—J. H. S. will find this question raised in the The closing Years of Dean Swift's Life, by W. R. Wilde, M.R.I.A.:—
"That Stella was the daughter of Sir Wm. Temple appears more than probable; but that Swift was his son, and consequently her half brother, remains to be proved. It has, it is true, been often surmised, from the date of Orrery's book to the present time, but we cannot discover in the supposition anything but vague conjecture."
Mr. Wilde, however, proceeds to quote in favour of the opinion from an article in The Gentleman's and London Magazine, pp. 555. to 560., Dublin. Printed for John Exshaw, Nov. 1757.
It is signed C. M. P. G. N. S. T. N. S.
†
The Mistletoe (Vol. ii., pp. 163. 214.).
—The mistletoe is common on almost every tree of our Southern forests; it is abundant on all the varieties of the oak, and grows most luxuriously on the trees near our watercourses. I have seen some of our deciduous trees looking almost as green in winter as when clothed in their own foliage in summer, in consequence of the quantity of mistletoe growing upon them.
H. H. B.
Monte Cavallo, South Carolina.