Castle Boro - 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.
The directories are naturally an invaluable resource for those tracing family history. However, there are a few points to bear in mind.
- 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.
- The text has been proofed with due care, but with large bodies of text typographical errors are inevitably bound to occur.
- 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.
CASTLE BORO is six miles, Irish, to the west of Enniscorthy. The road to it passes many private residences, all displaying cultivated taste on the part of the occupants. The last mile is a bower of beeches. Very great care has been manifested in training the branches and weeding out everything of an obstructive nature. A broad clearing reveals a “grand gateway” and handsome granite lodge. Free admission is given to visitors, and the drive in the demesne is through ferny woods, and across the Boro, a stream which justifies the term “crystal.” Presently an opening in the trees brings into view the mansion, with its noble porch, supported by Corinthian pillars. The main building is 90 feet in width, and has two wings, 55 feet each. Seen from the river, at the back, the effect is very fine, the Corinthian pillars, which support the roof, and a landscape garden of seven great terraces, connected by granite steps, aiding it very much. The garden is really the sight of Castle Boro. It is the result of a lavish expenditure on the part of the father of the present Lord Carew, and contains, among the rest, some splendid marble fountains and stately yews. At the foot of the long line of terraces is the Boro, extended to the proportions of a lake by judicious damning. This abounds in trout, and may be fished from boat or bank. There is a granite pier, and sequestered walks to the right and left. On the opposite bank is a gently-rising expanse, dotted with ornamental shade trees.
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