Summerhill House, Co Meath

Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.

“(Langford, Bt/EDB; Rowley, Langford, B/PB) The most dramatic of the Irish Palladian houses, probably by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce in collaboration with Richard Castle. Built 1731 for Hercules Rowley, MP, who inherited the estate from his mother, the daughter of Sir Hercules Langford. Crowning a hill, on the lower slopes of which stood the C17 house of the Langfords, the house consisted of two storey seven bay main block, with a central feature of four giant recessed Corinthian columns, joined by two storey curving wings to end pavilions with towers and shallow domes. The skyline was further diversified by two massive square towers rising boldly at either end of the main block; one of several features reminiscent of Vanbrugh, who was, incidentally, Pearce’s  first cousin once removed. The front was prolonged by walls of rusticated stonework ending in rusticated arches. All the stonework of the front was beautifully crisp and sharp. The garden front was less spectacular, but elegant, with two storeys of engaged columns as its central feature; it faced along a tree-lined gorge. Large two storey hall. Staircase hall with plasterwork on its walls. Fine rococo ceiling in drawing room, with busts in circular frames and putti in clouds. Small dining room ceiling also rococo, with putti in clouds in centre. Adjoining room with coved ceiling springing from Doric order; this room and the small dining room were eventually thrown together to make a larger dining room. The house was damaged by fire in nineteenth century; it was restored, but the original decoration of the hall was lost, as well as the original staircase. In 1879 and 1880, the Empress Elizabeth of Austria took Summerhill for the hunting season; it is said that her unquiet spirit found more happiness here than in any of the other numerous palaces and houses which she inhabited. After being burnt ca 1922, the house stood for 35 years or so as a ruin. Even in its ruinous state, Summer hill was one of the wonders of Ireland; in fact like Vanbrugh’s Seaton Delaval, it gained added drama from being a burnt out shell. The calcining of the central feature of the garden front looked like more fantastic rustication; the stonework of the side arches was more beautiful than ever mottled with red lichen; and as the entrance front came into sight, one first became aware that it was a ruin by noticing daylight showing through the front door. But ca 1957, the ruin was demolished; an act of destruction, which, at the time, passed almost unnoticed.” 

Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.

p. 115. “A superb house probably designed by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce in collaboration with Richard Castle who carried it out after Pearce’s death. The house was built in 1731 for Hercules Rowley M.P. The arched chimneystacks of the main block show the influence of John Vanburgh. The house was damaged by two fires in the 19C but some plasterwork by the Francini brothers survived. The house was burnt in 1922. Having stood as a magnificent ruin for many years, the stonework was sold and the ruin demolished c. 1962. Only the flanking pedimented arches and screen walls survive.”

The Landed Gentry and Aristocracy: County Meath. Volume 1. Art Kavanagh, 2005.

Langford of Summerhill (Barons Langford)

p. 126. The Rowleys settled in Ireland in the early part of the 17^th century. Three brothers, John, Nathaniel and William were the first of that family to arrive on the island. It is most likely hey came to Ireland with Chichester the Lord Deputy. They probaby benefited from the distribution of lands in the Plantation of Ulster. They appear to have been granted some lands in Derry and Edward, John’s son, was based in Castle Roe near Londonderry where he was elected an MP.

John made a very good match with the daughter of an up and coming landlord, Sir Hugh Clotworthy, from neighbouring County Antrim [fn. Hugh’s son John was created Earl of Massareene by King Charles II). Sir John Rowley was John’s son and heir.

The Rowley connection with Meath began in 1671 when Sir John Rowley, MP, married Mary the only child and heir of Sir Hercules Langford of Summerhill and his wife Mary Upton.

…The only son, Hercules Rowley, married his cousin Frances Upton of Castle Upton, co Antrim, in 1705. It must have been he who inherited from Sir Hercules Langford as that man’s will was proved in 1683.

…[their son, Hercules] At the time of his death in 1794 his estate was considerable and was worth £18,000 p.a. The Langfords owned almost 10,000 acres in three different counties, 2,231 in Meath, 3,855 in Limerick and 3,659 in Dublin.

p. 127. He married his cousin the Hon. Elizabeth Ormsby Upton the daughter and heir of Clotworthy Upton who died the same year. Elizabeth also inherited the Ormsby lands in Limerick [Athlacca, Co Limerick]. In 1766 Elizabeth was created Baroness Summerhill and Viscountess Langford of Langford Lodge, Antrim with remainder to her male heirs. …

p. 128. After the death of Elizabeth the Baroness in 1791, her eldest son Hercules succeeded to become 2nd Viscount. Her husband survived three years longer and died in 1794.

Hercules (1737-96) was MP for Co Antrim until he took his seat in the House of Lords in 1791, the year his mother died. …He never married and was succeeded by his niece Frances. In the same year that her grandfather died (1794) she married her cousin, the Hon. Clotworthy Taylour.  Born in 1763 he was the 4^th son of Lord Headfort. He was MP for Trim and also for Meath during the later decades of the century until his elevation to the Peerage as Baron Langford in 1800. He was high Sheriff of Meath in 1796. [p. 129] After his marriage to Frances in 1794 Clotworthy assumed the name and arms of Rowley. 

The second son Richard Thomas was a career Army officer….married and English lady, Charlotte Shipley..The newlyweds decided to honeymoon travelling in Egypt and the Sudan in 1835-36. From diaries and sketches recording their experience an article “A Honeymoon in Egypt and the Sudan” was written by Peter Rowley-Conwy c. 2002. …Charlotte was thought to be the first European woman ever to have visited Petra.

[a descendant of theirs became 9^th Baron Langford].

p. 130. The eldest son of 1^st Baron Hercules Langford the 2^nd Baron (1795-1839), a DL for counties Meath and Dublin was married in 1818 to Louisa Rhodes….

Hercules the second son (1828-1904) settled on the Dublin property of Marlay Park, which thankfully has not entirely disappeared. He was a part-time Army officer, a JP and a DL for Co Meath and honorary Colonel in teh 5^th Battalion of the Leinster Regiment. Like many wealthy men of his time he had a pad in London and was a member of the Kildare Club on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin and the Carlton in London. 

p. 133. Clotworthy (1825-1854) the eldest son of the 2^nd Baron succeeded his father in 1839 when that man died at the relatively young age of 44. Clotworthy was only 14. In 1846 when he was just 21 years old, Clothworthy, now 3^rd Baron Langford, married Louisa Conolly from Castletown, the daughter of Col Michael Edward Conolly who was MP for Kildare….They had three sons. The youngest boy was just one year old when tragedy struck the family. Louisa was drowned in a tragic accident.

p. 133. Hercules Edward (4^th Baron) had to oversee the dismantling of the Langford empire in Ireland following the various land acts…Although on paper at least the family seemed to be very wealthy, the fact that they were compelled to rent the house [to Empress Sisi of Austria] meant that their annual outgoings were extremely high. It is probably that the repayment of borrowings was the biggest drain on family finances. 

p. 134. WWI took a heavy toll on the families of the gentry and aristocracy. Lord Langford lost his son which was all the more poignant since his other son was mentally unstable. [see Bence-Jones Twilight of the Ascendancy.] He now had no immediate heir as his brother was old and had no family but he had a nephew in New Zealand, Clotworthy Wellington. His brother Col William Chambre looked after the estate during the last years of the 4^th Baron’s life.

…In 1923 Summerhill was burned by the IRA. 

p. 135. The 5^th Baron died in 1922 ages only 28. The 5^th Baron was succeeded by his uncle, William Chambre Rowley, 2^nd son of the 3^rd Baron. …

The 6^th Baron sought compensation from the Free State Government for Summerhill and its contents. After three years of wrangling the Compensation Board finally agreed that a sum of £43,500 would be paid. This was less than one third of the estimated value of the house and contancts…He accepted and invested in gilt-edged stocks… moved to Middlesex…He consulted his New Zealand relatives about the possibility of rebuilding but none were overly anxious to live in Ireland….

Record ofProtected Structures 

Detached four-bay two-storey house, built 1878, with gabled 

central bay. Pitched slate roof with rendered chimneystacks 

and timber bargeboards. Roughcast rendered walls. Squareheaded 

window openings with label mouldings and stone 

sills. 

National inventory: 14333010 

https://archiseek.com/2012/summerhill-co-meath/

1731 – Summerhill, Co. Meath 

Architect: Edward Lovett Pearce / Richard Cassels 

Summerhill House was a 100 roomed country house which was the ancestral seat of the Langford Rowley family. They owned large amounts of land in counties Meath, Westmeath, Cork, Derry, Antrim, and Dublin as well as in Devon and Cornwall. 

Designed by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce and completed by Richard Cassels in the Palladian style, it consisted of a centre block and two wings, built of limestone. Four semi-columns with Corinthian capitals ornamented the front; the main order was carried up the full height of the house. A broad flight of stairs led to the entrance of the mansion. There was a large and very lofty hall, which was similar to Leinster House in Dublin, also by Cassels. The hall contained plaques and oil portraits. To the right on entering was the library. The drawing room had a southern aspect, and contained several portraits of the Rowley family. The state dining room was detached from the main block and had beautifully covered ceilings. The grand stairs led to the bedrooms.  

Destroyed by arson in the early 1920s and the ruins demolished by the 1970s. In 1922 Colonel Rowley, the 6th Baron Langford, sought compensation from the Free State Government and after three years of negotiation with the Compensation Board a sum of £43,500 was paid to the Colonel, approximately one third of the value of the house and contents destroyed in the fire. Nothing remains of the house. 

https://www.geni.com/projects/Historic-Buildings-of-County-Meath/29729

Summerhill House 100 room mansion, baroque palace, built in 1731, the ancestral seat of The Baronets, Barons, and Viscounts Langford – Summerhill Castle. Lynch’s Castle, (above), was already a residence in the immediate vicinity, the ruins of which survive to the present. Constructed for the The Hon. Hercules Langford Rowley, 2nd Baron Langford who in 1732 married his cousin Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Clotworthy Upton. In 1781 Hercules Langford Rowley built a large gothic mausoleum not far from the house, which fell into a ruinous state; some of its exterior walls survive, along with a handful of their curious arched niches. It originally contained a large memorial carved by Thomas Banks and commemorating the death of a beloved granddaughter, the Hon Mary Pakenham (Rowley’s daughter had married Lord Longford, another of whose children Catherine would in turn marry the Hon Arthur Wellesley, future Duke of Wellington). The Banks memorial was rescued from the mausoleum and moved into the main house at Summerhill. Summerhill House was damaged by fire on a number of occasions and then on 4 February 1922, it was set on fire by the Irish Republican Army and completely destroyed. In 1922 Colonel Rowley, the 6th Baron Langford, sought compensation from the Free State Government and after three years of negotiation with the Compensation Board a sum of £43,500 was paid to the Colonel, approximately one third of the value of the house and contents destroyed in the fire. Colonel Rowley invested the money in gilt-edged stocks and moved to Middlesex, England. Summerhill House stood as a ruin until it was totally demolished in 1970. Summerhill House was listed in “Forgotten Houses of Ireland”, as the most beautiful house in Ireland. 

https://meathhistoryhub.ie/houses-r-z/

Summerhill House was considered to be one of the most dramatic of the Irish palladian houses. Crowning a hill to the south of Summerhill village, the house consisted of a main block with curved wings ending in a tower and pavilion. Summerhill House was designed by Edward Lovett Pearce and completed by Richard Castle, two of the greatest architects working in Ireland in the eighteenth century. Two of the ceilings were attributed to the Lafranchini brothers. Summerhill House, described by Mulligan as a ‘great palatial mansion,’ was erected about 1730 for Hercules Rowley. Bence–Jones described Summerhill as “the most dramatic of the great Irish palladian houses”. The house was burned accidentally about 1800, remodelled in the nineteenth century and burned again in 1921. The ruins were demolished in the middle of the twentieth century and some of the stones from the ruins were used at Dalgan Park, Navan, to construct a loggia. To the north of the house site stands Lynch’s castle which was converted to a folly on the estate. Near the house stood the family mausoleum. 

Summerhill House  

A mile long avenue to the south of the house was planned. The architect asked to design the gate houses was also working on two gate lodges for a military barracks in India and the two plans became mixed up. Those intended for India arrived in Summerhill and were erected. The houses because of their unusual roofs became known as the “Balloon Houses”. The avenue was never completed as the last third of it stood on public road and so the gate houses were not even part of the demesne. 

Though Summerhill House has been demolished, the entrance and tree-lined avenue are reminders of the demesne. The curved wall and gate piers was clearly executed by skilled masons. The entrance acts as a focal point within the village of Summerhill. The village of Summerhill is based on a classical layout, associated with the development of the Summerhill House and demesne. The village consists of a long wide street with a narrow tree-lined green running down the centre. The village green, laid out c.1830 includes a medieval cross. 

The ancient seat of the Lynch family had been granted to Henry Jones, Bishop of Meath, for his services provided as Scoutmaster General to Cromwell’s Army. In 1661 Bishop Jones sold the lands to Sir Hercules Langford. The name was changed from Lynch’s Knock to Summerhill. 

Sir Hercules Langford died in 1683 leaving a son, Arthur, and a daughter, Mary. He died in 1716.  Arthur died without an heir and the estate went to his sister Mary who had married Sir John Rowley in 1671. Sir John Rowley was one of the biggest landowners in County Londonderry.  

Sir John was succeeded by his son, Hercules Rowley, MP for Co. Londonderry 1703-42 and heir to Sir Hercules Langford of Summerhill. Hercules Rowley commissioned Sir Edward Lovett Pearce in collaboration with Richard Castle to build one of the greatest and most dramatic of all the Irish Georgian houses in 1731. The house was probably erected in preparation for his marriage in 1732 to Elizabeth Upton. Hercules Rowley died in 1742 when he was succeeded by his son. 

Sir Hercules Langford Rowley was M.P. for Co. Londonderry 1743-1760 and for Co. Meath 1761-94.  He was a founder member of the Dublin Society in 1731, later the RDS. He was High Sheriff of Meath in 1738. In 1766 Hercules Langford Rowley was elevated to the peerage as Lord Summerhill. Hercules Langford Rowley was known as ‘the incorruptible representative for the County of Meath.’ He served in the Irish parliament for a period of fifty-one years. In 1787 he was appointed as one of the commissioners for the making of a canal from Drogheda to Trim. Johnston-Liik recorded that he died in 1794 having been an MP for over 50 years. In 1776 his wife was made Viscountess Langford and Baroness of Summerhill in her own right. Their eldest son, Hercules Rowley, became 2nd Viscount Langford in 1791 on the death of his mother. When he died unmarried about 1795 the estate went to his grand nephew, Hon Clothsworthy Taylour who was M.P. for Trim 1791-5 and for Co. Meath 1795-1800. He was created Baron Langford in 1800 having assumed the name Rowley in 1796 in order to inherit Summerhill. While he was M.P. for Trim the other M.P. for Trim was Arthur Wesley, the future Duke of Wellington. Clothsworthy voted against the Union in 1799 and for it in 1800 – the title might have had something to do with the change of mind, according to one commentator – ‘he had got his price.’ 

Baron Langford died in 1825 and his grandson, Clothworthy Wellington William Robert, became third Baron Langford. His son, Hercules Edward, became fourth baron in 1854 when he was just six years old. Educated at Eton he rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the army. 

He leased Summerhill to the Empress of Austria for hunting in 1879 and 1880 and was her guest for these periods. Elizabeth married the Emperor of Austria when she was sixteen years old. Travelling and her passion for horse riding became the principle activities by which she could escape the court. Arriving in February 1879 a room was converted to a private chapel, a gymnasium was set up and a direct telegraph line installed to Europe. She was loaned a horse and joined the local hunt. The stag they had been chasing jumped through a space into the Maynooth Seminary with the hounds, and the Empress, in pursuit. The President, Dr Walsh, came out to meet the group and on being introduced to the Empress of Austria lent her his coat or gown, invited them in for refreshment and she promised to return. The Empress managed to hunt nearly every day. In the early spring of 1880 the Empress went straight to Summerhill. On the first Sunday she went to Mass at the seminary in Maynooth and took a gift of a three foot high model of St George slaying the dragon. She was unaware that St George was the patron saint of England and when she was told of its significance she ordered shamrock covered vestments from Dublin. She spent some happy time hunting in Meath. The Empress of Austria was assassinated in 1897 by an anarchist in Geneva. 

In 1883 Lord Langford held 2231 acres in Meath, 3659 in Dublin and 3855 in Limerick giving a total estate of 9745 acres. 

Hercules Edward fourth baron oversaw the disposal of the Summerhill estate.  He died on 29^th October 1919 and was interred in Agher cemetery. He lost his son and heir in the First World War and his second son was mentally unstable. His brother, William Chambre, took charge of the estate during his last years and after his death. William became 6^th baron when his nephew died in 1922. 

In 1921 the house was burned to prevent it falling into the hands of the Black and Tans. Beryl Moore recorded that a large four side clock was the only thing left undamaged and it was donated to Kilmessan Church of Ireland church. On the 4th February 1921 Summerhill House was set on fire by the IRA and completely destroyed. Colonel and Mrs Rowley were away. The five servants who lived in the house were sitting together in the kitchen when they heard a knock on the back door. The English butler did not open the door and some minutes later a whistle was blown and the back door battered in. The servants escaped through a door into the basement and made there way out into the darkness. As they walked down the avenue the house was dowsed in petrol and the fire started in a number of places. 

In 1922 Colonel Rowley, the 6th Baron Langford, sought compensation from the Free State Government and after three years of negotiation with the Compensation Board a sum of £43,500 was paid to the Colonel, approximately one third of the value of the house and contents destroyed in the fire. Colonel Rowley invested the money in gilt-edged stocks and moved to Middlesex, England. 

In the early twenty first century the eighth holder of the title was constable of Rhuddlan castle and lord of Rhuddlan, Wales. The family reside at Bodrhyddan Hall. 

https://theirishaesthete.com/2013/04/01/my-name-is-ozymandias/

In February 1879 Elisabeth, Empress of Austria, popularly known then and since as Sisi, arrived in County Meath. Unhappily married, restless and inclined to melancholy, she found distraction in hunting and it was this sport which brought her to Ireland. Throughout her six-week stay in the country she followed the hounds almost daily with the Ward Union, the Meath and the Kildare Hunts, always accompanied by the most proficient horseman of his generation Captain William ‘Bay’ Middleton, widely rumoured to be her lover. Her own animals not proving suitable for the Irish terrain, local owners lent or sold the Empress their mounts although the Master of the Meath Hunt Captain Robert Fowler of Rahinstown was heard to expostulate ‘I’m not going to have any damned Empress buying my daughter’s horse.’ Nevertheless before her departure, Elisabeth presented a riding crop to Fowler: it was sold by Adam’s of Dublin in September 2010 for €28,000. 
During her 1879 visit and on a second occasion the following year the Empress stayed in an immense baroque palace that would not have looked out of place among the foothills outside Vienna. This was Summerhill, one of Ireland’s most remarkable houses the loss of which, as the Knight of Glin once wrote, ‘is probably the greatest tragedy in the history of Irish domestic architecture.’ 

Summerhill was constructed for the Hon. Hercules Langford Rowley who in 1732 married his cousin Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Clotworthy Upton. It is generally agreed that work on the house began around this date, perhaps to commemorate the union. Also, although impossible to prove absolutely, the most widespread supposition is that Summerhill’s architect was Sir Edward Lovett Pearce. There are echoes in its design of Vanbrugh in whose office Pearce is thought to have trained. Indeed writing of the building in 1752 the Anglican clergyman and future Bishop of Meath Richard Pococke specifically described it as ‘a commanding Eminence, the house is like a Grand Palace, but in the Vanbrugh Style.’ 
There was already a residence in the immediate vicinity, the ruins of which survive to the present. Known as Lynch’s Castle, it is a late 16th century tower house probably occupied up to the time of Summerhill’s construction. The position selected for Rowley’s new house could scarcely have been better – the 19th century English architect C.R. Cockerell thought ‘few sites more magnificently chosen – the close of a long incline so that the gradual approach along a tree-lined avenue created the impression of impending drama. Finally one reached the entrance front, a massive two-storey, seven-bay block the central feature of which were four towering Corinthian columns, the whole executed in crisply cut limestone. On either side two-storey quadrants swept away from the house towards equally vast pavilions topped by towers and shallow domes. 

We must imagine the original interiors of Summerhill to have been as superb as its exterior since little record of them survive. The house was seriously damaged by fire in the early 19th century and thereafter successive generations of the Rowley owners – it had passed to a branch of the Taylours of Headfort, the first of whom was elevated to the peerage as Baron Langford in 1800 after voting in favour of the Act of Union – never seem to have had sufficient funds to oversee a comprehensive refurbishment. In fact in 1851 the estate was offered for sale. However, some work was done on the house, including a new main staircase, in the 1870s, not long before Summerhill was taken by the Empress Elisabeth. A handful of photographs, reproduced in the invaluable Irish Georgian Society Records of 1913 and shown above give us an idea of the house’s decoration, not least that of the double-height entrance hall with its then-compulsory potted palms (just as the wall above the stairs carries an equally inevitable reproduction of Raphael’s Sistine Madonna). We know the drawing room and small dining room both contained elaborate plasterwork and there were clearly some splendid chimneypieces. The IGS Records also lists many significant paintings in the main rooms. 
Before the end of the 19th century the large gothic mausoleum likewise built by Hercules Langford Rowley in 1781 not far from the house had fallen into a ruinous state; some of its exterior walls survive, along with a handful of their curious arched niches. Originally it contained a large memorial carved by Thomas Banks and commemorating the death of a beloved granddaughter, the Hon Mary Pakenham (Rowley’s daughter had married Lord Longford, another of whose children Catherine would in turn marry the Hon Arthur Wellesley, future Duke of Wellington). The Banks memorial was rescued from the mausoleum and moved into the main house at Summerhill, there seemingly safe from any damage. 

On the night of 4th February 1922 the Rowleys were away but five staff remained in the house. When a knock came on the back door, the butler refused to open it but shortly afterwards he heard the door being knocked down. He and the others escaped through an exit in the basement and walked towards the farm; turning around, they saw flames rapidly spreading through the house which by morning was left a smoking shell. 
It has never been ascertained who was responsible for the burning of Summerhill or why it was attacked in this way, but most likely as elsewhere during the same period it was perceived as representing the old regime and therefore a target for republicans. Afterwards, like other house owners whose property had suffered a similar fate, the Rowleys applied to the new Free State government for compensation, asking for £100,000 to rebuild Summerhill; initially they were offered £65,000 but by April 1923 this had been cut to £16,775 with the condition that at least £12,000 of the sum had to be spent on building some kind of residence on the site, otherwise only £2,000 would be given. 
The compensation figure was later raised to £27,500 with no obligation to build but by then the Rowleys left the country (one member of the family had already declared ‘Nothing would induce me to live in Ireland if I was paid to do so…’). For the next thirty-five years Summerhill stood an empty shell. The late Mark Bence-Jones who saw the house during this period later wrote, ‘Even in its ruinous state, Summerhill was one of the wonders of Ireland; in fact like Vanbrugh’s Seaton Delaval, it gained added drama from being a burnt-out shell. The calcining of the central feature of the garden front looked like more fantastic rustication; the stonework of the side arches was more beautiful than ever mottled with red lichen; and as the entrance front came into sight, one first became aware that it was a ruin by noticing daylight showing through the front door.’ In 1947 Maurice Craig visited the site. His wonderfully atmospheric photographs from that time corroborate Bence-Jones’ description. 

Seaton Delaval still stands, but Summerhill is no more. In 1957 the house was demolished, apparently without any objection. Today the site is occupied by a bungalow of the most diminutive proportions surrounded by evergreens which thereby obscure the view which made this spot so special. The difference in scale and style between the original house and its replacement would be hilarious was the loss of Summerhill not so tragic. The village at its former entrance gates gives visitors no indication that close by stood one of Ireland’s greatest architectural beauties. Indeed one suspects local residents themselves are mostly unaware of what they have lost since there is scant evidence of concern for the welfare of other old buildings in the vicinity. 
If Summerhill still stood it could be a significant tourist attraction, bringing visitors to this part of the country, not least from Austria and surrounding countries where the Empress Elisabeth enjoys near-cult status. In other words, what went with the house was not just an important piece of Ireland’s architectural heritage but also the opportunity for local employment and income. It is typical, if perhaps the worst instance, of Ireland’s failure to appreciate the potential of her historic buildings, as well as their inherent aesthetic qualities. I think it was Bence-Jones who once called Summerhill Ireland’s Versailles but a more apt comparison would be with Marly, another vanished treasure now known only through a handful of images. As Shelley wrote in 1818, 
‘”Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” 
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay 
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare…’ 

https://theirishaesthete.com/2016/04/13/an-echo-of-lost-grandeur/

Now providing access to Dolly’s Grove, County Meath, this limestone triumphal arch seemingly once stood at the entrance to Summerhill in the same county. Among Ireland’s very finest country houses Summerhill was built in the 1730s but is no more, having been burnt in February 1922, after which its dramatic shell survived another thirty-five years before being demolished (for more on the house, see My Name is Ozymandias, April 1st 2013). Summerhill’s design has traditionally been attributed to Sir Edward Lovett Pearce and some of his stylistic tics, such as blind niches and oculi, can be seen here in the Dolly’s Grove arch suggesting the architect was responsible for this piece of work also.