Edenvale - Wexford Guide and Directory, 1885

About “Wexford County Guide and Directory,” 1885

George Henry Bassett produced 7 Irish county directories in the 1880s: Antrim, Armagh, Down, Kilkenny, Louth, Tipperary and Wexford. Each provides useful history of the respective counties as well as lists of office holders, farmers, traders, and other residents of the individual cities, towns and villages.

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The directories are naturally an invaluable resource for those tracing family history. However, there are a few points to bear in mind.

  1. This online version of Bassett’s Wexford County Guide and Directory is designed primarily as a genealogical research tool and therefore the numerous advertisements in the original book, many full page, and quite a few illustrated, have been excluded.
  2. The text has been proofed with due care, but with large bodies of text typographical errors are inevitably bound to occur.
  3. Be aware that there were often inconsistencies in spelling surnames in the 19th century and also that many forenames are abbreviated in Bassett’s directories.

With respect to the last point, surnames which today begin with the “Mc” prefix, for example, were often formerly spelt as “M‘,”. For a list of some of the more common forename abbreviations used in the directory, see Forename Abbreviations.

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A DRIVE from Wexford to Edenvale should include Ferry Carrig, Kyle, and Crossabeg. The road beyond “the ferry” passes Saunderscourt, Mrs. Elizabeth Richard’s pretty cottage, Arran, and Artramont, the residence of Mr. George Le Hunte, J.P. Artramont is an old-fashioned solid house, with concealed roof. Its site is among the finest in the county, commanding a splendid view of the Slaney, and the surrounding country. Its grounds are ample and well kept, and the demesne has a large number of ornamental and useful trees. The road fronting it is bordered by the extending branches of forest trees, and is charmingly diversified by gentle hills. At the foot of the last of these, to the left of the village of Castlebridge, which is three miles, English, from Wexford, the entrance to Edenvale is reached. An iron gate bars the way, but entrance is freely given.

In bestowing a name, it is a dangerous compliment to either a child or a locality to pitch upon one denoting extreme loveliness. It too frequently occurs that the child never attains the ideal indicated, or that the locality totally belies the suggestion implied. Edenvale is a shining exception among such cases. Our original parents must indeed have been fastidious could they have found fault in a place like this. From the gate, along the Sow, which winds its way towards the sea, the serene beauty of fern-covered and well wooded hillside increases. The valley widens into a broad lawn, carpetted with green. A tiny foot bridge, exquisitely dressed in ivy, crosses the stream—whose name certainly is not romantic—and from this an avenue winds to a comfortable vine-covered farmhouse, which overlooks the vale of three acres. This house has been occupied by the Smithsons for upwards of one hundred years, and is at present tenanted by Mr. Lennon, Master of the Castlebridge National School, whose wife was a member of the Smithson family.

The hill on the right bank of the stream rises to a height of 220 feet, and is tastefully planted with trees and shrubs. Trees of gigantic size, full foliaged, and beautiful, meet the eye on every side; but the crowning glory of the scene is the chief cascade, some thirty feet high. It is at the further end of the vale, and is so bowered in trees that the white sheet of water seems to leap out of a wall of living green. It pours down from rock to rock; high rocks frame in the picture to the right, while to the left a path leads up to other cascades, and to pools teeming with trout. Edenvale is an ideal pic-nic ground, open to all, but its stream may not be fished without leave from the landlord, who is likewise master of Artramont.

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