The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1918-12-26
OLIVER GOLDSMITH AND
HIS "DESERTED VILLAGE"
Editor Pilot:

4
esting sketch of "In Goldsmiths
Country" from the pen of Francis
Joseph Bigger in a now defunct maya
zine, which is not only interesting but
also good literature, and will be oil
interest to your many readers. Gray s
"Elegy In a Country Churchyard'
Goldsmiths Deserted Village" will
be reeited and sung as long as man
kind lives because they breathe and
tell "the simple annals of the poor
by master hands. l wish l could send
you not only the sketch of the coun-
try, but also the illustrations OF Tine
Decent Church that Topped the
Neighboring Hill", the NOISY man.
sion" where the village master taught
his little school, the children "just let
loose from school,, the ruins of 1.-The
Busy Mill", and the lanes and high
ways hard by. They would add by
their rustic simplicity much to the
sketch, which is as follows:
Sweet Auburn is but few miles
from Athlone, the center of Ireland
and yet it is an unknown land to most
Irishmen and rarely, if ever, visited
by strangers or visitors. That 1t is
we'll worth a pilgrimage | will en-
deayor to show. In the noise of Lon
don many weary feet step aside from
the hustle of the Strand to view the
great Church of the Knights Temp
lars, beneath whose shadow there
sleeps in peace he whose life knew nc
peace save that afforded by the happy
recollections of his early days spent
on the shores of Tough Rec. Some OF
the sweetness of those early years ran
like a silver thread through a life
chequered beyond that of ordinary
mortals, binding a soul broken on the
wheel of London inanity and artifi-
cial civilization to that rural past in
the land of his birth, the wide extend
ing plains of West Meath.
1.-THE white stone flashes over Gold
smiths ashes,
In the quiet cloisters of Temple Bar.
And the land he loved so well, and
described with such tenderness and
pathos has not even the honor Of bear
ing on her breast his immortal ashes
for he sleeps in the soil of the strang-
err and his requiem is not of the lap
ping waves on the pebbly shores OF
the lake he had so often sailed over
nor yet the lowing herds upon the
hills where his father had been "the
shepherd of men,, but the distant roar
of great city and the continuous tur-
moil of commerce.
THE Deserted Village" has beer
printed in almost all the languages OF
the world, and been illustrated il
many ways, in elaborate editions
treating it however, as an entirely
English pastoral story, with typica
views of that country, half timbereC
cottages, iyyclad church tower
SWANS in smocks, and the usual sur
roundngs of rural life in a fair Eng
fish county. Ireland frequently suf
fers in this way-the works of hel
poets, statesmen, writer's and soldiers
have been appropriated and the true
facts systematically suppressed. TC
any one familiar with Goldsmith's ia
yorite poem, and traverses the distric
around the village of Lissoy, every
scene described, almost every detail il
the poem, will be at once revealed ant
made known and understood.
The Rev. Charles Goldsmith, whC
was the rector of Kilkenny West, min
istered in "the decent church which
topped the neighboring hill", and thu
present modest ediiice, built on almos
the same lines, still occupies the iden
tical site surrounded by the graves O
those who were the playmates ant
companions of the poet, and within 1t!
sacred walls are the unlettered graves
of the poets uncle and his son, the
Rev Charles, who succeeded him il
the parish:
"A man he was to all the country deal
And passing rich with forty pounds {
year.
He watched and prayed and wept fol-
all
And those who came to scoff, remalneC
to pray"
And as we loitered around the lonely
church, surrounded with unkemp
graves and messy slabs, we see {
vision of the old white-haired mar
whose meek and unaffected grace" Is
still, and ever will, remain a sweet
fragrance of the happy days gone for
ever.
The story of the deserted village Is
almost literally true, and only toe
common, alas in many other parts o.
Ireland. The tract of country arount
Lissoy, for Auburn was only the poetic
designation. was the territory of Lore
Dillon, one of powerful family who
about 1880. sold the property to &
General Napier, an Englishman who
had nmngsnd "A largo fortune nt NiYn
lie, in true tyrann!eal style Of TIL,
period, at once began to enclose &
large demesne nine miles in circum
ference, and for this purpose elected
many families, who had long flourish