Smith Hill or Smithhill is an early nineteenth-century house situated about 1.5 km east of Elphin, County Roscommon, in Ardnagowan. It is believed that the poet, playwright and novelist Oliver Goldsmith may have been born in an earlier house on the site while his mother, Ann Goldsmith (née Jones), was visiting her parents, the Rev. Oliver Jones and wife.
It was later the seat of the Rev. John Lloyd, a kinsman of Oliver Goldsmith. Lloyd was famously murdered by his tenant Owen Beirne.
Ballyoughter where Oliver Goldsmith's father was born and where Oliver Goldsmith himself spent part of his childhood is also in the parish of Elphin.
Famous quotes containing the words smith and/or hill:
“If we shake hands with icy fingers, it is because we’ve burnt them so hatefully before.”
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946)
“Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of the Law. The people assembled; Mahomet called the hill to come to him again and again; and when the hill stood still, he was never a whit abashed, but said, If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill.”
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626)