34 ^TAGIL-CO AC Ti AMD MAIL W DAYS OP YORE 



He folt a genuine cause for wonder in such 

 expedition ; and certainly if the rustic speech of 

 rural England was like a strange and nncivilised 

 tongue, how much more strange and uncivilised 

 the languages of Wahvs and Ireland must have 

 sound (h1 ! 



The Dean's last recorded journey Avas made in 

 September 1727. The little memorandum-hook, 

 tattered and discoloured, in which he noted down 

 many of its incidents is still in existence, and is 

 not only a valuable document in the story of 

 Swift's life, but is equally precious and interesting 

 as an intimate record of the daily trials and 

 troul)les of a traveller in those times, set down 

 while he was still on his journey and thus echoing 

 every passing feeling. Swift was in bad health 

 and worse spirits when he \\'rote this diary at 

 Holyhead, where he was detained for seven days 

 by contrary winds. It was written for lack of 

 employment afforded to a cultivated mind in 

 the dreary little seaport, and under the influence 

 of a great sorrow. " Stella " lay dying over in 

 Ireland, and he, raging with impatience at Holy- 

 head, filled his notebook Avith aimless scribbling. 

 " All this to divert thinking," he writes, sadly, in 

 the midst of it. 



The (u'iginal note])ook is still in existence, and 

 is carefully ])reserved at the South Kensington 

 Museum, to which it was bequeathc^d by John 

 Porster. Inside its cover the handwriting of 

 successive owners gives the relic an authentic 

 pedigree, and Swift himself humorously declares 



