1824.J Minor Poets 



nicatious from otiier friends of tho sister 

 island, wlio, from local knowledge, can 

 best supply the necessary information.] 



Mrs. Mary Leadbeater. 



THE tuneful race is perhaps more 

 numerous in all countries than is 

 generally known to the world at large ; 

 many, and these somelinies of no mean 

 talents, confining their productions to 

 their native city, to their friends, and, as 

 is now and then the case, even to them- 

 selves, without seeking for more ex- 

 tended fame. Ireland, also, has her 

 proportion of native bards ; some cele- 

 brated for their powers of song through- 

 out the kingdom and througli Europe, 

 and others wiiose names have scarcely 

 crossed the water, or crossed only to be 

 forgotten, from not keeping up public 

 curiosity by furnishing further specimens 

 of their ])owers. Such a country as 

 Ireland is, ought, in fact, to supply us 

 with poetry, as well as the materials 

 for poetry. It is yet comparatively a 

 rude country, and an agricultural coun- 

 try ; it is the land of fairies, of banshees, 

 of apparitions, of superstitions without 

 number ; every iiill, and valley, and 

 river, is the scene of some feat of an 

 ancient hero, a ciiief, or a giant, wiiose 

 reputation, or whose ghost, keeps the 

 neighbourhood — the older often, as well 

 as the youthful part of it, — in awe. The 

 people also possess, almost universally, 

 some of the first requisites for poetry, — 

 strong imaginations, sensitive minds, 

 ardent affeclions, an attachment to old 

 stories and to old limes ; they combine 

 what would seem almost incompatible 

 qualities, a peculiar wit and humour 

 with great pathos; their funeral laments 

 being in fact a kind of Ossianic poetry, 

 often expressive of heartfelt grief and 

 powerful feelings, conceived simply, 

 yet sometimes almost with sublimity. 

 That there is much poetry also of the 

 more modern cast in Ireland, worthy of 

 the name, and of being more generally 

 known, there is no doubt. The writer 

 of this, in a journey lately IVom London 

 to Holyhead, in company with an intel- 

 ligent young Hibernian, had the plea- 

 sure of hearing repeated many pieces of 

 uncommon merit, both of the comic 

 and serious kind, utterly unknown to 

 English readers: the description of a 

 parish priest (Homan Catholic) meet- 

 ing liisflock, was inimitable for humour. 

 Mrs. Leadbeater has long cultivated 

 this beautiful talent with success, some 

 pieces being written so far back as 

 177G, but the greater part of much more 

 recent dale; and, being of the Society 



oj Ireland. 505 



of Friends, lakes priority of Mr. Ber- 

 nard Barton, who was considered the 

 first of his sect among the tuneful tribe. 

 She is the daughter of Mr. Sliackleton, 

 the intimate friend, school-fellow, and 

 companion, of Edmund Eurke. She 

 corresponded occasionally with him 

 herself, visited him at Beaconsfield in 

 1784, and wrote a pretty little poem de- 

 scriptive of his seat at that place soon 

 afterwards, which received much com- 

 mendation from him, as having nothing 

 in it of common-place, so often the sin 

 of descriptive poems ; and she expresses 

 her admiration of that celebrated and 

 extraordinary man at a time (1784) 

 when prejudice ran high against him and 

 his party : — 



Much iiispir'd man ! what tho' a servile 



train, 

 Whose wav'ring souls deserve and hug the 



chain, 

 Inspir'd by malice, and by folly led, 

 With wrongs and insults heap thy lio- 



nour'd head,— 

 Thy steady virtue, with nndianging ray, 

 Shall break the cloud, and chase the gloom 



away ; 

 Then shall thy foes, with conscious 



blushes, see 

 Their country's friend, — their monarch's 



friend, — in thee. 

 Camillus thus, by guilty Rome distrest. 

 Still felt the patriot-passion tire his breast ; 

 With gen'rous arm iier liberty restor'd, 

 And broke th' insulting Gaul's oppressive 



sword. 



Various pieces by this lady are scat- 

 tered in several |)ublications of miscel- 

 laneous character, and in some of her 

 own prose works; one of them may be 

 found in the Memoirs and Fragments 

 of that extraordinary young woman, 

 the late Miss Elizabeth Smith, with 

 whom she formed an intimacy in 1799, 

 when her father Capt. Smith happened 

 to be quartered at Ballitore, about thirty 

 miles tiom Dublin. 



In 1808 Mrs. Leadbeater collected 

 and published a volume of poems by 

 subscription. The longest p. one in it 

 is a translation of that poem of Malfasus, 

 which he had the hardihood to write as 

 a supplement to the yEneid, and to 

 term it the "Thirteenth Book" of that 

 great poem, but with few claims to the 

 taste or genius of Virgil. The transla- 

 tion is sj)irited, and posscsst?s consider- 

 able elegance. Many original pieces 

 of merit adorn this volume, among 

 which arc several addressed to Mr. 

 Burke; the "Farewell to (he North ;" 

 "Returning from Uiiblin;" " the Mo- 

 ther," a pathetic piece from huuible 



I lie; 



