[Footnote 97: How does it appear that Stella's father was steward to sir William Temple? In his will he does not say one word of her father's services, and did not leave Esther Johnson a thousand pounds, but a lease. His bequest runs thus: "I leave the lease of some lands I have in Morris-town, in the county of Wicklow, in Ireland, to Esther Johnson, _servant_ to my sister Gifford." M.] [Footnote 98: See Sheridan's Life, edit. 1784, p. 525; where are some remarks on this passage. R.] [Footnote 99: The whole story of this bishoprick is a very blind one. That it was ever intended for Swift, or that Sharpe and the dutchess of Somerset ever dissuaded queen Anne from promoting him, is not ascertained by any satisfactory evidence. M.] [Footnote 100: Mr. Sheridan, however, says, that Addison's last Whig Examiner was published October 12, 1711; and Swift's first Examiner, on the 10th of the following November. R.] [Footnote 101: This emphatic word has not escaped the watchful eye of Dr. Warton, who has placed a nota bene at it.] [Footnote 102: See this affair very differently represented in Swift's Panegyrist, Sheridan, p. 530.] [Footnote 103: An account somewhat different from this is given by Mr. Sheridan, in his Life of Swift, p. 511. R.] [Footnote 104: It is but justice to the dean's memory, to refer to Mr. Sheridan's defence of him from this charge. See the Life of Swift, p. 458. R.] [Footnote 105: This account is contradicted by Mr. Sheridan, who, with great warmth, asserts, from his own knowledge, that there was not one syllable of truth in this whole account from the beginning to the end. See Life of Swift, edit. 1784, p. 532. R.] [Footnote 106: Spence.] BROOME. William Broome was born in Cheshire, as is said, of very mean parents. Of the place of his birth, or the first part of his life, I have not been able to gain any intelligence. He was educated upon the foundation at Eton, and was captain of the school a whole year, without any vacancy, by which he might have obtained a scholarship at King's college. Being, by this delay, such as is said to have happened very rarely, superannuated, he was sent to St. John's college, by the contributions of his friends, where he obtained a small exhibition. At his college he lived for some time in the same chamber with the well-known Ford, by whom I have formerly heard him described as a contracted scholar and a mere versifier, unacquainted with life, and unskilful in conversation. His addiction to metre was then such, that his companions familiarly called him poet. When he had opportunities of mingling with mankind, he cleared himself, as Ford likewise owned, from great part of his scholastick rust.