Letter 6.
1. I.e., Lord Lieutenant.
2 Tatler, No. 238.
3 See Letter 1, note 12.
4 Charles Coote, fourth Earl of Mountrath, and M.P. for Knaresborough. He
died unmarried in 1715.
5 Henry Coote, Lord Mountrath's brother. He succeeded to the earldom in 1715,
but died unmarried in 172O.
6 The Devil Tavern was the meeting-place of Ben Jonson's Apollo Club. The
house was pulled down in 1787.
7 Addison was re-elected M.P. for Malmesbury in Oct. 171O, and he kept that
seat until his death in 1719.
8 Captain Charles Lavallee, who served in the Cadiz Expedition of 1702, and
was appointed a captain in Colonel Hans Hamilton's Regiment of Foot in 1706
(Luttrell, v. 175, vi. 64O; Dalton's English Army Lists, iv. 126).
9 See Letter 5.
10 The Tatler, No. 23O, Sid Hamet's Rod, and the ballad (now lost) on the
Westminster Election.
11 The Earl of Galway (1648-172O), who lost the battle of Almanza to the Duke
of Berwick in 1707. Originally the Marquis de Ruvigny, a French refugee, he
had been made Viscount Galway and Earl of Galway successively by William III.
12 William Harrison, the son of a doctor at St. Cross, Winchester, had been
recommended to Swift by Addison, who obtained for him the post of governor to
the Duke of Queensberry's son. In Jan. 1711 Harrison began the issue of a
continuation of Steele's Tatler with Swift's assistance, but without success.
In May 1711, St. John gave Harrison the appointment of secretary to Lord Raby,
Ambassador Extraordinary at the Hague, and in Jan. 1713 Harrison brought the
Barrier Treaty to England. He died in the following month, at the age of
twenty-seven, and Lady Strafford says that "his brother poets buried him, as
Mr. Addison, Mr. Philips, and Dr. Swift." Tickell calls him "that much loved
youth," and Swift felt his death keenly. Harrison's best poem is Woodstock
Park, 1706.
13 The last volume of Tonson's Miscellany, 1708.
14 James Douglas, second Duke of Queensberry and Duke of Dover (1662-1711),
was appointed joint Keeper of the Privy Seal in 1708, and third Secretary of
State in 1709. Harrison must have been "governor" either to the third son,
Charles, Marquis of Beverley (born 1698), who succeeded to the dukedom in
1711, or to the fourth son, George, born in 1701.
15 Anthony Henley, son of Sir Robert Henley, M.P. for Andover, was a favourite
with the wits in London. He was a strong Whig, and occasionally contributed
to the Tatler and Maynwaring's Medley. Garth dedicated The Dispensary to him.
Swift records Henley's death from apoplexy in August 1711.
16 Sir William Ashurst, Sir Gilbert Heathcote, and Mr. John Ward were replaced
by Sir Richard Hoare, Sir George Newland, and Mr. John Cass at the election
for the City in 1710. Scott was wrong in saying that the Whigs lost also the
fourth seat, for Sir William Withers had been member for the City since 1707.
17 Sir Richard Onslow, Bart., was chosen Speaker of the House of Commons in
1708. Under George I. he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and was elevated to
the peerage as Baron Onslow in 1716. He died in the following year.
18 "The upper part of the letter was a little besmeared with some such stuff;
the mark is still on it" (Deane Swift).
19 John Bolton, D.D., appointed a prebendary of St. Patrick's in 1691, became
Dean of Derry in 1699. He died in 1724. Like Swift, Bolton was chaplain to
Lord Berkeley, the Lord Lieutenant, and, according to Swift, he obtained the
deanery of Derry through Swift having declined to give a bribe of 1000 pounds
to Lord Berkeley's secretary. But Lord Orrery says that the Bishop of Derry
objected to Swift, fearing that he would be constantly flying backwards and
forwards between Ireland and England.
20 See Letter 2, note 16.
21 "That is, to the next page; for he is now within three lines of the bottom
of the first" (Deane Swift).
22 See Letter 4, note 15.
23 Joshua Dawson, secretary to the Lords Justices. He built a fine house in
Dawson Street, Dublin, and provided largely for his relatives by the aid of
the official patronage in his hands.
24 He had been dead three weeks (see Letters 3 and 5).
25 In The Importance of the Guardian Considered, Swift says that Steele, "to
avoid being discarded, thought fit to resign his place of Gazetteer."
26 As Swift never used the name "Stella" in the Journal, this fragment of his
"little language" must have been altered by Deane Swift, the first editor.
Forster makes the excellent suggestion that the correct reading is
"sluttikins," a word used in the Journal on Nov. 28, 1710. Swift often calls
his correspondents "sluts."
27 Godolphin, who was satirised in Sid Hamel's Rod (see Letter 2, note 3).
28 No. 23O.
29 "This appears to be an interjection of surprise at the length of his
journal" (Deane Swift).
30 Matthew Prior, poet and diplomatist, had been deprived of his
Commissionership of Trade by the Whigs, but was rewarded for his Tory
principles in 1711 by a Commissionership of Customs.
31 "The twentieth parts are 12 pence in the pound paid annually out of all
ecclesiastical benefices as they were valued at the Reformation. They amount
to about 500 pounds per annum; but are of little or no value to the Queen
after the offices and other charges are paid, though of much trouble and
vexation to the clergy" (Swift's "Memorial to Mr. Harley").
32 Charles Mordaunt, the brilliant but erratic Earl of Peterborough, had been
engaged for two years, after the unsatisfactory inquiry into his conduct in
Spain by the House of Lords in 17O8, in preparing an account of the money he
had received and expended. The change of Government brought him relief from
his troubles; in November he was made Captain-General of Marines, and in
December he was nominated Ambassador Extraordinary to Vienna.
33 Tapped, nudged.
34 I.e., told only to you.
35 Sir Hew Dalrymple (1652-1737), Lord President of the Court of Session, and
son of the first Viscount Stair.
36 Robert Benson, a moderate Tory, was made a Lord of the Treasury in August
1710, and Chancellor of the Exchequer in the following June, and was raised to
the peerage as Baron Bingley in 1713. He died in 1731.
37 The Smyrna Coffee-house was on the north side of Pall Mall, opposite
Marlborough House. In the Tatler (Nos. 10, 78) Steele laughed at the "cluster
of wise heads" to be found every evening at the Smyrna; and Goldsmith says
that Beau Nash would wait a whole day at a window at the Smyrna, in order to
receive a bow from the Prince or the Duchess of Marlborough, and would then
look round upon the company for admiration and respect.
38 See Letter 4, note 14.
39 See Letter 5, note 17.
40 An Irish doctor, with whom Swift invested money.
41 Enoch Sterne, Collector of Wicklow and Clerk to the House of Lords in
Ireland.
42 Claret.
43 Colonel Ambrose Edgworth, a famous dandy, who is supposed to have been
referred to by Steele in No. 246 of the Tatler. Edgworth was the son of Sir
John Edgworth, who was made Colonel of a Regiment of Foot in 1689 (Dalton,
iii, 59). Ambrose Edgworth was a Captain in the same regiment, but father and
son were shortly afterwards turned out of the regiment for dishonest conduct
in connection with the soldiers' clothing. Ambrose was, however, reappointed
a Captain in General Eric's Regiment of Foot in 1691. He served in Spain as
Major in Brigadier Gorge's regiment; was taken prisoner in 1706; and was
appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of Colonel Thomas Allen's Regiment of Foot in
17O7.
44 This volume of Miscellanies in Prose and Verse was published by Morphew in
1711.
45 Dr. Thomas Lindsay, afterwards Bishop of Raphoe.
