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 wisdom2.

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.

2 Leadbeater Papers, 1, pp. 49, 50.

3 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.

In 1786 Edmund Burke paid his last visit to Ballitore. He was accompanied by his son.

On the 23rd of the Tenth month they gave us a most pleasant surprise. The great man could not, I think, possibly have appeared to more advantage than while he again reviewed the scenes of his youth. He remembered where the trees had stood which stood no longer, and greeted those that remained as old acquaintances; the alterations in the buildings were not unnoticed, and with peculiar delight he went through the apartments of the school-house, and walked in the Four-tree field. He called to see all those with whose families he had formerly been acquainted; and his finished politeness was mingled with so much good-nature and simplicity that they delighted while they flattered his friends. The village was all agape while the distinguished strangers made a tour of it, attended by the old master and most of his family.

She then tells several anecdotes of his meetings with the old servants and artizans he had known as a boy, and their delight and pride at seeing him.

My father and mother loved him as their steady and sincere friend....We young folks listened with pleasure to my mother's anecdotes of his assisting her to pick bogberries, and remarking how well they might be chosen by feeling, without the help of the eyes; how kindly he settled her in a car setting out to a meeting, and wondering in what carriage she could travel with most ease, recommended the bolted-down chair....Again my father told of the pursuits of their youth, when they climbed the heights of learning and picked the flowers of poetry together. He regretted the loss of his poem in praise of the Blackwater, and of a translation from Theocritus, in competition with which my father attempted one of his own. He remembered that in Burke's version of the passage in which Venus despatches her Loves in search of the Boar which had wounded Adonis, were the following lines, containing an idea not to be found in the original:

"Him the Love who rules the strong
With his bow-string dragged along:
While the Love who rules the slow
Lashed him onward with his bow!2"

1 Leadbeater Papers, 1, p. 169.

2 There is an imitation of the nineteenth Idyllium of Theocritus in Poems on Several Occasions, Dublin, 1748 (R.I.Ac., Halliday Tracts, Box 202. There are two copies of the volume in the Bradshaw Collection, Cambridge University Library, Hib. 7, 748, 50-1). It was probably written by R. Shackleton, who wrote the dedicatory ode in the volume. Some poems of Burke's, including his translation from the second Georgic, were first published in it. See post p. 92.

CHAPTER III

IN TRINITY COLLEGE

JUNIOR FRESHMAN

N 14th April, 1744 A.D., Edmund Burke entered Trinity College,

years of age

Dublin. He was then a few months over fifteen He had left Ballitore the day before. The examinations for entrance were not then held at any fixed dates, nor was there any prescribed course of classical authors. The examination was conducted by the tutor in the first instance, and afterwards by the senior lecturer. It was not till 1759, after Provost Baldwin's death, that Public Entrance Examinations were arranged to be held on fixed dates and in specified authors.

The following is an extract from the Matriculation Register preserved in the strong room in Trinity College, showing the names of Edmund Burke and two other students who entered on the 14th April, 1744 A.D.

The lists for the academic year, which commenced on 9th July, 1743, and ended 9th July, 1744, are headed:

"Annus Academicus nono die Julii Milessimo Septengentessimo Quadragessimo Tertio" (1743).

It will be noticed that the name is spelled Bourke. As before mentioned, it is also frequently spelled Burk, as well as Burke, in the college books. The name of Burke's father is entered by mistake as John; it was Richard. Mr Shackleton's name is also incorrectly spelled Shakelton.