n her mother's death, left London, and went to live in Ireland, to be
near her beloved Dean; and there she was informed of Swift's marriage to
'Stella.' The news killed her, but she revoked the will by which her
fortune was bequeathed to Swift, and left one-half of it, or about
L4,000, to Berkeley, whom she had met but once. He must have "kept an
atmosphere," as Bagehot says of Francis Horner.

Going to London on fire with his great scheme, prepared to resign his
deanery and cast in his lot with that of the proposed University,
Berkeley wasted years in the effort to secure a charter and grant from
the administration. His enthusiasm and his fascinating manners effected
much, and over and over again only the simplest formalities seemed
necessary to success. Only the will of Sir Robert Walpole stood in the
way, but Walpole's will sufficed. At last, in September, 1728, tired of
waiting at court, Berkeley, who had just married, sailed with three or
four friends, including the artist Smibert, for Rhode Island, intending
to await there the completion of his grant, and then proceed to Bermuda.
He bought a farm near Newport, and built a house which he called
Whitehall, in which he lived for about three years, leaving a tradition
of a benignant but retired and scholastic life. Among the friends who
were here drawn to him was the Rev. Samuel Johnson of Stratford,
afterward the first President of King's (now Columbia) College, with
whom he corresponded during the remainder of his life, and through whom
he was able to aid greatly the cause of education in America.

The Newport life was idyllic. Berkeley wrote home that the winters were
cooler than those of the South of Ireland, but not worse than he had
known in Italy. He brought over a good library, and read and wrote. The
principal work of this period, written in a romantic cleft in the rocks,
was 'Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher,' in seven dialogues, directed
especially against atheism.

At length, through Lord Percival, Berkeley learned that Walpole would
not allow the parliamentary grant of, L20,000 for the Bermuda College,
and returned to England at the close of 1732. His Whitehall estate he
conveyed to Yale College for the maintenance of certain scholarships.
From England he sent over nearly a thousand volumes for the Yale
library, the best collection of books ever brought at one time to
America, being helped in the undertaking by some of the Bermuda
subscribers. A lit