Post by Tamrin on Jul 4, 2008 11:57:55 GMT 10
It would appear that the father of Miss St. Leger, Arthur St. Leger, 1st Baron Kilmayden and Viscount Doneraile, together with his sons and a few intimate friends, were accustomed to open a Lodge and carry on the ordinary ceremonies at the family mansion, Doneraile Court, County Cork.
On one occasion, during a period when the house was undergoing certain internal alterations, Viscount Doneraile, with others, met for Masonic purposes. The Lodge was held in a large room on the ground floor of the house, and in front of this room was a small library, divided from the back room by a partition wall. From a plan of Doneraile Court kindly sent to me by a member of the family, it is evident that the rooms to the right, on entering the hall, are probably the ones in question, the doors of these two rooms both open into the entrance hall, and are not far apart. The alterations having required the removal of some of the panelling from the larger room, the wall was in places undergoing repair; a portion of this had been taken down, and the bricks loosely replaced, without mortar, in the position they were ultimately to occupy. Against these loose bricks the oak panelling had been temporally reared. On this particular afternoon Miss St. Leger had been reading at the library window, and the light of the winter afternoon having failed, fell asleep.
The sound of voices in the next room restored her to consciousness, and from her position behind the loosely placed bricks of the dividing wall, she easily realized that something unusual was taking place in the next room. The light shining through the unfilled spaces of the temporary wall also attracted her attention. Prompted by a not unnatural curiosity, Miss St. Leger appears to have removed one or more of the loose bricks, and thus was easily enabled to watch the proceedings of the Lodge.
On one occasion, during a period when the house was undergoing certain internal alterations, Viscount Doneraile, with others, met for Masonic purposes. The Lodge was held in a large room on the ground floor of the house, and in front of this room was a small library, divided from the back room by a partition wall. From a plan of Doneraile Court kindly sent to me by a member of the family, it is evident that the rooms to the right, on entering the hall, are probably the ones in question, the doors of these two rooms both open into the entrance hall, and are not far apart. The alterations having required the removal of some of the panelling from the larger room, the wall was in places undergoing repair; a portion of this had been taken down, and the bricks loosely replaced, without mortar, in the position they were ultimately to occupy. Against these loose bricks the oak panelling had been temporally reared. On this particular afternoon Miss St. Leger had been reading at the library window, and the light of the winter afternoon having failed, fell asleep.
The sound of voices in the next room restored her to consciousness, and from her position behind the loosely placed bricks of the dividing wall, she easily realized that something unusual was taking place in the next room. The light shining through the unfilled spaces of the temporary wall also attracted her attention. Prompted by a not unnatural curiosity, Miss St. Leger appears to have removed one or more of the loose bricks, and thus was easily enabled to watch the proceedings of the Lodge.
