PKEFACE,
Stockdale's Memoirs "furnishes scarcely an allusion to
"Goldsmith. His papers, however, supply am anecdote
" communicated by a lady eminent for hex* -writings in
" fiction, his friend, and whom the writer has likewise tho
"honour, &c. &c. &c." And then the anecdote, professing
to be transcribed by Miss Jane Porter from the uaanuscripta
of Mr. Stockdale, turns out to be a literal transcription from
that very Memoirs of the worthy gentleman (ii. 13(5-137),
which had been published nearly thirty years "before Mr.
Prior's book, and in which Mr. Prior had been able to find
"scarcely an allusion" to Goldsmith.
At pp. 254-269 there is a long rigmarole about the
identity of Lissoy and Auburn, and about the alehouse &c
rebuilt by Mr. Hogan,—all professing to be tlae result of
written communication or personal inquiry,—not a syllable
of which may not be found in Mangin's Essay (MO-J 43) .
in Mr. NewelTs elaborate and highly illustrated quarto
edition of the Poetical Works (1811: " witb. remarks
" attempting to ascertain chiefly from local observation the
"actual scene of the Deserted Village " 61-SO), and in
Mr. Hbgan's own account in the Gentleman*& MnffcGsiue
(xc. 618-622),—not one of these authorities "being once
named by Mr. Prior.
At p. 288-289 we have a charming fragment of a letter
to Reynolds transferred without acknowledgment from tho
Percy Memoir (90-91); at p. 300, an agreement with
Davies is silently taken from an earlier page (7 9) ; at p. 3 7 5,
a curious letter of Tom Paine's to Goldsmith is so taken
from a later page (96-98); and at pp. 328-33 O, a capital
letter is in like manner copied, and not even correctly
copied, from the same mal-treated book (92-94).