Adam's Country House Collections Day II - 10th October 2023

55 Country House Collections| 9 th - 10 th October 2023 dies by the cataract, and who points tentatively with his cane towards the water as it cascades powerfully below them. Further upstream along the path, other visitors ob- serve from a safer distance. The stone arch on the north- ern bank, the sole surviving part of a bridge destroyed by floods in the 1730s, and clearly visible in all views of the salmon-leap, stands as testament to the potency of the river. The gentleman by the edge of the cascade might be the Viceroy, Lord Townshend, whose grand summer residence Leixlip Castle was situated a short distance away. Town- shend leased the castle from its owners, the Conollys of Castletown from 1767 to 1772, and it may well have been for him that the building was restored and embellished. Townshend was known to ‘throw open the grounds on Sundays and mingle incognito with the visitors who had driven out from Dublin to admire the Salmon Leap and take the waters at Lucan Spa’. As the late Desmond Guin- ness observed, engraved views of the salmon-leap execut- ed in the eighteenth century were usually dedicated to the then occupant of the castle. The subject, like those around the Lucan demesne, pro- vided Roberts with the opportunity to exercise his skill in describing rock and stone, foliage and, perhaps most notable, water effects. The expertly described textures, tones and patterns of this natural matter qualify Roberts finest works throughout his career. We are grateful to William Laffan and Brendan Rooney whose work on Thomas Roberts informs this catalogue note.