In the last _Tatler_ I promised some explanation of passages and persons
mentioned in this work, as well as some account of the assistances I
have had in the performance. I shall do this in very few words; for when
a man has no design but to speak plain truth, he may say a great deal in
a very narrow compass. I have in the dedication of the first volume made
my acknowledgments to Dr. Swift, whose pleasant writings, in the name of
Bickerstaff, created an inclination in the town towards anything that
could appear in the same disguise. I must acknowledge also, that at my
first entering upon this work, a certain uncommon way of thinking, and a
turn in conversation peculiar to that agreeable gentleman, rendered his
company very advantageous to one whose imagination was to be continually
employed upon obvious and common subjects, though at the same time
obliged to treat of them in a new and unbeaten method. His verses on the
Shower in Town,[44] and the Description of the Morning,[45] are
instances of the happiness of that genius, which could raise such
pleasing ideas upon occasions so barren to an ordinary invention.

When I am upon the house of Bickerstaff, I must not forget that
genealogy of the family sent to me by the post, and written, as I since
understand, by Mr. Twysden,[46] who died at the battle of Mons, and has
a monument in Westminster Abbey, suitable to the respect which is due to
his wit and his valour. There are through the course of the work very
many incidents which were written by unknown correspondents. Of this
kind is the tale in the second _Tatler_, and the epistle from Mr. Downes
the prompter,[47] with others which were very well received by the
public. But I have only one gentleman,[48] who will be nameless, to
thank for any frequent assistance to me, which indeed it would have been
barbarous in him to have denied to one with whom he has lived in an
intimacy from childhood, considering the great ease with which he is