labour, he betook himself to letters, and though twenty years of age when he began to learn Latin, he succeeded so perfectly as to write that language not only with correctness but with elegance. He was a native of Yorkshire, and became an assistant in the school of David Hall of Skipton, in whose family his future wife, Margaret Wilkinson, was also an inmate1. Having previously prevailed on his beloved Margaret to become his wife and accompany him to a strange land, he opened the Boarding School at Ballitore on the 1st of the third month 1726. It succeeded beyond the humble hopes of its conductors, so that not only those of their own society, and of the middle rank, but many people of considerable note and of various denominations placed their children under their care, several of whom afterwards filled conspicuous stations in life, and many not only retained a grateful and affectionate respect for the memory of their preceptor, but good-will and regard for the Society of Friends on his account, remembering his extraordinary diligence and care in their tuition, his fatherly oversight of them and also the living lesson of uprightness, temperance, gravity and humility which he taught by his example. And there is ground to believe, that the principles of the people called Quakers were better understood, and that many illiberal prejudices against them were removed, by means of Ballitore School 2. Abraham Shackleton was an impressive and remarkable personality, and he and his son Richard had the gift of winning the affection and esteem of their pupils in an exceptional degree. In the Annals of Ballitore are published the entrance lists, beginning from 1726, and they testify to the high reputation which the school commanded3. They contain the names of the sons of numerous well-known Irish families, the great majority being those of members of the Established Church. Richard Shackleton, when headmaster, anticipated Arnold of Rugby in introducing the Monitor System: He took a method with his pupils that was well calculated to maintain order in his absence.-He gave in charge to the eldest boy, or to him whom he suspected of being most likely to give trouble, a position of care over the rest1. Very many of the old pupils of Ballitore won the highest distinctions in Trinity College, Dublin, and several were educated at Cambridge and Oxford universities. An idea of the principles upon which the school was originally founded may be gathered from the following extract of a letter 1 Leadbeater Papers, I, p. 27. 2 Memoirs of R. and Eliz. Shackleton, p. 2. 3 One of the distinguished men educated at Ballitore was His Eminence Paul Cullen, Cardinal, Archbishop of Dublin. 4 Leadbeater Papers, 1, p. 40. "from Roger Shackleton, in York, to his brother Abraham in Ballitore," written very shortly after he had opened the school in 1726. What thy discouragements are I cannot tell. To look beforehand at worldly things, sometimes they are promising, and sometimes otherwise. I hope thou need not fear a school, from which a sufficient livelihood will result, but the business, as all others are, is attended with difficulties, and the best way is to arm oneself with good management, and to keep in an affable temper as much as consists with authority, of a master for it is that which pleases parents. As to heathenish authors, the profane sort I would exclude, as Ovid's de Arte Amandi, and for my part I do not approve of Aesop's Fables, tho' they abound in good Latin and morals, but Ovid's Metamorphoses and de Tristibus are well enough. Thy own discretion will help thee to make suitable choice....I discommende repeating ex memoria their daily lessons out of poets, unless they have capacity for it, which all have not, and it dulls the edge of learning...they are to have tasks suitable as an usher to their genius. I approve of daily recitations, of turning English into Latin, and ye reverse, and conversing in Latin. And those who are English scholars to be exercised daily in Orthography. I mean the principles of spelling1. The influence of this advice can be seen in an advertisement which appeared in the public prints of the time. BALLITORE BOARDING SCHOOL Abraham Shackleton informs his friends and the public that being placed guardian over the morals of the youth under his care, he declines, from conscientious motives, to teach that part of the academic course which he conceives injurious to morals and subversive of sound principles, particularly those authors who recommend in seducing language the illusions of love, and the abominable trade of war. Those who design their sons for the College will take their measures accordingly. He professes to fit the youth for business, and instruct them in polite literature. His terms are Six Pounds per quarter, no entrance money demanded2. 1 "The Shackleton Letters," Margaret F. Young. Kildare Archaeological Society Journal, vol. IX, No. 1, p. 73. This advertisement is given in the first memoir of Burke that appeared, published in 1798, the year after Burke's death. The Beauties of the Late Right Hon. Edmund Burke, To which is prefixed a Sketch of the Life with some original Anecdotes of Mr Burke.” 2 vols. Myers, London, 1798. It was published anonymously. The author was Charles Henry Wilson of the Middle Temple, a native of the North of Ireland, who died in his 53rd year in 1808 (see Gentleman's Magazine, 1808, p. 469). He was the compiler of Brookiana, a collection from the works of Henry Brooke, the author of Gustavus Vasa, the Fool of Quality, etc., and of the Letters of a Farmer, written during the Lucas controversy, which are mentioned later on. The author in his preface to The Beauties of Burke "entreats the indulgence of the Public, as it is the first attempt of a trembling pen in the biographic line.” The 1 Under the influence of this distinguished family of the Society of Friends, and in these surroundings, Burke received, in his school days from 1741-4, not a few of the best and most enduring impulses of his life. Long years afterwards, speaking on 20th June, 1780, when a proposal was made, after the Lord George Gordon Riots, that no Papist should be permitted to educate a Protestant, he said he had been educated as a Protestant of the Church of England by a dissenter, who was an honour to his sect, though that sect was considered one of the purest. Under his eye he had read the Bible morning, noon and night, and had ever since been the better man for such reading. On 10th October, 1786, he wrote to Richard Shackleton, I am in Dublin and most seriously mortified that I cannot go further. Alas that I should be driven to apologize for not seeing Ballitore after so many years. I think you will not believe that I want this natural inclination to give myself pleasure and to renovate myself by the view of the friends, and amid the scenes of my earliest youth. Embrace for me your excellent wife, your worthy son, your successor and the successor of my old master, and your daughter, who makes the pleasantest-the most classical of all grounds1. There, too, began one of the deepest of his life's friendships. The intimacy between Richard Shackleton and Edmund Burke commenced when Burke went as a boy to Ballitore School. Richard Shackleton, who used to attend the meetings of the Friends in London each year, paid an annual visit to Burke in England, and Burke, when in Ireland, always endeavoured to see Shackleton. The correspondence between them lasted through life and constitutes the most valuable material for the biography of Burke's early years. Only once did a coolness arise between them, when, in 1770, an account of Burke's family and education, written at the request of a friend by Shackleton, as a private communication, with the object of dissipating some malevolent slanders which Burke's enemies were circulating, found its way into the London Evening Post of 14th and 17th April, 1770. Burke, who resented, with peculiar sensitiveness any intrusion on his home life, and who, in public public has had the opportunity of appreciating his efforts unwittingly, for Prior transferred passage after passage, and in some instances page after page, of this sketch into his Life of Burke, without any acknowledgment. 1 Leadbeater Papers, II, p. 138. An allusion to Mrs Leadbeater's poems, a copy of which she had sent Burke some time before. life, treated all "loose libels" with disdain, was much annoyed, and wrote: I am sure I have nothing in my family, my circumstances, or my conduct, that an honest man ought to be ashamed of, but the more circumstances of all these that are brought out, the more materials are furnished for malice to work upon. Shackleton explained how the mischance had occurred and how much he regretted it. I know nothing in the world about the publication of that unfortunate paper but what thou tellest me, nor who could be the publisher of it. Burke wrote an affectionate letter in reply, and their friendship continued uninterrupted1. This account thus published without authority had afforded the materials for nearly all the biographies of Edmund Burke's early years, until the appearance of the Leadbeater Papers in 1862. Among the scholars of Abraham Shackleton (writes Mrs Leadbeater) one of the most distinguished for early attainments in literature was Edmund Burke, who, with Garrett and Richard his brothers, was placed under his care in the year 1741. Edmund manifested uncommon genius, with qualities which shelter that painful pre-eminence from those envious blasts, which annoy even when they cannot injure: for he was unassuming, affable and modest. He and Richard Shackleton, the son of Abraham, pursued their studies together. The minds of both were strongly bent to literary acquirements. Both were endowed with classical taste, solid judgement and keen perception: and with similar dispositions, cheerful, affectionate and benevolent. Between the kindred minds a friendship was formed which continued through life notwithstanding the different spheres in which they moved. When they met afterwards, Edmund Burke delighted to converse with the friend of his Youth on subjects which recalled their juvenile days2. Richard Shackleton was very diligent in seeking after improvement in literary knowledge, and while yet a child he was able to assist his father. For this purpose he spent some time in Dublin, attending lectures at the College and learning the Hebrew Language3. He equalled his father in wisdom, integrity and learning, whilst his abilities were more highly cultivated, every advantage having been bestowed on him which was obtainable at that period. Although the son of a strict Quaker, he completed his education at Trinity College, Dublin, at that 1 The correspondence relating to this incident is published in the Appendix, post p. 396. 2 Memoirs of Richard and Elizabeth Shackleton, by Mary Leadbeater (London, 1822), p. 2. 3 There are extracts from some of his father's letters to him when studying in Dublin given in the Memoirs of Richard and Elizabeth Shackleton, p. 5. time a very unusual step for one of that persuasion. His temper was lively, he had a ready wit and he wrote with facility several languages besides his own1. Shackleton's account of Burke, which found its way into the London Evening Post, thus describes him at school: Edmund was a lad of most promising genius, of an inquisitive and speculative cast of mind, which was improved in him by a constitutional indisposition, that prevented him from suffering by those avocations from study which are the consequences of puerile diversions. He read much while he was a boy, and accumulated a stock of learning of great variety. His memory was extensive, his judgement early ripe. He would find in his own mind, in reasoning and comparing in himself, such a fund of entertainment, that he seemed not at all to regret his hours of solitude; yet he was affable, free and communicative, as ready to teach as to learn. He made the reading of the classics his diversion rather than his business. He was particularly delighted with history and poetry, and while at school performed several exercises in the latter with a manly grace2. Richard Shackleton used to delight in detailing instances of Burke's singular aptitude, and how soon he attained a superior station amongst his schoolfellows, many of whom he readily assisted in their exercises. Mrs Leadbeater tells this anecdote to illustrate how "he showed thus early his capacity for exerting his abilities on a sudden emergency, and of turning the ideas of others to useful account." Burke and his schoolfellows were permitted one day to go and see the procession of the Assize judges into the county town of Athy, on condition that each of the senior lads should write a description of the spectacle in Latin verse. When Burke finished his own task, he was earnestly solicited by another lad to assist him, the poor fellow declaring that he had laboured in vain for hours to knock something out of his brains, and that rather than try again he would walk barefooted to the top of Lugnaquilla, which is the loftiest of the Wicklow mountains, about twelve Irish miles from Ballitore. He reminded his schoolfellow how often he had helped him before, and said that this was the hardest task he ever got. Burke was for the moment somewhat puzzled how he could compose a second paper on the same subject; and hoping to obtain some hint for the composition, he asked the applicant what had struck him as most remarkable in the procession. The lad replied that he had noticed nothing particular, except a fat piper in a brown coat. Furnished with this hint, Burke immediately 1 Leadbeater Papers, 1, p. 1. |