The Munster Circuit, Tales, Trials, and Traditions; Tales, Trials, and Traditions

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1880. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXVIII. Attempts to assassinate a Land Agent.--Galtee Castle.-- Increase of Rents.--The Agent fired at.--An Iron Barrack.-- The Ambuscade.--The Coachman shot --Activity of the Policemen.--Arrest of Thomas Crowe.--His Trial.--Conviction and Sentence.--Compensation awarded.--The Agent removed.--Spring Circuit, 1877.--Mr. James Robinson, Q.C. --The Kilfinan Case.--The Tougal Perry Case. Crowning the summit of a gentle hill in Munster, encompassed by the peaks, passes, and precipices of the Galtee mountains, stand the picturesque towers of Galtee Castle. Here, not long since, ruled the puissant Earls of Kingston. Here, at a remoter time, FitzGibbon, commonly called the White Knight, kept his state. He was chief of a portion of the Desmond territory; and here the said White Knight, as is told in Chapter II., captured the Earl of Desmond, who sought shelter in a cave called Slievegort, and the White Knight sent him a prisoner to Cork, for which service the Cork historian' states he was rewarded with the sum of 1000Z. But the White Knight and his descendants, the Earls of Kingston, no longer rule over this wild and picturesque territory. The profuse hospitality of the Kingston family, the enormous expense of contested elections in 'Smith's History of Cork, Vol. i. p. 79. which they took part, the desire to outrival the largeacred peers of England, so mortgaged the estates of the Earls of Kingston, that when acting as counsel in a creditor's suit to foreclose a mortgage, I ascertained the charges on the vast property of the family was between three and four hundred thousand pounds. To this incumbrance constant litigation added very considerably. In 1849, the 5th Earl, James, told me the litigation concerning his grandfather's will (he died 17th April, 1799) w...