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 t.w.a.ttles." 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 s.e.xes. 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 a.s.sistance. 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).