Showing posts with label Pets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pets. Show all posts

Tuesday, 13 August 2024

Nelly Woolly

Irene Countess of Enniskillen (Image: the National Trust)

In the outbuildings of Florence Court House, one of the National Trust's - and, indeed, County Fermanagh's - great properties, there is a little secondhand book-shop called Nelly Woolly's.

It was originally two separate rooms, established about 1830, and used by the estate workers.

One room was used by a herdsman, possibly a place where they slept while looking after the cattle and pigs.

The other room might have been used for eating.

Lady Ann Cole, Lady Enniskillen, Nelly Woolly (Image in the tea-room)

Irene  Frances Miller-Mundy came from Shipley Hall, Derbyshire, and was the first wife of the 5th Earl of Enniskillen (portrait at top by Sir William Llewellyn).

Lady Enniskillen died in 1937.

Lady Enniskillen with Nelly Woolly (Image at Florence Court Tea-room)

Nelly Woolly was the beloved pet of Lady Enniskillen: a small terrier of some sort, it is thought; and Nelly died, according to the grave-stone, in 1923 when she was almost 14 years of age.

Nelly Woolly's grave (Timothy Ferres, 2024)

Nelly Woolly's grave is tucked away in a corner of the Pleasure Grounds at Florence Court.