from family tradition, that, as he bore the
name of the Kingsland family, he might by some
turn of the wheel of fortune become entitled to
its honours and estates.The Lord Kingsland of
that time was a lunatic, residing in an asylum
in France, and was under the guardianship of
his relative, Lord Trimleston. A false rumour
of that lord's death reached Matthew Barnewall
while he was officiating at the tavern in
Dawson-street, and acting upon the traditionary
notion of heirship, under the advice of
his then companions and friends, Matthew
mustered a strong force of the employés of the
tavern and the market which had been the school
of his early training, and with that formidable
array proceeded forthwith to survey the family
mansion, of which he took instant possession.
There he cut down timber, lighted bonfires, and
for some short time indulged in the exercise
of rude hospitality to the companions who had
escorted him, and the rabble which he collected
in the neighbourhood. His rejoicings were,
however, but short-lived. Lord Trimleston,
the guardian of the lunatic peer, applied to the
Court of Chancery, and poor Matthew was
committed to Newgate, under an attachment
for contempt. While in the prison he was
advised to apply to my father for his legal advice
and assistance, through which he was after some
time set at liberty. At that period he was quite
unable to trace his pedigree, and being utterly
illiterate—unable even to write his name—he
could give but little assistance to his legal
adviser in testing the justice of the claim which,
in the midst of his almost Cimmerian darkness,
he still insisted upon to the right of succession
to the Kingsland peerage. My father,
however, being a man of sanguine temperament,
as well as superior talents, saw that there was
something in the claim, and took up the case
with such ardour, that he soon discovered a
clue, which led him step by step through the
difficulties which lay in the way of tracing a
pedigree amidst so much ignorance, until at
length there was but one missing link in the
chain; and this was, after much research,
supplied by the evidence of one Lucinda Ambridge,
a woman upwards of a hundred years old. in
the mean time, the lunatic peer actually died;
and when Matthew's pedigree was completed,
and the proofs forthcoming, the claim was
brought before the House of Lords, and, after
due investigation admitted. During the
progress of tracing the pedigree, and pending
the decision of the House of Lords, the
expectant peer was clothed and supported by
my father, and was frequently at our house.
He was at first very modest, and could scarcely
be enticed beyond the mat at the hall door,
and when brought into the room, he sat, as such
men do, on the least possible edge of a chair.
By degrees, however, he grew in confidence,
and, being a good-humoured man, his
conversation was very amusing, what Lord Duberley
would call his 'cakalology,' or Dr. Pangloss his
'cacology,' being extremely rich. It would
not be easy to do justice in description to his
exultation and pride at being acknowledged by the
House of Lords. But his elevation was accompanied
by a sad drawback. The property which
should have gone with the title, consisting, I
believe, chiefly of  church advowsons, had Iapsed
to the crown, owing to some want of conformity
to the established Church on the part of some of
the ancestors, and could not be recovered. A poor
peer's pension of five hundred pounds a year
was granted to the new Lord Viscount Kingsland
and Baron of Turvey; but, alas! my father
never was paid anything for his outlay and
professional labour. All he got was the éclat,
and the satisfaction of having achieved so great
a triumph. Lord Kingsland was married in
early life to a woman in his then class,
who died before his elevation to the peerage,
leaving only one child,a son, who lived
to be the Honourable Mr. Barnewall, and heir
apparent to the peerage, but died within a few
years after his father had established his claim.
After some time, Lord Kingsland married a Miss
Bradshaw, an English lady, but died without
issue; and consequently the title is extinct,
although it is said, and probably with truth, that
an heir could be found amongst the poorest
classes in Dublin. My lord's sayings and
doings are most amusing. As I mentioned his
cacology, I will give you a sample. His second
wife took great pains to improve him, but in vain.
When he came here under her tutelage, she
watched his words, and always corrected him,
even before company. One day, being asked to
take some lunch, he declined, saying, 'I have
been eating selvedges all day.' My Lady,
correcting, said, 'Sandwiches, my Lord.'  He
replied, 'Ah, my Lady, I wish you'd be quiet,
you're always rebuting me.'

"Poor fellow! He had a hard time of it. What
between my lady and his own lordship, he must
have often wished himself back among the free-
and-easy 'Bohemians' of his early association."

When the lordly Nevilles went down to the
dregs, Cole, the blacksmith, rose to the surface
—rose so high, indeed, that his grandson bought
the Nevilles' castle of Brancepeth. The family
of Cole, however, fell as suddenly as it rose—
its prosperity being little but a prismatic bubble
of great show and splendour while it lasted, but
of no stability; and after the life of Sir Ralph,
the second baronet, the great house that had
been raised on the foundation of the smithy
crashed to the ground, and the last grandson
of Sir Ralph died in such utter want that he
had to be buried by the charity of a cousin.
Then there was the strange story of the Earldom
of Huntingdon, and how Mr. Nugent Bell dug
and delved among the ruins and rubbish of the
past till he had unearthed his friend's claim,
and transferred Captain Hastings, R.N., from
the quarter-deck to the House of Lords; but the
most romantic of all "Ulster's" stories is that
of the Anglesey claim.

In 1706, Arthur Lord Altham married Mary
Sheffield the natural daughter of the Duke of
Buckingham. In 1715, some years after the