NOTES ON XXI.

George Rochefort's house at Galstown, where Swift was staying, is thus described by Dr. Delany :

""Tis so old and so ugly, and yet so convenient,

You're sometimes in pleasure, though often in pain in't;
'Tis so large, you may lodge a few friends with ease in't,
You may turn and stretch at your length if you please in't;
'Tis so little, the family live in a press in't,

And poor Lady Betty has scarce room to dress in't ;
'Tis so cold in the winter, you can't bear to lie in't,
And so hot in the summer, you are ready to fry in't;
'Tis so brittle, 'twould scarce bear the weight of a tun,
Yet so staunch that it keeps out a great deal of sun ;
'Tis so crazy, the weather with ease beats quite through it,
And you're forced every year in some part to renew it;
'Tis so ugly, so useful, so big, and so little,

'Tis so staunch and so crazy, so strong and so brittle,
'Tis at one time so hot, and another so cold,
It is part of the new, and part of the old;
It is just half a blessing, and just half a curse-

I wish then, dear George, it were better or worse."

Swift had come to Galstown, or Gaulstown, as early as July 5th of this year, as one of his letters to Vanessa shows. In it he says: "Cad [Cadenus] assures me he continues to esteem and love, and value you above all things, and so will do to the end of his life, but at the same time entreats that you would not make yourself or him unhappy by imaginations. The wisest men in all ages have thought it the best course to seize the minutes as

they fly, and to make every innocent action an amusement. If you knew how I struggle for a little health, what uneasiness I am at in riding and walking, and refraining from everything agreeable to my taste, you would think it but a small thing to take a coach now and then, and converse with fools and impertinents, to avoid spleen and sickness." Then follows one of those passages which led Horace Walpole-rightly, I believe-to infer that the connection between Swift and Vanessa was a guilty

one.1

A fortnight later than the date of Swift's letter to Chetwode he wrote to the Archbishop of Dublin : "I own my head and your grace's feet would be ill joined; but give me your head and take my feet, and match us in the kingdom, if you can. My Lord, I row after health like a waterman, and ride after it like a postboy, and find some little success; but subeunt morbi tristisque senectus. I have a receipt to which you are a stranger; my Lord Oxford and Mr. Prior used to join with me in taking it; to whom I often said, when we were two hours diverting ourselves with trifles, vive la bagatelle. I am so deep among the workmen at Rochefort's canals and lakes, so dexterous at the oar, such an alderman after the hare—”

In some lively verses entitled The Country Life, Swift bids

See Walpole's letter to George Montague, dated June 20, 1766.

"Thalia tell in sober lays,

How George,' Nim,2 Dan,3 Dean, pass their days.

Begin my Muse! First from our bowers
We sally forth at different hours;
At seven the Dean, in night-gown 5 drest,
Goes round the house to wake the rest;
At nine grave Nim and George facetious
Go to the Dean to read Lucretius ;
At ten my lady comes and hectors,
And kisses George, and ends our lectures;

And when she has him by the neck fast,

Hauls him, and scolds us down to breakfast.'

They dined at two and supped some time after

sunset.

The Dean decamped from his friend's house suddenly and secretly. On reaching home he wrote to Dan Jackson: "I fell upon a supposition that Mr. Rochefort had a mind to keep me longer, which I will allow in him and you, but not one of the family besides, who, I confess, had reason enough to be weary of a man who entered into none of their tastes, nor pleasures, nor fancies, nor opinions, nor talk. . . . You are now happy, and have nobody to teaze you to the oar or the saddle. You can sit in your night-gown till noon without any reproaches."

The "honorary Satisfaction" that might have been given to Chetwode was perhaps that English

2

* George Rochefort. John Rochefort, the Nimrod of the party.

3 Rev. Daniel Jackson. 4 Dean Swift.

5 Dressing-gown. "A loose gown used for an undress."-Johnson's Dictionary.