I CONGRATULATE with the college, the university, and the kingdom, and condole with myself, upon your new dignity[1]. The virtue I would affect,
- ↑ The deanery of Christ Church to which Dr. Atterbury was promoted from that of Carlisle.
time till his last illness. At the foot of that page which includes his expenses in the month of May 1710, at his glebe house in Laracor, in the county of Meath, where he was then resident, are the above remarkable words; which show at the same time his filial piety, and the religious use which he thought it his duty to make of that melancholy event. He always treated his mother, during her life, with the utmost duty and affection; and she sometimes came to Ireland, to visit him after his settlement at Laracor. She lodged at Mr. Brent's the printer, in George's lane, Dublin; and once asked her landlady, "Whether she could keep a secret?" Who replied, "She could very well." Upon which, she enjoined her not to make the matter publick, which she was now going to communicate to her. "I have a spark in this town, that I carried on a correspondence with while I was in England. He will be here presently, to pay his addresses; for he has heard by this time of my arrival. But I would not have the matter known." Soon after this, a rap was heard at the door; and Dr. Swift walked up stairs. Mrs. Brent retired; but, after a little time, she was called; and then Mrs. Swift introduced her visitor, and said, "This is my spark I was telling you of: this is my lover; and indeed the only one I shall ever admit to pay their addresses to me." The doctor smiled at his mother's humour, and afterward payed his duty to her every day unsuspected by Mrs. Brent, whom he invited some years afterward to take care of his family affairs, when he became dean of St. Patrick's. And when she died, he continued her daughter (Mrs. Ridgeway, then a poor widow) in the same office.
