Burke's entrance is also recorded in the senior lecturer's book as follows. The senior lecturer's entries are for the year as beginning on 20th November, 1743, and ending 20th November, 1744. The classes changed on the 20th November in each year after the Michaelmas Term examinations, and the senior lecturer's books were then kept, having regard to the status of the student during this period.

"The Senior Lecturer's Registry for the year
beginning Nov ye 20th 1743—

Names of Scholars admitted into

Doctor Obins Sen1 Lecturer."

ye College since ye 20th Nov. 1743

they came

There is also a third record of Burke's matriculation, an entry made by Dr John Barrett, who was senior lecturer in 1813, in the first page of the Club Minute Book; it is as follows:

Johannis Generosi-annum 16 agens-Natus Dublinii-Educatus sub ferula Mag. Shackleton-Dr Pelissier

JOHN BARRETT, Sen. Lect.
Dec. 17, 1813.

The date 19th April is the date upon which the entrance was noted up in the senior lecturer's book.

Burke was a "jib," in college parlance, during the interval from April, 1744, to November, 1744.

He describes his first impressions of Trinity College in a letter to Shackleton immediately after his entrance.

Dear Dicky,

E. Burke to Richard Shackleton.

Dublin, April, 1744

Since I am deprived of your company that was so agreeable to me, and the sweet hours that I spent in Ballitore in your conversation, and

condemned to noise, smoke and Dublin town, all I can do is to alleviate the pains of absence by an epistolary correspondence; but here I am stopped by the expiration of privilege1, which, though a bar to us, yet it may be remedied in some measure by the Carman & Co.2

Without further prologue I shall acquaint you with my adventures since I left you, which though perhaps not so entertaining nor so full of surprising events as those of Don Quixote, Josey etc.3 may serve to let you know that Dick Chidley and I arrived pretty safe at this City rather of the latest, for the paσkeλλe watchman had the impudence to inform the town how bad travellers we were by saying, "Past twelve o'clock"! I was however let in, went to bed, slept, and was sent in company with Jack Baily immediately after breakfast next morning (i.e. Monday morning) to Dr Pellasier 5, Fellow of Trinity College, near Dublin, a gentleman (since it falls my way to give his conjectural character) accounted one of the most learned in the University, an exceedingly good humoured, cleanly, civil fellow (N.B. I judge by outward appearances). We were admitted into his rooms, and he has three very grand ones. He and Jack Baily had a good deal of chat and a couple of men were setting up a barometer in his room-so he could not for a while examine me. At last he brought out Francis's Horace, Dauphine's Virgil and Homer, with I don't know whose notes; he made me construe Scriberis Vario &c. Eheu fugaces, Postume &c. and in Virgil I began the 103rd line of the Sixth Aeneid, and in Homer with the 227th line of the Third Iliad, and the 406th of the Sixth and he was pleased to say (what I would not say after him unless to a particular friend) that I was a good Scholar, understood the Authors very well, and seemed to take pleasure in them (yet by the bye, I don't know how he could tell that) and that I was more fit for the College than three parts of my class; but he told me I must be examined again by the Senior Lecturer. He was sent for but was not at home, therefore Dr Pellasier told me I must have the trouble of calling again. He was going out and introduced me (according to custom I believe) to the Provost, who is an old sickly looking man9. To be

1 Privilege, i.e. his franks for postage had expired, and he would have to send the letter by some other means.

2 "The Carman, the driver of a primitive two-wheeled vehicle drawn by one horse, was the common carrier of goods, small parcels, and frequently of letters throughout Ireland previous to the introduction of railways." Leadbeater Papers, II, p. 3.

3 Josey Delany. See letter 11th June, 1744, post p. 38.

An old pupil at Ballitore School, having joined the school in 1735. He took his B.A. 1741 in Trinity College, Dublin.

5 Rev. John Pellisier, Fellow, 1727, Bursar, 1744; Professor of Divinity, 1746; Vice-provost, Rector of Ardshaw, County Tyrone, 1753; died 6th January, 1781. See the note as to the protest against his election as Fellow in Dublin University Calendar, 1912-13, vol. III, p. 585.

6

Incipit Aeneas heros: non ulla laborum
O Virgo nova mi facies inopinave surgit.

'Where Helen from the tower over the Scaan Gate points out to Priam the Greek chieftains on the plain of Troy.

Andromache's appeal to Hector to stay from battle.

• Richard Baldwin, D.D., admitted Provost July, 1717. Died 30th September, 1758, aged 92 years. For interesting accounts of Provost Baldwin, see Burdy's Life

short, this morning I was examined very strictly with another young lad by Mr Aubins or Robbins1 (I don't know which) the Senior Lecturer, in the Odes, Sermons and Epistles of Horace, and am admitted. I cannot express, nor have I the knack of doing it, how much I am obliged to your Father for the extraordinary pains and care he has taken with me so as to merit the commendation of my tutor, and all I can do is to behave myself so as not to bring a scandal upon him or his school. I've nought more to say, but that yesterday I went to J. Fletcher's to invite your mother; she was not at home. I left the letters for her. Pray remember my love to all my school fellows, and to Mr Burn3 in particular.

Tell Master Pearce3 for his comfort that I was examined in As in praes1 and give my service to all the girls5, and inform Nanny Morris that I have thought of her once or twice, and that if she has a mind for a coach and six let her tell what coloured horses she will have, and it shall be sent her by the first opportunity, but in the mean time give her a box, and place it to account, and this shall be sufficient warrant for so doing, and it is almost night, and I must write to the Master, so I must conclude without more ado, all-a-one-now6.

NED BURKE.

P.S. I saw your friend Herbert at his shop door as I went to the College to-day, and I stood awhile to speak to him. I went to see Mr Brugh', but he was gone out of town. The Microcosm will leave town the 28th, so consider what to do. Send to me the next carman that goes, and I'll send you something, or send Harry Bawne.

It is interesting to compare Burke's experience of the entrance examination in Trinity College with that of a Cambridge student a little later in the eighteenth century. Framingham Willis, a pensioner of Skelton (London, 1882), and “Trinity College, Dublin,” by W. MacNeile Dixon in College Histories Series (London, 1902), Stubbs' History of Trinity College, Dublin, and by Mahaffy in The Book of Trinity College, Dublin.

1 John Obins, co-opted Fellow, 1739, Sen. Lecturer, resigned January, 1746, Prebendary of Raphoe. Died 1775. The "other young lad" was Richard Orpin whose tutor was also Burke's, Dr Pelissier. Orpin won a scholarship the same year as Burke, 1746. He was a member of the old family of Orpin of Ardtully, Co. Kerry. He was afterwards Rector of Kenmare. See Burke's Landed Gentry. Sir William Orpen, R.A., K.B.E., and Dr Goddard Orpen, Litt.D., the well-known historian, are members of the same family.

2 Formerly a pupil at Ballitore. He joined the school in 1730.

3 Undermasters at Ballitore School.

As in praesenti perfectum format in avi

Ut no, nas, navi, vocito, vocitas, vocitavi, etc. etc.

These were the first lines of a Memoria technica for the principal parts of the Latin verbs, as given in King Edward VI's First Latin Book.

There were several girls amongst the younger day pupils at Ballitore, where there seems to have been a preparatory as well as advanced classes. See post p. 34. • The cry of the watchman on his rounds. 7 See post pp. 69, 70.

• The Microcosm was a kind of Myriorama Show exhibited at "The Raven" on College Green. It was extensively advertised in the Dublin newspapers of the time. See Faulkner's Journal, Jan. to April, 1744.

• Early Collegiate Life, by John Venn, F.R.S., Sc.D., President of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, p. 243.

of Caius College, wrote on the 18th July, 1767, to a friend, Thomas Kerwick

Let me tell you the Examination at a persons first being admitted, though it were much more strict than it generally is, is very easily passed through and hardly deserves to be stiled anything else than a mere matter of form. My tutor when I first went to him, only desired me to construe an Ode in Horace, a few lines at the beginning of a Satire of Juvenal, not more than three sentences in one of Cicero's Orations, and as many verses out of the Greek Testament. A Homer indeed was produced, but as it had a Latin version quite uncovered, which if there had been occasion, I might with one single glance of my eye have had recourse to, it hardly deserves to be mentioned. The Examination by the Master and Dean was still more easy than the Tutor's.

On 22nd April, 1750, Michael Kearney, who had been a schoolfellow of Burke at Ballitore, and was then a Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College, Dublin, wrote thus to Shackleton, who had consulted him about the prospects of one of his pupils passing the entrance examination:

You must not take it ill that I have so long neglected to answer your letter, for two or three days after I received it, I was so employ'd by our Examinations that I really had not time, and since that I have waited 'till the Senr. Lecturer's place, then vacant by Dr Knight's leaving the College, was filled up, as it now is, by Dr Wilder, imagining that I might be better able, by guessing at his taste, to give you the information that you desire—

The Books young Gentlemen are generally examined in for Admission are the first six books of the Iliad, Virgil (chiefly his Aenead), Horace (chiefly the Epistles and Satyres), Lucian, Sallust; and sometimes Xenophon's Cyropedia, Juvenal, and Terence. It is very difficult to guess with any degree of certainty what parts will most probably be examined in, this entirely depends upon the taste of the Senior Lecturer. In general I would advise that he should read the most striking passages in the books I first mentioned-If the Gentleman be such as you describe, I think he had better defer offering himself to the College for some time; I don't understand what you say of the usual time of Entrance, as all times are equal to Pensioners and Fellow Commoners, Sizars indeed can only be admitted at Whitsuntide....

"Burke," writes Lecky, "appears to have found in Trinity College an amount of intellectual activity greater than Gibbon found some years later at Oxford." He mentions that Goldsmith in his Life of Parnell noticed that the entrance examination at Dublin was much more severe than at Oxford or Cambridge1. We have seen from

1 Lecky's History of Ireland, vol. III, p.381. “There is one presumption, however, of the early maturity of Parnell's understanding. He was admitted a member of the College of Dublin at the age of thirteen, which is much sooner than usual, as at that University they are a great deal stricter in their examination for entrance, than either at Oxford or Cambridge." Goldsmith, Life of Parnell, p. 2.

Burke's own account of his entrance that a considerable amount of classical attainment was required. Chesterfield, writing in 1731, says: "The Irish schools and universities are indisputably better than ours1."

It is quite evident from Burke's letters to Shackleton that Gibbon's account of the idleness and neglect that existed then at Oxford2 could not have been applicable to Dublin.

Gibbon endorses the statement of Adam Smith3 that "in the University of Oxford the greater part of the public professors have for these many years given up altogether even the pretence of teaching"; and stated that "the Fellows of Magdalen were immersed in Port wine and Tory politics." After attending tutorial lectures for a short time Gibbon thought he would try the experiment of staying away and sending an apology.

The apology was accepted with a smile. I repeated the offence with less ceremony; the excuse was admitted with the same indulgence; the slightest motive of laziness or indisposition, the most trifling avocation at home or abroad, was allowed as a worthy impediment, nor did my tutor appear conscious of my absence or neglect.

The succeeding college tutor to whom he was apportioned "remembered he had a salary to receive and only forgot he had a duty to perform." Gibbon was never once summoned by him to attend even the ceremony of a lecture. Burke, on the other hand, was cautioned for neglect of morning lecture, and from the way in which he writes to Shackleton of his being examined and cross-examined by the Fellows, it is quite clear that a high standard was required not only at Entrance, but at the Term Examinations which were held four times in each year.

Newcomen Herbert, who is mentioned in this letter, had been a pupil at Ballitore. He entered the school in 1735, and had left before Burke joined in 1741. The friendship between Herbert and Richard Shackleton was very close, and they were regular correspondents. Among the letters preserved by Shackleton several from Herbert still exist. Another young literary man, Beaumont Brennan, was also a correspondent of Shackleton's. Burke made their acquaintance after he entered college, and these four formed a sort of mutual improvement "Club," as they termed it, kept together by correspondence.

1 Chesterfield's Miscellaneous Works, IV, p. 237; Lecky's History of Ireland, 11, cp. 11. See also W. MacNeile Dixon, Trinity College, Dublin, p. 111. * Gibbon's Autobiography.

3 Wealth of Nations, bk v, chap. 1, art. 2.

4 See post p. 137.