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:
“For men tied fast to the absolute, bled of their differences, drained of their dreams by authoritarian leeches until nothing but pulp is left, become a massive, sick Thing whose sheer weight is used ruthlessly by ambitious men. Here is the real enemy of the people: our own selves dehumanized into “the masses.” And where is the David who can slay this giant?”
—Lillian Smith (1897–1966)
“The fact that Romans once inhabited her reflects no little dignity on Nature herself; that from some particular hill the Roman once looked out on the sea.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)