Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 11.djvu/403

Rh

AUG. 1, 1714.

HO told you, I was going to Bath? No such thing. I had fixed to set out to morrow for Ireland, but poor lord Oxford desires I will go with him to Herefordshire, and only expect his answer whether I shall go there before, or meet him hereabouts; or to Wimple, (his son's house) and so go with him down; and I expect to leave this in two or three days one way or other. I will stay with him until the parliament meets again, if he desires it. I am not of your opinion about lord Bolingbroke; perhaps he may get the staff, but I cannot rely on his love to me: he knew I had a mind to be historiographer, though I valued it not, but for the publick service, yet it is gone to a worthless rogue that nobody knows. I am writ to earnestly by somebody to come to town, and join with those people now in power, but I will not do it. Say nothing of this, but guess the person. I told lord Oxford I would go with him, when he was out; and now he begs it of me, and I cannot refuse him. I meddle not with his faults, as he was a minister of state; but you know his personal kindness to me was excessive: he distinguished and chose me above all other men, while he was great; and his letter to me the other day was the most moving imaginable. When I am fixed any where, perhaps I may be so gracious to let you know, but I will not promise. Adieu. Rh