Lady Gregory of Coole Park
Introduction
Lady Augusta Gregory (Persse) was born in 1852 in Roxborough, County Galway. In 1880, aged 28, she married Sir William Gregory, who had retired from the Governship of Ceylon and who was 35 years older than her. She moved to Coole Park, Sir William’s residence and estate, and had one son, Robert Gregory.
Far from being a ‘shrinking violet’, as could happen with women of the aristocracy of that time, Lady Gregory immersed herself in Coole, its surroundings and its people. She became a friend and patron of the poet, W.B.Yeats, was a founder of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and became central in the Irish Literary Movement. The leading figures of the time used to come and stay in Coole, which grew to be the most famous house in Ireland – Yeats, his brother Jack, the artist; George Bernard Shaw, John Millington Synge, Douglas Hyde, Sean O’Casey, etc.
Childrens’ Story
Lady Gregory’s three grandchildren, Richard, Anne and Catherine, nicknamed ‘Nu’, lived with her at Coole for much of their childhood and they adored each other! ‘Grandma’ would tell them stories, teach them ‘lessons’, tell them about the woods and always have interesting people to stay – not that the children liked them all!! They gathered fircones and kippeens from the woods with Grandma to make the enormous open fires burn better. They ‘hunted’ with bows and arrows and sometimes crept into the vast library which had a special smell. The whole room was lined with leather books from floor to ceiling but they must have been unlucky, as most they picked out were indescribably dull! No coloured pictures or drawings.
Richard was sent away to boarding school and Anne and Catherine remained at Coole. After Grandma read ‘Swiss Family Robinson’, they made tree houses and spent hours sitting in them happily talking while their pony, Pud, and Tommy, the donkey, happily ate bits of hazel leaves and twigs below. Pud, a strawberry roan with a snow white rump, with large chestnut spots on the white, was very fat and made a particularly satisfactory zebra! Not like Tommy, who looked less like the ostrich he was supposed to be, and who objected violently to having hen feathers tied to his head and tail! They always rode bareback. “Mamma said she didn’t mind if we fell off and were killed cleanly, but she didn’t want us to be dragged for miles with our foot in a stirrup, as a cousin of ours had been not long before we were born. Riding Pud and Tommy, without bridles, using only strings of ivy to guide them, wasn’t so good. But they both knew their way home of course and went there immediately without fuss.”
Extracts from “Me and Nu – Childhood at Coole” by Anne Gregory; published by Colin Smythe Ltd. 1970; Illustrations by Joyce Dennys.
Lady Augusta Gregory (Persse) was born in 1852 in Roxborough, County Galway. In 1880, aged 28, she married Sir William Gregory, who had retired from the Governship of Ceylon and who was 35 years older than her. She moved to Coole Park, Sir William’s residence and estate, and had one son, Robert Gregory.
Far from being a ‘shrinking violet’, as could happen with women of the aristocracy of that time, Lady Gregory immersed herself in Coole, its surroundings and its people. She became a friend and patron of the poet, W.B.Yeats, was a founder of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and became central in the Irish Literary Movement. The leading figures of the time used to come and stay in Coole, which grew to be the most famous house in Ireland – Yeats, his brother Jack, the artist; George Bernard Shaw, John Millington Synge, Douglas Hyde, Sean O’Casey, etc.
Childrens’ Story
Lady Gregory’s three grandchildren, Richard, Anne and Catherine, nicknamed ‘Nu’, lived with her at Coole for much of their childhood and they adored each other! ‘Grandma’ would tell them stories, teach them ‘lessons’, tell them about the woods and always have interesting people to stay – not that the children liked them all!! They gathered fircones and kippeens from the woods with Grandma to make the enormous open fires burn better. They ‘hunted’ with bows and arrows and sometimes crept into the vast library which had a special smell. The whole room was lined with leather books from floor to ceiling but they must have been unlucky, as most they picked out were indescribably dull! No coloured pictures or drawings.
Richard was sent away to boarding school and Anne and Catherine remained at Coole. After Grandma read ‘Swiss Family Robinson’, they made tree houses and spent hours sitting in them happily talking while their pony, Pud, and Tommy, the donkey, happily ate bits of hazel leaves and twigs below. Pud, a strawberry roan with a snow white rump, with large chestnut spots on the white, was very fat and made a particularly satisfactory zebra! Not like Tommy, who looked less like the ostrich he was supposed to be, and who objected violently to having hen feathers tied to his head and tail! They always rode bareback. “Mamma said she didn’t mind if we fell off and were killed cleanly, but she didn’t want us to be dragged for miles with our foot in a stirrup, as a cousin of ours had been not long before we were born. Riding Pud and Tommy, without bridles, using only strings of ivy to guide them, wasn’t so good. But they both knew their way home of course and went there immediately without fuss.”
Extracts from “Me and Nu – Childhood at Coole” by Anne Gregory; published by Colin Smythe Ltd. 1970; Illustrations by Joyce Dennys.
