1740 was a year of great scarcity, and farmers were ploughing their
wheat in May to sow summer barley. In March Mrs. Conolly's sister, Mrs.
Jones, wrote to another sister, Mrs. Bound, that Mrs. Conolly was
building an obelisk opposite a vista at the back of Castletown House,
and that it would cost L300 or L400 at least, and she wondered how she
could afford it. The nephew of the Speaker, also the Rt. Hon. Wm.
Conolly, lived at Leixlip Castle till he succeeded to Castletown in
1752. He married Lady Anne Wentworth, daughter of an Earl of Strafford.
His son was the Right Hon. Thos. Conolly, who married Lady Louisa
Lennox, daughter of the Duke of Richmond. From her Castletown passed to
the father of the present Mr. Conolly, after the death of Lady Louisa."
Mrs. Jones must have made a very erroneous guess at the expense of
building the obelisk, even at that time; now, instead of three or four
hundred pounds, double as many thousands would scarcely build it.
Although erected by Mrs. Conolly, it stands on the Duke of Leinster's
property. The site is the finest in the neighbourhood, and she obtained
it from the Earl of Kildare, by giving him a portion of the Castletown
estate instead.
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