Paradise Lost

Stele (c. 350 BC)
Marble, 82 x 48 x155 cm

Discovered by Cynthia O’Connor in four pieces in the undergrowth not far from the Casino in 1980, this Athenian stele may have been sent home by Charlemont from the Grand Tour more than 230 years earlier. The inscription reads Euthydemos. There are four figures carved in relief. The man that is the focus of the stele, Euthydemos, stands behind his seated wife. She is seated because she has died before him. The two figures facing them are probably their son and daughter (interpretation by Willie Cumming). The presence of the stele at Marino underlines Charlemont’s use of his garden buildings as galleries to display his collections.

Office of Public Works

Seacombe Mason II (attrib.)
Sundial (nineteenth century) Brass on stone, 127 x 35 cm

The inscription on the face of this sundial reads ‘Mason, 6 Essex Bridge’. The Mason family established an ‘Optical and Mathematical Instrument‘ business in Dublin in 1780. Remarkably, they are still trading; today they are known as Mason Technology. Patrick Bowe has noted that the commissioning of this sundial may have coincided with the establishment of a new flower garden by the 2nd Countess of Charlemont, in the middle of the nineteenth century, where it may have stood as centrepiece. The six-pointed star on the face of the sundial, showing the points of the compass, echoes the six-pointed star on the parquet floor of the Casino Saloon.

Private Collection

Daniel Havell (c. 1785–1822), engraving, after Thomas Leeson Rowbotham (1782–1853)
A View of Part of the Bay and City of Dublin from Marino (1817)
Facsimile. Details of original: Intaglio print on paper, 40.7 x 99.7 cm

Michael Wynne noted that this wide panorama of Dublin Bay was first sketched in three separate pieces by Thomas Leeson Rowbotham in 1816, as he stood on the roof of the Casino and looked out. The following year, Daniel Havell made an engraving of these sketches, joining them up and inking them with soft and subtle colour. This was then, as the inscription below the landscape reads, “Dedicated with permission to the Right Honourable the Countess of Charlemont”. Daniel Havell, from Berkshire, England, came from a family of noted engravers. He worked in partnership with his uncle, Robert Havell Sr, from premises in London. By 1817, when this print was produced, this partnership had dissolved and Havell was working independently.

Dublin City Gallery, the Hugh Lane

Thomas Leeson Rowbotham (1782–1853)
The Gothic Room (c. 1816)
Facsimile. Details of original: Graphite on paper, 26.6 x 20 cm

Shrouded in coniferous woodland, the Gothic Room was an important feature of the Marino landscape. The size is really appreciated in Rowbotham’s drawing here as, if you look very closely, there is a tiny person visible by the arched doorway. Deliberately placed so that it was reflected in the still lake, the Gothic Room was described as “a summer-house fitted up as a Gothic nunnery with stain’d Glass windows” in the anonymous Diary of a Tour of Ireland of the same year. Although it was built at the same time as the Casino, by 1867 it was marked on the Ordnance Survey map as being ‘in ruins’ (see in Map Room).

Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Center for British Art

Thomas Leeson Rowbotham (1782–1853)
The Hermitage (c. 1816)
Facsimile. Details of original: Graphite on paper, 26.6 x 20 cm

Hermitages were popular garden features. Sometimes they were even inhabited by a man hired to act as a wise hermit, although there is no record to show that this happened at Marino. Patrick Bowe has noted that Charlemont used the most rustic and primitive of materials to achieve the shape of a sophisticated neoclassical rotunda, crowned by an octagonal lantern. The inscription beneath the drawing reads “Viens demurer dans ces paisibles lieux, Tu n’y decouvriras rien qui n’enchante tes yeux.” As with Rowbotham’s Casino, these lines are also from Molière and have been translated by Ruth Musielak as “(Yes, I like) to stay in these peaceful places; One finds nothing which does not enchant the eyes”.

Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Center for British Art

Thomas Leeson Rowbotham (1782–1853)
The Gothic Seat (c. 1816)
Facsimile. Details of original: Graphite on paper, 26.6 x 20 cm

Charlemont’s carved garden seat was in the Gothic style. It was an important enough feature to claim a place on the 1837 Ordnance Survey map, and to have been included in the Charlemont Album. In 1837, the seat was in the south, and faced Marino House. Highly ornamental benches were a feature of Georgian gardens; Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill had one in the shape of a large sea shell. In 1762, Thomas Chippendale published designs for garden furniture ‘after the Chinese manner’. Lisa White has compared the growing popularity of these seats with the rise in taking tea outside in the summer months.

Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Center for British Art

Cecilia Margaret Campbell (1791–1857)
Monument to Poor Cob (c. 1816)
Facsimile. Details of original: Watercolour, 20 x 26.6 cm

The Charlemont Album is a Caulfeild family scrapbook, full of sketches, poems, and personal notes. It is a tribute to the landscape design of the 1st Earl, and depicts the features of the garden estate. The only watercolour in it is newly identified by Ruth Musielak as being the work of a young Dublin artist called Cecilia Campbell. Similar to the Poor Nep gravestone which stands outside the Casino today, this shows a gravestone for poor Cob, a swan who died from a careless swipe of a scythe. The poem beneath, which continues to the next page, gives the story in detail. What looks like a swan sitting atop the monument is actually part of the carving – a detail con rmed by later drawings of the feature.

Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Center for British Art

Mary Delany (1700–1788)
A View of Part of the Little Grove of Evergreens at Delville with the Country beyond it and Bay of Dublin (1744)
Facsimile. Details of original: Ink, graphite, and wash on paper, 25×36.4cm

In 1743 Mary Pendarves, née Granville, married Dr Patrick Delany. A year later they moved to his house in Dublin. In Delville, near Glasnevin, Mrs Delany was a close neighbour and acquaintance of Charlemont’s. The sketchbook from which this drawing is taken, is a collection of landscape views. Those taken from Delville look out over the same Dublin Bay as did Rowbotham’s (see Havell, A View, to compare). The same sketchbook contains a drawing of Charlemont Castle in County Armagh (1749).

National Gallery of Ireland

Samuel Frederick Brocas (c. 1792–1847)
Swans Swimming Past an Island on a Lake (c. 1820)
Facsimile. Details of original: Graphite on paper, 21.3 x 27.8 cm

This sketch by Brocas was recently identified by Ruth Musielak as being a depiction of Charlemont’s
Marino. Compare with Campbell, Monument. The two pictures rely on each other, as it is only by referring to this image that the swan in the Campbell watercolour is revealed to be a painted sculpture and not a real bird. This little island with the roost and the monument was in the middle of the serpentine lake. It features on the 1770 City Surveyor’s Map (in the Map Room), marked out by a very tiny silhouette of a swan.

National Library of Ireland

Samuel Frederick Brocas (c. 1792–1847)
Rosamond’s Bower: Lord Charlemont (c. 1820)
Facsimile. Details of original: Graphite on paper, 25.8 x 39 cm

This plein air drawing, probably an early work-up for an intended painting, is very similar to Rowbotham, Gothic Room. The angle is slightly different, allowing the inclusion of the swans’ island (see Brocas, Swans). The trees surrounding the Room and lake are predominantly conifers; these are marked in the 1867 Ordnance Survey. In accounts after 1816, the Gothic Room began to be referred to as ‘Rosamund’s Bower’. Rosamund, the twelfth-century mistress of Henry II, was a popular figure in early nineteenth-century culture.

National Library of Ireland

Samuel Frederick Brocas (c. 1792–1847)
Entrance to an Ecclesiastical Building (c. 1820)
Facsimile. Details of original: Graphite on paper, 21.3 x 27.8 cm

Completing the trio of drawings of the Gothic Room in the exhibition is this second sketch by Brocas. A new addition to our knowledge of Charlemont’s landscape, it has recently been identified by Ruth Musielak as a portrait of the Gothic building at Marino. Samuel Frederick Brocas came from a family of noted artists. Henry Brocas Sr, his father, was Master of the Landscape and Ornament School of the Royal Dublin Society for thirty-six years. His brothers James and William were painters, and his brother Henry Brocas Jr, an engraver.

National Library of Ireland

B. King
The Crescent upon Clontarf and Lord Charlemont’s House from the N. Wall, Nov. 21st 1812
Facsimile. Details of original: Graphite on paper, 20 x 31 cm

The low walls of Charlemont’s lex hortorum (a garden open to the visiting public) are con rmed in this sketch. Marino House can be seen to the left, set back from the road. The broadleaf tree belt in this southerly end of the estate is broken here, so that views over his ‘Bay of Naples’ were framed. To the right is Marino Crescent, known locally as Spite Crescent, and built in the 1790s by a Mr. Ffolliott from Aungiers St. The story goes that after a disagreement over the placement of the planned terrace of houses, Ffolliott changed their shape to a crescent, in an effort to block Charlemont’s prized prospect.

National Library of Ireland

William Sadler II (c. 1782-1839)
A View of Dublin and Dublin Bay, from the estate of the Earl of Charlemont (c. 1810)
Oil on panel, 36 x 55 cm

This exciting addition to the exhibition is a previously unpublished depiction of Dublin Bay. This is the only known image which shows Marino from this perspective. The view is likely from the north-west corner of the demesne boundary; to the left is the Casino on a rise, and before it the farm and stable buildings of the walled garden. The curved pathways match those seen in the 1867 Ordnance Survey (see in the Map Room). Before its present owner, the painting was in the ownership of Cynthia O’Connor, the late leading author on the 1st Earl of Charlemont.

Private Collection

John Murphy (c. 1748–1820) engraving after Matthew William Peters (1742–1814)
Matthew Peters (1776)
Facsimile. Details of original: Mezzotint, 37.6 x 27.8 cm

Matthew Peters was engaged by either Lord Charlemont, or his stepfather Thomas Adderley, to
design a garden that was both ornamental and productive. Born probably on the Isle of Wight, Peters had been working in Dublin since at least 1746. A later version of this print, now in the British Museum, promotes his authorship of treatises on agriculture (see these in the China Closet). This is underlined by the motif of the book in his hand, and the view with trees behind him. The painting from which this was engraved has not been traced.

National Gallery of Ireland

The Dublin Journal (11–14 October, 1746)
Facsimile. Details of original: Newspaper, 47 x 29 cm

This early advertisement, appearing in a Dublin paper the same year that the eighteen-year-old Lord Charlemont was embarking on his Grand Tour, places the gardener Matthew Peters on the north side of Dublin City. He advises that he is moving from Capel Street to Hammond Lane. The uncle that trained him was William Love, head gardener at Stowe from 1725-1740. The ‘Gentleman of Credit in this Kingdom, who brought him from England’ and the ‘Noble Earl’ he describes, have not been identified.

National Library of Ireland

Anne Caulfeild, 2nd Countess of Charlemont (1780–1876) (attrib.)
Rose (c. 1805)
Facsimile. Details of original: Watercolour, 7.6 x 6 cm

This watercolour illustration of a rose is one page of a very tiny album of images, just under 8 cm in length. The other pictures are of a domestic nature and feature children, servants, and animals, on the grounds of the estate. Anne Bermingham, daughter of William Bermingham of Ross Hill in Galway, married Francis, the 2nd Earl of Charlemont, in 1802. Her young children may be among those shown in the scenes. Roses similar to the type that she painted here can be seen growing before Marino House, in both the Charlemont and McFarland albums.

National Library of Ireland

Letter from Mat[t]hew Peters to Thomas Adderley (June, 1758)
Facsimile. Details of original: Ink on paper, 23 x 19.5 cm

In 1734 Charlemont’s father died, and his mother Elizabeth Caulfeild (née Bernard) remarried. Thomas Adderley became Charlemont’s stepfather and, in the early 1750s, acted on his behalf at Marino. Charlemont was very interested in showcasing the latest techniques for productive garden design at Marino, and to this end arranged for Matthew Peters to travel around England, improving his knowledge of walls, fruit trees, and stoves. This is described in the letter. On Peters‘ return, he found the walls and trees neglected, and here expresses his distress.

Royal Irish Academy

Regulation of Future Expenses at Marino (c. 1780)
Facsimile. Details of original: Ink on paper, 22.5 x 18.5 cm

These three pages in Charlemont’s own hand give marvellous detail for how the demesne was run. Employees are listed, with their salaries. We learn that he hired a shepherd and two boys to care for the sheep that ornamented the parkland (probably the same boys seen in Roberts, A Landscape). The ‘Regulation‘ represents Charlemont’s plan for a more economic handling of his Marino estate; he was heavily in debt at this point in his life. Much of the responsibility for this new thrift was given to Mr Adams, the steward.

Royal Irish Academy

Matthew Peters (b. 1711)
The Rational Farmer, or a Treatise on Agriculture and Tillage (revised edition, London, 1771)
Ink on paper, 22 x 36 x 17 cm (with illustration opened)

Matthew Peters, engaged by Lord Charlemont as a consultant in the design of the garden, walls, and parkland at Marino, wrote this after his tenure in Dublin had ended. In 1771 he was living with his son, Matthew William Peters, in London. The new focus in garden design was to unite function and beauty, and to maximise profit. This was the first of three books that Peters would write from this perspective. This copy of The Rational Farmer came from the Duke of Leinster’s library at Carton, County Kildare, as is seen by the seal just inside the front cover.

National Library of Ireland

Matthew Peters (b. 1711)
Winter Riches, or a Miscellany (London, 1771)
Ink on paper, 22 x 26 x 14 cm (opened)

This book followed on the success of The Rational Farmer. It is a “tract of winter advantage… viz. feeding hogs, horned cattle, horses, &c. on winter roots…”. The frontispiece carries a dedication to the ‘Marquis of Rockingham’. This was Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, who had been Prime Minister in 1765–66, and who was also a close friend of Charlemont. Winter Riches would be followed in 1776 by Peters’ third and nal book on the subject, Agricultura, or the Good Husbandman.

National Library of Ireland

Samuel Hayes (c. 1743–1795)
A Practical Treatise on Planting; and The Management of Woods and Coppices (Dublin, 1794; third edition 1822)
Ink on paper, 26.6 x 22 cm (opened)

From Wicklow, Samuel Hayes was a man of many interests. A Member of Parliament and a barrister, he was also an amateur architect and enthusiastic horticulturalist. The tree planting he had carried out at Avondale, his Wicklow residence, was the reason the Dublin Society asked that he produce a manual on the subject. The Treatise was the first published authority on Irish trees and tree management. On page 155, in a footnote, he lauds the Earl of Charlemont as a “good Agriculturalist, and spirited improver”.

National Botanic Gardens

Caleb Threlkeld (1676–1728)
Synopsis Stirpium Hibernicarum… A Short Treatise of Native Plants, especially such as grow spontaneously in the Vicinity of Dublin… (Dublin, 1726/7)
Ink on paper, 20.3 x 15.2 cm (opened)

This tiny book was the first book to deal exclusively with the flora of Ireland, and particularly of Dublin. Caleb Threlkeld was a doctor, a minister, and a keen amateur botanist. From Cumberland, he moved to Dublin in 1713 “having a strait income, and a large family”. He lived here until his death in 1728. The book is an alphabetical listing of Irish plants, including a listing of native plants in the Irish language, followed by a long appendix on observations from the notes of Thomas Molyneux.

National Botanic Gardens

William Curtis (1746–1799)
The Botanical Magazine, or Flower- Garden Displayed (London, 1787)
Ink on paper, 30 x 22 cm (opened)

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine is the longest running botanical magazine, and began in 1787. William Curtis was a botanist at Kew Gardens. His magazine featured plant illustrations, in full colour print, produced by eminent artists. Sydenham Edwards was the artist of this rst issue. Copper engraving was used to provide the plates, which were then hand coloured by over twenty people. Illustrations in these earlier issues were intended to introduce readers to unfamiliar New World plants, the seeds of which were becoming more and more available. Examples in Charlemont’s ‘American Garden‘ included black walnut, butternut, and liquidambar.

National Botanic Gardens

Keys (nineteenth century)
Brass, 3.8 x 12 cm and 2.8 x 10 cm

The larger key is inscribed with the text ‘Lord Charlemont Garden’. The shank and bit of the key are more worn than the bow. The oval piece inserted in the bow, on which the inscription appears, may have been added later, or restored. The key may have opened a gate that connected the shrubbery with a new flower garden that was laid out in front of the glass houses in the mid-nineteenth century. It was found with a second, smaller key inscribed ‘Lady Charlemont’. From 1802 to 1876, this was Anne Caulfeild, née Bermingham (see Caulfeild, Rose). This key was likely to have been for a door, rather than for a garden gate. Both keys came into the possession of the Christian Brothers on their arrival at Marino in the 1880s, and have been kept safely since.

Private Collection

Dublin Penny Journal (December 5th, 1835)
Ink on paper, 17.5 x 26 cm

This issue of the Dublin Penny Journal appeared just two years before the first Ordnance Survey of the demesne in 1837 (in the Map Room). Although an engraving of “the Cassino” illustrates the piece (sketched by Mr. E. Hayden and engraved by Bruce), it is the Gothic Room which is singled out as “the perfection of architecture”. The article also mentions the availability of the garden and parkland to the citizens of Dublin, calling it their “constant resort”. The full article is contained within this front page of the Journal.

Private Collection

Casino at Marino (late nineteenth century)
Photograph, 29.5 x 21.5 cm

This is the earliest known photograph of the Casino, and the only one that shows any part of Marino before the arrival of the Christian Brothers and other landowners. It was taken from the north, and likely dates from the early 1870s. The pathway which leads away from the front of the Casino does not appear on the 1867 Ordnance Survey (see in Map Room), and may be a later addition. The lack of a fence around the building, and the presence of a woman in a long, Victorian-style dress at the front door, places it before the sale of the estate in 1876. It was also in the possession of the Caulfeild family before its present owner. The mysterious woman remains unidenti ed, but it may plausibly be Elizabeth Caulfeild, Countess of Charlemont, and wife of the 3rd Earl. This photograph may usefully be compared with a picture of the Casino from 1874, which shows the annual Croquet Championships of that year being held in the grounds.

Private Collection

Lawrence Collection, The Temple, Marino, Clontarf (with lake) (late nineteenth century)
Facsimile. Details of original: Photograph, 22 x 17 cm

French has moved to the north-west corner to take this photograph. The Casino is seen from the edge of the serpentine lake. The pathway that meanders past the front door of the Casino, down to the lakeside, appears exactly as plotted on the 1867 Ordnance Survey map (see in Map Room). The detail is so great here that it is possible to make out the interior divide behind the window of the China Closet, and the false backing to the small window on its right (that of the Saloon). In contrast, the white shutters are closed on the Vestibule window to the left. Shortly after this photograph was taken, the Christian Brothers transformed the lake into a swimming pool; this was finished in 1892.

National Library of Ireland

Lawrence Collection, Marino, Clontarf (Marino House) (late nineteenth century)
Facsimile. Details of original: Photograph, 22 x 17 cm

Marino House is shown here, with a Brother outside. The Christian Brothers used this old Charlemont
residence as their quarters, until the new St Mary’s building was erected nearby (next to the shrubbery) in 1904, the foundation stone having been laid in 1900. Less than twenty years later, Marino House would be demolished. In McFarland’s 1853 watercolour (see in the State Bedroom), the conservatory held flowers; here it contains religious statues. The urns seen on the roof here can still be seen today, adorning the roof of St. Mary’s (now the Marino Institute of Education), on either side of the statue of St. Mary.

National Library of Ireland

Lawrence Collection, O’Brien Institute, Clontarf (late nineteenth century)
Facsimile. Details of original: Photograph, 22 x 17 cm

When Cardinal Cullen purchased the estate in the late nineteenth century, he reserved thirty acres for the building of an orphanage. Funding for the project came from a trust that had been set up by Miss Bridget O’Brien, and the architect was John Joseph O’Callaghan. Commencing in 1880, it took over three years to build. It is likely that building was ongoing when this photograph was taken. If you look closely, you can see five men working in the grounds. The stance of the two men before the Casino, with one holding a long instrument, echoes the shepherds in Thomas Roberts’ 1773 View (see in the Zodiac Room).

National Library of Ireland

Michael Craig (b. 1951)
The Casino at Marino
10 x 21 cm

This ink drawing places the Casino in a space that is both modern and historical. Trees frame the view, as they did in Charlemont’s time, smoke leaves the rooftop urns, and the Dublin mountains are seen across the bay. Now, however, they are accompanied by the iconic striped Poolbeg chimneys. The monument to Nep is seen in their foreground to the left. The Athenian stele leans against a tree to the right, in the spot where it was located, the site of the inscribed rock cascade. Just behind this, in the distance, are the main entrance gates to the estate. They stand in their modern location, but Craig has cleared the walls, buildings and trees that disconnect them from the Casino today.

Office of Public Works

John Rocque (c. 1705–1762)
Survey of the City, Harbour, Bay and Environs of Dublin… with Improvements and Additions to the year 1773 by Mr Bernard Scalé (1757)
Facsimile. Details of original: 48 x 69.5 cm

John Rocque was a mapmaker and surveyor who produced maps for Dublin and London, as well as other large English cities. He also had a keen interest in gardens (his brother Bartholomew designed parterres), and he engraved plans of designed landscapes such as that at Painshill. This is likely the reason why Charlemont’s formal garden is represented in such great detail in this map of 1757 (the depiction of Marino was not updated for the 1773 re-issue). The pentagonal walls, radial paths, and planting, familiar from the later Ordnance Surveys, are all in place.

Glucksman Map Library, Trinity College Dublin

Thomas Mathews
A Map of the Lands of Donnycarney (1770)
Facsimile. Details of original: Pen and ink and watercolour on paper, 38 x 41 cm

On this map can be seen the primary features of Charlemont’s designed landscape. They are concentrated on a plot of thirty acres, to the north of the land surveyed here. The serpentine lake, with shrubbery to the south and east, and a tiny swan swimming in its water, is in place. To the north of the lake is the Gothic Room, and to the east, the Casino. Marino House appears further south, facing an avenue. In 1770, Charlemont sought a new lease, and for that reason, the City commissioned this survey. At the bottom of the map can be seen a very tiny drawing of the Royal Charter School of Clontarf.

Dublin City Library and Archives

Thomas Mathews
A Map of the Lands of Donnycarney… for the Earl of Charlemont (1770)
Facsimile. Details of original: Pen and ink and watercolour on paper, 38 x 41 cm

When Thomas Mathews produced the previous survey for the City, he also made a personal copy for Lord Charlemont. This copy is less ornamental, but has more technical detail than the former. It is littered with numbers; these are measurements, and the legend is given in the bottom right corner, under the headings A, R, and P. There were forty perches to one rood, and four roods to an acre. A note along the edge gives the scale of the map as twenty perches to the inch. The Royal Charter School of Clontarf, appearing as a small drawing on the previous map, is marked here in the same position with just a hastily- written label.

Dublin City Library and Archives

Ordnance Survey of Dublin, Marino, Sheet 4, 1:15,000 (1837)
Facsimile. Details of original: 63 x 97 cm

This map shows the estate as it existed in 1837, and gives the most complete representation of Charlemont’s designed landscape. The planting has matured since the 1770 Survey, and the tree belts in particular are thicker, but almost all of the garden architecture and ornaments are located and labelled for the first time. These include the Casino, the Gothic Room, the Gothic Seat, and the Hermitage. Charlemont died in 1799 and his son, Francis Caulfeild, 2nd Earl of Charlemont, inherited the estate.

Ordnance Survey Ireland

Ordnance Survey of Dublin, Clonturk, Sheet 18–04, 1:2,500 (1867)
Facsimile. Details of original: 63 x 97 cm

Thirty years have passed since the previous map. The landscape designed by Charlemont over a hundred years before is visible in its ornament, paths, and planting. The location of the hermitage is marked clearly for the first time, while the Gothic Room is in ruins. Patrick Bowe noted the number of improvements that have also appeared. The first of these is the small formal garden in front of the expanded glass house range. Another is the ‘Statue’ (most likely that of the Fighting Gladiator) that now occupies the centre of the walled garden. The 2nd Earl had died four years previously, and his wife would follow in 1876. On her death, the 3rd Earl moved forward with the sale of the estate. This 1867 map represents the demesne on the cusp of its disintegration.

Glucksman Map Library, Trinity College Dublin

Ordnance Survey of Dublin, Marino, Sheet 18–04, 1:2,500 (1911, rev. 1907)
Facsimile. Details of original: 63 x 97 cm

In 1876, James Molyneux Caulfeild, 3rd Earl of Charlemont, put Marino up for sale. A legal notice appearing in The Times on the 8th of May advised that the landed estate was to be sold. It described the demesne in great detail, including that the “gardens are very tastefully laid out, and in the highest heart and condition, well stocked with fruit trees of good and new varieties. The houses consist of conservatories, greenhouses, vineries, peachhouses, forcing and stove houses, of modern construction, all heated on the best principles…” Still remaining of Charlemont’s demesne in this 1911 map are Marino House, the gate lodges, the Casino, and the ruins of the Gothic Room. New additions include St. Mary’s College, the O’Brien Institute, and St. Joseph’s Christian Brothers School.

Glucksman Map Library, Trinity College Dublin

Ordnance Survey of Dublin, Marino, Sheet 18–04, 1:2500 (1938, rev. 1935-6)
Facsimile. Details of original: 63 x 97 cm

This map was surveyed at a critical point in the history of the Casino, and of the Irish government’s role in conserving Ireland’s historical buildings. The National Monuments Act was passed in 1930 and the roof of the Casino was conserved. To the south of this map you can see the large garden housing estate which was built by Dublin Corporation in the 1920s to relieve the inner city housing crisis. To the north remains the Casino, marked as ‘Temple‘. On the death of the 3rd Earl, the earldom and barony of Charlemont became extinct. At the time of this Ordnance Survey, in 1938, the eighth Viscount Charlemont was James Edward Caulfeild, who lived in County Down and served as Minister for Education in Stormont.

Glucksman Map Library, Trinity College Dublin

Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1727–1785)
Bacchus (1767)
Facsimile. Details of original: Pencil, pen and black ink and brown wash on paper, 25 x 14 cm

Cipriani’s drawing of the Bacchus gure is particularly valuable, as the statue itself has weathered considerably, and some of the original details are di cult to identify. His thrysus, for example, is no longer in his hand, and the head of the leopard skin draped around him is barely distinguishable. It is also no longer possible to make out the cup that he is holding aloft. The survival of this preparatory drawing fills in these important features. Bacchus’ face is turned slightly to the left, as he stands on the north-west corner of the Casino roof, in order to acknowledge Ceres. William Laffan notes that Cipriani based this figure on Michaelangelo’s marble sculpture of Bacchus, currently in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence.

Private Collection

Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1727–1785)
Apollo (1767)
Facsimile. Details of original: Pencil, pen and black ink and brown wash on paper, 25 x 14 cm

The gods selected, with their associated meanings and symbols, were chosen by Charlemont himself. As the god of music and poetry, Apollo reflected Charlemont’s interest in the arts. Apollo appears inside the building, as the sunburst centrepiece of the Saloon ceiling. Externally, he stands at full height, playing his lyre. His long curled hair is tied up on top of his head, in the style of the classic Apollo Belvedere, now in the Vatican Museum.

Private Collection

Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1727–1785)
Venus (1767)
Facsimile. Details of original: Pencil, pen and black ink and brown wash on paper, 25 x 14 cm

As the fourth deity to grace the Casino, Charlemont chose Venus. Here she clutches an apple; this is a reference to the Judgement of Paris, a story from Greek mythology. In the story, Aphrodite (Venus) competes with Hera and Athena to claim a golden apple, inscribed with ‘for the fairest one’. Paris judges Aphrodite as fairest, and presents her with the apple. Athena is so enraged that she joins the Greeks against the Trojans. This was not the only statue of Venus that Charlemont commissioned; there was also Wilton’s copy of the Medici Venus, which stood in the Rutland Square townhouse. This can be glimpsed in the corner of the portrait of Charlemont that hangs in the Vestibule downstairs.

Private Collection

Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1727–1785)
Venus Revised (1767)
Pencil, pen and black ink , 25 x 12 cm

This second Venus is less finished than the first, and lacks the shading that adds dimension. This is noted by Cipriani himself in a letter (also exhibited in the State Bedroom). However, this is the sketch which most closely resembles the finished figure on the Casino roof. Charlemont or Chambers may have found the position of the apple immodest, so now Venus holds it at a little distance from her body. William Laffan notes that the style of Venus’ clothing here, also revised, is very similar
to the sculpture known as the Venus Felix, now in the Vatican Museum. This change in the design of Venus is also described by Cipriani in the letter.

Private Collection

Letter from Giovanni Battista Cipriani to the Earl of Charlemont (Friday 17th July 1767)
Facsimile. Details of original: Ink on paper, 23 x 19 cm

The drawings above are all labelled with an unexpected note, that says ‘By Sir William Chambers, for the Earl of Charlemont, 1760’. This incorrect information has likely been added later. Evidence for the authorship of the designs exists in a bill of £5 5s for ‘4 disegni di statue’, sent from Cipriani to Charlemont in 1768, and in the letter exhibited here, translated in full below.

My Lord, I didn’t touch with the pen the other figure of Venus, whose sketch I had the honour to show you, it not being different in the edge outline to that I formerly gave her along with the Ceres, and the Apollo, except a little in the left arm is lower and outstretched, therefore in the event that your excellency does not approve this design, the sculptor can easily amend [it]. In the meantime I presume to wish your Excellence a very happy journey and offer my very humble services and with profound respect give myself the honour of bowing… Your humble and devoted servant, GB Cipriani

Royal Irish Academy

Johann Heinrich Müntz (1727–1798)
Section of Lord Charlemont’s Egyptian Room (1762)
Facsimile. Details of original: 26.5 x 26.8 cm

This Section drawing was exhibited in 1762 with the Plan. There was also an Elevation included, but this has not survived. In the Section, the archways along the bottom of the page indicate that a crypt was intended. The detail given for the external plinth means that the main floor was planned to be raised well above ground level, probably with steps up to it. The time and attention spent on the main space, in contrast to the lack of detail at basement level, may mean that Müntz was unfamiliar with the actual ground conditions at Marino. This was therefore either a very early design, or a speculative one.

Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

Johann Heinrich Müntz (1727–1798)
Plan for an Egyptian Room (1762)
Facsimile. Details of original: 26.4 x 26 cm

Charlemont likely met Müntz, a Swiss painter and architectural designer, in Rome while on the Grand Tour. In 1762 M ntz exhibited the following two drawings with the Society of Artists, with a note on the reverse which said ‘Plan of an Egyptian building for the Rt. Hon. Viscount Charlemont to be executed in Ireland. J.H. M ntz 1762’. Teresa Watts has pointed out the window detail to the bottom left hand corner of the Plan, which says ‘Shutter to run up and down’. This is a feature that was in existence at the Casino, and may show Müntz‘s familiarity with Chambers’ designs.

Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

William Chambers (1723–96)
Elevation and Plan of the Casino (c. 1759)
Pen and ink, pencil and grey washes, 65 x 50.5 cm

An elevation of the entrance front and plan for two floors are shown here, for the Casino. This is an early plan, and many details are different to the building which was finally executed. The sculpted lions appear here as fountains, with the water pooling in bowls underneath. The lions survived, but the bowls were changed to relief panels of Cipriani’s design. Only two floors appear here too – the ground and upper. This drawing is very similar to the first plate of Chambers’ Treatise on Civil Architecture (1759), a demonstration of the high regard that Chambers had for the neoclassical achievement of the Casino building.

Office of Public Works

Letter from William Chambers to the Earl of Charlemont (1768)
Facsimile. Details of original: Ink on paper, 23.5 x 19.5 cm

In 1768, six years after the previous drawings were exhibited, Müntz was still producing designs for Charlemont, through Chambers’ commission. After a detailed discussion of plans for the Casino, its interior decoration still remarkably ongoing, Chambers wrote that “I have seen Müntz and pressed him to finish your Lordship’s design several times. He says now your Lordship will have a sketch of it by next post.” Both Casino and Gothic Room were externally complete five years previously, when the Countess of Northumberland visited. It is unknown which design by Müntz Chambers is referring to here.

Royal Irish Academy

Edward McFarland
Entrance Gate to Marino Demesne (1853)
Facsimile. Details of original: Watercolour, 27 x 37 cm

This is the very first picture (after a map) in Edward McFarland’s album of watercolours, A Drive from Dublin to Howth Returning by Clontarf in 1853. It is the only representation of the main entrance gates in their original location, when they still opened into Charlemont’s demesne. In 1768 Chambers wrote to Charlemont and enclosed “Cipriani’s drawing for the dragons of the gate at Marino”. The dragons are the main figures on the Charlemont crest, the motto, also inscribed on the gates, being Deo Duce Ferro Comitante (God as my leader, my sword my companion). These gates can be seen today at the entrance to the Marino Institute of Education.

National Library of Ireland

Edward McFarland
Marino House (1853)
Facsimile. Details of original: Watercolour, 27 x 37 cm

A feature of the McFarland album of watercolours is that the same figures are seen in each of the landmarks he visited. The man in the top hat, the lady in the blue dress, and the woman with her baby in a sling, appear frequently. Marino House was built in 1753. It stood in its original location, on present-day Brian Road, until the 1920s, when it was demolished to make way for the new Marino housing estate. The planting visible to the front of the house is similar to the plan of the garden on the Ordnance Survey maps in the Map Room. A photograph of Marino House, taken around thirty years later, can be seen on the Upper Landing.

National Library of Ireland

The roof of the Casino is drawn in detail here. Just to the right of the man in the top hat is seen one of the two chimneys that appear as highly decorative urns. As a nod to the coastal location of the demesne, and to its name, these urns feature Triton, one of the Greek sea-gods, with a mermaid. Much of the view here is the same as it was in the time of the 1st Earl, although note the steam train to the right of the painting.

National Library of Ireland

Edward McFarland
South West View from Same Spot, Dublin, County of Dublin Mountains and Naas Hill Co. Kildare in distance (1853)
Facsimile. Details of original: Watercolour, 27 x 37 cm

Between the city and the Casino here can be seen the paths that wound around Marino demesne, carefully placed to take advantage of the best views. Patrick Bowe notes that the boundary tree belts were thinned or broken in specific places, in order to frame these views. This can be seen more clearly on the Ordnance Survey maps of 1837 and 1867, in the Map Room. On the path here is
a light carriage, drawn by two white horses. Just behind the lady in the dress is the back of the second chimney-urn, with the curling tail of the mermaid just visible.

National Library of Ireland

Edward McFarland
The Temple in Marino Demesne (1853)
Facsimile. Details of original: Watercolour, 27 x 37 cm

The lady in the blue dress is seen again here, occupying the same position as the woman in the 1870s photograph (seen on the Upper Landing). McFarland drew this view from a favoured spot in the grounds, the north-east corner of the meadow before the Casino. Thomas Roberts also painted from this perspective in the grounds (see Roberts, A Landscape, in the Zodiac Room). Although the two paintings are eighty years apart, the scene is remarkably similar. Sheep still graze the grounds, and the mountains across the bay remain unchanged. The trees have matured, but otherwise, the 2nd Earl’s landscape kept to his father’s vision.

National Library of Ireland