NOTES.
These notes are referenced by 'Notes to the Introduction' or 'Letter
(number)', and the numbers in square brackets (thus -- [3]) in the body of the
Journal.
Notes to the Introduction.
1 Notes and Queries, Sixth Series, x. 287.
2 See letter from Swift to John Temple, February 1737. She was then "quite
sunk with years and unwieldliness."
3 Athenaeum, Aug. 8, 1891.
4 Journal, May 4, 1711.
5 Craik's Life of Swift, 269.
6 Unpublished Letters of Dean Swift, pp. 189-96.
7 In 1730 he wrote, "Those who have been married may form juster ideas of that
estate than I can pretend to do" (Dr. Birkbeck Hill's Unpublished Letters of
Dean Swift, p. 237).
8 Scott added a new incident which has become incorporated in the popular
conception of Swift's story. Delany is said to have met Swift rushing out of
Archbishop King's study, with a countenance of distraction, immediately after
the wedding. King, who was in tears, said, "You have just met the most
unhappy man on earth; but on the subject of his wretchedness you must never
ask a question." Will it be believed that Scott--who rejects Delany's
inference from this alleged incident--had no better authority for it than "a
friend of his (Delany's) relict"?
9 This incident, for which there is probably some foundation of fact--we
cannot say how much--has been greatly expanded by Mrs. Woods in her novel
Esther Vanhomrigh. Unfortunately most of her readers cannot, of course, judge
exactly how far her story is a work of imagination.
10 In October Swift explained that he had been in the country "partly to see a
lady of my old acquaintance, who was extremely ill" (Unpublished Letters of
Dean Swift, p. 198).
11 There is a story that shortly before her death Swift begged Stella to allow
herself to be publicly announced as his wife, but that she replied that it was
then too late. The versions given by Delany and Theophilus Swift differ
considerably, while Sheridan alters the whole thing by representing Swift as
brutally refusing to comply with Stella's last wishes.
12 There has also been the absurd suggestion that the impediment was Swift's
knowledge that both he and Stella were the illegitimate children of Sir
William Temple--a theory which is absolutely disproved by known facts.
13 It is curious to note the intimate knowledge of some of Swift's
peculiarities which was possessed by the hostile writer of a pamphlet called A
Hue and Cry after Dr. S---t, published in 1714. That piece consists, for the
most part, of extracts from a supposed Diary by Swift, and contains such
passages as these: "Friday. Go to the Club . . . Am treated. Expenses one
shilling." "Saturday. Bid my servant get all things ready for a journey to
the country: mend my breeches; hire a washerwoman, making her allow for old
shirts, socks, dabbs and markees, which she bought of me . . . Six coaches of
quality, and nine hacks, this day called at my lodgings." "Thursday. The
Earl looked queerly: left him in a huff. Bid him send for me when he was fit
for company. . . Spent ten shillings."
14 The "little language" is marked chiefly by such changes of letters (e.g.,
l for r, or r for l) as a child makes when learning to speak. The
combinations of letters in which Swift indulges are not so easy of
interpretation. For himself he uses Pdfr, and sometimes Podefar or FR
(perhaps Poor dear foolish rogue). Stella is Ppt (Poor pretty thing). MD (my
dears) usually stands for both Stella and Mrs. Dingley, but sometimes for
Stella alone. Mrs. Dingley is indicated by ME (Madam Elderly), D, or DD (Dear
Dingley). The letters FW may mean Farewell, or Foolish Wenches. Lele seems
sometimes to be There, there, and sometimes Truly.
Letter 1.
1. Addressed "To Mrs. Dingley, at Mr. Curry's house over against the Ram in
Capel Street, Dublin, Ireland," and endorsed by Esther Johnson, "Sept. 9.
Received." Afterwards Swift added, "MD received this Sept. 9," and "Letters
to Ireland from Sept.1710, begun soon after the change of Ministry. Nothing
in this."
2. Beaumont is the "grey old fellow, poet Joe," of Swift's verses "On the
little house by the Churchyard at Castlenock." Joseph Beaumont, a linen-
merchant, is described as "a venerable, handsome, grey-headed man, of quick
and various natural abilities, but not improved by learning." His inventions
and mathematical speculations, relating to the longitude and other things,
brought on mental troubles, which were intensified by bankruptcy, about 1718.
He was afterwards removed from Dublin to his home at Trim, where he rallied;
but in a few years his madness returned, and he committed suicide.
3. Vicar of Trim, and formerly a Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. In
various places in his correspondence Swift criticises the failings of Dr.
Anthony Raymond, who was, says Scott, "a particular friend." His
unreliability in money matters, the improvidence of his large family, his
peculiarities in grammar, his pride in his good manners, all these points are
noticed in the journal and elsewhere. But when Dr. Raymond returned to
Ireland after a visit to London, Swift felt a little melancholy, and regretted
that he had not seen more of him. In July 1713 Raymond was presented to the
Crown living of Moyenet.
4. A small township on the estuary of the Dee, between twelve and thirteen
miles north-west of Chester. In the early part of the eighteenth century
Parkgate was a rival of Holyhead as a station for the Dublin packets, which
started, on the Irish side, from off Kingsend.
5. Dr. St. George Ashe, afterwards Bishop of Derry, who had been Swift's tutor
at Trinity College, Dublin. He died in 1718. It is this lifelong friend who
is said to have married Swift and Esther Johnson in 1716.
6. The Commission to solicit for the remission of the First-Fruits and
twentieth parts, payable to the Crown by the Irish clergy, was signed by the
Archbishops of Armagh, Dublin, and Cashel, and the Bishops of Kildare, Meath,
and Killala.
7. Dr. William Lloyd was appointed Bishop of Killala in 1690. He had
previously been Dean of Achonry.
8. Dr. John Hough (1651-1743). In 1687 he had been elected President of
Magdalen College, Oxford, in place of the nominee of James II. Hough was
Bishop of Oxford, Lichfield, and Worcester successively, and declined the
primacy in 1715.
9. Steele was at this time Gazetteer. The Cockpit, in Whitehall, looked upon
St. James's Palace, and was used for various Government purposes.
10. This coffee-house, the resort of the Whig politicians, was kept by a man
named Elliot. It is often alluded to in the Tatler and Spectator.
11. William Stewart, second Viscount Mountjoy, a friend and correspondent of
Swift's in Ireland. He was the son of one of William's generals, and was
himself a Lieutenant-General and Master-General of the Ordnance; he died in
1728.
12. Catherine, daughter of Maurice Keating, of Narraghmore, Kildare, and wife
of Garret Wesley, of Dangan, M.P. for Meath. She died in 1745. On the death
of Garret Wesley without issue in 1728, the property passed to a cousin,
Richard Colley, who was afterwards created Baron Mornington, and was
grandfather to the Duke of Wellington.
13. The landlady of Esther Johnson and Mrs. Dingley.
14. Swift's housekeeper at Laracor. Elsewhere Swift speaks of his "old
Presbyterian housekeeper," "who has been my Walpole above thirty years,
whenever I lived in this kingdom." "Joe Beaumont is my oracle for public
affairs in the country, and an old Presbyterian woman in town."
15. Isaiah Parvisol, Swift's tithe-agent and steward at Laracor, was an
Irishman of French extraction, who died in 1718 (Birkbeck's Unpublished
Letters of Dean Swift, 1899, p.85).
Letter 2.
1. In some MS. Accounts of Swift's, in the Forster Collection at South
Kensington there is the following entry:--"Set out for England Aug. 31st on
Thursday, 10 at night; landed at Parkgate Friday 1st at noon. Sept. 1, 171O,
came to London. Thursday at noon, Sept. 7th, with Lord Mountjoy, etc. Mem.:
Lord Mountjoy bore my expenses from Chester to London."
2. In a letter to Archbishop King of the same date Swift says he was "equally
caressed by both parties; by one as a sort of bough for drowning men to lay
hold of, and by the other as one discontented with the late men in power."
3. The Earl of Godolphin, who was severely satirised by Swift in his Sid
Hamet's Rod, 171O. He had been ordered to break his staff as Treasurer on
August 8. Swift told Archbishop King that Godolphin was "altogether short,
dry, and morose."
4. Martha, widow of Sir Thomas Giffard, Bart., of County Kildare, the
favourite sister of Sir William Temple, had been described by Swift in early
pindaric verses as "wise and great." Afterwards he was to call her "an old
beast" (Journal, Nov. 11, 171O). Their quarrel arose, towards the close of
17O9, out of a difference with regard to the publication of Sir William
Temple's Works. On the appearance of vol. v. Lady Giffard charged Swift with
publishing portions of the writings from an unfaithful copy in lieu of the
originals in his possession, and in particular with printing laudatory notices
of Godolphin and Sunderland which Temple intended to omit, and with omitting
an unfavourable remark on Sunderland which Temple intended to print. Swift
replied that the corrections were all made by Temple himself.
5. Lord Wharton's second wife, Lucy, daughter of Lord Lisburn. She died in
1716, a few months after her husband. See Lady M. W. Montagu's Letters.
6. Mrs. Bridget Johnson, who married, as her second husband, Ralph Mose or
Moss, of Farnham, an agent for Sir William Temple's estate, was waiting-woman
or companion to Lady Giffard. In her will (1722) Lady Giffard left Mrs. Moss
2O pounds, "with my silver cup and cover." Mrs. Moss died in 1745, when
letters of administration were granted to a creditor of the deceased.
7. Dr. William King (165O-1729), a Whig and High Churchman, had more than one
difference with Swift during the twenty years following Swift's first visit to
London in connection with the First-Fruits question.
8. Swift's benefice, in the diocese of Meath, two miles from Trim.
9. Steele, who had been issuing the Tatler thrice weekly since April 17O9. He
lost the Gazetteership in October.
10. James, second Duke of Ormond (1665-1745) was appointed Lord Lieutenant on
the 26th of October. In the following year he became Captain-General and
Commander-in-Chief. He was impeached of high treason and attainted in 1715;
and he died in exile.
11. "Presto," substituted by the original editor for "Pdfr," was suggested by
a passage in the Journal for Aug. 2, 1711, where Swift says that the Duchess
of Shrewsbury "could not say my name in English, but said Dr. Presto, which is
Italian for Swift."
12. Charles Jervas, the popular portrait-painter, has left two portraits of
Swift, one of which is in the National Portrait Gallery, and the other in the
Bodleian Library.
13. Sir William Temple's nephew, and son of Sir John Temple (died 17O4),
Solicitor and Attorney-General, and Speaker of the Irish House of Commons.
"Jack" Temple acquired the estate of Moor Park, Surrey, by his marriage with
Elizabeth, granddaughter of Sir William Temple, and elder daughter of John
Temple, who committed suicide in 1689. As late as 17O6 Swift received an
invitation to visit Moor Park.
14. Dr. Benjamin Pratt, Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, was appointed Dean
of Down in 1717. Swift calls him "a person of wit and learning," and "a
gentleman of good birth and fortune,. . very much esteemed among us" (Short
Character of Thomas, Earl of Wharton). On his death in 1721 Swift wrote, "He
was one of the oldest acquaintance I had, and the last that I expected to die.
He has left a young widow, in very good circumstances. He had schemes of long
life. . . . What a ridiculous thing is man!" (Unpublished Letters of Dean
Swift, 1899, p. 106).
15. A Westmeath landlord, whom Swift met from time to time in London. The
Leighs were well acquainted with Esther Johnson.
16. Dr. Enoch Sterne, appointed Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin, in 17O4. Swift
was his successor in the deanery on Dr. Sterne's appointment as Bishop of
Dromore in 1713. In 1717 Sterne was translated to the bishopric of Clogher.
He spent much money on the cathedrals, etc., with which he was connected.
17. Archdeacon Walls was rector of Castle Knock, near Trim. Esther Johnson
was a frequent visitor at his house in Queen Street, Dublin.
18. William Frankland, Comptroller of the Inland Office at the Post Office,
was the second son of the Postmaster-General, Sir Thomas Frankland, Bart.
Luttrell (vi. 333) records that in 17O8 he was made Treasurer of the Stamp
Office, or, according to Chamberlayne's Mag. Brit. Notitia for 171O, Receiver-
General.
19. Thomas Wharton, Earl and afterwards Marquis of Wharton, had been one of
Swift's fellow-travellers from Dublin. Lord Lieutenant of Ireland under the
Whig Government, from 17O8 to 171O, Wharton was the most thorough-going party
man that had yet appeared in English politics; and his political enemies did
not fail to make the most of his well-known immorality. In his Notes to
Macky's Characters Swift described Wharton as "the most universal villain that
ever I knew." On his death in 1715 he was succeeded by his profligate son,
Philip, who was created Duke of Wharton in 1718.
20. This money was a premium the Government had promised Beaumont for his
Mathematical Sleying Tables, calculated for the improvement of the linen
manufacture.
21. The bellman was both town-crier and night-watchman.
Letter 3.
1. Dr. William Cockburn (1669-1739), Swift's physician, of a good Scottish
family, was educated at Leyden. He invented an electuary for the cure of
fluxes, and in 173O, in The Danger of Improving Physick, satirised the
academical physicians who envied him the fortune he had made by his secret
remedy. He was described in 1729 as "an old very rich quack."
2. Sir Matthew Dudley, Bart., an old Whig friend, was M.P. for
Huntingdonshire, and Commissioner of the Customs from 17O6 to 1712, and again
under George I., until his death in 1721.
3. Isaac Manley, who was appointed Postmaster-General in Ireland in 17O3
(Luttrell, v. 333). He had previously been Comptroller of the English Letter
Office, a post in which he was succeeded by William Frankland, son of Sir
Thomas Frankland. Dunton calls Manley "loyal and acute."
4. Sir Thomas Frankland was joint Postmaster-General from 1691 to 1715. He
succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father, Sir William Frankland,
in 1697, and he died in 1726. Macky describes Sir Thomas as "of a sweet and
easy disposition, zealous for the Constitution, yet not forward, and indulgent
to his dependants." On this Swift comments, "This is a fair character."
5. Theophilus Butler, elected M.P. for Cavan, in the Irish Parliament, in
17O3, and for Belturbet (as "the Right Hon. Theophilus Butler") in 1713. On
May 3, 171O, Luttrell wrote (Brief Relation of State Affairs, vi. 577), "'Tis
said the Earl of Montrath, Lord Viscount Mountjoy. . . and Mr. Butler will be
made Privy Councillors of the Kingdom of Ireland." Butler--a contemporary of
Swift's at Trinity College, Dublin--was created Baron of Newtown-Butler in
1715, and his brother, who succeeded him in 1723, was made Viscount
Lanesborough. Butler's wife was Emilia, eldest daughter and co-heir of James
Stopford, of Tara, County Meath.
6. No. 193 of the Tatler, for July 4, 1710, contained a letter from Downes the
Prompter--not by Steele himself--in ridicule of Harley and his proposed
Ministry.
7. Charles Robartes, second Earl of Radnor, who died in 1723. In the Journal
for Dec. 3O, 1711, Swift calls him "a scoundrel."
8. Benjamin Tooke, Swift's bookseller or publisher, lived at the Middle Temple
Gate. Dunton wrote of him, "He is truly honest, a man of refined sense, and
is unblemished in his reputation." Tooke died in 1723.
9. Swift's servant, of whose misdeeds he makes frequent complaints in the
Journal.
10. Deputy Vice-Treasurer of Ireland. In one place Swift calls him Captain
Pratt; and in all probability he is the John Pratt who, as we learn from
Dalton's English Army Lists, was appointed captain in General Erle's regiment
of foot in 1699, and was out of the regiment by 17O6. In 17O2 he obtained the
Queen's leave to be absent from the regiment when it was sent to the West
Indies. Pratt seems to have been introduced to Swift by Addison.
11. Charles Ford, of Wood Park, near Dublin, was a great lover of the opera
and a friend of the Tory wits. He was appointed Gazetteer in 1712. Gay calls
him "joyous Ford," and he was given to over-indulgence in conviviality. See
Swift's poem on Stella at Wood Park.
12. Lord Somers, to whom Swift had dedicated The Tale of a Tub, with high
praise of his public and private virtues. In later years Swift said that
Somers "possessed all excellent qualifications except virtue."
13. At the foundation school of the Ormonds at Kilkenny. (see note 22.)
14. A Whig haberdasher.
15. Benjamin Hoadley, the Whig divine, had been engaged in controversy with
Sacheverell, Blackall, and Atterbury. After the accession of George I. he
became Bishop of Bangor, Hereford, Salisbury, and Winchester in success.
16. Dr. Henry Sacheverell, whose impeachment and trial had led to the fall of
the Whig Government.
17. Sir Berkeley Lucy, Bart., F.R.S., married Katherine, daughter of Charles
Cotton, of Beresford, Staffordshire, Isaac Walton's friend. Lady Lucy died in
174O, leaving an only surviving daughter, Mary, who married the youngest son
of the Earl of Northampton, and had two sons, who became successively seventh
and eighth Earls of Northampton. Forster and others assumed that "Lady Lucy"
was a Lady Lucy Stanhope, though they were not able to identify her. It was
reserved for Mr. Ryland to clear up this difficulty. As he points out, Lady
Lucy's elder sister, Olive, married George Stanhope, Dean of Canterbury, and
left a daughter Mary,--Swift's "Moll Stanhope,"--a beauty and a madcap, who
married, in 1712, William Burnet, son of Bishop Burnet, and
died in 1714. Mary, another sister of Lady Lucy's, married Augustine
Armstrong, of Great Ormond Street, and is the Mrs. Armstrong mentioned by
Swift on Feb. 3, 1711, as a pretender to wit, without taste. Sir Berkeley
Lucy's mother was a daughter of the first Earl of Berkeley, and it was
probably through the Berkeleys that Swift came to know the Lucys.
18. Ann Long was sister to Sir James Long, and niece to Colonel Strangeways.
Once a beauty and toast of the Kit-Cat Club, she fell into narrow
circumstances through imprudence and the unkindness of her friends, and
retired under the name of Mrs. Smythe to Lynn, in Norfolk, where she died in
1711 (see Journal, December 25, 1711). Swift said, "She was the most
beautiful person of the age she lived in; of great honour and virtue, infinite
sweetness and generosity of temper, and true good sense" (Forster's Swift,
229). In a letter of December 1711, Swift wrote that she "had every valuable
quality of body and mind that could make a lady loved and esteemed."
19. Said, I know not on what authority, to be Swift's friend, Mrs. Barton.
But Mrs. Barton is often mentioned by Swift as living in London in 1710-11.
20. One of Swift's cousins, who was separated from her husband, a man of bad
character, living abroad. Her second husband, Lancelot, a servant of Lord
Sussex, lived in New Bond Street, and there Swift lodged in 1727.
21. 100,000 pounds.
22. Francis Stratford's name appears in the Dublin University Register for
1686 immediately before Swift's. Budgell is believed to have referred to the
friendship of Swift and Stratford in the Spectator, No. 353, where he
describes two schoolfellows, and says that the man of genius was buried in a
country parsonage of 160 pounds a year, while his friend, with the bare
abilities of a common scrivener, had gained an estate of above 100,000 pounds.
23. William Cowper, afterwards Lord Cowper.
24. Sir Simon Harcourt, afterwards Viscount Harcourt, had been counsel for
Sacheverell. On Sept. 19, 171O, he was appointed Attorney-General, and on
October 19 Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. In April 1713 he became Lord
Chancellor.
25. This may be some relative of Dr. John Freind (see Letter 9), or, more
probably, as Sir Henry Craik suggests, a misprint for Colonel Frowde,
Addison's friend (see Journal, Nov. 4, 171O). No officer named Freind or
Friend is mentioned in Dalton's English Army Lists.
26. See the Tatler, Nos. 124, 2O3. There are various allusions in the
"Wentworth Papers" to this, the first State Lottery of 171O; and two bluecoat
boys drawing out the tickets, and showing their hands to the crowd, as Swift
describes them, are shown in a reproduction of a picture in a contemporary
pamphlet given in Ashton's Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, i. 115.
27. A few weeks later Swift wrote, "I took a fancy of resolving to grow mad
for it, but now it is off."
28. Sir John Holland, Bart., was a leading manager for the Commons in the
impeachment of Sacheverell. He succeeded Sir Thomas Felton in the
Comptrollership in March 171O.
29. Dryden Leach. (see Letter 7.)
30. William Pate, "bel esprit and woollen-draper," as Swift called him, lived
opposite the Royal Exchange. He was Sheriff of London in 1734, and died in
1746. Arbuthnot, previous to matriculating at Oxford, lodged with Pate, who
gave him a letter of introduction to Dr. Charlett, Master of University
College; and Pate is supposed to have been the woollen-draper, "remarkable for
his learning and good-nature," who is mentioned by Steele in the Guardian, No.
141.
31. James Brydges, son of Lord Chandos of Sudeley, was appointed Paymaster-
General of Forces Abroad in 17O7. He succeeded his father as Baron Chandos in
1714, and was created Duke of Chandos in 1729. The "princely Chandos" and his
house at Canons suggested to Pope the Timon's villa of the "Epistle to Lord
Burlington." The Duke died in 1744.
32. Charles Talbot, created Duke of Shrewsbury in 1694, was held in great
esteem by William III., and was Lord Chamberlain under Anne. In 1713 he
became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and held various offices under George I.,
until his death in 1718. "Before he was o. age," says Macaulay, "he was
allowed to be one of the finest gentlemen and finest scholars of his time."
33. See No. 23O.
34. William Cavendish, second Duke of Devonshire (1673-1729), who was Lord
Steward from 17O7 to 1710 and from 1714 to 1716. Afterwards he was Lord
President of the Council. Swift's comment on Macky's character of this Whig
nobleman was, "A very poor understanding."
35. John Annesley, fourth Earl of Anglesea, a young nobleman of great promise,
had only recently been appointed joint Vice-Treasurer, Receiver-General, and
Paymaster of the Forces in Ireland, and sworn of the Privy Council.
36. Nichols, followed by subsequent editors, suggested that "Durham" was a
mistake for "St. David's," because Dr. George Bull, Bishop of St. David's,
died in 1710. But Dr. Bull died on Feb. 17, 171O, though his successor, Dr.
Philip Bisse, was not appointed until November; and Swift was merely repeating
a false report of the death of Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham, which was current
on the day on which he wrote. Luttrell says, on Sept. 19, "The Lord Crewe. .
. died lately"; but on the 23rd he adds, "The Bishop of Durham is not dead as
reported" (Brief Relation, vi. 63O, 633.
37. Lady Elizabeth ("Betty") Butler, who died unmarried in 175O.
38. Swift wrote in 1734, "Once every year I issued out an edict, commanding
that all ladies of wit, sense, merit, and quality, who had an ambition to be
acquainted with me, should make the first advances at their peril: which
edict, you may believe, was universally obeyed."
39. Charles, second Earl of Berkeley (1649-171O), married Elizabeth, daughter
of Baptist Noel, Viscount Campden. The Earl died on Sept. 24, 171O, and his
widow in 1719. Swift, it will be remembered, had been chaplain to Lord
Berkeley in Ireland in 1699.
40. Lady Betty and Lady Mary Butler. (see Letter 7, notes 2 and 3.)
41. Henry Boyle, Chancellor of the Exchequer from 17O2 to 17O8, was Secretary
of State from 17O8 to 171O, when he was succeeded by St. John. In 1714 he was
created Baron Carleton, and he was Lord President from 1721 until his death in
1725.
42. On Sept. 29 Swift wrote that his rooms consisted of the first floor, a
dining-room and bed-chamber, at eight shillings a week. On his last visit to
England, in 1726, he lodged "next door to the Royal Chair" in Bury Street.
Steele lived in the same street from 17O7 to 1712; and Mrs. Vanhomrigh was
Swift's next-door neighbour.
43. In Exchange Alley. Cf. Spectator, No. 454: "I went afterwards to
Robin's, and saw people who had dined with me at the fivepenny ordinary just
before, give bills for the value of large estates."
Letter 4.
1 John Molesworth, Commissioner of the Stamp Office, was sent as Envoy to
Tuscany in 1710, and was afterwards Minister at Florence, Venice, Geneva, and
Turin. He became second Viscount Molesworth in 1725, and died in 1731.
2 Misson says, "Every two hours you may write to any part of the city or
suburbs: he that receives it pays a penny, and you give nothing when you put
it into the Post; but when you write into the country both he that writes and
he that receives pay each a penny." The Penny Post system had been taken over
by the Government, but was worked separately from the general Post.
3 The Countess of Berkeley's second daughter, who married, in 1706, Sir John
Germaine, Bart. (165O-1718), a soldier of fortune. Lady Betty Germaine is
said to have written a satire on Pope (Nichols' Literary Anecdotes, ii. 11),
and was a constant correspondent of Swift's. She was always a Whig, and
shortly before her death in 1769 she made a present of 100 pounds to John
Wilkes, then in prison in the Tower. Writing of Lady Betty Butler and Lady
Betty Germaine, Swift says elsewhere, "I saw two Lady Bettys this afternoon;
the beauty of one, the good breeding and nature of the other, and the wit of
either, would have made a fine woman." Germaine obtained the estate at
Drayton through his first wife, Lady Mary Mordaunt--Lord Peterborough's
sister--who had been divorced by her first husband, the Duke of Norfolk. Lady
Betty was thirty years younger than her husband, and after Sir John's death
she remained a widow for over fifty years.
4 The letter in No. 28O of the Tatler.
5 Discover, find out. Cf. Shakespeare's All's Well that Ends Well, iii. 6:
"He was first smoked by the old Lord Lafeu."
6 A village near Dublin.
7 Excellent.
8 John Molesworth, and, probably, his brother Richard, afterwards third
Viscount Molesworth, who had saved the Duke of Marlborough's life at the
battle of Ramillies, and had been appointed, in 171O, colonel of a regiment of
foot.
9 Presumably at Charles Ford's.
10 The Virtues of Sid Hamet the Magician's Rod, published as a single folio
sheet, was a satire on Godolphin.
11 Apparently Marcus Antonius Morgan, steward to the Bishop of Kildare
(Craik). Swift wrote to the Duke of Montagu on Aug. 12, 1713 (Buccleuch MSS.,
1899, i. 359). "Mr. Morgan of Kingstrope is a friend, and was, I am informed,
put out of the Commission of justice for being so."
12 Dr. Raymond is called Morgan's "father" because he warmly supported
Morgan's interests.
13 The Rev. Thomas Warburton, Swift's curate at Laracor, whom Swift described
to the Archbishop as "a gentleman of very good learning and sense, who has
behaved himself altogether unblamably."
14 The tobacco was to be used as snuff. About this time ladies much affected
the use of snuff, and Steele, in No. 344 of the Spectator, speaks of Flavilla
pulling out her box, "which is indeed full of good Brazil," in the middle of
the sermon. People often made their own snuff out of roll tobacco, by means
of rasps. On Nov. 3, 1711, Swift speaks of sending "a fine snuff rasp of
ivory, given me by Mrs. St. John for Dingley, and a large roll of tobacco."
15 Katherine Barton, second daughter of Robert Barton, of Brigstock,
Northamptonshire, and niece of Sir Isaac Newton. She was a favourite among
the toasts of the Kit-Cat Club, and Lord Halifax, who left her a fortune, was
an intimate friend. In 1717 she married John Conduitt, afterwards Master of
the Mint.
16 William Connolly, appointed a Commissioner of the Revenue in 1709, was
afterwards Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. He died in 1729. Francis
Robarts, appointed a Commissioner of the Revenue in 1692, was made a Teller of
the Exchequer in England in 1704, and quitted that office, in September 171O,
on his reappointment, in Connolly's place, as Revenue Commissioner in Ireland.
In 1714 Robarts was removed, and Connolly again appointed Commissioner.
17 Enoch Sterne, Collector of Wicklow and Clerk to the Irish House of Lords.
Writing to Dr. Sterne on Sept. 26, Swift said, "I saw Collector Sterne, who
desired me to present his service to you, and to tell you he would be glad to
hear from you, but not about business."
18 In his "Character of Mrs. Johnson" Swift says, "She was never known to cry
out, or discover any fear, in a coach." The passage in the text is obscure.
Apparently Esther Johnson had boasted of saving money by walking, instead of
riding, like a coward.
19 John Radcliffe (165O-1714), the well-known physician and wit, was often
denounced as a clever empiric. Early in 1711 he treated Swift for his
dizziness. By his will, Radcliffe left most of his property to the University
of Oxford.
20 Charles Barnard, Sergeant-Surgeon to the Queen, and Master of the Barber
Surgeons' Company. His large and valuable library, to which Swift afterwards
refers, fetched great prices. Luttrell records Barnard's death in his diary
for Oct. 12, 171O.
21 Robert Harley, afterwards Earl of Oxford, had been appointed Chancellor of
the Exchequer in August 1710. In May 1711 he was raised to the peerage and
made Lord High Treasurer; and he is constantly referred to in the Journal as
"Lord Treasurer." He was impeached in 1715, but was acquitted to 1717; he
died in 1724.
22 The Right Hon. Thomas Bligh, M.P., of Rathmore, County Meath, died on Aug.
28, 1710. His son, mentioned later in the Journal, became Earl of Darnley.
Letter 5.
1 Penalty.
2 Erasmus Lewis, Under Secretary of State under Lord Dartmouth, was a great
friend of Swift, Pope, and Arbuthnot. He had previously been one of Harley's
secretaries, and in his Horace Imitated, Book I. Ep. vii., Swift describes him
as "a cunning shaver, and very much in Harley's favour." Arbuthnot says that
under George I. Lewis kept company with the greatest, and was "principal
governor" in many families. Lewis was a witness to Arbuthnot's will. Pope
and Esther Vanhomrigh both left him money to buy rings. Lewis died in 1754,
aged eighty-three.
3 Charles Darteneuf, or Dartiquenave, was a celebrated epicure, who is said to
have been a son of Charles II. Lord Lyttleton, in his Dialogues of the Dead,
recalling Pope's allusions to him, selects him to represent modern bon vivants
in the dialogue between Darteneuf and Apicius. See Tatler 252. Darteneuf was
Paymaster of the Royal Works and a member of the Kit-Cat Club. He died in
1737.
4 No. 23O.
5 Good, excellent.
6 Captain George Delaval, appointed Envoy Extraordinary to the King of
Portugal in Oct, 171O, was with Lord Peterborough in Spain in 1706. In May
1707 he went to Lisbon with despatches for the Courts of Spain and Portugal,
from whence he was to proceed as Envoy to the Emperor of Morocco, with rich
presents (Luttrell, vi. 52, 174, 192).
7 Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax, as Ranger of Bushey Park and Hampton
Court, held many offices under William III., and was First Lord of the
Treasury under George I., until his death in 1715. He was great as financier
and as debater, and he was a liberal patron of literature.
8 John Manley, M.P. for Bossiney, was made Surveyor-General on Sept. 3O, 1710,
and died in 1714. In 1706 he fought a duel with another Cornish member
(Luttrell, vi. 11, 535, 635). He seems to be the cousin whom Mrs. De la
Riviere Manley accuses of having drawn her into a false marriage. For Isaac
Manley and Sir Thomas Frankland, see Letter 3, notes 3 and 4.
9 The Earl of Godolphin (see Letter 2, note 3).
10 Sir John Stanley, Bart., of Northend, Commissioner of Customs, whom Swift
knew through his intimate friends the Pendarves. His wife, Anne, daughter of
Bernard Granville, and niece of John, Earl of Bath, was aunt to Mary
Granville, afterwards Mrs. Delany, who lived with the Stanleys at their house
in Whitehall.
11 Henry, Viscount Hyde, eldest son of Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester,
succeeded his father in the earldom in 1711, and afterwards became Earl of
Clarendon. His wife, Jane, younger daughter of Sir William Leveson Gower,--
who married a daughter of John Granville, Earl of Bath,--was a beauty, and the
mother of two beauties--Jane, afterwards Countess of Essex (see journal, Jan.
29, 1712), and Catherine, afterwards Countess of Queensberry. Lady Hyde was
complimented by Prior, Pope, and her kinsman, Lord Lansdowne, and is said to
have been more handsome than either of her daughters. She died in 1725; her
husband in 1753. Lord Hyde became joint Vice-Treasurer for Ireland in 171O;
hence his interest with respect to Pratt's appointment.
12 See Letter 3, note 10.
13 Sir Paul Methuen (1672-1757), son of John Methuen, diplomatist and Lord
Chancellor of Ireland. Methuen was Envoy and Ambassador to Portugal from 1697
to 1708, and was M.P. for Devizes from 1708 to 171O, and a Lord of the
Admiralty. Under George I. he was Ambassador to Spain, and held other
offices. Gay speaks of "Methuen of sincerest mind, as Arthur grave, as soft
as womankind," and Steele dedicated to him the seventh volume of the
Spectator. In his Notes on Macky's Characters, Swift calls him "a profligate
rogue. . . without abilities of any kind."
14 Sir James Montagu was Attorney-General from 1708 to Sept. 171O, when he
resigned, and was succeeded by Sir Simon Harcourt. Under George I. Montagu
was raised to the Bench, and a few months before his death in 1723 became
Chief Baron of the Exchequer.
15 The turnpike system had spread rapidly since the Restoration, and had
already effected an important reform in the English roads. Turnpike roads
were as yet unknown in Ireland.
16 Ann Johnson, who afterwards married a baker named Filby.
17 An infusion of which the main ingredient was cowslip or palsy-wort.
18 William Legge, first Earl of Dartmouth (1672-175O), was St. John's fellow
Secretary of State. Lord Dartmouth seems to have been a plain, unpretending
man, whose ignorance of French helped to throw important matters into St.
John's hands.
19 Richard Dyot was tried at the Old Bailey, on Jan. 13, 171O-11, for
counterfeiting stamps, and was acquitted, the crime being found not felony,
but only breach of trust. Two days afterwards a bill of indictment was found
against him for high misdemeanour.
20 Sir Philip Meadows (1626-1718) was knighted in 1658, and was Ambassador to
Sweden under Cromwell. His son Philip (died 1757) was knighted in 170O, and
was sent on a special mission to the Emperor in 1707. A great-grandson of the
elder Sir Philip was created Earl Manvers in 1806.
21 Her eyes were weak.
22 The son of the Sir Robert Southwell to whom Temple had offered Swift as a
"servant" on his going as Secretary of State to Ireland in 1690. Edward
Southwell (1671-173O) succeeded his father as Secretary of State for Ireland
in 1702, and in 1708 was appointed Clerk to the Privy Council of Great
Britain. Southwell held various offices under George I. and George II., and
amassed a considerable fortune.
23 Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718), dramatist and poet laureate, and one of the
first editors of Shakespeare, was at this time under-secretary to the Duke of
Queensberry, Secretary of State for Scotland.
24 No. 238 contains Swift's "Description of a Shower in London."
25 This seems to be a vague allusion to the text, "Cast thy bread upon the
waters," etc.
26 Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723), the fashionable portrait-painter of the
period.
27 At the General election of 171O the contest at Westminster excited much
interest. The number of constituents was large, and the franchise low, all
householders who paid scot and lot being voters. There were, too, many houses
of great Whig merchants, and a number of French Protestants. But the High
Church candidates, Cross and Medlicott, were returned by large majorities,
though the Whigs had chosen popular candidates--General Stanhope, fresh from
his successes in Spain, and Sir Henry Dutton Colt, a Herefordshire gentleman.
28 Sir Andrew Fountaine (1676-1753), a distinguished antiquary, of an old
Norfolk family, was knighted by William III. in 1699, and inherited his
father's estate at Norfolk in 17O6. He succeeded Sir Isaac Newton as Warden
of the Mint in 1727, and was Vice-Chamberlain to Queen Caroline. He became
acquainted with Swift in Ireland in 1707, when he went over as Usher of the
Black Rod in Lord Pembroke's Court.
29 See Letter 2, note 17. The Bishop was probably Dr. Moreton, Bishop of
Meath (see Journal, July 1, 1712).
30 The game of ombre--of Spanish origin--is described in Pope's Rape of the
Lock. See also the Compleat Gamester, 1721, and Notes and Queries, April 8,
1871. The ace of spades, or Spadille, was always the first trump; the ace of
clubs (Basto) always the third. The second trump was the worst card of the
trump suit in its natural order, i.e. the seven in red and the deuce in black
suits, and was called Manille. If either of the red suits was trumps, the ace
of the suit was fourth trump (Punto). Spadille, Manille, and Basto were
"matadores," or murderers, as they never gave suit.
31 See Letter 3, note 30,
32 In the Spectator, No. 337, there is a complaint from "one of the top China
women about town," of the trouble given by ladies who turn over all the goods
in a shop without buying anything. Sometimes they cheapened tea, at others
examined screens or tea-dishes.
33 The Right Hon. John Grubham Howe, M.P. for Gloucestershire, an extreme
Tory, had recently been appointed Paymaster of the Forces. He is mentioned
satirically as a patriot in sec. 9 of The Tale of a Tub.
34 George Henry Hay, Viscount Dupplin, eldest son of the sixth Earl of
Kinnoull, was made a Teller of the Exchequer in August, and a peer of Great
Britain in December 1711, with the title of Baron Hay. He married, in 1709,
Abigail, Harley's younger daughter, and he succeeded his father in the earldom
of Kinnoull in 1719.
35 Edward Harley, afterwards Lord Harley, who succeeded his father as Earl of
Oxford in 1724. He married Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holles, daughter of the
Duke of Newcastle, but died without male issue in 1741. His interest in
literature caused him to form the collection known as the Harleian Miscellany.
36 William Penn (1644-1718), the celebrated founder of Pennsylvania. Swift
says that he "spoke very agreeably, and with much spirit."
37 This "Memorial to Mr. Harley about the First-Fruits" is dated Oct. 7, 171O.
38 Henry St. John, created Viscount Bolingbroke in July 1712. In the quarrel
between Oxford and Bolingbroke in 1714, Swift's sympathies were with Oxford.
39 I.e., it is decreed by fate. So Tillotson says, "These things are fatal
and necessary."
40 See Letter 3, note 8.
41 Obscure. Hooker speaks of a "blind or secret corner."
42 Ale served in a gill measure.
43 Scott suggests that the allusion is to The Tale of a Tub.
44 An extravagant compliment.
45 See Letter 8.
46 L'Estrange speaks of "trencher-flies and spungers."
47 See Letter 1, note 10.
48 Samuel Garth, physician and member of the Kit-Cat Club, was knighted in
1714. He is best known by his satirical poem, The Dispensary, 1699.
49 Gay speaks of "Wondering Main, so fat, with laughing eyes" (Mr. Pope's
Welcome from Greece, st. xvii.).
50 See Letter 5, note 10.
51 See the letter of Oct. 10, 1710, to Archbishop King.
52 See Letter 1.
53 Seventy-three lines in folio upon one page, and in a very small hand."
(Deane Swift).
Letter 6.
1. I.e., Lord Lieutenant.
2 Tatler, No. 238.
3 See Letter 1, note 12.
4 Charles Coote, fourth Earl of Mountrath, and M.P. for Knaresborough. He
died unmarried in 1715.
5 Henry Coote, Lord Mountrath's brother. He succeeded to the earldom in 1715,
but died unmarried in 172O.
6 The Devil Tavern was the meeting-place of Ben Jonson's Apollo Club. The
house was pulled down in 1787.
7 Addison was re-elected M.P. for Malmesbury in Oct. 171O, and he kept that
seat until his death in 1719.
8 Captain Charles Lavallee, who served in the Cadiz Expedition of 1702, and
was appointed a captain in Colonel Hans Hamilton's Regiment of Foot in 1706
(Luttrell, v. 175, vi. 64O; Dalton's English Army Lists, iv. 126).
9 See Letter 5.
10 The Tatler, No. 23O, Sid Hamet's Rod, and the ballad (now lost) on the
Westminster Election.
11 The Earl of Galway (1648-172O), who lost the battle of Almanza to the Duke
of Berwick in 1707. Originally the Marquis de Ruvigny, a French refugee, he
had been made Viscount Galway and Earl of Galway successively by William III.
12 William Harrison, the son of a doctor at St. Cross, Winchester, had been
recommended to Swift by Addison, who obtained for him the post of governor to
the Duke of Queensberry's son. In Jan. 1711 Harrison began the issue of a
continuation of Steele's Tatler with Swift's assistance, but without success.
In May 1711, St. John gave Harrison the appointment of secretary to Lord Raby,
Ambassador Extraordinary at the Hague, and in Jan. 1713 Harrison brought the
Barrier Treaty to England. He died in the following month, at the age of
twenty-seven, and Lady Strafford says that "his brother poets buried him, as
Mr. Addison, Mr. Philips, and Dr. Swift." Tickell calls him "that much loved
youth," and Swift felt his death keenly. Harrison's best poem is Woodstock
Park, 1706.
13 The last volume of Tonson's Miscellany, 1708.
14 James Douglas, second Duke of Queensberry and Duke of Dover (1662-1711),
was appointed joint Keeper of the Privy Seal in 1708, and third Secretary of
State in 1709. Harrison must have been "governor" either to the third son,
Charles, Marquis of Beverley (born 1698), who succeeded to the dukedom in
1711, or to the fourth son, George, born in 1701.
15 Anthony Henley, son of Sir Robert Henley, M.P. for Andover, was a favourite
with the wits in London. He was a strong Whig, and occasionally contributed
to the Tatler and Maynwaring's Medley. Garth dedicated The Dispensary to him.
Swift records Henley's death from apoplexy in August 1711.
16 Sir William Ashurst, Sir Gilbert Heathcote, and Mr. John Ward were replaced
by Sir Richard Hoare, Sir George Newland, and Mr. John Cass at the election
for the City in 1710. Scott was wrong in saying that the Whigs lost also the
fourth seat, for Sir William Withers had been member for the City since 1707.
17 Sir Richard Onslow, Bart., was chosen Speaker of the House of Commons in
1708. Under George I. he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and was elevated to
the peerage as Baron Onslow in 1716. He died in the following year.
18 "The upper part of the letter was a little besmeared with some such stuff;
the mark is still on it" (Deane Swift).
19 John Bolton, D.D., appointed a prebendary of St. Patrick's in 1691, became
Dean of Derry in 1699. He died in 1724. Like Swift, Bolton was chaplain to
Lord Berkeley, the Lord Lieutenant, and, according to Swift, he obtained the
deanery of Derry through Swift having declined to give a bribe of 1000 pounds
to Lord Berkeley's secretary. But Lord Orrery says that the Bishop of Derry
objected to Swift, fearing that he would be constantly flying backwards and
forwards between Ireland and England.
20 See Letter 2, note 16.
21 "That is, to the next page; for he is now within three lines of the bottom
of the first" (Deane Swift).
22 See Letter 4, note 15.
23 Joshua Dawson, secretary to the Lords Justices. He built a fine house in
Dawson Street, Dublin, and provided largely for his relatives by the aid of
the official patronage in his hands.
24 He had been dead three weeks (see Letters 3 and 5).
25 In The Importance of the Guardian Considered, Swift says that Steele, "to
avoid being discarded, thought fit to resign his place of Gazetteer."
26 As Swift never used the name "Stella" in the Journal, this fragment of his
"little language" must have been altered by Deane Swift, the first editor.
Forster makes the excellent suggestion that the correct reading is
"sluttikins," a word used in the Journal on Nov. 28, 1710. Swift often calls
his correspondents "sluts."
27 Godolphin, who was satirised in Sid Hamel's Rod (see Letter 2, note 3).
28 No. 23O.
29 "This appears to be an interjection of surprise at the length of his
journal" (Deane Swift).
30 Matthew Prior, poet and diplomatist, had been deprived of his
Commissionership of Trade by the Whigs, but was rewarded for his Tory
principles in 1711 by a Commissionership of Customs.
31 "The twentieth parts are 12 pence in the pound paid annually out of all
ecclesiastical benefices as they were valued at the Reformation. They amount
to about 500 pounds per annum; but are of little or no value to the Queen
after the offices and other charges are paid, though of much trouble and
vexation to the clergy" (Swift's "Memorial to Mr. Harley").
32 Charles Mordaunt, the brilliant but erratic Earl of Peterborough, had been
engaged for two years, after the unsatisfactory inquiry into his conduct in
Spain by the House of Lords in 17O8, in preparing an account of the money he
had received and expended. The change of Government brought him relief from
his troubles; in November he was made Captain-General of Marines, and in
December he was nominated Ambassador Extraordinary to Vienna.
33 Tapped, nudged.
34 I.e., told only to you.
35 Sir Hew Dalrymple (1652-1737), Lord President of the Court of Session, and
son of the first Viscount Stair.
36 Robert Benson, a moderate Tory, was made a Lord of the Treasury in August
1710, and Chancellor of the Exchequer in the following June, and was raised to
the peerage as Baron Bingley in 1713. He died in 1731.
37 The Smyrna Coffee-house was on the north side of Pall Mall, opposite
Marlborough House. In the Tatler (Nos. 10, 78) Steele laughed at the "cluster
of wise heads" to be found every evening at the Smyrna; and Goldsmith says
that Beau Nash would wait a whole day at a window at the Smyrna, in order to
receive a bow from the Prince or the Duchess of Marlborough, and would then
look round upon the company for admiration and respect.
38 See Letter 4, note 14.
39 See Letter 5, note 17.
40 An Irish doctor, with whom Swift invested money.
41 Enoch Sterne, Collector of Wicklow and Clerk to the House of Lords in
Ireland.
42 Claret.
43 Colonel Ambrose Edgworth, a famous dandy, who is supposed to have been
referred to by Steele in No. 246 of the Tatler. Edgworth was the son of Sir
John Edgworth, who was made Colonel of a Regiment of Foot in 1689 (Dalton,
iii, 59). Ambrose Edgworth was a Captain in the same regiment, but father and
son were shortly afterwards turned out of the regiment for dishonest conduct
in connection with the soldiers' clothing. Ambrose was, however, reappointed
a Captain in General Eric's Regiment of Foot in 1691. He served in Spain as
Major in Brigadier Gorge's regiment; was taken prisoner in 1706; and was
appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of Colonel Thomas Allen's Regiment of Foot in
17O7.
44 This volume of Miscellanies in Prose and Verse was published by Morphew in
1711.
45 Dr. Thomas Lindsay, afterwards Bishop of Raphoe.
Letter 7.
1 The first mention of the Vanhomrighs in the Journal. Swift had made their
acquaintance when he was in London in 1708.
2 Lady Elizabeth and Lady Mary (see Letter 3, note 40 and below).
3 John, third Lord Ashburnham, and afterwards Earl of Ashburnham (1687-1737),
married, on Oct. 21, 1710, Lady Mary Butler, younger daughter of the Duke of
Ormond. She died on Jan. 2, 1712-3, in her twenty-third year. She was
Swift's "greatest favourite," and he was much moved at her death.
4 Edward Wortley Montagu, grandson of the first Earl of Sandwich, and M.P. for
Huntingdon. He was a great friend of Addison's, and the second volume of the
Tatler was dedicated to him. In 1712 he married the famous Lady Mary
Pierrepont, eldest daughter of the Duke of Kingston, and under George I. he
became Ambassador Extraordinary to the Porte. He died in 1761, aged eighty.
5 See Letter 5, note 27. No copy of these verses is known.
6 Henry Alexander, fifth Earl of Stirling, who died without issue in 1739.
His sister, Lady Judith Alexander, married Sir William Trumbull, Pope's
friend.
7 "These words, notwithstanding their great obscurity at present, were very
clear and intelligible to Mrs. Johnson: they referred to conversations, which
passed between her and Dr. Tisdall seven or eight years before; when the
Doctor, who was not only a learned and faithful divine, but a zealous Church-
Tory, frequently entertained her with Convocation disputes. This gentleman,
in the year 17O4, paid his addresses to Mrs. Johnson" (Deane Swift). The Rev.
William Tisdall was made D.D. in 17O7. Swift never forgave Tisdall's proposal
to marry Esther Johnson in 17O4, and often gave expression to his contempt for
him. In 1706 Tisdall married, and was appointed Vicar of Kerry and Ruavon; in
1712 he became Vicar of Belfast. He published several controversial pieces,
directed against Presbyterians and other Dissenters.
8 No. 193 of the Tatler, for July 4, 1710, contained a letter from Downes the
Prompter in ridicule of Harley's newly formed Ministry. This letter, the
authorship of which Steele disavowed, was probably by Anthony Henley.
9 William Berkeley, fourth Baron Berkeley of Stratton, was sworn of the Privy
Council in September 1710, and was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of
Lancaster. He married Frances, youngest daughter of Sir John Temple, of East
Sheen, Surrey, and died in 174O.
10 Probably the widow of Sir William Temple's son, John Temple (see Letter 2,
note 13). She was Mary Duplessis, daughter of Duplessis Rambouillet, a
Huguenot.
11 The Rev. James Sartre, who married Addison's sister Dorothy, was Prebendary
and Archdeacon of Westminster. He had formerly been French pastor at
Montpelier. After his death in 1713 his widow married a Mr. Combe, and lived
until 175O.
12 William Congreve's last play was produced in 1700. In 1710, when he was
forty, he published a collected edition of his works. Swift and Congreve had
been schoolfellows at Kilkenny, and they had both been pupils of St. George
Ashe--afterwards Bishop of Clogher--at Trinity College, Dublin. On Congreve's
death, in 1729, Swift wrote, "I loved him from my youth."
13 See Letter 4, note 11.
14 Dean Sterne.
15 See Letter 6, note 19.
16 When he became Dean he withheld from Swift the living of St. Nicholas
Without, promised in gratitude for the aid rendered by Swift in his election.
17 Crowe was a Commissioner for Appeals from the Revenue Commissioners for a
short time in 17O6, and was Recorder of Blessington, Co. Wicklow. In his
Short Character of Thomas, Earl of Wharton, 1710, Swift speaks of Whartons
"barbarous injustice to. . . poor Will Crowe."
18 See Letter 3, note 10.
19 See Letter 3, note 35.
20 See Letter 1, note 15.
21 Richard Tighe, M.P. for Belturbet, was a Whig, much disliked by Swift. He
became a Privy Councillor under George I.
22 Dryden Leach, of the Old Bailey, formerly an actor, was son of Francis
Leach. Swift recommended Harrison to employ Leach in printing the
continuation of the Tatler; but Harrison discarded him. (See Journal, Jan.
16, 1710-11, and Timperley's Literary Anecdotes, 600, 631).
23 The Postman, which appeared three days in the week, written by M. Fonvive,
a French Protestant, whom Dunton calls "the glory and mirror of news writers,
a very grave, learned, orthodox man." Fonvive had a universal system of
intelligence, at home and abroad, and "as his news is early and good, so his
style is excellent."
24 Sir William Temple left Esther Johnson the lease of some property in
Ireland.
25 See Letter 5, note 23.
26 An out-of-the-way or obscure house. So Pepys (Diary, Oct. 15, 1661) "To
St. Paul's Churchyard to a blind place where Mr. Goldsborough was to meet me."
27 Sir Richard Temple, Bart., of Stowe, a Lieutenant-General who saw much
service in Flanders, was dismissed in 1713 owing to his Whig views, but on the
accession of George I. was raised to the peerage, and was created Viscount
Cobham in 1718. He died in 1749. Congreve wrote in praise of him, and he was
the "brave Cobham" of Pope's first Moral Essay.
28 Richard Estcourt, the actor, died in August 1712, when his abilities on the
stage and as a talker were celebrated by Steele to No. 468 of the Spectator.
See also Tatler, Aug. 6, 17O9, and Spectator, May 5, 1712. Estcourt was
"providore" of the Beef-Steak Club, and a few months before his death opened
the Bumper Tavern in James Street, Covent Garden.
29 See Letter 5, note 49.
30 Poor, mean. Elsewhere Swift speaks of "the corrector of a hedge press in
Little Britain," and "a little hedge vicar."
31 Thomas Herbert, eighth Earl of Pembroke, was Lord Lieutenant from April
17O7 to December 17O8. A nobleman of taste and learning, he was, like Swift,
very fond of punning, and they had been great friends in Ireland.
32 See Letter 3, note 11.
33 See Letter 3, note 18.
34 A small town and fortress in what is now the Pas de Calais.
35 Richard Stewart, third son of the first Lord Mountjoy (see Letter 1, note
11), was M.P. at various times for Castlebar, Strabane, and County Tyrone. He
died in 1728.
Letter 8.
1 See Letter 3, note 1.
2 Swift, Esther Johnson, and Mrs. Dingley seem to have begun their financial
year on the 1st of November. Swift refers to "MD's allowance" in the Journal
for April 23, 1713.
3 Samuel Dopping, an Irish friend of Stella's, who was probably related to
Anthony Dopping, Bishop of Meath (died 1697), and to his son Anthony (died
1743), who became Bishop of Ossory.
4 See Letter 2, note 17.
5 The wife of Alderman Stoyte, afterwards Lord Mayor of Dublin. Mrs. Stoyte
and her sister Catherine; the Walls; Isaac Manley and his wife; Dean Sterne,
Esther Johnson and Mrs. Dingley, and Swift, were the principal members of a
card club which met at each other's houses for a number of years.
6 See Letter 1, note 12.
7 "This cypher stands for Presto, Stella, and Dingley; as much as to say, it
looks like us three quite retired from all the rest of the world" (Deane
Swift).
8 Steele's "dear Prue," Mary Scurlock, whom he married as his second wife in
17O7, was a lady of property and a "cried-up beauty." She was somewhat of a
prude, and did not hesitate to complain to her husband, in and out of season,
of his extravagance and other weaknesses. The other lady to whom Swift
alludes is probably the Duchess of Marlborough.
9 See Letter 7, note 7.
10 Remembers: an Irish expression.
11 This new Commission, signed by Narcissus Marsh, Archbishop of Armagh, and
William King, was dated Oct. 24, 1710. In this document Swift was begged to
take the full management of the business of the First-Fruits into his hands,
the Bishops of Ossory and Killala--who were to have joined with him in the
negotiations--having left London before Swift arrived. But before this
commission was despatched the Queen had granted the First-Fruits and Twentieth
Parts to the Irish clergy.
12 Lady Mountjoy, wife of the second Viscount Mountjoy (see Letter 1), was
Anne, youngest daughter of Murrough Boyle, first Viscount Blessington, by his
second wife, Anne, daughter of Charles Coote, second Earl of Mountrath. After
Lord Mountjoy's death she married John Farquharson, and she died in 1741.
13 Forster suggests that Swift wrote "Frond " or "Frowde" and there is every
reason to believe that this was the case. No Colonel Proud appears in
Dalton's Army Lists. A Colonel William Frowde, apparently third son of Sir
Philip Frowde, Knight, by his third wife, Margaret, daughter of Sir John
Ashburnham, was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in Colonel Farrington's (see note
18) Regiment of Foot in 1694. He resigned his commission on his appointment
to the First Life Guards in 17O2, and he was in this latter regiment in 17O4.
In November and December 1711 Swift wrote of Philip Frowde the elder (Colonel
William Frowde's brother) as "an old fool," in monetary difficulties. It is
probable that Swift's Colonel Proud (? Frowde) was not Colonel William Frowde,
but his nephew, Philip Frowde, junior, who was Addison's friend at Oxford, and
the author of two tragedies and various poems. Nothing seems known of Philip
Frowde's connection with the army, but he is certainly called "Colonel" by
Swift, Addison, and Pope (see Forster's Swift, 159; Addison's Works, v. 324;
Pope's Works, v. 177, vi. 227). Swift wrote to Ambrose Philips in 17O5, "Col.
Frond is just as he was, very friendly and grand reveur et distrait. He has
brought his poems almost to perfection." It will be observed that when Swift
met Colonel "Proud" he was in company with Addison, as was also the case when
he was with Colonel "Freind" (see Letter 3, note 25).
14 Charles Davenant, LL.D., educated at Balliol College, Oxford, was the
eldest son of Sir William Davenant, author of Gondibert. In Parliament he
attacked Ministerial abuses with great bitterness until, in 17O3, he was made
secretary to the Commissioners appointed to treat for a union with Scotland.
To this post was added, in 17O5, an Inspector-Generalship of Exports and
Imports, which he retained until his death in 1714. Tom Double, a satire on
his change of front after obtaining his place, was published in 17O4. In a
Note on Macky's character of Davenant, Swift says, "He ruined his estate,
which put him under a necessity to comply with the times." Davenant's True
Picture of a Modern Whig, in Two Parts, appeared in 17O1-2; in 17O7 he
published "The True Picture of a Modern Whig revived, set forth in a third
dialogue between Whiglove and Double," which seems to be the piece mentioned
in the text, though Swift speaks of the pamphlet as "lately put out."
15 Hugh Chamberlen, the younger (1664-1728), was a Fellow of the College of
Physicians and Censor in 17O7, 1717, and 1721. Atterbury and the Duchess of
Buckingham and Normanby were among his fashionable patients. His father, Hugh
Chamberlen, M.D., was the author of the Land Bank Scheme of 1693-94.
16 Sir John Holland (see Letter 3, note 28).
17 Swift may mean either rambling or gambolling.
18 Thomas Farrington was appointed Colonel of the newly raised 29th Regiment
of Foot in 17O2. He was a subscriber for a copy of the Tatler on royal paper
(Aitken, Life of Steele, i. 329, 33O).
19 In The History of Vanbrugh's House, Swift described everyone as hunting for
it up and down the river banks, and unable to find it, until at length they--
"-- in the rubbish spy
A thing resembling a goose pie."
Sir John Vanbrugh was more successful as a dramatist than as an architect,
though his work at Blenheim and elsewhere has many merits.
20 For the successes of the last campaign.
21 John Sheffield, third Earl of Mulgrave, was created Duke of Buckingham and
Normanby in 17O3, and died in 1721. On Queen Anne's accession he became Lord
Privy Seal, and on the return of the Tories to power in 1710 he was Lord
Steward, and afterward (June 1710) Lord President of the Council. The Duke
was a poet, as well as a soldier and statesman, his best known work being the
Essay on Poetry. He was Dryden's patron, and Pope prepared a collected
edition of his works.
22 Laurence Hyde, created Earl of Rochester in 1682, died in 1711. He was the
Hushai of Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel, "the friend of David in distress."
In 1684 he was made Lord President of the Council, and on the accession of
James II., Lord Treasurer; he was, however, dismissed in 1687. Under William
III. Rochester was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, an office he resigned in 17O3;
and in September 1710 he again became Lord President. His imperious temper
always stood in the way of popularity or real success.
23 Sir Thomas Osborne, Charles II.'s famous Minister, was elevated to the
peerage in 1673, and afterwards was made successively Earl of Danby, Marquis
of Caermarthen, and Duke of Leeds. On Nov. 29, 1710, a few days after this
reference to him, the Duke was granted a pension of 3500 pounds a year out of
the Post Office revenues. He died in July 1712, aged eighty-one, and soon
afterwards his grandson married Lord Oxford's daughter.
24 This is, of course, a joke; Swift was never introduced at Court.
25 Captain Delaval (see Letter 5, note 6).
26 Admiral Sir Charles Wager (1666-1743) served in the West Indies from 17O7
to 17O9, and gained great wealth from the prizes he took. Under George I. he
was Comptroller of the Navy, and in 1733 he became First Lord of the
Admiralty, a post which he held until 1742.
27 See Letter 7, note 27.
28 See Letter 5, note 13.
29 Isaac Bickerstaff's "valentine" sent him a nightcap, finely wrought by a
maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth (Tatler, No. 141). The "nightcap" was a
periwig with a short tie and small round head, and embroidered nightcaps were
worn chiefly by members of the graver professions.
30 Tatler, No. 237.
31 Tatler, No. 23O.
32 "Returning home at night, you'll find the sink
Strike your offended sense with double stink."
("Description of a City Shower, 11. 5, 6.)
33 Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.
34 See Letter 1, note 3.
35 See Letter 8, note 5.
36 See Letter 6, note 4.
37 See Letter 1, note 11.
38 The bellman's accents. Cf. Pepys' Diary, Jan. 16, 1659-60: "I staid up
till the bellman came by with his bell just under my window as I was writing
of this very line, and cried, 'Past one of the clock, and a cold, frosty,
windy morning.'"
Letter 9.
1 John Freind, M.D. (1675-1728), was a younger brother of the Robert Freind,
of Westminster School, mentioned elsewhere in the Journal. Educated under Dr.
Busby at Westminster, he was in 1694 elected a student of Christ Church, where
he made the acquaintance of Atterbury, and supported Boyle against Bentley in
the dispute as to the authorship of the letters of Phalaris. In 1705 he
attended the Earl of Peterborough to Spain, and in the following year wrote a
defence of that commander (Account of the Earl of Peterborough's Conduct in
Spain). A steady Tory, he took a share in the defence of Dr. Sacheverell; and
in 1723, when M.P. for Launceston, he fell under the suspicion of the
Government, and was sent to the Tower. On the accession of George II.,
however, he came into favour with the Court, and died Physician to the Queen.
2 See Letter 8, note 19.
3 St. John was thirty-two in October 1710. He had been Secretary at War six
years before, resigning with Harley in 1707. Swift repeats this comparison
elsewhere. Temple was forty-six when he refused a Secretaryship of State in
1674.
4 Sir Henry St. John seems to have continued a gay man to the end of his life.
In his youth he was tried and convicted for the murder of Sir William Estcourt
in a duel (Scott). In 1716, after his son had been attainted, he was made
Viscount St. John. He died in 1742, aged ninety.
5 "Swift delighted to let his pen run into such rhymes as these, which he
generally passes off as old proverbs" (Scott). Many of the charming scraps of
"Old Ballads" and "Old Plays" at the head of Scott's own chapters are in
reality the result of his own imagination.
