He was a remorseless inquirer. Nothing would be taken upon trust where minute examination was practicable. Thus, while at college might be found that keenly inquisitive spirit which nearly fifty years afterward induced him to write to Bishop Percy in terms I have mentioned elsewhere—“Give me but time, place, and names, and the genuineness or falsehood of any story may be easily ascertained.”[1]
A mind judicially constituted in essentials, seemed to be cut out by nature for the bench. He was therefore destined for the family profession, to which some time in Dublin was given in initiatory studies. Added to the esteem earned by steady talents, he had won warm affection from several fellow-students, who through life expressed for him the strongest regard. Among these were the very distinguished Fellows of the University, Doctors Michael Kearney and John Kearney (afterwards Bishop of Ossory), Dr. Wilson, Rev. John Chetwood, Henry Flood, John Fitzgibbon (afterwards Earl of Clare), and others, some of whose letters will be found in his correspondence.
The climate of Ireland appearing not to agree with Mrs. Malone, her husband—now Mr. Serjeant Malone, M.P.—and Edmond, accompanied her to England in the summer of 1759. Highgate was selected for a time as her residence. Hence she writes to her husband, taking an occasional glance at the society of London by visits to the family of her relative, Lord Catherlough, an Englishman with an Irish title. Ultimately she removed to Bath,
- ↑ Life of Goldsmith, vol. i. p. 126. 8vo. 1837. In allusion to some of the poet’s stories to his relatives.
