Orrery P. 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 lei fure hours, from the year 1714 to the year 1720, a period in which it has been injurioufly faid, that his choice of companions fhewed him of a depraved 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 generofity, 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 skin clear, and throwing off impurities by perfpiration. 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 gueft 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 à large fum of moD.S. 299. ney to be difpofed of to publick charities J. R. 92. at the difcretion of his executors; 500 l.

of

of which was appropriated to the dean's hofpital. The dean, when he firft fettled at Dublin, was

in debt, a fituation which ill fuited his fpi- J. R. 9z.

rit, and determined him to a fevere œco

nomy, with which this agreement with Worral well fuited. On his publick days however the dignity of his station was sustained with the utmost elegance and decorum, under the direction of Mrs. Johnson, who yet appeared in the circle without any character diftinct from the rest of the company. She was however frequently invited with the dean, whether to entertainments or parties of pleasures, though not fo generally as if he had been his wife; fhe vifited and received vifits as far as the practice is a mere ritual of good breeding. Her friendships feem to have been ftill among the men, but fhe was treated with great politeness by the ladies.

D. 8. 92.

J. R. 42..

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 exert himself in the pulpit, yet he could never rife higher than preaching pamphlets. He was however still a good dean and a good prieft; he applied himself to the care of his deanery, his cathedral, its regulations, its income and economy, 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, thoughhe did not understand music, 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 amufements 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 fcene and bufinefs to which fortune hath condemned me, and stupidity was what I had recourse to. It has been fuggefted that the acquaintance he fell into with men of learning, made it neceffary for him about this time to review his Greek and J.R.101. Latin, and obtain fome acquaintance with church hiftory; 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, he who had read and extracted the fathers more than fixteen years before, had little occafion to review his Latin and Greek, or acquaint himfelf with church hiftory, left he fhould not fuftain 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 object 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 J.R. 101. undertake to folve an algebraic problem by arithmetic.

P.S. 271, 272, 276.

Orrery 7,

101.

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

Pope's let

ters, 4.

nity College, Dublin. But whatever were 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 till 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 Vaneffa, who, though she 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 most excellent bishop of Cloyne, the late judge Lindsay, and the lord chief justice Marley. The dean appears still to have preferved 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 eftate 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 Vaneffa, the retired to Selbridge, a fmall house and estate, about 12 miles diftant from Dub lin, which had been purchased by her father.

D.S. 263,

265.

From this place fhe wrote frequently to the dean, and he answered her letters in these letters fhe ftill

preffed him to marry her, and in his anfwers he ftill rallied, and ftill avoided a pofitive denial. At length, however, the infifted with great ardour and great tenderness upon his pofitive and immediate acceptance or refulal of her as a wife. The dean wrote an anfwer, and delivered it with his own hand.

As this letter of Vanessa's, which was written in 1723, is a demonftration that she was then utterly ignorant of the dean's marriage with Stella, and as The appears to have known it almoft immediately af terwards, it is probable that the dean's anfwer communicated the fatal fecret, which at once precluded all her hopes, and accounted for his former conduct; it is probable too, that the refentment which he felt at having it thus extorted from him, was D.S. 264. the cause of the manner in which he deliOrrery, vered the letter, for having thrown it down 78. her table, he hafted back to his horse, and returned immediately to Dublin.

upon

This letter the unhappy lady did not furvive many weeks; however, fhe was fufficiently compofed to cancel a will that fhe had made in the dean's favour, and to make another, in which fhe left her fortune, which long retirement and frugality had in a great measure reftored, to her two executors, Dr. Berkeley, the bishop of Cloyne, and Mr. Marfball, one of the king's ferjeants at law, gentlemen whofe characters are excellent in the highest degree.

Such was the fate of Vaneffa, and furely thofe whom pity could not reftrain from being diligent to load her memory with reproach, to conftrue appearances in the worft fenfe, to aggravate folly into vice, and diftrefs into infamy, have not much exalted their own character, or ftrengthened their claim to the candour of others. If Vaneffa, by her fondness for the gaieties of life, encouraged by the example, and, perhaps, influenced by the authority of a mother, leffened her fortune at an age when few have been

discreet,