The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. — Volume 10 - Historical Writings by Jonathan Swift
page 10 of 542 (01%)
page 10 of 542 (01%)
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King wrote to Swift stating that he had received a letter from Mrs.
Whiteway in which he was told to expect the manuscript from the hands of Lord Orrery. To Mrs. Whiteway he replied, on the same day, that he would wait on Lord Orrery to receive the papers. On July 23rd, 1737, Lord Orrery wrote to Swift informing him that "Dr. King has his cargo." With the knowledge that the manuscript was on its way to King, Swift wrote the following reply to Lewis's letter: July 23, 1737. "DEAR FRIEND, "While any of those who used to write to me were alive, I always inquired after you. But, since your secretaryship in the queen's time, I believed you were so glutted with the office, that you had not patience to venture on a letter to an absent useless acquaintance; and I find I owe yours to my Lord Oxford. The History you mention was written above a year before the queen's death. I left it with the treasurer and Lord Bolingbroke, when I first came over to take this deanery. I returned in less than a month; but the ministry could not agree about printing it. It was to conclude with the peace. I staid in London above nine months; but not being able to reconcile the quarrels between those two, I went to a friend in Berkshire, and, on the queen's death, came hither for good and all. I am confident you read that History; as this Lord Oxford did, as he owns in his two letters, the last of which reached me not above ten days ago. You know, on the queen's death, how the peace and all proceedings were universally condemned. This I knew would be |
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