[November 1734]
My Dear Friend
I never once suspected your forgetfullness or want of Friendship, but very often dreaded your want of Health, to which alone I imputed every delay longer than ordinary in hearing from you. I should be very ungratefull indeed if I acted otherwise to you who were pleased to take such generous constant care of my health, my Interests, and my Reputation; who represented me so favorably to that blessed Queen your Mistress, as well as to her Ministers, and to all your Friends.1 The Letters you mention which I did not answer, I can not find; and yet I have all that ever came from you, for I constantly endorse yours, and those of a few other friends, and date them; onely if there be any thing particular, though of no consequence, when I go to the Country, I send them to some Friends among other Papers, for fear of Accidents in my absence. I thank you kindly for your favor to the Young man who was bred in my Quire. The people of skill in Musick represent him to me as a Lad of Virtue and hopefull and endeavouring in his way. It is your own fault if I give you Trouble, because you never refused me any thing in your Life. You tear my heart with the ill account of your Health;2 Yet if it should please God to call you away before me, I should not pity you in the least, except on the account of what pains you might feel before you passed into a better Life. I should pity none but your Friends, and among them chiefly my self, although I never can hope to have health enough to leave this country till I leave the World. I do not know among Mankind any Person more prepared to depart from us than your self, not even the Bishop of Marseilles, if he be still alive:3 For among all your qualityes that have procured you the love and esteem of the world, I ever most valued your moral and Christian Virtues, which were not the Product of years or Sickness, but of reason and Religion; as I can witness after above five and twenty years acquaintance… I except onely the too little care of your Fortune, upon which I have been so free as some times to examine and to chide you; and the consequence of which hath been to confine you to London when you are under a disorder for which I am told, and know the clear air of the Country is necessary. The great reason that hinders my Journy to England is the same that drives you from High-gate:4 I am not in Circumstances to keep horses and Servants in London. My Revenues by the miserable oppressions of this Kingdom are sunk 300ll a year: For Tythes are become a Drug, and I have but little rents from the Deanry lands, which are my onely sure paymts. I have here a large convenient house; I live at two thirds cheaper here than I could there; I drink a bottle of French wine my self every day, though I love it not, but it is the onely thing that keeps me out of pain; I ride every fair day a dozen miles, on a large Strand, or Turnpike roads; You in London have no such Advantages. I can buy a Chicken for a Groat, and entertain three or four friends with as many dishes and two or three Bottles of French Wine for 10 shill[ings]. When I dine alone, my Pint and Chicken with the Appendixes cost me about 15 pence. I am thrifty in every thing but wine, of which though I be not a constant House-keeper, I spend between five and six hogsheads a year. When I ride to a friend a few miles off, if he be not richer than I, I carry My Bottle, my Bread and Chicken, that he may be no loser; I talk thus foolishly to let you know the reasons which joyned to my ill health make it impossible for me to see you and my other friends. And perhaps this domestick tattle may excuse me, and amuse You. I could not live with My Ld Bo——5 or Mr Pope; they are both too temperate and too wise for me, and too profound, and too poor. And how could I afford Horses? and how could I ride over their Cursed roads in Winter, and be turned into a ditch by every Carter or Hackney Coach? Every Parish Minister of this City is Governor of all Carriages, and so are the two Deans, and every Carter makes way for us at their Peril…6 Therefore, like Cesar I will be one of the first here rather than the last among you… I forget that I am so near the Bottom[.] I am now with one of My Prebend[aries] five miles in the Country for 5 days. I brought with me 8 Bottles of Wine, with Bread and Meat for 3 days, which is my Club; he is a Bachellor with 300ll a year. Pray God preserve you my dear Friend entirely. Yrs J. Swift
Pray does your Brother Robert live at Roan or Paris?7 Some tell me that his Nephew keeps the House at Rouen, and your Brother onely comes there sometimes. He was so kind lately to send me a Hamper of near 3 dozen of Wine. I never could learn what kind of Present from hence would be acceptable in France.