A correspondent of the Times, who signs himself a "Resident
in the County of Waterford," has an odd notion of evidence. He thinks he has proved that the Countess of Desmond of James L's time lived to be 140 years old, when he asserts that "a landlord in the county of Waterford has in his possession a legal document of the time of James I., wherein it is set forth that certain farms will fall in on the death of the Countess of Desmond, now aged seven- score years.'" There ! he says, persons then living had a direct interest in verifying her age, and so, of course, would take trouble to ascertain it. Why ? The Countess would not die five minutes the sooner or later because they knew her age. That they believed her to be 140 is clear, or they would not have recorded the fact so carefully, but of evidence for their belief they give us no trace. They were not her "contemporaries," but persons probably a cen- tury, and certainly half a century, younger than herself. What is wanted is proof that this lady was alive, say, 120 years before her death, as a grown woman, and it is not forthcoming.
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