Letter 13.
1 Probably Mrs. Manley and John Barber (see Letter 11, note 28 and Letter 12,
note 6).
2 Sir Andrew Fountaine's (see Letter 5, note 28) father, Andrew Fountaine,
M.P., married Sarah, daughter of Sir Thomas Chicheley, Master of the Ordnance.
Sir Andrew's sister, Elizabeth, married Colonel Edward Clent. The "scoundrel
brother," Brig, died in 1746, aged sixty-four (Blomefield's Norfolk, vi. 233-
36).
3 Dame Overdo, the justice's wife in Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair.
4 See Letter 3, note 5.
5 Atterbury, who had recently been elected Prolocutor to the Lower House of
Convocation.
6 Dr. Sterne, Dean of St. Patrick's, was not married.
7 January 6 was Twelfth-night.
8 Garraway's Coffee-house, in Change Alley, was founded by Thomas Garway, the
first coffee-man who sold and retailed tea. A room upstairs was used for
sales of wine "by the candle."
9 Sir Constantine Phipps, who had taken an active part in Sacheverell's
defence. Phipps' interference in elections in the Tory interest made him very
unpopular in Dublin, and he was recalled on the death of Queen Anne.
10 Joseph Trapp, one of the seven poets alluded to in the distich:--
"Alma novem genuit celebres Rhedycina poetas,
Bubb, Stubb, Grubb, Crabb, Trapp, Young, Carey, Tickell, Evans."
Trapp wrote a tragedy in 1704, and in 1708 was chosen the first Professor of
Poetry at Oxford. In 1710 he published pamphlets on behalf of Sacheverell,
and in 1712 Swift secured for him the post of chaplain to Bolingbroke. During
his latter years he held several good livings. Elsewhere Swift calls him a
"coxcomb."
11 See Letter 7, note 21.
12 The extreme Tories, who afterwards formed the October Club.
13 Crowd. A Jacobean writer speaks of "the lurry of lawyers," and "a lurry
and rabble of poor friars."
14 See Letter 5, note 10.
15 St. John's first wife was Frances, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Henry
Winchcombe, Bart., of Berkshire, and in her right St. John enjoyed the estates
of Bucklebury, which on her death in 1718 passed to her sister. In April 1711
Swift said that "poor Mrs. St. John" was growing a great favourite of his; she
was going to Bath owing to ill-health, and begged him to take care of her
husband. She "said she had none to trust but me, and the poor creature's
tears came fresh in her eyes." Though the marriage was, naturally enough,
unhappy, she did not leave St. John's house until 1713, and she returned to
him when he fell from power. There are letters from her to Swift as late as
1716, not only doing her best to defend his honour, but speaking of him with
tenderness.
16 "Battoon" means (1) a truncheon; (2) a staff of office. Luttrell, in 1704,
speaks of "a battoon set with diamonds sent him from the French king."
17 Edward Harley, second son of Sir Edward Harley, was M.P. for Leominster and
Recorder of the same town. In 1702 he was appointed Auditor of the Imposts, a
post which he held until his death in 1735. His wife, Sarah, daughter of
Thomas Foley, was a sister of Robert Harley's wife, and his eldest son
eventually became third Earl of Oxford. Harley published several books on
biblical subjects.
18 See Letter 6, note 12. The last number of Steele's Tatler appeared on Jan.
2, 1711; Harrison's paper reached to fifty-two numbers.
19 Dryden Leach (see Letter 7, note 22).
20 Cf. Letter 7, October 28th.
21 Published by John Baker and John Morphew. See Aitken's Life of Steele, i.
299-301.
22 In No. 224 of the Tatler, Addison, speaking of polemical advertisements,
says: "The inventors of Strops for Razors have written against one another
this way for several years, and that with great bitterness." See also
Spectator, Nos. 428, 509, and the Postman for March 23, 1703: "The so much
famed strops for setting razors, etc., are only to be had at Jacob's Coffee-
house. . . . Beware of counterfeits, for such are abroad."
23 Sir John Holland (see Letter 3, note 28).
24 Addison speaks of a fine flaxen long wig costing thirty guineas (Guardian,
No. 97), and Duumvir's fair wig, which Phillis threw into the fire, cost forty
guineas (Tatler, No. 54)
25 Swift's mother, Abigail Erick, was of a Leicestershire family, and after
her husband's death she spent much of her time with her friends near her old
home. Mr. Worrall, vicar of St. Patrick's, with whom Swift was on terms of
intimacy in 1728-29, was evidently a relative of the Worralls where Mrs. Swift
had lodged, and we may reasonably suppose that he owed the living to Swift's
interest in the family.
26 The title of a humorous poem by Lydgate. A "lickpenny" is a greedy or
grasping person.
27 Small wooden blocks used for lighting fires. See Swift ("Description of
the Morning"),
"The small-coal man was heard with cadence deep,
Till drowned in shriller notes of chimney-sweep;" and Gay (Trivia, ii.
35),
"When small-coal murmurs in the hoarser throat,
From smutty dangers guard thy threatened coat."
28 The Tory Ministers.
