2»'i S. No 115., Mar. 13. '68.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



207 



Dick, thou'rt down, I think. What a d— d harderi'd 

 honesty that fellow has! And how little wise in his ge- 

 neration. To work against tide, to be recompenc'd the 

 Lord knows when, or hy the Lord knows who ! " 



These angry personalities, remember, were not 

 all on one side. Swift had his revenge in " Horace 

 Pa?-a;?Araserf, addressed to Richard Steele;" in John 

 Dennis s Invitation to Richard Steele ; in, as I think 



probable, The Character of Richard St Ze, By 



Toby; and, possibly, in numberless other venemous 

 things, which our literary ologists have not yet 

 cither caught or named. Toby is indeed printed 

 amongst Dr. WagstafFe's Works ; but no reason is 

 given; unless, indeed, it be that WagstafFe "was 

 80 far from having any personal peak or enmity " 

 against Steele, " that at the time of his writing he 

 did not so much as- know him even by sight;" yet 

 that the very first sentence of The Character is a 

 sneer at Steele's " short face." E. B. T. 



Dean Swift, and Life of Bonnell — Mr. Kelly 

 of Dublin, in his Catalogue, just issued, offers for 

 sale a copy of the Life of James Bonnell, on the 

 fly-leaf of which, in the handwriting of Swift, is 

 the following : — 



" Thus James Bonnell lived, plainly doth appear, 

 A Book so Thick, a copper plate so neat, 

 To prove his money, like his life well spent : 

 They likewise here" do Fix his monument, 

 Who, as a mark upon his sacred Dust, 

 Oblidged the Public with his pretty bust. 

 What's wanting to make the book worth minding, 

 Is easily got, A pretty Binding. 

 Then surelj"^ none can doubt the book will sell, 

 James Bonnell lived and dyed so well ; 

 Yet Thanks to the Gods his wife may wish up, 

 There survived a man not yet a Bishop." 



It seems to be worth preserving in " N. & Q." 



D. S. 



Swiftiana. — The following " Swiftiana " from 

 my note-book are much at your service. They 

 are extracted from a rare and curious book : — 



"Poems, by the late George Monck Berkeley, Esq., 

 L.L.B., F.S.A., with a Preface by the Editor, consisting of 

 some Anecdotes of Mr. Monck Berkeley, and several of 

 his friends, 4to., London, 1797." 



The Preface consists of 630 pages, while the 

 Poems are contained in 1 78 ! These are followed 

 by the editor's postscript of thirty pages. The edi- 

 tor was Mrs. Eliza Berkeley, daughter of the Rev. 

 Henry Frinsham, Rector of Shottesbrooke, and 

 grand-daughter of Francis Cherry, Esq., of Shottes- 

 brooke House, the friend and patron of Tom 

 Hearne the antiquary. She married the Rev. Dr. 

 George Berkeley, Canon of Canterbury, the only 

 son of the celebrated Bishop Berkeley. The book 

 is full of curious anecdotes. Lowndes says it was 

 privately printed, which is a mistake. There is 

 no copy in the British Museum.* 



[* There is a copy iu th? Grenville Jiibrary. — Eo.] 



" P. 381. On Dean Swift's introducing Mr. (afterwards 

 Bishop) Berkeley to the then Earl of Berkeley, it was in 

 this singular waj' : ' My Lord, here is a fine young Gen - 

 tleman of your family. I can assure your Lordship, it is 

 a much greater honour to you to be related to him, than 

 it is to him to be related to you.' " 



" P. 385. The Editor herself firmly believes from what 

 she learned from Dr. Berkeley's verj' old beloved friend, 

 Dean Delany, that both Dean Swift and Mrs. Johnson 

 were actuall}' the children of Sir William Temple, and 

 the heavy tidings arrived not until the day on which the 

 indissoluble knot was tied." 



"P. 386. While MrT Berkeley was sojourning in Dublin, 

 he discovered that the old servant, Mr. Richard Brinan, 

 in whose arms Dean Swift expired, was poor as well as 

 aged ; he relieved him, and ordered his father's agent to 

 pay him a small sum every month. The Editor continues 

 to pay this." 



Now if this be true at the date of this book 

 (1797), it is possible persons may be living who 

 had seen and spoken to this old servant o^ Swift. 

 Several persons in this neighbourhood remember 

 Mrs. Berkeley. 



These are all the "Swift" anecdotes in the vo- 

 lume; but it has many of Bishop Berkeley, Fran- 

 cis Cherry, &c. One, perhaps, relating to Bishop 

 Ken should be noted, as I have not seen it men- 

 tioned in any life of that prelate. (I mean his re- 

 sidence at Shottesbrooke.) 



" Pp. 422 — 3. The seraphic Bishop Ken found a second 

 home at Shottesbrooke House, dividing his time between 

 Longleate and Mr. Cherry's. Dr. Grabe, and many other 

 learned foreigners, spent much time there. Bishop Ken 

 every morning made a vow that he would not marry that 

 day. Mr. Cherry used frequently, on his entering the 

 breakfast-room, to say, • Well, my good lord, is the reso- 

 lution made this morning ? ' — ' yes. Sir, long ago.' 

 He rose generally very early, and never took a second 

 sleep." 



The editor concludes her preface (p. 628.) by 

 saying she has " several stone weight of papers to 

 inspect of Bishop Berkeley's — his journal when in 

 Italy, &c. ; of Mr. Cherry's ; of Archbishop Seeker's, 

 &c." Richard Hooper, F.S.A. 



White Waltham. 



[Our correspondent does not seem to be aware that in 

 1789 George Monck Berkeley had himself published a 

 volume entitled Literary Relics, containing Original Letters 

 from King Cliarles IL, King James IL, the Queen of Bo- 

 hemia, Swift, Berkeley, Addison, Steele, §-c., §'c. To lohich 

 is prefixed an Inquiry into the Life of Dean Swift. And 

 that, in that very volume, we have Berkeley's own and 

 more accurate version of the Swiftiana given by Mrs. 

 Berkeley. They are as follow : — 



P. liv. " When Swift (who did everything in his own 

 wav) introduced Bishop Berkeley to Lord Berkeley, he 

 made use of these words : ' My Lord, here is a relation of 

 your Lordship's who is good for something, and that as 

 times go is saying a great deal.' " 



But what G. Monck Berkeley himself tells us (p. xxxvi.) 

 on the authority of Richard Brennan, in whose arms Swift 

 breathed his last, and who had attended him during the 

 six years that immediately preceded his death, and was 

 at that time one of the bell-ringers at St. Patrick's, is 

 very different from the story recorded by Mrs. Berkeley :— 



" My informer (Richard Brennan), who is s^ill living 



