Horse and Carriage

Horse

It is clear that the house enjoyed its heyday in the century after its completion. It is hard to build an exact picture of its importance socially however because of the reluctance of the Crofton's in their papers to comment on matters not directly concerned with business and these papers rarely venture beyond the mundane into the personal.

This is most evident in the diaries of Lady Georgiana Crofton written during the Great Famine which display no insight into the worst aspects of the suffering involved but concentrates on various aspects of daily life with little if any personal comment. It also overlooks the fact that her father paid regular philanthropic visits to the poorhouse and infirmary.

From the mid-nineteenth century however, as with so many other estates, things started to go downhill for the fortunes of the Croftons and their big house. It should be noted at the outset that the Croftons, while not among the best examples of improving landlords did keep their rents low and endeavoured to help their tenants as much as possible. The fact that the estate was well managed is evident from the 24 volumes of rentals of the estate dating from 1834-1893, along with family records held at Roscommon Co. Library.

Rents received, expenditure on wages, bills, details of land improvements and summaries of yearly rental statistics for each denomination are clearly recorded. The problem of absenteeism was largely irrelevant to the Crofton estate during this period as it was administered by competent land agents.

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