7 See Letter 1, note 12.

8 See Letter 8, note 14.

9 The Examiner was resumed on Dec. 6, 1711, under Oldisworth's editorship, and was continued by him until July 1714.

10 Daniel Finch, second Earl of Nottingham, a staunch Tory, had quarrelled with the Government and the Court. On Dec. 7, 1711, he carried, by six votes, an amendment to the Address, to the effect that no peace would be acceptable which left Spain in the possession of the House of Bourbon. Harley's counter-stroke was the creation of twelve new peers. The Whigs rewarded Nottingham by withdrawing their opposition to the Occasional Conformity Bill:

11 This "Song" begins:

"An orator dismal of Nottinghamshire, Who had forty years let out his conscience for hire."

12 The Conduct of the Allies.

13 Robert Bertie, Lord Willoughby de Eresby, and fourth Earl of Lindsey, was created Marquis of Lindsay in 1706, and Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven in 1715. He died in 1723.

14 Lady Sunderland (see Letter 27, note 21) and Lady Rialton, ladies of the bed-chamber to the Queen.

15 Hugh Cholmondeley (died 1724), the second Viscount, was created Viscount Malpas and Earl of Cholmondeley in 1706, and in 1708 was appointed Treasurer of Her Majesty's Household, an office which he held until 1713, in spite of his Whig sympathies. "Good for nothing, so far as ever I knew," Swift wrote of him.

16 Prov. xxv. 3.

17 See Letter 31, note 8.

18 Thomas Parker, afterwards created Earl of Macclesfield, was appointed Lord Chief-Justice in March 1710. In September 1711 he declined Harley's offer of the Lord Chancellorship, a post which he accepted under a Whig Government in the next reign.

19 The Bill against Occasional Conformity.



LETTER 37.

1 The proposed visit to London of Prince Eugene of Savoy, the renowned General, and friend of Marlborough, was viewed by the Government with considerable alarm.

2 Swift's "An excellent new Song; being the intended Speech of a famous orator against Peace," a ballad "two degrees above Grub Street" (see Letter 36, note 11).

3 Robert Walpole was then M.P. for King's Lynn, and Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons. He had been Secretary at War from February 1708 to September 1710, and the Commissioners of Public Accounts having reported, on Dec. 21, 1711, that he had been guilty of venality and corruption, he was expelled from the House of Commons, and taken to the Tower.

4 William King, D.C.L., author of the Journey to London in 1698, Dialogues of the Dead, The Art of Cookery, and other amusing works, was, at the end of the month, appointed Gazetteer, in succession to Steele, on Swift's recommendation. Writing earlier in the year, Gay said that King deserved better than to "languish out the small remainder of his life in the Fleet Prison." The duties of Gazetteer were too much for his easy-going nature and failing health, and he resigned the post in July 1712. He died in the following December.

5 At the bottom of St. James's Street, on the west side.

6 The Rev. John Shower, pastor of the Presbyterian Congregation at Curriers' Hall, London Wall.

7 The Windsor Prophecy, in which the Duchess of Somerset (see Letter 17, note 10) is attacked as "Carrots from Northumberland."

8 Merlin's Prophecy, 1709, written in pseudo-mediaeval English.

9 See Letter 3, note 18.

10 Dorothy, daughter of Sir Edward Leach, of Shipley, Derbyshire.

11 Sir James Long, Bart. (died 1729), was at this time M.P. for Chippenham.

12 The number containing this paragraph is not in the British Museum.

13 Joseph Beaumont (see Letter 1, note 2, Letter 26, Jul. 6, 1711 and Letter 35, note 26)

14 See Letter 4, note 13.

15 Apparently a misprint for "whether."

16 See Letter 32, note 19.

17 James Compton, afterwards fifth Earl of Northampton (died 1754), was summoned to the House of Lords as Baron Compton in December 1711. Charles Bruce, who succeeded his father as third Earl of Aylesbury in 1741, was created Lord Bruce, of Whorlton, at the same time.

18 James, Lord Compton, eldest son of the Earl of Northampton; Charles, Lord Bruce, eldest son of the Earl of Aylesbury; Henry Paget, son of Lord Paget; George Hay, Viscount Dupplin, the son-in-law of the Lord Treasurer, created Baron Hay; Viscount Windsor, created Baron Montjoy; Sir Thomas Mansel, Baron Mansel; Sir Thomas Willoughby, Baron Middleton; Sir Thomas Trevor, Baron Trevor; George Granville, Baron Lansdowne; Samuel Masham, Baron Masham; Thomas Foley, Baron Foley; and Allen Bathurst, Baron Bathurst.



LETTER 38.

1 Juliana, widow of the second Earl of Burlington, and daughter of the Hon. Henry Noel, was Mistress of the Robes to Queen Anne. She died in 1750, aged seventy-eight.

2 Thomas Windsor, Viscount Windsor (died 1738), an Irish peer, who had served under William III. in Flanders, was created Baron Montjoy, of the Isle of Wight, in December 1711. He married Charlotte, widow of John, Baron Jeffries, of Wem, and daughter of Philip Herbert, Earl of Pembroke.

3 The Hon. Russell Robartes, brother of Lord Radnor (see Letter 3, note 7), was Teller of the Exchequer, and M.P. for Bodmin. His son became third Earl of Radnor in 1723.

4 Gay (Trivia, ii. 92) speaks of "the slabby pavement."

5 See Letter 17, note 1.

6 George Granville (see Letter 14, note 5), now Baron Lansdowne, married Lady Mary Thynne, widow of Thomas Thynne, and daughter of Edward, Earl of Jersey (see Letter 29, note 3). In October 1710 Lady Wentworth wrote to her son, "Pray, my dear, why will you let Lady Mary Thynne go? She is young, rich, and not unhandsome, some say she is pretty; and a virtuous lady, and of the nobility, and why will you not try to get her?" (Wentworth papers, 149).

7 See Letter 24, note 4.

8 Harness.

9 On his birthday Swift read the third chapter of Job.

10 See Letter 33, note 12.

11 Sir George St. George of Dunmore, Co. Galway, M.P. for Co. Leitrim from 1661 to 1692, and afterwards for Co. Galway, died in December 1711.

12 See Letter 35, note 11 and Letter 31, note 10.

13 See Letter 4, note 16.

14 Dr. Pratt (see Letter 2, note 14).

15 King Henry VIII., act iv. sc. 2; "An old man broken with the storms," etc.

16 "These words in the manuscript imitate Stella's writing, and are sloped the wrong way" (Deane Swift),

17 Archibald Douglas, third Marquis of Douglas, was created Duke of Douglas in 1703. He died, without issue, in 1761.

18 Arbuthnot and Freind.



LETTER 39.

1 Sir Stephen Evance, goldsmith, was knighted in 1690.

2 Because of the refusal of the House of Lords to allow the Duke of Hamilton (see Letter 27, note 9), a Scottish peer who had been raised to the peerage of Great Britain as Duke of Brandon, to sit under that title. The Scottish peers discontinued their attendance at the House until the resolution was partially amended; and the Duke of Hamilton always sat as a representative Scottish peer.

3 Sir William Robinson (1655-1736), created a baronet in 1689, was M.P. for York from 1697 to 1722. His descendants include the late Earl De Grey and the Marquis of Ripon.

4 See Letter 16, note 19. The full title was, Some Advice humbly offered to the Members of the October Club, in a Letter from a Person of Honour.

5 See Letter 38, note 11.

6 "It is the last of the page, and written close to the edge of the paper" (Deane Swift).

7 Henry Somerset, second Duke of Beaufort. In September 1711 the Duke—who was then only twenty-seven—married, as his third wife, Mary, youngest daughter of the Duke of Leeds. In the following January Lady Strafford wrote, "The Duke and Duchess of Beaufort are the fondest of one another in the world; I fear 'tis too hot to hold.... I own I fancy people may love one another as well without making so great a rout" (Wentworth Papers, 256). The Duke died in 1714, at the age of thirty.

8 "Upon the 10th and 17th of this month the Examiner was very severe upon the Duke of Marlborough, and in consequence of this report pursued him with greater virulence in the following course of his papers" (Deane Swift).

9 A term of execration. Scott (Kenilworth) has, "A pize on it."

10 See Letter 11, note 13.

11 In a letter to Swift of Jan. 31, 1712, Sacheverell, after expressing his indebtedness to St. John and Harley, said, "For yourself, good Doctor, who was the first spring to move it, I can never sufficiently acknowledge the obligation," and in a postscript he hinted that a place in the Custom House which he heard was vacant might suit his brother.

12 Thomas Yalden, D.D., (1671-1736), Addison's college friend, succeeded Atterbury as preacher of Bridewell Hospital in 1713. In 1723 he was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the Atterbury plot.

13 Tablets.

14 Sir Solomon de Medina, a Jew, was knighted in 1700.

15 Davenant had been said to be the writer of papers which Swift contributed to the Examiner.

16 Henry Withers, a friend of "Duke" Disney (see Letter 16, note 20), was appointed Lieutenant-General in 1707, and Major-General in 1712. On his death in 1729 he was buried in Westminster Abbey.

17 See Letter 36, note 18.

18 Dyer's News Letter, the favourite reading of Sir Roger de Coverley (Spectator, No. 127), was the work of John Dyer, a Jacobite journalist. In the Tatler (No. 18) Addison says that Dyer was "justly looked upon by all the fox-hunters in the nation as the greatest statesman our country has produced." Lord Chief-Justice Holt referred to the News Letter as "a little scandalous paper of a scandalous author" (Howell's State Trials, xiv. 1150).

Letter 40.

1 Dr. John Sharp, made Archbishop of York in 1691, was called by Swift "the harmless tool of others' hate." Swift believed that Sharp, owing to his dislike of The Tale of a Tub, assisted in preventing the bishopric of Hereford being offered to him. Sharp was an excellent preacher, with a taste for both poetry and science.

2 An edition of the Countess d'Aulnoy's Les Contes des Fees appeared in 1710, in four volumes.

3 Francis Godolphin, Viscount Rialton, the eldest son of Sidney, Earl of Godolphin, succeeded his father as second Earl on Sept. 15, 1712. He held 3 various offices, including that of Lord Privy Seal (1735-1740), and died in 1766, aged eighty-eight. He married, in 1698, Lady Henrietta Churchill, who afterwards was Duchess of Marlborough in her own right. She died in 1733.

4 See Letter 26, note 24. Ladies of the bed-chamber received 1000 pounds a year.

5 William O'Brien, third Earl of Inchiquin, succeeded his father in 1691, and died in 1719.

6 Lady Catherine Hyde was an unmarried daughter of Laurence Hyde, first Earl of Rochester (see Letter 8, note 22). Notwithstanding Swift's express statement that the lady to whom he here refers was the late Earl's daughter, and the allusion to her sister, Lady Dalkeith, in Letter 60, note 26, she has been confused by previous editors with her niece, Lady Catherine Hyde (see Letter 26, note 24), daughter of the second Earl, and afterwards Duchess of Queensberry. That lady, not long afterwards to be celebrated by Prior, was a child under twelve when Swift wrote.

7 Sir John Trevor (1637-1717), formerly Speaker of the House of Commons.

8 See Letter 11, note 44.

9 See Letter 34, note 10.

10 See Letter 23, note 2.

11 Charles Trimnel, made Bishop of Norwich in 1708, and Bishop of Winchester in 1721, was strongly opposed to High Church doctrines.

12 Jibe or jest.

13 See Letter 22, note 4.

14 The treaty concluded with Holland in 1711.

15 Feb. 2 is the Purification of the Virgin Mary.

16 See Letter 29, note 7.

17 See Letter 11, note 53.

18 Lady Mary Butler (see Letter 7, note 2 and Letter 3, note 40), daughter of the Duke of Ormond, who married, in 1710, John, third Lord Ashburnham, afterwards Earl of Ashburnham.

19 See Letter 2, note 5.

20 See Letter 36, note 14.

21 Scroop Egerton, fifth Earl and first Duke of Bridgewater, married, in 1703, Lady Elizabeth Churchill, third daughter of the Duke of Marlborough. She died in 1714, aged twenty-six.

22 See Letter 30, note 6.

23 Heart.

24 Edward Fowler, D.D., appointed Bishop of Gloucester in 1691, died in 1714.

25 Isaac Manley (see Letter 3, note 3).



LETTER 41.

1 This letter, the first of the series published by Hawkesworth, of which we have the originals (see Preface), was addressed "To Mrs. Johnson at her Lodgings over against St. Mary's Church, near Capell Street, Dublin, Ireland"; and was endorsed by her "Recd. Mar. 1st."

2 See Letter 10, note 28.

3 See Letter 12, note 22.

4 See Letter 23, note 2.

5 Charles Ross, son of the eleventh Baron Ross, was Colonel of the Royal Irish Dragoons from 1695 to 1705. He was a Lieutenant-General under the Duke of Ormond in Flanders, and died in 1732 (Dalton, ii. 212, iii. 34).

6 Charles Paulet, Marquis of Winchester, succeeded his father (see Letter 31, note 2) as third Duke of Bolton in 1722. He married, as his second wife, Lavinia Fenton, the actress who took the part of Polly Peacham in Gay's Beggars Opera in 1728, and he died in 1754.

7 John Blith, or Bligh, son of the Right Hon. Thomas Bligh, M.P. of Rathmore, Co. Meath (see Letter 4, note 22). In August 1713 he married Lady Theodosia Hyde, daughter of Edward, third Earl of Clarendon. Lord Berkeley of Stratton wrote, "Lady Theodosia Hyde... is married to an Irish Mr. Blythe, of a good estate, who will soon have enough of her, if I can give any guess" (Wentworth Papers, 353). In 1715 Bligh was made Baron Clifton, of Rathmore, and Earl of Darnley in 1725. He died in 1728.

8 Obliterated.

9 Word obliterated; probably "found." Forster reads "oors, dee MD."

10 Words obliterated.

11 See Letter 31, note 1 and Letter 10, note 31.

12 See Letter 20, Apr. 13-14, 1711 and Letter 9, note 20.

13 Words obliterated. Forster reads "fourth. Euge, euge, euge."

14 Words obliterated; one illegible.

15 See Letter 2, note 14.

16 See Letter 1, note 12.

17 Service.

18 "Aplon"—if this is the right word—means, of course, apron—the apron referred to on Letter 39, Jan. 25, 1711-12.

19 Words obliterated.

20 As the son of a "brother" of the Club.

21 The Archbishop, Dr. King.

22 See Tacitus, Annals, book ii. Cn. Calpurnius Piso, who was said to have poisoned Germanicus, was found with his throat cut.

23 This satire on Marlborough concludes— "And Midas now neglected stands, With asses' ears and dirty hands."

24 Dr. Robinson, Bishop of Bristol.

25 Some Remarks on the Barrier Treaty.

26 Several words are obliterated. Forster reads "MD MD, for we must always write to MD MD MD, awake or asleep;" but the passage is illegible.

27 See Letter 11, note 39 and Letter 61, note 5.

28 A long erasure. Forster reads "Go to bed. Help pdfr. Rove pdfr. MD MD. Nite darling rogues."

29 Word obliterated. Forster reads "saucy."

30 Letter from.

31 Words partially obliterated.

32 Swift wrote by mistake, "On Europe Britain's safety lies"; the slip was pointed out by Hawkesworth. All the verse is written in the MSS. as prose.

33 "Them" (MS.).

34 See Wyons Queen Anne, ii. 366-7.

35 A Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue, in a Letter to the Most Honourable Robert, Earl of Oxford, 1712.

36 "Help him to draw up the representation" (omitting every other letter).

37 See Letter 23, note 13.

38 Robert Benson.

39 The Story of the St. Albans Ghost, 1712.

40 "Usually" (MS.).

41 These words are partially obliterated.

42 This sentence is obliterated. Forster reads, "Farewell, mine deelest rife deelest char Ppt, MD MD MD Ppt, FW, Lele MD, ME ME ME ME aden FW MD Lazy ones Lele Lele all a Lele."



LETTER 42.

1 Endorsed by Stella "Recd. Mar. 19."

2 "Would" (MS.).

3 Conversation.

4 John Guillim's Display of Heraldrie appeared first in 1610. The edition to which Swift refers was probably that of 1679, which is wrongly described as the "fifth edition," instead of the seventh.

5 "One of the horses here mentioned may have been the celebrated Godolphin Arabian from whom descends all the blue blood of the racecourse, and who was the grandfather of Eclipse" (Larwood's Story of the London Parks, 99).

6 See Letter 36, note 6.

7 Dorothea, daughter of James Stopford, of New Hall, County Meath, and sister of Lady Newtown-Butler, was the second wife of Edward, fourth Earl of Meath, who died without issue in 1707. She afterwards married General Richard Gorges (see Journal, April 5, 1713), of Kilbrue, County Meath, and Swift wrote an epitaph on them—"Doll and Dickey."

8 Here follow some obliterated words.

9 Barber (see Letter 12, note 6).

10 "The editors supposed Zinkerman (which they printed in capitals) to mean some outlandish or foreign distinction; but it is the little language for 'gentleman'" (Forster).

11 The Hon. Charles Butler, second son of Thomas, Earl of Ossory, eldest son of James, Duke of Ormond, was elevated to the peerage of Ireland in 1693 as Earl of Arran, and was also created a peer of England, as Baron Butler. He held various offices under William III. and Queen Anne, and died without issue in 1759.

12 "They" (MS.).

13 See Letter 31, Jan. 12, 1711-12 and Letter 3, note 22.

14 See Letter 11, note 13.

15 Sir William Wyndham, Bart., of Orchard Wyndham, married Lady Catherine Seymour, daughter of the sixth Duke of Somerset (see Letter 25, note 1). Their eldest son, Charles, succeeded his uncle, the Duke of Somerset, as Earl of Egremont; and the second son, Percy, was afterwards created Earl of Thomond. The Wyndhams' house was in Albemarle Street; the loss was over 20,000 pounds; but they were "much more concerned for their servants than for all the other losses" (Wentworth Papers, 274). The Duke of Ormond "worked as hard as any of the ordinary men, and gave many guineas about to encourage the men to work hard." The Queen gave the Wyndhams temporary lodgings in "St. James's house."

16 See Letter 3, note 31.

17 What.

18 Devil's.

19 "To" (MS.).

20 See Letter 35, note 25.

21 See Letter 41, note 34.

22 See Letter 12, Jan. 1, 1710-11.

23 Peregrine Hyde Osborne, Earl of Danby, afterwards Marquis of Caermarthen and third Duke of Leeds (see Letter 56, note 6). His sister Mary was married to the Duke of Beaufort (see Letter 39, note 7).

24 See Letter 9, note 17.

25 Several undecipherable words. Forster reads, "Pidy Pdfr, deelest Sollahs."

26 "K" (MS.). It should, of course, be "Queen's."

27 See Letter 22, note 18.



LETTER 43.

1 Addressed "To Mrs. Johnson, at her lodgings over against St. Mary's Church, near Capel Street, Dublin, Ireland." Endorsed "Mar. 30."

2 See Letter 9, note 1.

3 The Mohocks succeeded the Scowrers of William III.'s reign. Gay (Trivia, iii. 325) says "Who has not heard the Scowrers' midnight fame? Who has not trembled at the Mohocks' name?" Lady Wentworth (Wentworth Papers, 277) says: "They put an old woman into a hogshead, and rolled her down a hill; they cut off some noses, others' hands, and several barbarous tricks, without any provocation. They are said to be young gentlemen; they never take any money from any." See also the Spectator, Nos. 324, 332, and 347 (where Budgell alludes to "the late panic fear"), and Defoe's Review for March 15, 1712. Swift was in considerable alarm about the Mohocks throughout March, and said that they were all Whigs. The reports that numbers of persons, including men of figure, had joined together to commit assaults in the streets, made many fear to leave their houses at night. A proclamation was issued for the suppressing of riots and the discovery of those guilty of the late outrages; but it seems probable that the disorders were not more frequent than might be expected from time to time in a great city.

4 Henry Davenant, son of Charles Davenant (see Letter 8, note 14), was Resident at Frankfort. Macky described him as "very giddy-headed, with some wit," to which Swift added, "He is not worth mentioning."

5 Thomas Burnet, youngest son of Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, was at this time a young man about town of no good reputation. Afterwards he turned his attention to the law, and was appointed a judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1741. He was knighted in 1745, and died in 1753.

6 By Arbuthnot, written to recommend the peace proposals of the Government. The full title was, Law is a Bottomless Pit. Exemplified in the case of the Lord Strutt, John Bull, Nicholas Frog, and Lewis Baboon; who spent all they had in a Law Suit.

7 See Letter 25, note 6 and Letter 41, note 35.

8 Our little language.

9 Forster reads, "two deelest nauty nown MD."

10 See Letter 6, note 12.

11 William Diaper, son of Joseph Diaper of Bridgewater, was sent to Balliol College, Oxford, in 1699, at the age of fourteen. He entered the Church, and was curate at Brent, Somerset; but he died in 1717, aged twenty-nine.

12 The Examiner (vol. ii. No. 15) complained of general bribery and oppression on the part of officials and underlings in the public service, especially in matters connected with the army; but the writer said that the head (Lord Lansdowne) was just and liberal in his nature, and easy in his fortune, and a man of honour and virtue.

13 Sealed documents given to show that a merchant's goods are entered.

14 Thomas Lawrence, First Physician to Queen Anne, and Physician-General to the Army, died in 1714 (Gentleman's Magazine, 1815, ii. 17). His daughter Elizabeth was second wife to Lord Mohun.

15 See Letter 17, note 11.

16 See Letter 26, note 2.

17 No officer named Newcomb appears in Dalton's Army Lists; but the allusion to General Ross, further on in Letter 43, adds to the probability that Swift was referring to one of the sons of Sir Thomas Newcomen, Bart., who was killed at the siege of Enniskillen. Beverley Newcomen (Dalton, iii. 52, iv. 60), who was probably Swift's acquaintance, was described in a petition of 1706 as a Lieutenant who had served at Killiecrankie, and had been in Major-General Ross's regiment ever since 1695.

18 Atterbury.

19 Evidently a familiar quotation at the time. Forster reads, incorrectly, "But the more I lite MD."

20 See Letter 41, note 5.

21 See Letter 12, note 1.

22 In 1681, Elizabeth, only daughter and heiress of John Ayres, of the City of London, then aged about twenty, became the fourth and last wife of Heneage Finch, Earl of Winchelsea, who died in 1689. She lived until 1745.

23 See Letter 23, note 17.

24 Enoch Sterne (see Letter 4, note 17).

25 Lieut.-Col. Robert Sterne was in Col. Frederick Hamilton's Regiment in 1695.

26 Letter.

27 See Letter 13, note 10.

28 The title was, John Bull in his Senses: being the Second Part of Law is a Bottomless Pit.

29 See Letter 36, note 6.

30 Cf. note 9 above. Forster reads "nautyas," when the words would mean "as naughty as nine," apparently.

31 See note 19 above.

32 In 1549, James, second Earl of Arran, was made Duke of Chatelherault by Henry II. of France. His eldest son died without issue; the second, John, became first Marquis of Hamilton, and was great-grandfather of Lady Anne Hamilton (Duchess of Hamilton), mother of the Duke of Swift's Journal. The Earl of Abercorn, on the other hand, was descended from Claud, third son of the Earl of Arran, but in the male line; and his claim was therefore the stronger, according to the French law of inheritance.

33 Madams.

34 This word is doubtful. Forster reads "cobbled."

35 A mistake, apparently, for "writing." The letter was begun on March 8.

36 Silly jade.

37 O Lord, what a clutter.

38 On the death of Dr. William Graham, Dean of Wells, it was reported that Swift was to be his successor. Dr. Brailsford, however, received the appointment.

39 Abel Roper (1665-1726), a Tory journalist, published, thrice weekly, the Postboy, to which Swift sometimes sent paragraphs. Boyer (Political State, 1711, p. 678) said that Roper was only the tool of a party; "there are men of figure and distinction behind the curtain, who furnish him with such scandalous reflections as they think proper to cast upon their antagonists."

40 Joe Beaumont.

41 Beg your pardon, Madams, I'm glad you like your apron (see Letter 41, note 18).

42 This word was smudged by Swift.

43 I cannot find Somers in contemporary lists of officials. Cf. Letter 30, note 16 and Letter 17, note 3.

44 Obliterated and doubtful.

45 Words obliterated and illegible. Forster reads, conjecturally, "Pray send Pdfr the ME account that I may have time to write to Parvisol."



LETTER 44.

1 Addressed to "Mrs. Dingley," etc. Endorsed "Apr. 14."

2 "Is" (MS.).

3 The words after "yet" are partially obliterated.

4 See Letter 7, note 35.

5 John Cecil, sixth Earl of Exeter (died 1721).

6 See Letter 22, note 5.

7 Arbuthnot.

8 A resort of the Tories.

9 Deane Swift, a son of Swift's uncle Godwin, was a merchant in Lisbon.

10 Winces. Lyly says, "Rubbe there no more, least I winch."

11 Probably William Whiston, who was deprived of the Lucasian professorship at Cambridge in 1710 for his heterodox views. Parliament having offered a reward for the discovery of means of finding the longitude, Whiston made several attempts (1714 and 1721).

12 Word obliterated.

13 Distilled water prepared with rosemary flowers. In Fielding's Joseph Andrews, a lady gives up to a highway robber, in her fright, a silver bottle which, the ruffian said, contained some of the best brandy he had ever tasted; this she "afterwards assured the company was a mistake of her maid, for that she had ordered her to fill the bottle with Hungary water."

14 As I hope to be saved.

15 Added on the fourth page, as the letter was folded.

Letter 45.

1 Addressed to "Mrs. Johnson," etc. Endorsed "May 1st."

2 A kind of clover, used for soothing purposes.



LETTER 46.

1 Addressed to "Mrs. Dingley," etc. Endorsed "May 15."

2 Madam Ayris.

3 Simpleton.

4 Robert Benson (see Letter 6, note 36).

5 See Letter 41, note 35 and Letter 43, note 7.

6 The title was, An Appendix to John Bull still in his Senses: or, Law is a Bottomless Pit.

7 Arbuthnot.

8 Enquiries by servants.

9 See Letter 17, note 5.

10 Sick.

11 Afterwards Rector of Letcombe, Berks. It was to his house that Swift repaired a few weeks before the Queen's death. On June 8, 1714, he wrote, "I am at a clergyman's house, whom I love very well, but he is such a melancholy, thoughtful man, partly from nature, and partly by a solitary life, that I shall soon catch the spleen from him. His wife has been this month twenty miles off at her father's, and will not return these ten days, and perhaps the house will be worse when she comes." Swift spells the name "Geree"; later on in the Journal he mentions two of Mr. Gery's sisters, Betty (Mrs. Elwick) and Moll (Mrs. Wigmore); probably he made the acquaintance of the family when he was living with the Temples at Moor Park (see Letter 59, note 11).

12 Because she is a good girl in other things.



LETTER 47.

1 Addressed to "Mrs. Dingley," etc. Endorsed "June 5."

2 Sice, the number six at dice.

3 At Laracor Swift had "a canal and river-walk and willows."

4 Splenetic fellow.

5 One of them was by Oldmixon: Reflections on Dr. Swift's Letter to the Earl of Oxford.

6 Beg your pardon.

7 See Letter 25, note 9.

8 On May 28, Lord Halifax moved an Address to the Queen that the instructions given to the Duke of Ormond might be laid before the House, and that further orders might be issued to him to act offensively, in concert with the Allies. Wharton and Nottingham supported the motion, but it was negatived by 68 votes against 40. A similar motion in the House of Commons was defeated by 203 against 73.

9 See Letter 34, note 10.

10 See Letter 23, note 13.

11 "Some Reasons to prove that no Person is obliged by his Principles, as a Whig, to oppose Her Majesty: in a Letter to a Whig Lord."

12 Several words obliterated.

13 Several words obliterated.

14 The bellman.

15 This present writing.

16 Please.



LETTER 48.

1 Addressed to "Mrs. Rebecca Dingley," etc. Endorsed "June 23d."

2 Mr. Ryland reads "second."

3 As I hope to be saved.

4 See Letter 30, Sept. 18, 1711.

5 Glad at heart.

6 The threepenny pamphlet mentioned in Letter 47, note 11.

7 I.e., for.



LETTER 49.

1 Addressed to "Mrs. Dingley." Endorsed "July 8."

2 See Letter 28, note 24.

3 See Letter 10, note 2.

4 See Letter 3, note 11.

5 See Letter 48, note 4.

6 Dr. William Lloyd—one of the Seven Bishops of 1688—was eighty-four years of age at this time; he died five years later. He was a strong antipapist, and a great student of the Apocalypse, besides being a hard-working bishop. A curious letter from him to Lord Oxford about a coming war of religion is given in the Welbeck Papers (Hist. MSS. Comm.) v. 128.

7 "Toland's Invitation to Dismal to dine with the Calf's Head Club." The Earl of Nottingham (Dismal) had deserted the Tories, and Swift's imitation of Horace (Epist. I. v.) is an invitation from Toland to dine with "his trusty friends" in celebration of the execution of Charles I. The Calf's Head Club was in the habit of toasting "confusion to the race of kings."

8 Bolingbroke.

9 George Fitzroy, Duke of Northumberland (died 1716), a natural son of Charles II., was also Viscount Falmouth and Baron of Pontefract. See Notes and Queries, viii. i. 135.

10 Enoch Sterne.

11 Templeoag (see Letter 48, Jun. 17, 1712).

12 Swift probably was only repeating an inaccurate rumour, for there is no evidence that Steele was arrested. His gambling scheme was withdrawn directly an information was laid under the new Act of Parliament against gambling (Aitken's Life of Steele, i. 347).

13 Dr. William Moreton (1641-1715), Swift's diocesan, was translated from the see of Kildare to that of Meath in 1705.

14 Words obliterated. Forster reads conjecturally, "when ME wants me to send. She ought to have it," etc.



LETTER 50.

1 Addressed to "Mrs. Dingley," etc. Endorsed "July 23."

2 "N.33" seems a mistake. Letter No. 32 was received after Swift had left Kensington and gone to Windsor; see Letter 51, Aug. 7, 1712 and Letter 52, Sept. 18, 1712 (Ryland).

3 Dr. Moreton (see Letter 49, note 13).

4 Memoranda.

5 Again.

6 O Lord, drunken slut.

7 There's for you now, and there's for your letter, and every kind of thing.

8 Bolingbroke.

9 See Letter 13, note 10.

10 Grub Street pamphlet. The title was, A Supposed Letter from the Pretender to another Whig Lord.

11 Arnold Joost Van Keppel, created Earl of Albemarle in 1697. He died in 1718. The action referred to was at Denain, where the Dutch were defeated by Villars.



LETTER 51.

1 Addressed to "Mrs. Dingley," etc. Endorsed "Aug. 14."

2 Perhaps this was influenza.

3 By the Stamp Act passed on June 10, 1712—which was repealed in 1859—a duty of one halfpenny was levied on all pamphlets and newspapers contained in half a sheet or less, and a duty of one penny on those of more than half but not exceeding a whole sheet. Swift opposed the idea in January 1711 (see Letter 15, note 1), and Defoe argued against the Bill in the Review for April 26, 1712, and following numbers. Addison, in the Spectator, No. 445, spoke of the mortality among authors resulting from the Stamp Act as "the fall of the leaf."

4 The title is, "Lewis Baboon turned honest, and John Bull politician. Being the Fourth Part of Law is a Bottomless Pit." This pamphlet—really the fifth of the series—appeared on July 31, 1712.

5 Poor Laracor.

6 See Letter 12, note 1.

7 On the death of the third Earl in 1712, the title of Earl of Winchelsea passed to his uncle, Heneage Finch, who had married Anne, daughter of Sir William Kingsmill (see Letter 24, note 7).



LETTER 52.

1 Addressed to "Mrs. Dingley," etc. Endorsed "Oct. 1st. At Portraune" (Portraine).

2 Oxford and Bolingbroke.

3 Including Hester Vanhomrigh.

4 He died on Sept. 15, 1712.

5 Elizabeth Villiers, eldest daughter of Sir Edward Villiers, Knight Marischal of England, and sister of the first Earl of Jersey. In 1695 she married Lord George Hamilton (son of Lord William Douglas, afterwards Duke of Hamilton), who was raised to the peerage of Scotland in 1696 as Earl of Orkney. William III. gave her an Irish estate worth 26,000 pounds a year. Swift's opinion of her wisdom is confirmed by Lord Lansdowne, who speaks, in his Progress of Poetry, of

"Villiers, for wisdom and deep judgment famed, Of a high race, victorious beauty brings To grace our Courts, and captivate our Kings."

The "beauty" seems a poetic licence; Swift says the lady squinted "like a dragon."

6 Cliefden.

7 See Letter 12, note 7.

8 Swift's sister (see Letter 9, note 22).

9 Forster reads "returned."

10 See Swift's letter to General Hill of Aug. 12, 1712

11 Swift's housekeeper at Laracor.

12 I.e., be made freemen of the City.



LETTER 53.

1 Addressed to "Mrs. Dingley," etc. Endorsed "Octr. 18. At Portraune."

2 "Sometimes, when better company was not to be had, he (Swift) was honoured by being invited to play at cards with his patron; and on such occasions Sir William was so generous as to give his antagonist a little silver to begin with" (Macaulay, History of England, chap. xix.).

3 The History of the Works of the Learned, a quarto periodical, was published from 1699 to 1711.

4 See Letter 35, note 4.

5 See Letter 28, note 25.

6 Lady Elizabeth Savage, daughter of Richard, fourth Earl Rivers (see Letter 11, note 9), was the second wife of James Barry, fourth Earl of Barrymore. Of Earl Rivers' illegitimate children, one, Bessy, married (1) Frederick Nassau, third Earl of Rochford, and (2) a clergyman named Carter; while another, Richard Savage, was the poet. Earl Rivers' successor, John Savage, the fifth Earl, was a Roman Catholic priest, the grandson of John, first Earl Rivers. On his death in 1728 the title became extinct.

7 No. 32.

8 Very sick.

9 From "but I" to "agreeable" is partially obliterated.

10 Mrs. Swanton was the eldest daughter of Willoughby Swift, and therefore Swift's second cousin. In her will Esther Johnson left to Swift "a bond of thirty pounds, due to me by Dr. Russell, in trust for the use of Mrs. Honoria Swanton."

11 This sentence is partially obliterated.

12 See Letter 51, note 2.

13 See Letter 5, note 16.

14 The latter half of this sentence is partially obliterated.

15 Partly obliterated.

16 See Letter 8, note 2.

17 Wise.

18 Partly obliterated.

19 See Letter 6, note 45.

20 This sentence is almost obliterated.



LETTER 54.

1 The MS. of this letter has not been preserved.

2 See Letter 26, note 2.

3 Swift's friend, Dr. Pratt (see Letter 2, note 14), was then Provost of Trinity College, Dublin.

4 Samuel Molyneux, then aged twenty-three, was the son of William Molyneux (1656-1698), M.P. for Dublin University, a writer on philosophical and scientific subjects, and the friend of Locke. Samuel Molyneux took his M.A. degree in Dublin in 1710, and in 1712 visited England. He was befriended by the Duke of Marlborough at Antwerp, and in 1714 was sent by the Duke on a mission to the Court of Hanover. He held office under George I., but devoted most of his attention to astronomical research, until his death in 1728.

5 Probably "The Case of Ireland's being bound by Acts of Parliament in England stated" (1698).

6 Oxford and Bolingbroke.

7 See Letter 36, note 18.

8 See Letter 51, Aug. 7, 1712.

9 George Ridpath (died 1726), a Whig journalist, of whom Pope (Dunciad, i. 208) wrote— "To Dulness Ridpath is as dear as Mist." He edited the Flying Post for some years, and also wrote for the Medley in 1712. In September William Hurt and Ridpath were arrested for libellous and seditious articles, but were released on bail. On October 23 they appeared before the Court of Queen's Bench, and were continued on their recognizances. In February 1713 Ridpath was tried and, in spite of an able defence by leading Whig lawyers, was convicted. Sentence was postponed, and when Ridpath failed to appear, as ordered, in April, his recognizances were escheated, and a reward offered for his discovery; but he had fled to Scotland, and from thence to Holland.

10 See Letter 52, note 5.

11 Lady Orkney's sister, Barbara Villiers, who married John Berkeley, fourth Viscount Fitz-Hardinge, had been governess to the Duke of Gloucester, Queen Anne's son. She died in 1708, in her fifty-second year; and on her husband's death four years later the peerage became extinct.

12 For the street criers, see the Spectator, No. 251.



LETTER 55.

1 Addressed to "Mrs. Dingley." Endorsed "Nov. 26, just come from Portraine"; and "The band-box plot—D: Hamilton's murther."

2 Charles Mohun, fifth Baron Mohun, had been twice arraigned of murder, but acquitted; and during his short but turbulent life he had taken part in many duels. Even Burnet could say nothing in his favour.

3 This duel between the Duke of Hamilton (see Letter 27, note 9) and Lord Mohun, who had married nieces of Lord Macclesfield, had its origin in a protracted dispute about some property. The challenge came from Lord Mohun, and the combatants fought like "enraged lions." Tory writers suggested that the duel was a Whig conspiracy to get rid of the Duke of Hamilton (Examiner, Nov. 20, 1712). The whole subject is discussed from the Whig point of view in Boyer's Political State for 1712, pp. 297-326.

4 "Will" (MS.).

5 See Letter 27, note 9.

6 George Maccartney (see Letter 11, note 13 and Letter 39, Jan. 22, 1711-12 ) fought at Almanza, Malplaquet, and Douay. After the duel, Maccartney escaped to Holland, but on the accession of George I. he returned to England, and was tried for murder (June 1716), when Colonel Hamilton gave evidence against him. Hamilton's evidence was discredited, and he found it necessary to sell his commission and leave the country. Maccartney was found guilty as an accessory, and "burnt" in the hand. Within a month he was given an appointment in the army; and promoted to be Lieutenant-General. He died in 1730.

7 Colonel John Hamilton, of the Scots Guards. He surrendered himself, and was tried at the Old Bailey on Dec. 12, 1712, when he was found guilty of manslaughter, on two indictments; and on the following day he was "burnt" in the hand. Hamilton died in October 1716, soon after Maccartney's trial, from a sudden vomiting of blood.

8 "That" (MS.).

9 The story (as told in the Tory Postboy of Nov. 11 to 13) was that on Nov. 4 a bandbox was sent to the Earl of Oxford by post. When he began to open it he saw a pistol, whereupon a gentleman present (Swift) asked for the box, and opening it, by the window, found powder, nails, etc., so arranged that, if opened in the ordinary way, the whole would have been fired, and two barrels discharged different ways. No doubt a box so packed was received, but whether anything serious was intended, or whether it was a hoax, cannot be said with any certainty. The Earl of Oxford is said to have met allusions to the subject with a smile, and Swift seems to have been annoyed at the reports which were put into circulation.

10 "We have received a more particular account relating to the box sent to the Lord Treasurer, as mentioned in our last, which is as follows," etc. (Evening News, Nov. 11 to 13, 1712).

11 Either "A Letter to the People, to be left for them at the Booksellers, with a word or two of the Bandbox Plot" (by T. Burnet), 1712, or "An Account of the Duel..., with Previous Reflections on Sham Plots" (by A. Boyer), 1712. Swift's connection with the Bandbox Plot was ridiculed in the Flying Post for Nov. 20 to 22.

12 Cf. Letter 16, Feb. 20, 1710-11.

13 This sentence is partially obliterated.

14 Part of this sentence has been obliterated.

15 See Letter 43, note 39. I have not been able to find a copy of the paper containing Swift's paragraph.

16 This sentence is partially obliterated.

17 See Letter 12, note 2.

18 Apparently Humphrey Griffith, who was one of the Commissioners of Salt; but Swift gives the name as "Griffin" throughout.

19 See Letter 53, note 13 and Letter 5, note 16.

20 For these shorter letters Swift folded the folio sheet before writing.



LETTER 56.

1 Addressed to "Mrs. Dingley," etc. Endorsed "Decr. 18."

2 Vengeance.

3 Charles Connor, scholar of Trinity College, Dublin, who took his B.A. degree in the same year as Swift (1686), and his M.A. degree in 1691.

4 The History of the Peace of Utrecht.

5 See Letter 55, note 7.

6 Lord Oxford's daughter Elizabeth married, on Dec. 16, 1712, Peregrine Hyde, Marquis of Caermarthen, afterwards third Duke of Leeds (see Letter 42, note 23 and Letter 24, note 5). She died on Nov. 20, 1713, a few days after the birth of a son. Swift called her "a friend I extremely loved."

7 "Is" (MS.).

8 Disorders.

9 See Letter 34, note 10.

10 John Francis, Rector of St. Mary's, Dublin, was made Dean of Leighlin in 1705.

11 See Letter 9, note 7.

12 Possibly "have."

13 See Letter 55, notes 9, 10, 11.

14 This clause is omitted by Mr. Ryland.

15 See Letter 31, note 6.

16 See Letter 54, Oct. 30, 1712.

17 Thomas Jones, Esq., was M.P. for Trim in the Parliament of 1713-4.

18 A Dutch agent employed in the negotiations with Lewis XIV.

19 When I come home.



LETTER 57.

1 Addressed to "Mrs. Dingley," etc. Endorsed "Jan. 13."

2 "Ay, marry, this is something like." The earlier editions give, "How agreeable it is in a morning." The words in the MS. are partially obliterated.

3 In this letter (Dec. 20, 1712) Swift paid many compliments to the Duchess of Ormond (see Letter 17, note 5): "All the accomplishments of your mind and person are so deeply printed in the heart, and represent you so lively to my imagination, that I should take it for a high affront if you believed it in the power of colours to refresh my memory."

4 Tisdall's Conduct of the Dissenters in Ireland (see Letter 61, note 7).

5 See Letter 9, note 20 and Letter 20, Apr. 13, 1711.

6 Monteleon.

7 See Letter 5, note 8 and Letter 3, note 3.

8 Utrecht, North and South Holland, and West Frieseland.

9 See Letter 46, note 11.

10 See Letter 46, note 11.

11 "On Queen Anne's Peace."

12 See Letter 43, note 11. The poem was "Dryades, or the Nymph's Prophecy."

13 See Letter 35, note 4.

14 See Letter 17, note 3.

15 Dr. Tobias Pullen (1648-1713) was made Bishop of Dromore in 1695.

16 Lord Charles Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, died unmarried in 1739. When his father, William, first Earl of Selkirk, married Anne, Duchess of Hamilton, the Duchess obtained for her husband, in 1660, the title of Duke of Hamilton, for life. James II. conferred the Earldom of Selkirk on his Grace's second and younger sons, primogenitively; and the second son having died without issue, the third, Charles, became Earl. The fifth son, George, was created Earl of Orkney (see Letter 52, note 5). The difference between Lord Selkirk and the Earl of Abercorn (see Letter 10, note 33) to which Swift alludes was in connection with the claim to the Dukedom of Chatelherault (see Letter 43, note 32).

17 Heart.

18 This sentence is almost illegible.

19 A reward of 500 pounds was offered by the Crown for Maccartney's apprehension, and 200 pounds by the Duchess of Hamilton.

20 In the proposed History of the Peace of Utrecht.

21 Mr. Ryland's reading. Forster has "Iss." These words are obliterated.

22 Hoist. Cf."Hoised up the mainsail" (Acts xxvii. 40).

23 It was afterwards found that Miss Ashe was suffering from smallpox.

24 We are told in the Wentworth Papers, p. 268, that the Duchess of Shrewsbury remarked to Lady Oxford, "Madam, I and my Lord are so weary of talking politics; what are you and your Lord?" whereupon Lady Oxford sighed and said she knew no Lord but the Lord Jehovah. The Duchess rejoined, "Oh, dear! Madam, who is that? I believe 'tis one of the new titles, for I never heard of him before."

25 A thousand merry new years. The words are much obliterated.

26 Lady Anne Hamilton, daughter of James, first Duke of Hamilton, became Duchess on the death of her uncle William, the second Duke, at the battle of Worcester.

27 The quarrel between Oxford and Bolingbroke.

28 See Letter 19, note 1.

29 Burnet (History, iv. 382) says that the Duc d'Aumont was "a goodnatured and generous man, of profuse expense, throwing handfuls of money often out of his coach as he went about the streets. He was not thought a man of business, and seemed to employ himself chiefly in maintaining the dignity of his character and making himself acceptable to the nation."

30 Partially obliterated.

31 For the most part illegible. Forster reads, "Go, play cards, and be melly, deelest logues, and rove Pdfr. Nite richar MD, FW oo roves Pdfr. FW lele lele ME ME MD MD MD MD MD MD. MD FW FW FW ME ME FW FW FW FW FW ME ME ME."

32 On the third page of the paper.

33 See Letter 7, note 3.



LETTER 58.

1 To "Mrs. Dingley," etc. Endorsed "Feb. 4."

2 This sentence is scribbled over. Forster reads the last word as "lastalls," i.e. rascals, but it seems rather to be "ledles."

3 Dr. Peter Brown was appointed Bishop of Cork in 1709.

4 See Letter 5, note 22.

5 See Letter 5, note 3.

6 See Letter 5, note 11.

7 Dr. H. Humphreys, Bishop of Hereford, died on Nov. 20, 1712. His successor was Dr. Philip Bisse (1667-1721), Bishop of St. David's (see Letter 3, note 36).

8 Thomas Keightley, a Commissioner of the Great Seal in Ireland.

9 Nearly obliterated. Mr. Ryland reads, "deelest MD."

10 See Letter 57, note 14.

11 In the Examiner for Jan. 5 to 9, 1712(-13), there is an account of the game of Similitudes. One person thinks of a subject, and the others, not knowing what it is, name similitudes, and when the subject is proclaimed, must make good the comparisons. On the occasion described, the subject chosen was Faction. The prize was given to a Dutchman, who argued that Faction was like butter, because too much fire spoiled its consistency.

12 Earl Poulett (see Letter 20, note 7).

13 "Say" (MS.).

14 Dr. Pratt.

15 See Letter 13, Jan. 6, 1710-11.

16 This sentence is partially obliterated.

17 See Letter 31, note 10 and, in the same letter, Oct. 5, 1711.

18 Cf. the account of Beatrix's feelings on the death of the Duke in "Esmond", book iii. chaps. 6 and 7.

19 See Letter 21, note 3.

20 "Her Majesty is all goodness and tenderness to her people and her Allies. She has now prorogued the best Parliament that ever assembled in her reign and respited her own glory, and the wishes, prayers, and wants of her people, only to give some of her Allies an opportunity to think of the returns they owe her, and try if there be such a thing as gratitude, justice, or humanity in Europe. The conduct of Her Majesty is without parallel. Never was so great a condescension made to the unreasonable clamours of an insolent faction now dwindled to the most contemptible circumstances."—Examiner, Jan. 12-16, 1712(-13).

21 Mr. Collins's "Discourse of Freethinking, put into plain English by way of Abstract, for the use of the Poor," an ironical pamphlet on Arthur Collins's Discourse of Freethinking, 1713.

22 The History of the Peace of Utrecht.

23 A line here has been erased. Forster imagined that he read, "Nite dear MD, drowsy drowsy dear."

24 Hereford.

25 Very well.

26 Sentence obliterated. Forster professes to read, "Pay can oo walk oftener—oftener still?"

27 See Letter 57, note 15.

28 Dr. Bisse, translated from St. David's.

29 See Letter 58, note 7 and Letter 19, note 1.



LETTER 59.

1 To "Mrs. Dingley," etc. Endorsed "Febr. 26."

2 See Letter 58, note 21.

3 See Letter 28, note 11.

4 See Letter 55, note 9.

5 A result of confusion between Erasmus Lewis and Henry Lewis, a Hamburg merchant. See Swift's paper in the Examiner of Jan. 30 to Feb. 2, reprinted in his Works under the title, "A Complete Refutation of the Falsehoods alleged against Erasmus Lewis, Esq."

6 Lord Dupplin (see Letter 5, note 34) had been created Baron Hay in December 1711.

7 A composition of inflammable materials.

8 Assessors.

9 See Letter 6, note 12.

10 See Letter 59, note 5.

11 See Letter 46, note 11.

12 See Letter 3, notes 21 and 22, Letter 39, Jan. 12, 1711-12 and Letter 42, Mar. 1, 1711-12.

13 Dr. Bisse.

14 See Letter 33, note 10.

15 Forster reads, "something."

16 Hardly legible.

17 See Letter 7, note 31.

18 Stella's brother-in-law (See Letter 53, note 13, Letter 5, note 16 and Letter 55, Nov. 18, 1712).

19 Forster guesses, "Oo are so 'recise; not to oor health."

20 For "poo Ppt's." Mr. Ryland reads, "people's."

21 See Letter 57, 21 Dec. 1712.

22 See Letter 57, note 23.

23 See Letter 14, note 9.

24 Obliterated; Forster's reading.

25 Writing in October 1713, Lord Berkeley of Stratton told Lord Strafford of "a fine prank of the widow Lady Jersey" (see Letter 29, note 3). "It is well known her lord died much in debt, and she, after taking upon her the administration, sold everything and made what money she could, and is run away into France without paying a farthing of the debts, with only one servant and unknown to all her friends, and hath taken her youngest son, as 'tis supposed to make herself a merit in breeding him a papist. My Lord Bolingbroke sent after her, but too late, and they say the Queen hath writ a letter with her own hand to the King of France to send back the boy" (Wentworth Papers, p. 357). See also Letter 63, note 8. I am not sure whether in the present passage Swift is referring to the widow or the younger Lady Jersey (see Letter 33, note 10).

26 Sir Thomas Clarges, Bart. (died 1759), M.P. for Lostwithiel, married Barbara, youngest daughter of John Berkeley, fourth Viscount Fitz-Hardinge, and of Barbara Villiers (see Letter 54, note 11), daughter of Sir Edward Villiers.

27 See Letter 43, Mar. 21, 1711-12 and Letter 49, Jul. 1, 1712.

28 Altered from "11" in the MS. It is not certain where the error in the dates began; but the entry of the 6th must be correctly dated, because the Feb. 6 was the Queen's Birthday.

29 See Letter 43, note 11 and Letter 57, note 12.

Letter 60.

1 Addressed to "Mrs. Dingley," etc. Endorsed "Mar. 7."

2 See Letter 5, note 23.

3 Sedan chairs were then comparatively novel (see Gay's Trivia).

4 Some words obliterated. Forster reads, "Nite MD, My own deelest MD."

5 Peter Wentworth wrote to Lord Strafford, on Feb. 17, 1713, "Poor Mr. Harrison is very much lamented; he died last Saturday. Dr. Swift told me that he had told him... he owed about 300 pounds, and the Queen owed him 500 pounds, and that if you or some of your people could send an account of his debts, that I might give it to him, he would undertake to solicit Lord Treasurer and get this 500 pounds, and give the remainder to his mother and sister" (Wentworth Papers, 320).

6 George St. John (eldest son of Sir Harry St. John by his second marriage) was Secretary to the English Plenipotentiaries at Utrecht. He died at Venice in 1716 (Lady Cowper's Diary, 65).

7 Forster wrongly reads, "poor."

8 "Putt" (MS.).

9 See Letter 59, note 26.

10 Montagu Bertie, second Earl of Abingdon (died 1743), was a strong Tory.

11 See Letter 11, note 61. These friends were together again on an expedition to Bath in 1715, when Jervas wrote to Pope (Aug. 12, 1715) that Arbuthnot, Disney, and he were to meet at Hyde Park Corner, proceed to Mr. Hill's at Egham, meet Pope next day, and then go to Lord Stawell's to lodge the night. Lord Stawell's seat, Aldermaston, was seventeen miles from Binfield.

12 See Letter 16, note 20.

13 "I" (MS.).

14 Obliterated. Forster reads, "devil," and Mr. Ryland, "bitch."

15 See Letter 40, note 6.

16 Victor Marie, duc d'Estrees, Marshal of France (died 1727).

17 See Letter 55, note 18.

18 Several words are obliterated. Forster reads, "the last word, God 'give me"; but "'give me" is certainly wrong.

19 See Letter 9, note 13. Sir Thomas Hanmer married, in 1698, at the age of twenty-two, Isabella, Dowager Duchess of Grafton, daughter of Henry, Earl of Arlington, and Countess of Arlington in her own right. Hanmer was not made Secretary of State, but he succeeded Bromley as Speaker of the House of Commons.

20 William Fitzmaurice (see Letter 11, note 19 and Letter 27, note 11) entered Christ Church, Oxford, matriculating on March 10, 1712-13, at the age of eighteen.

21 See Letter 11, note 11.

22 William Bromley, second son of Bromley the Speaker (see Letter 10, note 1), was a boy of fourteen at this time. In 1727 he was elected M.P. for Warwick, and he died in 1737, shortly after being elected Member for Oxford University.

23 See Letter 14, note 12.

24 Sometimes "list" means to border or edge; at others, to sew together, so as to make a variegated display, or to form a border. Probably it here means the curling of the bottom of the wig.

25 The last eight words have been much obliterated, and the reading is doubtful.

26 Lady Henrietta Hyde, second daughter of Laurence Hyde, first Earl of Rochester (see Letter 8, note 22), married James Scott, Earl of Dalkeith, son of the Duke of Monmouth. Lord Dalkeith died in 1705, leaving a son, who succeeded his grandmother (Monmouth's widow) as second Duke of Buccleuch. Lady Catherine Hyde (see Letter 40, note 6) was a younger sister of Lady Dalkeith.

27 Swift first wrote "I frequent."

28 See Letter 52, note 5.

29 D'Estrees.

30 Little (almost illegible).



LETTER 61.

1 Addressed to "Mrs. Dingley," etc. Endorsed "Mar. 27."

2 See Letter 3, note 20.

3 Formerly Lady Rialton (see Letter 40, note 3).

4 See Letter 58, note 8.

5 See Letter 11, note 39 and Letter 41, note 27.

6 Pun on "gambol."

7 See Letter 57, note 4.

8 See Letter 41, note 7.

9 "Upon Tuesday last, the house where His Grace the late Duke of Hamilton and Brandon lived was hired for that day, where there was a fine ball and entertainment; and it is reported in town, that a great lady, lately gone to travel, left one hundred guineas, with orders that it should be spent in that manner, and in that house" (Postboy, Feb. 26-28, 1712-13). The "great lady" was, presumably, the Duchess of Marlborough.

10 See Letter 36, note 14 and Letter 40, note 21.

11 Trinity College, Dublin.

12 See Letter 60, note 19.

13 See Letter 36, note 15.

14 Dr. Pratt, Provost of Trinity College.

15 Obliterated, and doubtful.

16 A deal at cards, that draws the whole tricks.

17 Previous editors have misread "Trevor" as "Treasurer." Thomas Trevor, Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas, was created Baron Trevor, of Bromham, in January 1712. By commission of March 9, 1713, he occupied the woolsack during the illness of the Lord Keeper, Harcourt.

18 This is the only reference to Pope in the Journal. In his "Windsor Forest" the young poet assisted the Tories by his reference to the peace of Utrecht, then awaiting ratification.

19 Several words have been obliterated. Forster reads, "Rove Pdfr, poo Pdfr, Nite MD MD MD," but this is more than the space would contain.

20 William Oldisworth (1680-1734), a Tory journalist and pamphleteer, who published various works, including a translation of the Iliad. He died in a debtors' prison.

21 Some words obliterated. The reading is Forster's, and seems to be correct.

22 Susan Armine, elder daughter of Sir William Armine, Bart., of Osgodby, Lincolnshire, was created a life peeress in 1674, as Baroness Belasyse of Osgodby. She died March 6, 1713. Her first husband was the Honourable Sir Henry Belasyse, son and heir of John, Baron Belasyse, of Worlaby; and her second, Mr. Fortney, of Chequers.

23 See Letter 7, note 9.

24 A word before "Ppt" is illegible. Forster's reading, "yes," does not seem right.

25 In November 1711 it was reported that Miss Kingdom was privately married to Lord Conway (Wentworth Papers, 207), but this was not the case. Lord Conway was a widower in 1713, but he married an Irish lady named Bowden.

26 Forster reads, "Nite, my own dee sollahs. Pdfr roves MD"; but the last three words, at least, do not seem to be in the MS.

27 Probably the Bishop of Raphoe's son (see Letter 29, note 20).

28 What.

29 As Master of the Savoy.

30 William Burgh was Comptroller and Accountant-General for Ireland from 1694 to 1717, when his patent was revoked. He was succeeded by Eustace Budgell.

31 William Paget, sixth Lord Paget, died in March 1713, aged seventy-six. He spent a great part of his life as Ambassador at Vienna and Constantinople.

32 Pocket.

33 Forster reads, "Lele lele logues"; Mr. Ryland, "Lele lele... "



LETTER 62.

1 Addressed to "Mrs. Dingley," etc. Endorsed "Apr. 13."

2 Esther Johnson's brother-in-law, Filby (see Letter 55, note 19).

3 Earl Poulett (see Letter 20, note 7).

4 Francis Annesley, M.P. for Westbury. His colleague in the representation of that borough was Henry Bertie (third son of James, Earl of Abingdon), who married Earl Poulett's sister-in-law, Anthony Henley's widow (see Letter 12, note 24).

5 "Has" (MS.).

6 A dozen words are erased. The reading is Forster's, and appears to be correct.

7 The British Ambassadress's Speech to the French King. The printer was sent to the pillory and fined.

8 The Examiner (vol. iii. No. 35) said that Swift—"a gentleman of the first character for learning, good sense, wit, and more virtues than even they can set off and illustrate"—was not the author of that periodical. "Out of pure regard to justice, I strip myself of all the honour that lucky untruth did this paper."

9 A purgative electuary.

10 Bargains.

11 Three or four words illegible. Forster reads, "Nite, nite, own MD."

12 Forster reads, "devil's brood "; probably the second word is "bawd:" Cf. Letter 60, note 14 and Feb. 18, 1712-13.

13 Several "moving pictures," mostly brought from Germany, were on view in London at about this time. See Tatler, No. 129, and Gay's Fables, No. 6.

14 See Letter 6, note 45.

15 "Mr. Charles Grattan, afterwards master of a free school at Enniskillen" (Scott).

16 So given in the MS. Forster suggests that it is a mistake for "wood."

17 See Letter 28, note 11.

18 It is probable that this is Pope's friend, William Cleland, who died in 1741, aged sixty-seven. William Cleland served in Spain under Lord Rivers, but was not a Colonel, though he seems to have been a Major. Afterwards he was a Commissioner of Customs in Scotland and a Commissioner of the Land Tax in England. Colonel Cleland cannot, as Scott suggested (Swift's Works, iii. 142, xviii. 137-39, xix. 8), have been the son of the Colonel William Cleland, Covenanter and poet, who died in 1689, at the age of twenty-eight. William Cleland allowed his name to be appended to a letter of Pope's prefixed to the Dunciad, and Pope afterwards described him as "a person of universal learning, and an enlarged conversation; no man had a warmer heart for his friends, or a sincerer attachment to the constitution of his country." Swift, referring to this letter, wrote to Pope, "Pray tell me whether your Colonel (sic) Cleland be a tall Scots gentleman, walking perpetually in the Mall, and fastening upon everybody he meets, as he has often done upon me?" (Pope's Works, iv. 48, vii. 214).

19 Henry Grey, Lord Lucas (died 1741), who became twelfth Earl of Kent in 1702, was made Duke of Kent in 1710. He held various offices under George I. and George II.

20 Forster found, among the MSS. at Narford, the "lie" thus prepared for All Fools' Day. Richard Noble, an attorney, ran away with a lady who was the wife of John Sayer and daughter of Admiral Nevill; and he killed Sayer on the discovery of the intrigue. The incident was made use of by Hogarth in the fifth scene of "Marriage a la Mode."

21 See Letter 5, note 3.

22 See Letter 13, note 10.

23 Charles XII.

24 "Is" (MS.).

25 Cibber says that he saw four acts of Cato in 1703; the fifth act, according to Steele, was written in less than a week. The famous first performance was on April 14, 1713.

26 The first number of the Guardian appeared on March 12, and the paper was published daily until Oct. 1, 1713. Pope, Addison, and Berkeley were among the contributors.

27 See Letter 52, note 6.

28 See Letter 39, note 16.

29 The first preached after the period of his suspension by the House of Lords. It was delivered at St. Saviour's, Southwark, before his installation at St. Andrew's, and was published with the title, "The Christian's Triumph, or the Duty of praying for our Enemies".

30 Swift's curate at Laracor.

31 Richard Gorges (died 1728) was eldest son and heir of Dr. Robert Gorges, of Kilbrue, County Meath, by Jane, daughter of Sir Arthur Loftus, and sister of Adam, Viscount Lisburne. He was appointed Adjutant-General of the Forces in Ireland 1697, Colonel of a new Regiment of Foot 1703, Major-General of the Forces 1707, and Lieutenant-General 1710 (Dalton's Army Lists, iii. 75).

32 See Letter 60, note 10.

33 Mrs. Oldfield.

34 See Letter 56, note 6.

35 Never saw the like.

36 See Letter 53, note 10.

37 The remainder has been partially obliterated.



LETTER 63.

1 Addressed to "Mrs. Dingley," etc. Endorsed "May 4."

2 Lord Cholmondeley (see Letter 36, note 15).

3 Harcourt.

4 Forster's reading; the last two words are doubtful.

5 See Letter 7, note 27.

6 Francis Palmes, who was wounded at Blenheim, was made a Lieutenant-General in 1709. In 1707 he was elected M.P. for West Loo; in 1708 he was sent as Envoy Extraordinary to the Duke of Savoy, and in 1710 to Vienna.

7 Apparently "so heed."

8 Henry Villiers (died 1743), second son of the first Earl of Jersey and of Barbara, daughter of William Chiffinch (see Letter 29, note 3 and Letter 59, note 25).

9 See Letter 61, Mar. 8, 1712-13. The Speech and Address are in the Commons' Journals, xvii. 278, 280. For the draft Address, in Swift's handwriting, see the Portland Papers (1899), v. 276.

10 Scoffed, jeered.

11 Dr. Gastrell (see Letter 25, note 8).

12 George Berkeley, afterwards Bishop of Cloyne, but then a young man of twenty-eight, came to London in January 1713. He was already known by his "New Theory of Vision" and "Treatise on the Principles of Human Knowledge", and he brought with him his "Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous". Steele was among the first to welcome him, and he soon made the acquaintance of Addison, Pope, and Swift. On March 27, Berkeley wrote to Sir John Perceval of the breach between Swift and the Whigs: "Dr. Swift's wit is admired by both of them (Addison and Steele), and indeed by his greatest enemies, and... I think him one of the best-matured and agreeable men in the world." In November 1713 Swift procured for Berkeley the chaplaincy and secretaryship to Lord Peterborough, the new Envoy to Sicily.

13 Forster reads, "all oo sawcy Ppt can say oo may see me"; but the words are illegible.

14 Possibly "see," written in mistake for "say."

15 "J" (MS.).

16 Obliterated. Forster imagined that he read, "Nite dee logues. Poo Mr."

17 There were two General Hamiltons at this time; probably Swift's acquaintance was Gustavus Hamilton (1639-1723), who was created Viscount Boyne in 1717. Hamilton distinguished himself at the battle of the Boyne and the capture of Athlone, and was made Brigadier-General in 1696, and Major General in 1703. He took part in the siege of Vigo, and was made a member of the Privy Council in 1710.

18 See Letter 43, note 38.

19 The History of the Peace of Utrecht.

20 This is Forster's reading, and appears to be correct. The last word, which he gives as "iss truly," is illegible.

21 Belonging to Ireland.

22 See Letter 40, note 1.

23 Another excellent reading of Forster's. I cannot decipher the last word, which he gives as "dee rogues."

24 Sentence obliterated.

25 The number at the beginning of each entry in the Journal.

26 Mr. Ryland's reading. Forster has "morning, dee."

27 Dr. Thomas Lindsay (see Letter 6, note 45).

28 I think the "MD" is right, though Forster gives "M." The "Pr" is probably an abbreviation of "Pdfr."

29 The last three lines have been obliterated.

Letter 64.

1 Addressed to "Mrs. Dingley," etc. Endorsed "May 22."

2 Illegible. Forster reads, "and dee deelest Ppt."

3 The last few words have been partially obliterated.

4 Am very angry. The last word is scribbled over.

5 The History of the Peace of Utrecht.

6 The signature has been cut off.

Letter 65.

1 Addressed to "Mrs. Dingley," etc. Endorsed "Chester Letter."

2 "Others" (MS.).

3 See Letter 10, note 31 and Letter 31, note 1.

4 See Letter 7, note 7.

THE END