Ronald John McNeill

“ On the 27th of July, when the queen was dying, the earl of Oxford received his long-delayed dismissal from the office of lord treasurer. On the 30th Shrewsbury and other ministers assembled at Kensington Palace, and being admitted to the queen’s bedchamber Bolingbroke recommended the appointment of Shrewsbury to the vacant treasurership; Anne at once placed the staff of that high ollice in the duke’s hands. When the queen died on the 1st of August Shrewsbury was thus in a position of supreme power with reference to the momentous question of the succession to the crown. ”

“ One of the most effective strokes in racquets is the “drop,” which means that the ball is hit so that it only just reaches the front wall and drops close to it, while the player conceals his intention by appearing to strike hard. “The drop-stroke,” says Mr Eustace Miles, who regrets that it is less cultivated than formerly, “is one of the most beautiful, and of all drop-strokes, the volley or half-volley is the best." The “half-volley,” in which the ball is struck at the moment of its contact with the floor and before it has had time to rise, is also employed with great effect in hard play ”

“ Elizabeth, whose prudence and parsimony were averse to so formidable an undertaking as the complete subjugation of the powerful Irish chieftain, desired peace with him at almost any price; especially when the devastation of his territory by Sussex brought him no nearer to submission. Sussex, indignant at Shane's request for his sister's hand in marriage, and his demand for the withdrawal of the English garrison from Armagh, was not supported by the queen, who sent the earl of Kildare to arrange terms with O'Neill. ”

“ Discontent in Ireland was now rapidly becoming dangerous, and was finding a focus in the Society of the United Irishmen, and in the Catholic Committee, an organization formed a few years previously, chiefly under the direction of Lord Kenmare, to watch the interests of the Catholics. French revolutionary doctrines had become ominously popular, and no one sympathized with them more warmly than Lord Edward Fitzgerald, who, fresh from the gallery of the Convention in Paris, returned to his seat in the Irish parliament and threw himself actively into the work of opposition. ”

“ He was a man of brilliant and versatile ability, whom Lord Townshend, the lord lieutenant, described as "by far the most powerful man in parliament." William Gerard Hamilton said of him that "Ireland never bred a more able, nor any country a more honest man." Hely-Hutchinson was, however, an inveterate place-hunter, and there was point in Lord North's witticism that "if you were to give him the whole of Great Britain and Ireland for an estate, he would ask the Isle of Man for a potato garden." ”

“ Their belief, and that of their partisans, influenced no doubt by political hostility to James, was that the king had invented the story of a conspiracy by Gowrie to cover his own design to extirpate the Ruthven family. James gave some colour to this belief, which has not been entirely abandoned, by the relentless severity with which he pursued the two younger, and unquestionably innocent, brothers of the earl. Great efforts were made by the government to prove the complicity of others in the plot. ”

“ The best position in the court for the hand-out about to take the serve depends entirely on the nature of the service, and he has to use his judgment the instant the ball leaves the server’s racquet in order to determine where it will strike the floor and at what precise point in its course it will be best for him to attempt to take it. ”

“ Reinhard, who considered Arthur O’Connor “a far abler man,” accurately read the character of Lord Edward Fitzgerald as that of a young man “incapable of falsehood or perfidy, frank, energetic, and likely to be a useful and devoted instrument; but with no experience or extraordinary talent, and entirely unfit to be chief of a great party or leader in a difficult enterprise.” ”

“ Some good players make a practice wherever possible, especially in the case of heavily cut service, of taking the serve on the volley (i.e. before the ball reaches the ground) , sometimes of taking the ball after it leaves the side wall and before it reaches the back wall; practice alone enables the player to decide with the necessary promptitude how each stroke is to be played. In returning the serve, or in playing any stroke during the rally, the ball may strike any of the other walls before the front wall ”

“ It sometimes happens, too, that the player finding himself too near the pitch of the ball to take it at the end of the bound, yet not near enough to volley it, is compelled to take it on the half-volley as the only chance of getting it up. Accuracy in volleying and half-volleying, especially if the ball be kept low, is a most difficult art to acquire, but a good long rally in which are included a number of hard rapid half-volleys within a couple of inches of the board, is the prettiest feature of the game. ”

“ March enjoyed great popularity in England though he took no active part in opposing the despotic measures of the king; in Ireland he illegally assumed the native Irish costume. In August 1398 he was killed in fight with an Irish clan, and was buried in Wigmore Abbey. March’s daughter Anne married Richard earl of Cambridge, son of Edmund duke of York, fifth son of Edward III.; their son Richard, duke of York, was father of King Edward IV., who thus derived his title to the crown and acquired the estates of the house of Mortimer. ”

“ For the next seven years Shrewsbury lived abroad, chiefly at Rome, whence in 1701 he wrote a celebrated letter to Lord Somers expressing his abhorrence of public life and declaring that if he had a son he “would sooner bind him to a cobbler than a courtier, and a hangman than a statesman.” On the accession of Queen Anne the Whig leaders made an ineffectual attempt to persuade Shrewsbury to return to office. ”

“ The constitution of Grattan’s parliament offered no security, as the differences over the regency question had made evident that in matters of imperial interest the policy of the Irish parliament and that of Great Britain would be in agreement; and at a moment when England was engaged in a life and death struggle with France it was impossible for the ministry to ignore the danger, which had so recently been emphasized by the fact that the independent constitution of 1782 had offered no safeguard against armed revolt. ”

“ Two consecutive faults have thus the same result as the loss of a stroke in the rally by the “hand-in.” A serve which makes the ball strike the board, or the floor before reaching the front wall, or which sends it “out-of-court” (i.e. into the gallery or roof of the court) , counts the same as two consecutive faults; it costs the server his innings. Skill in service is a most important part of proficiency in racquets; a player can hardly become first-rate unless he possesses a “strong service.” ”

“ O'NEILL, the name of an Irish family tracing descent from Niall, king of Ireland early in the 5th century, and known in Irish history and legend as Niall of the Nine Hostages. He is said to have made war not only against lesser rulers in Ireland, but also in Britain and Gaul, stories of his exploits being related in the Book of Leinster and the Book of Ballymote, both of which, however, are many centuries later than the time of Niall. ”

“ On the accession of Richard II., a minor, in 1377, the earl became a member of the standing council of government; though as father of the heir-presumptive to the crown he wisely abstained from claiming any actually administrative office. The most powerful person in the realm was, however, John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, whose jealousy of March led to the acceptance by the latter of the lieutenancy of Ireland in 1379. March succeeded in asserting his authority in eastern Ulster, but failed to subdue the O’Neills farther west. ”

“ These circumstances owe their importance to the light they throw on the obscurity of the celebrated “Gowrie conspiracy,” which resulted in the slaughter of the earl and his brother by attendants of King James at Gowrie House, Perth, a few weeks after Gowrie’s return to Scotland in May 1600. This event ranks among the unsolved enigmas of history. The Gowrie conspiracy. The mystery is caused by the improbabilities inherent in any of the alternative hypotheses suggested to account for the unquestionable facts of the occurrence ”

“ The king’s infatuation was so great that when the queen’s life was despaired of in 1663, it was reported that he intended to marry Miss Stewart, and four years later he was considering the possibility of obtaining a divorce to enable him to make her his wife. This was at a time when Charles feared he was in danger of losing her as his mistress, her hand being sought in marriage by Charles Stuart, duke of Richmond and Lennox. ”

“ When Fox and Grenville came into power in 1806 Grattan was offered, but refused to accept, an office in the government. In the following year he showed the strength of his judgment and character by supporting, in spite of consequent unpopularity in Ireland, a measure for increasing the powers of the executive to deal with Irish disorder. Roman Catholic emancipation, which he continued to advocate with unflagging energy though now advanced in age, became complicated after 1808 by the question whether a veto on the appointment of Roman Catholic bishops should rest with the crown. ”

“ Neill Mor's great-great grandson, Henry O'Neill, was created baronet of Killeleagh in 1666. His son, Sir Neill O'Neill fought for James II. in Ireland, and died of wounds received at the battle of the Boyne. Through an elder line from Neill Mor was descended Brian Mac Phelim O'Neill, who was treacherously seized in 1573 by the earl of Essex, whom he was hospitably entertaining, and executed together with his wife and brother, some two hundred of his clan being at the same time massacred by the orders of Essex. ”