Waterbury Democrat., 1900-11-01
Boston Shoe Store, I55-I57 SOUTH MAIN ST.
 WATERBURY,
THE COUNTRY OF GOLDSMITH

 cannot fail to arrest the interest of those who visit this portion of the Shannon is ''the Goldsmith country, writes correspondent of the New Era, speaking of Athlone and it's sur roundngS This is the Irish counter part of the Stratford-on=Avon district of England the Mecca of English po etry. Lissoy, the Auburn" of Gold smiths "Deserted Village. lies by road about six miles from Athlone. The drive to it is through a well wood ed and industrously cultivated dis trict. It may also be reached over the waters of Lough Rec in a pleasant eX- cursion of about twelve miles, in which we enter the estuary where the waters of the river Inny flow into the lake. This. is close to Hare Island, on the Longford side.
 Goldsmith was born at Pallas, in the County Longford, in November, TIPS. A pilgrimage to the birthplace of the poet will hardly repay the hurrying tourist. The hamlet lies far from the main road in the midst of dreary. oftentimes sWampy, plain. The house ill which he was born has long since succumbed to the touch of decay and the levelling breath of time. Save the unchanged banks of the River Inny. which are, noticed in the correspond ence of the poet. there are few tangi- ble associations left around his birth place. We cannot, however, fail to | notice, with heartfelt pleasure and ad- miration that in the parish kirk of the | neighborhood at Forgney a memorial window has recently been erected to | the Irish poets memory. The scene | it depicts, which few will fail to recoe- | nize, is taken from the picture of his I pen, portraying the 'Village Preach | err:
 "The service past, around the pious With steady zeal each honest rustic | : ran,
 Fen children followed with endearinc | vile,
 And plucked his gown to share the | good mans smile.'
 The window is good and sweetly ap- 1 pfopriate,. and We may remark the work of Irish '~artists-Messrs Watson & Co, Youglial.
 When Goldsmith was yet child his 1 father was presented with a living in County Westmeath. Here, in the bar | ony of Kilkenny West Lissoy is s:tu- 1 ated, the spot which is immortalized in the poem of the "Deserted Village .'' This is the Goldsmith scene, which we | advise no tourist to Athlone to leave | unyistted. The ruins of the modest mansion of the Village Preacher, 3 who was Goldsmiths father. stands about hundred yards from the main road at the close of a shaded avenue of ash trees. The home of the poets 1 boyhood is now represented by roof I less Walls and smokeless chimney shaft-aH that remains of the plain rectangular house, built in the style so | common in Ireland century and a | half ago. Still, mist of magic mem ories fingers around the crumbIinp
 walls and deserted garden of this I classic spot. The hospitable door
 known to all the vagrant train.",z is
 gaping wide. On either side are the
 two windows and above the five which
 constituted the main features of most
 country houses at that time. In the
 orchard, gnarled and messy clad. are Il some. of the aged apple trees which
 still, bear their autumn burden as of
 yore. We miss, however, all traces of
 'the garden flowers growing r.wild ],
 The ale house and the busy mill may
 also be identified, but the edecent
 church' is represented by substitute
 or more modern type built on :. thf
 same site. Unhappily. '.the hawthorn
 tree with seats beneath the shade" has
 long since fallen q prey to yandal curi
 osity; penknives in this case hayina achieved the work of the woodman's
 axe. But the pool and the presumed
 descendants of the. noisy geese'' stil are there.
 | ' , SEE = ss E 3 4 < I.