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.

2 See Appendix, post p. 402.

commenced and in a short time completed a humorous poem in doggerel Latin; the first line of which was as follows:

Piper erat fattus, qui brownum tegmen habebat1.

He loved humour, and my father was very witty. The two friends sharpened their intellect and sported their wit till peals of laughter in the schoolroom often caused the reverend and grave master to implore them, with suppressed smiles, to desist, or he should have to turn them both out, as their example might be followed where folly would take the place of humour and wisdom 2.

Edmund and his brothers, when at Ballitore School, attended divine service at Timolin parish church. One of the masters, a member of the Established Church, always accompanied the boys to their place of worship and heard them their catechism. Burke retained through life the deepest respect and admiration for his master, Abraham Shackleton. He and Richard Shackleton wrote a joint poem on Ballitore, extracts of which are given later on. It concludes with a passage in which Edmund thus refers to his old school

master:

And here as the fair land adorns the men,
The men no less adorn the land again;
Yet Shackleton mid these with such a light
Shines as does Hesper mid the lamps of Night;
Whose hopes Ambition never taught to roam,
Whose breast all virtues long have made their home,
Where Courtesy's stream does without flattery flow;
And the just use of Wealth without the show;
Who to man's vices tho' he ne'er was thrall,

Pities as much as he had felt them all;
And in a word such Cares his hour engage
As fits the planter of the future age3.

On Abraham's death he wrote to Richard Shackleton:

I am heartily affected with the subject of your last letter. I had a true honour and affection for that excellent man. I feel something like a satisfaction in the midst of my concern which I had not in the same degree before, that I was fortunate enough to have had him once under my roof before his departure. He was indeed a man of singular piety, rectitude and virtue,

1 Bissett narrates the same incident, which he said he had "from a respectable Irish gentleman, who vouches for its authenticity. It shows that the versatility of Burke's genius which was so astonishing in manhood, displayed itself in early youth." He adds that Burke went on through many verses in the same style as the Polemonidinia of the celebrated Scotch bard, Drummond of Hawthornden. Bissett, Life of Burke, p. 19.

Leadbeater Papers, 1, pp. 49, 50.

* Shackleton MSS. in the possession of Mrs Pilgrim, Richard's great-granddaughter.

and he had along with these qualities a native elegance of manners which nothing but genuine good-nature and unaffected simplicity of heart can give, and which they will give infallibly, be the exterior forms what they will1. Abraham Shackleton died on 24th June, 1771. He had given up the headmastership to his son Richard in 1756, and he handed it over in turn to his son Abraham in 1779.

Here are two vignettes from the Leadbeater Papers describing Burke's first and last visits to his old school. The first occurred when Mrs Leadbeater was still a child2.

Edmund Burke was expected with impatient wonder. The chaise stopped at the big gate, which unfolded wide, and my imagination still presents the graceful form of Edmund, as I beheld him from the nursery window, leading in his wife, a pretty little woman, with no covering on her head but her beautiful unadorned auburn tresses. On Elizabeth Shackleton expressing surprise that she wore no cap, in which respect she was singular at that time, she said that she dressed conformably with her husband's taste; however she promised to put one on, and next morning appeared in the first French night-cap that was ever seen in Ballitore. The plain dress of Edmund disappointed my expectation, and I thought the postilion's habit, daubed with livery lace, much more elegant: the sight of our guest's laced waistcoat, however, a little reconciled me. Yet when, in taking a survey of the family of his friend, he stood over me as I sat in a little chair, and viewed me through the glass which assisted his short sight, I felt so abashed and confused that I directly annexed the idea of austerity to his countenance; nor could the testimony of many witnesses efface that idea, till I afterwards saw him in London in the year 1784, when with a very uncommon sensation of pleasure and surprise it was at once put to flight; for never did I see so much benignity and intelligence united as in the manly beauty of that countenance, in which were blended the expressions of every superior quality of the head and of the heart. This visit was previous to the purchase of Beaconsfield, and to his 'taking root in England,' as he expressed it.

The cap incident made an impression, for in August, 1766, Burke wrote to Shackleton arranging to spend a day at Ballitore, and adds Mrs Burke gives her love to Mrs Shackleton, and will wear a cap all this time at Ballitore, in compliment to her; and it will be as large as she can desire, and yet will leave her something to observe upon too. For, next to finery in a lady herself, the criticism of it in another's case is the highest satisfaction that can be; and this is one way of indemnifying one's self for the plainness of one's habit; so much for you Mrs Shackleton;-I owe it to you3. 1 See also letters from Burke to R. Shackleton, 29th June, 1744, and 1st June, 1746, post pp. 44, 94, and the concluding lines of the Epithalamium written by Burke on Richard Shackleton's marriage, post p. 179.

• Leadbeater Papers, I, p. 47.

3 Fitzwilliam edition, Burke's Correspondence, vol. 1, p. 110.