Pallas, or Pallasmore, that is the greater or highest Pallas, in the parish of Forgany or Forney, in the county of Longford, consists of an ordinary farm-house or two; and in a direct line, is about a mile and a half from the town of Ballymahon, though by the road, which is circuitous, double that distance. It lies to the south-east of Newcastle a seat of the Countess Dowager of Rosse, and being on a rising ground, overlooks on one side a low tract of country occasionally flooded by the river Inny; a stream which in passing Ballymahon in its course to the Shannon, assumes a very picturesque appearance. The road to Pallas leads past Forney church: here it turns to the left, and after proceeding more than a mile, takes a second abrupt turn also to the left by a lane, which if the traveller have resolution to traverse will lead to the object of his pursuit. This place was visited on a fine day in December; but rocky inequalities of the lane in some parts and deep sloughs in others, rendered it inaccessible to the usual conveyance, a jaunting car: even the common rough country cars find a portion of it difficult, and the remainder defies any wheeled vehicle whatever. The route to the house was therefore pursued on foot; and after a fatiguing walk through fields and over hedges, the spot was at length reached, but it is feared with many poetical associations subdued by the uncivilised nature of the approach. At Pallas, OLIVER GOLDSMITH was born, on the 10th of November, 1728; the house however in which it took place has been long levelled to the ground. By the present occupier of the farm, a squalid-looking though it is said opulent person for his class, we were informed that little more than its foundation remained when he first became tenant, about forty years before; and as may be supposed, even that is now obliterated. He pointed out a portion of its wall overgrown with grass, forming a part of the fence of the orchard. To several questions he replied, that it had been, as he was told, a "good country house," the front looking toward Forney church; and he had heard that Oliver Goldsmith, the poet, was born in the best bed-room, which looked in the same direction. These details were confirmed by others. Afterwards it would appear this house became the residence of a branch of the Edgeworth family,* "The Rev. Oliver Jones had rented a considerable tract of land from Mr. Conolly, one of the lords justices of the kingdom, which at the death of the former fell out of lease, and the widow was told she could not have a renewal. Not dispirited by this intimation, she determined to try her personal influence, and undertook, what was then thought an unusual effort for a woman, a journey to Dublin. No public conveyance existed; the roads were in a most wretched state; but, mounting a pillion behind her son on horseback, proceeded in this manner to the metropolis. The whole of the lands were refused to her application; but having, as a final argument, judiciously provided herself with one hundred guineas, she once more urged her suit to the landlord, and in addition to her solicitations displayed the gold before him. This had its due effect: necessity has ever been master in Ireland: and the temptation was sufficient to procure a fresh lease of half the lands on the same easy terms as before. She used jocularly to regret that she had not taken another hundred with her, and thus secured the whole. The journey, however, in consequence of a hurt, cost her the life of her son." * In an Irish Magazine (Exshaw's, for 1770) there is the following announcement whose property the land still continues. Few persons now visit it from curiosity, partly from being little known, partly from the difficulties of the road; for to ladies and delicate or infirm persons it is nearly inaccessible; only one gentleman, as the farmer said, had ventured to explore it the preceding summer. The attention of literary pilgrims has been rather directed to Lissoy on the high road to Athlone, which became the subsequent residence of Mr. Goldsmith, and offered no difficulties of approach. An amusing tradition respecting this house was repeated to us by a neighbouring magistrate. When from neglect and want of an occupier the roof first fell in, attempts made to repair it were continually thwarted by the hostility of an ill-looking, (for the peasantry are minute in their descriptions on such occasions,) powerful, supernatural personage accoutred in huge boots, who amused himself nightly in bestriding the roof as he would a horse, and by mimicking the motion of riding, pushed his legs through it and sometimes through the upper floor, thus rendering all attempts at reparation unavailing. The reason assigned for these pranks was as fanciful as the story. Being on a rising ground, in a retired part of the country and in the vicinty of water, it was favourable for the resort of the "good people," or Faries, during their midnight sports, who if the house became habitable would have had their privacy boken in upon; these means were therefore taken by this feared though imaginary race of beings to keep off intruders. It is perhaps in the natural order of things, that the spot where an admired poet first drew breath, should be the scene of popular fiction. The place of his birth, notwithstanding the statement of his nearest relatives, is still disputed with considerable heat in the different districts which claim it; and the province of Connaught particularly deems her honour concerned in the struggle. The rival counties are Leitrim, Roscommon, Westmeath, and Longford; rather more than half the number of places which contended for the honour of having the father of poetry one of their fellow citizens— Septem urbes certant de stirpe insignis Homeri, Smyrna, Rhodes, Colophon, Salamis, Chios, Argos, Athenæ. The claim of Leitrim has never been esteemed valid; it is confined to the towns of Drumsna and Carrick-on-Shannon, where Goldsmith had relatives residing and which he occasionally visited in early life. That of Westmeath is equally objectionable, being merely entered in the admission book of Trinity College as the then residence of his father. Ardnagan, Ardnagowan, or in correct Celtic orthography as it is said Airdnagabha, near Elphin, the abode of his grandfather Jones, contests the matter more vigorously; and here, were his early biographers to be trusted, we should assign of birth-"The wife of Francis White Edgeworth, Esq., of Pallasmore, Co. of Longford, of a son." By the Rev. Dr. Strean of Athlone, to whom I feel obliged for the inquiries he has made. his birth. Mr. Jones Lloyd, its present possessor, descended from another daughter of the Rev. Mr, Jones, points out from the information of his grandmother, the room and even the precise part of the room, where the Poet by this account first saw the light. At present this apartment forms the dairy, though at that time one of the principal in a house second only to that of the bishop of the diocess, and since considerably enlarged; and the confinement of Mrs. Goldsmith is stated to have occurred unexpectedly during a visit to her mother. No corroboration can be obtained of this story: the relater of it being about the same age as the Poet, could not herself be acquainted with the fact, while stronger testimony elsewhere satisfactorily disproves her statement. But as eminence commonly begets admirers and singularity is supposed to attend uncommon events, it was necessary perhaps to make the Poet peculiar even in his birth; and unlike the other children of the family, have his nativity assigned not to the house of his father, but to another which gratified a little family pride by being of more importance. A document has been lately recovered which sets the matter at rest. This is the leaf of the family Bible in which the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Goldsmith and the births of their children are recorded, now in the possession of Dr. Neligan of Athlone, great grandnephew of the poet, from which the following transcript was made by his permission during a visit to that town in 1330. The marginal portion of the leaf being unluckily worn away by age, the two last figures of the century in which Henry, Jane, and Oliver were born are thus lost; the age of the Poet is, however, sufficiently ascertained by the recollection of his sister, and by his calling himself when writing from London in 1759, thirty-one. The year of his birth is therefore 1728. "Charles Goldsmith of Ballyoughter was married to Mrs. Ann Jones ye 4th of May 1728. 66 Margaret Goldsmith was born at Pallismore in the county of Longford ye 22d August 1719. "Catherine Goldsmith born at Pallas ye 13th January 1721. 66 66 Henry Goldsmith was born at Pallas Febry 9th 17 "Oliver Goldsmith was born at Pallas November ye 10th 17 "Maurice Goldsmith was born at Lissoy in ye county Westmeath ye seventh of July 1736. "Charles Goldsmith jun" born at Lishoy Augt 16th 1737. "John Goldsmith born at Lishoy* ye 23d of (month obliterated) 1740." This paper corrects some errors into which Mrs. Hodson, elder The reader will observe many variations in orthography; thus, Lissoy or Lishoy are used as the whim of the moment prompts; thus also we have Pallas, Pallasmore, Pallismore, and Pallacemore, all meaning the same place; and the family of Hodson near Athlone, into which the Poet's sister Catherine married, is now by their own relatives called and spelt Hodson or Hudson indiscriminately; the latter indeed most commonly. Few things perplex an inquirer in Ireland more than these needless and arbitrary variations. sister of the Poet, from trusting to memory, had fallen, in the account of her brother furnished to Bishop Percy. His birthday is there stated to be the 29th of November, instead of the date here assigned: Henry is also said to be eight years his senior, an error probably repeated from seeing it in one of the Poet's letters, though the interval could not have been more than six years if so much; and a space of eight years, stated to have occurred between the birth of the previous child and Oliver, really took place between the latter and the succeeding son, Maurice. About the year 1730, Mr. Goldsmith, by the death of his wife's uncle, succeeded to the Rectory of Kilkenny West. He removed at the same time to Lissoy, a respectable house and farm on the verge of a small village standing in his own parish, on the right of the road leading from Ballymahon to Athlone, and about midway between these towns. It was neither a glebe house, nor did he, as is sometimes said, build it; but the lively interest which this spot has excited, as well in his native country as wherever the "Deserted Village" is read, as the supposed scene portrayed in the poem, added to the numerous inquiries made even in Ireland whether such a village as Auburn exists, or was really deserted, make some further notice of this spot necessary. Lissoy, in that scarce volume giving an account of the forfeited estates in Ireland, would appear to have been a species of personal property of James II. It was sold, or at least such portion of it as he claimed, amounting to 121 acres, in 1708, to Captain Richard Newstead of Westmeath, for 4217., the anuual rent of the then tenant in possession, Robert Temple, Esq., being 294.; it is described as consisting of arable and pasture land, with the further recommendation of having a "good sheep-walk." Soon after the removal of Mr. Goldsmith thither, he procured a lease from the purchaser (Newstead) of about 70 acres of this land, at the rent of eight shillings an acre, renewable for ever on the payment of half a year's rent for every new life introduced, the first lives being those of himself, his eldest son Henry, and daughter Catherine, afterwards Mrs. Hodson.* This property remained in the family till 1802, when it was sold by Mr. Henry Goldsmith, then in America, son of the above-named Henry the clergyman and of whom an account will afterwards appear, to Mr. Bond, a connexion of the family by marriage, in whose possession it remains. * The identity of Lissoy with the scene of the poem, in the general belief of the people of the vicinity, is corroborated by an anecdote told by a traveller some yeas ago in the United States. "The Deserted Village,' said he (Mr. Best, an Irish clergyman, is the speaker,) relates to the scenes in which Goldsmith was an actor. Auburn is a poetical name for the village of Lissoy in the * An abstract of this deed, dated January 28th, 1731, may be seen in the Register Office, Dublin; also a second, dated September 1742, fixing the sum of 261. as the annual rent of the lands in question, to prevent dispute respecting the amount of rent, the lease having specified certain boundaries, rather than the precise number of acres. county of Westmeath, barony of Kilkenny West. The name of the schoolmaster was Paddy Burns. I remember him well. He was, indeed, a man severe to view. A woman called Walsey Cruse kept the alehouse * 'Imagination fondly stoops to trace The parlour splendours of that festive place.' I have been often in the house. The hawthorn-bush was remarkably large, and stood opposite the alehouse. I was once riding with Brady, titular Bishop of Ardagh, when he observed to me, Ma foy, Best, this huge overgrown bush is mightily in the way; I will order it to be cut down.' What, sir!' said I, cut down Goldsmith's hawthorn-bush, that supplies so beautiful an image in the Deserted Village! Ma foy!' exclaimed the Bishop, is that the hawthornbush? Then ever let it be sacred from the edge of the axe, and evil to him that would cut from it a branch!"† 6 An anecdote connected with this subject, and of which further notice will occur, requires to be mentioned here. In November, 1738, a part of the townland of Lissoy, and the adjoining lands of Cannorstown to the number of 600 acres, were sold by "Jeffrey French, Esq. of the Middle Temple," to the "Honourable Robert Naper lieutenant-general of his Majesty's forces in Ireland," for the sum of £3,300; but the General appears to have died before the purchase was completed. Upon this property, named Ballybegg, lying behind the house of Mr. Goldsmith, about half a mile distant, Mr. William Naper, son of the General, several years afterwards built the family residence named Littleton. In the preliminary arrangements, some circumstances probably neither harsh nor unjust in themselves connected with the removal of part of the tenantry, gave rise in the mind of Goldsmith, morbidly acute in his benevolent feelings and particularly towards the poorer classes of society, to the idea of the "Deserted Village." Proprietary rights cannot always be exercised by landlords in Ireland, even in a reasonable manner, without extreme jealousy on the part of the people. Circumstances therefore which occur daily in England, and produce neither censure nor notice, excite in the former loud complaint, if not open hostility. Any thing resembling severity becomes speedily known and loudly censured; and such impressions, however untrue, taken up and acted upon by the imagination and eloquence of a poet, are dangerous assailants of reputation. An attack in simple prose may be answered, and seldom long survives the period of contention; but embalmed in verse, the supposed misdeeds of an offender may endure as long as the language.‡ The Irish Roman Catholic Clergy were then all educated in France, and in language and manners were often more French than Irish, f Davis's Travels in the United States of America, p. 113. It may amuse the political economist to know the different opinions then entertained of the influence of peace and war upon the value of landed property. In a lease, dated March 1744, from the above-named William Naper to Gerald Dillon, of 141 acres of the land around Ballybegg (adjoining Lissoy,) it is stipulated, |