father, as friend"; and on the same occasion, Mr. O'Hagan,
Q.C., thus expressed himself:--"He was faithful to all the sacred
obligations and all the dear charities of domestic life,--he was the
idol of a household."

Perhaps a better, though a far briefer, summary of the character of
Thomas Moore than any of these may be given in the words of Dr. Parr,
who bequeathed to him a ring:--

"To one who stands high in my estimation for original genius, for his
exquisite sensibility, for his independent spirit, and incorruptible
integrity."

FOOTNOTES:

[F] Mrs. Moore--writing to me in May, 1864--tells me I have a wrong
impression as to Moore's father; that he was "handsome, full of fun, and
with good manners." Moore himself calls him "one of Nature's gentlemen."

[G] Mrs. Moore write me, that I am here also wrong in my impression.
"She was only a little grown out in one shoulder, but with good health;
her expression was feeling, not suffering." "Dear Ellen," she adds, "was
the delight of every one that knew her,--sang sweetly,--her voice very
like her brother's. She died suddenly, to the grief of my loving heart."

[H] She was born in Wexford, where her father kept a "general shop."
Moore used to say playfully, that he was called, in order to dignify his
occupation, "a provision merchant." When on his way to Bannow in 1835 to
spend a few days with his friend Thomas Boyse,--a genuine gentleman of
the good old school,--he records his visit to the house of his maternal
grandfather. "Nothing," he says, "could be more humble and mean than the
little low house that remains to tell of his whereabouts."

I visited this house in the summer of 1864. It is still a small "general
shop," situate in the old corn-market of Wexford. The rooms are more
than usually quaint. Here Mrs. Moore lived until within a few weeks of
the birth of her illustrious son. We are gratified to record, that, at
our suggestion, a tablet has been placed over the entrance-door, stating
in few words the fact that there the mother was born and lived, and that
to this house the poet came, on the 26th of August, 1835, when in the
zenith of his fame, to render homage to her memory. He thus writes of
her and her birthplace in his "Notes" of that year:--"One of the
noblest-minded, as well as most warm-hearted, of all God's creatures was
born under that lowly roof."

[I] I find in Earl Russell's memoir the date given as the 26th of
February; but Mrs. Moore altered