Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 14.djvu/204

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196
DR. SWIFT'S

ravished to see me, and would lay hold on me as a twig while they are drowning, and the great men making me their clumsy apologies, &c. But my lord treasurer[1] received me with a great deal of coldness, which has enraged me so, I am almost vowing revenge. I have not yet gone half my circle; but I find all my acquaintance just as I left them. I hear my lady Giffard[2] is much at court, and lady Wharton was ridiculing it the other day; so I have lost a friend there. I have not yet seen her, nor intend it; but I will contrive to see Stella's mother[3] some other way. I writ to the bishop of Clogher from Chester; and I now write to the archbishop of Dublin. Every thing is turning upside down; every whig in great office will, to a man, be infallibly put out; and we shall have such a winter as has not been seen in England. Every body asks me, how I came to be so long in Ireland, as naturally as if here were my being; but no soul offers to make it so: and I protest I shall return to Dublin, and the canal at Laracor[4], with more satisfaction than I ever did in my life. The Tatler[5] expects every day to be turned out of his employment; and the duke of Ormond, they say, will be lieutenant of Ireland. I hope you are now peaceably in Presto's[6] lodgings:

but

  1. The earl of Godolphin.
  2. Lady Giffard was sister to sir William Temple.
  3. She was at that time in lady Giffard's family.
  4. The Doctor's benefice in the diocese of Meath.
  5. Richard Steele, esq.
  6. In these letters Pdfr, tands for Dr. Swift; Ppt, for Stella; D. for Dingley; D.D. generally for Dingley, but sometimes for both Stella and Dingley; and MD generally stands for both these ladies; yet sometimes only for Stella. But, to avoid perplexing the

reader,