Familiar Songs - Their Authors & Histories

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	ROYS WIFE OF ALDIVALLOCIL	423


	LOVELY MARY DONNELLY. William Allingham, who wrote the words of this song, was born in Ballyshannon, Ireland, in 1828. His father was a banker in that town, and the son received a good education and became a poet of acknowledged ability. In his "English Note-Books," under date of February 23, 1854, Hawthorne says: ^u There came to see me the other day, a young gentleman, with a mustache and a blue cloak, who announced himself as William Allingham, and handed me a copy of his poems, a thin volume, with paper covers, published by Routledge. I thought I remembered hearing his name, but had never seen any of his works. His face was intelligent, dark, pleasing, and not at all John-Bullish. He said that he had been employed in the Customs in Ireland, and was now going to London to live by literature,— to be connected with some newspaper, I imagine. He had been in London before, and was acquainted with some of the principal literary people,—among others, Tennyson and Carlyle. He seemed to have been on rather intimate terms with Tennyson. ... We talked awhile in my dingy and dusky Consulate, and he then took leave. His manners are good, and he appears to possess independence of mind." Allingham has done much and varied literary work, including several volumes of poems, and since 1874 has been the editor of Frazer's Magazine. The music of this song was written by Theodore T. Barker.