The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 12/From Mary Butler to Jonathan Swift - 7

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The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 12
(1723)
by Mary Butler, edited by Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols, John Boyle, Patrick Delany, John Hawkesworth, Deane Swift, William Bowyer, John Birch, and George Faulkner

From the duchess of Ormond

From lord Bolingbroke

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1818710The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 12
— From the duchess of Ormond1723Mary Butler

FROM THE DUCHESS OF ORMOND.

SIR,

DEC. 9, 1723.

I FIND by yours of the 6th of November, which I did not receive till last night, that you have been so good as to remember your poor relation here. But as your three last never came to hand, I think it very happy, that you have kept your liberty thus long; for I cannot account for my not receiving them any other way, than that they were stopped in the postoffice, and interpreted, as most innocent things are, to mean something very distant from the intention of the writer or actor.

I am surprised at the account you give me of that part of Ireland you have been in: for the best I expect from that grateful country is to be forgotten by the inhabitants. For, to remember with any kindness one under the frowns of the court, is not a gift the Irish are endowed with. I am very sorry to hear you have got the spleen, where a man of your sense must every day meet with things ridiculous enough to make you laugh; but I am afraid, the jests are too low to do so. Change of air is the best thing in the world for your distemper. And if not to cure yourself, at least, have so much goodness for your friends here, as to come and cure us; for it is a distemper we are overrun with. I am sure your company would go a great way toward my recovery; for I assure you, nobody has a greater value for you than I have, and hope I shall have the good fortune to see you before I die. I have no sort of correspondence with the person you have not seen, and wonder at nothing they do, or do not do.

I will let your brother^[1] and mine know, that you remembered him in my letter. He is as good a man as lives.

I am afraid you will wish you had not encouraged my scribbling to you, when you find I am still such an insipid correspondent; but with that, which I hope will make some amends, am with great sincerity and respect, your most faithful friend and humble servant,

M. ORMOND.

↑ In the society of sixteen, Charles, lord Butler of Weston, and earl of Arran, brother to the duke of Ormond, on whose attainder he was elected chancellor of the university of Oxford.

[1] In the society of sixteen, Charles, lord Butler of Weston, and earl of Arran, brother to the duke of Ormond, on whose attainder he was elected chancellor of the university of Oxford.

[1]