Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 11.djvu/370

358 The dragon showed me your letter, and seemed mightily pleased with it. He has paid ten pounds for a manuscript, of which I believe there are several in town. It is a history of the last invasion of Scotland, wrote just as plain, though not so well, as another history, which you and I know, with characters of all the men now living, the very names, and invitation that was sent to the pretender. This by a flaming jacobite, that wonders all the world are not so. Perhaps it may be a whig, that personates a jacobite. I saw two sheets of the beginning, which was treason every line. If it goes on at the same rate of plain dealing, it is a very extraordinary piece, and worth your while to come up to see it only. Mr. Lockhart, they say, owns it. It is no more his than it is mine. Do not be so dogged; but, after the first shower, come up to town for a week or so. It is worth your while. Your friends will be glad to see you, and none more than myself. Adieu.

JULY 13, 1714.

NEVER laughed, my dear dean, at your leaving the town: on the contrary, I thought the resolution of doing so, at the time when you took it, a very wise one. But, I confess, I laughed, and very heartily too, when I heard that you affected to find, within the village of Letcombe, all your heart sired.