A granite lion head, from the mouth of which water can be discharged into a basin immediately below. This is part of a monument in the centre of Blessington, County Wicklow erected to mark the coming of age in 1865 of Arthur Hill, later fifth Marquis of Downshire, whose family owned a large estate in the immediate area. On another side of the same memorial it is recorded that the water here was ‘supplied at the cost of a kind and generous landlord for the benefit of his attached and loyal tenants.’
Interesting but makes you wonder what kind of Landlord he really was. I have encountered quite a few instances where people were conscripted into paying for these kind of monuments I wonder if this one was funded in this way! Fascinating research nevertheless thank you.
Thanks for making contact. I am sure you are right, and that not everyone would necessarily have held the local landlord in the same regard: within a few decades, circumstances changed rapidly and right around the country, including the Blessington area, the old estates (and their owners) would disappear…
one of my favorite sculptures