That this hostility persisted far into the eighteenth century may be seen in the illuminating anecdote told in the 1780's by Horace Walpole, son of the "Great Man" so glowingly praised in the _Letter from a Clergyman_:
Swift was a good writer, but had a bad heart. Even to the last he was devoured by ambition, which he pretended to despise. Would you believe that, after finding his opposition to the ministry fruitless, and, what galled him still more, contemned, he summoned up resolution to wait on Sir Robert Walpole? Sir Robert seeing Swift look pale and ill, inquired the state of his health, with his usual old English good humour and urbanity. They were standing by a window that looked into the court-yard, where was an ancient ivy dropping towards the ground. "Sir," said Swift, with an emphatic look, "I am like that ivy; I want support." Sir Robert answered, "Why then, doctor, did you attach youself to a falling wall?" Swift took the hint, made his bow, and retired.[8]
[1] In _The Intelligencer, No. III_ (1728), Swift defends Gay's satire on the "Great Man," _The Beggar's Opera_ (1728), and continues his offensive against Sir Robert Walpole. Here it may be mentioned that in his apology for the irony used by persecuted dissenters, Anthony Collins [_A Discourse Concerning Ridicule and Irony_ (1729)] remarks that "High-Church" overlooked Swift's "_drolling_ upon Christianity," and was unwilling to punish him because of his "_Drollery_ upon the _Whigs_, _Dissenters_, and the _War_ with _France_." Collins interprets the effect of Swift's wit on his church career as follows: "And his Usefulness in _Drollery_ and _Ridicule_ was deem'd sufficient by the _Pious_ Queen _Anne_, and her _pious Ministry_, to intitle him to a Church Preferment of several hundred Pounds _per Ann._ ... notwithstanding [the objections of] a _fanatick High-Churchman_, who weakly thought _Seriousness_ in Religion of more use to High-Church than _Drollery_" (pp. 39-40).
[2] G. A. Aitken, _The Life and Works of John Arbuthnot_ (Oxford, 1892), pp. 123-124; and H. Teerink-Arthur H. Scouten, _A Bibliography of the Writings of Jonathan Swift_ (Philadelphia, 1963), No. 1216, consider it an uncomplimentary attack on Swift and his friends--but mistakenly, I believe. Lester M. Beattie, _John Arbuthnot: Mathematician and Satirist_ (Cambridge, Mass., 1935), p. 311, unqualifiedly rejects Arbuthnot's authorship of this work. But a correspondent to _Notes and Queries_, Sixth Series, VII (1883), 451-452, argues convincingly for the attribution to Arbuthnot.