Details
MACKY, John. Memoirs of the Secret Services of John Macky during the reigns of King William, Queen Anne and King George I. Including also the true secret history of the rise, promotions, &c. of the English and Scots nobilitty ... in their respective characters at large ... second edition, London: printed in the year 1733, 8°, WITH TRANSCRIPTIONS OF MANUSCRIPT NOTES BY JONATHAN SWIFT TAKEN FROM ISAAC REED'S COPY, [8] + lvi + 254 + [2] + xxxvii + [9]pp. (title browned, without the final 8 pages called for by ESTC, though the last page states "Finis" at foot), later 19th-century calf by Smith of Long Acre (lower joints cracking, front inner hinges split), bookplate of Robert, Marquis of Crewe.
Provenance
The first part of the explanatory note on the front blank is a transcription of a note by Reed as an earlier copier: "The MSS notes in this vol. are the genuine work of Dean Swift. The copy -- formerly in the possession of Philip Carteret Webb esq. now of Thomas Astle Esq. -- from which I transcribed them was taken from the original in the Dean's own writing by John Rutland surgeon his near relation." In the continuation to this note, it is explained that "the above well as well as all the other notes were transcribed from Mr. Isaac Reed's entries in his own copy (copied from Ritson's)."
Swift's transcribed notes are characteristically petulant. To Macky's observation that Charles, Duke of Somerset, Master of the Horse, was a man "of good judgement," Swift retorts "not a grain hardly [of] common sense." Charles Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton, to Macky "a very pretty gentleman," is to Swift "almost a slobberer without any good quality." Richard Savage, Earl of Rivers, "one of the greatest rakes in England in his younger days, but always a lover of the constitution of his country ...," remains for Swift "an arrant knave in common dealings and very prostitute." The description of the Earl of Lindsay as "a fine Gentleman, has both wit and learning" surprises Swift as: "I never observed a grain of either." Mr. Boyle, Chancellor of the Exchequer, has "some very scurvy qualities particularly avrarice." But Swift can generously agree with Macky on occasion. George Fitzroy, Duke of Northumberland, is described in the text as "a Man of Honour, nice in paying his debts, and living well with his Neighbours in the Country," and Swift agrees "He was a most worthy person very good natured & had very good sense." It was evidently Swift's opinion that this work was "Written by Mr. Davis an officer in the Customs."
Swift's transcribed notes are characteristically petulant. To Macky's observation that Charles, Duke of Somerset, Master of the Horse, was a man "of good judgement," Swift retorts "not a grain hardly [of] common sense." Charles Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton, to Macky "a very pretty gentleman," is to Swift "almost a slobberer without any good quality." Richard Savage, Earl of Rivers, "one of the greatest rakes in England in his younger days, but always a lover of the constitution of his country ...," remains for Swift "an arrant knave in common dealings and very prostitute." The description of the Earl of Lindsay as "a fine Gentleman, has both wit and learning" surprises Swift as: "I never observed a grain of either." Mr. Boyle, Chancellor of the Exchequer, has "some very scurvy qualities particularly avrarice." But Swift can generously agree with Macky on occasion. George Fitzroy, Duke of Northumberland, is described in the text as "a Man of Honour, nice in paying his debts, and living well with his Neighbours in the Country," and Swift agrees "He was a most worthy person very good natured & had very good sense." It was evidently Swift's opinion that this work was "Written by Mr. Davis an officer in the Customs."