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| LORD KILDARE'S MONUMENT, CHRIST CHURCH. -In the choir of Christ Church cathedral is placed the stately monument erected by his devoted Irish wife, the Lady Marie O'Brien, eldest daughter of Willaim O'Brien, Earl of Inchiquin, to the memory of Robert Fitz-Gerald, nineteenth Earl of Kildare in direct succession. He was the father of James, twentieth Earl and first Marquis of Kildare-subsequently first Duke of Leinster-the spirited and patriotic father of Lord Edward Fitz-Gerald, of 1798 celebrity. Robert of Kildare was by no means the most distinguished member of his illustrious House, but he was neither cold tyrant nor absentee landlord, and the political principles of his son and grandson had, no doubt, their primitive inspiration in his own sentiments. James, Duke of Leinster, was the first Irish nobleman of the penal period who protested before King George II himself, against the iniquity of English rule in Ireland. The monument shown above contains figures of heroic size, executed in marble. The recumbent form is that of the Earl of Kildare. At the head is the figure of his bereaved countess, in an attitude of grief, supported by her daughter, the Lady Margaretta. At the feet stands the effigy of Lord Edward's intrepid father, James, already mentioned. These were the survivors of four sons and eight daughters born to the noble couple, who had tasted deeply of the wormwood draught of grief before death parted them. The well-known coat of arms of the House of Kildare is sculptured in relief on the upper portion of the monument. |
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