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could have hindered me from attending your cere monial as a spectator, and I should have forwarded to the utmost, Mr. Pope's scheme, for I never approved the omission of those shows. And I think I saw, in my youth, a lord mayor's show with all that pomp, when Sir Thomas Pilkington,* of your chaplain's name and family, made his procession.

I have advised your chaplain to send you this letter, and not present it, that you may be in no pain about him, for he shall wait on you the next morning, when he has taken a lodging for himself, till you come into your mayoralty.

I cannot conclude without repeating my acknowledgments for your kind remembrance of me. We were both followers of the same court and the same cause, and exiles, after a sort, you a voluntary one,† and I a necessary: but you have out-thrown me many a hundred bars' length. I heartily wish the continuance of your good success, and am, with great truth,

Your most constant friend,

and most obedient humble servant. JON. SWIFT.

* Sir Thomas Pilkington was lord mayor in three successive years; from 1689 to 1691. There is a broadside, containing an account of the festivities upon the occasion, drawn up by no less a person than Elkanah Settle, once the rival of Dryden. Pilkington's triumph was the more complete, as he had been a sufferer for his adherence to the Whig interest, in the reigns of Charles II. and his successor.

+ Barber, as appears from his correspondence in Vol. XVI., was a violent adherent of Lord Bolingbroke, and deemed it safe to retire abroad upon the accession of the Hanover line, on the same grounds, probably, which influenced his principal.

VOL. XVIII.

D

FROM LADY BETTY GERMAIN.

London, Nov. 7, 1732.

I SHOULD have answered yours sooner, but that I every day expected another from you, with your orders to speak to the duke; which I should with great pleasure have obeyed, as it was to serve a friend of yours. Mrs. Floyd is now, thank God, in as good health as I have seen her these many years, though she has still her winter cough hanging upon her; but that, I fear, I must never expect she should be quite free from at this time of day. All my trouble with her now is, to make her drink wine enough according to the doctor's order, which is not above three or four glasses, such as are commonly filled at sober houses; and that she makes so great a rout with, and makes so many faces, that there is nobody that did not know her perfectly well, but would extremely suspect she drank drams in private.

I am sorry to find our tastes so different in the same person; and as everybody has a natural partiality to their own opinion, so it is surprising to me to find Lady Suffolk dwindled in yours, who rises infinitely in mine, the more and the longer I know her. But you say, "you will say no more of courts, for fear of growing angry;" and, indeed, I think you are so already, since you level all without knowing them, and seem to think, that no one who belongs to a court can act right. I am sure this cannot be really and truly your sense, because it is unjust; and if it is, I shall suspect there is something of your old maxim in it, (which I ever admired and found true,) that you must have offended them, because you do not forgive. I have been about a

fortnight from Knowle, and shall next Thursday go there again for about three weeks, where I shall be ready and willing to receive your commands, who am most faithfully and sincerely yours.

DEAR SIR,

FROM MR. GAY.

Nov. 16, 1732.

I AM at last come to London before the family, to follow my own inventions. In a week or fortnight I expect the family will follow me. You may

now draw upon me for your money, as soon as you please. I have some of my own too that lies dead; and I protest I do not know which way at present to dispose of it, everything is so precarious. I paid Mrs. Launcelot 12, and pay myself the five guineas you had of me, and have deducted your loss by paying off one of the South Sea bonds; and I find I have remaining of yours £211, 15s. 6d. And I believe over and above that sum, there will be more owing to you upon account of interest on the bonds, about four or five pounds. Mr. Hoare has done this for me, but I have not had time to call upon him yet, so that I cannot be more particular. As the money now lies in Mr. Hoare's hands, you see it is ready on demand. I believe you had best give notice when you draw on me for it, that I may not be out of the way. I have not as yet seen Mr. Pope, but design in a day or two to go to him, though I am in hopes of seeing him here to-day or to-morrow. If my present project succeeds, you may expect a better account of my own fortune a

little while after the holidays; but I promise myself nothing, for I am determined, that neither anybody else, or myself shall disappoint me. I wish the arguments made use of to draw you here, were every way of more consequence. I would not have you change one comfort of life for another. I wish you to keep every one of those you have already, with as many additional ones as you like. When I sit down to consider on the choice of any subject, to amuse myself by writing, I find I have a natural propensity to write against vice, so that I do not expect much encouragement; though I really think, in justice, I ought to be paid for stifling my own. inclination; but the great are ungrateful. Mr. Pulteney's young son has had the small-pox, and is perfectly recovered. He is not in town, but is expected in about a week from the Bath. I must answer the letter you writ to the duchess and me, when her grace comes to town; for I know she intended to have a part in it. Why cannot you come among us in the beginning of the new year? The company will be then all in town, and the spring advancing upon us every day. What I mean by the company is, those who call themselves your friends, and I believe are so. It is certain the parliament will not meet till the middle of January. I have not been idle while I was in the country; and I know your wishes in general, and in particular, that industry may always find its account. Believe me, as I am, unchangeable in the regard, love, and esteem I have for you.

FROM MR. POPE.*

Dec. 5, 1732.

It is not a time to complain that you have not answered me two letters, (in the last of which I was impatient under some fears.) It is not now indeed a time to think of myself, when one of the nearest and longest ties I have ever had, is broken all on a sudden by the unexpected death of poor Mr. Gay. An inflammatory fever hurried him out of this life in three days. He died last night at nine o'clock, not deprived of his senses entirely at last, and possessing them perfectly till within five hours. He asked of you a few hours before, when in acute torment by the inflammation in his bowels and breast. His effects are in the Duke of Queensberry's custody. His sisters, we suppose, will be his heirs, who are two widows; as yet it is not known whether or no he left a will-Good God! how often are we to die before we go quite off the stage? in every friend we lose a part of ourselves, and the best part. God keep those we have left! few are worth praying for, and one's self the least of all.

I shall never see you now, I believe; one of your principal calls to England is at an end. Indeed he was the most amiable by far, his qualities were the gentlest, but I love you as well and as firmly. Would to God the man we have lost had not been so amiable nor so good: but that's a wish for our

* "On my dear friend Mr. Gay's death: Received December 15, but not read till the 20th, by an impulse foreboding some misfortune." This note is indorsed on the original letter in Dr. Swift's hand.-POPE. {

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