hear more of her. Does the provost laugh as much as he used to do? we reckon him here a good-for-nothing fellow. I design to write to your dean one of these days, but I can never find time, nor what to say. I will think of something: but if DD[1] were not in Ireland, I believe seriously I should not think of the place twice a year. Nothing there ever makes the subject of talk in any company where I am.
7. I went to day to the city on business; but stopped at a printer's and staid there; it was a most delicious day. I hear the parliament is to be prorogued for a fortnight longer; I suppose, either because the queen has the gout, or that lord treasurer is not well, or that they would do something more toward a peace. I called at lord treasurer's at noon, and sat a while with lord Harley, but his father was asleep. A bookseller has reprinted or new-titled a sermon of Tom Swift's[2] printed last year, and publishes an advertisement calling it Dr. Swift's Sermon. Some friend of lord Galway has, by his directions, published a four shilling book about his conduct in Spain, to defend him; I have but just seen it. But what care you for books, except Presto's Miscellanies? Leigh promised to call and see me, but has not yet; I hope he will take care of his cargo, and get your Chester
- ↑ These two initial letters include both Stella and Dingley.
- ↑ A thanksgiving sermon, under the title of "Noah's Dove, an Exhortation to Peace, set forth in a Sermon, preached on the Seventh of November 1710." In other letters, Swift frequently mentions, "that the lord treasurer, when he had a mind to vex him, would call him, or introduce him to company, by the name of Dr. Thomas Swift." As a clew to this jealousy, or dislike, let it be remembered, that Tom Swift, "his little parson-cousin," as the dean styles him, affected to be thought author of the Tale of a Tub.
