TO DR. FRANCIS ATTERBURY, DEAN OF CHRIST CHURCH.

SIR,

SEPT. 1, 1711.

I CONGRATULATE with the college, the university, and the kingdom, and condole with myself, upon your new dignity*. The virtue I would affect,

time till his last illness. At the foot of that page which includes his expenses in the month of May 1710, at his glebe house in Laracor, in the county of Meath, where he was then resident, are the above remarkable words; which show at the same time his filial piety, and the religious use which he thought it his duty to make of that melancholy event. He always treated his mother, during her life, with the utmost duty and affection; and she sometimes came to Ireland, to visit him after his settlement at Laracor. She lodged at Mr. Brent's the printer, in George's lane, Dublin; and once asked her landlady, "Whether she could keep a "secret?" Who replied, "She could very well." Upon which, she enjoined her not to make the matter publick, which she was now going to communicate to her. "I have a spark in this town, "that I carried on a correspondence with while I was in England. "He will be here presently, to pay his addresses; for he has heard "by this time of my arrival. But I would not have the matter "known." Soon after this, a rap was heard at the door; and Dr. Swift walked up stairs. Mrs. Brent retired; but, after a little time, she was called; and then Mrs. Swift introduced her visitor, and said, "This is my spark I was telling you of this is my "lover; and indeed the only one I shall ever admit to pay their "addresses to me." The doctor smiled at his mother's humour, and afterward payed his duty to her every day unsuspected by Mrs. Brent, whom he invited some years afterward to take care of his family affairs, when he became dean of St. Patrick's. And when she died, he continued her daughter (Mrs. Ridgeway, then a poor widow) in the same office.

* The deanery of Christ Church to which Dr. Atterbury was promoted from that of Carlisle.

by

by putting my own interests out of the case, has failed me in this juncture. I only consider that I shall want your conversation, your friendship, your protection, and your good offices, when I can least spare them. I would have come among the crowd

of

As the intimacy between these two great men had not then been of long standing, it may be amusing to trace its rise and progress. About four months before the date of this letter, Swift had taken lodgings at Chelsea. "I got here," says he, “with Patrick "and my portmantua, for sixpence, and pay six shillings a week "for one silly room, with confounded coarse sheets. I lodge just "over against Dr. Atterbury's house; and yet perhaps I shall not "like the place the better for that." Journal to Stella, April 26, 1711." Mr. Harley excused his coming, and Atterbury was not "there [at the Westminster dinner]; and I cared not for the rest." May 1.—" I have just now a compliment from dean Atterbury's "lady, to command the garden and library, and whatever the "house affords; but the dean is in town with his convocation." Ibid. "I sent over to Mrs. Atterbury, to know whether I might "wait on her, but she is gone a visiting: we have exchanged 66 some compliments; but I have not seen her yet." May 2. -I did not go to town to day, it was so terrible rainy; nor have "I stirred out of my room till eight this evening; when I crossed "the way, to see Mrs. Atterbury, and thank her for her civilities. "She would needs send me some veal and small beer and ale to "day at dinner." May 3.-" Dr. Freind came this morning to "visit Atterbury's lady and children, as physician; and persuaded "me to go to town in his chariot." May 9." Since I came "home, I have been sitting with the prolocutor, dean Atterbury, "who is my neighbour over the way, but generally keeps in town "with his convocation." May 14" I dined with Mr. Prior "to day, at his house, with dean Atterbury and others." May 16.

"I sat with dean Atterbury till one o'clock, after I came home.” "May 18.-"I stayed at home till five o'clock, and dined with "dean Atterbury; then went by water to Mr. Harley's, where the "Saturday's club was met." May 19.-" This is the first wet "walk I have had in a month's time that I came here; however, I 66 got to bed, after a short visit to Atterbury." May 24.—“ My "lord [Oxford] set me down at a coffeehouse, where I waited for

the

of those who make you compliments on this occasion, if I could have brought a cheerful countenance with me. I am full of envy. It is too much, in so

bad

"the dean of Carlisle's chariot, to bring me to Chelsea; for it has "rained prodigiously all this afternoon. The dean did not come "himself, but sent me his chariot; which has cost me two shil"lings to the coachman; and so I am got home; and Lord knows "what is become of Patrick!" May 25.-" It was bloody hot "walking to day; and I was so lazy I dined where my new gown was, at Mrs. Vanhomrigh's, and came back like a fool, and the "dean of Carlisle has sitten with me till eleven." May 28.-"I am proposing to my lord to erect a society or academy for cor

"

recting and settling our language; that we may not perpetually "be changing as we do. He enters mightily into it; so does the "dean of Carlisle." June 22.-"Dr. Gastrell and I dined by "invitation with the dean of Carlisle." June 23.—" They still "keep my neighbour Atterbury in suspense abcut the deanery of "Christ Church, which has been above six months vacant; and "he is heartily angry." June 26. This is the last night I lie "at Chelsea; and I got home early, and sat two hours with the "dean, and ate victuals, having had a very scurvy dinner." July 4. "This day I left Chelsea for good." July 5.-" I walked to "Chelsea, and was there by nine this morning; and the dean of "Carlisle and I crossed the water to Battersea, and went in his "chariot to Greenwich, where we dined at Dr. Gastrell's, and "passed the afternoon at Lewisham, at the dean of Canterbury's; "and there I saw Moll Stanhope, who is grown monstrously tall, "but not so handsome as formerly. It is the first little rambling "journey I have had this summer about London; and they are the "agreeablest pastimes one can have, in a friend's coach and good "company." July 14.-" Dean Atterbury sent to me, to dine "with him at Chelsea; I refused his coach, and walked ; and am come back by seven." July 19." The dean of Carlisle sat "with me to day till three.". Aug. 21." I walked to day to "Chelsea, and dined with the dean of Carlisle, who is laid up "with the gout. It is now fixed, that he is to be dean of Christ "Church in Oxford. I was advising him to use his interest to "prevent any misunderstanding between our ministers; but he is

"

too wise to meddle, though he fears the thing and the conse

"quences

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 approve and pay for. I am afraid the poor lege little thinks of this,

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. 66 "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.

ON MRS. LONG'S DEATH *.

SIR,

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.

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poor