The genius behind the lawn at Chatsworth was Capability Brown (1716-1783). In the course of…
Oliver Plunkett’s Birthplace Includes Garden
Oliver Plunkett’s birthplace includes garden.
I just finished reading a biography of Oliver Plunkett, an Archbishop in Ireland who died in 1681 as a martyr for his Catholic faith.
Four priests and five laymen, paid to testify against him, betrayed him at his trial in London. They convinced the court that Plunkett planned to invade England with the help of the
French.
The witnesses also claimed that Plunkett wanted England under the control of the Pope.
Plunkett never received a chance to bring his own witnesses to the trial. The case has over the centuries been studied as an example of the poorest of judicial practice.
Plunkett’s life amounted to a witness for his faith, amidst the harshest of hatred and bigotry. It is the story of a courageous man who only tried to heal and bring people together in the name of faith.
While in Ireland recently, I visited the early home and church of Plunkett in Loughcrew in county Meath, one hour from Dublin.
There I found a beautiful garden, built in the nineteenth century.
The garden included a wall with a border of perennials, too many to count. [below]
This border represents the garden fashion in the late nineteenth century encouraged by Irish garden writer William Robinson (1838-1935). He proposed perennials rather than the traditional annuals for flowerbeds.
What was amazing as I walked the property at Loughcrew that day was the thought that from this spot came a giant in Irish history, the man of faith known today as St. Oliver Plunkett.
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