< the house, which I knew to have three

trunks, is now reduced to one; the other two having been cut, from time to time, by persons carrying pieces of

it away to be made into toys, &c. in 'honour of the bard, and of the cele

brity of his poem. All these contri

'bute to the same proof; and the "de

cent church," which I attended for up

wards of eighteen years, and which "tops the neighbouring hill," is exactly described as seen from Lissoy, the re- sidence of the preacher.

'I should have observed that Eliza

beth Delap, who was a parishioner of

⚫ mine, and died at the age of about

ninety, often told me she was the first 'who put a book into Goldsmith's hand; by which she meant that she taught him his letters: she was allied to him, and kept a little school.

His education, however, was at the diocesan school of Elphin, as ap pears by a letter I received by post; while writing the above, from a very respectable gentleman. I send you au extract, by which you

will see my

ori.

ginal conjecture of the poet's birth-place

fully confirmed, and the author of his

epitaph in Westminster abbey confuted.

• "Dear Sir,

"Smith-Hill, Dec. 24, 1807.

"The reverend Oliver Jones was

curate of Elphin, and also had the

diocesan school of that town: he lived

' where I now live, a little more than half a mile from the church. He had four daughters, and no son. My grandfather, George Hicks, was married to one of these daughters, and consequently knew every circumstance relating to that family; and has often

told me that the reverend Mr. Gold

G smith, who was married to another of • Mr. Jones's daughters, had a curacy

L

somewhere near Athlone, and that Mrs. Goldsmith spent much of her

time with her mother, Mrs. Jones,

then a widow, and living at Smith"Hill; that Oliver Goldsmith was born

here, in his grandfather's house; that

he was nursed and reared here, and got the early part of his education at < the school of Elphin.

6

"My mother, the only child of the above George Hicks and Miss Jones, was contemporary with Oliver Goldsmith, and brought up in her grandfather's house. She also has often told me the foregoing circumstances; and

has shown me the very spot where the bed stood in which Goldsmith was born. From what I have always heard and understood, I never had a doubt on my mind that Goldsmith was born

⚫ here.

"I am, &c. &c.

"ROBERT JONES LLOYD."

'Goldsmith had three brothers;

Charles, who went to America in early

life; Maurice, who was a cabinet

"maker, and lived and died in Dublin,

about six or seven years ago; and the ⚫ above-named Henry.

'He had two sisters, Catherine and