The Journal to Stella Part 45

23 See Spectator, No. 50, by Addison.

24 In all probability a mistake for "Wesley" (see Letter 1, note 12).

LETTER 22.

1 Lord Paisley (see Letter 17, note 7).

2 See Letter 11, note 5.

3 Sir Hovenden Walker. The "man midwife" was Sir Chamberlen Walker, his younger brother. The "secret expedition" against Quebec conveyed upwards of 5000 soldiers, under the command of General John Hill (see Letter 10, note 2), but owing to the want of due preparations and the severe weather encountered, the fleet was compelled to return to England without accomplis.h.i.+ng anything.

4 Robert Freind, elder brother of John Freind, M.D. (see Letter 9, note 1), became headmaster of Westminster School in 1711, and held the appointment until 1733. He was Rector of Witney, and afterwards Canon of Windsor, Prebendary of Westminster, and Canon of Christ Church. He died in 1751, aged eighty-four.

5 Christopher Musgrave was Clerk of the Ordnance.

6 Atterbury's wife, Katherine Osborn, has been described as "the inspiration of his youth and the solace of his riper years."

7 The original Chelsea Bun House, in Jew's Row, was pulled down in 1839. Sir R. Philips, writing in 1817, said, "Those buns have afforded a competency, and even wealth, to four generations of the same family; and it is singular that their delicate flavour, lightness, and richness have never been successfully imitated."

8 See Letter 8, note 22. King wrote to Swift (May 15, 1711), "The death of the Earl of Rochester is a great blow to all good men, and even his enemies cannot but do justice to his character. What influence it will have on public affairs G.o.d only knows."

9 See Letter 11, note 11.

10 See Letter 17, note 6.

11 See Letter 18, note 4.

12 See Letter 20, note 13.

13 Swift's curate at Laracor.

14 Queen Anne was the last sovereign who exercised the supposed royal gift of healing by touch. Dr. Johnson was touched by her, but without effect.

15 Richard Thornhill was tried at the Old Bailey on May 18, 1711, for the murder of Sir Cholmley Dering, M.P. for Kent, and found guilty of manslaughter only; but he was shortly afterwards a.s.sa.s.sinated (see Journal for Aug. 21, 1711; Spectator, No. 84). The quarrel began on April 27, when they fell to blows, and Thornhill being knocked down, had some teeth struck out by Sir C. Dering stamping on him. The spectators then interfered, and Dering expressed himself as ready to beg pardon; but Thornhill not thinking this was sufficient satisfaction, gave Dering the lie, and on May 9 sent him a challenge.

16 Tothill Fields, Westminster, was a favourite place for duels in the seventeenth century.

17 See Letter 13, note 17.

18 Benjamin Burton, a Dublin banker, and brother-in-law of Swift's friend Stratford (see Letter 3, note 22). Swift says he hated this "rogue."

LETTER 23.

1 The day on which the Club met. See letter from Swift to St. John, May 11, 1711.

2 Henry Barry, fourth Lord Barry of Santry (1680-1734), was an Irish Privy Councillor, and Governor of Derry. In 1702 he married Bridget, daughter of Sir Thomas Domville, Bart., and in an undated letter (about 1735) to Lady Santry Swift spoke of his esteem for her, "although I had hardly the least acquaintance with your lord, nor was at all desirous to cultivate it, because I did not at all approve of his conduct." Lord Santry's only son and heir, who was born in 1710, was condemned to death for the murder of a footman in 1739, when the barony became extinct by forfeiture. See B. W. Adams's History of Santry.

3 Probably Captain Cammock, of the Speedwell, of 28 guns and 125 men (Luttrell, vi. 331), who met on July 13, 1708, off Scotland, two French privateers, one of 16, the other of 18 guns, and fought them several hours. The first privateer got off, much shattered; the other was brought into Carrickfergus.

4 See Letter 7, note 21.

5 See Letter 13, note 10.

6 This valuable pamphlet is signed "J.G.," and is believed to be by John Gay.

7 Edmund Curll's collection of Swift's Miscellanies, published in 1711, was an expansion of a pamphlet of 1710, "A Meditation upon a Broomstick, and somewhat beside, of the same Author's."

8 "In this pa.s.sage DD signifies both Dingley and Stella" (Deane Swift).

9 Sir Henry Craik's reading. The old editions have, "It would do: DD goes as well as Presto," which is obviously corrupt.

10 Cf. Journal, June 17, 1712.

11 Cf. "old doings" (see Letter 9, note 19.)

12 See Letter 17, note 11.

13 Rymer's Foedera, in three volumes, which Swift obtained for Trinity College, Dublin.

14 See Letter 6, note 43 and 9th Feb. 1710-11.

15 Stephen Colledge, "the Protestant joiner," was hanged in 1681. He had published attacks on the Roman Catholics, and had advocated resistance to Charles II.

16 See Letter 3, note 39.

17 Mitford Crowe was appointed Governor of Barbados in 1706, and before his departure for that island went to Spain, "to settle the accounts of our army there, of which he is paymaster" (Luttrell, vi. 104). In 1710 charges of bribery brought against him by merchants were inquired into by the Privy Council, but he seems to have cleared himself, for in June 1711 Swift speaks of him as Governor of Jamaica. He died in 1719.

18 See Letter 8, note 21.

19 Swift's uncle Adam "lived and died in Ireland," and left no son.

Another daughter of his became Mrs. Whiteway.

20 William Lowndes, M.P., secretary to the Treasury, whom Walpole called "as able and honest a servant as ever the Crown had."

21 The Lord Treasurer's staff: since the dismissal of G.o.dolphin, the Treasurers.h.i.+p had been held in commission.

22 "As I hope to be saved."

23 Stella's maid.

24 See letter from King to Swift, May 15, 1711. Alderman Constantine, a High Churchman, indignant at being pa.s.sed over by a junior in the contest for the mayoralty, brought the matter before the Council Board, and produced an old by-law by which aldermen, according to their ancientry, were required to keep their mayoralty. King took the side of the city, but the majority was for the by-law, and disapproved of the election; whereupon the citizens repealed the by-law and re-elected the same alderman as before.