laughing at the badness of the hung beef which Wentworth procured from Yorkshire. On one occasion he sent the Archbishop ninety-two skins of the pine-marten, now very rare, to line a gown with. Ormonde entertained him twice, at Carrick-on-Suir and Kilkenny Castle, which he greatly admired as well as the country round. In writing to his wife he praised or criticised the ladies' looks, but found no time to notice their dresses. At Kilkenny, he says, 'the town entertained us with the force of oratory and the fury of poetry, and rather taught me what I should be than told me what I am.'[240] [Sidenote: Strafford's buildings.] [Sidenote: The park of parks.] 'They say I build up to the sky,' Wentworth wrote in the autumn of 1637; but he had already several houses in Yorkshire, and his object was a public one. At Sigginstown or Jigginstown, near Naas, he had almost completed a palace at an expense of 6000_l._ The King might have it at cost price, otherwise he would bear the loss himself. He dissuaded his wife from joining him there while he was wrangling with workmen, but hoped it would soon be ready to receive her. Just six years afterwards Ormonde's truce with the rebels was signed in this very house, which still stands, though roofless. It was built of bricks, probably Dutch-made, and there is a doubtful tradition that they were transmitted from hand to hand all the way from Dublin. Wentworth talked about spending 1200_l._ upon a residence for himself in what he calls 'the park of parks' near Tinahely in Wicklow, intending it as a health resort which might enable him to disappoint his enemies by living a little longer. The foundations of this house, locally known as 'Black Tom's Kitchen', may still be seen; but the lands of Fairwood have for the most part been sold to the tenants, who have converted the fine old trees into ready money. Wentworth's last visit was in August 1639, but he seems to have lived in a temporary wooden building, and the strong stone house was never finished. He then hoped to leave to his son one of the finest places in the King's dominions, 'where a grass-time may be passed with most pleasure of that kind,' a good house and an income of near 3000_l._, with 'wood on the ground as much, I daresay, if near London, as would yield 50,000_l._, besides a house within twelve miles of Dublin, the best in Ireland, and land to it which I hope will be 2000_l._ a year.'[241] [Sidenote: Wentworth becomes the King's chief adviser, 1639.] [Sidenote: His misgivings.]