In 1575, as Grace O’Mailley was returning from her famous visit to Queen Elizabeth she landed at Howth, but found the castle gates closed, the reason assigned being that it was the dinner hour. Shocked at such want of Irish hospitality she seized the young heir, who was playing on the strand, and carried him off to her castle in Mayo. She refused to restore him until she received a promise that the gates of Howth Castle should never again be closed at dinner hour. This child was Nicholas, afterwards twenty-first baron. A picture at the castle is supposed to represent the incident.
Lord Mountjoy, as Lord Deputy, and Sir George Carew, as Lord President of Munster, landed at Howth in 1599, and spent a night at the castle before proceeding to Dublin.
In 1607 the State Papers report that the old Countess of Kildare and Lady Dowager of Delvin and her children were at Howth in Sir Christopher St. Laurence’s house, and the following year it is mentioned that Sir John Talbot’s house is near the castle of Howth.
King William slept a night in the castle in 1690, and his room was kept unaltered from the time he had used it.
Dean Swift was a constant visitor at Howth, and an original portrait of him, painted by Bindon in 1735, hangs in the castle.
Near the garden stands the old elm known as “The Tristram Tree,” which has been carefully propped and preserved in every way on account of the tradition attaching to it. It is said that as long as this tree lives there will be an heir to the noble house which was founded by Sir Amoricus Tristram.
To “follow as closely as Lord Howth’s Rat” was at one time a common simile for any faithful or attached animal, and the legend which gave rise to the saying is the following:—
One of the former Lords of Howth had retired to his castle to retrench a somewhat diminished heritage, and one night while living thus in solitary state there was a fearful storm.
Word was brought to the fortress that a ship was being wrecked under the cliffs near the Abbey, and every one rushed off to the spot to render what assistance was possible, and amongst them Lord Howth.
Every effort was, however, unavailing, and the ship went down apparently with all hands. But as morning broke the eager watchers espied a frail, roughly-put-together raft floating towards them, and on this was a beautiful woman, with a wooden chest beside her.