CHAPTER VI.

......-.*«-

PBOKHAM SCHOOL AND 0-B-UB

1760—1757,

1766. IT was on the 1st of February, 1750, that Oliver Goldsmith
jfBtTas, stopped upon the shore at Dover, and stood, ngain among his
countrymen*

Stern, o'er each bosom reason holds hwr state,
With, daring aims irregularly great.
Pride in their port, defiance in thair ey«s
I see the lords of human kind jiaaa "hyt
Intent on high designs...

The comfort of Boeing it muBt have bean about all the
comfort to him. At this moment, there is little doubt, ho
had not a single farthing in his pocket; arid from the lords
of human kind, intent on looking in any ilireetkrti but tii«» it
was much more difficult to get one than from the cureless good-
humoured peasants of France or Flanders. In the struggle
of ten clays or a fortnight which it took Mm to get to London,
there is reaion to suspect that he attempted a** low comedy"
performance In a country barn; and, at one of the towns
he passed, had implored to be hired in an apothecary's
shop,* In the middle of February he was wandering without

* In one of tho newspaper jnotices which appeared after Ids death, the writer
abated that ho litul once Mb up as an apothecary In a. eotintry town, Thte WAN
immediately denied, on the assumption that Ireland, was Ttfttrtd to; wht»Bf»on."* Of