In all likelihood, you are weary by this time of reading, and I am of writing such a long letter; so adieu, my dear Dean.

FROM DR. SHERIDAN,

DEAR SIR,

APRIL 5, 1735.

MRS. Perott has this instant invited my two eldest daughters to her house till such time as I may be settled at Cavan. She is a lady the best housewife in Ireland, and of the best temper I ever knew. Her daughters are formed by her example, so that it is impossible to place them where they will have a better opportunity of learning what may be hereafter of real advantage to them. Dear sir, I shall impatiently wait your advice; for my affairs here require a longer attendance than I expected, You will be so good as to let me know from Mr. Lingen* whether the duke of Dorset's letter be come in answer to the lords justices, hurry to Dublin; for people are here having their children so long idle. believe that if you put this matter in what light you think proper to the lord chancellor, he will not insist upon a punctilio, which may prove a great loss to me. The bishop of Killmore can produce a letter I think sufficient to justify their excellencies the lords justices in granting us patents.

that I may impatient at I am apt to

* One of the secretaries to the lords justices. D. S.

:

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I wish you long health and happiness, and shall, dear sir, ever have a grateful sense of your friendship, and be with all respect,

Your most obedient and very humble servant,

THOMAS SHERIDAN.

FROM THE ARCHBISHOP OF CASHELL *.

DEAR SIR,

CASHELL, APRIL 7, 1735.

I SUPPOSE by this time you have been informed,

that Mr. Dunkin was ordained here last Thursday, and that your recommendations got the better of my prejudices to his unhappy genius; which, I hope, will in some degree convince you, that your power over me is not yet quite worn out.

It is one of the greatest evils that attends those whom fortune has forsaken, that their friends forsake them too: and let me tell you, that your not seeing me the whole winter I was last in Dublin, was not a less mortification to me, than all the hard sayings of the great parliament orators. However, I must own your taking any occasion to write to me at all, has made some amends; for though you seem designedly to cover it, I think I perceive some little marks of that former kindness, which

* Dr. Theophilus Bolton. He was rector of St. Werburgh's, and chancellor of the cathedral of St. Patrick's; bishop of Clonfert, Sept. 12, 1722 translated to Elphin, April 16, 1724 ; to Cashell, Jan. 6, 1729, and died in 1744. N.

+ The reverend Mr. Dunkin, author of several poetical pieces that have been well received. See vol. XVII, pp. 302, 306. N. I once

I once pleased myself to have had a share in with your lawyer friends. When I conversed with politicians, I learned, that it was not prudent to seem fond of what one most desires: for which reason, I would not tell you, that if this accident of your poetical friend should open a way to our frequent meeting together again, and being put upon the old foot, as when I was your subject at St. Patrick's, I should think myself the happiest man in the world; but this I will say, that if it falls out so, this last heavy period of my life will be much more tolerable than it is at present.

I am now wholly employed in digging up rocks, and making the way easier to the church; which if I can succeed in, I design to repair a very venerable old fabrick, that was built here in the time of our ignorant (as we are pleased to call them) ancestors. I wish this age had a little of their piety, though we gave up, instead of it, some of our immense erudition. What if you spent a fortnight here this summer? I have laid aside all my country politicks, sheriff's elections, feasts, &c. And I fancy, it would not be disagreeable to you, to see king Cormack's chapel, his bedchamber, &c. all built, beyond controversy, above eight hundred years ago, when he was king, as well as archbishop. I really intend to lay out a thousand pounds to preserve this old church; and I am sure you would be of service to posterity, if you assisted me in the doing of it; at least, if you approved the design, you would give the greatest pleasure, I assure you, to

Your most affectionate and

faithful humble servant,

THEO. CASHELL

TO MR. THOMAS BEACH *,

Merchant in Wrexham, Denbighshire; to be left at the Customhouse Warehouse in Chester, and given to Stephen Lovel, esq., collector of the customs in Chester.

SIR,

DUBLIN, APRIL 12, 1735.

AFTER the fate of all Poets, you are no favourite of Fortune; for your letter of March 31 did not come to my hands till two days after sir William Fownes's death; who, having been long afflicted with the stone and other disorders, besides great old age, died about nine days ago. If he had recovered, I should certainly have waited on him with your poem, and recommended it and the author very heartily to his favour. I have seen fewer good panegyricks than any other sort of writing, especially in verse, and therefore I much

* Mr. Thomas Beach, the person to whom this letter is ad dressed, was a wine merchant at Wrexham, in Denbighshire. He was a man of learning, of great humanity, of an easy fortune, and was much respected. He published, in April 1737, in 4to, "Eugenio, or a Virtuous and Happy Life," and is inscribed to Mr. Pope; the poem to which in this letter the Dean alludes. It was by no means destitute of poetical merit. He is said by some to have entertained very blameable notions in religion; but this appears rather to be a conjecture than a wellestablished fact. It is certain he was at times grievously afflicted with a very terrible disorder in his head, to which his friends ascribed his melancholy catastrophe. On the 17th of May, 1737, soon after the publication of his poem, he cut his throat with such shocking resolution, that it was reported his head was almost severed from his body. N.

approve

approve the method you have taken; I mean, that of describing a person who possesseth every virtue, and rather waving that sir William Fownes was in your thoughts, than that your picture was like in every part. He had indeed a very good natural understanding, nor wanted a talent for poetry; but his education denied him learning, for he knew no other language except his own; yet he was a man of taste and humour, as well as a wise and useful citizen, as appeared by some little treatise for regulating the government of this city; and I often wished his advice had been taken. I read your poem several times, and showed it to three or four judicious friends, who all approved it, but agreed with me, that it wanted some corrections *. Upon which I took a number of lines, which are in all 299, the odd number being occasioned by what they call a triplet, which was a vicious way of rhyming, wherewith Dryden abounded, and was imitated by all the bad versifiers in Charles the Second's reign. Dryden, though my near relation, is one I have often blained as well as pitied.

* From a perusal of the printed poem, we find that Mr. Beach adopted every one of the Dean's hints and corrections. Even the triplet is discarded, and the poem now consists of three hundred lines. N.

+ "It is not easy to ascertain the exact degree of relationship between Dryden and Swift. He is said by his kinsman, Deane Swift, and by Hawkesworth after him, to have been our author's second cousin, the grandson of Elizabeth, one of the daughters of Sir Erasmus Driden; but this could not be the case, for that lady was married to Sir Richard Phillips, bart. The wife, therefore, of Thomas Swift, being acknowledged to have been Elizabeth Dryden, must be sought for in some other branch of the Dryden family. From Mercurius Rusticus, p. 75, it appears, that in October, 1642, she had, beside ten

children