Page:Notable Irishwomen.djvu/64

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NOTABLE IRISHWOMEN.

Cork one morning, and found her establishment in a state of bustle and excitement.

"Come in, Lord Lansdowne," cried Lady Cork "come in, I am so glad you came at this moment. Only think, the gray parrot has just laid an egg!"

During the latter years of her life, her eyesight became impaired, but she retained her gay spirits and her love for celebrities to the end. She was never really old, her interest in life was the same as ever. Under a sketch of her which was made by one of her grand nieces, she scrawled the words—

  "Look at me,
  I'm ninety-three,
And all my faculties I keep,
Eat, drink, and laugh, and soundly sleep! "

But even her vitality gave way at last, and she died in her ninety-fourth year, May 20th, 1840. She formed a link between the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, and filled a niche in society that no woman but herself could have occupied.