A CURIOUS IRISH WILL.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—So recently as the year 1874, a protessiouat gentleman in the South of Ireland made a will some extracts from which are hero given. The will was lent to me by a parishioner; but for obvious reasons I do not give the name and address of the testator I leave and bequeath an annuity of .2120 a year, an ample provision for an irreclaimable booby, to my nephew, I. L, C., to be paid him only in Australia or any British colony, where he may desire it to be remitted to him Should the said I. L. C. return to Ireland, England, or Scotland, I then revoke this annuity, and he has my leave to die in the Poorhouse."
There is a long codicil to the will, made in the following year, explaining at great length why the "irreclaimable booby" had been so treated. It describes his experiences at the gold-fields,—as a gold-digger, a horse-dealer, a flour- merchant, a trafficker in boots and shoes—quite an amusing biographical sketch, written in a style of most severe sarcasm. It concludes as follows :— " He returned to Ireland with his finger in his mouth. This is the career of this man of the world. I only ask any man to say is it to such a man I ought to leave the independence I have so hardly earned."
A medical friend is remembered thus :- " When I had an opportunity I called him in, which was a great advantage to him professionally, as ho was well paid. Mr. C.'s case, the one when I amputated, he got a larger fee than myself. B.'s when upset by Mail Coach was another, and others also. I now make him a present of my works on surgery and any instru- ments I may have." "I give my medical books to Mr. W. G. I desire all other books not medical, with soup ladle and large silver Tankard being long in my family, and also my silver snuff-boxes, to be packed up in a chest downstairs, painted [sic], properly fastened, and directed to S. M., Hobart Town, Tasmania."
" I desire to be buried in my tomb in T. churchyard, and that no labourer with spade or shovel be allowed to enter my tomb. I have seen this class committing great sacrilege in order to show their work and trouble. I wish quicklime to be strewed thick in bottom of coffin, and when corpse is in to have limo thrown over it. While alive I have a great abhorrence of insects, and may have the same though dead."
"I leave and bequeath to Mr. J. M. an annuity of £10 a year, to be paid half-yearly, as he is the most distressed of all his respectable relations, not from any regard for him, but because he was a near relative of my deceased wife."
"I leave the Parlour maid £10 on giving up all articles entrusted to her care in good order ; she has the key of plate-chest." " Scarves and hatbands may be bought at 0,0. and L.'s ; these men employed me ; but I will not have a coffin made in T., from the way my niece was served and treated."
Are there many instances of wills such as this being made the vehicle for personal reflections P—I am, Sir, &e., COURTENAY 3,100RE, M.A.
Mitchelstown Bectory, March 21st.
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