One day Lord Townshend met a journeyman cutler named Edward Bentley in the demesne of Leixlip Castle and began to talk to him. Bentley was loud in his praises of the Lord Lieutenant’s kindness in allowing the public into the grounds of his residence, but he was equally vehement in denouncing the political views he held.
Mistaking the proprietor for one of the retainers, he offered him half a crown upon leaving, and when it was refused the cutler commented on the difference between his action and that of the gate-keeper who had demanded that amount.
Lord Townshend then took him to the castle and provided him with a cold repast, but as he was escorting his departing and grateful visitor through the hall the unfortunate gate-keeper came in.
The Lord Lieutenant asked him why he had dared to disobey orders and receive money from visitors. Whereupon the man fell upon his knees and asked pardon. Bentley, at last realising who had been his entertainer, immediately followed suit. Lord Townshend sent for his sword, and the cutler was quite certain that his last hour had come. The Lord Lieutenant flourished the weapon over his head and brought it down smartly on the terror-stricken man’s shoulder, saying, “Rise, Sir Edward Bentley.” The new-made knight was appointed cutler to His Excellency, and lived long to enjoy his honour.
Viscount Townshend’s wife died at Leixlip Castle.
The Hon. George Cavendish remodelled the building and brought it up to modern requirements during his tenancy before 1837.
John Michael, Baron de Robuck, subsequently lived there, and was drowned in the Liffey in 1856 during a flood.
In 1878, Captain the Honourable Cornwallis Maude, son of the Earl of Montalt, took the castle after his marriage. He was killed at Majuba Hill.
The present occupier is William Mooney, Esq., J.P.
This fortress is one of the oldest inhabited houses in Ireland. It has been said that the novelist Maturin founded one of his weird plots on a legend relating to Leixlip Castle, but the statement requires verification.