1752.

At. 24

came a member of the Medical "at the world; and at myself, the Society, and on his admission "most ridiculous object in it:' appears to have been exempted are among his expressions of half from the usual condition of read- bitter, half goodnatured ing a paper on a medical sub-candour, in a letter to his ject. *But he was really fond of cousin Bryanton.* chemistry, and was remembered There is another confession, favourably by the celebrated in a later letter to his uncle, Black; other well-known fellow-which touches him in a nearer students, as William Farr, and point, and suggests perhaps more his whilome college acquaint- than it reveals. It would seem ance, Lauchlan Macleane, con- as though, to eke out his received a regard for him, which sources, he had for some part of somewhat later Farr seems to his time accepted employment have had the opportunity of in a great man's house: probably showing; certainly so much is as tutor. "I have spent," he without contradiction to be said says, "more than a fortnight of kind quaker Sleigh, known "every second day at the Duke afterwards as the eminent physi-"of Hamilton's; but it seems cian of that name, painter Barry's "they like me more as a jester first patron, Burke's friend, and "than as a companion; so I disone of the many victims of "dained so servile an employFoote's witty malice;** and it "ment." To those with whom, may therefore be supposed that on equal terms, he could be both Oliver's eighteen months' resi- jester and companion, Bryanton dence in Edinburgh was, on the was charged with every kind of whole, not unprofitable. It had remembrance. "You cannot send its mortifications, of course; for "me much news from Ballyall his life had these. "An ugly "mahon, but such as it is, send "and a poor man is society only "it all; everything you send will "for himself; and such society "be agreeable to me. Has "the world lets me enjoy in "George Conway put up a sign "great abundance:" "nor do I "yet? or John Finecly left off "envy my dear Bob his blessings,"drinking drams? or Tom Allen "while I may sit down and laugh "got a new wig?" To the plea"and of setting the table in a roar, too * The letter to Bryanton quoted "often blended with grimace and buf- above was first printed in the Anthol gia "foonery, from which defects, notwith- Hibernica of 1793, and thence transferred "standing he was afterwards introduced to the London magazines of the same "into the politest company, his conversa- year. A mutilated copy was afterwards tion was never wholly exempt." Percy printed in the Percy Memoir, (22—26). Memoir, 19. The reader will find the letter correctly *This is manifest from an entry in printed in the Appendix (C) to this the books of the Medical Society of Edin-volume, but the discrepancies from the urgh, 13th January, 1753. copies as ordinarily printed are not material.

**See Burke's Correspondence, 1. 35.

made from Edinburgh during the two years he lived there; but the whole story

sant and whimsical satire of the sages have a tendency to show Scotch he at the same time within what narrow limits he had wrote to Bryanton, I need scarce- brought his wants; with how ly refer, because in all bourne Argus on the authority of a Scotch 1752. the editions of his works settler in Australia, Mr. Alexander Dick; At. 24. (except the Scotch) it is not sufficiently authentic to claim a place in commonly printed: but on the my text, but which it might yet be unsafe to omit altogether. Its closing alwhole I think it best to include lusion may connect it with one of the exthese various letters in an ap-cursions which he tells his uncle he had pendix without pledging myself to any special belief in the accuracy of all their statements. As a generally humorous picture drawn from various sources, there referred to (printed in Appendix B.) rather than a strictly veracious record of his own experience, it will be safest to regard them; but this remark applies less strongly to those two of the three letters to his uncle Contarine, the earliest in date and least important in contents, which have been recently discovered.

1753.

is probably a confused tradition of the incident glanced at in a previous page self in the famous letter to his mother (31-2), and described by Goldsmith him

"On his farm near Falkirk, and about "Dick, was caught by the press-gang, "the year 1750, my grandfather, William "and compelled to serve in the regiment "of Picardy. My grandmother, Mary "regiment passed to Ireland, and it was "Dalgleish or Douglass, joined him. The

"ordered on foreign service. Mary was "debarred from accompanying her hus"band. They had three children-Adam, "Willie (my father), and Jeannie.

66

It

I was now 1752, and the children were seven, five, and three years of age.

"Mary resolved to return from Ireland to "fortnight when she was robbed, as she "slept, of her money, clothes, and chil

"Edinburgh. She had not travelled a

In the first, dated Mayday 1753,* and in which Et. 25. he alludes to a description of himself by his uncle, as "the "dren's clothes. It was a lone house, and "philosopher who carries all his "the people had no fresh clothing to goods about him," he describes bestow. Mary and her children went Munro as the one great pro-"forth in their night-dresses. Despondfessor, and the rest of the doc-ing, despairing, she travelled on, but a "ministering angel was at hand, and tor-teachers as only less afflict-"saved her. Oliver Goldsmith, on horseing to their students than they "back, met her. No salutation passed. must be to their patients. He "Jeannie-now three years old-was "Willie and Jeannie were behind. makes whimsical mention of a trip to the Highlands, for which he had hired a horse about the size of a ram, who "walked away" man are you, that you do not look "(trot he could not) as pensive "as his master."**

"ashamed of her dress, and to hide from "the gentleman she got close to Willie. Goldsmith cried, 'What sort of a wo"He pushed her into a ditch, and ran.

"better after your children?' Mary "turned round, and saw her daughter

Other pas-getting to her feet quietly. Goldsmith "drew near, and Mary replied, 'I am the Appendix (C) to this volume. "wife of an impressed soldier, and on **My friend Mr. Gavan Duffy sent me my way to Edinburgh, but last night I lately an alleged unpublished incident" was robbed of our money and our in Goldsmith's life, related in the Mel-"'clothes, and I am almost distracted,'

666

1753.

little he was cheerfully content; the sacrifices cannot fairly be and that, for whatever advances called great. Burke had an alhe had, though it was desirable lowance of 200 a year for he should have turned them to leisure to follow studies to more practical use, he at least which he never paid the overflowed with gratitude. least attention; and when t. 25. There have been harsh judg- his father anxiously expected to ments of Goldsmith for the hear of his call to the bar, he money thus wasted on abortive might have heard, instead, of a professional undertakings: but distress that forced him to sell his books: yet for this, quite

"the harsh manner in which he had

Poor

"Goldsmith saw that she was an edu- rightly, we none of us visit Burke "cated lady, and he begged pardon for with pains or penalties. “spoken to her, and said, 'I am sorry Goldsmith's supplies were on the "that I cannot give you more than £1 other hand small, irregular, un""but I won't leave you till I see you all certain, and, in some two years

"'better clothed.' He turned back some 'miles. They came to a

66

mansion. at the furthest, exhausted alto

"Goldsmith addressed the inmates, told gether. "them his name, begged clothes for his

66

companions, and said that he would

material to make clothes for herself

Here, in this letter to his uncle,

"return and pay for all that they could he says that he has drawn for “give. The inmates gave Mary decent six pounds, and that his next "and her children. Mary got to Muir draft, five months after this date, "avonside, but she did not go to Edin- will be for but four pounds; “burgh. The friend that she had lodged pleading in extenuation of these "with there had died. She was a widow "that kept a small shop at the foot of the light demands that he has been "Canongate, and my grandfather's bro- obliged to buy everything since "thers had occasion to call on her suc- he came to Scotland, "shirts not "cessor. Goldsmith arrived subsequently "even excepted:" while, in an"in Edinburgh, and called frequently at "the shop to inquire after Mary's welfare. other letter at the close of the "He was informed that William had same year, he accounts for money "been bought off for 401, that he was “working at Cathcart for 8d. a day, and spent by the remark that he has good store of clothes' to ac"knitting, to pay off the money by in- company him on his travels. Yet stalments. He sent them a few pounds. there was decided moderation "Honoured be the memory of Gold"smith. He said that it was the informa- even in the direction sartorial; "tion that Mary gave him of Edinburgh nor does the wardrobe, to which "College that made him make up his allusion was made a few pages mind to come to it. Goldsmith set out

"that Mary was sewing, and the children

66

66

“on a tour to the North and West High- back, appear to have been by lands, and to visit Mary at Cathcart; any means extensive in the pro"but his money failed him, and he had to cut his tour short. He expressed himself portion of the variety of its greatly disappointed that he had not colours. Upon the latter point seen the Loch Lomond district, and our evidence is not to be gain"that he had not seen Mary. He spoke sayed. What will have to be "constantly of taking another tour, but "he did not set out a second time." remarked of Goldsmith in this

are

respect at Mr. Boswell's or Mr. items of hose, hats, silver lace, Reynolds's, is already to be said satin, allapeen, fustian, durant, of him in the lodging-house and shalloon, cloth, and velvet; which lecture room at Edin-materials of adornment 1753. burgh; and on the same charged to him, from the January At. 25. proof of old tailors' bills, to the December of the year, in the very ghosts of which con- the not very immoderate sum of tinue to flutter about and plague £9 11s. 2d, the first entries of his memory. which, to the amount of £3 15s. The leaf of an Edinburgh 93d, were in November duly paid ledger of 1753 has fallen into my in full, and what remained at the hands, from which it would ap-year's end carried to a folio in pear that one of his fellow- the same ledger, unluckily destudents, Mr. Honner, had in- stroyed before it was discovered troduced him at the beginning of to whom the page related. The that year to a merchant tailor earlier leaf had not been found with whom he dealt for sundry when "folio 424" was burnt.

Such is the old leaf exactly through all its age and dingicopied; and glowing as it is, ness, with a name bright and familiar since to many genera

I owe this curious little document to the kindness of Mr. David Laing of the signet library in Edinburgh, whose readiness to communicate information to all who are in want of it has been equalled only by the value of his discoveries in

almost every department of literary research. Mentioning the fact of the top of "folio 424," Mr. Laing adds: "Neither "was there any indication of the name of "the merchant-tailor."

1754.

tions of boys and men in the "you...." This good man did good merchant-tailor's city, is it not live to know the entire good not also in every part still radiant he had done, or that his own with its rich sky-blue satin, its name would probably live fine sky-blue shalloon, its super- with the memory of it fine silver-laced small hat, its as long as the English t. 26. rich black Genoa velvet, and language lasted. "Thou best of that very best superfine high "men!" exclaims his nephew in claret-coloured cloth in which the third of these letters, to which the odd little clumsy figure thus I shall presently make larger reearly had arrayed itself? For ference, "may Heaven guard all which the gravest reader will "and preserve you, and those not unwillingly spare a smile be-"you love!" It is the care of fore he returns with me to the Heaven that actions worthy of letters that preceded student itself should in the doing find reOliver's departure for the con- ward, not waiting for it even on tinent. such thanks and prayers as Gold

1754

In that first letter he had smith's. Another twenty pounds professed himself pleased are acknowledged on the eve of Et. 26. with his studies, and ex-departure from Edinburgh, as pressed a hope that when he the last he will ever draw for; should have heard Munro for an- and it was the last, of which we other year he might go "to hear have record. But Goldsmith had Albinus, the great professor at drawn his last breath before he "Leyden." The whole of the forgot his uncle Contarine. letter gives evidence of a most The old vicissitudes attended grateful affection. In the second,* him at this new move in his game written eight months later, where of life, for which, according to he describes his preparations for his own account, his sole provitravel, and, confirming his inten- sion was a capital or stock in tions as to Leyden in the follow- hand of exactly thirty-three ing winter, says that he shall pounds. Land rats and water rats pass the intervening months in were at his heels as he quitted Paris, the same feeling is not Scotland; bailiffs hunted him for less apparent: "Let me here ac-security given to a fellow-student "knowledge," he says, "the (for which he was arrested, says "humility of the station in which the Percy Memoir, but soon re"you found me; let me tell how leased by the liberal assistance "I was despised by most, and of the "friends Mr. Lauchlan "hateful to myself. Poverty, "Macleane and Dr. Sleigh, who "hopeless poverty, was my lot, were then in college"), and ship"and Melancholy was beginning wreck he only escaped by a "to make me her own. When fortnight's imprisonment on à * See Appendix (C) to this volume. false political charge. Bound for