DECREE

FOR CONCLUDING THE TREATY BETWEEN

DR SWIFT AND MRS LONG, 1709.

[Mrs, or, according to modern phraseology, Miss Anne Long was sister to Sir James Long of Draycot, in Wiltshire, a lady of great beauty, accomplishment, and fashion. Swift seems to have become acquainted with her during his frequent visits at Mrs Vanhomrigh's; and the following piece of humour is founded upon the respectful advances which, between jest and earnest, he demanded from the ladies, who were ambitious of his acquaintance. The treaty thus whimsically concluded, occasion. ed a sincere, though short friendship between the parties. Mrs Long was, from the derangement of her affairs, forced to retire to Lynn in Norfolk, under a borrowed name, where she died 22d November, 1711. See Swift's account of her death, Vol. II. p. 440. He wrote to the clergyman of Lynn a very interesting letter, communicating to him the rank and character of Mrs Long, who had lived and died there under the name of Smith. In that letter, Swift proposes to erect a tablet to her memory, as a lady who had every valuable quality of mind and body, that could make her loved and honoured. It is dated 26th December 1711.]

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 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,* any law, claim, custom, privilege of sex, beauty, fortune, or quality, to the contrary notwithstanding: And whereas the said Mrs Long, humbly acknowledging and allowing the right of the said doctor, doth yet insist upon certain privileges and exceptions, as a Lady of the Toast, f which privileges, she doth allege, are excepted out of the doctor's general claim, and which she cannot betray without-injuring the whole body whereof she is a member; by which impediment, the said treaty is not yet brought to a conclusion; to the great grievance and damage of Mrs Vanhomrigh, and her fair daughter Hessy: and whereas the decision of this weighty cause is referred to us, in our judicial capacity, We, out of our tender regard to truth and justice, having heard and duly considered the alle

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* “ When I lived in England," says the Dean to Miss Hoadly, June 4, 1734, once every year I issued out an edict, commanding that all ladies of wit, sense, merit, and quality, who had an ambition to be acquainted with me, should make the first advances at their peril."

+ The Kit.cat Club, which combined the most distinguished members of the whig party, had a regular list of toasts, comprehending the names of the most fashionable and beautiful women, who were supposed favourable to their political opinions. Hallifax, Garth, and other wits of the convivial association, combined to give honour and distinction to the selected fair ones, by writing a few lines in praise of each, which were engraved upon the glass specially consecrated to her health. Those in favour of Mrs Long were written by the Earl of Wharton.

Fill the glass; let hautboys sound,

While bright Longy's health goes round;

With eternal beauty blest,

Ever blooming, still the best,

Drink your glass and think the rest.

Hence Mrs Long's claim to dignity, privilege, and exceptions, as a Lady of the Toast.

Esther Vanhomrigh, the unfortunate Vanessa.

gations of both parties, do declare, adjudge, decree, and determine, That the said Mrs Long, notwithstanding any privileges she may claim as aforesaid as a Lady of the Toast, shall, without essoin or demur, in two hours after the publishing of this our decree, make all advances to the said doctor, that he shall demand; and that the said advances shall not be made to the said doctor as un homme sans consequence, but purely upon account of his great merit. And we do hereby strictly forbid the said Mrs Vanhomrigh, and her fair daughter Hessy, to aid, abet, comfort, or encourage, her the said Mrs Long in her disobedience for the future. And, in consideration of the said Mrs Long's being a Toast, we think it just and reasonable, that the said doctor should permit her, in all companies, to give herself the reputation of being one of his acquaintance; * which no other lady shall presume to do, upon any pretence whatsoever, without his especial leave and licence first had and obtained.

By especial command, G. V. HOMRIGH. †

* In the course of his Journal, Swift expresses himself very wrothfully against those who took the freedom of claiming his acquaintance on slight grounds, particularly against the Countess of Bellamont, and an old crooked Scotch lady of quality.

+ The signature of Mrs Van Homrigh, mother of Vanessa.

DISCOURSE

TO PROVE

THE ANTIQUITY OF THE ENGLISH TONGUE.

SHOWING, FROM VARIOUS INSTANCES, THAT HEBREW, GREEK, AND LATIN, WERE DERIVED FROM THE

ENGLISH.

DURING the reign of parties for about forty years past, it is a melancholy consideration to observe how philology has been neglected, which was before the darling employment of the greatest authors, from the restoration of learning in Europe. Neither do I remember it to have been cultivated, since the revolution, by any one person, with great success, except our illustrious modern star, Doctor Richard Bentley, with whom the republic of learning must expire, as mathematics did with Sir Isaac Newton. My ambition has been gradually attempting, from my early youth, to be the holder of a rush-light before that great luminary; which, at least, might be of some little use during those short intervals, while he was snuffing his candle, or peeping with it under a bushel.

My present attempt is to assert the antiquity of our English tongue; which, as I shall undertake to prove by invincible arguments, has varied very little for these two thousand six hundred and thirty-four

years past. And my proofs will be drawn from etymology; wherein I shall use my readers much fairer than Pezro, Skinner, Verstegan, Camden, and many other superficial pretenders, have done; for I will put no force upon the words, nor desire any more favour than to allow for the usual accidents of corruption, or the avoiding a cacophonia.

I think I can make it manifest to all impartial readers, that our language, as we now speak it, was originally the same with those of the Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans, however corrupted in succeeding times by a mixture of barbarisms. I shall only produce at present two instances among a thousand from the Latin tongue. Cloaca, which they interpret a necessary-house, is altogether an English word; the last letter a being, by the mistake of some scribe, transferred from the beginning to the end of the word. In the primitive orthography, it is called a cloac, which had the same signification; and still continues so at Edinburgh in Scotland, where a man in a cloac, or cloak, of large circumference and length, carrying a convenient vessel under it, calls out, as he goes through the streets, "Wha has need of me?" Whatever customer calls, the vessel is placed in the corner of the street; the cloac, or a cloak, surrounds and covers him; and thus he is eased with decency and secrecy.

The second instance is yet more remarkable. The Latin word turpis signifies nasty, or filthy. Now this word turpis is a plain composition of two English words only, by a syncope, the last letter of the first syllable, which is d, is taken out of the middle, to prevent the jarring of three consonants together: and these two English words express the most unseemly excrements that belong to man.

But although I could produce many other ex