bad an age, for a person so inclined, and so able to do good, to have so great a scene of showing his inclinations and abilities.

If great ministers take up this exploded custom of rewarding merit, I must retire to Ireland, and wait for better times. The college and you ought to pray for another change at court, otherwise I can easily foretell that their joy and your quiet will be short. Let me advise you to place your books in moveable cases lay in no great stock of wine, nor make any great alterations in your lodgings at Christ Church, unless you are sure they are such as your successor will and approve pay for. I am afraid the poor lege little thinks of this,

Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aureâ."

col

I am going to Windsor with Mr. Secretary*; and hope to wait on you either at Bridewell or Chelsea. I am, with great respect and esteem, sir, your most obedient and most obliged humble servant,

J. SWIFT.

quences as much as I. He will get into his own quiet deanery, "and leave them to themselves; and he is in the right." Aug. 28. ""To night at six Dr. Atterbury, and Prior, and I, and Dr. "Freind, met at Dr. Freind's house at Westminster, who is "master of the school: there we sat till one, and were good "enough company." Feb. 1, 1711-12.- I visited the secretary, "and then walked to Chelsea, to dine with the dean of Christ "Church, who was engaged to lord Orrery, with some other "Christ Church men. He made me go with him, whether I would "or no; for they have this long time admitted me a Christ Church "man." March 13, 1712.-"I walked this morning to Chelsea, "to see Dr. Atterbury, dean of Christ Church; I had business "with him, about entering Mr. Fitzmaurice, lord Kerry's son, "into his college." Feb. 24, 1712-13.

Mr. St. John. See in the Journal to Stella, Sept. 1, 1711, a particular account of Swift's manner of passing that day.

+ Where Dr. Atterbury resided, as preacher.

SIR,

ON MRS. LONG'S DEATH *.

LONDON, DEC. 26, 1711.

THAT you may not be surprised with a letter utterly unknown to you, I will tell you the occasion of it. The lady who lived near two years in your neighbourhood, and whom you was so kind to visit under the name of Mrs. Smyth, was Mrs. Ann Long, sister to sir James Long, and niece of col. Strangeways she was of as good a private family as most in England, and had every valuable quality of body and mind that could make a lady loved and esteemed. Accordingly she was always valued here above most of her sex, and by most distinguished persons. But, by the unkindness of her friends and the generosity of her own nature, and depending upon the death of a very old grandmother, which did not happen till it was too late, contracted some debts. that made her uneasy here, and in order to clear them was content to retire unknown to your town, where I fear her death has been hastened by melancholy, and perhaps the want of such assistance as she might have found here. I thought fit to signify this to you, partly to let you know how valuable a person you have lost, but chiefly to desire that you will please to bury her in some part of your church near a wall where a plain marble stone may be fixed, as a

See the decree for concluding the treaty between Dr. Swift and this lady, in the eighth volume of this collection, p. 372.

VOL. XIX.

C

poor

poor monument for one who deserved so well, and which, if God sends me life, I hope one day to place there, if no other of her friends will think fit to do it. I had the honour of an intimate acquaintance with her, and was never so sensibly touched with any one's death as with hers. Neither did I ever know a person of either sex with more virtues, or fewer infirmities; the only one she had, which was the neglect of her own affairs, arising wholly from the goodness of her temper. I write not this to you at all as a secret, but am content your town should know what an excellent person they have had among them. If you visited her any short time before her death, or knew any particulars about it, or of the state of her mind, or the nature of her disease, I beg you will be so obliging to inform me; for the letter we have seen from her poor maid is so imperfect by her grief for the death of so good a lady, that it only tells the time of her death; and your letter may, if you please, be directed to Dr. Swift, and put under a cover, which cover may be directed to Erasmus Lewis, esq., at the earl of Dartmouth's office, at Whitehall. I hope you will forgive this trouble for the occasion of it, and give some allowances to so great a loss not only to me, but to all who have any regard for every perfection that human nature can possess ; and if any way I can serve or oblige you, I shall be glad of an opportunity of obeying your commands, I am, &c. J. SWIFT.

ΤΟ

TO BISHOP ATTERBURY.

MY LORD,

THE COUNTRY IN IRELAND,

AUG. 3, 1713.

IT is Tis with the greatest pleasure I heard of your lordship's promotion, I mean that particular promotion which I believe is agreeable to you*, though it does not mend your fortune. There is but one other change I could wish you, because I have heard you prefer it before all the rest; and that likewise is now ready, unless it be thought too soon, and that you are made to wait till another person has used it for a step to cross the water. Though I am here in a way of sinking into utter oblivion ; for "Hæ latebræ nec dulces, nec, si mihi credis, amoenæ:'

yet I shall challenge the continuance of your lord

* The deanery of Westminster.

+ The bishoprick of London was then vacant, by the death of Dr. Compton, who died July 4, 1713.

To Lambeth. It is more than insinuated by Dr. Maty, that Atterbury's ambition extended to York or Canterbury. Yet those who were better acquainted with his views, knew that Winchester would have been much more desirable to him than either of the others. And there are persons still living, who have been told, from respectable authority, that that bishoprick was offered to him whenever it should become vacant (and till that event should happen, a pension of 5000l. a year, beside an ample provision for Mr. Morice), if he would cease to give the opposition he did to sir Robert. Walpole's administration, by his speeches and protests in the house of lords. When that offer was rejected by the bishop, then the contrivance for his ruin was determined on.

ship's favour: and whenever I come to London, shall with great assurance cross the park to your lordship's house at Westminster, as if it were no more than crossing the street at Chelsea. I talked at this threatening rate so often to you about two years past, that you are not now to forget it.

Pray, my lord, do not let your being made a bishop hinder you from cultivating the politer studies, which your heart was set upon when you went to govern Christ Church. Providence has made you successor to a person, who, though of a much inferiour genius*, turned all his thoughts that way; and, I have been told, with great success, by his countenance to those who deserved. I envy Dr. Freind that he has you for his inspector; and I envy you for having such a person in your district, and whom you love so well. Shall not I have liberty to be sometimes a third among you, though I am an Irish dean ?

"Vervecum in patriâ, crassoque sub aëre natus."

A very disordered head hindered me from writing early to your lordship, when I first heard of your pre

* The works of bishop Sprat, besides his few poems, are, "The "History of the Royal Society;" "The Life of Cowley;" "The Answer to Sorbiere;". "The History of the Ryehouse "Plot ;" "The Relation of his own Examination;" and a volume of "Sermons."-Dr. Johnson says, "I have heard it ob"served, with great justness, that every book is of a different "kind, and that each has its distinct and characteristical excel"lence. In his poems, he considered Cowley as a model; and "supposed that, as he was imitated, perfection was approached." + Dr. R. Freind, then head master of Westminster school.

"With ditches fenc'd, a Heaven fat with fogs."

Juvenal, Sat. X, 75.

ferment;