however this may be, most certainly Swift humoured the pretences of his friends. He never writes to Pulteney, without reminding him of the prevailing corruption, and the hopes that are centred in him, as the saviour of the country. He, and he alone "has preserved the spirit of liberty." He has "resisted the corruption of politics." He is the "Ultimus Britannorum:" and he is the "chief support of liberty to his country." The same tone is kept up to Bolingbroke and Pope: they are the narrow band who are to storm the citadel of corruption, which a too powerful Minister has built. The pretence was perhaps all the more specious to Swift, on account of his distance from the scene, and the glamour which that distance threw over the professions of political virtue made by his friends.

CHAPTER XVI.

PERSONAL LIFE AND SURROUNDINGS OF THESE YEARS.

1727-1737.

ETAT. 60-70.

The inner side of Swift's Life-His summer excursions throughout IrelandGaulstown-Quilca-Market-hill-Dublin under Carteret-His Tory leanings and Swift's Vindication of his action-Carteret's recall-The Duke of Dorset-Swift's increasing gloom-His money cares-Wide influenceCathedral administration-Badges to beggars-Loans to Tradesmen-His intimates- Sheridan-Helsham-Delany-Ford-Faulkner-Friends at Howth-Bindon's portrait-Dublin foes-Provost Baldwin-Ambrose Philips -Arbuckle-Amory-His claim to Swift's acquaintance-Learned Ladies -Mrs. Sican-Mrs. Grierson-Mrs. Barber-Other literary aspirantsWilliam Dunkin-Matthew Pilkington and his wife-Mrs. Pendarves-The link of association between her and Swift-The Schomberg monumentBettesworth and his threats-Bishop Hort and Faulkner-Increasing depression-Friendship for Lord Orrery-Anxiety about his will-Its provisions, and the later changes in these-End of Swift's work-"Years and illhealth have got possession of me."

THE active part which Swift played in the Irish controversies of the first decade of George the Second's reign, does not by any means complete the story of his life during these years. Over and above this there are personal incidents which stand out with more distinctness now that he is living full in the eyes of men, with the main portion of his life behind him. Any difficulty in following this part of his career cannot at least arise from want of material, which crowds upon us. with almost embarrassing profusion. When we have attempted its arrangement, there is still another aspect in which we must consider him during these years-that of the busy correspondent, alive to most of what was stirring the English capital, and

affecting the literary circles there with something more than a memory of the past.

During the years that had passed since Swift broke from retirement, and began his work as Irish patriot, he had not only been extending his influence in Ireland, but his acquaintance with the country. In 1721 and 1722 he had spent some time with the Rochforts at Gaulstown.* In 1723, after Vanessa's death, when he sought escape from remorse and scandal in absence from his usual haunts, he had travelled for a time in the South of Ireland. Even the western wildnesses of Connaught were not unknown to him.t

Most of the summers of 1724 and 1725, he spent at Quilca, the quiet country retreat which Dr. Sheridan had made for himself in a bleak spot amongst the wildest of the Cavan heaths. It stood close to a little lake, and the care of its proprietor is still visible in the splendid avenues of trees which compass it, even in its decay. Round it have clung many traditions of its owner, of Swift, and of their amusements. The stretch along which Sheridan was wont, as it is said, to attempt a revival of the Roman chariot races: the slope close by the lake which he used for a theatre: the seat in the garden where Swift's arbour stood the lake itself where Sheridan is said to have constructed an impromptu island out of osier twigs and turf to astonish Swift -all these have their place in the stories that haunt the neighbourhood, with a vitality strange when we consider how completely the surrounding inhabitants are separated from the class for whom Swift wrote and spoke. Not far off is the House of Rantavan, near the Street of Mullagh, the home, in Swift's days, of Henry Brook (the Fool of Quality), and where, according to

The Rochforts, afterwards ennobled as Lords Kilmaine, held the properties of Gaulstown and Belvidere, stretching along Lough Ennel, within a few miles of Mullingar. Here also the Swift family held considerable property-a part of which still remains

in the hands of their descendants. The Rochforts' house stands in a fine situation overlooking the lake, which was the scene of adventures humorously described by Swift in some of his occasional verses.

Lady Howth to Swift, Aug.6,1736.

tradition, Brook's mother shewed her superiority to the general fear of the Dean, by meeting Swift on his own ground of sarcasm. The ease and quiet of the place-in spite of poor Sheridan's scolding wife-and the whims and humour of his host, made Swift love Quilca, even though he has perpetuated in verse the memory of its disorder, its dilapidations, and the general shortcomings in which it reflected its owner's character.

Some months after Stella's death, he went to the house of Sir Arthur Acheson, at Market Hill, where he stayed no less than eight months, returning to Dublin only in February 172%. The inmates of Market Hill pleased him—the quiet and indolent ease of Sir Arthur, and still more the readiness of his wife to submit to the caprices of her guest. Political sympathies had begun the intimacy and Lady Acheson was glad to receive from Swift that instruction and literary guidance which it was always pleasing to him to give. As the friendship ripened Swift shewed more of the capricious whims by which he was wont to display his independence of conventional restraints. He issued his orders for the cutting down of trees, without deigning to wait for the owner's consent. He indulged his taste for composing half humorous, half sarcastic, trifles, on the surroundings of Market Hill:, and although these seem to have been taken by his hosts in the spirit their author intended, they got abroad, were exaggerated, and were reported, even amongst Swift's London friends, as violations of the rights of hospitality. The story serves only to shew the malignant curiosity to which Swift was exposed even in regard to his personal intimacies in these later days.* So friendly, indeed, were his relations with the Achesons, that he planned the building of a house for himself in the neighbourhood of Market Hill.

Swift came back to Dublin in February 1729. One presence

"My Lady shews every mortal the libels I have writ against her:" which proves she did not consider

these libels in a very serious light. (Swift to Sheridan, September 18, 1728).

that had been more than all others to him was gone: but he still had, both in Dublin and throughout Ireland, friends enough to prevent any outward loneliness. Adverse as he was to Walpole's government, Swift held a position too strong to fear attack. More than this, he had, so long as Lord Carteret continued to be Lord Lieutenant, a friend in high place. In the early days of his Vice-royalty, Carteret had been compelled to take measures against the Drapier. But these measures had failed: the Drapier had defied the government, and the government left him alone. Carteret was free to indulge his own sympathies; and he chose to stand aloof from the keenest of Walpole's partisans, and to associate with men who were reckoned amongst the opposition. His scholarly tastes had attracted him to Sheridan, with whom his evenings were often spent, and at whose house he witnessed the performance of a Greek play by the boys of Sheridan's school. But Sheridan was a Tory: so was Dr. Delany, so was Dr. Stopford, and so, finally, was Swift: yet in the society of all these, this Whig Lord Lieutenant was found to take pleasure. The Whig zealots shook their heads, dreaded a Roman Catholic restoration, and pretended to believe that a Jacobite rising was at hand. Swift undertook the vindication of Lord Carteret.* He shewed that literature and polite tastes and a preference for companionable friends over bores, were frailties, culpable indeed, but yet worthy of mercy: that the Greek tragedy which Lord Carteret had witnessed, was not known to contain any Jacobite principles in disguise that evenings of social enjoyment, which preserved some tincture of scholarship, opposed as they were to Whiggish notions, might yet be pardoned. The favour shewn to Tories he admits to be great. No doubt benefices of £100 a year had been given to Dr. Sheridan, Dr. Stopford, and Dr. Delany: and a contract worth £11 a year had been given to Sir Arthur Acheson. But, on

A Vindication of his Excellency, John, Lord Carteret, from the Charge

of favouring none but Tories, High Churchmen, and Jacobites. 1730.