Original incoming and copy outgoing letters relating to Ernest H Browne's management of the Bellair Estate. Matters referred to include: annual updates on rental and accounts; grazing agreements; delayed payments of rents by tenants; request by Mulock that the yearly rental and account be issued bi-annually.
Tenants referenced include: W C Clibborn; Charles G Adamson; John Joyce; Mrs Finnamore; John Deehan.

Letter from Browne to Mulock: "You ask me if I find same difficulty on other estate, Yes, I most certainly do. You may remember the old saying 'The poor are ever with us'. I regret to state that the bad paying tenant is also always with the unfortunate Landlord... My experience is that once a tenant from whatever cause it may be gets hard up, he is always pulling the Devil by the tail and in spite of good times he never able to satisfy all his Creditors. I only wish I had every estate as well paid as your estate is". (11 January 1918).

Large leather hardback photograph album complied by Middleton Biddulph containing sepia-toned photographs taken between 1901 and 1902. Mostly taken on visits to country houses around Ireland, Scotland and England, including: Charleville Castle, Tullamore, home of Lady Emily Howard Bury; Brookfield House Tullamore, home by Ernest Hamilton Browne; Geashill Castle; Kilocornan House, Clarinbridge; Annaghdown Castle; Ashford Castle; Ballyfin House; Rahan Lodge visit to Chillingham Castle, Northumberland; Dunglass; Newbrough House; a visit to Vera’s uncle, Edgar Flower in Middle Hall, Worchestershire; visit to the Flower family brewery in Stratford-on-Avon; visit to the Lakin family at The Cliff, Warwick.
The album also contains photographs of a Cake Fete at the Tullamore Tennis Ground in June 1901; portraits of tenants of the Rathrobin estate and schoolchildren from Mountbolous; a tour by the Royal Society of Antiquarians to Annaghdown, Cong Abbey, Ashford and Claregalway friary. While on a visit to Valencia, county Kerry, Biddulph also captured photographs of the recovery of the bodies of two local men and a Dutchman who was on his honeymoon who were drowned.

Copies of approximately 1000 outgoing letters, averaging at 1 per page. Some letters illegible due to fading.
Includes letter to E. des. H. Browne, Charleville Estate Office, Tullamore re Sherlock Estate: ' Replying to yours of the 20th inst. It is begging the question to suggest that these tenants understood or were satisfied with the last receipts you gave, or with any of the receipts. The original rent in the time of Sherlock's predecessor was £2.1.10. I have a whole bundle of receipts in evidence of this. It was customary by the Landlord as shown by receipts to give a substantial abatement off this rent and eventually some years before Mr. Sherlock became owner and according to my instructions after a valuation was made by the agent, the rent was fixed at the figure of rent paid. The original tenant was John Fitzgerald Snr and his brother Bernard resided on the lands with him. John allowed Bernard the use of half the lands on paying half the rent., and eventually Bernard's name found its way into the rental, and ever since Mr. Sherlock acquired the estate, half of the rent was paid by Bernard. John died and was succeeded by his widow Mrs Bridget Fitzgerald on whose death John Fitzgerald Jr became the tenant, and John Jr and Bernard appear to be now tenants in common of these lands. I give you these particulars as Mr. Sherlock in court did not seem to be conversant with the facts. It is admitted that the yearly rent of £1.14.0 has been regularly paid every year. These illiterate men paid very little attention to receipts which they can hardly be blamed for not understanding: they were content so long as they paid their year's rent and heard no more about it. But now that the question has been raised they will naturally decline to pay the next gale of rent except in exchange for a proper receipt up to date.' (28 January 1914)

Deeds of lease and assignments relating to the Bury family's holdings of lands and properties across King's County.

Receipts and documents relating to the lands at Bunsallagh, including:

1) receipt issued for rent paid to the Earl of Charleville (1854-1855) and signed by agent, Francis Berry.
2) schedule of lands relating to the proposed railway line through land occupied by Ann Kelly, 1886
3) return for the townlands of Bunsallagh to the Commissioner for Valuation, 1910

Digitised collection of annual reports and rentals of the Geashill Estate, King's County sent by successive land agents to Lord Digby at his permanent residence in Dorset. Also includes two volumes of drawings depicting improvements made to labourers' cottages on the estate.

Typescript diary entry of William Bury Homan Mulock, reflecting on the surroundings of the Bellair Estate; his childhood on the estate; estate improvements; sale of the estate to tenants under the Land Acts; effects on Irish agriculture and corn production during the first World War.

"The Townland of Bellair or Bally-ard (High Town) stands almost in the centre of Ireland and its hill crowned with a thick grove of beech and fir is a conspicuous object from most of the Counties in Ireland...

I dearly loved and revered the old place with all the tradition it stood for, and for my first day in India I determined to save money and pull it through as my father had always impressed on me the severe strain his large family had been on the estate...

I have now held it for close on 30 years and in the natural course of things must soon relinquish it. I can however fairly claim to have done more than any predecessor for its benefit. I have sold to the tenants, under the Land Acts, and have paid of all charges. I have renovated the house and wing, rebuilt all the farm buildings, and a good part of the stabling...

I have now (1918) had close on ten years experience as an Irish Landlord without tenants, having sold under the Land Acts 1908-9. I can't say that I regret their loss. I live more like an English squire, without anxiety or fear of malicious injuries, cattle drives, or burnings, and I have more leisure to look after my Bellair farm which is now paying me well for all my improvements".