# The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 13/From William King (St Mary Hall) to Martha Whiteway - 1

DR. KING TO MRS. WHITEWAY.
AS soon as ever you cast your eye on the date of this letter, you will pronounce me a rambler; and that is a charge I will not deny. How I was transported from Edinburgh to this place, requires more room to inform you than my paper will allow me. But I will give you a small hint; you know I am a Laplander, and consequently I have the honour to be well acquainted with some witches of distinction. I speak in the phrase of this country: for the first man I spoke to in Paris, told me, he had the honour to live next door to Mr. Knight's, hatter. But to our business. I would not have you imagine I forgot my friends, or neglect the great affairs I have undertaken. The next letter you will receive from ​me shall be dated from London, where I propose to arrive about the twentieth of this month. I will then put the little MS. to the press, and oblige the whole English nation. As to the history, the dean may be assured I will take care to supply the dates that are wanting, and which can easily be done in an hour or two. The tracts, if he pleases, may be printed by way of appendix. This will be indeed less trouble than the interweaving them in the body of the history, and will do the author as much honour, and answer the purpose full as well. This is all I need say in answer to that part of your letter, which is serious: for I hope you are not in earnest, when you throw out such horrible reflections against my friends in Scotland. Will you believe me, when I tell you upon my word, that I was entertained with the greatest politeness and delicacy during my short stay in that country? I found every thing as neat and clean in the houses, where I had my quarters, as even you could desire. I cannot indeed much commend Edinburgh; and yet the s——ks, which are so much complained of there, are not more offensive, than I have found them in every street in this elegant city, which the French say is the mistress of the world; Madame il n'y a qu'un Paris. As to my own thoughts of this nation, you shall know them, when I am out of it; and then I will write to the dean, and give him some account of his old friend my lord Bolingbroke. When the dean is informed of what that gentleman is doing, I am apt to believe it will be a motive to induce him to hasten the publication of his history. In the mean time, I beg of you to assure him, that nothing shall be wanting on my part to execute his commissions very ​faithfully. I am truly sensible of the great obligations I owe him, and of the honour he hath done me, not in the French sense of that word.
I desire my humble service to miss Harrison, and tell Mr. Swift I shall be glad of any opportunity to do him a real service. At the same time I assure you, with the greatest truth, that I am, madam, your most humble and most obedient servant,
W. KING.
* ↑ This alludes to the doctor's fine satire called The Toast, which he pretends was written originally in Latin by Frederick Scheffer, a Laplander. This poem is now exceedingly scarce. It is reprinted, but without (one of its principal beauties) the notes and observations, in the Foundling Hospital for Wit.
* ↑ Mr. Swift was at this time in Ireland, but returned to Oxford the spring following.