Samuel Hayes became famous
through the publication of his book “ A practical Treatise on planting and
the management of woods and coppices ” in 1794. He is to Irish Forestry as
Sigmund Freud is to psychiatry, or Robert Boyle to chemistry.
Hayes made several journeys
through the English countryside and was a very experienced planter himself
before he produced his book –
encouraged as he tells us by “ several
respectable members of the Dublin Society” now the Royal Dublin Society. He was
quite literally learning and getting ideas from the great English estates
before he began planting his own estate of Hayesville, in County Wicklow. He
was often critical of the estates he saw, but he gave great praise too where he
thought it was deserved.
It was on one of these trips in
the summer of 1769 that he visited the estate of Lord Le Despencer, West
Wycombe House, at High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. In a journal he kept of
these trips he describes the estate in detail. He admired it because it was
open to view to the traveller, unlike many which were closely walled and hidden
away from public view. These he thought too selfish. He commented favourably on
the HaHa around the gardens which was in one part planted with small ships cannon
which when fired towards the surrounding hills echoed like thunder. He did not
comment so kindly on a small vessel carefully rigged and situated on a lake
considering it too much of a sea vessel to give pleasure. The carefully planned stable yard met with
his approval and he was intrigued by a little shepherd’s house in the Park with
wheels under it. This he was told was called a Rambler and could be used to
drive to any pleasant spot. It held twenty persons and two servants and made a
pretty object wherever placed. Most of
all he was delighted by a very striking object - a mausoleum on a hill, a six
sided building with arches and pilasters richly ornamented, in full view of the
traveller and beside a solitary church, the Church of St. Lawrence.
It is hard to believe that Hayes
was unaware, or if he was aware he deliberately didn’t mention the fact, that
Lord Le Despencer was better known by another name, that of Sir Francis
Dashwood, nor does he mention ever meeting him in person. Francis Dashwood was a
notorious rake, who was descended from what were then known as Turkish
merchants – one who traded with the Ottoman Empire. He travelled widely
bringing back ideas and artefacts to West Wycombe House. He has been described
as an unashamed libertine who dedicated his life to the worship of the old gods
such as Bacchus and Ariadne. Close by,
Medmenham Abbey, a disused twelfth century Cistercian monastery, was the
meeting place of “The Order of the Friars of St. Francis of Wycombe.” This was
one of several secret societies founded by Dashwood, also known as the Hell
Fire Club. The St. Francis referred to
was Francis Dashwood himself. There were reports, possibly exaggerated, of
orgies and black masses. Later, when the Abbey was accidentally burnt down,
the society met in the nearby Hellfire Caves which had been artificially
excavated by Sir Francis from the local quarries. He also changed the interior
of the church of St Lawrence to resemble an Egyptian temple, and placed on the
top of the capped tower a golden ball, 80 feet above the ground, measuring 7
feet across, which had a trapdoor and accommodated 3-4 people. The six-sided
cabalistic mausoleum became a resting place for his friends. He was buried here
in 1781 in the family vault of St Lawrence’s Church.
Hayes returned after his journeys
to his home in Co Wicklow, Hayesville, and changed its name to Avondale – a
name subsequently to become famous as the home of Charles Stewart Parnell. He
planted the estate with such enterprise and dedication that its grandeur lives
for us still. Then he left his knowledge and expertise distilled for us in his
book. Though the original trees he planted have long since fallen, their
descendants remain. It is fitting that Avondale should now be the home of
Coillte- the headquarters of Irish forestry.
The Massy estate, near Dublin, also belongs to Coillte. Here the woods
are overlooked by another Hellfire Club situated in the Dublin mountains.
Was there, perhaps, another side
to Samuel Hayes? One that we know nothing about? Or was he so focussed on trees
and estates and their management and his other great interest, that of
architecture, that indeed he saw nothing else?
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