27 See Letter 11, note 39 and Letter 61, note 5.
28 A long erasure. Forster reads “Go to bed. Help pdfr. Rove pdfr. MD MD. Nite darling rogues.”
29 Word obliterated. Forster reads “saucy.”
30 Letter from.
31 Words partially obliterated.
32 Swift wrote by mistake, “On Europe Britain’s safety lies”; the slip was pointed out by Hawkesworth. All the verse is written in the MSS. as prose.
33 “Them” (MS.).
34 See Wyons Queen Anne, ii. 366−7.
35 A Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue, in a Letter to the Most Honourable Robert, Earl of Oxford, 1712.
36 “Help him to draw up the representation” (omitting every other letter).
37 See Letter 23, note 13.
38 Robert Benson.
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39 The Story of the St. Albans Ghost, 1712.
40 “Usually” (MS.).
41 These words are partially obliterated.
42 This sentence is obliterated. Forster reads, “Farewell, mine deelest rife deelest char Ppt, MD MD MD Ppt, FW, Lele MD, ME ME ME ME aden FW MD Lazy ones Lele Lele all a Lele.”
Letter 42.
1 Endorsed by Stella “Recd. Mar. 19.”
2 “Would” (MS.).
3 Conversation.
4 John Guillim’s Display of Heraldrie appeared first in 1610. The edition to which Swift refers was probably that of 1679, which is wrongly described as the “fifth edition,” instead of the seventh.
5 “One of the horses here mentioned may have been the celebrated Godolphin Arabian from whom descends all the blue blood of the racecourse, and who was the grandfather of Eclipse” (Larwood’s Story of the London Parks, 99).
6 See Letter 36, note 6.
7 Dorothea, daughter of James Stopford, of New Hall, County Meath, and sister of Lady Newtown−Butler, was the second wife of Edward, fourth Earl of Meath, who died without issue in 1707. She afterwards married General Richard Gorges (see Journal, April 5, 1713), of Kilbrue, County Meath, and Swift wrote an epitaph on them”Doll and Dickey.”
8 Here follow some obliterated words.
9 Barber (see Letter 12, note 6).
10 “The editors supposed Zinkerman (which they printed in capitals) to mean some outlandish or foreign distinction; but it is the little language for ‘gentleman'” (Forster).
11 The Hon. Charles Butler, second son of Thomas, Earl of Ossory, eldest son of James, Duke of Ormond, was elevated to the peerage of Ireland in 1693 as Earl of Arran, and was also created a peer of England, as Baron Butler. He held various offices under William III. and Queen Anne, and died without issue in 1759.
12 “They” (MS.).
13 See Letter 31, Jan. 12, 1711−12 and Letter 3, note 22.
14 See Letter 11, note 13.
15 Sir William Wyndham, Bart., of Orchard Wyndham, married Lady Catherine Seymour, daughter of the sixth Duke of Somerset (see Letter 25, note 1). Their eldest son, Charles, succeeded his uncle, the Duke of Somerset, as Earl of Egremont; and the second son, Percy, was afterwards created Earl of Thomond. The NOTES.
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Wyndhams’ house was in Albemarle Street; the loss was over 20,000 pounds; but they were “much more concerned for their servants than for all the other losses” (Wentworth Papers, 274). The Duke of Ormond
“worked as hard as any of the ordinary men, and gave many guineas about to encourage the men to work hard.” The Queen gave the Wyndhams temporary lodgings in “St. James’s house.”
16 See Letter 3, note 31.
17 What.
18 Devil’s.
19 “To” (MS.).
20 See Letter 35, note 25.
21 See Letter 41, note 34.
22 See Letter 12, Jan. 1, 1710−11.
23 Peregrine Hyde Osborne, Earl of Danby, afterwards Marquis of Caermarthen and third Duke of Leeds (see Letter 56, note 6). His sister Mary was married to the Duke of Beaufort (see Letter 39, note 7).
24 See Letter 9, note 17.
25 Several undecipherable words. Forster reads, “Pidy Pdfr, deelest Sollahs.”
26 “K” (MS.). It should, of course, be “Queen’s.”
27 See Letter 22, note 18.
Letter 43.
1 Addressed “To Mrs. Johnson, at her lodgings over against St. Mary’s Church, near Capel Street, Dublin, Ireland.” Endorsed “Mar. 30.”
2 See Letter 9, note 1.
3 The Mohocks succeeded the Scowrers of William III.’s reign. Gay (Trivia, iii. 325) says
“Who has not heard the Scowrers’ midnight fame?
Who has not trembled at the Mohocks’ name?”
Lady Wentworth (Wentworth Papers, 277) says: “They put an old woman into a hogshead, and rolled her down a hill; they cut off some noses, others’ hands, and several barbarous tricks, without any provocation.
They are said to be young gentlemen; they never take any money from any.” See also the Spectator, Nos.
324, 332, and 347 (where Budgell alludes to “the late panic fear”), and Defoe’s Review for March 15, 1712.
Swift was in considerable alarm about the Mohocks throughout March, and said that they were all Whigs.
The reports that numbers of persons, including men of figure, had joined together to commit assaults in the streets, made many fear to leave their houses at night. A proclamation was issued for the suppressing of riots and the discovery of those guilty of the late outrages; but it seems probable that the disorders were not more frequent than might be expected from time to time in a great city.
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4 Henry Davenant, son of Charles Davenant (see Letter 8, note 14), was Resident at Frankfort. Macky described him as “very giddy−headed, with some wit,” to which Swift added, “He is not worth mentioning.”
5 Thomas Burnet, youngest son of Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, was at this time a young man about town of no good reputation. Afterwards he turned his attention to the law, and was appointed a judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1741. He was knighted in 1745, and died in 1753.
6 By Arbuthnot, written to recommend the peace proposals of the Government. The full title was, Law is a Bottomless Pit. Exemplified in the case of the Lord Strutt, John Bull, Nicholas Frog, and Lewis Baboon; who spent all they had in a Law Suit.
7 See Letter 25, note 6 and Letter 41, note 35.
8 Our little language.
9 Forster reads, “two deelest nauty nown MD.”
10 See Letter 6, note 12.
11 William Diaper, son of Joseph Diaper of Bridgewater, was sent to Balliol College, Oxford, in 1699, at the age of fourteen. He entered the Church, and was curate at Brent, Somerset; but he died in 1717, aged twenty−nine.
12 The Examiner (vol. ii. No. 15) complained of general bribery and oppression on the part of officials and underlings in the public service, especially in matters connected with the army; but the writer said that the head (Lord Lansdowne) was just and liberal in his nature, and easy in his fortune, and a man of honour and virtue.
13 Sealed documents given to show that a merchant’s goods are entered.
14 Thomas Lawrence, First Physician to Queen Anne, and Physician−General to the Army, died in 1714
(Gentleman’s Magazine, 1815, ii. 17). His daughter Elizabeth was second wife to Lord Mohun.
15 See Letter 17, note 11.
16 See Letter 26, note 2.
17 No officer named Newcomb appears in Dalton’s Army Lists; but the allusion to General Ross, further on in Letter 43, adds to the probability that Swift was referring to one of the sons of Sir Thomas Newcomen, Bart., who was killed at the siege of Enniskillen. Beverley Newcomen (Dalton, iii. 52, iv. 60), who was probably Swift’s acquaintance, was described in a petition of 1706 as a Lieutenant who had served at Killiecrankie, and had been in Major−General Ross’s regiment ever since 1695.
18 Atterbury.
19 Evidently a familiar quotation at the time. Forster reads, incorrectly, “But the more I lite MD.”
20 See Letter 41, note 5.
21 See Letter 12, note 1.
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22 In 1681, Elizabeth, only daughter and heiress of John Ayres, of the City of London, then aged about twenty, became the fourth and last wife of Heneage Finch, Earl of Winchelsea, who died in 1689. She lived until 1745.
23 See Letter 23, note 17.
24 Enoch Sterne (see Letter 4, note 17).
25 Lieut.−Col. Robert Sterne was in Col. Frederick Hamilton’s Regiment in 1695.
26 Letter.
27 See Letter 13, note 10.
28 The title was, John Bull in his Senses: being the Second Part of Law is a Bottomless Pit.
29 See Letter 36, note 6.
30 Cf. note 9 above. Forster reads “nautyas,” when the words would mean “as naughty as nine,” apparently.
31 See note 19 above.
32 In 1549, James, second Earl of Arran, was made Duke of Chatelherault by Henry II. of France. His eldest son died without issue; the second, John, became first Marquis of Hamilton, and was great−grandfather of Lady Anne Hamilton (Duchess of Hamilton), mother of the Duke of Swift’s Journal. The Earl of Abercorn, on the other hand, was descended from Claud, third son of the Earl of Arran, but in the male line; and his claim was therefore the stronger, according to the French law of inheritance.