Then, after forty years’ hard service, this veteran retired from the field, and returning to England, like another Cæsar, set about writing his commentaries on the wars. Thus he spent his remaining years. First he published, but without acknowledging the authorship, his _Memoirs of the Irish Wars_. This first edition was suppressed. Then, in 1684, appeared the second edition, containing, besides the _Memoirs_, his “Appendix”--being an account of his Continental service--his “Observations” on confederate armies and the conduct of war, and a “Postscript,” which is a reply to the Earl of Anglesey. And right well has the modern reader reason to be thankful for his lordship’s literary spirit. His _Memoirs_ is one of the most authentic and trustworthy accounts we have of that vexed passage of Irish history--the Rebellion of 1641. Its blunt frankness is its greatest charm; it has the value of an account by an actor in the scenes described; and it possesses that merit of impartiality which comes of being written by an Englishman who, connected with the Irish leaders by the ties of faith, family, and property, and sympathizing fully with their efforts to obtain redress for flagrant wrongs was yet not blind to their mistakes and indefensible actions. Castlehaven, neglected for more than a century, has received more justice at the hands of later historians. He is frequently referred to by Lingard, and his work will be found an admirable commentary on Carte’s _Life of Ormond_. There is a notice of him in Horace Walpole’s _Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors_ (vol. iii.)