Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 13.djvu/79

Write to me as often as you can, and make my compliments to all friends.

Mrs. Pendarves is gone down with lady Weymouth, whose fortune was five thousand pounds, and has for jointure two thousand five hundred a year, and five hundred a year pinmoney.

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FROM LADY BETTY GERMAIN.

KNOWLE, JULY 9, 1733.

NOW, says Parson Swift^[1], What the devil makes this woman write to me with this filthy white ink? I cannot read a word of it, without more trouble than her silly scribble is worth. Why, says I again: Ay, it is the women are always accused of having bad writing implements; but to my comfort be it spoke, this is his grace my lord lieutenant's ink^[2]. My bureau at London is so well furnished, and his grace and his secretary make so much use of it, that they are often obliged to give me half a crown, that I may not run out my estate in paper. It is very happy when a gobetween pleases both sides, and I am very well pleased with my office; for his grace is delighted, that it was in his power to oblige you. So trève de compliment. Since I have declared my passion against a bishop and a parson, it is but fair, I should tell you the story, whether you care to hear

1. The name she called the dean by, in the stanza which she inserted in his ballad on The Game of Traffick.
2. The duke of Dorset was then chief governor of Ireland.