The Journal to Stella | Page 6

duty which afterwards led to a quarrel with Lady Giffard and
other members of the family. Many years later Swift told Lord
Palmerston that he stopped at Moor Park solely for the benefit of
Temple's conversation and advice, and the opportunity of pursuing his
studies. At Temple's death he was "as far to seek as ever." In the
summer of 1699, however, he was offered and accepted the post of
secretary and chaplain to the Earl of Berkeley, one of the Lords Justices,
but when he reached Ireland he found that the secretaryship had been
given to another. He soon, however, obtained the living of Laracor,
Agher, and Rathbeggan, and the prebend of Dunlavin in St. Patrick's
Cathedral, Dublin. The total value of these preferments was about 230
pounds a year, an income which Miss Waring seems to have thought
enough to justify him in marrying. Swift's reply to the lady whom he

had "singled out at first from the rest of women" could only have been
written with the intention of breaking off the connection, and
accordingly we hear no more of poor Varina.
At Laracor, a mile or two from Trim, and twenty miles from Dublin,
Swift ministered to a congregation of about fifteen persons, and had
abundant leisure for cultivating his garden, making a canal (after the
Dutch fashion of Moor Park), planting willows, and rebuilding the
vicarage. As chaplain to Lord Berkeley, he spent much of his time in
Dublin. He was on intimate terms with Lady Berkeley and her
daughters, one of whom is best known by her married name of Lady
Betty Germaine; and through them he had access to the fashionable
society of Dublin. When Lord Berkeley returned to England in April
1701, Swift, after taking his Doctor's degree at Dublin, went with him,
and soon afterwards published, anonymously, a political pamphlet, A
Discourse on the Contests and Dissentions in Athens and Rome. When
he returned to Ireland in September he was accompanied by Stella--to
give Esther Johnson the name by which she is best known--and her
friend Mrs. Dingley. Stella's fortune was about 1500 pounds, and the
property Temple had left her was in County Wicklow. Swift, very
much for his "own satisfaction, who had few friends or acquaintance in
Ireland," persuaded Stella--now twenty years old--that living was
cheaper there than in England, and that a better return was obtainable
on money. The ladies took his advice, and made Ireland their home. At
first they felt themselves strangers in Dublin; "the adventure looked so
like a frolic," Swift says, "the censure held for some time as if there
were a secret history in such a removal: which however soon blew off
by her excellent conduct." Swift took every step that was possible to
avoid scandal. When he was away, the ladies occupied his rooms; when
he returned, they went into their own lodgings. When he was absent,
they often stopped at the vicarage at Laracor, but if he were there, they
moved to Trim, where they visited the vicar, Dr. Raymond, or lived in
lodgings in the town or neighbourhood. Swift was never with Stella
except in the presence of a third person, and in 1726 he said that he had
not seen her in a morning "these dozen years, except once or twice in a
journey."
During a visit to England in the winter of 1703-4 we find Swift in
correspondence with the Rev. William Tisdall, a Dublin incumbent

whom he had formerly known at Belfast. Tisdall was on friendly terms
with Stella and Mrs. Dingley, and Swift sent messages to them through
him. "Pray put them upon reading," he wrote, "and be always teaching
something to Mrs. Johnson, because she is good at comprehending,
remembering and retaining." But the correspondence soon took a
different turn. Tisdall paid his addresses to Stella, and charged Swift
with opposing his suit. Tisdall's letters are missing, but Swift's reply of
April 20, 1704, puts things sufficiently clearly. "My conjecture is," he
says, "that you think I obstructed your inclinations to please my own,
and that my intentions were the same with yours. In answer to all which
I will, upon my conscience and honour, tell you the naked truth. First, I
think I have said to you before that, if my fortunes and humour served
me to think of that state, I should certainly, among all persons upon
earth, make your choice; because I never saw that person whose
conversation I entirely valued but hers; this was the utmost I ever gave
way to. And secondly, I must assure you sincerely that this regard of
mine never once entered into my head to be an impediment to you." He
had thought Tisdall not rich enough to marry; "but the objection of your
fortune being removed, I