CHAP, in.] THREE YEARS OF IDLENESS.

Law was the next thing thought of, and the good 1762-
Mr. Contarine came forward with fifty pounds. It seems •ZBt< 2i
a small sum wherewith to travel to Dublin and London, to
defray expenses of entrance at inns of court, and to live
upon till a necessary number of terms are eaten. But with
fifty pounds young Oliver started; on a luckless journey.
A Eoscomnion friend laid hold of him in Dublin, seduced
him to play, and the fifty pounds he would have raised to
a hundred, he reduced to fifty pence. In bitter shame,
after great physical suffering, he wrote to his uncle, con-
fessed, and was forgiven.

On return to Ballymahon, it is probable that his mother
objected to receive him; * since after this date we find him
living wholly with his brother. It was but for a short time,
however; disagreement followed there too ; and we see him
next by Mr. Contarine's fireside, again talking literature to
his good-natured uncle, writing new verses to please him
(alleged copies of which are not sufficiently authentic
to be quoted), and joining his flute to Miss Contarine's
harpsichord.

Mrs. Hodson; and it is only for the reason mentioned in the text that I do not
quote it in detail. I have thought it right, however, to include it in the Appendix
(B) to the present volume.

* Mrs. Hodson's narrative, from which these facts are derived, after remarking
that "his own distress and disgrace may readily he conceived," adds, "to make
"short of the story, he was again forgiven ; " "but Mr. Prior states the tradition of
the neighbourhood to he, that though forgiven by his uncle he was less readily
forgiven by his mother, so that he ceased to live with her, and went to his brother
Henry, until a quarrel, arising from some trifling cause, for a time terminated all
intercourse between the brothers, i. 129.mith's works, is in all respects confirmatory of the narrative as given by