ABSTRACT
The first reference we have to the composition of Gulliver’s Travels turns up in a letter from Swift. On 15 April 1721 he told Ford, ‘I am now writing a history of my travels, which will be a large volume, and gives account of countries hitherto unknown; but they go on slowly for want of health and humor.’ 1 Swift must have given a general hint to Bolingbroke as well, for in a letter of 1 January 1722 his lordship said, ‘I long to see your travels.’ 2
