Beschreibung:

SWIFT, Jonathan (1667-1745).] Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World... by Lemuel Gulliver. London: Benj. Motte, 1726. [With, tipped-in:] -- Autograph letter, unsigned, by Swift to Charles Ford Dublin 20 June 1732, 2½ pages, 4to, on a bifolium, integral address panel.
SWIFT, Jonathan (1667-1745).] Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World... by Lemuel Gulliver. London: Benj. Motte, 1726. [With, tipped-in:] -- Autograph letter, unsigned, by Swift to Charles Ford Dublin 20 June 1732, 2½ pages, 4to, on a bifolium, integral address panel. 2 volumes, 8° (192 x 119mm). Engraved portrait frontispiece in second state, 6 numbered engraved plates, the first two maps bound out-of-sequence as additional frontispieces. (Occasional light spotting, occasional faint dampstain in the bottom margin of volume 2.) Sprinkled calf by Riviere, with stamp, sides gilt with triple fillet borders, spine gilt in compartments, morocco lettering and numbering pieces, gilt turn-ins and edges. Provenance : S.A. Thompson Yates (bookplate). TEERINK'S 'B' EDITION, WITH A FINE AUTOGRAPH LETTER BY SWIFT to Charles Ford discussing a business involving one Mr Burton, who has written Swift 'a long letter, very silly and artificial, with objections that he called his own, but I suppose he had pickt them up from some scrub Attorney', and giving advice on how to behave in illness, counselling against 'chargeableness' in treatment of illness, and describing his management of his own lameness, 'I ride often, but not above ten miles a day at most, and I ride in Gambadoes, if you ever have heard of such implements, the advantage is that my foot as I ride stands even as upon a floor for I cannot yet bear the least stretch of the great sinew above my left heel, and God knows when I shall'; commenting on other news including the death of 'a young Lady of this kingdom [Elizabeth, first wife of Robert Rochfort, later 1st Earl of Belvedere], in London, who is much lamented for her Virtue, Beauty and Fortune. I am glad I never saw her because I dwell onely on a pleasing Circumstance, that such a young villain as G. Rochford’s son has so deservedly suffered so great a loss, he hath shown himself the most avaricious, unnatural and undutiful Rogue you ever heard of'; and concluding mournfully, 'My days when I do not ride pass five in the week in limping, and sitting alone, in reading very little, and writing less. I wish I had twenty thousand Guineas in my Cabinet, that I might shut the doors, put on Spectacles, and amuse my self with reckoning them three times a day'. The letter published in David Nicol Smith (ed.), The Letters of Jonathan Swift to Charles Ford (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1935), no. LVII. Grolier English 42; Rothschild 2108; Teerink 291; PMM 185.