and abounds
in abbreviations. The difficulty of arriving at the true reading is
therefore considerable, apart from the erasures.

The remainder of the Journal, consisting of the first forty letters,
was published in 1768 by Deane Swift, Dr. Swift's second cousin. These
letters had been given to Mrs. Whiteway in 1788, and by her to her
son-in-law, Deane Swift. The originals have been lost, with the
exception of the first, which, by some accident, is in the British
Museum; but it is evident that Deane Swift took even greater liberties
with the text than Hawkesworth. He substituted for "Ppt" the word
"Stella," a name which Swift seems not to have used until some years
later; he adopted the name "Presto" for Swift, and in other ways tried
to give a greater literary finish to the letters. The whole of the
correspondence was first brought together, under the title of the
"Journal to Stella", in Sheridan's edition of 1784.

Previous editions of the Journal have been but slightly annotated.
Swift's letters abound with allusions to people of all classes with whom
he came in contact in London, and to others known to Esther Johnson in
Ireland; and a large proportion of these persons have been passed over
in discreet silence by Sir Walter Scott and others. The task of
the annotator has, of course, been made easier of late years by the
publication of contemporary journals and letters, and of useful works
of reference dealing with Parliament, the Army, the Church, the Civil
Service, and the like, besides the invaluable Dictionary of National
Biography. I have also been assisted by a collection of MS. notes kindly
placed at my disposal by Mr. Thomas Seccombe. I have aimed at brevity
and relevance, but it is hoped that the reader will find all the
information that is necessary. Here and there a name has baffled
research, but I have been able to give definite particulars of a very
large number of people--noblemen and ladies in society in London or
Dublin, Members of Parliament, doctors, clergymen, Government officials,
and others who have hitherto been but names to the reader of the
Journal. I have corrected a good many errors in the older notes, but in
dealing with so large a number of persons, some of whom it is difficult
to identify, I cannot hope that I myself have escaped pitfalls.

G. A. A.

INTRODUCTION.

When Swift began to write the letters known as the Journal to Stella, he
was forty-two years of age, and Esther Jo