Tom Moore. 



245 



footing in the better walks oT Societ}^. 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 1 793. In 1 795 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 little — 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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