Beyond Ben Bulben
				John B. Yeats 1839 - 1922
		In a letter to Oliver Elton written in New York on September 25, 1916  J. B. wrote:   A young lady (I only met her once) told several of us at a dinner that she and her husband and her friend and her husband lived in the woods naked - I asked, absolutely naked? And she answered, absolutely naked, and when I asked why she said it was so convenient for bathing in the lake! J B Yeats - Letters to his son W B Yeats and Others 1869 - 1922, p 230. Published by Martin Secker & Warburg Limited, England.
	Whenever New York comes up in the conversation of a Yeatsian it is inevitable that the name of John Butler Yeats will also arise. There are a number of books that give a great insight to this rare intellectual and all are first-class reading materia. It gives one further insights to the Yeats family. They are also a must for anyone with an interest in the work of W. B. Yeats and his brother Jack B. Yeats  These books include the above mentioned Letters to his son ...; THE YEATS SISTERS by Joan Hardwicke; FAMILY SECRETS,  W B Yeats and His Relatives; THE PRODIGAL FATHER; The Life of John Butler Yeats  1839 - 1922, both by William M. Murphy and a small autobiography by the man himself titled  EARLY MEMORIES; SOME CHAPTERS OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY, published by The Cuala Press (Available in a photo-litograph from Irish University Press).    Joan Hardwicke misses the whole point of the life of John B Yeats in her attempts to rehabilitate him into a staid Irish lawyer who could have made lots of money, had his two daughters marry into wealthy families and produce many grandchildren for John and his wife Susan. I recall my own childhood experiences of the many wonderful eccentrics of the ascendancy who lived in the west of Ireland and who reminiscent of their class throughout Ireland were a fountain of knowledge. Hardwicke overlooks point of the great characteristic of a decent Irishman, such as John Butler Yeats. Indeed I have met many like him in Irleand; great talkers, philosophers the best politicans that never sat in any parliament, and who did more good for the education of any youngster by their very existence than any Alma Mater.  One could compare the great education  that "Willy & Lily & Lolly & Jack" received from their father, mother and artistic friends to the Hedge Schools of Ireland many centuries back.   In the time of John B Yeats youth, life was vastly different from today. Equality of the sexes, and the manner in which chidren were reared in the homes of the merchant and land owning classes could not be truly parallelled with modern living. When John Butler Yeats first visited Rosses Point in County Sligo in the summer of 1862, it was to visit his old school friend George Pollexfen. He travelled by train from Dublin to Enniskillen in County Fermanagh thence to Sligo town by a horse-drawn mail coach. The five miles to Rosses Point where the Pollexfen's were staying at their summer house, was either by foot or horse drawn transport. It was here he met and fell in love with Susan the sister of George. Both here in Rosses Point and at another seaside resort 20 miles north Bundoran in County Donegal the pair courted and their love blossomed. Susan Mary was born in 1841, the eldest daughter and third child of the Pollexfen family, a respected mill owning and shipping family. Susan would have lived the genteel life of a young lady in a house with servants to do all of the household tasks. The ladies usually spent their days doing embrodiery, reading etc, etc.