Castle Rackrent | Page 3

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Castle Rackrent
by
Maria Edgeworth
With an Introduction by Anne Thackeray Ritchie

[Note: The body of this novel contains a lot of footnotes and many
references to the Glossary at the end. The footnotes (which are
sometimes quite long) have been inserted in square brackets near to the
point where they were referred to by suffix in the original text. The

entries in the Glossary have been numbered, instead of being listed
with a page number as they were in the printed book; they are also
referenced with a note in square brackets near the point where there
was a suffix in the original.
Italics have been replaced by capitals.
The pound sterling symbol has been replaced by 'L'.
This text and the Introduction were taken from an edition published by
Macmillan and Co. in 1895.]
*
INTRODUCTION
I
The story of the Edgeworth Family, if it were properly told, should be
as long as the ARABIAN NIGHTS themselves; the thousand and one
cheerful intelligent members of the circle, the amusing friends and
relations, the charming surroundings, the cheerful hospitable home, all
go to make up an almost unique history of a county family of great
parts and no little character. The Edgeworths were people of good
means and position, and their rental, we are told, amounted to nearly
L3000 a year. At one time there was some talk of a peerage for Mr.
Edgeworth, but he was considered too independent for a peerage.
The family tradition seems to have been unconventional and spirited
always. There are records still extant in the present Mr. Edgeworth's
possession,--papers of most wonderful vitality for parchment,--where
you may read passionate remonstrances and adjurations from
great-grandfathers to great-great-grandfathers, and where
great-great-grandmothers rush into the discussion with vehement
spelling and remonstrance, and make matters no better by their
interference. I never read more passionately eloquent letters and
appeals. There are also records of a pleasanter nature; merrymakings,
and festive preparations, and 12s. 6d. for a pair of silk stockings for

Miss Margaret Edgeworth to dance in, carefully entered into the family
budget. All the people whose portraits are hanging up, beruffled,
dignified, calm, and periwigged, on the old walls of Edgeworthstown
certainly had extraordinarily strong impressions, and gave eloquent
expression to them. I don't think people could feel quite so strongly
now about their own affairs as they did then; there are so many printed
emotions, so many public events, that private details cannot seem quite
as important. Edgeworths of those days were farther away from the
world than they are now, dwelling in the plains of Longford, which as
yet were not crossed by iron rails. The family seems to have made little
of distances, and to have ridden and posted to and fro from Dublin to
Edgeworthstown in storm and sunshine.
II
When Messrs. Macmillan asked me to write a preface to this new
edition of Miss Edgeworth's stories I thought I should like to see the
place where she had lived so long and where she had written so much,
and so it happened that being in Ireland early this year, my daughter
and I found ourselves driving up to Broadstone Station one morning in
time for the early train to Edgeworthstown. As we got out of our cab
we asked the driver what the fare should be. 'Sure the fare is half a
crown,' said he, 'and if you wish to give me more, I could keep it for
myself!'
The train was starting and we bought our papers to beguile the road.
'Will you have a Home Rule paper or one of them others?' said the
newsboy, with such a droll emphasis that we couldn't help laughing.
'Give me one of each,' said I; then he laughed, as no English newsboy
would have done. . . . We went along in the car with a