Page:A Compendium of Irish Biography.djvu/243

 though monstrously fat." Twenty years afterwards Boaden speaks of her as the "ablest actress in existence." Her Shaksperean readings ranked very high. Mrs. Glover died i6th July 1850, aged 69.

Gobban Saer, "Gobban the Builder," or St. Gobban, a distinguished builder of ecclesiastical edifices, was probably born at Turvey, on the coast north of Dublin, early in the 7th century. Tradition ascribes to him the erection of the round towers of KILmacduagh, Antrim, and many others. Dr. Petrie writes: "Nor can I think the popular tradition of the country is of little value, which ascribes the erection of several of the existing towers to the celebrated architect Gobban, . . for it is remarkable that such a tradition never exists in connexion with any towers but those in which the architecture is in perfect harmony with the churches of that period, as in the towers of Kilmacduagh, Killala, and Antrim. . . It is equally remarkable that though the reputation of this architect is preserved in all parts of the island in which the Irish language is spoken, yet the erection of the oldest buildings in certain districts in the south and west of Ireland is never ascribed to him, the tradition of these districts being that he never visited, or was employed on buildings south-west of Galway, or south-west of Tipperary." Some of the annalists inform us that blindness was inflicted on him in old age as a just punishment for the exorbitant charges he had made ecclesiastics for his services. Dr. Reeves has shown "Gobbin's Heir Castle," near Ballycastle, to be a corruption of "Gobban Saer's Church;" and Kilgobbin, in the County of Dublin, may have received its name from him. No fewer than eight St. Gobbans appear in the Martyrology of Donegal; under 17th March, 26th March, 30th March, 1st April, 30th May, i6th July, 5th November, 6th December.

Goldsmith, Oliver, was born at Pallasmore, in the County of Longford, 10th November 1728. He was the son of the Rev. Charles Goldsmith, a clergyman with a large family and a poor living. Shortly after Oliver's birth, his father was appointed to another parish, Kilkenny West, with an income of about ₤200 a year, and the family moved to a good house and farm at Lissoy, midway between Ballymahon and Athlone. A dependent, Elizabeth Delap, taught Oliver his letters. "Never was so dull a boy; he seemed impenetrably stupid" — was her account of his early abilities. At the age of six an attack of confluent smallpox left indelible traces, and extinguished any pretensions to good looks. At the diocesan school of Elphin he was confessed by all to be kind and affectionate, cheerful, and agreeable, nevertheless "a stupid, heavy blockhead, little better than a fool, whom every one made fun of." He was singularly sensitive, and suffered acutely from the roughness of his fellows. His school-days were spent at several successive places of instruction — the expense being defrayed by his kind uncle Contarine, a clergyman at Kilmore, near Carrick-on-Shannon, who in youth had been the college companion of the future Bishop Berkeley. A trade was then thought of for the boy; but some early flashes of wit and his evident love for Livy and Tacitus led to his being sent to College. On 11th June 1745, his name appears on the books of Trinity College as a sizar. Burke and Flood were his contemporaries; but he knew nothing of them. His four years' course was a period of never-to-be- forgotten misery. His tutor was unsympathetic; and like many men distinguished in after life, the strict course of college study did not suit his genius; it was with difficulty that he could find the means of support. His father died eighteen months after his entrance, and he thenceforward depended solely on occasional allowances from his uncle. He lounged about the College gates, wrote ballads for five shillings each, and crept out at night to hear them sung. On one occasion, elated by having obtained a small exhibition of thirty shillings, he gave a supper in his rooms; but the party was roughly broken up by his tutor, and Goldsmith ran away to Cork with the intention of going to America; but being unable for want of means to procure a passage, he was induced to return. Something of a reconciliation was effected; and he managed to finish a course to which he uniformly looked back with horror in after life. On 27th February 1749-'50, he took his degree of B.A., and returned home. The family desired he should qualify for orders, although he was only twenty-one, and would have to wait two years. He assented, and the time was passed at Ballymahon, near Edgeworthstown. Mr. Forster says: "It is the sunny time between two dismal periods of his life. . . He assists his brother Henry in the school; runs household errands for his mother; writes scraps of verses to please his uncle Contarine; and, to please himself, gets cousin Bryanton, and the Tony Lumpkins of the district, with wandering bear-leaders of genteeler sort, to meet at an old inn by his mother's house, and be a club for story-telling, for an occasional game of whist, and for the 219