e date of the publication of Gaudentio is quite consistent with the
authorship of Berkeley, who died in 1753; but the notice in the
_Gentleman's Magazine_ only proves the existence of a rumour to that
effect; and the authentic _Life of Berkeley_, by Dr. Stock, chiefly
drawn up from materials communicated by Dr. R. Berkeley, brother to the
Bishop, and prefixed to the collected edition of his work (2 vols. 4to.
Lond., 1784), makes no allusion to Gaudentio. There is nothing in the
contents of this work which renders it likely that the authorship should
have been carefully concealed by Bp. Berkeley and his family, if he had
really been the author. The literary execution of Gaudentio is good; and
it is probable that the speculative character of the work, and the fact
that Berkeley had visited Italy, suggested the idea that he had composed
it. The belief that Bishop Berkeley was the author of _Gaudentio di
Lucca_ may therefore be considered as unauthorised.

The copy of the edition of _Gaudentio_ of 1786, which is preserved in
the British Museum, contains in the title-page the following note, in
pencil:

"Written originally in English by Dr. Swale of Huntingdon. See
_Gent. Mag._ 1786."

The _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1786 does not, however, contain any
information about the authorship of _Gaudentio_; and the name of Dr.
Swale appears to be unknown in literary history. At the same time, a
positive entry of this sort, with respect to an obscure person,
doubtless had some foundation. On the authority of this note, Dr. Swale
is registered as the author of Gaudentio in the printed catalogue of the
British Museum Library, whence it has passed into Watt's _Bibl. Brit._
Perhaps some of your correspondents, who are connected with Huntingdon,
may be able to throw some light on Dr. Swale.

Lastly, it should be added, that the writer of the article "Berkeley,"
in the _Biographic Universelle_, adverts to the fact that _Gaudentio di
Lucca_ has been attributed to him: he proceeds, however, to say that--

"The author of a Life of Berkeley affirms that Berkeley is not
the author of that book, which he supposes to have been written
by a Catholic priest imprisoned in the Tower of London."

I have been unable to trace the origin of this statement; nor do I know
what is the _Life of Berkeley_, to which the writer in the _Biogr.
Univ._ refers. The Life published under the direction of his family
makes no allusion to Gaude