3-034-669 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches of Goldsmith's "Deserted Village," Lishoy or Auburn, near Athlone, 1871. 'The Three Pigeons, The Church, The Vicarage and The Busy Mill...In the heart of Ireland, on the verge of one of its most fertile counties...are a score or two of scattered thatched cabins, nearly half of them in ruin; the gutted walls of an ancient parsonage-house; a roofless mill, with a mere fragment remaining of its huge water-wheel - the rest having been carried away piecemeal as relics; and a little roadside public-house. These have the power of attracting pilgrims from all parts of the world where the English tongue is spoken. It is the village of Lishoy,...better known, however, to tourists and topographers - so powerful is the influence of the fanciful over the real - as Auburn, "Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain" - the Deserted Village of the poet [Oliver Goldsmith]...Some short distance along the road on the left is the little public-house with the sign of the Three Pigeons - the same sign as the ancient alehouse...The mill and the cottage adjacent are both in a state of utter decay; a small stream of water still tumbles over some mossy stones and the remains of the huge wheel, and flows on, a noisy, gurgling brook, through the valley'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.