20 CORMAC. the 2nd of September, 1784, and deposited in the chapel at Plymouth on the 7th, whence it proceeded to West Park, the family seat, in Hampshire, and from thence was removed, on the 14th, for interment, to the parish church of Rochwood. Sir Eyre married in 1769, a daughter of Charles Hutch inson, Esq. governor of St. Helena, but left no issue. His property, amounting to about 200,000l., was inhe rited by his brother, Dr. Charles Coote, dean of Kilfenora. COMMON CORMAC, On blind Cormac, is supposed to be the last of the order of the minstrels, called Tale-Tellers, of whom Sir Wil liam Temple speaks so fully in his Essay on Poetry. He was born in May 1703, at Woodstock, near Ballindun gan, in the County of Mayo, of parents poor and honest, remarkable only for the innocence and simplicity of their lives. Before he had completed his first year, the small pox deprived him of sight; this circumstance, combined with the indigence of his parents, precluded him from receiving any of the advantages of education. But though he could not read himself, he had the happiness of con versing with those who had read; and although he re mained without learning, he yet obtained knowledge. Discovering an early fondness for music, a neighbouring gentleman procured a professor of the harp, to instruct him on that instrument, and Cormac received a few les sons which he practised con amore; but his patron dying suddenly, the harp dropped from his hand—it was un strung, and stern poverty prevented i t s repair. But cheered b y poetry, the muse o f whom h e was most ena moured, h e listened eagerly t o the Irish songs and me trical tales h e heard sung and recited round the “crackling faggots that illumined the hearths” o f his father and his neighbours. His mind being thus stored, and having n o other avocation, h e commenced a Man o f Talk, o r Tale Teller. He was now employed i n relating legendary tales,
