DR. JOHN WILSON McCLOY.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 37, 16 February 1884, Page 7

DR. JOHN WILSON McCLOY.

i A memorial volume, entitled " Selections * from the Writings of the late John Wilson \ McCloy, M.D., M.S., of Larne," has re • cently been issued at Belfast for circula* , tion among the many friends of the de« ceased. Dr. McCloy was born in February, ; 1843, and was little more than twenty*five at the period of his death, in March 20th : 1368. The "Larne Reporter," in a brief obituary notice, states that this young man studied at Queen's College, Belfast, where he was a matriculated student in medicine for four years ; and by his diligence, perseverance, and high literary attainments, he succeeded in gaining the medical scholarship of the third year, the senior medical certificate of the fourth year, and a number of first-class prizes. He graduated in the Queen's University in Ireland with honours, obtained First Honour from Queen's College, Belfast, and the second from the University. We learn, further, that Dr. McCloy was appointed to numerous offices in the Cunard service and in Liverpool; and, finally in 1867, to the Great Eastern steamship as chief surgeon. He was also a Mason and an author, his writings consisting of poems, light sketches, and papers on medical science, the chief of the latter being a pamphlet on "The Treatment of Cholera and Epidemic Diarrhea," read at a meeting of the Medical Society in London. Several of the memorial poems from his pen are above average merit, especially " Abraham's Vision " (Lincoln), "Love's Stratagems," and "|The Saint's Ferry," a lay of St. Patrick. These effusions display much humour and fancy, as for example : — " Good reader, you've heard of St. Patrick, I'm sure, For his name is still fresh, and will ever endure. While the clear Shannon flows, Or the green shamrock grows. In an Irishman's heart wherever he goes. A most pious man with an inkling of mirth, too, A strange chequered life, and a still 3tranger birth, too, ° The latter was wondrous, strange meteors were 1 fallin', And I know for a truth that the saint had a caul on. 'Mid a glorious rumpus the priest called him Pat, Some say it was this day and some it was that ihat the infant was born, but we don't want to know If the child was too fast, or his mother's clock slow ; We have settled it now, and each son of the soil Wets his whistle on 'Pat's day, ' and drowns his trefoil." The '| Devil's Churn and the Devil's Piper " is a poem of a similar character, based upon fairy love, and which relates to the legend of tho Devil's Churn, a cave on the sea-shore about two miles from Lame. The story goes that a drunken piper went in to explore the place, but never returned. According to the pleasant superstition, his pipes may be heard playing at midnight underneath the hearthstone of a house at Ballycraigy, where this marvellous cave is supposed to terminate. Among the briefer effusions of Dr. McCloy we would notice "Leaving Home," " Friendship," " Murmurs," and several others of the pathetic order. "The Story of our Lives from Year to Year, " quoted from Shakespeare, is a pleasing little poem full of feeling, and possibly suggested by the seven ages of man. An extract will suffice to show its character : — A child was playing on the lawn— A merry little child, And his silvery laugh rang through the air So joyous and so wild. He tried to catch the sunbeam, He gathered fragrant flowers, He twined them in his golden curls ; Thus passed his youthful hours. I gazed upon the happy boy. So free from care or strife ; I turned away, and sighing, said, "f is but the dawn of life. Mr Moat, of this city, while on his recent tour through England and Ireland, paid a visit to Dr. McCloy's family. Mrs Leers, of Auckland, is a sister of the deceased poet of Lame.