"SWEET AUBURN."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 147, 24 June 1933, Page 12 (Supplement)

"SWEET AUBURN."

GOLDSMITH'S " LOVELIEST VILLAGE" RESTORATION" PROJECT. "Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain," is to undergo material restoration. British newspapers note that a project for rebuilding at least the rectory is being promoted by Henry L. Gavan. Visiting the Goldsmith country, he was stirred to find that the stone ruins of the birthplace of the author of "The Deserted Village" and the home of "The Vicar of Wakefield" were being used as a byre, .a cattle shelter. Lissoy, in County Westmeath, Ireland, "was assuredly Auburn," according to Stephen Gwyiine. Antiquarians locate the village site about a crossroads a mile or so from the present Three Jolly Pigeons Inn, so called from the one in Sheridan's "She Stoops to Conquer." It is in the delectable country not far from Killarney. In the near-by hamlet of Forgncy there remains in a church a window commemorating the Goldsmiths. In the neighbouring hamlet of Pallasmore young Goldsmith and young Maria Edgeworth (she who was to write novels) attended the same school.

"Here," says Mr. Gavan, "in this rectory, Goldsmith ercated the 'Vicar,' after his father, who 'was passing rich on 40 pounds a year'; here lie spent his early years, formed his earliest impressions, and it was here he hoped in his wanderings ho would pass his last days." To Lissoy, his Sweet Auburn, "his heart was forever turning back." It is a scene of low hills and lush fields. What happened to it? "The Deserted Village' says: Swoet smiling village, loveliest of the lawn, Thy sports are fled, nu<l all tby ebarms ' withdrawn; Amidst thy bowers the tyrant's hand is seen.' And desolation saddens all thy green: One only .master grasps the whole domain, And half a tillage stints the smiling plain. Among aphoristic lines in the account is one with which President Roosevelt gave point to a proposal in a recent message: 111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay.