s elevated by a deep love of the
classics, in which he took university honours, and further heightened by
an admirable knowledge of our own great authors, was not to be tempted
away by oratory from literature, his first and, as it proved, his last
love.

Very soon after leaving college, and just when he was called to the
Bar, about the year 1838, he bought the 'Warder,' a Dublin newspaper,
of which he was editor, and took what many of his best friends and
admirers, looking to his high prospects as a barrister, regarded at the
time as a fatal step in his career to fame.

Just before this period, Le Fanu had taken to writing humorous Irish
stories, afterwards published in the 'Dublin University Magazine,' such
as the 'Quare Gander,' 'Jim Sulivan's Adventure,' 'The Ghost and the
Bone-setter,' etc.

These stories his brother William Le Fanu was in the habit of repeating
for his friends' amusement, and about the year 1837, when he was about
twenty-three years of age, Joseph Le Fanu said to him that he thought an
Irish story in verse would tell well, and that if he would choose him
a subject suitable for recitation, he would write him one. 'Write me an
Irish "Young Lochinvar,"' said his brother; and in a few days he handed
him 'Phaudrig Croohore'--Anglice, 'Patrick Crohore.'

Of course this poem has the disadvantage not only of being written after
'Young Lochinvar,' but also that of having been directly inspired by
it; and yet, although wanting in the rare and graceful finish of the
original, the Irish copy has, we feel, so much fire and feeling that it
at least tempts us to regret that Scott's poem was not written in that
heart-stirring Northern dialect without which the noblest of our British
ballads would lose half their spirit. Indeed, we may safely say that
some of Le Fanu's lines are finer than any in 'Young Lochinvar,' simply
because they seem to speak straight from a people's heart, not to be the
mere echoes of medieval romance.

'Phaudrig Croohore' did not appear in print in the 'Dublin University
Magazine' till 1844, twelve years after its composition, when it was
included amongst the Purcell Papers.

To return to the year 1837. Mr. William Le Fanu, the suggester of this
ballad, who was from home at the time, now received daily instalments
of the second and more remarkable of his brother's Irish poems--'Shamus
O'Brien' (James O'Brien)--learning them by heart as they reached him,
and, fortunately, never forget