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# The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 18/Letter from Martha Whiteway to Jonathan Swift - 5

FROM MRS. WHITEWAY.
I NEVER was more out of temper in my life than I have been these two days ; yesterday that I did not ​hear from you, and to day at the rogue that brought your letter to Mr. Kenrick at ten last night, and the disappointment we have met with from him that was to carry the wine to Cavan. The enclosed letter gives so full an account, that I need add nothing to it, but his being a right county of Cavan man. I desire Dr. Sheridan will take care for the future not to employ them about your business; I owe him this reflection, for trusting such rogues. Pray, sir, tell me what I shall do in this business; shall I get Mr. Shele and Mr. Kenrick to look out for an honest carman, and agree as cheap as we can to carry it to you? for I find there is no depending on the doctor's countrymen. Had you assured me, as you say the surgeon does, that your leg was better, my joy would be equal to the uneasiness I have suffered on that occasion. I fear I shall never have the pleasure of being with you on your birthday; were my purse as heavy as my heart is, that I cannot be with you to morrow, I would this night have been at Cavan, and have left it on Monday morning.
I shall make a great entertainment to morrow for my family, to celebrate the Drapier's birthday, and drink his health. My two eldest cubs (match me that) present you their most humble and obedient respects, with their hearty wishes of long life, health, and happiness, to attend you. They durst not take the liberty to send this with their hand, but do it with their heart. I send you their own words; but where shall I find any that can express what I would say on the subject? The most sincere would be what I desire for myself whilst I continue in this world, which is health and quietness. This ​ I pray God grant you in the largest portion, and life as long as you shall desire it!
Mr. Morgan's heathenish name is Marcus Antonius; I saw him and his lady yesterday, who both say they should be glad to kiss your hand; his eldest son is in the measles. Last night died the bishop of Ossory, of an inflammation on the lungs: he caught cold on Sunday at the castle chapel. We have provided one of the bishopricks for doctor Marlay.
I am told by some people that lord Orrery intends to make you and doctor Sheridan a visit; if so, I fear it will be a long time before you will think of returning here. I expect a long letter from doctor Sheridan, in answer to all that I have said to him in this.
I think this is so well written, that it needs no apology for a bad pen.
I am, sir, your most humble and most obedient servant,
M. WHITEWAY.
# The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 18/Letter from Lucy Howth to Jonathan Swift - 3

FROM LADY HOWTH.
I DO not know how this letter may be received, since I never had the favour of an answer to my last. I impute it to the neglect of the post, or any thing rather than to think I am forgot by my old friend. I am now in Connaught, where I assure you I spend the least of my time at cards. I am on horseback almost every day to view the beauties of Connaught, where I am told you have been. I live greatly under ground; for I view all the places under ground. I make nothing of going down sixty steps. I really think, could you lend me a little of your brains, I should be able to come nigh Addison in several of his descriptions of Italy; for upon my word I think there are several very remarkable ​things. As you took a journey last winter to Cavan, my lord and I hope you will take one to the county of Kilkenny this winter, where we assure you of a hearty welcome. I must now be troublesome to you; but lord Athunry begged I would write to you in favour of a young gentleman, one Mr. Ireland, who was usher to Mr. Garnett, schoolmaster of Tipperary. Mr. Garnett died lately: he has given Mr. Ireland a very good certificate, and most of the gentlemen in and about Tipperary have recommended Mr. Ireland to succeed Mr. Garnett: as you are one of the governors of that school, I hope you will do Mr. Ireland all the service you can, which will very much oblige me. Since I began this there came in a trout; it was so large that we had it weighed; it was a yard and four inches long, twenty-three inches round; his jawbone eight inches long, and he weighed thirty-five pound and a half. My lord and I stood by to see it measured. I believe I have tired your patience; so beg leave to assure you I am your affectionate friend and humble servant,
L. HOWTH.
# The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 18/Letter from Martha Whiteway to Jonathan Swift - 4

FROM MRS. WHITEWAY.
I HAVE not known for some years, the pleasure of a postday, till within these three weeks. I read your letters twenty times over. I tell you this to induce you to continue me your favour; for I know it is your study to make the wretched happy. The wine is ready for the carman, and all the caution taken that you commanded. If I durst, I would repine, that you could think I should require your orders three times repeated to take care of what you told me your health depended on. I rejoice to find your stomach is better, but grieve to hear your leg continues so long bad. I shall despise your surgeon and apothecary, if they do not cure it immediately. Apollo has always waited on you, when it was not half so material. Where the vengeance is he now? After all, he justly quits you, since you have left off invoking him. Idleness is your crime; to punish you, he confines you to a chair; and the penance he enjoins, is to employ your pen once more: if not, there are vultures to prey on legs as well as livers: I wish you were safe out of their hands. I was at the deanery on Saturday, though I forgot to mention it in my last letter. My son was there yesterday; and I would have been there to day, if a swelled face had not prevented me. I have sent for Mr. Kenrick, or Mr. Laud, to let them know your commands. I must beg the favour of you to deliver the enclosed ​ to Dr. Sheridan, and to pardon my sealing it. You are sensible there are secrets that the nearest friends must not see. As you have nothing to do, be pleased to write me the heads of the two hundred pages in manuscript, and I will give my opinion about it. I must now entreat you to think of coming to town: I trust in God your shin will not require it; but consider how it is possible for me to spend the winter evenings, who have been so delightfully entertained all summer at the deanery. I have staid till the last moment before I sealed this, in expectation of seeing somebody from your house, but am disappointed. I promise to take care to see the wine leave this place safe, and to send the paper by the carman. My son and daughter are your most obedient servants. I am, sir, with the highest respect, your most obliged and most obedient humble servant,
MARTHA WHITEWAY.
# The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 18/Letter from Kath. Richardson to Martha Whiteway - 2

FROM MISS RICHARDSON TO MRS. WHITEWAY.
I RECEIVED the favour of your letter last post. I was deprived of having that pleasure sooner, by removing from Summerseat to this place the beginning of last month, where I was sent for by my father, to attend him in a fit of the gout, of which he has been very ill these three months past. My sister, who takes care of him and his family, being near the time of her lying in, I trouble you with this account, that you may know how I am engaged at present, which I fear will prevent my having an opportunity of waiting upon you before my uncle returns.
I most humbly thank you for your kind invitation, and do heartily wish it were any way in my power to let you know the grateful sense I have of my obligations to you. I hope the dean of St. Patrick's is very well: it would have given me infinite pleasure to have had the honour of being in his company with you.
When I parted with my uncle, he proposed to make but a short stay in England at this time; and at his return he intended to leave nothing undone that he could think of, to prevail with the dean and you to spend some time at his house this summer. I hope you will be so good as to give him all the assistance you can, to persuade the dean to take that jaunt: I really believe it would do him great service ​ as to his health: I please myself greatly with the thoughts of having you there, and your daughter, whom I believe to be a very accomplished young lady, having had the happiness to be educated under your direction. I beg you will make my compliments to her; and be assured that I am, with great respect, madam, your most obedient and most humble servant,
KATH. RICHARDSON.
# The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 18/Letter from Martha Whiteway to Jonathan Swift - 1

FROM MRS. WHITEWAY.
I KNOW the moment you took this letter into your hand what you said, which was pox on all Irish writers, and Irish letters. It is very little trouble I am going to give you, only be pleased to answer the following questions. How does your leg do? How is your head? How is your stomach? How many days were you on the road? How did you lie? How does Dr. Sheridan? How do you like Cavan? And how do all the good victuals Dr. Sheridan promised you turn out? And now, sir, I beg you will be pleased to suppose, that I began ​my letter by entreating the favour of hearing from you; and if that is too great an honour for me, that you will order somebody else to do it. Dr. Sheridan would give sixpence I would ask who, rise off his chair, make me a low bow, and uncover, to have the opportunity of telling me.
Now to write politely, when I change my subject, I always break off, and begin a new paragraph.
Mr. Waller has printed an advertisement, offering ten guineas reward to any person that will discover the author of a paragraph, said to be the case of one Mr. Throp. I do not know whether you heard any thing of such an affair before you left town, but I think it is said there is some trial to be about it before the house of commons, either next week, or the week following. I beg you will not leave your papers and letters on the table, as you used to do at the deanery, for boys and girls and wives will be peeping; particularly be pleased to take care of mine. It is certain I write correctly, and with a great deal of method; but however I am afraid of Curll. Dr. Sheridan has my free leave to read this, on condition he burns it instantly; but first let him take notice of all the compliments I make him. May be you imagine that if you answer this, you will be no more plagued with my letters; but I have learned from Molly never to have done with my demands on you: therefore write, or not write, (unless you command otherwise) you shall hear once a week from, sir, your most obedient and most obliged humble servant,
MARTHA WHITEWAY.
* ↑ A cant expression, much used in those times upon all occasions, and here ridiculed.
* ↑ Miss Harrison.
# The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 19/From Henry Temple to Jonathan Swift - 1

A related letter appears in Volume 12: From Jonathan Swift to Henry Temple - 1.
FROM LORD PALMERSTON,
I SHOULD not give myself the trouble to answer your polite letter, were I as unconcerned about character and reputation as some are. The principles of justice I hope I have learned from those, who always treated you in another manner, than you do me even without reason.
You charge me with injury and injustice done Mr. Curtis; he is still in his chamber; till he is turned out, none is done him, and he is satisfied with my proceedings, and the issue I have put it on. Your interest with me (which if ever lost, such letters will not regain) procured Dr. Ellwood the use of that chamber, not the power to job it. Your parallel case of landlord and tenant will not hold, without Dr. Ellwood has a writing under my hand; if he has, I will fulfil it to a tittle; if not, he is as a tenant at will, and when he quits, I am at liberty to dispose of the premises again.
Whoever told you Mr. Stanton was dismissed, because you recommended him, told you a most notorious falsehood; he is the young man I suppose you mean. The true reason was, his demand of a large additional salary, more than he had before my time; so he left the office, and was not turned out.
My desire is to be in charity with all men; could I say as much of you, you had sooner inquired into ​ this matter, or if you had any regard to a family you owe so much to; but I fear you hugged the false report to cancel all feelings of gratitude that must ever glow in a generous breast, and to justify what you had declared, that no regard to the family was any restraint to you. These refinements are past my low understanding, and can only be comprehended by you great wits.
I always thought in you I had a friend in Ireland, but find myself mistaken. I am sorry for it; my comfort is, it is none of my fault. If you had taken any thing amiss, you might have known the truth from me. I shall always be as ready to ask pardon when I have offended, as to justify myself when I have not. I am, sir,
Your very humble servant.
# The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 19/From Alexander Pope to Mr. Allen - 1

MR. POPE TO MR. ALLEN.
MY vexation about Deane Swift's proceeding has fretted and employed me a great deal, in writing to Ireland, and trying all the means possible to retard it; for it is put past preventing, by his having (without my consent, or so much as letting me see the book,) printed most of it. — They at last promise me to send me the copy, and that I may correct and expunge what I will. This last would be of some ​use; but I dare not even do this, for they would say I revised it. And the bookseller writes, that he has been at great charge, &c. However, the dean, upon all I have said and written about it, has ordered him to submit to any expunction I insist upon: this is all I can obtain, and I know not whether to make any use of it or not. But as to your apprehension, that any suspicion may arise of my being anywise consenting or concerned in it, I have the pleasure to tell you, the whole thing is so circumstanced and so plain, that it can never be the case. I shall be very desirous to see what the letters are at all events; and I think that must determine my future measures; for till then I can judge nothing. The excessive earnestness the dean has been in for publishing them, makes me hope they are castigated in some degree, or he must be totally deprived of his understanding. They now offer to send me the originals [which have been so long detained]; and I will accept of them, (though they have done their job,) that they may not have them to produce against me, in case there be any offensive passages in them. If you can give me any advice, do. I wish I could show you what the dean's people, the women, and the bookseller, have done and writ, on my sending an absolute negative, and on the agency I have employed of some gentlemen to stop it, as well as threats of law, &c. The whole thing is too manifest to admit of any doubt in any man: how long this thing has been working; how many tricks have been played with the dean's papers, how they were secreted from him from time to time, while they feared his not complying with such a measure; and how, finding his weakness increase, they have at ​ last made him the instrument himself for their private profit; whereas, I believe, before, they only intended to do this after his death.
# The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 19/From Jonathan Swift to Dr. Jinny - 1

TO DR. JINNY, RECTOR OF ARMAGH.
1726.
$^*$$_*$$^*$ THE author of "A Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland" refers to an unpublished letter of Dr. Swift, now in the possession of lord Dartrey, which entirely acquits him of that want of hospitality laid to his charge from some passages in his "Hamilton's Bawn." The letter is written to that Dr. Jinny represented in the poem as looking so like a ninny: the purport of it is, "To acquaint the doctor (then rector of Armagh, in the neighbourhood of which he spent the summer) how he passed his time. Among other amusements, he mentions that of writing this very poem, the motives which excited him to it, and the effects it produced. And so far was it from giving umbrage to the lady, or jealousy to the knight, that every addition he made at night came up with the bread and butter as part of the entertainment next morning, and all parties expressed the utmost satisfaction."
# The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 19/From David Mallet to Henry Hyde - 1

DAVID MALLET, ESQ. TO LORD HYDE.
MY LORD,
I RECEIVED a very real pleasure, and at the same time a sensible concern, from the letter your lordship has honoured me with. Nothing could be more agreeable to me than the favourable opinion of one, ​whom I have long admired for every quality that enters into an estimable and an amiable character; but then nothing can occasion me more uneasiness, than not to be able to suppress that part of a work which you would have kept from publick view.
The book was printed off before your lordship's letter reached my hands; but this consideration alone would have appeared trifling to me. I apprehend, that I cannot, without being unfaithful to the trust reposed in me, omit or alter any thing in those works, which my lord Bolingbroke had deliberately prepared for the press, and I will publish no other. As to this in particular, his repeated commands to me were, that it should be printed exactly according to the copy be himself, in all the leisure of retirement, had corrected with that view.
Upon the whole, if your lordship should think it necessary to disclaim the reflections on Sacred History, by which I presume is meant some publick and authentick declaration, that your notions on this head differ entirely from those of your noble friend; even in this case I am sure you will do it with all the delicacy natural to your own disposition, and with all the tenderness to his memory, that the particular regard he always bore you can deserve.
I am, with the greatest respect,
My lord, &c.
# The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 19/From John Boyle to Alexander Pope - 1

THE EARL OF ORRERY TO MR. POPE.
I AM more and more convinced that your letters are neither lost nor burnt; but who the dean means by a safe hand in Ireland is beyond my power of guessing, though I am particularly acquainted with most, if not all, of his friends. As I know you had the recovery of those letters at heart, I took more than ordinary pains to find out where they were; but my inquiries were to no purpose; and, I fear, whoever has them is too tenacious of them to discover where they lie. "Mrs. Whiteway did assure me she had not one of them; and seemed to be under great uneasiness, that you should imagine they were left with her. She likewise told me she had stopped the dean's letter which gave you that information, but believed he would write such another; and therefore desired me to assure you, from her, that she was totally ignorant where they were."
You may say what you please, either to the dean or any other person, of what I have told you. I am ready to testify it; and I think it ought to be known, "That the dean says they are delivered into a safe hand; and Mrs. Whiteway declares ​ she has them not. The consequence of their being hereafter published may give uneasiness to some of your friends, and of course to you: so I would do all in my power to make you entirely easy in that point."
This is the first time that I have put pen to paper since my late misfortune; and I should say (as an excuse for this letter) that it has cost me some pain, did it not allow me an opportunity to assure you, that I am,
Dear sir,
With the truest esteem,
Your very faithful and obedient servant,
ORRERY.
# The Zankiwank and the Bletherwitch

* related authors: Arthur Rackham.
* sister projects: Commons category, Wikidata item.
The Zankiwank
and
The Bletherwitch
An Original Fantastic Fairy Extravaganza
“Imagination is always the ruling and divine power, and the rest of the man is only the instrument which it sounds, or the tablet on which it writes.”
John Ruskin.
LONDON J. M. DENT. & CO.
ALDINE HOUSE E.C. 1896
All Rights Reserved
To
MY BLANCHE
I AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBE
THIS LITTLE BOOK
CONTENTS
PART I
PART II
PART III
PART IV
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1939, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 84 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
# The Youth's Companion/July 19, 1860/The Rat and the Cobra

Variety.
The Rat and the Cobra.
Poisonous snakes often attack rats, hoping to get a good meal from them, but they generally find the rats ready to fight, and though the bite of the snake is sure to cause death, the bite of the rat generally leads to the same result. We suspect our readers wouldn’t like to live where such scenes as the following are of frequent occurrence:
I was just stooping down to select what I wanted, when I heard a tremendous flop behind me, and then a scuffle. Turning round I saw a cobra and a rat having a regular pitched battle. The cobra had been after the rat’s young ones, and the infuriated mother was thirsting for revenge. Though much alarmed for my own safety—for I had no means of escape without passing the cobra—I soon became intensely interested in the combat. At first the rat fought with the greatest caution, hopping from side to side with remarkable agility, and avoiding the poisoned fangs of the cobra; at last, however, the snake—which in the interval had received many severe bites—stung his adversary, and then the rat, apparently aware that its case was now hopeless, grew reckless, and closed in with its opponent. In less than two minutes it succeeded in killing the snake, and then crawling aside upon some straw, the victor died, apparently in the greatest agonies.
I had another illustration of the enmity existing between rats and snakes, many years afterwards, in Syria. I had sat up late reading a file of the Times newspapers; the servants had all been in bed for hours, and when I withdrew to my own, it wanted only a few hours of daylight. As I closed my bedroom door, I was startled by a tussling under the chest of drawers close by, and the next instant a rat darted out, followed by a huge snake, and these two set to work fighting right against the door. In my alarm, I upset the chair on which I had placed the candle, and found myself at once in utter darkness, locked in with a snake and a ferocious rat. To jump upon my bed was the work of an instant, and loudly did I bellow for assistance out of the window. I might as well have called to the winds to aid me. I had neither match nor weapon of defence, save a bolster, and the room was so dark that I could not distinguish my own hand, though held close before my nose. When the scuffle ceased, I expected every instant to feel the horrid clammy snake twisting itself round my legs, and in at unenviable anticipation, I remained three long hours, till broad daylight relieved me of my fears, and I found both combatants dead before the door.