Letter 4.
1 John Molesworth, Commissioner of the Stamp Office, was sent as Envoy to
Tuscany in 1710, and was afterwards Minister at Florence, Venice, Geneva, and
Turin. He became second Viscount Molesworth in 1725, and died in 1731.
2 Misson says, "Every two hours you may write to any part of the city or
suburbs: he that receives it pays a penny, and you give nothing when you put
it into the Post; but when you write into the country both he that writes and
he that receives pay each a penny." The Penny Post system had been taken over
by the Government, but was worked separately from the general Post.
3 The Countess of Berkeley's second daughter, who married, in 1706, Sir John
Germaine, Bart. (165O-1718), a soldier of fortune. Lady Betty Germaine is
said to have written a satire on Pope (Nichols' Literary Anecdotes, ii. 11),
and was a constant correspondent of Swift's. She was always a Whig, and
shortly before her death in 1769 she made a present of 100 pounds to John
Wilkes, then in prison in the Tower. Writing of Lady Betty Butler and Lady
Betty Germaine, Swift says elsewhere, "I saw two Lady Bettys this afternoon;
the beauty of one, the good breeding and nature of the other, and the wit of
either, would have made a fine woman." Germaine obtained the estate at
Drayton through his first wife, Lady Mary Mordaunt--Lord Peterborough's
sister--who had been divorced by her first husband, the Duke of Norfolk. Lady
Betty was thirty years younger than her husband, and after Sir John's death
she remained a widow for over fifty years.
4 The letter in No. 28O of the Tatler.
5 Discover, find out. Cf. Shakespeare's All's Well that Ends Well, iii. 6:
"He was first smoked by the old Lord Lafeu."
6 A village near Dublin.
7 Excellent.
8 John Molesworth, and, probably, his brother Richard, afterwards third
Viscount Molesworth, who had saved the Duke of Marlborough's life at the
battle of Ramillies, and had been appointed, in 171O, colonel of a regiment of
foot.
9 Presumably at Charles Ford's.
10 The Virtues of Sid Hamet the Magician's Rod, published as a single folio
sheet, was a satire on Godolphin.
11 Apparently Marcus Antonius Morgan, steward to the Bishop of Kildare
(Craik). Swift wrote to the Duke of Montagu on Aug. 12, 1713 (Buccleuch MSS.,
1899, i. 359). "Mr. Morgan of Kingstrope is a friend, and was, I am informed,
put out of the Commission of justice for being so."
12 Dr. Raymond is called Morgan's "father" because he warmly supported
Morgan's interests.
13 The Rev. Thomas Warburton, Swift's curate at Laracor, whom Swift described
to the Archbishop as "a gentleman of very good learning and sense, who has
behaved himself altogether unblamably."
14 The tobacco was to be used as snuff. About this time ladies much affected
the use of snuff, and Steele, in No. 344 of the Spectator, speaks of Flavilla
pulling out her box, "which is indeed full of good Brazil," in the middle of
the sermon. People often made their own snuff out of roll tobacco, by means
of rasps. On Nov. 3, 1711, Swift speaks of sending "a fine snuff rasp of
ivory, given me by Mrs. St. John for Dingley, and a large roll of tobacco."
15 Katherine Barton, second daughter of Robert Barton, of Brigstock,
Northamptonshire, and niece of Sir Isaac Newton. She was a favourite among
the toasts of the Kit-Cat Club, and Lord Halifax, who left her a fortune, was
an intimate friend. In 1717 she married John Conduitt, afterwards Master of
the Mint.
16 William Connolly, appointed a Commissioner of the Revenue in 1709, was
afterwards Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. He died in 1729. Francis
Robarts, appointed a Commissioner of the Revenue in 1692, was made a Teller of
the Exchequer in England in 1704, and quitted that office, in September 171O,
on his reappointment, in Connolly's place, as Revenue Commissioner in Ireland.
In 1714 Robarts was removed, and Connolly again appointed Commissioner.
17 Enoch Sterne, Collector of Wicklow and Clerk to the Irish House of Lords.
Writing to Dr. Sterne on Sept. 26, Swift said, "I saw Collector Sterne, who
desired me to present his service to you, and to tell you he would be glad to
hear from you, but not about business."
18 In his "Character of Mrs. Johnson" Swift says, "She was never known to cry
out, or discover any fear, in a coach." The passage in the text is obscure.
Apparently Esther Johnson had boasted of saving money by walking, instead of
riding, like a coward.
19 John Radcliffe (165O-1714), the well-known physician and wit, was often
denounced as a clever empiric. Early in 1711 he treated Swift for his
dizziness. By his will, Radcliffe left most of his property to the University
of Oxford.
20 Charles Barnard, Sergeant-Surgeon to the Queen, and Master of the Barber
Surgeons' Company. His large and valuable library, to which Swift afterwards
refers, fetched great prices. Luttrell records Barnard's death in his diary
for Oct. 12, 171O.
21 Robert Harley, afterwards Earl of Oxford, had been appointed Chancellor of
the Exchequer in August 1710. In May 1711 he was raised to the peerage and
made Lord High Treasurer; and he is constantly referred to in the Journal as
"Lord Treasurer." He was impeached in 1715, but was acquitted to 1717; he
died in 1724.
22 The Right Hon. Thomas Bligh, M.P., of Rathmore, County Meath, died on Aug.
28, 1710. His son, mentioned later in the Journal, became Earl of Darnley.
