The Journal to Stella by Jonathan Swift

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.”

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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).

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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.” Butlera contemporary of Swift’s at Trinity College, Dublinwas created Baron of Newtown−Butler in 1715, and his brother, who succeeded him in 1723, was made Viscount NOTES.

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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 Prompternot by Steele himselfin 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.