Şammers's, who were leaders of the oppofite party. Among other perfons with whom he was intimately acquainted during this gay part of his life, was Mrs. Vanbomrigh. She was a lady of good D.S. 258. family, the daughter of Mr. Stone, the commiffioner, and niece to the accomptant-general of Ireland. She was the widow of Mr. Bartholomew Vanbom righ, firit a merchant of Amfterdam, and afterwards of Dublin, who was appointed commiffary of the ftores by king William, upon his expedition into Ireland, a place which, during the war was computed to be worth 6000l. per ann. After the affairs of Ire land were fettled, he was appointed mufter-maftergeneral, and a commiffioner of the revenue, and laid out about 12,000 l, in the purchase of forfeited eftates: but though he received the produce of this eftate, and enjoyed his appointments thirteen years, yet when he died, in 1703, his expences had been to nearly equal to his revenue, that his whole fortune, the value of his eftate included, amounted only to 16,cool. This fum he directed, by his will, to be divided equally between his wife and four children, of which two were fons and two were daughters. The fons died foon after their father, and their fhare of his fortune fell to the daughters. D.S. 260. and fol lowing. Orrery 7 and following. In 1709, the widow and the two young ladies came to England, where they were vifited by perfons of the first quality, and Swift lodging within a few doors of their houfe in Bury-fireet, St. James's, ufed to be much there, coming and going without ceremony, as if he had been one of the family. During this familiarity, he became infenfibly a kind of preceptor to the young ladies, particularly the eldest, who was then about twenty years old, was much addicted to reading, and a great admirer of poetry. In a perfon of this difpofition, it was natural for fuch a cha a character as that of Swift to excite admiration, a paffion which by frequent converfe was foftened into complacency, and complacency was at length improved into love. Love itfelf, perhaps, was in this cafe complicated with vanity, which would have been highly gratified by an alliance with the firft wit of the age; and thus what neither could have effected alone, was done by the joint effort of both, and fhe ventured to make the doctor a proposal of marriage. It is probable, that his connexions with Mrs. Johnfon at this time were fuch, that he could not with honour accept this propofal, whatever pleasure or advantage it might promife; however, it is certain, he declined it, though without affigning any other engagement as the reason. He appears first to have affected to believe her in jeft, then to have rallied her on fo whimsical a choice, and at last to have put her off without an abfolute refufal, perhaps, partly, because he was unwilling to give her pain, and partly, because he could not refufe her with a good grace, otherwife than by difcovering fome. particulars which he was willing to conceal. While he was in this fituation, he wrote the poem called Cadenus and Vanessa, the principal view of which seems to have been at once to compliment and to rally her, to apologize for his conduct, and foften a tacit denial, by leaving the event undetermined. This poem appears to have been written about the year 1713, a fhort time before he left Vanessa and the reft of his friends in England, and returned to the place of his exile, which he always mentioned with regret. In the year 1714, Mrs. Vanhemrigh died, and having lived at an expence much greater than her fortune would bear, fhe left fome debts unpaid. Her two daughters, whofe fortunes she had alfo leffened, the appointed joint executrixes of her will, an office which however troublesome the fituation of their affairs obliged them to accept; it appears toos that they had contracted fome debts in their own right, which it was not in their power immediately to pay, and therefore to avoid an arreft they followed the dean into Ireland. D.S. 178, 183. Upon his arrival to take poffeffion of his deanery, and his return after the queen's death, he was received, according to the account of lord Orrery and Mr. Deane Swift, with every poffible mark of contempt and indignation, efpecially by the populace, who not only reviled and curfed him, but pelted him with ftones and dirt as he paffed along the ftreets. The author of the obfervations, J. R. 87. on the contrary, affirms, that he was received by all ranks of men, not only with kindness, but honour, the tories being then in full power, as well in Ireland as in England, and Swift's fervice to the church and credit at court being well known. This indeed was true, when he went to take poffeffion; but when he returned to his deanery, the power of the tories and the dean's credit at court were at an end; circumstances which might well cause the rabble at least to forget his services to the church; it is certain that great clamour was then raised by the new men against the late ministry with whom Swift had been closely connected; they were charged with a design to bring in the pretender, and the fame defign was confequently imputed to Swift, whom it was therefore confidered by fome as a qualification for preferment to revile and oppose: which party the mob took, whofe fault it. has never been to coincide implicitly with a court, pofterity must judge for themselves; but it seems probable that thefe accounts however contradictory may both be true, and that Swift at this time might be the Sacheverel of Ireland, followed by the mob of one faction with execrations, and by the other with fhouts of applaufe. VOL, L D It is however agreed that the archbishop of Dublin and fome of his old friends in the chapter fet themfelves against his measures with all their force, and laboured to disappoint him in the exercise of his power by every art of oppofition and delay. But whatever prejudice they had conceived against him was foon removed, by the difinterested integrity of his conduct, which was fo apparent and ftriking, that they foon regarded him with refpect and veneration, and almost implicitly acquiefced in whatever he propofed. This removal from England to Ireland was the great event which determined the colour of his life, bounded his views, and fhewed him at once what he might poffefs, and for what he might hope. There is a time when every man is ftruck with a fense of his mortality, and feels the force of a truth to which he has confented merely from cuftom without confidering its certainty, or importance. This time feldom happens in the chearful fimplicity of infancy, or in the firft impatience of youth, when the world is all before us,' when every object has the force of novelty, and every defire of pleasure receives auxiliar ftrength from curiofity; but after the first heat of the race, when we ftop to recover from our fatigue, we naturally confider the ground before us, and then perceive that at the end of the course are clouds and darknefs; that the grave will foon intercept our pursuit of temporal felicity, and that, if we cannot stretch to the goal that is beyond it, we run in vain, and spend our strength for nought. Great difappointments which change our general plan, and make it neceffary to enter the world as it were a fecond time, feldom fail to alarm us with the brevity of life, and reprefs our alacrity by precluding our hopes. The dean whether by the vigour and activity of his imagination, the multitude of his ideas, or the ar dour of his purfuits, efcaped the force of this thought, till his retreat to Ireland on the death of the queen a 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. Letter to Bolingbroke, Pope vol. IX. p. 105. As foon as he was fettled at Dublin, Mrs. Johnson 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.. 103. The dean kept two publick days every week, and, though the circle of his vifitors is faid at first to have been small, yet, it foon increafed 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, seven 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 phyfician, and another a merchant, both eminent in their profeffions; three others were clergymen who had a competent provifion in the church, and the youngest was fellow of Dublin college, and mafter of the great free-fchool at Enniskilling: They were all perfons of great merit, as generally acquainted and as much beloved as any in the kingdom: The Jackfons, a fami 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. Heljkam, Dr Delany, Dr. Stopford, now bishop of Cloyne, and Dr. Sherridan, D 2 JR. 90. and following. Lady |
