ae 
Tom Moore. 24.5 
footing in the better walks of Society. He was educated at a 
grammar school in Dublin, and at an early age manifested a won- 
derful talent for rhyming, recitation, and acting—some of his 
verses appearing in print in 1798. In 1795 he entered the University 
at Trinity College, Dublin, in preparation for the bar, to which 
Romanists were admissible by the Catholic Enfranchisement Act of 
1792, Young Moore took his degree in ’98, or ’99, and left the 
University. 
His personal appearance is described by Sir Walter Scott as “a 
little—very littlk—man, yet without insignificance : his countenance 
plain, but the expression very animated, especially in speaking or 
singing; so that it is far more interesting than the finest features 
-could have rendered it.” Another witness, Gerald Griffin, in the 
Irish Quarterly Review, describes him as “a little man, but full of 
spirits—with eyes, hands, feet, and frame for ever in motion—looking 
_as if it would be a feat for him to sit for three minutes quiet in his 
chair. A neat made little fellow, tidily buttoned up, and young as 
fifteen at heart; his hair curling all over his head in long tendrils, 
unlike anybody else in the world, which probably suggested his 
soubriquet of “ Bacchus.” 
In his Memoir Tom Moore has left an amusing record of his first 
and only duel; himself the challenger, in defence of his writings; 
his opponent being Mr. Jeffrey (afterwards Lord Francis Jeffrey), 
an Edinburgh reviewer, who accused Moore of a deliberate in- 
tention to corrupt the minds of the readers of his “ Odes and 
Epistles.” By the intervention of what he calls “ those officious 
and official gentlemen, the Bow Street runners,” nothing came of 
it save the life-long friendship of the would-be combatants. 
At this time the presence of the rising prose writer and poet was 
eagerly sought in the highest ranks of Society, from Royalty down- 
wards. Of his London life he says :—“I do nothing but dine .. . 
and the way in which I am pulled about in all directions by callers, 
diners, authors, and printer’s devils is quite too much for one little 
gentleman to stand.” Of his country life at the seat of Lord Moira 
(the first Marquis of Hastings) he writes to Lady Donegal :—“ As 
to my gaiety and dissipation, I am, to be sure, very dissipated ! for 
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