Francis Grose, F.S.A., London, 1791. There are 263 plates, many of them especially interest- ing as showing the condition of buildings since gone utterly to decay. ^* '^ '■'^ 3=3t
Gtiiniiess, Sir Benjamin Lee, Bart., born 1st November 1798, was an opulent brewer, and M.P. for Dublin from 1865 until his death. He is best remembered as the restorer of St. Patrick's Cathedral (at a cost which some have estimated at £130,000), and as the head of a business firm that has acquired a world-wide repu- tation. He died possessed of a large fortune, and besides several mansions in and near Dublin, was the owner of a beautiful estate at Cong, on the shores of Lough Con'ib. He evinced great and practical interest in Irish archaeology by his tasteful preservation of the antiquarian remains upon his large estates. He died 19th May 1868, aged 69, and was buried at Mount Jerome, Dublin. ^33
GUIT
Gunning, Maria (Countess of Coven- try), and Elizabeth (Duchess of Hamil- ton and Duchess of Argyll), celebrated Irish beauties, born about 1733 ^^^ I734> "W'ere daughters of John Gunning, of Castlecoote, in the County of Roscommon. When bud- ding into womanhood, their mother sent them to Dublin in the hope that they would make their way on the stage. Sheridan was kind to them, lent them dresses, and they were presented at the Castle. Their ex- ceeding beauty created a wonderful sensa- tion ; they went to London, and were the belles of the season 1 75 1 . Horace Walpole writes of them as " two Irish girls of no fortune who make more noise than any of their predecessors since the days of Helen, and who are declared the handsomest women alive." In February 1752 Elizabeth was married to the Duke of Hamilton, a dissi- pated gambler. Three weeks afterwards, Maria, the elder and handsomer, was mar- ried to the Earl of Coventry. Among the many stories told of her extreme silliness is her awkward reply to the old King George II.'s enquiry as to whether she was not sorry that there were to be no more masquerades : — " She was tired of them — indeed she was surfeited with most London sights ; there was but one left that she wanted to see — and that was a coronation ! " Elizabeth became a widow in 1758, and refusing the addresses of the Duke of Bridgewater, gave her hand a twelvemonth later to Colonel John Campbell (who became Duke of Ai-- gyll in 1770). Maria died from the efiects of the excessive use of white paint in Octo- ber 1760 (aged about 27), a fortnight before George 11. Her son became 7th Earl of Coventry. In 1776 Elizabeth was created Baroness of Hami Iton in her own right. She was one of the Ladies of the Bed-chamber to Queen Charlotte. She died 20th Decem- ber 1 790, aged 56. The wife of two Dukes, she was the mother of four — of the 7th and 8th Dukes of Hamilton by her first hus- band ; and of the 6th and 7th Dukes of Argyll by her second. The present (1877) Duke of Argyll is her grandson. In the Tour in the Hebrides we learn that John- son and Boswell visited her and the Duke at Inverary. On 23rd October i j'j'^ Boswell complains bitterly of her coldness and ne- glect of himself ; but she appears to have been all politeness to Johnson. Boswell consoled himself for her rudeness by the remark : " When I recollected that my punishment was inflicted by so dignified a beauty, I had that kind of consolation which a man would feel who is strangled by a sUken cord. . . He [Dr. Johnson] was much pleased with our visit at the cas- tle." Describing portraits of the Misses 239
