Wolfe, Charles, Rev., author of "The Burial of Sir John Moore," was born in Dublin, 14th December 1791. He was educated at Winchester, and at the University of Dublin, took orders in 1817, and, after a few weeks' labour at Ballyclog, County of Tyrone, became curate of the parish of Donaghmore, where he distinguished himself by the zealous discharge of his functions. He was of a singularly spiritual and feeling nature, and wrote "If I had thought thou couldst have died," "My own friend, my own friend," and a few more beautiful ballads. Mr. Moir says: "In the lottery of literature, Charles Wolfe has been one of the few who have drawn the prize of probable immortality from a casual gleam of inspiration thrown over a single poem consisting of only a few stanzas. This poem was "The Burial of Sir John Moore," his last piece, penned in 1814 in his twenty-third year. His friend the Rev. Samuel O'Sullivan [see page 426] told how one day in college he read to Wolfe a passage from the Edinburgh Annual Register for 1808, which ran as follows: "Sir John Moore had often said that if he was killed in battle, he wished to be buried where he fell. The body was removed at midnight to the citadel of Corunna. A grave was dug for him on the rampart there by a party of the 9th regiment, the aides-decamps attending by turns. No coffin could be procured, and the officers of his staff wrapped the body, dressed as it was, in a military cloak and blankets. The interment was hastened; for about eight in the morning some firing was heard, and the officers feared that if a serious attack were made, they should be ordered away, and not suffered to pay him their last duty." Wolfe was careless of literary fame, and the poem, which by chance appeared in print, was attributed, among others, to Moore, Campbell, Wilson, Byron, and Barry Cornwall, and was claimed by more than one obscure writer. It was only after Wolfe's death that the chance discovery of a letter (now preserved in the Royal Irish Academy), in which the whole is given in his handwriting, put the matter beyond doubt. Unremitting attention to his clerical duties and carelessness of himself hastened a tendency to consumption: "He seldom thought of providing a regular meal. … A few straggling rush-bottomed chairs, piled up with his books, a small ricketty table before the fire-place, covered with parish memoranda, and two trunks containing all his papers—serving at the same time to cover the broken parts of the floor—constituted all the furniture of his sitting-room. The mouldy walls of the closet in which he slept were hanging with loose folds of damp paper." He was discovered by his friends in this miserable lodging, was tenderly cared by his sisters, visited England and France in the vain search of health, and died at Cove, now Queenstown, County of Cork, 21st February 1823, aged 31. His Remains, containing a memoir, with some sermons, letters, and his poems, were published by a friend in 1827. 16 190† 348
Wolfe, David, Rev., was an ecclesiastic, born in Limerick, who, during the early years of Elizabeth's reign, laboured hard to keep together the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland. He spent some years in Rome, where he entered the order of St. Ignatius. In August 1560 he was sent by the Pope, with the privileges of an Apostolic Legate, to superintend affairs in Ireland, to see to the establishment of schools and the regulation of public worship, and to keep up communication with the Catholic princes—duties which he endeavoured to perform often at the peril of his own life. About 1566 he was arrested, and endured a rigorous imprisonment in Dublin Castle, the influence of the Nuncio in Madrid being in vain exercised on his behalf. In 1572 he made his escape to Spain, but before long returned to the scene of his old labours. We are told that "when the whole country was embroiled in war, he took refuge in the castle of Chunoan, on the borders of Thomond and the County of Galway; and when he heard that its occupants lived by plunder, he scrupled any nourishment from them, and soon after sickened and died." His death is supposed to have taken place about the year 1578. 74
Wood, Robert, known as "Palmyra Wood," a distinguished archaeologist, was born at Riverstown, County of Meath, in 1716. Having passed through Oxford, he continued to apply himself with ardour to the study of the classics, and in particular to Greek literature. He visited Italy more than once, in 1742 voyaged in the Greek Archipelago, and in 1750, with his friends Bouverie and Dawkins, undertook an archaeological expedition across Asia Minor and Syria, which the Italian architect Borra accompanied as draughtsman. Before reaching Palmyra, Bouverie died of fatigue, but Wood and his two remaining companions continued their researches with success. Shortly after his return he gave to the world the results of his travels, Ruins of Palmyra, illustrated with 57 plates, 1753; and the Ruins of Baalbec, with 46 plates, in 1757; his Ancient and Present
