his schoolmaster, Abraham Shackleton, and as for his love for Dick Shackleton, his schoolmaster's son, it partook of the same nature as the love of David for Jonathan. After he entered Trinity College, Burke wrote to his "dear Dicky" continually, criticized his poetry, and fondly recalled incidents of his school-life at Ballitore.
Mary Shackleton was the daughter of Richard Shackleton, Burke's friend, and was born at Ballitore in 1758. Her daily life in this quiet community of Quakers has been admirably described by herself.
All were equal here, and the shady courts, the spotlessly clean kitchens, and the clipped yew trees, resembled a scene in Pennsylvania rather than in Kildare. Joseph Willis, in his gold-laced hat and waistcoat, used to go round pulling up the latches of his friends' doors, to inquire what they had for dinner, "even going so far as to poke his stick into the pot on the fire, for the inhabitants of Ballitore mostly sat in their kitchens in the forenoons." And then there was the excitement of the school continually going on, the busy hum of voices sounded in little Mary's ears, and she took in everything with her grave observant eyes.
"As I could read when four years old," says our little Quakeress, "I was able to peruse 'Stephen Crisp's Short History of a Long Travel
