Letter 52.
1 Addressed to “Mrs. Dingley,” etc. Endorsed “Oct. 1st. At Portraune” [Portraine].
2 Oxford and Bolingbroke.
3 Including Hester Vanhomrigh.
4 He died on Sept. 15, 1712.
5 Elizabeth Villiers, eldest daughter of Sir Edward Villiers, Knight Marischal of England, and sister of the first Earl of Jersey. In 1695 she married Lord George Hamilton (son of Lord William Douglas, afterwards Duke of Hamilton), who was raised to the peerage of Scotland in 1696 as Earl of Orkney. William III. gave her an Irish estate worth 26,000 pounds a year. Swift’s opinion of her wisdom is confirmed by Lord Lansdowne, who speaks, in his Progress of Poetry, of
“Villiers, for wisdom and deep judgment famed,
Of a high race, victorious beauty brings
To grace our Courts, and captivate our Kings.”
The “beauty” seems a poetic licence; Swift says the lady squinted “like a dragon.”
6 Cliefden.
7 See Letter 12, note 7.
8 Swift’s sister (see Letter 9, note 22).
9 Forster reads “returned.”
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10 See Swift’s letter to General Hill of Aug. 12, 1712
11 Swift’s housekeeper at Laracor.
12 I.e., be made freemen of the City.
Letter 53.
1 Addressed to “Mrs. Dingley,” etc. Endorsed “Octr. 18. At Portraune.”
2 “Sometimes, when better company was not to be had, he [Swift] was honoured by being invited to play at cards with his patron; and on such occasions Sir William was so generous as to give his antagonist a little silver to begin with” (Macaulay, History of England, chap. xix.).
3 The History of the Works of the Learned, a quarto periodical, was published from 1699 to 1711.
4 See Letter 35, note 4.
5 See Letter 28, note 25.
6 Lady Elizabeth Savage, daughter of Richard, fourth Earl Rivers (see Letter 11, note 9), was the second wife of James Barry, fourth Earl of Barrymore. Of Earl Rivers’ illegitimate children, one, Bessy, married (1) Frederick Nassau, third Earl of Rochford, and (2) a clergyman named Carter; while another, Richard Savage, was the poet. Earl Rivers’ successor, John Savage, the fifth Earl, was a Roman Catholic priest, the grandson of John, first Earl Rivers. On his death in 1728 the title became extinct.
7 No. 32.
8 Very sick.
9 From “but I” to “agreeable” is partially obliterated.
10 Mrs. Swanton was the eldest daughter of Willoughby Swift, and therefore Swift’s second cousin. In her will Esther Johnson left to Swift “a bond of thirty pounds, due to me by Dr. Russell, in trust for the use of Mrs. Honoria Swanton.”
11 This sentence is partially obliterated.
12 See Letter 51, note 2.
13 See Letter 5, note 16.
14 The latter half of this sentence is partially obliterated.
15 Partly obliterated.
16 See Letter 8, note 2.
17 Wise.
18 Partly obliterated.
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19 See Letter 6, note 45.
20 This sentence is almost obliterated.
Letter 54.
1 The MS. of this letter has not been preserved.
2 See Letter 26, note 2.
3 Swift’s friend, Dr. Pratt (see Letter 2, note 14), was then Provost of Trinity College, Dublin.
4 Samuel Molyneux, then aged twenty−three, was the son of William Molyneux (1656−1698), M.P. for Dublin University, a writer on philosophical and scientific subjects, and the friend of Locke. Samuel Molyneux took his M.A. degree in Dublin in 1710, and in 1712 visited England. He was befriended by the Duke of Marlborough at Antwerp, and in 1714 was sent by the Duke on a mission to the Court of Hanover.
He held office under George I., but devoted most of his attention to astronomical research, until his death in 1728.
5 Probably “The Case of Ireland’s being bound by Acts of Parliament in England stated” (1698).
6 Oxford and Bolingbroke.
7 See Letter 36, note 18.
8 See Letter 51, Aug. 7, 1712.
9 George Ridpath (died 1726), a Whig journalist, of whom Pope (Dunciad, i. 208) wrote
“To Dulness Ridpath is as dear as Mist.”
He edited the Flying Post for some years, and also wrote for the Medley in 1712. In September William Hurt and Ridpath were arrested for libellous and seditious articles, but were released on bail. On October 23 they appeared before the Court of Queen’s Bench, and were continued on their recognizances. In February 1713
Ridpath was tried and, in spite of an able defence by leading Whig lawyers, was convicted. Sentence was postponed, and when Ridpath failed to appear, as ordered, in April, his recognizances were escheated, and a reward offered for his discovery; but he had fled to Scotland, and from thence to Holland.
10 See Letter 52, note 5.
11 Lady Orkney’s sister, Barbara Villiers, who married John Berkeley, fourth Viscount Fitz−Hardinge, had been governess to the Duke of Gloucester, Queen Anne’s son. She died in 1708, in her fifty−second year; and on her husband’s death four years later the peerage became extinct.
12 For the street criers, see the Spectator, No. 251.
Letter 55.
1 Addressed to “Mrs. Dingley.” Endorsed “Nov. 26, just come from Portraine”; and “The band−box plotD: Hamilton’s murther.”
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2 Charles Mohun, fifth Baron Mohun, had been twice arraigned of murder, but acquitted; and during his short but turbulent life he had taken part in many duels. Even Burnet could say nothing in his favour.
3 This duel between the Duke of Hamilton (see Letter 27, note 9) and Lord Mohun, who had married nieces of Lord Macclesfield, had its origin in a protracted dispute about some property. The challenge came from Lord Mohun, and the combatants fought like “enraged lions.” Tory writers suggested that the duel was a Whig conspiracy to get rid of the Duke of Hamilton (Examiner, Nov. 20, 1712). The whole subject is discussed from the Whig point of view in Boyer’s Political State for 1712, pp. 297−326.
4 “Will” (MS.).
5 See Letter 27, note 9.
6 George Maccartney (see Letter 11, note 13 and Letter 39, Jan. 22, 1711−12 ) fought at Almanza, Malplaquet, and Douay. After the duel, Maccartney escaped to Holland, but on the accession of George I. he returned to England, and was tried for murder (June 1716), when Colonel Hamilton gave evidence against him. Hamilton’s evidence was discredited, and he found it necessary to sell his commission and leave the country. Maccartney was found guilty as an accessory, and “burnt” in the hand. Within a month he was given an appointment in the army; and promoted to be Lieutenant−General. He died in 1730.
7 Colonel John Hamilton, of the Scots Guards. He surrendered himself, and was tried at the Old Bailey on Dec. 12, 1712, when he was found guilty of manslaughter, on two indictments; and on the following day he was “burnt” in the hand. Hamilton died in October 1716, soon after Maccartney’s trial, from a sudden vomiting of blood.
8 “That” (MS.).
9 The story (as told in the Tory Postboy of Nov. 11 to 13) was that on Nov. 4 a bandbox was sent to the Earl of Oxford by post. When he began to open it he saw a pistol, whereupon a gentleman present [Swift] asked for the box, and opening it, by the window, found powder, nails, etc., so arranged that, if opened in the ordinary way, the whole would have been fired, and two barrels discharged different ways. No doubt a box so packed was received, but whether anything serious was intended, or whether it was a hoax, cannot be said with any certainty. The Earl of Oxford is said to have met allusions to the subject with a smile, and Swift seems to have been annoyed at the reports which were put into circulation.
10 “We have received a more particular account relating to the box sent to the Lord Treasurer, as mentioned in our last, which is as follows,” etc. (Evening News, Nov. 11 to 13, 1712).
11 Either “A Letter to the People, to be left for them at the Booksellers, with a word or two of the Bandbox Plot” (by T. Burnet), 1712, or “An Account of the Duel. . ., with Previous Reflections on Sham Plots” (by A.
Boyer), 1712. Swift’s connection with the Bandbox Plot was ridiculed in the Flying Post for Nov. 20 to 22.
12 Cf. Letter 16, Feb. 20, 1710−11.
13 This sentence is partially obliterated.
14 Part of this sentence has been obliterated.
15 See Letter 43, note 39. I have not been able to find a copy of the paper containing Swift’s paragraph.
16 This sentence is partially obliterated.
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17 See Letter 12, note 2.
18 Apparently Humphrey Griffith, who was one of the Commissioners of Salt; but Swift gives the name as
“Griffin” throughout.
19 See Letter 53, note 13 and Letter 5, note 16.
20 For these shorter letters Swift folded the folio sheet before writing.
Letter 56.
1 Addressed to “Mrs. Dingley,” etc. Endorsed “Decr. 18.”