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x During the comparative quiet that followed the hectic spring and summer of 1780, the new viceroy arrived to take over from the exhausted Buckinghamshire. He was Frederick (Howard), fifth Earl of Carlisle, a member of the wealthiest English aristocracy. His home in Yorkshire, Castle Howard, was a Vanbrugh masterpiece and one of the greatest residences in England. The new lord-lieutenant had all the prestige of the higher noblesse. Dublin loved a wealthy viceroy prepared to provide lavish entertainment and spectacle. Carlisle's reputation for generous spending had preceded him; it was reported in the press (erroneously) over a month before his arrival that the furnishings of Dublin Castle were to be renewed with those of Irish manufacture.' His early months seemed to fulfill expectations as his levees were considered "the most splendid and brilliant that for many years have been seen at the Castle." At one of his balls the "dresses of their Excellencies ... are all of Irish manufacture and 299 x During the comparative quiet that followed the hectic spring and summer of 1780, the new viceroy arrived to take over from the exhausted Buckinghamshire.. He was Frederick (Howard), fifth Earl of Carlisle, a member of the wealthiest English aristocracy. His home in Yorkshire, Castle Howard, was a Vanbrugh masterpiece and one of the greatest residences in England. The new lord-lieutenant had all the prestige of the higher noblesse. Dublin loved a wealthy viceroy prepared to provide lavish entertainment and spectacle. Carlisle's reputation for generous spending had preceded him; it was reported in the press (erroneously) over a month before his arrival that the furnishings of Dublin Castle were to be renewed with those of Irish manufacture.1 His early months seemed to fulfill expectations as his levees were considered "the most splendid and brilliant that for many years have been seen at the Castle." At one of his balls the "dresses of their Excellencies . . . are all of Irish manufacture and 299 30 0 IRISH POLITICS AND SOCIAL CONFLICT cost upwards of five hundred pounds. A noble example!" 2 Though he did entertain on a larger scale than Buckinghamshire , Carlisle was not so rich as he had been. When a young man, he was a gambling friend of Charles James Fox, and the experience had placed a strain on his financial resources. In those days he had been a dandy, and one of his more florid affectations was the wearing of red shoes, for which he now suffered some teasing in the Irish newspapers . By the time he decided to enter politics, he had developed a more serious turn of mind. Unlike his predecessor he did not make the mistake of bringing over as chief secretary a man of little account like Heron. Instead, he appointed William Eden, the younger son of an aristocratic family and a schoolfellow of Fox and himself at Eton. An able barrister before entering politics, Eden was widely regarded as a clever negotiator and moved on intimate terms with influential figures in England. The Viceroy was considered very civil, but rigid and taciturn to an extent that gave offence. Beresford wrote: "Lord Carlisle is thought stiff and distant; Eden, they say, does not drink enough." 3 Conolly found him well bred and easy in his manner though "very slack in conversation ." 4 The press compared his "formal and distant civility ... to all the great people of the kingdom" with the more diplomatic attitude of his three predecessors." On the alarm of an invasion in the following September, a great many Volunteer corps offered their services; one group felt annoyed when asked to sit down, but "not with the ease that might be expected from a nobleman who the world was taught to believe is the perfect model of a finished gentleman." 6 A correspondent in the Dublin Evening Post in March attacked Carlisle for being so secretive that even his closest advisers did not know what he or his 300 IRISH POLITICS AND SOCIAL CONFLICT cost upwards of five hundred pounds. A noble example!" 2 Though he did entertain on a larger scale than Buckinghamshire , Carlisle was not so rich as he had been. When a young man, he was a gambling friend of Charles James Fox, and the experience had placed a strain on his financial resources. In those days he had been a dandy, and one of his more florid affectations was the wearing of red shoes, for which he now suffered some teasing in the Irish newspapers...

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