ng).
MD (my dears) usually stands for both Stella and Mrs. Dingley, but
sometimes for Stella alone. Mrs. Dingley is indicated by ME (Madam
Elderly), D, or DD (Dear Dingley). The letters FW may mean Farewell, or
Foolish Wenches. Lele seems sometimes to be There, there, and sometimes
Truly.

LETTER 1.

1. Addressed "To Mrs. Dingley, at Mr. Curry's house over against the
Ram in Capel Street, Dublin, Ireland," and endorsed by Esther Johnson,
"Sept. 9. Received." Afterwards Swift added, "MD received this Sept. 9,"
and "Letters to Ireland from Sept.1710, begun soon after the change of
Ministry. Nothing in this."

2. Beaumont is the "grey old fellow, poet Joe," of Swift's verses "On
the little house by the Churchyard at Castlenock." Joseph Beaumont, a
linen-merchant, is described as "a venerable, handsome, grey-headed man,
of quick and various natural abilities, but not improved by learning."
His inventions and mathematical speculations, relating to the longitude
and other things, brought on mental troubles, which were intensified
by bankruptcy, about 1718. He was afterwards removed from Dublin to his
home at Trim, where he rallied; but in a few years his madness returned,
and he committed suicide.

3. Vicar of Trim, and formerly a Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. In
various places in his correspondence Swift criticises the failings of
Dr. Anthony Raymond, who was, says Scott, "a particular friend." His
unreliability in money matters, the improvidence of his large family,
his peculiarities in grammar, his pride in his good manners, all these
points are noticed in the journal and elsewhere. But when Dr. Raymond
returned to Ireland after a visit to London, Swift felt a little
melancholy, and regretted that he had not seen more of him. In July 1713
Raymond was presented to the Crown living of Moyenet.

4. A small township on the estuary of the Dee, between twelve and
thirteen miles north-west of Chester. In the early part of the
eighteenth century Parkgate was a rival of Holyhead as a station for the
Dublin packets, which started, on the Irish side, from off Kingsend.

5. Dr. St. George Ashe, afterwards Bishop of Derry, who had been Swift's
tutor at Trinity College, Dublin. He died in 1718. It is this lifelong
friend who is said to have married Swift and Esther Johnson in 1716.

6. The Commission to solicit for the remission of the First-Fruits and
twentieth parts, payable to the Crown by the Irish clergy, was sig