companion, and by degrees became the centre of his circle. But they never met alone: they never lived in the same house: and though all his thoughts and cares were shared by her, the bond was never in reality a closer one. And these strict limits of their friendship were so carefully maintained, that slander never ventured to assert otherwise, except in some vulgar outbursts which forgot even appropriateness of attack. Strange and abnormal as were its conditions, fettered and cramped as it was by Swift's pride and waywardness, or by the mysteries of disease, the romance of that mutual devotion still forms one of the threads of deepest interest running through Swift's dark and sombre life.

CHAPTER IV.

SWIFT AMID THE PARTY STRUGGLE OF THE FIRST YEARS OF QUEEN ANNE. "THE TALE OF A TUB."

1701-1704.

ÆTAT. 34-37.

Swift's political conduct-Ilis home at Laracor, and its surroundings-The death of William III.-Change in the Ministry-The Tories in powerDisaffection of the extreme Tories-Prospects of the Whigs - Difficulties of Swift's position-Bill against Occasional Conformity — The struggle in Convocation-Extreme Tories further estranged-Rochester dismissed-Ormond's Irish government-The Test Act in Ireland-Ecclesiastical legislation by the Irish Parliament-Bill against Occasional Conformity revived in England-Swift's view of it-His uneasy relations with the Whigs-The extreme Tories part from the Government-The Tale of a Tub-Its aim and meaning-The arrangement of the book-Its view of humanity-Comparison with Hudibras-The plot of the Tale-Irreverence of its allusions-The meaning of Swift's irreverence-Sources of suggestion for the book-Its reception-Question of authorship-Stella and Dr. William Tisdall.

Ir is the business of this chapter to trace the growth of Swift's opinions at a very critical period in his career: to follow his movements between England and Ireland during these years when his early fame was establishing itself: to watch how current events were affecting him: and how, step by step, he was being drawn into the vortex of party struggle raging on both sides of the Channel. No accusation has been more pertinaciously brought against Swift than that of political inconsistency, and no higher motive than that of self-interest has been assigned for it. Before we admit the truth of the charge, it is at least fair to inquire what was the course of the party struggle. We may leave the facts to prove his honesty and

in the present chapter it is the earlier phase of the struggle into which Swift was eventually drawn so deeply, that opens itself to our view.

As a converse to this, we must turn to the quiet life at Laracor. Swift followed Esther Johnson back to Ireland in September, 1701: and now entered on the duties of a charge which was scarcely in itself an inviting one.

The church which formed the centre of his somewhat scattered parish, is about a mile and a half from the town of Trim, in Meath. Then, as now, it was surrounded by the houses of some gentlemen of property: but so slight was the hold of the Church upon the bulk of the population that Swift seldom ministered to a congregation of more than half a score in all; as he says, "most gentle and all simple."* Trim itself, in its Castle, its fifteenth century church, the "Yellow Steeple" of its ruined Abbey, had memorials of its early importance and now it was the centre of a busy and important Protestant population, situated amidst a surrounding sea of Roman Catholicism.

When Swift came to Laracor it was to find not only a decayed flock, but a ruined parsonage and a dilapidated church. + The aspect of the place remains much as it must have been when, according to the popular tradition, he walked down to his new charge and astonished the curate and his wife by the assumed harshness of his manner, which was presently to change, when he had sufficiently tried the humility of the man, into an easy consideration. Running southwards from Trim,

See Letter to Archbishop King, 6 Jan., 170g and another to Dean Sterne, 17 April, 1710.

†The income he derived from Laracor and the associated charges of Agher, Dunlavan, and Rathbeggan, amounted to about £244 a year. From his account book for 1708, we may gather so much of the particulars of that year's income.

The story may be true or not, and undoubtedly it bears some resemblance to those by which tradition has rather illustrated the impression of Swift's manner than helped us to the facts of his life. Scott accepts it: Mr. Forster doubts its authenticity; and its authority is no better than the gossipy volumes of Sriftiana which Wilson compiled about the beginning of this

the road passes through a flat country, until, after a mile and a half, it comes to a slight rising where it crosses the Boyne and reaches the site of Swift's parsonage and of the little church. Of the church as it stood in Swift's time not a vestige remains. But it was thrown down only about a quarter of a century ago, and its entire simplicity is fresh in the memory of many. Through a small vestry on the north side, one passed at once into the pulpit, below which was the reading-desk of Roger, the clerk.* Pulpit and desk stood midway between the east and west ends of the church, and the rude communion-table, of crescent shape, is still shown to visitors at St. Patrick's in Dublin, as "Swift's writing-table." On the other side of the road and at some distance from the church stands a little farm homestead occupying the site of the parsonage that Swift built for himself. Of the house there stands only a considerable fragment of strong masonry, in the shape of a wall built for shelter against the northern winds. Enough remains only to show that Swift built his house of a solidity that might have been expected to prevent for some generations dilapidations such as he had found. Round the house stood the garden (now a potato field) of which Swift was so proud. It now stands on higher ground than the surrounding fields, and it might seem hard to account for the fears that Swift expresses in his Journal to Stella, lest a sudden rising of the river might flood it. But not long ago the present occupant, in digging some depth below the surface, came upon a garden wall, whose foundation was seven or eight feet below the present surface of the ground.

century. The lines which Scott quotes in connexion with his journey to Lara

cor,

"Dublin for a city, Dunshaughlin for a
plough,

Navan for a market, Arbracken for a cow:
Kells for an old town, Virginia poor,
Cavan for dirt," &c.,—

clearly refer to some journey north-
wards, and are inapplicable to any

route which Swift could possibly have taken to Laracor.

Of whom Lord Orrery tells the story, (which Scott thinks is more likely to be true of Swift than to have been invented by Orrery,) that when the solitary member of the congrega. tion, he found himself addressed, "Dearly beloved Roger, the Scripture moveth you and me."

This would seem to have been a fruit wall built by Swift to catch the southern sun, and stretching from the gable of his house to the garden hedge.* At the end of the garden one can still trace the carefully built sides of his fishpond, of which he speaks to Stella. In a field just beyond, the willows that he cherished grew till a few years ago, by the bank of the river Knightsbrooke, and almost within a stone's throw of the house. More close to the house and under a tree that almost overhangs the road, there is a well, which the country folk still call by the name of "the Dean's Cellar."

This was now Swift's home in Ireland: and he occupied it during these years more than at any later time. There was a still stronger tie to it. In this neighbourhood Stella had fixed her home. Twice only, once for a few months in 1705, and again in the winter of 1707-8, she returned to England: but came back to end her life in Ireland. When Swift was absent from the vicarage, it was occupied by Stella and her companion, Rebecca Dingley: when he was at home, she retired to the house of Dr. Raymond of Trim, or to a lodging that is still pointed out, with traditionary reverence, if not with accuracy, in that town.

We know nothing of the incidents of Swift's residence at Laracor in 1702, from which he was probably glad to escape to London to reap the growing favour which his pamphlet had procured for him. He returned to England in April,

1702.

There he found a changed atmosphere. The election of November had completely overturned the Tories. But the triumph of the Whigs was a short one. On the 8th of March, the king had died: and his death had been the signal for a revival of Tory hopes under new conditions.

During the three months that followed the king's death, the

* He had a fancy for such walls: and Mrs. Pilkington tells us a story of one he had built in the Deanery gar

den at St. Patrick's, and of the care he spent to secure the solidity of its construction.