Hall, who visited him in his old age, ‘were, indeed, those of a recluse. He saw little or no society, kept no servant, and lived a life the very opposite to that of a gentleman’ (Book of Memories, p. 238). Mahony owned some shares in the ‘Globe’ newspaper, and in 1858 he became Paris correspondent to the journal, and he continued his daily contributions till within a fortnight of his death. He showed that he still retained some interest in the literary affairs of London by contributing an inaugural ode to the first number of ‘Cornhill Magazine,’ January 1860, and he expressed there very warm admiration for an early friend, Thackeray. He was also till late in life an occasional writer in the ‘Athenæum.’ In spite of his frankly Bohemian habits, Mahony is said to have worn to the last ‘an ineradicable air of the priest and seminarist’ (Life of Mrs. Jameson), but he often chafed at the paradox. In 1863 he drew up, in very scholarly Latin, a petition to Rome asking permission ‘to resort thenceforth to lay communion.’ The petition was granted, together with a dispensation enabling him, in consideration of failing eyesight and advancing age, to substitute the rosary or the penitential psalms for his daily office in the breviary. He died in Paris, of bronchitis and diabetes, on 18 May 1866, after receiving extreme unction from his friend Monsignor Rogerson. His sister, Mrs. Woodlock, was present during his last illness, and he was buried in the vaults of Shandon Church in Cork. A proposal in 1873 to place a memorial tablet in the Cork Library came to nothing.
Maclise included Mahony's portrait in his well-known group of ‘Fraserians.’ An engraving from a photograph by M. Weyler of Paris appears in the ‘Final Reliques,’ in Mr. Charles Kent's ‘Works of Father Prout,’ and in Bates's ‘Maclise Portrait Gallery,’ p. 463. A friendly caricature of him in the garb of a monsignore, executed by an Italian artist while Mahony was living at Rome, was exhibited at Cork.
Mahony had personally less amiability than is proverbial with Irish humorists, and his cosmopolitan culture often obscured in his more scholarly essays the character of his nationality. But vivacity was rarely absent, and in both his prose and verse he grew at times so hilarious as to bring him to the verge of nonsense. Elsewhere, as in his essay on ‘Dean Swift's Madness,’ he showed himself capable of pathetic eloquence. He himself claimed to be ‘a rare combination of the Teian lyre and the Irish bagpipe; of the Ionian dialect, blending harmoniously with the Cork brogue; an Irish potato seasoned with Attic salt.’ He is described in his best days as a brilliant talker abounding in wit and sarcasm.
The ‘Reliques,’ revised and ‘largely augmented,’ was included in 1860 in ‘Bohn's Illustrated Library.’ In 1876 Douglas Jerrold edited ‘The Final Reliques of Father Prout,’ in which he reprinted Mahony's Roman correspondence and his ‘Notes from Paris,’ and many personal reminiscences. ‘The Works of Father Prout,’ edited by Mr. Charles Kent, 1881, include, with a few omissions, Mahony's contributions in prose and verse to ‘Fraser's’ and ‘Bentley's’ magazines, with the inaugural ode that appeared in the ‘Cornhill Magazine’ in January 1860.
[Information from Mrs. Mahony of Ardfoile, Cork, which differs in its account of Mahony's early life from other biographic notices; Mr. Charles Kent's Memoir prefixed to his edition of Mahony's Works, 1881; Final Reliques of Father Prout, ed. Jerrold, 1876; Bates's Maclise Portrait Gallery, 1883, pp. 463–88; notices by James Hannay in Universal Rev. February 1860, and in North British Rev. September 1866 (Aytoun, Peacock, and Prout); Athenæum, 26 May 1866; Cork Examiner, 23 May 1866; Pall Mall Gazette, 23 May 1866.]
MAIDMENT, JAMES (1795?–1879), Scottish antiquary, was born in London about 1795. His father, a solicitor, was descended from a Northumberland family, and an ancestor of his mother was the Dutch patriot John van Olden Barnevelt. Called to the Scottish bar in 1817, he soon took a high position as an advocate in cases involving genealogical inquiry, and was much engaged in disputed peerage cases. On general legal cases he was also much consulted, and his written pleadings in the court of session proved his great ability as a lawyer. He died in Edinburgh, 24 Oct. 1879, and was buried in the Dean cemetery. He was an extensive collector, and the sale, in May 1880, of his library occupied fifteen days.
Maidment early showed a taste for antiquarian and historical research, and it was mainly this that led to his friendship with Sir Walter Scott, Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, and other men of letters. His publications were very numerous. Many were anonymous, several were privately printed in small editions and are now rare. He published generally with John Stevenson (Scott's ‘True Jock’) and his son Thomas G. Stevenson. He edited works for the Bannatyne, Maitland, Abbotsford, and Hunterian Clubs, and for the Spottiswoode Society; and he was the principal and responsible editor of Kay's ‘Edinburgh Portraits,’ 2 vols. 1837. One of his most valuable works is the ‘Dramatists
