Letter 5.
1 Penalty.
2 Erasmus Lewis, Under Secretary of State under Lord Dartmouth, was a great
friend of Swift, Pope, and Arbuthnot. He had previously been one of Harley's
secretaries, and in his Horace Imitated, Book I. Ep. vii., Swift describes him
as "a cunning shaver, and very much in Harley's favour." Arbuthnot says that
under George I. Lewis kept company with the greatest, and was "principal
governor" in many families. Lewis was a witness to Arbuthnot's will. Pope
and Esther Vanhomrigh both left him money to buy rings. Lewis died in 1754,
aged eighty-three.
3 Charles Darteneuf, or Dartiquenave, was a celebrated epicure, who is said to
have been a son of Charles II. Lord Lyttleton, in his Dialogues of the Dead,
recalling Pope's allusions to him, selects him to represent modern bon vivants
in the dialogue between Darteneuf and Apicius. See Tatler 252. Darteneuf was
Paymaster of the Royal Works and a member of the Kit-Cat Club. He died in
1737.
4 No. 23O.
5 Good, excellent.
6 Captain George Delaval, appointed Envoy Extraordinary to the King of
Portugal in Oct, 171O, was with Lord Peterborough in Spain in 1706. In May
1707 he went to Lisbon with despatches for the Courts of Spain and Portugal,
from whence he was to proceed as Envoy to the Emperor of Morocco, with rich
presents (Luttrell, vi. 52, 174, 192).
7 Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax, as Ranger of Bushey Park and Hampton
Court, held many offices under William III., and was First Lord of the
Treasury under George I., until his death in 1715. He was great as financier
and as debater, and he was a liberal patron of literature.
8 John Manley, M.P. for Bossiney, was made Surveyor-General on Sept. 3O, 1710,
and died in 1714. In 1706 he fought a duel with another Cornish member
(Luttrell, vi. 11, 535, 635). He seems to be the cousin whom Mrs. De la
Riviere Manley accuses of having drawn her into a false marriage. For Isaac
Manley and Sir Thomas Frankland, see Letter 3, notes 3 and 4.
9 The Earl of Godolphin (see Letter 2, note 3).
10 Sir John Stanley, Bart., of Northend, Commissioner of Customs, whom Swift
knew through his intimate friends the Pendarves. His wife, Anne, daughter of
Bernard Granville, and niece of John, Earl of Bath, was aunt to Mary
Granville, afterwards Mrs. Delany, who lived with the Stanleys at their house
in Whitehall.
11 Henry, Viscount Hyde, eldest son of Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester,
succeeded his father in the earldom in 1711, and afterwards became Earl of
Clarendon. His wife, Jane, younger daughter of Sir William Leveson Gower,--
who married a daughter of John Granville, Earl of Bath,--was a beauty, and the
mother of two beauties--Jane, afterwards Countess of Essex (see journal, Jan.
29, 1712), and Catherine, afterwards Countess of Queensberry. Lady Hyde was
complimented by Prior, Pope, and her kinsman, Lord Lansdowne, and is said to
have been more handsome than either of her daughters. She died in 1725; her
husband in 1753. Lord Hyde became joint Vice-Treasurer for Ireland in 171O;
hence his interest with respect to Pratt's appointment.
12 See Letter 3, note 10.
13 Sir Paul Methuen (1672-1757), son of John Methuen, diplomatist and Lord
Chancellor of Ireland. Methuen was Envoy and Ambassador to Portugal from 1697
to 1708, and was M.P. for Devizes from 1708 to 171O, and a Lord of the
Admiralty. Under George I. he was Ambassador to Spain, and held other
offices. Gay speaks of "Methuen of sincerest mind, as Arthur grave, as soft
as womankind," and Steele dedicated to him the seventh volume of the
Spectator. In his Notes on Macky's Characters, Swift calls him "a profligate
rogue. . . without abilities of any kind."
14 Sir James Montagu was Attorney-General from 1708 to Sept. 171O, when he
resigned, and was succeeded by Sir Simon Harcourt. Under George I. Montagu
was raised to the Bench, and a few months before his death in 1723 became
Chief Baron of the Exchequer.
15 The turnpike system had spread rapidly since the Restoration, and had
already effected an important reform in the English roads. Turnpike roads
were as yet unknown in Ireland.
16 Ann Johnson, who afterwards married a baker named Filby.
17 An infusion of which the main ingredient was cowslip or palsy-wort.
18 William Legge, first Earl of Dartmouth (1672-175O), was St. John's fellow
Secretary of State. Lord Dartmouth seems to have been a plain, unpretending
man, whose ignorance of French helped to throw important matters into St.
John's hands.
19 Richard Dyot was tried at the Old Bailey, on Jan. 13, 171O-11, for
counterfeiting stamps, and was acquitted, the crime being found not felony,
but only breach of trust. Two days afterwards a bill of indictment was found
against him for high misdemeanour.
20 Sir Philip Meadows (1626-1718) was knighted in 1658, and was Ambassador to
Sweden under Cromwell. His son Philip (died 1757) was knighted in 170O, and
was sent on a special mission to the Emperor in 1707. A great-grandson of the
elder Sir Philip was created Earl Manvers in 1806.
21 Her eyes were weak.
22 The son of the Sir Robert Southwell to whom Temple had offered Swift as a
"servant" on his going as Secretary of State to Ireland in 1690. Edward
Southwell (1671-173O) succeeded his father as Secretary of State for Ireland
in 1702, and in 1708 was appointed Clerk to the Privy Council of Great
Britain. Southwell held various offices under George I. and George II., and
amassed a considerable fortune.
23 Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718), dramatist and poet laureate, and one of the
first editors of Shakespeare, was at this time under-secretary to the Duke of
Queensberry, Secretary of State for Scotland.
24 No. 238 contains Swift's "Description of a Shower in London."
25 This seems to be a vague allusion to the text, "Cast thy bread upon the
waters," etc.
26 Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723), the fashionable portrait-painter of the
period.
27 At the General election of 171O the contest at Westminster excited much
interest. The number of constituents was large, and the franchise low, all
householders who paid scot and lot being voters. There were, too, many houses
of great Whig merchants, and a number of French Protestants. But the High
Church candidates, Cross and Medlicott, were returned by large majorities,
though the Whigs had chosen popular candidates--General Stanhope, fresh from
his successes in Spain, and Sir Henry Dutton Colt, a Herefordshire gentleman.
28 Sir Andrew Fountaine (1676-1753), a distinguished antiquary, of an old
Norfolk family, was knighted by William III. in 1699, and inherited his
father's estate at Norfolk in 17O6. He succeeded Sir Isaac Newton as Warden
of the Mint in 1727, and was Vice-Chamberlain to Queen Caroline. He became
acquainted with Swift in Ireland in 1707, when he went over as Usher of the
Black Rod in Lord Pembroke's Court.
29 See Letter 2, note 17. The Bishop was probably Dr. Moreton, Bishop of
Meath (see Journal, July 1, 1712).
30 The game of ombre--of Spanish origin--is described in Pope's Rape of the
Lock. See also the Compleat Gamester, 1721, and Notes and Queries, April 8,
1871. The ace of spades, or Spadille, was always the first trump; the ace of
clubs (Basto) always the third. The second trump was the worst card of the
trump suit in its natural order, i.e. the seven in red and the deuce in black
suits, and was called Manille. If either of the red suits was trumps, the ace
of the suit was fourth trump (Punto). Spadille, Manille, and Basto were
"matadores," or murderers, as they never gave suit.
31 See Letter 3, note 30,
32 In the Spectator, No. 337, there is a complaint from "one of the top China
women about town," of the trouble given by ladies who turn over all the goods
in a shop without buying anything. Sometimes they cheapened tea, at others
examined screens or tea-dishes.
33 The Right Hon. John Grubham Howe, M.P. for Gloucestershire, an extreme
Tory, had recently been appointed Paymaster of the Forces. He is mentioned
satirically as a patriot in sec. 9 of The Tale of a Tub.
34 George Henry Hay, Viscount Dupplin, eldest son of the sixth Earl of
Kinnoull, was made a Teller of the Exchequer in August, and a peer of Great
Britain in December 1711, with the title of Baron Hay. He married, in 1709,
Abigail, Harley's younger daughter, and he succeeded his father in the earldom
of Kinnoull in 1719.
35 Edward Harley, afterwards Lord Harley, who succeeded his father as Earl of
Oxford in 1724. He married Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holles, daughter of the
Duke of Newcastle, but died without male issue in 1741. His interest in
literature caused him to form the collection known as the Harleian Miscellany.
36 William Penn (1644-1718), the celebrated founder of Pennsylvania. Swift
says that he "spoke very agreeably, and with much spirit."
37 This "Memorial to Mr. Harley about the First-Fruits" is dated Oct. 7, 171O.
38 Henry St. John, created Viscount Bolingbroke in July 1712. In the quarrel
between Oxford and Bolingbroke in 1714, Swift's sympathies were with Oxford.
39 I.e., it is decreed by fate. So Tillotson says, "These things are fatal
and necessary."
40 See Letter 3, note 8.
41 Obscure. Hooker speaks of a "blind or secret corner."
42 Ale served in a gill measure.
43 Scott suggests that the allusion is to The Tale of a Tub.
44 An extravagant compliment.
45 See Letter 8.
46 L'Estrange speaks of "trencher-flies and spungers."
47 See Letter 1, note 10.
48 Samuel Garth, physician and member of the Kit-Cat Club, was knighted in
1714. He is best known by his satirical poem, The Dispensary, 1699.
49 Gay speaks of "Wondering Main, so fat, with laughing eyes" (Mr. Pope's
Welcome from Greece, st. xvii.).
50 See Letter 5, note 10.
51 See the letter of Oct. 10, 1710, to Archbishop King.
52 See Letter 1.
53 Seventy-three lines in folio upon one page, and in a very small hand."
(Deane Swift).
