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Summerhill House was a 100 roomed mansion which was the ancestral seat of The Baronets, Barons, and Viscounts Langford. Built in 1731, Summerhill House demonstrated the power and wealth the Langford Rowley family had at the time. They owned vast amounts of land in counties Meath, Westmeath, Cork, Londonderry, Antrim, and Dublin as well as in Devon and Cornwall. Summerhill House dominated the landscape and was exceptionally imposing as it was situated on the summit of a hill. The main entrance was from the village of Summerhill, County Meath, the other was from the Dublin road, with the avenue 1 mile long. Also like all such estates there were four avenues leading out to the four points of the compass.〔The History and Folklore of Coole and Summerhill Parish, published in 1999, compiled and presented by Coole and Summerhill I.C.A.〕 The mansion at Summerhill was designed by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce and completed by Richard Cassels in the Palladian style, except Sir John Vanburgh had a great influence on the house which could be seen by the great arched chimney stacks, Pearce actually had trained in Vanburgh's office.〔Maurice Craig, "The quest for Edward Lovett Pearce", Irish Arts Review Yearbook, Vol. 12 (1996), 27–34〕 Robert Adam, also redecorated a small amount of the rooms later on in the mansion's history. The mansion at Summerhill welcomed royalty, it was an exceptionally dignified house and at its time of erection ranked architecturally amongst the finest and grandest mansions in Europe.〔Tarquin Black, (Abandoned Ireland )〕 ==Rowley Langford family== John Rowley came to Ireland during the reign of James I, as sole agent for the building of the towns of Derry and Coleraine for the London Society. Upon the incorporation of the city of Derry in 1613, he was, by charter, appointed first Mayor. One of his daughters, Anne, married Tristram Beresford, ancestor to the family of Tyrone. Another daughter, Mary, married James Clotworthy, and by him had an only daughter, who married the Honourable Robert Fitzgerald, and who was grandmother of Lieutenant-General James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster.〔(thepeerage.com Robert FitzGerald, 19th Earl of Kildare )〕 John Rowley was knighted for his services at the time of the Restoration. He only left one son, Hercules, whose only son and heir, Hercules Langford Rowley married in 1732, Elizabeth Ormsby(later The 1st Viscountess Langford). Around this time he built a magnificent Georgian mansion at Summerhill.〔http://theirishaesthete.com/category/meath/〕〔http://theirishaesthete.com/tag/summerhill/〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Summerhill House」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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