^{Note 1 in page 335} Swift's autograph inscription reads in full: “The Gift of Doctor Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's, to Mistres Mary Harrison, to encourage her to read usefull and improving Books. May 29th 1736.” Mary Harrison was Swift's second cousin, the daughter of Martha Swift Whiteway and her first husband, Theophilus Harrison. William Howell's Medulla (1679) was extremely popular and very much augmented by various “Impartial Hands” so that by its 12th and last edition in 1766 it included the death of George ?.

After Mary Harrison I do not know who owned Swift's copy until 1869, when, according to a note on the front fly page, it was in the possession of the Rev. Edwin Paxton Hood. He sent it to the Rev. Thomas Binney to be forwarded to a Dr. Sprague, probably William Buell Sprague (d. 1876), an American clergyman who is said to have had “so much fury about him in collecting autographs that he would carry off everything that had a name attached to it” (DAB). In 1913 the volume was given to The Johns Hopkins Univ. Lib. by John W. McCoy.

I should like to express my gratitude to Prof. Earl R. Wasserman for first showing me these marginalia and suggesting that I publish them.

^{Note 2 in page 335} Deletions, underlinings, and crosses represent Swift's own corrections of Howell.

^{Note 3 in page 335} Unfortunately the margins of this book were trimmed in rebinding.

^{Note 4 in page 336} According to Howell (p. 349) the English Parliament declared “That King James the Second, having endeavour'd to subvert the Constitution of this Kingdom, by breaking the Original CONTRACT between the King and People; and by the Advice of Jesuits and other wicked Persons, having violated the Fundamental Laws, and having withdrawn himself out of the Kingdom, hath Abdicated the Government, and the Throne is thereby Vacant.”

^{Note 5 in page 336} This is not aimless speculation. Swift was in England when George Walker received the freedom of Glasgow and Edinburgh from the Scotch, the Bishopric of Deny from William III, and honorary doctorates from both Universities —all because of his political exploits.

^{Note 6 in page 336} The pages in this edition of Howell are misnumbered. Page 394 is followed by 363, and from there on the numbers proceed in order until p. 378, which is followed by 405.

^{Note 7 in page 336} In his verses “On Noisy Tom” (1736) Swift accuses Sir Thomas Prendergast's grandfather of stealing cows, not sheep, and Faulkner in his 1762 edition noted that he was “A poor thieving Cottager … condemned at Clonmell Assizes to be hanged for stealing Cows” (Poems, ed. Harold Williams, Oxford, 1937, in, 826). In A full and true Vindication of Sir Thorn. ?-, however, the anonymous author compares Sir

Thomas' grandfather with Ajax and Jason:

Great Ajax, who caused many widows to weep, And gave in his anger no quarter to sheep! Or Jason, that travelling captain of Greece, So cried up by poets for bearing the fleece;

That captain one fleece in his life only bore; Our hero in one night would have beat off a score. (The Works of Jonathan Swift, ed. Sir Walter Scott, Boston, 1883, XII, 430). Swift probably changed the complaint in his poem to cow stealing for satirical purposes since Sir Thomas was extremely vocal in attempting to get passed in the Irish House of Commons a bill especially favorable to owners of great herds of black cattle and unfavorable to the clergy.

^{Note 8 in page 337} In The Conduct of the Allies Swift wrote that the Peace of Ryswick “concluded with great advantages to the empire and Holland, but none at all to us” (Prose Works, ed. Temple Scott, London, 1901, v, 67).

^{Note 9 in page 337} William III granted to his mistress, Elizabeth Villiers (Lady Orkney), large tracts of James II's Irish estates. In 1699, however, Parliament revoked the grant.

^{Note 10 in page 337} In 1711, when he was Lord Chief Justice, Thomas Parker, the first Earl of Macclesfield, a Whig and one of the managers against Sacheverell, judged Swift's Conduct of the Allies treasonous. Swift felt he owed “the dog a spite” (Prose Works, ed. Temple Scott, London, 1897, ii, 391).

^{Note 11 in page 337} I cannot make out this word. It may be impudent.

^{Note 12 in page 337} Sophia Dorothy was the former wife of George I. After carrying on an affair with Count Philip von Königsmark, she was divorced by George and imprisoned for the rest of her life at Ahlden, near Celle. The Tories made capital of this scandal; it even gave them some basis besides surmise for calling George II a bastard. See John Hervey's lampoon, Memoirs of the Reign of George the Second, ed. John W. Croker (London, 185S), i, 93.

^{Note 13 in page 338} Thomas Madox was Swift's rival in 1714 for the post of royal historiographer. Even though Swift called him “a worthless rogue that nobody knows” (Correspondence, ed. F. Elrington Ball, London, 1911, ii, 210), Madox was an eminent medievalist, whose works in 1736 were considerably more than extant.

^{Note 14 in page 338} All the remaining marginalia have, I believe, little significance for students of Swift. For the sake of completeness, however, these unimportant corrections are listed here.

p. [iv]: too weak … without they were confirmed and strengthned … Swift: [un]less

[vi]: the various Changes and Mutations of elder Times… Swift: [chjanges

4: [A list of the petty kingdoms of Britain and the modern provinces which their territory corresponded to:] 10. Iceni, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge. Swift: & Huntingdon

59: Stephen Earl of Bloys, Son to Adelicia, Daughter of the Conqueror … Swift: Alice

70: The Castle by continual Assaults was taken, and X the King's command none left alive. Swift: at

107: His [Henry IV's] Cousin, the late King Edward … Swift: Richard

[opposite 122]: [Captions of illustrations:] JACK CADE with rebellious Rout corhit Disorders [;] The House YORK claim the, Crown. Swift: [adds s to comit and inserts of between House and YOMC] 223: [On the execution of Charles I:] Great, Good, and Just, could I but raie My Griefs,-an4-thy too rigid Fate; I'd weep the World to such a Strain, That it should deluge once again. But X thy loud-longu'd Blood demands Supplies More from Briareus's Hands, than Argus's Eyes, I'll therefore sing thy Obsequies with Trumpet Sounds, And write thy Epitaph with Blood and Wounds. Swift: [for and in line 2 inserts with; after But in line 5 adds since]

325: … Dr. Hough the A^ee-President [of Magdalene College, Oxford] …

428: Captain Kidd … set out at the Joint Expence of several Private Adventures ‥ . Swift: rers

568: … Citizens of the City of Chester … Swift: [C]hichester

^{Note 15 in page 338} Correspondence, in, 78.

^{Note 16 in page 338} Ricardo Quintana, Swift: An Introduction (London, 1955), p. 8.