SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE AT SHEEN AND MOOR PARK, 376; THE VANHOMRIGHS, 376; SWIFT BAITED BY BETTESWORTH, 378; POPE'S LAST LETTER TO SWIFT, 380; STEELE IN PARLIAMENT, 382; THE KIT-KAT CLUB, 382; THE MAYOR OF GARRETT, 385; GOLDSMITH AT EDINBURGH, 386; GOLDSMITH IN THE TEMPLE, 388; GOLDSMITH'S "VICAR OF WAKE- FIELD," 388; THE GOLDSMITH FAMILY AND GENERAL WOLFE, 389; STATUE OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH, 389; MISCELLANIES, BY FOOTE, 390 ANECDOTE BIOGRAPHY. DEAN SWIFT. FAMILY OF THE SWIFTS. THE Swifts of Rotherham, in Yorkshire, from whose younger branch was descended the Dean, rank among the oldest families of that county. His immediate ancestor, the Rev. Thomas Swift, was vicar of Goodrich,* in Herefordshire, and distinguished in the civil wars by his loyalty to Charles I. His house was repeatedly plundered by the Parliamentary soldiers, even to the clothes of the infant in the cradle (traditionally, Jonathan, father of the Dean) and to the last loaf which was to support his numerous family. He left ten sons and three or four daughters. Godwin Swift, his eldest son, studied at Gray's Inn, was called to the bar, and appointed Attorneygeneral of the Palatinate of Tipperary, under the Duke of Ormond. Godwin's success attracted to Ireland three of his brothers, William, Jonathan, and Adam, all of whom settled in that kingdom, and there lived and died. JONATHAN SWIFT BORN. Jonathan Swift, like his brother Godwin, was bred to the law, though not like him, called to the bar; he married * Swift put up a plain monument to his grandfather, and also presented a cup to the church of Goodrich. He sent a pencilled elevation of the monument (a simple tablet) to Mrs. Howard, who returned it with the following lines, inscribed on the drawing, which were by Pope. The paper is endorsed, in Swift's hand, "Model of a monument for my grandfather, with Mr. Pope's roguery." "JONATHAN SWIFT Had the gift, By fatherige, motherige, In this church he has put B Abigail Ericke, of an ancient family in Leicestershire, but poor. He was appointed Steward of the King's Inns, Dublin, in 1665; he died in 1667, leaving his widow in great poverty, with an infant daughter, and pregnant with the future Dean of St. Patrick's. Dryden William Swift, a brother of the deceased, (named after his mother, who was a near relation of Dryden the poet,*) assisted his sister-in-law, but her chief support was Godwin Swift. Upon November 30, 1667, (St. Andrew's Day,) she was delivered of the celebrated Jonathan Swift in a small house, No. 7, Hoey's-court, Dublin, a locality thus minutely described by Mr. W. R. Wilde: Adjoining a portion of one of the ancient city walls, and running between Castle-street and the junction of Great and Little Ship-street, is a narrow passage, now called the Castle Steps, but in former days, Cole'salley. Towards the lower end of this descent, on the western side, another alley led up a few steps into a small square court, in the mouldering grandeur of the houses of which we still recognise the remains of a locality once fashionable and opulent. Here, on our right, is the house occupied by Surgeon-general Buxton; that beyond it was the residence of Lord Chancellor Bowes; and a little further on, upon the right, stands the celebrated Eade's Coffee-house, where the wits and statesmen of the day drank their claret and canary. Upon the opposite side, where the court narrows into the lane that leads into St. Werburgh-street, is the house No. 7, wherein Jonathan Swift was born. In 1809, the house was occupied by Mrs. Jackson, a dealer in earthenware. Mr. Wilde, writing in 1849, says: "a handsome door-case, a few years ago, ornamented the front of the house, but some antiquary, it is said, carried it away; the mark is still visible. The house is at present occupied by the families of several poor tradesmen; but the carved wainscoting and cornices, the lofty ornamented chimneypieces, and the marble window-sills, which existed up to a very recent period, and some of which still remain, all attest the relics of a mansion of note in its day."-The Closing Years of Dean Swift's Life, 2nd edit. 1849. CHILDHOOD OF SWIFT. The infancy of Swift was marked by a singular chance. The nurse to whom he was committed was a native of Whitehaven, in Cumberland, to which town she was recalled, by the commands of a dying relation, from whom she expected a legacy. She actually stole away little Jonathan, out of affection, and carried him to Whitehaven, where he resided three years; for his health was so delicate, that, rather than hazard a second voyage, his mother chose to fix * Hence it has been said; Swift's mother was a Herrick, and his grandmother a Dryden. |