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LISSOY MILL.

(See Frontispiece.)

Lissoy, the abode of Goldsmith's father, is undoubtedly the spot which furnished the chief scenery of the poem of The Deserted Village.' His sisters, Mrs. Hodson and Mrs. Johnston, traced many of their brother's stories, sketches, and characters to his own adventures, or to places and persons, in the neighbourhood. Auburn was at once pronounced by these ladies to be Lissoy, and their father the village preacher; and in this behalf all the residents in the vicinity have concurred. The general character of the adjoining country, particularly In the rear of the house, being a plain, Auburn is appropriately characterized' loveliest village of the plain.' As the scene of enjoyment in early life, and of boyish delights, he with equal truth and affection calls them—

"And again

'Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease,

Seats of my youth when every sport could please,
How often have I loiter'd o'er thy green!'

'How often have I paused on every charm!'

"Personal allusions such as these may be admissible in poetry not strictly meant to be accurately descriptive, yet taken with the context, their application to the feelings and circumstances of the writer is perfectly compatible with the fact.

The never-failing brook, the busy mill,'

are found in a hollow, the road to which lies at the end of the village in a turning to the left as we proceed from his paternal residence; the stream which moves it is small, and the mill of rude construction," &c.-See LIFE, vol. ii. p. 255.

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