Page:Life of John Boyle O'Reilly.djvu/36

4 intervening ground being a rich, flat plain, known as the Boyne Meadow. The river here is not over one hundred feet wide, moderately rapid, and shallow. On the further side the land rises sheer from the water, and is covered with dark young fir trees. It was a favorite swimming ground for the boys of the neighborhood, among whom none was more daring or skillful than the handsome, rosy-cheeked, curly-haired, and dark-eyed boy, whose home was in Dowth Castle.

William David O'Reilly, the father, was a fine scholar, and an able educator. The boy was fortunate in having parents who were both remarkable for literary culture and talent. His mother, Eliza Boyle, was a near relative of the famous Colonel John Allen, who distinguished himself in the Rebellion of '98, and subsequently in the French Legion, winning renown at the head of his regiment in the battle of Astorga and in Napoleon's many later campaigns.

Mrs. 0'Reilly was a woman of rare intellectual gifts, combined with a generous, hospitable, kindly heart, which made her beloved by the beneficiaries of the Institution. The elder O'Reilly and his wife came to Dowth Castle from Dublin; they had five daughters and three sons, all of whom displayed, in a lesser degree, the poetic qualities which attained full growth in the case of John Boyle O'Reilly.

John was the second son of the family. He inherited a good constitution, and from childhood was passionately devoted to out-door sports. He swam the Boyne, and roamed among the ruins and old underground passages of thd neighborhood, unconsciously absorbing the poetry and romance whose atmosphere Was all around. He was a brave, good-humored lad, not easily made angry, and quicker to resent an injury done a small playfellow than one offered himself. An unpublished sketch from his pen has this autobiographical bit: "When I was about nine years of age, some friend had gratified a craving which I had then (and have not lost yet) to own a dog, by presenting me with a brown, broad-backed, thick- legged, round-bodied, spaniel puppy, about a month old. Its possession