_A Learned Dissertation on Dumpling_ and its _Key_ (_Pudding and Dumpling Burnt to Pot_) are typical satiric pamphlets which grew out of the political in-fighting of the first half of the eighteenth century. The pamphlets are distinguished by the fact that the author's level of imagination and writing makes them delightful reading even today. In _Dumpling_ the author displays a considerable knowledge of cooks and cookery in London; by insinuating that to love dumpling is to love corruption, he effectively and amusingly achieves satiric indirection against a number of political and social targets, including Walpole. The _Key_ is in many ways a separate pamphlet in which Swift is the central figure under attack after his two secret visits to Walpole during 1726. _Dumpling_ had a long life for an eighteenth-century pamphlet and was published as late as 1770. Dr. F. T. Wood has even suggested that it may have influenced Lamb's _Dissertation on Roast Pig_;[1] readers might wish to test this for themselves.