#2380, Margaret (Peggy) Louisa EDGCUMBE

Known as Peggy. When I went to see Aunt Peggy in a nursing home in her later years I enquired how she was to which she replied, smiling, 'Oh going down nicely thank you!'

  Although not written about this Peggy, when I was researching Drenagh and the McCausland family I came across a note entitled 'Peg of Limavady.'  The English novelist, Thackeray, it will be remembered, included this lovely district in his tour through Ireland about the year 1842. He stayed at that inn in Limavady which Sir Thomas Phillips (the previous owner of Drenagh) had "builded in English fashion for the relief of passengers passing that way" and here the distinguished traveller encountered 'Peg of Limavady', the maid of all work, whom he made famous by his long and amusing poetic tribute to her rare beauty. The following lines quoted from the novelist's "Irish Sketch Book" are offered as an example:

"This I do declare Happy is the laddy

Who the heart can share Of Peg of Limavady;

Married if she were, Blest would be the daddy

Of the children fair Of Peg of Limavady

Beauty is not rare In the land of Paddy,

Fair beyond compare Is Peg of Limavady"