The mother of Hester Vanhomrigh, known as the Vanessa to Swift's Cadenus. This is the first mention of the family. But henceforward they are constantly named, and SwifPs visits to them are announced without reserve. It may be as well at once to dispose of the fiction that the Vanessa friendship ever interfered with that for Stella. It was a delusion indulged in, with fatal results, by the young woman, for whom Swift had no more than a kindly interest. It has been asserted, without grounds, that the Journal loses its warmth of affection and becomes more stiff, after this Vanhomrigh friendship became fully established. It is true that after May, 1712, the letters are much interrupted, and lose their journalistic form for some months. But this was owing entirely to the severe illness from which Swift then suffered: and after that was past, the letters resume their old form, and their old kindliness of tone.