6 See Letter 3, note 18.
7 Sir Richard Levinge, Bart., had been Solicitor-General for Ireland from 1704
to 1709, and was Attorney-General from 1711 to 1714. Afterwards he was
Speaker of the Irish House of Commons and Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas in
Ireland.
8 See Letter 2, note 18.
9 Thomas Belasyse, second Viscount Fauconberg, or Falconbridge (died 1700), a
nobleman of hereditary loyalty, married, in 1657, the Protector's youngest
daughter, Mary Cromwell, who is represented as a lady of high talent and
spirit. She died on March 14, 1712. Burnet describes her as "a wise and
worthy woman," who would have had a better prospect of maintaining her
father's post than either of her brothers.
10 Richard Freeman, Chief Baron, was Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1707
until his death in November 1710.
11 See Letter 7, note 17.
12 Sir Richard Cox, Bart. (1650-1733), was Lord Chancellor of Ireland from
1703 to 1707. In 1711 he was appointed Chief-Justice of the Queen's Bench,
but he was removed from office on the death of Queen Anne. His zealous
Protestantism sometimes caused his views to be warped, but he was honest and
well-principled.
13 Sir Thomas Hanmer, Bart. (1676-1746), succeeded Bromley as Speaker in 1714.
In February 1713 Swift said, "He is the most considerable man in the House of
Commons." His edition of Shakespeare was published by the University of
Oxford in 1743-44. Pope called it "pompous," and sneered at Hanmer's
"superior air" (Dunciad, iv. 105).
14 See Letter 5, note 8.
15 Elliot was keeper of the St. James's Coffee-house (see Letter 1).
16 Forster suggested that the true reading is "writhing." If so, it is not
necessary to suppose that Lady Giffard was the cause of it. Perhaps it is the
word "tiger" that is corrupt.
17 The Hon. Charles Boyle (1676-1731), of the Boyle and Bentley controversy,
succeeded to the peerage as Lord Orrery in 1703. When he settled in London he
became the centre of a Christ Church set, a strong adherent of Harley's party,
and a member of Swift's "club." His son John, fifth Earl of Orrery, published
Remarks on the Life and Writings of Jonathan Swift in 1751.
18 William Domville, a landed proprietor in County Dublin, whom Swift called
"perfectly as fine a gentleman as I know."
19 On May 16, 1711, Swift wrote, "There will be an old to do." The word is
found in Elizabethan writers in the sense of "more than enough." Cf. Macbeth,
ii. 3: "If a man were porter of hell gate, he should have old turning the
key."
20 See Letter 3, note 10. Clements was related to Pratt, the Deputy Vice-
Treasurer, and was probably the Robert Clements who became Deputy Vice-
Treasurer, and whose grandson Robert was created Earl of Leitrim in 1795.
21 Letter 5, note 11.
22 Swift's sister Jane, who had married a currier in Bride Street, named
Joseph Fenton, a match to which Swift strongly objected. Deane Swift says
that Swift never saw his sister again after the marriage; he had offered her
500 pounds if she would show a "proper disdain" of Fenton. On her husband's
dying bankrupt, however, Swift paid her an annuity until 1738, when she died
in the same lodging with Esther Johnson's mother, Mrs. Bridget Mose, at
Farnham (Forster's Swift, pp. 118-19).
23 Welbore Ellis, appointed Bishop of Kildare in 1705. He was translated to
Meath in 1731, and died three years later.
24 The expression of the Archbishop is, "I am not to conceal from you that
some expressed a little jealously, that you would not be acceptable to the
present courtiers; intimating that you were under the reputation of being a
favourite of the late party in power" (King to Swift, Nov. 2, 1710).
25 This indignant letter is dated Nov. 23, 1710. It produced an apologetic
reply from the Archbishop (Nov. 30, 1710), who represented that the letter to
Southwell was a snare laid in his way, since if he declined signing it, it
might have been interpreted into disrespect to the Duke of Ormond. Of the
bishops King said, "You cannot do yourself a greater service than to bring
this to a good issue, to their shame and conviction."
Letter 10.
1 William Bromley (died 1732) was M.P. for the University of Oxford. A good
debater and a strong High Churchman, he was Secretary of State from August
1713 until the Queen's death in the following year.
2 Colonel, afterwards Major-General, John Hill (died 1735) was younger brother
of Mrs. Masham, the Queen's favourite, and a poor relation of the Duchess of
Marlborough. He was wounded at Mons in 1709, and in 1711 was sent on an
unsuccessful expedition to attack the French settlements in North America. In
1713 he was appointed to command the troops at Dunkirk.
3 "The footmen in attendance at the Houses of Parliament used at this time to
form themselves into a deliberative body, and usually debated the same points
with their masters. It was jocularly said that several questions were lost by
the Court party in the menial House of Lords which were carried triumphantly
in the real assembly; which was at length explained by a discovery that the
Scottish peers whose votes were sometimes decisive of a question had but few
representatives in the convocation of lacqueys. The sable attendant mentioned
by Swift, being an appendage of the brother of Mrs. Masham, the reigning
favourite, had a title to the chair, the Court and Tory interest being exerted
in his favour" (Scott). Steele alludes to the "Footmen's Parliament" in No.
88 of the Spectator.
4 See Letter 1, note 3.
5 A Court of Equity abolished in the reign of Charles I. It met in the Camera
Alba, or Whitehall, and the room appears to have retained the name of the old
Court.
6 See Letter 6, note 2.
7 Swift's first contribution to the Examiner (No. 13) is dated Nov. 2, 1710.
8 Seduced, induced. Dryden (Spanish Friar) has "To debauch a king to break
his laws."
9 Freeman (see Letter 9, note 10).
10 "To make this intelligible, it is necessary to observe, that the words
'this fortnight', in the preceding sentence, were first written in what he
calls their little language, and afterwards scratched out and written plain.
It must be confessed this little language, which passed current between Swift
and Stella, has occasioned infinite trouble in the revisal of these papers"
(Deane Swift).
11 Trim. An attack upon the liberties of this corporation is among the
political offences of Wharton's Lieutenancy of Ireland set forth in Swift's
Short Character of the Earl of Wharton.
12 Apologies.
13 "A Description of the Morning," in No. 9 of the Tatler.
14 See Letter 6, note 19.
15 William Palliser (died 1726).
16 See Letter 4, note 15.
17 "Here he writ with his eyes shut; and the writing is somewhat crooked,
although as well in other respects as if his eyes had been open" (Deane
Swift).
18 Tatler, No. 249; cf. p. 93. During this visit to London Swift contributed
to only three Tatlers, viz. Nos. 230, 238, and 258.
19 St. Andrew's Day.
20 No. 241.
21 Tatler, No. 258.
22 Lieutenant-General Philip Bragg, Colonel of the 28th Regiment of Foot, and
M.P. for Armagh, died in 1759.
23 James Cecil, fifth Earl of Salisbury, who died in 1728.
24 See Letter 2, note 13.
25 See Letter 8, note 22.
26 Kneller seems never to have painted Swift's portrait.
27 On Nov. 25 and 28.
28 Arthur Annesley, M.P. for Cambridge University, had recently become fifth
Earl of Anglesea, on the death of his brother (see Letter 3, note 35). Under
George I. he was Joint Treasurer of Ireland, and Treasurer at War.
29 A Short Character of the Earl of Wharton, by Swift himself, though the
authorship was not suspected at the time. "Archbishop King," says Scott,
"would have hardly otherwise ventured to mention it to Swift in his letter of
Jan. 9, 1710, as 'a wound given in the dark.'" Elsewhere, however, in a note,
Swift hints that Archbishop King was really aware of the authorship of the
pamphlet.
30 A false report. (See Letter 11, note 4.)
31 None of these Commissioners of Revenue lost their places at this time.
Samuel Ogle was Commissioner from 1699 to 1714; John South from 1696 until his
death in 1711; and Sir William St. Quintin, Bart., from 1706 to 1713. Stephen
Ludlow succeeded South in September 1711.
32 See Letter 7, note 35.
33 James Hamilton, sixth Earl of Abercorn (1656-1734), a Scotch peer who had
strongly supported the Union of 1706.
Letter 11.
1 L'Estrange speaks of "insipid twittle twattles." Johnson calls this "a vile
word."
2 A cousin of Swift's; probably a son of William Swift.
3 Nicholas Sankey (died 1722) succeeded Lord Lovelace as Colonel of a Regiment
of Foot in Ireland in 1689. He became Brigadier-General in 1704, Major-
General 1707, and Lieutenant-General 1710. He served in Spain, and was taken
prisoner at the battle of the Caya in 1709.
4 See Letter 10, note 30.
5 The Earl of Abercorn (see Letter 10, note 33) married, in 1686, Elizabeth,
only child of Sir Robert Reading, Bart., of Dublin, by Jane, Dowager Countess
of Mountrath. Lady Abercorn survived her husband twenty years, dying in 1754,
aged eighty-six.
6 Charles Lennox, first Duke of Richmond and Gordon (1672-1723), was the
illegitimate son of Charles II. by Madame de Querouaille.
7 Sir Robert Raymond, afterwards Lord Raymond (1673-1733), M.P. for Bishop's
Castle, Shropshire, was appointed Solicitor-General in May 1710, and was
knighted in October. He was removed from office on the accession of George
I., but was made Attorney-General in 1720, and in 1724 became a judge of the
King's Bench. In the following year he was made Lord Chief-Justice, and was
distinguished both for his learning and his impartiality.
8 Lynn-Regis.
9 Richard Savage, fourth Earl Rivers, the father of Richard Savage, the poet.
Under the Whigs Lord Rivers was Envoy to Hanover; and after his conversion by
Harley, he was Constable of the Tower under the Tories. He died in 1712.
10 Chancellor of the Exchequer in Ireland from 1695 until his death in 1717.
11 Lord Shelburne's clever sister, Anne, only daughter of Sir William Petty,
and wife of Thomas Fitzmaurice, Lord of Kerry, afterwards created first Earl
of Kerry.
12 Mrs. Pratt, an Irish friend of Lady Kerry, lodged at Lord Shelburne's
during her visit to London. The reference to Clements (see Letter 9, note
20), Pratt's relative, in the Journal for April 14, 1711, makes it clear that
Mrs. Pratt was the wife of the Deputy Vice-Treasurer of Ireland, to whom Swift
often alludes (see Letter 3, note 10).
13 Lieutenant-General Thomas Meredith, Major-General Maccartney, and Brigadier
Philip Honeywood. They alleged that their offence only amounted to drinking a
health to the Duke of Marlborough, and confusion to his enemies. But the
Government said that an example must be made, because various officers had
dropped dangerous expressions about standing by their General, Marlborough,
who was believed to be aiming at being made Captain General for life. For
Maccartney see the Journal for Nov. 15, 1712, seq. Meredith, who was
appointed Adjutant-General of the Forces in 1701, was made a Lieutenant-
General in 1708. He saw much service under William III., and Marlborough, and
was elected M.P. for Midhurst in 1709. He died in 1719 (Dalton's Army Lists,
III. 181). Honeywood entered the army in 1694; was at Namur; and was made a
Brigadier-General before 1711. After the accession of George I. he became
Colonel of a Regiment of Dragoons, and commanded a division at Dettingen. At
his death in 1752 he was acting as Governor of Portsmouth, with the rank of
General (Dalton, iv. 30).
14 Or "malkin"; a counterfeit, or scarecrow.
15 William Cadogan, Lieutenant-General and afterwards Earl Cadogan (1675-
1726), a great friend of Marlborough, was Envoy to the United Provinces and
Spanish Flanders. Cadogan retained the post of Lieutenant to the Tower until
1715.
16 Earl Cadogan's father, Henry Cadogan, barrister, married Bridget, daughter
of Sir Hardresse Waller, and sister of Elizabeth, Baroness Shelburne in her
own right.
17 See Letter 5, note 30.
18 Cadogan married Margaretta, daughter of William Munter, Counsellor of the
Court of Holland.
19 Presumably the eldest son, William, who succeeded his father as second Earl
of Kerry in 1741, and died in 1747. He was at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford,
and was afterwards a Colonel in the Coldstream Guards.
20 Henry Petty, third Lord Shelburne, who became Earl of Shelburne in 1719.
His son predeceased him, without issue, and on Lord Shelburne's death, in
1751, his honours became extinct. His daughter Anne also died without issue.
21 The menagerie, which had been one of the sights of London, was removed from
the Tower in 1834. In his account of the Tory Fox Hunter in No. 47 of the
Freeholder, Addison says, "Our first visit was to the lions."
22 Bethlehem Hospital, for lunatics, in Moorfields, was a popular "sight" in
the eighteenth century. Cf. the Tatler, No. 30: "On Tuesday last I took
three lads, who are under my guardianship, a rambling, in a hackney coach, to
show them the town: as the lions, the tombs, Bedlam."
23 The Royal Society met at Gresham College from 1660 to 1710. The professors
of the College lectured on divinity, civil law, astronomy, music, geometry,
rhetoric, and physic.
24 The most important of the puppet-shows was Powell's, in the Little Piazza,
Covent Garden, which is frequently mentioned in the Tatler.
25 The precise nature this negligent costume is not known, but it is always
decried by popular writers of the time.
26 Retched. Bacon has "Patients must not keck at them at the first."
27 Swift was born on November 30.
28 Mrs. De la Riviere Manley, daughter of Sir Roger Manley, and cousin of John
Manley, M.P., and Isaac Manley (see Letter 3, note 3), wrote poems and plays,
but is best known for her "Secret Memoirs and Manners of Several Persons of
Quality, of both sexes. From the New Atalantis, 1709," a book abounding in
scandalous references to her contemporaries. She was arrested in October, but
was discharged in Feb. 1710. In May 1710 she brought out a continuation of
the New Atalantis, called "Memoirs of Europe towards the Close of the Eighth
Century." In June 1711 she became editress of the Tory Examiner, and wrote
political pamphlets with Swift's assistance. Afterwards she lived with
Alderman Barber, the printer, at whose office she died in 1724. In her will
she mentioned her "much honoured friend, the Dean of St. Patrick, Dr. Swift."
29 "He seems to have written these words in a whim; for the sake of what
follows" (Deane Swift).
30 See Letter 8, note 33.
31 No. 249 (see Letter 10, note 18).
32 See Letter 5, note 34.
33 In a letter to the Rev. Dr. Tisdall, of Dec. 16, 1703, Swift said: "I'll
teach you a way to outwit Mrs. Johnson: it is a new-fashioned way of being
witty, and they call it a bite. You must ask a bantering question, or tell
some damned lie in a serious manner, and then she will answer or speak as if
you were in earnest; and then cry you, 'Madam, there's a bite!' I would not
have you undervalue this, for it is the constant amusement in Court, and
everywhere else among the great people." See, too, the Tatler, No. 12, and
Spectator, Nos. 47, 504: "In a word, a Biter is one who thinks you a fool,
because you do not think him a knave."
34 See Letter 9, note 4.
35 "As I hope to be saved;" a favourite phrase in the Journal.
36 See Letter 7, note 12.
37 This statement receives some confirmation from a pamphlet published in
September 1710, called "A Condoling Letter to the Tatler: On Account of the
Misfortunes of Isaac Bickerstaf Esq., a Prisoner in the ---- on Suspicion of
Debt."
38 Dr. Lambert, chaplain to Lord Wharton, was censured in Convocation for
being the author of a libellous letter.
39 Probably the same person as Dr. Griffith, spoken of in the Journal for
March 3, 1713,--when he was ill,--as having been "very tender of" Stella.
40 See Letter 9, note 22.
41 Vexed, offended. Elsewhere Swift wrote, "I am apt to grate the ears of
more than I could wish."
42 Ambrose Philips, whose Pastorals had been published in the same volume of
Tonson's Miscellany as Pope's. Two years later Swift wrote, "I should
certainly have provided for him had he not run party mad." In 1712 his play,
The Distrest Mother, received flattering notice in the Spectator, and in 1713,
to Pope's annoyance, Philips' Pastorals were praised in the Guardian. His
pretty poems to children led Henry Carey to nickname him "Namby Pamby."
43 An equestrian statue of William III., in College Green, Dublin. It was
common, in the days of party, for students of the University of Dublin to play
tricks with this statue.
44 Lieutenant-General Richard Ingoldsby (died 1712) was Commander of the
Forces in Ireland, and one of the Lords Justices in the absence of the Lord
Lieutenant.
45 This seems to have been a mistake; cf. Journal for July 13, 1711, Alan
Brodrick, afterwards Viscount Midleton, a Whig politician and lawyer, was made
Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench in Ireland in 1709, but was removed from
office in June 1711, when Sir Richard Cox succeeded him. On the accession of
George I. he was appointed Lord Chancellor for Ireland. Afterwards he
declined to accept the dedication to him of Swift's Drapiers Letters, and
supported the prosecution of the author. He died in 1728.
46 Robert Doyne was appointed Chief Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland in 1695,
and Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1703. This appointment was revoked
on the accession of George I.
47 See Letter 9, note 12.
48 Of the University of Dublin.
49 See Letter 2, note 18 and Letter 3, note 4. Sir Thomas Frankland's eldest
son, Thomas, who afterwards succeeded to the baronetcy, acquired a fortune
with his first wife, Dinah, daughter of Francis Topham, of Agelthorpe,
Yorkshire. He died in 1747.
50 See Letter 8, note 21.
51 see Letter 4, note 15.
52 Mary, daughter of Sir John Williams, Bart., and widow of Charles Petty,
second Lord Shelburne, who died in 1696. She had married, as her second
husband, Major-General Conyngham, and, as her third husband, Colonel Dallway.
53 Dr. John Vesey became Bishop of Limerick in 1672, and Archbishop of Tuam in
1678. He died in 1716.
54 See Letter 3, note 39.
55 Sex.
56 Toby Caulfeild, third son of the fifth Lord Charlemont. In 1689 he was
Colonel to the Earl of Drogheda's Regiment of Foot, and about 1705 he
succeeded to the command of Lord Skerrin's Regiment of Foot. After serving in
Spain his regiment was reduced, having lost most of its men (Luttrell, vi.
158).
57 John Campbell, second Duke of Argyle (1680-1743), was installed a Knight of
the Garter in December 1710, after he had successfully opposed a vote of
thanks to Marlborough, with whom he had quarrelled. It was of this nobleman
that Pope wrote--
"Argyle, the State's whole thunder born to wield,
And shake alike the senate and the field."
In a note to Macky's Memoirs, Swift describes the Duke as an "ambitious,
covetous, cunning Scot, who had no principle but his own interests and
greatness."
58 Harley's second wife, Sarah, daughter of Simon Middleton, of Edmonton, and
sister of Sir Hugh Middleton, Bart. She died, without issue, in 1737.
59 Elizabeth Harley, then unmarried, the daughter of Harley's first wife,
Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Foley, of Whitley Court, Worcestershire. She
subsequently married the Marquis of Caermarthen, afterwards Duke of Leeds.
60 Harcourt (see Letter 3, note 24).
61 William Stawel, the third baron, who succeeded to the title in 1692, was
half-brother to the second Baron Stawel. The brother here referred to was
Edward, who succeeded to the title as fourth baron in 1742.
Letter 12.
1 Charles Finch, third Earl of Winchelsea, son of Lord Maidstone, and grandson
of Heneage, second Earl of Winchelsea. On his death in 1712 Swift spoke of
him as "a worthy honest gentleman, and particular friend of mine."
2 Vedeau was a shopkeeper, who abandoned his trade for the army (Journal,
March 28, April 4, 1711). Swift calls him "a lieutenant, who is now broke,
and upon half pay" (Journal, Nov. 18, 1712)
3 Sir Edmund Bacon, Bart. (died 1721), of Herringflat, Suffolk, succeeded his
father in the baronetcy in 1686.
4 The reverse at Brihuega.
5 See Letter 8, note 12.
6 John Barber, a printer, became Lord Mayor of London in 1732, and died in
1741. Mrs. Manley was his mistress, and died at his printing office. Swift
speaks of Barber as his "very good and old friend."
7 Bernage was an officer serving under Colonel Fielding. In August 1710 a
difficulty arose through Arbuthnot trying to get his brother George made
Captain over Bernage's head; but ultimately Arbuthnot waived the business,
because he would not wrong a friend of Swift's.
8 See Letter 1, note 52.
9 George Smalridge (1663-1719), the High Church divine and popular preacher,
was made Dean of Carlisle in 1711, and Bishop of Bristol in 1714. Steele
spoke of him in the Tatler (Nos. 73, 114) as "abounding in that sort of virtue
and knowledge which makes religion beautiful."
10 St. Albans Street, Pall Mall, was removed in 1815 to make way for Waterloo
Place. It was named after Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans.
11 Ben Portlack, the Duke of Ormond's secretary.
12 Algernon Seymour, Earl of Hertford (1684-1750), only son of Charles
Seymour, Duke of Somerset. Lord Hertford succeeded to the dukedom in 1748.
From 1708 to 1722 he was M.P. for Northumberland, and from 1708 to 1713 he
took an active part in the war in Flanders.
13 See Letter 4.
14 A Short Character of the Earl of Wharton (see Letter 10. note 29).
15 See Letter 9.
16 Henry Herbert, the last Baron Herbert of Cherbury, succeeded to the peerage
in 1709, and soon afterwards married a sister of the Earl of Portsmouth. A
ruined man, he committed suicide in 1738.
17 Nos. 257, 260.
18 See Letter 6, note 12.
19 "AFTER is interlined" (Deane Swift).
20 With this account may be compared what Pope says, as recorded in Spence's
Anecdotes, p. 223: "Lord Peterborough could dictate letters to nine
amanuenses together, as I was assured by a gentleman who saw him do it when
Ambassador at Turin. He walked round the room, and told each of them in his
turn what he was to write. One perhaps was a letter to the emperor, another
to an old friend, a third to a mistress, a fourth to a statesman, and so on:
yet he carried so many and so different connections in his head, all at the
same time."
21 Francis Atterbury, Dean of Carlisle, had taken an active part in the
defence of Dr. Sacheverell. After a long period of suspense he received the
appointment of Dean of Christ Church, and in 1713 he was made Bishop of
Rochester and Dean of Westminster. Atterbury was on intimate terms with
Swift, Pope, and other writers on the Tory side, and Addison--at whose funeral
the Bishop officiated--described him as "one of the greatest geniuses of his
age."
22 John Carteret, second Baron Carteret, afterwards to be well known as a
statesman, succeeded to the peerage in 1695, and became Earl Granville and
Viscount Carteret on the death of his brother in 1744. He died in 1763. In
October 1710, when twenty years of age, he had married Frances, only daughter
of Sir Robert Worsley, Bart., of Appuldurcombe, Isle of Wight.
23 Dillon Ashe, D.D., Vicar of Finglas, and brother of the Bishop of Clogher.
In 1704 he was made Archdeacon of Clogher, and in 1706 Chancellor of Armagh.
He seems to have been too fond of drink.
24 Henley (see Letter 6, note 15) married Mary, daughter of Peregrine Bertie,
the second son of Montagu, Earl of Lindsey, and with her obtained a fortune of
30,000 pounds. After Henley's death his widow married her relative, Henry
Bertie, third son of James, Earl of Abingdon.
25 Hebrews v. 6.
Letter 13.
1 Probably Mrs. Manley and John Barber (see Letter 11, note 28 and Letter 12,
note 6).
2 Sir Andrew Fountaine's (see Letter 5, note 28) father, Andrew Fountaine,
M.P., married Sarah, daughter of Sir Thomas Chicheley, Master of the Ordnance.
Sir Andrew's sister, Elizabeth, married Colonel Edward Clent. The "scoundrel
brother," Brig, died in 1746, aged sixty-four (Blomefield's Norfolk, vi. 233-
36).
3 Dame Overdo, the justice's wife in Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair.
4 See Letter 3, note 5.
5 Atterbury, who had recently been elected Prolocutor to the Lower House of
Convocation.
6 Dr. Sterne, Dean of St. Patrick's, was not married.
7 January 6 was Twelfth-night.
8 Garraway's Coffee-house, in Change Alley, was founded by Thomas Garway, the
first coffee-man who sold and retailed tea. A room upstairs was used for
sales of wine "by the candle."
9 Sir Constantine Phipps, who had taken an active part in Sacheverell's
defence. Phipps' interference in elections in the Tory interest made him very
unpopular in Dublin, and he was recalled on the death of Queen Anne.
10 Joseph Trapp, one of the seven poets alluded to in the distich:--
"Alma novem genuit celebres Rhedycina poetas,
Bubb, Stubb, Grubb, Crabb, Trapp, Young, Carey, Tickell, Evans."
Trapp wrote a tragedy in 1704, and in 1708 was chosen the first Professor of
Poetry at Oxford. In 1710 he published pamphlets on behalf of Sacheverell,
and in 1712 Swift secured for him the post of chaplain to Bolingbroke. During
his latter years he held several good livings. Elsewhere Swift calls him a
"coxcomb."
11 See Letter 7, note 21.
12 The extreme Tories, who afterwards formed the October Club.
13 Crowd. A Jacobean writer speaks of "the lurry of lawyers," and "a lurry
and rabble of poor friars."
14 See Letter 5, note 10.
15 St. John's first wife was Frances, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Henry
Winchcombe, Bart., of Berkshire, and in her right St. John enjoyed the estates
of Bucklebury, which on her death in 1718 passed to her sister. In April 1711
Swift said that "poor Mrs. St. John" was growing a great favourite of his; she
was going to Bath owing to ill-health, and begged him to take care of her
husband. She "said she had none to trust but me, and the poor creature's
tears came fresh in her eyes." Though the marriage was, naturally enough,
unhappy, she did not leave St. John's house until 1713, and she returned to
him when he fell from power. There are letters from her to Swift as late as
1716, not only doing her best to defend his honour, but speaking of him with
tenderness.
16 "Battoon" means (1) a truncheon; (2) a staff of office. Luttrell, in 1704,
speaks of "a battoon set with diamonds sent him from the French king."
17 Edward Harley, second son of Sir Edward Harley, was M.P. for Leominster and
Recorder of the same town. In 1702 he was appointed Auditor of the Imposts, a
post which he held until his death in 1735. His wife, Sarah, daughter of
Thomas Foley, was a sister of Robert Harley's wife, and his eldest son
eventually became third Earl of Oxford. Harley published several books on
biblical subjects.
18 See Letter 6, note 12. The last number of Steele's Tatler appeared on Jan.
2, 1711; Harrison's paper reached to fifty-two numbers.
19 Dryden Leach (see Letter 7, note 22).
20 Cf. Letter 7, October 28th.
21 Published by John Baker and John Morphew. See Aitken's Life of Steele, i.
299-301.
22 In No. 224 of the Tatler, Addison, speaking of polemical advertisements,
says: "The inventors of Strops for Razors have written against one another
this way for several years, and that with great bitterness." See also
Spectator, Nos. 428, 509, and the Postman for March 23, 1703: "The so much
famed strops for setting razors, etc., are only to be had at Jacob's Coffee-
house. . . . Beware of counterfeits, for such are abroad."
23 Sir John Holland (see Letter 3, note 28).
24 Addison speaks of a fine flaxen long wig costing thirty guineas (Guardian,
No. 97), and Duumvir's fair wig, which Phillis threw into the fire, cost forty
guineas (Tatler, No. 54)
25 Swift's mother, Abigail Erick, was of a Leicestershire family, and after
her husband's death she spent much of her time with her friends near her old
home. Mr. Worrall, vicar of St. Patrick's, with whom Swift was on terms of
intimacy in 1728-29, was evidently a relative of the Worralls where Mrs. Swift
had lodged, and we may reasonably suppose that he owed the living to Swift's
interest in the family.
26 The title of a humorous poem by Lydgate. A "lickpenny" is a greedy or
grasping person.
27 Small wooden blocks used for lighting fires. See Swift ("Description of
the Morning"),
"The small-coal man was heard with cadence deep,
Till drowned in shriller notes of chimney-sweep;" and Gay (Trivia, ii.
35),
"When small-coal murmurs in the hoarser throat,
From smutty dangers guard thy threatened coat."
28 The Tory Ministers.
Letter 14.
1 See Letter 7, note 22.
2 Thomas Southerne's play of Oroonoko, based on Mrs. Aphra Behn's novel of the
same name, was first acted in 1696.
3 "Mrs." Cross created the part of Mrs. Clerimont in Steele's Tender Husband
in 1705.
4 See Letter 12, note 7.
5 George Granville, afterwards Lord Lansdowne, was M.P. for Cornwall, and
Secretary at War. In December 1711 he was raised to the peerage, and in 1712
was appointed Comptroller of the Household. He died in 1735, when the title
became extinct. Granville wrote plays and poems, and was a patron of both
Dryden and Pope. Pope called him "Granville the polite." His Works in Verse
and Prose appeared in 1732.
6 Samuel Masham, son of Sir Francis Masham, Bart., had been a page to the
Queen while Princess of Denmark, and an equerry and gentleman of the bed-
chamber to Prince George. He married Abigail Hill (see Letter 16, note 7),
daughter of Francis Hill, a Turkey merchant, and sister of General John Hill,
and through that lady's influence with the Queen he was raised to the peerage
as Baron Masham, in January 1712. Under George I. he was Remembrancer of the
Exchequer. He died in 1758.
7 A roughly printed pamphlet, The Honourable Descent, Life, and True Character
of the . . . Earl of Wharton, appeared early in 1711, in reply to Swift's
Short Character; but that can hardly be the pamphlet referred to here, because
it is directed against libellers and backbiters, and cannot be described as
"pretty civil."
8 "In that word (the seven last words of the sentence huddled into one) there
were some puzzling characters" (Deane Swift).
9 Sir Robert Worsley, Bart., married, in 1690, Frances, only daughter of the
first Viscount Weymouth. Their daughter Frances married Lord Carteret (see
Letter 12, note 22) in 1710. In a letter to Colonel Hunter in March 1709
Swift spoke of Lady (then Mrs.) Worsley as one of the principal beauties in
town. See, too, Swift's letter to her of April 19, 1730: "My Lady Carteret
has been the best queen we have known in Ireland these many years; yet is she
mortally hated by all the young girls, because (and it is your fault) she is
handsomer than all of them together."
10 See Letter 3, note 1.
11 See Letter 5, note 17.
12 William Stratford, son of Nicholas Stratford, Bishop of Chester, was
Archdeacon of Richmond and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, until his death in
1729.
13 See Letter 3, note 22.
14 James, third Earl of Berkeley (168O-1736), whom Swift calls a "young rake"
(see Letter 16, note 15). The young Countess of Berkeley was only sixteen on
her marriage. In 1714 she was appointed a lady of the bed-chamber to
Caroline, Princess of Wales, and she died of smallpox in 1717, aged twenty-
two. The Earl was an Admiral, and saw much service between 1701 and 1710;
under George I. he was First Lord of the Admiralty.
15 Edward Wettenhall was Bishop of Kilmore from 1699 to 1713.
16 In the Dedication to The Tale of a Tub Swift had addressed Somers in very
different terms: "There is no virtue, either in public or private life, which
some circumstances of your own have not often produced upon the stage of the
world."
17 Their lodgings, opposite to St. Mary's Church in Stafford Street, Dublin.
Letter 15.
1 The Stamp Act was not passed until June 1712: see the Journal for Aug. 7,
1712.
2 Both in St. James's Park. The Canal was formed by Charles II. from several
small ponds, and Rosamond's Pond was a sheet of water in the south-west corner
of the Park, "long consecrated," as Warburton said, "to disastrous love and
elegiac poetry." It is often mentioned as a place of assignation in
Restoration plays. Evelyn (Diary, Dec. 1, 1662) describes the "scheets" used
on the Canal.
3 Mrs. Beaumont.
4 The first direct mention of Hester Vanhomrigh. She is referred to only in
two other places in the Journal (Feb. 14, 1710-11, and Aug, 14, 1711).
5 See Letter 3, note 17.
6 No. 27, by Swift himself.
7 No. 7 of Harrison's series.
8 The printers of the original Tatler.
9 Harley had forwarded to Swift a banknote for fifty pounds (see Journal,
March 7, 1710-11).
10 At Moor Park.
11 Scott says that Swift here alludes to some unidentified pamphlet of which
he was the real or supposed author.
12 See Letter 11, note 13.
13 The Examiner.
14 See Letter 6, note 43.
15 Mistaken.
16 Mrs. De Caudres, "over against St. Mary's Church, near Capel Street,"
where Stella now lodged.
17 "A crease in the sheet" (Deane Swift).
18 "In the original it was, good mallows, little sollahs. But in these words,
and many others, he writes constantly ll for rr" (Deane Swift).
19 See Letter 4, note 19.
20 "Those letters which are in italics in the original are of a monstrous
size, which occasioned his calling himself a loggerhead" (Deane Swift).
[Italics replaced by capitals for the transcription of this etext.]
21 I.e., to ask whether.
Letter 16.
1 Harcourt.
2 "A shilling passes for thirteenpence in Ireland" (Deane Swift).
3 Robert Cope, a gentleman of learning with whom Swift corresponded.
4 Archdeacon Morris is not mentioned in Cotton's Fasti Ecclesiae Hiberniae.
5 See Letter 14, note 6.
6 See Letter 10, note 2.
7 Abigail Hill, afterwards Lady Masham, had been introduced into the Queens
service as bed-chamber woman by the Duchess of Marlborough. Her High Church
and Tory views recommended her to Queen Anne, and in 17O7 she was privately
married to Mr. Samuel Masham, a gentleman in the service of Prince George (see
Letter 14, note 6). The Duchess of Marlborough discovered that Mrs. Masham's
cousin, Harley, was using her influence to further his own interests with the
Queen; and in spite of her violence the Duchess found herself gradually
supplanted. From 1710 Mrs. Masham's only rival in the royal favour was the
Duchess of Somerset. Afterwards she quarrelled with Harley and joined the
Bolingbroke faction.
8 See Letter 4, note 16.
9 No. 14 of Harrison's series.
10 See Letter 15, note 4.
11 Richard Duke, a minor poet and friend of Dryden's, entered the Church about
1685. In July 1710 he was presented by the Bishop of Winchester to the living
of Witney, Oxfordshire, which was worth 700 pounds a year.
12 Sir Jonathan Trelawney, one of the seven bishops committed to the Tower in
1688, was translated to Winchester in 17O7, when he appointed Duke to be his
chaplain.
13 See Letter 4, note 3.
14 See Letter 3, note 39.
15 See Letter 14, note 14.
16 See Letter 7, note 28.
17 Cf. Feb. 22, 1711.
18 Esther Johnson lodged opposite St. Mary's in Dublin.
19 This famous Tory club began with the meeting together of a few extreme
Tories at the Bell in Westminster. The password to the Club--"October"--was
one easy of remembrance to a country gentleman who loved his ale.
20 "Duke" Disney, "not an old man, but an old rake," died in 1731. Gay calls
him "facetious Disney," and Swift says that all the members of the Club "love
him mightily." Lady M. W. Montagu speaks of his
"Broad plump face, pert eyes, and ruddy skin,
Which showed the stupid joke which lurked within."
Disney was a French Huguenot refugee, and his real name was Desaulnais. He
commanded an Irish regiment, and took part in General Hill's expedition to
Canada in 1711 (Kingsford's Canada, ii. 465). By his will (Wentworth papers,
109) he "left nothing to his poor relations, but very handsome to his bottle
companions."
21 There were several Colonel Fieldings in the first half of the eighteenth
century, and it is not clear which is the one referred to by Swift. Possibly
he was the Edmund Fielding--grandson of the first Earl of Denbigh--who died a
Lieutenant-General in 1741, at the age of sixty-three, but is best known as
the father of Henry Fielding, the novelist.
22 Cf. Feb. 17, 1711.
23 See Letter 3, note 37.
24 "It is a measured mile round the outer wall; and far beyond any the finest
square in London" (Deane Swift).
25 "The common fare for a set-down in Dublin" (ib.).
26 "Mrs. Stoyte lived at Donnybrook, the road to which from Stephen's Green
ran into the country about a mile from the south-east corner" (ib.).
27 "Those words in italics are written in a very large hand, and so is the
word large" (ib.). [Italics replaced by capitals for the transcription of this
etext.]
28 Deane Swift alters "lele" to "there," but in a note states how he here
altered Swift's "cypher way of writing." No doubt "lele" and other favourite
words occurred frequently in the MS., as they do in the later letters.
Letter 17.
1 Sir Thomas Mansel, Bart., Comptroller of the Household to Queen Anne, and a
Lord of the Treasury, was raised to the peerage in December 1711 as Baron
Mansel of Margam. He died in 1723.
2 Lady Betty Butler and Lady Betty Germaine (see Letter 3, note 40 and Letter
4, note 3).
3 James Eckershall, "second clerk of the Queen's Privy Kitchen." Chamberlayne
(Magnae Britanniae Notitia, 171O, p. 536) says that his wages were 11 pounds,
8 shillings and a penny-ha'penny, and board-wages 138 pounds, 11 shillings and
tenpence-ha'penny, making 150 pounds in all. Afterwards Eckershall was
gentleman usher to Queen Anne; he died at Drayton in 1753, aged seventy-four.
Pope was in correspondence with him in 172O on the subject of contemplated
speculations in South Sea and other stocks.
4 In October 1710 (see Letter 6, note 44) Swift wrote as if he knew about the
preparation of these Miscellanies. The volume was published by Morphew
instead of Tooke, and it is frequently referred to in the Journal.
5 In 1685 the Duke of Ormond (see Letter 2, note 10) married, as his second
wife, Lady Mary Somerset, eldest surviving daughter of Henry, first Duke of
Beaufort.
6 Arthur Moore, M.P., was a Commissioner of Trade and Plantations from 1710
until his death in 1730. Gay calls him "grave," and Pope ("Prologue to the
Satires," 23) says that Moore blamed him for the way in which his "giddy son,"
James Moore Smythe, neglected the law.
7 James, Lord Paisley, who succeeded his father (see Letter 10, note 33) as
seventh Earl of Abercorn in 1734, married, in 1711, Anne, eldest daughter of
Colonel John Plumer, of Blakesware, Herts.
8 Harley's ill-health was partly due to his drinking habits.
9 Crowd or confusion.
10 The first wife of Charles Seymour, sixth Duke of Somerset, was Lady
Elizabeth Percy, only daughter of Joscelyn, eleventh Earl of Northumberland,
and heiress of the house of Percy. She married the Duke, her third husband,
at the age of eighteen.
11 John Richardson, D.D., rector of Armagh, Cavan, and afterwards chaplain to
the Duke of Ormond. In 1711 he published a Proposal for the Conversion of the
Popish Natives of Ireland to the Established Religion, and in 1712 a Short
History of the Attempts to Convert the Popish Natives of Ireland. In 17O9 the
Lower House of Convocation in Ireland had passed resolutions for printing the
Bible and liturgy in Irish, providing Irish preachers, etc. In 1711 Thomas
Parnell, the poet, headed a deputation to the Queen on the subject, when an
address was presented; but nothing came of the proposals, owing to fears that
the English interest in Ireland might be injured. In 1731 Richardson was
given the small deanery of Kilmacluagh.
12 See Feb. 27, 1711.
13 Harley.
14 "Bank bill for fifty pound," taking the alternate letters (see Letter 15,
note 9).
15 See Letter 5, note 17.
16 See Nos. 27 and 29, by Swift himself.
17 "Print cannot do justice to whims of this kind, as they depend wholly upon
the awkward shape of the letters" (Deane Swift).
18 See Letter 8, note 2.
19 "Here is just one specimen given of his way of writing to Stella in these
journals. The reader, I hope, will excuse my omitting it in all other places
where it occurs. The meaning of this pretty language is: 'And you must cry
There, and Here, and Here again. Must you imitate Presto, pray? Yes, and so
you shall. And so there's for your letter. Good-morrow'" (Deane Swift).
What Swift really wrote was probably as follows: "Oo must cly Lele and Lele
and Lele aden. Must oo mimitate Pdfr, pay? Iss, and so oo sall. And so
lele's fol oo rettle. Dood-mallow."
20 Lady Catherine Morice (died 1716) was the eldest daughter of Thomas
Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, and wife of Sir Nicholas Morice, Bart., M.P. for
Newport.
21 Perhaps Henry Arundell, who succeeded his father as fifth Baron Arundell of
Wardour in 1712, and died in 1726.
22 Antoine, Abbe de Bourlie and Marquis de Guiscard, was a cadet of a
distinguished family of the south of France. He joined the Church, but having
been driven from France in consequence of his licentious excesses, he came to
England, after many adventures in Europe, with a recommendation from the Duke
of Savoy. Godolphin gave him the command of a regiment of refugees, and
employed him in projects for effecting a landing in France. These schemes
proving abortive, Guiscard's regiment was disbanded, and he was discharged
with a pension of 500 pounds a year. Soon after the Tories came to power
Guiscard came to the conclusion that there was no hope of employment for him,
and little chance of receiving his pension; and he began a treacherous
correspondence with the French. When this was detected he was brought before
the Privy Council, and finding that everything was known, and wishing a better
death than hanging, he stabbed Harley in the breast. Mrs. Manley, under
Swift's directions, wrote a Narrative of Guiscard's Examination, and the
incident greatly added to the security of Harley's position, and to the
strength of the Government.
23 Harley's surgeon, Mr. Green.
24 See Letter 9, note 20.
25 Mrs. Walls' baby (see Feb 5, 1711).
26 The phrase had its origin in the sharp practices in the horse and cattle
markets. Writing to Arbuthnot in 1727, Swift said that Gay "had made a pretty
good bargain (that is a Smithfield) for a little place in the Custom House."
27 "There."
Letter 18.
1 See Swift's paper in the Examiner, No. 32, and Mrs. Manley's pamphlet,
already mentioned.
2 Presumably Mrs. Johnson's palsy-water (see Letter 5, note 17).
3 Thomas Wentworth, Baron Raby (1672-1739), was created Viscount Wentworth and
Earl of Strafford in June 1711. Lord Raby was Envoy and Ambassador at Berlin
for some years, and was appointed Ambassador at the Hague in March 1711. In
November he was nominated as joint Plenipotentiary with the Bishop of Bristol
to negotiate the terms of peace. He objected to Prior as a colleague; Swift
says he was "as proud as hell." In 1715 it was proposed to impeach Strafford,
but the proceedings were dropped. In his later years he was, according to
Lord Hervey, a loquacious and illiterate, but constant, speaker in the House
of Lords.
4 A beauty, to whom Swift addressed verses in 17O8. During the frost of
January 17O9 Swift wrote: "Mrs. Floyd looked out with both her eyes, and we
had one day's thaw; but she drew in her head, and it now freezes as hard as
ever." She was a great friend of Lady Betty Germaine's.
5 Swift never had the smallpox.
6 See Letter 12, note 22.
7 Heart.
8 The first number of the Spectator appeared on March 1, 1711.
9 In one of his poems Swift speaks of Stella "sossing in an easy-chair."
10 See Letter 4, note 20.
11 "It is reasonable to suppose that Swift's acquaintance with Arbuthnot
commenced just about this time; for in the original letter Swift misspells his
name, and writes it Arthbuthnet, in a clear large hand, that MD might not
mistake any of the letters" (Deane Swift). Dr. John Arbuthnot had been made
Physician in Ordinary to the Queen; he was one of Swift's dearest friends.
12 Clobery Bromley, M.P. for Coventry, son of William Bromley, M.P. (see
Letter 10, note 1), died on March 2O, 1711, and Boyer (Political State, i.
255) says that the House, "out of respect to the father, and to give him time,
both to perform the funeral rites and to indulge his just affliction,"
adjourned until the 26th.
13 See Letter 5, note 4.
14 See Letter 17, note 11.
15 Sir John Perceval, Bart. (died 1748), was created Baron Perceval 1715,
Viscount Perceval 1722, and Earl of Egmont 1733, all in the Irish peerage. He
married, in 1710, Catherine, eldest daughter of Sir Philip Parker A'Morley,
Bart., of Erwarton, Suffolk; and his son (born Feb. 27, 1710-11) was made
Baron Perceval and Holland, in the English peerage, in 1762.
16 This report was false. The Old Pretender did not marry until 1718, when he
was united to the Princess Clementina Maria, daughter of Prince James
Sobieski.
Letter 19.
1 John Hartstonge, D.D. (died 1717), was Bishop of Ossory from 1693 to 1714,
when he was translated to Derry.
2 See Letter 15, note 16.
3 Thomas Proby was Chirurgeon-General in Ireland from 1699 until his death in
1761. In his Short Character of Thomas, Earl of Wharton, Swift speaks of him
as "a person universally esteemed," who had been badly treated by Lord
Wharton. In 1724 Proby's son, a captain in the army, was accused of popery,
and Swift wrote to Lord Carteret that the charge was generally believed to be
false: "The father is the most universally beloved of any man I ever knew in
his station. . . . You cannot do any personal thing more acceptable to the
people of Ireland than in inclining towards lenity to Mr. Proby and his
family." Proby was probably a near relative of Sir Thomas Proby, Bart., M.P.,
of Elton, Hunts, at whose death in 1689 the baronetcy expired. Mrs. Proby
seems to have been a Miss Spencer.
4 Meliora, daughter of Thomas Coningsby, Baron of Clanbrassil and Earl of
Coningsby, and wife of Sir Thomas Southwell, afterwards Baron Southwell, one
of the Commissioners of Revenue in Ireland, and a member of the Irish Privy
Council. Lady Southwell died in 1736.
5 Lady Betty Rochfort was the daughter of Henry Moore, third Earl of Drogheda.
Her husband, George Rochfort, M.P. for Westmeath, was son of Robert Rochfort,
an Irish judge, and brother of Robert Rochford, M.P., to whose wife Swift
addressed his Advice to a very Young Lady on her Marriage. Lady Betty's son
Robert was created Earl of Belvedere in 1757.
6 See Letter 17, note 23. Mr. Bussiere, of Suffolk Street, had been called in
directly after the outrage, but Radcliffe would not consult him.
7 The letter from Dr. King dated March 17, 1711, commenting on Guiscard's
attack upon Harley.
8 See Feb. 10, 1710-11.
9 The word "trangram" or "tangram" ordinarily means a toy or gimcrack, or
trumpery article. Cf. Wycherley (Plain Dealer, iii. 1), "But go, thou
trangram, and carry back those trangrams which thou hast stolen or purloined."
Apparently "trangum" here means a tally.
10 See Letter 12, note 2.
11 Swift means Godolphin, the late Lord Treasurer.
12 Sir John Holland (see Letter 3, note 28).
13 "It caused a violent daub on the paper, which still continues much
discoloured in the original" (Deane Swift).
14 "He forgot here to say, 'At night.' See what goes before" (Deane Swift).
15 See Letter 17, note 1.
16 Irishman. "Teague" was a term of contempt for an Irishman.
17 To "Mr. Harley, wounded by Guiscard." In this piece Prior said, "Britain
with tears shall bathe thy glorious wound," a wound which could not have been
inflicted by any but a stranger to our land.
18 Sir Thomas Mansel married Martha, daughter and heiress of Francis
Millington, a London merchant.
19 Slatterning, consuming carelessly.
20 "The candle grease mentioned before, which soaked through, deformed this
part of the paper on the second page" (Deane Swift).
21 Harcourt.
22 William Rollinson, formerly a wine merchant, settled afterwards in
Oxfordshire, where he died at a great age. He was a friend of Pope,
Bolingbroke, and Gay.
23 In relation to the banknote (see Letter 17, note 14).
24 "Swift was, at this time, their great support and champion" (Deane Swift).
25 See Letter 14, note 15.
26 See Letter 17, note 25.
27 "Stella, with all her wit and good sense, spelled very ill; and Dr. Swift
insisted greatly upon women spelling well" (Deane Swift).
28 "The slope of the letters in the words THIS WAY, THIS WAY, is to the left
hand, but the slope of the words THAT WAY, THAT WAY, is to the right hand"
(Deane Swift).
29 See Letter 17, note 24.
30 See Letter 5, note 11 and Letter 10, note 28.
Letter 20.
1 By the Act 9 Anne, cap. 23, the number of hackney coaches was increased to
800, and it was provided that they were to go a mile and a half for one
shilling, two miles for one shilling and sixpence, and so on.
2 See Letter 11, note 39.
3 In a letter to Swift, of March 17, 1711, King said that it might have been
thought that Guiscard's attack would have convinced the world that Harley was
not in the French interest; but it did not have that effect with all, for some
whispered the case of Fenius Rufus and Scevinus in the 15th book of Tacitus:
"Accensis indicibus ad prodendum Fenium Rufum, quem eundem conscium et
inquisitorem non tolerabant." Next month Swift told King that it was reported
that the Archbishop had applied this passage in a speech made to his clergy,
and explained at some length the steps he had taken to prevent the story being
published in the Postboy. King thanked Swift for this action, explaining that
he had been arguing on Harley's behalf when someone instanced the story of
Rufus.
4 A Tory paper, published thrice weekly by Abel Roper.
5 Sir Charles Duncombe, banker, died on April 9, 1711. The first wife of the
Duke of Argyle (see Letter 11, note 57) was Duncombe's niece, Mary Browne,
daughter of Ursula Duncombe and Thomas Browne, of St. Margaret's, Westminster.
Duncombe was elected Lord Mayor in 1700, and was the richest commoner in
England.
6 The Rev. Dillon Ashe (see Letter 12, note 23).
7 John, fourth Baron Poulett, was created Earl Poulett in 17O6, after serving
as one of the Commissioners for the Treaty of Union with Scotland. From
August 1710 to May 1711 he was First Lord of the Treasury, and from June 1711
to August 1714 he was Lord Steward of the Household.
8 Lost or stupid person.
9 Sir William Read, a quack who advertised largely in the Tatler and other
papers. He was satirised in No. 547 of the Spectator. In 17O5 he was
knighted for his services in curing many seamen and soldiers of blindness
gratis, and he was appointed Oculist in Ordinary to the Queen. Read died in
1715, but his business was continued by his widow.
10 General John Webb was not on good terms with Marlborough. He was a Tory,
and had gained distinction in the war at Wynendale (17O8), though the Duke's
secretary gave the credit, in the despatch, to Cadogan. There is a well-known
account of Webb in Thackeray's Esmond. He was severely wounded at Malplaquet
in 17O9, and in 1710 was given the governorship of the Isle of Wight. He died
in 1724.
11 Henry Campion, M.P. for Penryn, is mentioned in the Political State for
February 1712 as one of the leading men of the October Club. Campion seems to
have been Member, not for Penryn, but for Bossiney.
12 See Letter 3, note 32.
13 Sir George Beaumont, Bart., M.P. for Leicester, and an acquaintance of
Swift's mother, was made a Commissioner of the Privy Seal in 1712, and one of
the Lords of the Admiralty in 1714. He died in 1737.
14 Heneage Finch, afterwards second Earl of Aylesford, was the son of Heneage
Finch, the chief counsel for the seven bishops, who was created Baron Guernsey
in 1703, and Earl of Aylesford in 1714.
15 James, Lord Compton, afterwards fifth Earl of Northampton, was the eldest
son of George, the fourth Earl. He was summoned to the House of Lords in
December 1711, and died in 1754.
16 See Letter 11, note 12.
Letter 21.
1 In 1670 Temple thanked the Grand Duke of Tuscany for "an entire vintage of
the finest wines of Italy" (Temple's Works, 1814, ii. 155-56).
2 Mrs. Manley (see Letter 17, note 22).
3 Charles Caesar, M.P. for Hertford, was appointed Treasurer of the Navy in
June 1711, in the room of Robert Walpole.
4 Joseph I. His successor was his brother Charles, the King of Spain
recognised by England.
5 Simon Harcourt, M.P. for Wallingford. He married Elizabeth, sister of Sir
John Evelyn, Bart., and died in 1720, aged thirty-five, before his father. He
was secretary to the society of "Brothers," wrote verses, and was a friend of
the poets. His son Simon was created Earl Harcourt in 1749, and was Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland.
6 Doiley, a seventeenth-century linen-draper,--probably "Thomas Doyley, at the
Nun, in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden,"--invented stuffs which "might at
once be cheap and genteel" (Spectator, No. 283).
7 A special envoy. The Resident from Venice in 1710 was Signor Bianchi.
8 See Letter 17, note 5.
9 Nanfan Coote, second Earl of Bellamont, who died in 1708, married, in 1705,
Lucia Anna, daughter of Henry de Nassau, Lord of Auverquerque, and sister of
Henry, first Earl of Grantham. She died in 1744.
10 "Farnese" (Deane Swift).
11 See Letter 20, note 3.
12 Swift's changes of residence during the period covered by the Journal were
numerous. On Sept. 20, 1710, he moved from Pall Mall to Bury Street, "where I
suppose I shall continue while in London." But on Dec. 28 he went to new
lodgings in St. Albans Street, Haymarket. On April 26, 1711, he moved to
Chelsea, and from there to Suffolk Street, to be near the Vanhomrighs. He
next moved to St. Martins Street, Leicester Fields; and a month later to
Panton Street, Haymarket. In 1712 he lodged for a time at Kensington Gravel
Pits.
13 At raffling for books.
14 James Brydges, Paymaster-General, and afterwards Duke of Chandos (see
Letter 3, note 31).
15 Thomas Foley, M.P. for Worcestershire, was created Baron Foley in December
1711, and died in 1733.
16 See 25th April, 1711 and Letter 20, note 3.
17 See Letter 19, note 3.
18 Charles Dering, second son of Sir Edward Dering, Bart., M.P. for Kent, was
Auditor of the Exchequer in Ireland, and M.P. for Carlingford.
19 See Letter 11, note 44.
20 See Letter 17, note 4.
21 A Whig paper, for the most part by Mainwaring and Oldmixon, in opposition
to the Examiner. It appeared weekly from October 1710 to August 1711.
22 See Letter 17, note 22.
23 See Spectator, No. 50, by Addison.
24 In all probability a mistake for "Wesley" (see Letter 1, note 12).
Letter 22.
1 Lord Paisley (see Letter 17, note 7).
2 See Letter 11, note 5.
3 Sir Hovenden Walker. The "man midwife" was Sir Chamberlen Walker, his
younger brother. The "secret expedition" against Quebec conveyed upwards of
5000 soldiers, under the command of General John Hill (see Letter 10, note 2),
but owing to the want of due preparations and the severe weather encountered,
the fleet was compelled to return to England without accomplishing anything.
4 Robert Freind, elder brother of John Freind, M.D. (see Letter 9, note 1),
became headmaster of Westminster School in 1711, and held the appointment
until 1733. He was Rector of Witney, and afterwards Canon of Windsor,
Prebendary of Westminster, and Canon of Christ Church. He died in 1751, aged
eighty-four.
5 Christopher Musgrave was Clerk of the Ordnance.
6 Atterbury's wife, Katherine Osborn, has been described as "the inspiration
of his youth and the solace of his riper years."
7 The original Chelsea Bun House, in Jew's Row, was pulled down in 1839. Sir
R. Philips, writing in 1817, said, "Those buns have afforded a competency, and
even wealth, to four generations of the same family; and it is singular that
their delicate flavour, lightness, and richness have never been successfully
imitated."
8 See Letter 8, note 22. King wrote to Swift (May 15, 1711), "The death of
the Earl of Rochester is a great blow to all good men, and even his enemies
cannot but do justice to his character. What influence it will have on public
affairs God only knows."
9 See Letter 11, note 11.
10 See Letter 17, note 6.
11 See Letter 18, note 4.
12 See Letter 20, note 13.
13 Swift's curate at Laracor.
14 Queen Anne was the last sovereign who exercised the supposed royal gift of
healing by touch. Dr. Johnson was touched by her, but without effect.
15 Richard Thornhill was tried at the Old Bailey on May 18, 1711, for the
murder of Sir Cholmley Dering, M.P. for Kent, and found guilty of manslaughter
only; but he was shortly afterwards assassinated (see Journal for Aug. 21,
1711; Spectator, No. 84). The quarrel began on April 27, when they fell to
blows, and Thornhill being knocked down, had some teeth struck out by Sir C.
Dering stamping on him. The spectators then interfered, and Dering expressed
himself as ready to beg pardon; but Thornhill not thinking this was sufficient
satisfaction, gave Dering the lie, and on May 9 sent him a challenge.
16 Tothill Fields, Westminster, was a favourite place for duels in the
seventeenth century.
17 See Letter 13, note 17.
18 Benjamin Burton, a Dublin banker, and brother-in-law of Swift's friend
Stratford (see Letter 3, note 22). Swift says he hated this "rogue."
Letter 23.
1 The day on which the Club met. See letter from Swift to St. John, May 11,
1711.
2 Henry Barry, fourth Lord Barry of Santry (1680-1734), was an Irish Privy
Councillor, and Governor of Derry. In 1702 he married Bridget, daughter of
Sir Thomas Domville, Bart., and in an undated letter (about 1735) to Lady
Santry Swift spoke of his esteem for her, "although I had hardly the least
acquaintance with your lord, nor was at all desirous to cultivate it, because
I did not at all approve of his conduct." Lord Santry's only son and heir,
who was born in 1710, was condemned to death for the murder of a footman in
1739, when the barony became extinct by forfeiture. See B. W. Adams's History
of Santry.
3 Probably Captain Cammock, of the Speedwell, of 28 guns and 125 men
(Luttrell, vi. 331), who met on July 13, 1708, off Scotland, two French
privateers, one of 16, the other of 18 guns, and fought them several hours.
The first privateer got off, much shattered; the other was brought into
Carrickfergus.
4 See Letter 7, note 21.
5 See Letter 13, note 10.
6 This valuable pamphlet is signed "J.G.," and is believed to be by John Gay.
7 Edmund Curll's collection of Swift's Miscellanies, published in 1711, was an
expansion of a pamphlet of 1710, "A Meditation upon a Broomstick, and somewhat
beside, of the same Author's."
8 "In this passage DD signifies both Dingley and Stella" (Deane Swift).
9 Sir Henry Craik's reading. The old editions have, "It would do: DD goes
as well as Presto," which is obviously corrupt.
10 Cf. Journal, June 17, 1712.
11 Cf. "old doings" (see Letter 9, note 19.)
12 See Letter 17, note 11.
13 Rymer's Foedera, in three volumes, which Swift obtained for Trinity
College, Dublin.
14 See Letter 6, note 43 and 9th Feb. 1710-11.
15 Stephen Colledge, "the Protestant joiner," was hanged in 1681. He had
published attacks on the Roman Catholics, and had advocated resistance to
Charles II.
16 See Letter 3, note 39.
17 Mitford Crowe was appointed Governor of Barbados in 1706, and before his
departure for that island went to Spain, "to settle the accounts of our army
there, of which he is paymaster" (Luttrell, vi. 104). In 1710 charges of
bribery brought against him by merchants were inquired into by the Privy
Council, but he seems to have cleared himself, for in June 1711 Swift speaks
of him as Governor of Jamaica. He died in 1719.
18 See Letter 8, note 21.
19 Swift's uncle Adam "lived and died in Ireland," and left no son. Another
daughter of his became Mrs. Whiteway.
20 William Lowndes, M.P., secretary to the Treasury, whom Walpole called "as
able and honest a servant as ever the Crown had."
21 The Lord Treasurer's staff: since the dismissal of Godolphin, the
Treasurership had been held in commission.
22 "As I hope to be saved."
23 Stella's maid.
24 See letter from King to Swift, May 15, 1711. Alderman Constantine, a High
Churchman, indignant at being passed over by a junior in the contest for the
mayoralty, brought the matter before the Council Board, and produced an old
by-law by which aldermen, according to their ancientry, were required to keep
their mayoralty. King took the side of the city, but the majority was for the
by-law, and disapproved of the election; whereupon the citizens repealed the
by-law and re-elected the same alderman as before.
Letter 24.
1 The Lord Treasurer's staff.
2 Swift's "little parson cousin," the resident chaplain at Moor Park. He
pretended to have had some part in The Tale of a Tub, and Swift always
professed great contempt for him. Thomas Swift was son of an Oxford uncle of
Swift's, of the same name, and was at school and college with Swift. He
became Rector of Puttenham, Surrey, and died in 1752, aged eighty-seven.
3 The Duke of Ormond's daughter, Lady Mary Butler (see Letter 7, notes 2 and
3.)
4 Thomas Harley, the Lord Treasurer's cousin, was secretary to the Treasury.
5 Lord Oxford's daughter Elizabeth married, in 1712, the Marquis of
Caermarthen.
6 Henry Tenison, M.P. for County Louth, was one of the Commissioners of the
Revenue in Ireland from 1704 until his death in 1709 (Luttrell, v. 381, vi.
523). Probably he was related to Dr. Tenison, Bishop of Meath, who died in
1705.
7 Anne Finch (died 1720), daughter of Sir William Kingsmill, and wife of
Heneage Finch, who became fourth Earl of Winchelsea in 1712. Lady Winchelsea
published a volume of poems in 1713, and was a friend of Pope and Rowe.
Wordsworth recognised the advance in the growth of attention to "external
nature" shown in her writings.
8 See Letter 23, note 24 and Letter 30, note 13.
9 This was a mistake. Charles Hickman, D.D., Bishop of Derry, died in
November 1713.
10 "These words in italics are written in a large round hand" (Deane Swift).
[Italics replaced by capitals for the transcription of this etext.]
11 "This entry is interlined in the original" (Deane Swift).
12 Colonel James Graham (1649-1730) held various offices under James II., and
was granted a lease of a lodge in Bagshot Park. Like his brother, Viscount
Preston, he was suspected of treasonable practices in 1691, and he was
arrested in 1692 and 1696. Under Queen Anne and George I., Colonel Graham was
M.P. for Appleby and Westmorland.
13 Mr. Leslie Stephen has pointed out that this is the name of an inn (now the
Jolly Farmer) near Frimley, on the hill between Bagshot and Farnborough. This
inn is still called the Golden Farmer on the Ordnance map.
14 "Soley" is probably a misreading for "sollah," a form often used by Swift
for "sirrah," and "figgarkick" may be "pilgarlick" (a poor creature) in
Swift's "little language" (cf. 20th Oct. 1711).
15 See Letter 14, note 14.
16 Probably a misprint for "Bertie." This Mr. Bertie may have been the Hon.
James Bertie, second son of the first Earl of Abingdon, and M.P. for
Middlesex.
17 Evelyn Pierrepont, fifth Earl of Kingston, was made Marquis of Dorchester
in 1706. He became Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull in 1715, and died in 1726.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was his daughter.
18 See Letter 12, note 22.
19 Sir Thomas Thynne, first Viscount Weymouth, who died in 1714, aged seventy-
four, married Frances, daughter of Heneage Finch, second Earl of Winchelsea.
