( 372 )
WHEREAS it hath been signified to us, that there is now a treaty of acquaintance on foot, between Dr. Swift, of Leicester fields, of the one part, and Mrs. Long[1], of Albemarle street, on the other part: And whereas the said Dr. Swift, upon the score of his merit and extraordinary qualities, doth claim the sole and undoubted right, that all persons whatsoever shall make such advances to him as he pleases to demand[2]: any law, claim, custom,
privilege
- ↑ This lady, sister to sir James Long, figured high in the fashionable world; and is distinguished among those of the first quality in "The British Court, a poem, 1707." Dr. Swift's acquaintance with her was but of short duration, having commenced, through the Vanhomrigh family, in 1709: and we find, in the Journal to Stella, Sept. 13, 1710, that she had then "broke up house, and gone into the country;" owing, as appears Sept. 16, to pecuniary distresses. She retired to Lynn, in Norfolk, where she maintained a correspondence with Dr. Swift; who acknowledges the receipt of letters from her, Oct. 30, Nov. 12, and Dec. 10, 1710. The last she wrote to him, dated Nov. 18, 1711, describing her situation in the country, where she assumed the name of Smyth, is printed in vol. XI. p. 198. She died Dec. 22, 1711: and is lamented, with marks of the truest friendship, by Dr. Swift, who has exhibited some traits of her character, in the Journal of Dec. 25. See also a letter by the dean to a friend, occasioned by her death, in the nineteenth volume of this collection.
- ↑ "When I lived in England," says the dean to miss Hoadly, June 4, 1734, "once every year I issued out an edict, com-
manding
