rly to East
Comer Castle (by Nash, who remodelled Windsor) for Lord Gort, the head
of the Vereker family, at a cost of L70,000. The black hand of the
famine of 1847 fed on this property, like many another in Ireland, and
it passed from its owners under the Encumbered Estates Act. Cove Park,
the residence of Lady Gregory, is just outside Gort. Her Ladyship has
found a way to the hearts of the country people by her sympathy with the
Irish language movement. Her volume, "Mr. Gregory's Letter Box," is a
valuable contribution to the history of Ireland in the first three
decades of the nineteenth century. Sir William Gregory's Memoirs it is
that contain the circumstantial version of the Cabinet scandal, in which
the name of the Hon. Mrs. Norton (George Meredith's "Diana of the
Crossways") figures. The story of the leakage of the State secret is as
follows:--

"When Sir Robert Peel determined to repeal the Corn Laws he
consulted a portion of his Cabinet. They were Sidney Herbert, Lord
Lincoln, Sir Jas. Graham, and Lord Aberdeen, all of whom determined
that the repeal of the Corn Laws should be kept a profound secret
until the whole of the Cabinet had assembled. That same evening
Sidney Herbert dined _tete-a-tete_ with Mrs. Norton, the well-known
object of his attachment, and with whom he was infatuated. Before
dinner was over she wormed out of him the secret of the Cabinet.
After dinner she pretended to go to see a sick friend for a short
time, and returned in half-an-hour. In the meantime she had taken a
cab and driven down to the _Times_ Office, and saw Barnes, the
Editor, and told him the Government were going to repeal the Corn
Laws. Barnes said to her, "If you have no proof I shall not detain
you, but if you have you shall have L500." She gave him the chapter
and verse, and returned to poor Sidney Herbert with the cheque in
her pocket. The next day the announcement was made in the _Times_
which astounded all England. This was on the 5th December, 1845.
The other papers disbelieved it. Lord Derby and the Duke of
Richmond left the Government."

In the heart of a stony country beset with high fences and rough copple
stones, stands the little town of ~Gort~, The military stationed there
now add to its importance. Kilmacduagh, at the base of the Burren Hills,
contains a church (seventh century) of St. Colman, the Blue-eyed, and a
R