The Romance of Old New England Rooftrees | Page 4

Vanessa nursed in solitude the hopeless attachment. At length (in
1723) she wrote to Stella to ascertain the nature of the connection
between her and Swift. The latter obtained the fatal letter, and rode
instantly to Marley Abbey, the residence of Vanessa. "As he entered
the apartment," to quote the picturesque language Scott has used in
recording the scene, "the sternness of his countenance, which was
peculiarly formed to express the stronger passions, struck the
unfortunate Vanessa with such terror, that she could scarce ask whether
he would not sit down. He answered by flinging a letter on the table;
and instantly leaving the house, mounted his horse, and returned to
Dublin. When Vanessa opened the packet, she found only her own
letter to Stella. It was her death-warrant. She sunk at once under the
disappointment of the delayed, yet cherished hopes which had so long
sickened her heart, and beneath the unrestrained wrath of him for
whose sake she had indulged them. How long she survived this last
interview is uncertain, but the time does not seem to have exceeded a
few weeks."
Strength to revoke a will made in favour of Swift, and to sign another
(dated May 1, 1723) which divided her estate between Bishop Berkeley
and Judge Marshall, the poor young woman managed to summon from
somewhere, however. Berkeley she knew very slightly, and Marshall
scarcely better. But to them both she entrusted as executors her
correspondence with Swift, and the poem, "Cadenus and Vanessa,"
which she ordered to be published after her death.
Doctor Johnson, in his "Life of Swift," says of Vanessa's relation to the
misanthropic dean, "She was a young woman fond of literature, whom
Decanus, the dean (called Cadenus by transposition of the letters), took
pleasure in directing and interesting till, from being proud of his praise,
she grew fond of his person. Swift was then about forty-seven, at the

age when vanity is strongly excited by the amorous attention of a
young woman."
The poem with which these two lovers are always connected, was
founded, according to the story, on an offer of marriage made by Miss
Vanhomrigh to Doctor Swift. In it, Swift thus describes his situation:
"Cadenus, common forms apart, In every scene had kept his heart; Had
sighed and languished, vowed and writ For pastime, or to show his wit,
But books and time and state affairs Had spoiled his fashionable airs;
He now could praise, esteem, approve, But understood not what was
love: His conduct might have made him styled A father and the nymph
his child. That innocent delight he took To see the virgin mind her book,
Was but the master's secret joy In school to hear the finest boy."
That Swift was not always, however, so Platonic and fatherly in his
expressions of affection for Vanessa, is shown in a "Poem to Love,"
found in Miss Vanhomrigh's desk after her death, in his handwriting.
One verse of this runs:
"In all I wish how happy should I be, Thou grand deluder, were it not
for thee. So weak thou art that fools thy power despise, And yet so
strong, thou triumph'st o'er the wise."
After the poor girl's unhappy decease, Swift hid himself for two months
in the south of Ireland. Stella was also shocked by the occurrence, but
when some one remarked in her presence, apropos of the poem which
had just appeared, that Vanessa must have been a remarkable woman to
inspire such verses, she observed with perfect truth that the dean was
quite capable of writing charmingly upon a broomstick.
Meanwhile Berkeley was informed of the odd stroke of luck by which
he was to gain a small fortune. Characteristically, his thoughts turned
now more than ever to his Bermuda scheme. "This providential event,"
he wrote, "having made many things easy in my private affairs which
were otherwise before, I have high hopes for Bermuda."
Swift bore Berkeley absolutely no hard feeling on account of Vanessa's

substitution of his name in her will. He was quite as cordial as ever.
One of the witty dean's most remarkable letters, addressed to Lord
Carteret, at Bath, thus describes Berkeley's previous career and present
mission:
"Going to England very young, about thirteen years ago, the bearer of
this became founder of a sect called the Immaterialists, by the force of
a very curious book upon that subject.... He is an absolute philosopher
with regard to money, titles, and power; and for three years past has
been struck with a notion of founding a university at Bermudas by a
charter from the Crown.... He showed me a little tract which he designs
to publish, and there your Excellency will see his whole scheme of the
life academico-philosophical, of a college founded for Indian scholars
and missionaries, where