Letter to

till his retreat to Ireland on the death of the queen; and then indeed it came upon him with fuch influence that after fifteen years it conftantly recurred when he firft awaked in the morning, and was not difmiffed till he again began to fleep.

Bolingbroke, Pope vol. IX. p.

105.

As foon as he was fettled at Dublin, Mrs. Johnfon removed from the country to be near him, but they ftill lived in separate houses; his refidence was at the deanery, and her's in lodgings, on the other fide of the river Liffy.

D.S. 108.

The dean kept two publick day's every week, and, though the circle of his vifitors is faid at first to have been small, yet, it foon increased and always confifted of the best company. Those who were more particularly the companions of his choice, were fuch as would have done honour to any character; they were the Grattons, feven brothers, the fons of doctor Gratton, a venerable and hofpital clergyman, who gave them all a liberal education, The eldest was a juftice of peace, and lived reputably on his patrimony in the country, another was a phy Lician, and another a merchant, both eminent in theit profeffions; three others were clergymen who had a competent provifion in the church, and the youngeft was fellow of Dublin college, and master of the great free-school at Enniskilling: They were all perfons of great merit, as generally acquainted and as much be loved as any in the kingdom: The Jacksons, a famiə ly of which both men and women were genteel, agreeable, and well bred, fuch companions as no wife man ever wanted, if they could be had: George Rochford, and Peter Ludlow, men of fortune, learning, wit, humour, and virtue and Mr. Matthew Lord, deemed the best lay scholar of his time: Thefe, with the fellows of the college, Dr. Walmefley, Dr. Helsham, Dr Delany, Dr. Stopford, now bishop of Cloyne, and Dr. Sherridan,

D 2

JR. 90,

and following..

Lady

45.

Lady Euftace, Mrs. Moore, lady Betty Rochford, and Mrs. Ludlow, with Mrs. Johnson, and her friends, were the perfons with whom Swift fpent his leifure hours, from the year 1714 to the year 1720, a period in which it has been injuriously faid, that his choice of companions fhewed him of a deOrrery P. praved tafte. There was indeed among his companions one perfon who could derive no honour from his lineage, a foundling, whom Swift therefore used to call Melchifedeck, because Melchifedeck is faid to have had neither father nor mother ; this gentleman's name was Worral, he was a clergyman, a master of arts, a reader, and a vicar of his cathedral, and mafter of the fong. He was nearly of the dean's own ftanding in the college, had good fenfe and much humour. He was married to a woman of great sprightlinefs, good-nature, and generosity, remarkably cleanly, and elegant in her perfon, in her house, and at her table. But there is another particular in Mr. Worral's character which greatly contributed to his intimacy with the dean. He was a good walker. The dean ufed this exercise in an immoderate degree, under the notion of its being abfolutely neceffary not to health only, but to cleanliness, by keeping the pores of the fkin clear, and throwing off impurities by perspiration. Mr. Worral's fituation in the church naturally engaged his frequent attendance upon the dean; this attendance commonly ended in a walk, and the walk in their dining together either at Mr. Worral's or at the deanery; the dean, being a fingle man, was oftener a guest to Mr. Worral, than Mr. Worral was a gueft to him; and this brought on an ageeement, that the dean fhould dine with him whenever he would at a certain rate, and invite as many friends as he pleafed upon the fame terms. This gentleman is lately dead, and left a large sum of moD.S. 299. ney to be difpofed of to publick charities J. R. 92. at the difcretion of his executors; 500 l

of

J. R. 92..

of which was appropriated to the dean's hofpital. The dean, when he first fettled at Dublin, was in debt, a fituation which ill fuited his fpirit, and determined him to a fevere ceconomy, with which this agreement with Worral well fuited. On his publick days however the dignity of his ftation was fuftained with the utmoft elegance and decorum, under the direction of Mrs. Johnson, who yet appeared in the circle without any character diftinct from the reft of the company. She was however frequently invited with the dean, whether to entertainments or parties of pleasures, though not fo generally as if fhe had been his wife; fhe vifited and received vifits as far as the practice is a mere D. 8. 92. ritual of good breeding. Her friendships feem to have been ftill among the men, but fhe was treated with great politenefs by the ladies.

- The dean's mind had been now fo filled with politics that he found it impracticable to excel as a preacher, his first and most laudable ambition; and frequently: declared that, though he fometimes attempted to exért himself in the pulpit, yet he could never J. R. 42. rife higher than preaching pamphlets. He was however ftill a good dean and a good priest; he applied himself to the care of his deanery, his cathedral, its regulations, its income and ceconomy, with great diligence; he renewed the primitive practice of celebrating the holy communion every Sunday; and at this facrament he was not only conftantly prefent, but he confecrated and administered it with his own. hands in a manner equally graceful and devout; he attended at church every morning, and generally: preached in his turn; he alfo conftantly attended the performance of the anthem on a Sunday night, though: he did not understand mufic, to fee that the choir did: not neglect their duty.

As to his employment at home, he feems to have› had no heart to apply himself to ftudy of any kind,

D 3

but

but to have refigned himself wholly to fuch amufe. ments as offered, that he might not think of his fituation, the misfortune of his friends, and the difappointment of his hope; fuch at leaft is the account that he gives to Mr. Gay, in his letter dated January 8, 1722-3 I was three years, fays he, reconciling myself to the scene and bufinefs to which fortune hath condemned me, and stupidity was what I had recourse to. It has been fuggested that the acquaintance he fell into with men cf learning, made it neceffary for him about this time to review his Greek and J.R.101. Latin, and obtain fome acquaintance with church history; but furely he who had studied eight hours a day for feven years, or, according to Mr. Deane Swift, ten hours a day for nine years, D.S. 271, he who had read and extracted the fathers 272, 276. more than fixteen years before, had little occafion to review his Latin and Greek, or acquaint himfelf with church history, left he should not sustain his character among learned men; for, except it be pretended that others were able to acquire more knowledge in lefs time and with lefs labour, it must be allowed that Swift was likely to be always the most knowing of his company. Lord Orrery fays, that he was little acquainted with the mathematics, and never confidered the fcience except as an obOrvery 7, ject of ridicule; but the author of the Ob fervations affirms on the contrary that he had acquired confiderable mathematical knowledge, and that he had feen him more than once JR. 101. undertake to folve an algebraic problem by arithmetic.

101.

The first remarkable event of his life that occurred after his fettlement at the deanery was his marriage to Mrs. Johnson after a most intimate friendship of more than fixteen years; this was in the year 1716, and the ceremony was performed by Dr. Afbe, then bishop of Clogher, to whom the dean had been a pupil in Tri

ters, 4.

nity College, Dublin. But whatever were Pope's let the motives of this marriage, the dean and the lady continued to live afterwards juft in the fame manner as they had lived before. Mrs. Dingley was ftill the infeparable companion of Stella, wherever fhe went; and she never refided at the deanery except when the dean was feized with violent fits of giddinefs, which fometimes lafted near a month.

'D.S. 262.

Till this time he had continued his vifits to Vanessa, who, though fhe had fuffered very great pecuniary loffes, had yet preferved her reputation and her. friends, for fhe was vifited by many perfons of rank, character, and fortune of both fexes; particularly Mrs. Conolly, a lady of very high reputation, the late moft excellent bishop of Cloyne, the late judge Lindsay, and the lord chief justice Marley. The dean appears still to have preserved the character of her preceptor, to have directed her progrefs in literature, and explained and illuftrated the authors fhe had read; but foon after his marriage he vifited her on another account, he went as an advocate for Mr. dean Winter, whom he took with him, a gentleman who was a profeffed admirer of Vanessa, and had made her fome overtures of marriage; but, though he had an estate of near eight hundred pounds a year, befides three hundred pounds a year preferment in the church, yet Vanessa rejected the propofal in fuch terms as that it was never repeated. She was also addreffed by Dr. Price, who was afterwards archbishop of Cafhell, but without fuccefs. From this time the dean's vifits were much lefs frequent. In the year 1717, her fifter died, and, the whole remains of the family fortune being then centered in Vanessa, fhe retired to Selbridge, a fmall house and estate, about 12 miles diftant from Dublin, which had been purchafed by her father.

D.S. 263,

265.

From this place fhe wrote frequently to the dean, and he answered her letters: in thefe letters she still