diff options
Diffstat (limited to '4208-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 4208-h/4208-h.htm | 29429 |
1 files changed, 29429 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/4208-h/4208-h.htm b/4208-h/4208-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e6cb95d --- /dev/null +++ b/4208-h/4208-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,29429 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>The Journal to Stella, by Jonathan Swift</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.gutsumm { margin-left: 5%;} + P.poetry {margin-left: 3%; } + .GutSmall { font-size: 0.7em; } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; + color: gray; + } + img { border: none; } + img.dc { float: left; width: 50px; height: 50px; } + p.gutindent { margin-left: 2em; } + div.gapspace { height: 0.8em; } + div.gapline { height: 0.8em; width: 100%; border-top: 1px solid;} + div.gapmediumline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + div.gapmediumdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; + margin-left: 40%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid; } + div.gapdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 50%; + margin-left: 25%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; margin-left:40%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + img.floatleft { float: left; + margin-right: 1em; + margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.floatright { float: right; + margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.clearcenter {display: block; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Journal to Stella, by Jonathan Swift, +Edited by George A. Aitken + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + + + + +Title: The Journal to Stella + + +Author: Jonathan Swift + +Editor: George A. Aitken + +Release Date: April 25, 2015 [eBook #4208] +[This file was first posted on December 6, 2001] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JOURNAL TO STELLA*** +</pre> +<p>This eBook was produced by Les Bowler.</p> +<h1>THE<br /> +JOURNAL TO STELLA</h1> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">BY</span><br +/> +JONATHAN SWIFT</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">EDITED, WITH +INTRODUCTION AND NOTES, BY</span><br /> +GEORGE A. AITKEN</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">METHUEN & CO.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">36 ESSEX STREET W.C.</span><br /> +LONDON<br /> +1901</p> +<h2><a name="pagev"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +v</span>PREFACE</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> history of the publication of +the <i>Journal to Stella</i> is somewhat curious. On +Swift’s death twenty-five of the letters, forming the +closing portion of the series, fell into the hands of Dr. Lyon, a +clergyman who had been in charge of Swift for some years. +The letters passed to a man named Wilkes, who sold them for +publication. They accordingly appeared in 1766 in the tenth +volume of Dr. Hawkesworth’s quarto edition of Swift’s +works; but the editor made many changes in the text, including a +suppression of most of the “little language.” +The publishers, however, fortunately for us, were public-spirited +enough to give the manuscripts (with one exception) to the +British Museum, where, after many years, they were examined by +John Forster, who printed in his unfinished <i>Life of Swift</i> +numerous passages from the originals, showing the manner in which +the text had been tampered with by Hawkesworth. Swift +himself, too, in his later years, obliterated many words and +sentences in the letters, and Forster was able to restore not a +few of these omissions. His zeal, however, sometimes led +him to make guesses at words which are quite +undecipherable. Besides Forster’s work, I have had +the benefit of the careful collation made by Mr. Ryland for his +edition of 1897. Where these authorities differ I have +usually found myself in agreement with Mr. Ryland, but I have +felt justified in accepting some of Forster’s readings +which <a name="pagevi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. vi</span>were +rejected by him as uncertain; and the examination of the +manuscripts has enabled me to make some additions and corrections +of my own. Swift’s writing is extremely small, and +abounds in abbreviations. The difficulty of arriving at the +true reading is therefore considerable, apart from the +erasures.</p> +<p>The remainder of the <i>Journal</i>, consisting of the first +forty letters, was published in 1768 by Deane Swift, Dr. +Swift’s second cousin. These letters had been given +to Mrs. Whiteway in 1788, and by her to her son-in-law, Deane +Swift. The originals have been lost, with the exception of +the first, which, by some accident, is in the British Museum; but +it is evident that Deane Swift took even greater liberties with +the text than Hawkesworth. He substituted for +“Ppt” the word “Stella,” a name which +Swift seems not to have used until some years later; he adopted +the name “Presto” for Swift, and in other ways tried +to give a greater literary finish to the letters. The whole +of the correspondence was first brought together, under the title +of the <i>Journal to Stella</i>, in Sheridan’s edition of +1784.</p> +<p>Previous editions of the <i>Journal</i> have been but slightly +annotated. Swift’s letters abound with allusions to +people of all classes with whom he came in contact in London, and +to others known to Esther Johnson in Ireland; and a large +proportion of these persons have been passed over in discreet +silence by Sir Walter Scott and others. The task of the +annotator has, of course, been made easier of late years by the +publication of contemporary journals and letters, and of useful +works of reference dealing with Parliament, the Army, the Church, +the Civil Service, and the like, besides the invaluable +<i>Dictionary of National Biography</i>. I have also been +assisted by a collection of MS. notes kindly placed at my +disposal by Mr. Thomas <a name="pagevii"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. vii</span>Seccombe. I have aimed at +brevity and relevance, but it is hoped that the reader will find +all the information that is necessary. Here and there a +name has baffled research, but I have been able to give definite +particulars of a very large number of people—noblemen and +ladies in society in London or Dublin, Members of Parliament, +doctors, clergymen, Government officials, and others who have +hitherto been but names to the reader of the +<i>Journal</i>. Where there is no reference at the foot of +the page, the note upon any person alluded to can readily be +found by consulting the Index. I have corrected a good many +errors in the older notes, but in dealing with so large a number +of persons, some of whom it is difficult to identify, I cannot +hope that I myself have escaped pitfalls.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">G. A. A.</p> +<h2><a name="pageix"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +ix</span>INTRODUCTION</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">When</span> Swift began to write the +letters known as the <i>Journal to Stella</i>, he was forty-two +years of age, and Esther Johnson twenty-nine. Perhaps the +most useful introduction to the correspondence will be a brief +setting forth of what is known of their friendship from +Stella’s childhood, the more specially as the question has +been obscured by many assertions and theories resting on a very +slender basis of fact.</p> +<p>Jonathan Swift, born in 1667 after his father’s death, +was educated by his uncle Godwin, and after a not very successful +career at Trinity College, Dublin, went to stay with his mother, +Abigail Erick, at Leicester. Mrs. Swift feared that her son +would fall in love with a girl named Betty Jones, but, as Swift +told a friend, he had had experience enough “not to think +of marriage till I settle my fortune in the world, which I am +sure will not be in some years; and even then, I am so hard to +please that I suppose I shall put it off to the other +world.” Soon afterwards an opening for Swift +presented itself. Sir William Temple, now living in +retirement at Moor Park, near Farnham, had been, like his father, +Master of the Irish Rolls, and had thus become acquainted with +Swift’s uncle Godwin. Moreover, Lady Temple was +related to Mrs. Swift, as Lord Orrery tells us. Thanks to +these facts, the application to Sir William Temple was +successful, and Swift went to live at Moor Park before the end of +1689. There he <a name="pagex"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +x</span>read to Temple, wrote for him, and kept his accounts, and +growing into confidence with his employer, “was often +trusted with matters of great importance.” The +story—afterwards improved upon by Lord Macaulay—that +Swift received only £20 and his board, and was not allowed +to sit at table with his master, is wholly untrustworthy. +Within three years of their first intercourse, Temple had +introduced his secretary to William the Third, and sent him to +London to urge the King to consent to a bill for triennial +Parliaments.</p> +<p>When Swift took up his residence at Moor Park he found there a +little girl of eight, daughter of a merchant named Edward +Johnson, who had died young. Swift says that Esther Johnson +was born on March 18, 1681; in the parish register of Richmond, +<a name="citation0a"></a><a href="#footnote0a" +class="citation">[0a]</a> which shows that she was baptized on +March 20, 1680–81, her name is given as Hester; but she +signed her will “Esther,” the name by which she was +always known. Swift says, “Her father was a younger +brother of a good family in Nottinghamshire, her mother of a +lower degree; and indeed she had little to boast in her +birth.” Mrs. Johnson had two children, Esther and +Ann, and lived at Moor Park as companion to Lady Giffard, +Temple’s widowed sister. Another member of the +household, afterwards to be Esther’s constant companion, +was Rebecca Dingley, a relative of the Temple family. <a +name="citation0b"></a><a href="#footnote0b" +class="citation">[0b]</a> She was a year or two older than +Swift.</p> +<p>The lonely young man of twenty-two was both playfellow and +teacher of the delicate child of eight. How he taught her +to write has been charmingly brought before us in the painting +exhibited by Miss Dicksee at the Royal <a name="pagexi"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. xi</span>Academy a few years ago; he advised +her what books to read, and instructed her, as he says, “in +the principles of honour and virtue, from which she never swerved +in any one action or moment of her life.”</p> +<p>By 1694 Swift had grown tired of his position, and finding +that Temple, who valued his services, was slow in finding him +preferment, he left Moor Park in order to carry out his resolve +to go into the Church. He was ordained, and obtained the +prebend of Kilroot, near Belfast, where he carried on a +flirtation with a Miss Waring, whom he called Varina. But +in May 1696 Temple made proposals which induced Swift to return +to Moor Park, where he was employed in preparing Temple’s +memoirs and correspondence for publication, and in supporting the +side taken by Temple in the Letters of Phalaris controversy by +writing <i>The Battle of the Books</i>, which was, however, not +published until 1704. On his return to Temple’s +house, Swift found his old playmate grown from a sickly child +into a girl of fifteen, in perfect health. She came, he +says, to be “looked upon as one of the most beautiful, +graceful, and agreeable young women in London, only a little too +fat. Her hair was blacker than a raven, and every feature +of her face in perfection.”</p> +<p>On his death in January 1699, Temple left a will, <a +name="citation0c"></a><a href="#footnote0c" +class="citation">[0c]</a> dated 1694, directing the payment of +£20 each, with half a year’s wages, to Bridget +Johnson “and all my other servants”; and leaving a +lease of some land in Monistown, County Wicklow, to Esther +Johnson, “servant to my sister Giffard.” By a +codicil of February 1698, Temple left £100 to “Mr. +Jonathan Swift, now living with me.” It may be added +that by her will of 1722, proved in the following year, Lady +Giffard gave £20 to Mrs. Moss—Mrs. Bridget Johnson, +who had married Richard Mose or <a name="pagexii"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. xii</span>Moss, Lady Giffard’s +steward. The will proceeds: “To Mrs. Hester +(<i>sic</i>) Johnson I give £10, with the £100 I put +into the Exchequer for her life and my own, and declare the +£100 to be hers which I am told is there in my name upon +the survivorship, and for which she has constantly sent over her +certificate and received the interest. I give her besides +my two little silver candlesticks.”</p> +<p>Temple left in Swift’s hands the task of publishing his +posthumous works, a duty which afterwards led to a quarrel with +Lady Giffard and other members of the family. Many years +later Swift told Lord Palmerston that he stopped at Moor Park +solely for the benefit of Temple’s conversation and advice, +and the opportunity of pursuing his studies. At +Temple’s death he was “as far to seek as +ever.” In the summer of 1699, however, he was offered +and accepted the post of secretary and chaplain to the Earl of +Berkeley, one of the Lords Justices, but when he reached Ireland +he found that the secretaryship had been given to another. +He soon, however, obtained the living of Laracor, Agher, and +Rathbeggan, and the prebend of Dunlavin in St. Patrick’s +Cathedral, Dublin. The total value of these preferments was +about £230 a year, an income which Miss Waring seems to +have thought enough to justify him in marrying. +Swift’s reply to the lady whom he had “singled out at +first from the rest of women” could only have been written +with the intention of breaking off the connection, and +accordingly we hear no more of poor Varina.</p> +<p>At Laracor, a mile or two from Trim, and twenty miles from +Dublin, Swift ministered to a congregation of about fifteen +persons, and had abundant leisure for cultivating his garden, +making a canal (after the Dutch fashion of Moor Park), planting +willows, and rebuilding the vicarage. <a +name="pagexiii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xiii</span>As +chaplain to Lord Berkeley, he spent much of his time in +Dublin. He was on intimate terms with Lady Berkeley and her +daughters, one of whom is best known by her married name of Lady +Betty Germaine; and through them he had access to the fashionable +society of Dublin. When Lord Berkeley returned to England +in April 1701, Swift, after taking his Doctor’s degree at +Dublin, went with him, and soon afterwards published, +anonymously, a political pamphlet, <i>A Discourse on the Contests +and Dissentions in Athens and Rome</i>. When he returned to +Ireland in September he was accompanied by Stella—to give +Esther Johnson the name by which she is best known—and her +friend Mrs. Dingley. Stella’s fortune was about +£1500, and the property Temple had left her was in County +Wicklow. Swift, very much for his “own satisfaction, +who had few friends or acquaintance in Ireland,” persuaded +Stella—now twenty years old—that living was cheaper +there than in England, and that a better return was obtainable on +money. The ladies took his advice, and made Ireland their +home. At first they felt themselves strangers in Dublin; +“the adventure looked so like a frolic,” Swift says, +“the censure held for some time as if there were a secret +history in such a removal: which however soon blew off by her +excellent conduct.” Swift took every step that was +possible to avoid scandal. When he was away, the ladies +occupied his rooms; when he returned, they went into their own +lodgings. When he was absent, they often stopped at the +vicarage at Laracor, but if he were there, they moved to Trim, +where they visited the vicar, Dr. Raymond, or lived in lodgings +in the town or neighbourhood. Swift was never with Stella +except in the presence of a third person, and in 1726 he said +that he had not seen her in a morning “these dozen years, +except once or twice in a journey.”</p> +<p><a name="pagexiv"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +xiv</span>During a visit to England in the winter of 1703–4 +we find Swift in correspondence with the Rev. William Tisdall, a +Dublin incumbent whom he had formerly known at Belfast. +Tisdall was on friendly terms with Stella and Mrs. Dingley, and +Swift sent messages to them through him. “Pray put +them upon reading,” he wrote, “and be always teaching +something to Mrs. Johnson, because she is good at comprehending, +remembering and retaining.” But the correspondence +soon took a different turn. Tisdall paid his addresses to +Stella, and charged Swift with opposing his suit. +Tisdall’s letters are missing, but Swift’s reply of +April 20, 1704, puts things sufficiently clearly. “My +conjecture is,” he says, “that you think I obstructed +your inclinations to please my own, and that my intentions were +the same with yours. In answer to all which I will, upon my +conscience and honour, tell you the naked truth. First, I +think I have said to you before that, if my fortunes and humour +served me to think of that state, I should certainly, among all +persons upon earth, make your choice; because I never saw that +person whose conversation I entirely valued but hers; this was +the utmost I ever gave way to. And secondly, I must assure +you sincerely that this regard of mine never once entered into my +head to be an impediment to you.” He had thought +Tisdall not rich enough to marry; “but the objection of +your fortune being removed, I declare I have no other; nor shall +any consideration of my own misfortune, in losing so good a +friend and companion as her, prevail on me, against her interest +and settlement in the world, since it is held so necessary and +convenient a thing for ladies to marry, and that time takes off +from the lustre of virgins in all other eyes but mine. I +appeal to my letters to herself whether I was your friend or not +in the whole concern, though the part I designed to act in it was +<a name="pagexv"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xv</span>purely +passive.” He had even thought “it could not be +decently broken,” without disadvantage to the lady’s +credit, since he supposed it was known to the town; and he had +always spoken of her in a manner far from discouraging. +Though he knew many ladies of rank, he had “nowhere met +with an humour, a wit, or conversation so agreeable, a better +portion of good sense, or a truer judgment of men or +things.” He envied Tisdall his prudence and temper, +and love of peace and settlement, “the reverse of which has +been the great uneasiness of my life, and is likely to continue +so.”</p> +<p>This letter has been quoted at some length because of its +great importance. It is obviously capable of various +interpretations, and some, like Dr. Johnson, have concluded that +Swift was resolved to keep Stella in his power, and therefore +prevented an advantageous match by making unreasonable +demands. I cannot see any ground for this interpretation, +though it is probable that Tisdall’s appearance as a suitor +was sufficiently annoying. There is no evidence that Stella +viewed Tisdall’s proposal with any favour, unless it can be +held to be furnished by Swift’s belief that the town +thought—rightly or wrongly—that there was an +engagement. In any case, there could be no mistake in +future with regard to Swift’s attitude towards +Stella. She was dearer to him than anyone else, and his +feeling for her would not change, but for marriage he had neither +fortune nor humour. Tisdall consoled himself by marrying +another lady two years afterwards; and though for a long time +Swift entertained for him feelings of dislike, in later life +their relations improved, and Tisdall was one of the witnesses to +Swift’s will.</p> +<p>The <i>Tale of a Tub</i> was published in 1704, and Swift was +soon in constant intercourse with Addison and the other +wits. While he was in England in 1705, Stella and <a +name="pagexvi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xvi</span>Mrs. +Dingley made a short visit to London. This and a similar +visit in 1708 are the only occasions on which Stella is known to +have left Ireland after taking up her residence in that +country. Swift’s influence over women was always very +striking. Most of the toasts of the day were his friends, +and he insisted that any lady of wit and quality who desired his +acquaintance should make the first advances. This, he +says—writing in 1730—had been an established rule for +over twenty years. In 1708 a dispute on this question with +one toast, Mrs. Long, was referred for settlement to Ginckel +Vanhomrigh, the son of the house where it was proposed that the +meeting should take place; and by the decision—which was in +Swift’s favour—“Mrs. Vanhomrigh and her fair +daughter Hessy” were forbidden to aid Mrs. Long in her +disobedience for the future. This is the first that we hear +of Hester or Esther Vanhomrigh, who was afterwards to play so +marked a part in the story of Swift’s life. Born on +February 14, 1690, she was now eighteen. Her father, +Bartholomew Vanhomrigh, a Dublin merchant of Dutch origin, had +died in 1703, leaving his wife a fortune of some sixteen thousand +pounds. On the income from this money Mrs. Vanhomrigh, with +her two daughters, Hester and Mary, were able to mix in +fashionable society in London. Swift was introduced to them +by Sir Andrew Fountaine early in 1708, but evidently Stella did +not make their acquaintance, nor indeed hear much, if anything, +of them until the time of the <i>Journal</i>.</p> +<p>Swift’s visit to London in 1707–9 had for its +object the obtaining for the Irish Church of the surrender by the +Crown of the First-Fruits and Twentieths, which brought in about +£2500 a year. Nothing came of Swift’s +interviews with the Whig statesmen, and after many +disappointments he returned to Laracor (June 1709), and conversed +with <a name="pagexvii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +xvii</span>none but Stella and her card-playing friends, and +Addison, now secretary to Lord Wharton. <a +name="citation0d"></a><a href="#footnote0d" +class="citation">[0d]</a> Next year came the fall of the +Whigs, and a request to Swift from the Irish bishops that he +would renew the application for the First-Fruits, in the hope +that there would be greater success with the Tories. Swift +reached London in September 1710, and began the series of +letters, giving details of the events of each day, which now form +the <i>Journal to Stella</i>. “I will write something +every day to MD,” he says, “and make it a sort of +journal; and when it is full I will send it, whether MD writes or +no; and so that will be pretty; and I shall always be in +conversation with MD, and MD with Presto.” It is +interesting to note that by way of caution these letters were +usually addressed to Mrs. Dingley, and not to Stella.</p> +<p>The story of Swift’s growing intimacy with the Tory +leaders, of the success of his mission, of the increasing +coolness towards older acquaintances, and of his services to the +Government, can best be read in the <i>Journal</i> itself. +In the meantime the intimacy with the Vanhomrighs grew +rapidly. They were near neighbours of Swift’s, and in +a few weeks after his arrival in town we find frequent allusions +to the dinners at their house (where he kept his best gown and +periwig), sometimes with the explanation that he went there +“out of mere listlessness,” or because it was wet, or +because another engagement had broken down. Only thrice +does he mention the “eldest daughter”: once on her +birthday; once on the occasion of a trick played him, when he +received a message that she was suddenly very ill (“I +rattled off the daughter”); and once to state that she was +come of age, and was going to Ireland to look after her +fortune. There is evidence <a name="pagexviii"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. xviii</span>that “Miss Essy,” or +Vanessa, to give her the name by which she will always be known, +was in correspondence with Swift in July 1710—while he was +still in Ireland—and in the spring of 1711; <a +name="citation0e"></a><a href="#footnote0e" +class="citation">[0e]</a> and early in 1711 Stella seems to have +expressed surprise at Swift’s intimacy with the family, for +in February he replied, “You say they are of no +consequence; why, they keep as good female company as I do male; +I see all the drabs of quality at this end of the town with +them.” In the autumn Swift seems to have thought that +Vanessa was keeping company with a certain Hatton, but Mrs. +Long—possibly meaning to give him a warning +hint—remarked that if this were so “she is not the +girl I took her for; but to me she seems melancholy.”</p> +<p>In 1712 occasional letters took the place of the daily journal +to “MD,” but there is no change in the affectionate +style in which Swift wrote. In the spring he had a long +illness, which affected him, indeed, throughout the year. +Other reasons which he gives for the falling off in his +correspondence are his numerous business engagements, and the +hope of being able to send some good news of an appointment for +himself. There is only one letter to Stella between July 19 +and September 15, and Dr. Birkbeck Hill argues that the poem +“Cadenus and Vanessa” was composed at that time. <a +name="citation0f"></a><a href="#footnote0f" +class="citation">[0f]</a> If this be so, it must have been +altered next year, because it was not until 1713 that Swift was +made a Dean. Writing on April 19, 1726, Swift said that the +poem “was written at Windsor near fourteen years ago, and +dated: it was a task performed on a frolic among some ladies, and +she it was addressed to died some time ago in Dublin, and on her +death the copy shewn by her executor.” Several copies +were in circulation, <a name="pagexix"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. xix</span>and he was indifferent what was done +with it; it was “only a cavalier business,” and if +those who would not give allowances were malicious, it was only +what he had long expected.</p> +<p>From this letter it would appear that this remarkable poem was +written in the summer of 1712; whereas the title-page of the +pamphlet says it was “written at Windsor, +1713.” Swift visited Windsor in both years, but he +had more leisure in 1712, and we know that Vanessa was also at +Windsor in that year. In that year, too, he was forty-four, +the age mentioned in the poem. Neither Swift nor Vanessa +forgot this intercourse: years afterwards Swift wrote to her, +“Go over the scenes of Windsor. . . . Cad thinks +often of these”; and again, “Remember the +indisposition at Windsor.” We know that this poem was +revised in 1719, when in all probability Swift added the lines to +which most exception can be taken. Cadenus was to be +Vanessa’s instructor:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“His conduct might have made him styled<br +/> +A father, and the nymph his child.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>He had “grown old in politics and wit,” and +“in every scene had kept his heart,” so that he now +“understood not what was love.” But he had +written much, and Vanessa admired his wit. Cadenus found +that her thoughts wandered—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Though she seemed to listen more<br /> +To all he spoke than e’er before.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>When she confessed her love, he was filled with “shame, +disappointment, guilt, surprise.” He had aimed only +at cultivating the mind, and had hardly known whether she was +young or old. But he was flattered, and though he could not +give her love, he offered her friendship, “with <a +name="pagexx"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xx</span>gratitude, +respect, esteem.” Vanessa took him at his word, and +said she would now be tutor, though he was not apt to +learn:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“But what success Vanessa met<br /> +Is to the world a secret yet.<br /> +Whether the nymph to please her swain<br /> +Talks in a high romantic strain;<br /> +Or whether he at last descends<br /> +To act with less seraphic ends;<br /> +Or, to compound the business, whether<br /> +They temper love and books together,<br /> +Must never to mankind be told,<br /> +Nor shall the conscious Muse unfold.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Such is the poem as we now have it, written, it must be +remembered, for Vanessa’s private perusal. It is to +be regretted, for her own sake, that she did not destroy it.</p> +<p>Swift received the reward of his services to the +Government—the Deanery of St. Patrick’s, +Dublin—in April 1713. Disappointed at what he +regarded as exile, he left London in June. Vanessa +immediately began to send him letters which brought home to him +the extent of her passion; and she hinted at jealousy in the +words, “If you are very happy, it is ill-natured of you not +to tell me so, except ’tis what is inconsistent with my +own.” In his reply Swift dwelt upon the dreariness of +his surroundings at Laracor, and reminded her that he had said he +would endeavour to forget everything in England, and would write +as seldom as he could.</p> +<p>Swift was back again in the political strife in London in +September, taking Oxford’s part in the quarrel between that +statesman and Bolingbroke. On the fall of the Tories at the +death of Queen Anne, he saw that all was over, and retired to +Ireland, not to return again for twelve years. In the +meantime the intimacy with Vanessa had been renewed. Her +mother had died, leaving debts, and she <a +name="pagexxi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xxi</span>pressed +Swift for advice in the management of her affairs. When she +suggested coming to Ireland, where she had property, he told her +that if she took this step he would “see her very +seldom.” However, she took up her abode at Celbridge, +only a few miles from Dublin. Swift gave her many cautions, +out of “the perfect esteem and friendship” he felt +for her, but he often visited her. She was dissatisfied, +however, begging him to speak kindly, and at least to counterfeit +his former indulgent friendship. “What can be +wrong,” she wrote, “in seeing and advising an unhappy +young woman? You cannot but know that your frowns make my +life unsupportable.” Sometimes he treated the matter +lightly; sometimes he showed annoyance; sometimes he assured her +of his esteem and love, but urged her not to make herself or him +“unhappy by imaginations.” He was uniformly +unsuccessful in stopping Vanessa’s importunity. He +endeavoured, she said, by severities to force her from him; she +knew she was the cause of uneasy reflections to him; but nothing +would lessen her “inexpressible passion.”</p> +<p>Unfortunately he failed—partly no doubt from mistaken +considerations of kindness, partly because he shrank from losing +her affection—to take effective steps to put an end to +Vanessa’s hopes. It would have been better if he had +unhesitatingly made it clear to her that he could not return her +passion, and that if she could not be satisfied with friendship +the intimacy must cease. To quote Sir Henry Craik, +“The friendship had begun in literary guidance: it was +strengthened by flattery: it lived on a cold and almost stern +repression, fed by confidences as to literary schemes, and by +occasional literary compliments: but it never came to have a real +hold over Swift’s heart.”</p> +<p>With 1716 we come to the alleged marriage with Stella. +In 1752, seven years after Swift’s death, Lord Orrery, in +<a name="pagexxii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xxii</span>his +<i>Remarks</i> on Swift, said that Stella was “the +concealed, but undoubted, wife of Dr. Swift. . . . If my +informations are right, she was married to Dr. Swift in the year +1716, by Dr. Ashe, then Bishop of Clogher.” Ten years +earlier, in 1742, in a letter to Deane Swift which I have not +seen quoted before, Orrery spoke of the advantage of a wife to a +man in his declining years; “nor had the Dean felt a blow, +or wanted a companion, had he been married, or, in other words, +had Stella lived.” What this means is not at all +clear. In 1754, Dr. Delany, an old friend of Swift’s, +wrote, in comment upon Orrery’s <i>Remarks</i>, “Your +account of his marriage is, I am satisfied, true.” In +1789, George Monck Berkeley, in his <i>Literary Relics</i>, said +that Swift and Stella were married by Dr. Ashe, “who +himself related the circumstances to Bishop Berkeley, by whose +relict the story was communicated to me.” Dr. Ashe +cannot have told Bishop Berkeley by word of mouth, because Ashe +died in 1717, the year after the supposed marriage, and Berkeley +was then still abroad. But Berkeley was at the time tutor +to Ashe’s son, and may therefore have been informed by +letter, though it is difficult to believe that Ashe would write +about such a secret so soon after the event. Thomas +Sheridan, on information received from his father, Dr. Sheridan, +Swift’s friend, accepted the story of the marriage in his +book (1784), adding particulars which are of very doubtful +authenticity; and Johnson, in his <i>Lives of the Poets</i>, says +that Dr. Madden told him that Stella had related her +“melancholy story” to Dr. Sheridan before her +death. On the other hand, Dr. Lyon, Swift’s attendant +in his later years, disbelieved the story of the marriage, which +was, he said, “founded only on hearsay”; and Mrs. +Dingley “laughed at it as an idle tale,” founded on +suspicion.</p> +<p>Sir Henry Craik is satisfied with the evidence for the +marriage. Mr. Leslie Stephen is of opinion that it is in<a +name="pagexxiii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +xxiii</span>conclusive, and Forster could find no evidence that +is at all reasonably sufficient; while Mr. Stanley Lane-Poole, +Mr. Churton Collins, and others are strongly of opinion that no +such marriage ever took place. A full discussion of the +evidence would involve the consideration of the reliability of +the witnesses, and the probability of their having authentic +information, and would be out of place here. My own opinion +is that the evidence for the marriage is very far from +convincing, and this view seems to be confirmed by all that we +know from his own letters of Swift’s relations with +Stella. It has been suggested that she was pained by +reports of Swift’s intercourse with Vanessa, and felt that +his feelings towards herself were growing colder; but this is +surmise, and no satisfactory explanation has been given to +account for a form of marriage being gone through after so many +years of the closest friendship. There is no reason to +suppose that there was at the time any gossip in circulation +about Stella, and if her reputation was in question, a marriage +of which the secret was carefully kept would obviously be of no +benefit to her. Moreover, we are told that there was no +change in their mode of life; if they were married, what reason +could there be for keeping it a secret, or for denying themselves +the closer relationship of marriage? The only possible +benefit to Stella was that Swift would be prevented marrying +anyone else. It is impossible, of course, to disprove a +marriage which we are told was secretly performed, without banns +or licence or witnesses; but we may reasonably require strong +evidence for so startling a step. If we reject the tale, +the story of Swift’s connection with Stella is at least +intelligible; while the acceptance of this marriage introduces +many puzzling circumstances, and makes it necessary to believe +that during the remainder of Stella’s life Swift repeatedly +spoke of his wife as a friend, and of himself as one who had +never <a name="pagexxiv"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +xxiv</span>married. <a name="citation0g"></a><a +href="#footnote0g" class="citation">[0g]</a> What right +have we to put aside Swift’s plain and repeated +statements? Moreover, his attitude towards Vanessa for the +remaining years of her life becomes much more culpable if we are +to believe that he had given Stella the claim of a wife upon him. +<a name="citation0h"></a><a href="#footnote0h" +class="citation">[0h]</a></p> +<p>From 1719 onwards we have a series of poems to Stella, written +chiefly in celebration of her birthday. She was now +thirty-eight (Swift says, “Thirty-four—we +shan’t dispute a year or more”), and the verses +abound in laughing allusions to her advancing years and wasting +form. Hers was “an angel’s face a little +cracked,” but all men would crowd to her door when she was +fourscore. His verses to her had always been</p> +<blockquote><p>“Without one word of Cupid’s darts,<br +/> +Of killing eyes, or bleeding hearts;<br /> +With friendship and esteem possessed,<br /> +I ne’er admitted Love a guest.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Her only fault was that she could not bear the lightest touch +of blame. Her wit and sense, her loving care in +illness—to which he owed that fact that he was alive to say +it—made her the “best pattern of true +friends.” She replied, in lines written on +Swift’s birthday in 1721, that she was his pupil and humble +friend. He had trained her judgment and refined her fancy +and taste:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“You taught how I might youth prolong<br /> +By knowing what was right and wrong;<br /> +How from my heart to bring supplies<br /> +Of lustre to my fading eyes;<br /> +<a name="pagexxv"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xxv</span>How soon +a beauteous mind repairs<br /> +The loss of changed or falling hairs;<br /> +How wit and virtue from within<br /> +Send out a smoothness o’er the skin<br /> +Your lectures could my fancy fix,<br /> +And I can please at thirty-six.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In 1723 Vanessa is said to have written to Stella or to +Swift—there are discrepancies in the versions given by +Sheridan and Lord Orrery, both of whom are +unreliable—asking whether the report that they were married +was true. Swift, we are told, rode to Celbridge, threw down +Vanessa’s letter in a great rage, and left without speaking +a word. <a name="citation0i"></a><a href="#footnote0i" +class="citation">[0i]</a> Vanessa, whose health had been +failing for some time, died shortly afterwards, having cancelled +a will in Swift’s favour. She left “Cadenus and +Vanessa” for publication, and when someone said that she +must have been a remarkable woman to inspire such a poem, Stella +replied that it was well known that the Dean could write finely +upon a broomstick.</p> +<p>Soon after this tragedy Swift became engrossed in the Irish +agitation which led to the publication of the <i>Drapier’s +Letters</i>, and in 1726 he paid a long-deferred visit to London, +taking with him the manuscript of <i>Gulliver’s +Travels</i>. While in England he was harassed by bad news +of Stella, who had been in continued ill-health for some +years. His letters to friends in Dublin show how greatly he +suffered. To the Rev. John Worrall he wrote, in a letter +which he begged him to burn, “What you tell <a +name="pagexxvi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xxvi</span>me of +Mrs. Johnson I have long expected with great oppression and +heaviness of heart. We have been perfect friends these +thirty-five years. Upon my advice they both came to +Ireland, and have been ever since my constant companions; and the +remainder of my life will be a very melancholy scene, when one of +them is gone, whom I most esteemed, upon the score of every good +quality that can possibly recommend a human +creature.” He would not for the world be present at +her death: “I should be a trouble to her, and a torment to +myself.” If Stella came to Dublin, he begged that she +might be lodged in some airy, healthy part, and not in the +Deanery, where too it would be improper for her to die. +“There is not a greater folly,” he thinks, +“than to contract too great and intimate a friendship, +which must always leave the survivor miserable.” To +Dr. Stopford he wrote in similar terms of the “younger of +the two” “oldest and dearest friends I have in the +world.” “This was a person of my own rearing +and instructing from childhood, who excelled in every good +quality that can possibly accomplish a human creature. . . +. I know not what I am saying; but believe me that violent +friendship is much more lasting and as much engaging as violent +love.” To Dr. Sheridan he said, “I look upon +this to be the greatest event that can ever happen to me; but all +my preparation will not suffice to make me bear it like a +philosopher nor altogether like a Christian. There hath +been the most intimate friendship between us from our childhood, +and the greatest merit on her side that ever was in one human +creature towards another.” <a name="citation0j"></a><a +href="#footnote0j" class="citation">[0j]</a> Pope alludes +in a letter to Sheridan to the illness of Swift’s +“particular friend,” but with the <a +name="pagexxvii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +xxvii</span>exception of another reference by Pope, and of a +curiously flippant remark by Bolingbroke, the subject is nowhere +mentioned in Swift’s correspondence with his literary and +fashionable friends in London.</p> +<p>Swift crossed to Ireland in August, fearing the worst; but +Stella rallied, and in the spring of 1727 he returned to +London. In August, however, there came alarming news, when +Swift was himself suffering from giddiness and deafness. To +Dr. Sheridan he wrote that the last act of life was always a +tragedy at best: “it is a bitter aggravation to have +one’s best friend go before one.” Life was +indifferent to him; if he recovered from his disorder it would +only be to feel the loss of “that person for whose sake +only life was worth preserving. I brought both those +friends over that we might be happy together as long as God +should please; the knot is broken, and the remaining person you +know has ill answered the end; and the other, who is now to be +lost, is all that was valuable.” To Worrall he again +wrote (in Latin) that Stella ought not to be lodged at the +Deanery; he had enemies who would place a bad interpretation upon +it if she died there.</p> +<p>Swift left London for Dublin in September; he was detained +some days at Holyhead by stress of weather, and in the private +journal which he kept during that time he speaks of the suspense +he was in about his “dearest friend.” <a +name="citation0k"></a><a href="#footnote0k" +class="citation">[0k]</a> In December Stella made a +will—signed “Esther Johnson, +spinster”—disposing of her property in the manner +Swift had suggested. Her allusions to Swift are +incompatible with any such feeling of resentment as is suggested +by Sheridan. She died on January 28, 1728. Swift +could <a name="pagexxviii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +xxviii</span>not bear to be present, but on the night of her +death he began to write his very interesting <i>Character of Mrs. +Johnson</i>, from which passages have already been quoted. +He there calls her “the truest, most virtuous and valuable +friend that I, or perhaps any other person, was ever blessed +with.” Combined with excellent gifts of the mind, +“she had a gracefulness, somewhat more than human, in every +motion, word, and action. Never was so happy a conjunction +of civility, freedom, easiness, and sincerity.” +Everyone treated her with marked respect, yet everyone was at +ease in her society. She preserved her wit, judgment, and +vivacity to the last, but often complained of her memory. +She chose men rather than women for her companions, “the +usual topic of ladies’ discourse being such as she had +little knowledge of and less relish.” “Honour, +truth, liberality, good nature, and modesty were the virtues she +chiefly possessed, and most valued in her +acquaintance.” In some Prayers used by Swift during +her last sickness, he begged for pity for “the mournful +friends of Thy distressed servant, who sink under the weight of +her present condition, and the fear of losing the most valuable +of our friends.” He was too ill to be present at the +funeral at St. Patrick’s. Afterwards, we are told, a +lock of her hair was found in his desk, wrapped in a paper +bearing the words, “Only a woman’s hair.”</p> +<p>Swift continued to produce pamphlets manifesting growing +misanthropy, though he showed many kindnesses to people who stood +in need of help. He seems to have given Mrs. Dingley fifty +guineas a year, pretending that it came from a fund for which he +was trustee. The mental decay which he had always +feared—“I shall be like that tree,” he once +said, “I shall die at the top”—became marked +about 1738. Paralysis was followed by aphasia, and after +acute pain, followed by a long period of apathy, death <a +name="pagexxix"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xxix</span>relieved +him in October 1745. He was buried by Stella’s side, +in accordance with his wishes. The bulk of his fortune was +left to found a hospital for idiots and lunatics.</p> +<p>There has been much rather fruitless discussion respecting the +reason or reasons why Swift did not marry Stella; for if there +was any marriage, it was nothing more than a form. Some +have supposed that Swift resolved to remain unmarried because the +insanity of an uncle and the fits and giddiness to which he was +always subject led him to fear insanity in his own case. +Others, looking rather to physical causes, have dwelt upon his +coldness of temperament and indisposition to love; upon the +repugnance he often showed towards marriage, and the tone of some +of the verses on the subject written in his later years. +Others, again, have found a cause in his parsimonious habits, in +his dread of poverty, the effects of which he had himself felt, +and in the smallness of his income, at least until he was +middle-aged. <a name="citation0l"></a><a href="#footnote0l" +class="citation">[0l]</a> It may well be that one or all of +these things influenced Swift’s action. We cannot say +more. He himself, as we have seen, said, as early as 1704, +that if his humour and means had permitted him to think of +marriage, his choice would have been Stella. Perhaps, +however, there is not much mystery in the matter. Swift +seems to have been wanting in passion; probably he was satisfied +with the affection which Stella gave him, and did not wish for +more. Such an attachment as his usually results in +marriage, but not necessarily. It is not sufficiently +remembered that the affection began in Stella’s +childhood. They were “perfect friends” for +nearly forty years, and her advancing years in no way lessened +his love, which was independent of beauty. <a +name="pagexxx"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xxx</span>Whether +Stella was satisfied, who shall say? Mrs. Oliphant thought +that few women would be disposed to pity Stella, or think her +life one of blight or injury. Mr. Leslie Stephen says, +“She might and probably did regard his friendship as a full +equivalent for the sacrifice. . . . Is it better to be the +most intimate friend of a man of genius or the wife of a +commonplace Tisdall?” Whatever we may surmise, there +is nothing to prove that she was disappointed. She was the +one star which brightened Swift’s storm-tossed course; it +is well that she was spared seeing the wreck at the end.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p>The <i>Journal to Stella</i> is interesting from many points +of view: for its bearing upon Swift’s relations with Stella +and upon his own character; for the light which it throws upon +the history of the time and upon prominent men of the day; and +for the illustrations it contains of the social life of people of +various classes in London and elsewhere. The fact that it +was written without any thought of publication is one of its +greatest attractions. Swift jotted down his opinions, his +hopes, his disappointments, without thought of their being seen +by anybody but his correspondents. The letters are +transparently natural. It has been said more than once that +the <i>Journal</i>, by the nature of the case, contains no +full-length portraits, and hardly any sketches. Swift +mentions the people he met, but rarely stops to draw a picture of +them. But though this is true, the casual remarks which he +makes often give a vivid impression of what he thought of the +person of whom he is speaking, and in many cases those few words +form a chief part of our general estimate of the man. There +are but few people of note at the time who are not mentioned in +these pages. We see Queen Anne holding a Drawing-room in +her bedroom: “she looked at us round with her fan in her +mouth, <a name="pagexxxi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +xxxi</span>and once a minute said about three words to some that +were nearest her.” We see Harley, afterwards the Earl +of Oxford, “a pure trifler,” who was always putting +off important business; Bolingbroke, “a thorough +rake”; the prudent Lord Dartmouth, the other Secretary of +State, from whom Swift could never “work out a +dinner.” There is Marlborough, “covetous as +Hell, and ambitious as the prince of it,” yet a great +general and unduly pressed by the Tories; and the volatile Earl +of Peterborough, “above fifty, and as active as one of +five-and-twenty”—“the ramblingest lying rogue +on earth.” We meet poor Congreve, nearly blind, and +in fear of losing his commissionership; the kindly Arbuthnot, the +Queen’s physician; Addison, whom Swift met more and more +rarely, busy with the preparation and production of <i>Cato</i>; +Steele, careless as ever, neglecting important appointments, and +“governed by his wife most abominably”; Prior, poet +and diplomatist, with a “lean carcass”; and young +Berkeley of Trinity College, Dublin, “a very ingenious man +and great philosopher,” whom Swift determined to favour as +much as he could. Mrs. Masham, the Duchess of Somerset, the +Duchess of Shrewsbury, the Duchess of Hamilton, Lady Betty +Germaine, and many other ladies appear with more or less +distinctness; besides a host of people of less note, of whom we +often know little but what Swift tells us.</p> +<p>Swift throws much light, too, on the daily life of his +time. The bellman on his nightly rounds, calling +“Paaast twelvvve o’clock”; the dinner at three, +or at the latest, four; the meetings at coffee-houses; the +book-sales; the visit to the London sights—the lions at the +Tower, Bedlam, the tombs in Westminster Abbey, and the +puppet-show; the terrible Mohocks, of whom Swift stood in so much +fear; the polite “howdees” sent to friends by +footmen; these <a name="pagexxxii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +xxxii</span>and more are all described in the +<i>Journal</i>. We read of curious habits and practices of +fashionable ladies; of the snuff used by Mrs. Dingley and others; +of the jokes—“bites,” puns, and the +like—indulged in by polite persons. When Swift lodged +at Chelsea, he reached London either by boat, or by +coach,—which was sometimes full when he wanted it,—or +by walking across the “Five Fields,” not without fear +of robbers at night. The going to or from Ireland was a +serious matter; after the long journey by road came the voyage +(weather permitting) of some fifteen hours, with the risk of +being seized or pursued by French privateers; and when Ireland +was reached the roads were of the worst. We have glimpses +of fashionable society in Dublin, of the quiet life at Laracor +and Trim, and of the drinking of the waters at Wexford, where +visitors had to put up with primitive arrangements: “Mrs. +Dingley never saw such a place in her life.”</p> +<p>Swift’s own characteristics come out in the clearest +manner in the <i>Journal</i>, which gives all his hopes and fears +during three busy years. He was pleased to find on his +arrival in London how great a value was set on his friendship by +both political parties: “The Whigs were ravished to see me, +and would lay hold on me as a twig while they are +drowning;” but Godolphin’s coldness enraged him, so +that he was “almost vowing vengeance.” Next day +he talked treason heartily against the Whigs, their baseness and +ingratitude, and went home full of schemes of revenge. +“The Tories drily tell me I may make my fortune, if I +please; but I do not understand them, or rather, I <i>do</i> +understand them.” He realised that the Tories might +not be more grateful than others, but he thought they were +pursuing the true interests of the public, and was glad to +contribute what was in his power. His vanity was gratified +by Harley inviting him to the private dinners with St. <a +name="pagexxxiii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xxxiii</span>John +and Harcourt which were given on Saturdays, and by their calling +him Jonathan; but he did not hope too much from their friendship: +“I said I believed they would leave me Jonathan, as they +found me . . . but I care not.”</p> +<p>Of Swift’s frugal habits there is abundant evidence in +the <i>Journal</i>. When he came to town he took rooms on a +first floor, “a dining-room and bed-chamber, at eight +shillings a week; plaguy dear, but I spend nothing for eating, +never go to a tavern, and very seldom in a coach; yet after all +it will be expensive.” In November he mentions that +he had a fire: “I am spending my second half-bushel of +coals.” In another place he says, “People have +so left the town, that I am at a loss for a dinner. . . . +It cost me eighteenpence in coach-hire before I could find a +place to dine in.” Elsewhere we find: “This +paper does not cost me a farthing: I have it from the +Secretary’s office.” He often complains of +having to take a coach owing to the dirty condition of the +streets: “This rain ruins me in coach-hire; I walked away +sixpennyworth, and came within a shilling length, and then took a +coach, and got a lift back for nothing.” <a +name="citation0m"></a><a href="#footnote0m" +class="citation">[0m]</a></p> +<p>Swift’s arrogance—the arrogance, sometimes, of a +man who is morbidly suspicious that he may be patronised—is +shown in the manner in which he speaks of the grand ladies with +whom he came in contact. He calls the Duke of <a +name="pagexxxiv"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +xxxiv</span>Ormond’s daughters “insolent +drabs,” and talks of his “mistress, Ophy +Butler’s wife, who is grown a little +charmless.” When the Duchess of Shrewsbury reproached +him for not dining with her, Swift said that was not so soon +done; he expected more advances from ladies, especially +duchesses. On another occasion he was to have supped at +Lady Ashburnham’s, “but the drab did not call for us +in her coach, as she promised, but sent for us, and so I sent my +excuses.” The arrogance was, however, often only on +the surface. It is evident that Swift was very kind in many +cases. He felt deeply for Mrs. Long in her misfortunes, +living and dying in an obscure country town. On the last +illness of the poet Harrison he says, “I am very much +afflicted for him, as he is my own creature. . . . I was +afraid to knock at the door; my mind misgave me.” He +was “heartily sorry for poor Mrs. Parnell’s death; +she seemed to be an excellent good-natured young woman, and I +believe the poor lad is much afflicted; they appeared to live +perfectly well together.” Afterwards he helped +Parnell by introducing him to Bolingbroke and Oxford. He +found kind words for Mrs. Manley in her illness, and Lady +Ashburnham’s death was “extremely moving. . . . +She was my greatest favourite, and I am in excessive concern for +her loss.” Lastly, he was extraordinarily patient +towards his servant Patrick, who drank, stopped out at night, and +in many ways tried Swift’s temper. There were good +points about Patrick, but no doubt the great consideration which +Swift showed him was due in part to the fact that he was a +favourite of the ladies in Dublin, and had Mrs. Vanhomrigh to +intercede for him.</p> +<p>But for the best example of the kindly side of Swift’s +nature, we must turn to what he tells us in the <i>Journal</i> +about Stella herself. The “little language” +which Swift used when writing to her was the language he employed +<a name="pagexxxv"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xxxv</span>when +playing with Stella as a little child at Moor Park. +Thackeray, who was not much in sympathy with Swift, said that he +knew of “nothing more manly, more tender, more exquisitely +touching, than some of these notes.” Swift says that +when he wrote plainly, he felt as if they were no longer alone, +but “a bad scrawl is so snug it looks like a +PMD.” In writing his fond and playful prattle, he +made up his mouth “just as if he were speaking it.” +<a name="citation0n"></a><a href="#footnote0n" +class="citation">[0n]</a></p> +<p>Though Mrs. Dingley is constantly associated with Stella in +the affectionate greetings in the <i>Journal</i>, she seems to +have been included merely as a cloak to enable him to express the +more freely his affection for her companion. Such phrases +as “saucy girls,” “sirrahs,” +“sauceboxes,” and the like, are often applied to +both; and sometimes Swift certainly writes as if the one were as +dear to him as the other; thus we find, “Farewell, my +dearest lives and delights, I love you better than ever, if +possible, as hope saved, I do, and ever will. . . . I can +count upon nothing, nor will, but upon MD’s love and +kindness. . . . And so farewell, dearest MD, Stella, +Dingley, Presto, all together, now and for ever, all +together.” But as a rule, notwithstanding +Swift’s caution, the greetings intended for Stella alone +are easily distinguishable in tone. He often refers to her +weak eyes and delicate health. Thus he writes, “The +chocolate is a present, madam, for Stella. Don’t read +this, you little rogue, with your little eyes; but give it to +Dingley, pray now; and I will write as plain as the <a +name="pagexxxvi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +xxxvi</span>skies.” And again, “God Almighty +bless poor Stella, and her eyes and head: what shall we do to +cure them, poor dear life?” Or, “Now to +Stella’s little postscript; and I am almost crazed that you +vex yourself for not writing. Can’t you dictate to +Dingley, and not strain your dear little eyes? I am sure +’tis the grief of my soul to think you are out of +order.” They had been keeping his birthday; Swift +wished he had been with them, rather than in London, where he had +no manner of pleasure: “I say Amen with all my heart and +vitals, that we may never be asunder again ten days together +while poor Presto lives.” A few days later he says, +“I wish I were at Laracor, with dear charming MD,” +and again, “Farewell, dearest beloved MD, and love poor +poor Presto, who has not had one happy day since he left +you.” “I will say no more, but beg you to be +easy till Fortune takes his course, and to believe MD’s +felicity is the great goal I aim at in all my +pursuits.” “How does Stella look, Madam +Dingley?” he asks; “pretty well, a handsome young +woman still? Will she pass in a crowd? Will she make +a figure in a country church?” Elsewhere he writes, +on receipt of a letter, “God Almighty bless poor dear +Stella, and send her a great many birthdays, all happy and +healthy and wealthy, and with me ever together, and never asunder +again, unless by chance. . . . I can hardly imagine you +absent when I am reading your letter or writing to you. No, +faith, you are just here upon this little paper, and therefore I +see and talk with you every evening constantly, and sometimes in +the morning.” The letters lay under Swift’s +pillow, and he fondled them as if he were caressing +Stella’s hand.</p> +<p>Of Stella herself we naturally have no direct account in the +<i>Journal</i>, but we hear a good deal of her life in Ireland, +and can picture what she was. Among her friends in and +about Trim and Laracor were Dr. Raymond, the vicar of <a +name="pagexxxvii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xxxvii</span>Trim, +and his wife, the Garret Wesleys, the Percevals, and Mr. +Warburton, Swift’s curate. At Dublin there were +Archdeacon Walls and his family; Alderman Stoyte, his wife and +sister-in-law; Dean Sterne and the Irish Postmaster-General, +Isaac Manley. For years these friends formed a club which +met in Dublin at each other’s houses, to sup and play cards +(“ombre and claret, and toasted oranges”), and we +have frequent allusions to Stella’s indifferent play, and +the money which she lost, much to Mrs. Dingley’s chagrin: +“Poor Dingley fretted to see Stella lose that four and +elevenpence t’other night.” Mrs. Dingley +herself could hardly play well enough to hold the cards while +Stella went into the next room. If at dinner the mutton was +underdone, and “poor Stella cannot eat, poor dear +rogue,” then “Dingley is so vexed.” Swift +was for ever urging Stella to walk and ride; she was +“naturally a stout walker,” and “Dingley would +do well enough if her petticoats were pinned up.” And +we see Stella setting out on and returning from her ride, with +her riband and mask: “Ah, that riding to Laracor gives me +short sighs as well as you,” he says; “all the days I +have passed here have been dirt to those.”</p> +<p>If the <i>Journal</i> shows us some of Swift’s less +attractive qualities, it shows still more how great a store of +humour, tenderness, and affection there was in him. In +these letters we see his very soul; in his literary work we are +seldom moved to anything but admiration of his wit and +genius. Such daily outpourings could never have been +written for publication, they were meant only for one who +understood him perfectly; and everything that we know of +Stella—her kindliness, her wit, her vivacity, her +loyalty—shows that she was worthy of the confidence.</p> +<h2><a name="page1"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 1</span>JOURNAL +TO STELLA</h2> +<h3>LETTER I. <a name="citation1a"></a><a href="#footnote1a" +class="citation">[1a]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Chester</span>, +<i>Sept.</i> 2, 1710.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Joe</span> <a name="citation1b"></a><a +href="#footnote1b" class="citation">[1b]</a> will give you an +account of me till I got into the boat; after which the rogues +made a new bargain, and forced me to give them two crowns, and +talked as if we should not be able to overtake any ship: but in +half an hour we got to the yacht; for the ships lay by [to] wait +for my Lord Lieutenant’s steward. We made our voyage +in fifteen hours just. Last night I came to this town, and +shall leave it, I believe, on Monday. The first man I met +in Chester was Dr. Raymond. <a name="citation1c"></a><a +href="#footnote1c" class="citation">[1c]</a> He and Mrs. +Raymond were here about levying a fine, in order to have power to +sell their estate. <a name="page2"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 2</span>They have found everything answer very +well. They both desire to present their humble services to +you: they do not think of Ireland till next year. I got a +fall off my horse, riding here from Parkgate, <a +name="citation2a"></a><a href="#footnote2a" +class="citation">[2a]</a> but no hurt; the horse understanding +falls very well, and lying quietly till I get up. My duty +to the Bishop of Clogher. <a name="citation2b"></a><a +href="#footnote2b" class="citation">[2b]</a> I saw him +returning from Dunleary; but he saw not me. I take it ill +he was not at Convocation, and that I have not his name to my +powers. <a name="citation2c"></a><a href="#footnote2c" +class="citation">[2c]</a> I beg you will hold your +resolution of going to Trim, and riding there as much as you +can. Let the Bishop of Clogher remind the Bishop of Killala +<a name="citation2d"></a><a href="#footnote2d" +class="citation">[2d]</a> to send me a letter, with one enclosed +to the Bishop of Lichfield. <a name="citation2e"></a><a +href="#footnote2e" class="citation">[2e]</a> Let all who +write to me, enclose to Richard Steele, Esq., at his office at +the Cockpit, near Whitehall. <a name="citation2f"></a><a +href="#footnote2f" class="citation">[2f]</a> But not MD; I +will pay for their letters at St. James’s Coffee-house, <a +name="citation2g"></a><a href="#footnote2g" +class="citation">[2g]</a> that I may have them the sooner. +My Lord Mountjoy <a name="citation2h"></a><a href="#footnote2h" +class="citation">[2h]</a> is now in the humour that we should +begin our journey this afternoon; so that I have stole here again +to finish this letter, which must be short or long +accordingly. I write this post to Mrs. Wesley, <a +name="citation2i"></a><a href="#footnote2i" +class="citation">[2i]</a> and <a name="page3"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 3</span>will tell her, that I have taken care +she may have her bill of one hundred and fifteen pounds whenever +she pleases to send for it; and in that case I desire you will +send it her enclosed and sealed, and have it ready so, in case +she should send for it: otherwise keep it. I will say no +more till I hear whether I go to-day or no: if I do, the letter +is almost at an end. My cozen Abigail is grown prodigiously +old. God Almighty bless poo dee richar MD; and, for +God’s sake, be merry, and get oo health. I am +perfectly resolved to return as soon as I have done my +commission, whether it succeeds or no. I never went to +England with so little desire in my life. If Mrs. Curry <a +name="citation3a"></a><a href="#footnote3a" +class="citation">[3a]</a> makes any difficulty about the +lodgings, I will quit them and pay her from July 9 last, and Mrs. +Brent <a name="citation3b"></a><a href="#footnote3b" +class="citation">[3b]</a> must write to Parvisol <a +name="citation3c"></a><a href="#footnote3c" +class="citation">[3c]</a> with orders accordingly. The post +is come from London, and just going out; so I have only time to +pray God to bless poor richr MD FW FW MD MD ME ME ME.</p> +<h3>LETTER II.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Sept.</i> 9, 1710.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">got</span> here last Thursday, <a +name="citation4a"></a><a href="#footnote4a" +class="citation">[4a]</a> after five days’ travelling, +weary the first, almost dead the second, tolerable the third, and +well enough the rest; and am now glad of the fatigue, which has +served for exercise; and I am at present well enough. The +Whigs were ravished to see me, and would lay hold on <a +name="page4"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 4</span>me as a twig +while they are drowning, <a name="citation4b"></a><a +href="#footnote4b" class="citation">[4b]</a> and the great men +making me their clumsy apologies, etc. But my Lord +Treasurer <a name="citation4c"></a><a href="#footnote4c" +class="citation">[4c]</a> received me with a great deal of +coldness, which has enraged me so, I am almost vowing +revenge. I have not yet gone half my circle; but I find all +my acquaintance just as I left them. I hear my Lady Giffard +<a name="citation4d"></a><a href="#footnote4d" +class="citation">[4d]</a> is much at Court, and Lady Wharton <a +name="citation4e"></a><a href="#footnote4e" +class="citation">[4e]</a> was ridiculing it t’other day; so +I have lost a friend there. I have not yet seen her, nor +intend it; but I will contrive to see Stella’s mother <a +name="citation4f"></a><a href="#footnote4f" +class="citation">[4f]</a> some other way. I writ to the +Bishop of Clogher from Chester; and I now write to the Archbishop +of Dublin. <a name="citation4g"></a><a href="#footnote4g" +class="citation">[4g]</a> Everything is turning upside +down; every Whig in great office will, to a man, be infallibly +put out; and we shall have such a winter as hath not been seen in +England. Everybody asks me, how I came to be so long in +Ireland, as naturally as if here were my being; but no soul +offers to make it so: and I protest I shall return to Dublin, and +the Canal at Laracor, <a name="citation4h"></a><a +href="#footnote4h" class="citation">[4h]</a> with more <a +name="page5"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 5</span>satisfaction +than ever I did in my life. The Tatler <a +name="citation5a"></a><a href="#footnote5a" +class="citation">[5a]</a> expects every day to be turned out of +his employment; and the Duke of Ormond, <a +name="citation5b"></a><a href="#footnote5b" +class="citation">[5b]</a> they say, will be Lieutenant of +Ireland. I hope you are now peaceably in Presto’s <a +name="citation5c"></a><a href="#footnote5c" +class="citation">[5c]</a> lodgings; but I resolve to turn you out +by Christmas; in which time I shall either do my business, or +find it not to be done. Pray be at Trim by the time this +letter comes to you; and ride little Johnson, who must needs be +now in good case. I have begun this letter unusually, on +the post-night, and have already written to the Archbishop; and +cannot lengthen this. Henceforth I will write something +every day to MD, and make it a sort of journal; and when it is +full, I will send it, whether MD writes or no; and so that will +be pretty: and I shall always be in conversation with MD, and MD +with Presto. Pray make Parvisol pay you the ten pounds +immediately; so I ordered him. They tell me I am grown +fatter, and look better; and, on Monday, Jervas <a +name="citation5d"></a><a href="#footnote5d" +class="citation">[5d]</a> is to retouch my picture. I +thought I saw Jack Temple <a name="citation5e"></a><a +href="#footnote5e" class="citation">[5e]</a> and his wife pass by +me to-day in their coach; but I took no notice of them. I +am glad I have wholly shaken off that family. Tell the +Provost, <a name="citation5f"></a><a href="#footnote5f" +class="citation">[5f]</a> I have obeyed his commands to the Duke +of <a name="page6"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 6</span>Ormond; +or let it alone, if you please. I saw Jemmy Leigh <a +name="citation6a"></a><a href="#footnote6a" +class="citation">[6a]</a> just now at the Coffee-house, who asked +after you with great kindness: he talks of going in a fortnight +to Ireland. My service to the Dean, <a +name="citation6b"></a><a href="#footnote6b" +class="citation">[6b]</a> and Mrs. Walls, and her Archdeacon. <a +name="citation6c"></a><a href="#footnote6c" +class="citation">[6c]</a> Will Frankland’s <a +name="citation6d"></a><a href="#footnote6d" +class="citation">[6d]</a> wife is near bringing to-bed, and I +have promised to christen the child. I fancy you had my +Chester letter the Tuesday after I writ. I presented Dr. +Raymond to Lord Wharton <a name="citation6e"></a><a +href="#footnote6e" class="citation">[6e]</a> at Chester. +Pray let me know when Joe gets his money. <a +name="citation6f"></a><a href="#footnote6f" +class="citation">[6f]</a> It is near ten, and I hate to +send by the bellman. <a name="citation6g"></a><a +href="#footnote6g" class="citation">[6g]</a> MD shall have +a longer letter in a week, but I send this only to tell I am safe +in London; and so farewell, etc.</p> +<h3><a name="page7"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 7</span>LETTER +III.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Sept.</i> 9, 1710.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">After</span> seeing the Duke of Ormond, +dining with Dr. Cockburn, <a name="citation7a"></a><a +href="#footnote7a" class="citation">[7a]</a> passing some part of +the afternoon with Sir Matthew Dudley <a name="citation7b"></a><a +href="#footnote7b" class="citation">[7b]</a> and Will Frankland, +the rest at St. James’s Coffee-house, I came home, and writ +to the Archbishop of Dublin and MD, and am going to bed. I +forgot to tell you, that I begged Will Frankland to stand +Manley’s <a name="citation7c"></a><a href="#footnote7c" +class="citation">[7c]</a> friend with his father in this shaking +season for places. He told me, his father was in danger to +be out; that several were now soliciting for Manley’s +place; that he was accused of opening letters; that Sir Thomas +Frankland <a name="citation7d"></a><a href="#footnote7d" +class="citation">[7d]</a> would sacrifice everything to save +himself; and in that, I fear, Manley is undone, etc.</p> +<p>10. To-day I dined with Lord Mountjoy at Kensington; saw +my mistress, Ophy Butler’s <a name="citation7e"></a><a +href="#footnote7e" class="citation">[7e]</a> wife, who is grown a +little charmless. I sat till ten in the evening with +Addison and <a name="page8"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +8</span>Steele: Steele will certainly lose his Gazetteer’s +place, all the world detesting his engaging in parties. <a +name="citation8a"></a><a href="#footnote8a" +class="citation">[8a]</a> At ten I went to the +Coffee-house, hoping to find Lord Radnor, <a +name="citation8b"></a><a href="#footnote8b" +class="citation">[8b]</a> whom I had not seen. He was +there; and for an hour and a half we talked treason heartily +against the Whigs, their baseness and ingratitude. And I am +come home, rolling resentments in my mind, and framing schemes of +revenge: full of which (having written down some hints) I go to +bed. I am afraid MD dined at home, because it is Sunday; +and there was the little half-pint of wine: for God’s sake, +be good girls, and all will be well. Ben Tooke <a +name="citation8c"></a><a href="#footnote8c" +class="citation">[8c]</a> was with me this morning.</p> +<p>11. Seven, morning. I am rising to go to Jervas to +finish my picture, and ’tis shaving-day, so good-morrow MD; +but don’t keep me now, for I can’t stay; and pray +dine with the Dean, but don’t lose your money. I long +to hear from you, etc.—Ten at night. I sat four hours +this morning to Jervas, who has given my picture quite another +turn, and now approves it entirely; but we must have the +approbation of the town. If I were rich enough, I would get +a copy of it, and bring it over. Mr. Addison and I dined +together at his lodgings, and I sat with him part of this +evening; and I am now come home to write an hour. Patrick +<a name="citation8d"></a><a href="#footnote8d" +class="citation">[8d]</a> observes, that the rabble here are much +more inquisitive in politics than in Ireland. Every day we +expect changes, and the Parliament to be dissolved. Lord +Wharton expects every day to be out: he is working like a horse +for elections; and, in short, I never saw so great a ferment +among all sorts of people. I had a miserable letter from +Joe last <a name="page9"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +9</span>Saturday, telling me Mr. Pratt <a +name="citation9a"></a><a href="#footnote9a" +class="citation">[9a]</a> refuses payment of his money. I +have told it Mr. Addison, and will to Lord Wharton; but I fear +with no success. However, I will do all I can.</p> +<p>12. To-day I presented Mr. Ford <a +name="citation9b"></a><a href="#footnote9b" +class="citation">[9b]</a> to the Duke of Ormond; and paid my +first visit to Lord President, <a name="citation9c"></a><a +href="#footnote9c" class="citation">[9c]</a> with whom I had much +discourse; but put him always off when he began to talk of Lord +Wharton in relation to me, till he urged it: then I said, he knew +I never expected anything from Lord Wharton, and that Lord +Wharton knew that I understood it so. He said that he had +written twice to Lord Wharton about me, who both times said +nothing at all to that part of his letter. I am advised not +to meddle in the affair of the First-Fruits, till this hurry is a +little over, which still depends, and we are all in the +dark. Lord President told me he expects every day to be +out, and has done so these two months. I protest, upon my +life, I am heartily weary of this town, and wish I had never +stirred.</p> +<p>13. I went this morning to the city, to see Mr. +Stratford the Hamburg merchant, my old schoolfellow; <a +name="citation9d"></a><a href="#footnote9d" +class="citation">[9d]</a> but calling at Bull’s <a +name="citation9e"></a><a href="#footnote9e" +class="citation">[9e]</a> on Ludgate Hill, he forced me to his +house at Hampstead to dinner among a great deal of ill company; +among the rest Mr. Hoadley, <a name="citation9f"></a><a +href="#footnote9f" class="citation">[9f]</a> the Whig clergyman, +so famous for acting the contrary part to Sacheverell: <a +name="citation9g"></a><a href="#footnote9g" +class="citation">[9g]</a> but to-morrow <a +name="page10"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 10</span>I design +again to see Stratford. I was glad, however, to be at +Hampstead, where I saw Lady Lucy <a name="citation10a"></a><a +href="#footnote10a" class="citation">[10a]</a> and Moll +Stanhope. I hear very unfortunate news of Mrs. Long; <a +name="citation10b"></a><a href="#footnote10b" +class="citation">[10b]</a> she and her comrade <a +name="citation10c"></a><a href="#footnote10c" +class="citation">[10c]</a> have broke up house, and she is broke +for good and all, and is gone to the country: I should be +extremely sorry if this be true.</p> +<p>14. To-day, I saw Patty Rolt, <a +name="citation10d"></a><a href="#footnote10d" +class="citation">[10d]</a> who heard I was in town; and I dined +with Stratford at a merchant’s in the city, where I drank +the first Tokay wine I ever saw; and it is admirable, yet not to +the degree I expected. Stratford is worth a plum, <a +name="citation10e"></a><a href="#footnote10e" +class="citation">[10e]</a> and is now lending the Government +forty thousand pounds; yet we were educated together at the same +school and university. <a name="citation10f"></a><a +href="#footnote10f" class="citation">[10f]</a> We hear the +Chancellor <a name="citation10g"></a><a href="#footnote10g" +class="citation">[10g]</a> is to be suddenly <a +name="page11"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 11</span>out, and Sir +Simon Harcourt <a name="citation11a"></a><a href="#footnote11a" +class="citation">[11a]</a> to succeed him: I am come early home, +not caring for the Coffee-house.</p> +<p>15. To-day Mr. Addison, Colonel Freind, <a +name="citation11b"></a><a href="#footnote11b" +class="citation">[11b]</a> and I, went to see the million lottery +<a name="citation11c"></a><a href="#footnote11c" +class="citation">[11c]</a> drawn at Guildhall. The +jackanapes of bluecoat boys gave themselves such airs in pulling +out the tickets, and showed white hands open to the company, to +let us see there was no cheat. We dined at a country-house +near Chelsea, where Mr. Addison often retires; and to-night, at +the Coffee-house, we hear Sir Simon Harcourt is made Lord Keeper; +so that now we expect every moment the Parliament will be +dissolved; but I forgot that this letter will not go in three or +four days, and that my news will be stale, which I should +therefore put in the last paragraph. Shall I send this +letter before I hear from MD, or shall I keep it to +lengthen? I have not yet seen Stella’s mother, +because I will not see Lady Giffard; but I will contrive to go +there when Lady Giffard is abroad. I forgot to mark my two +former letters; but I remember this is Number 3, and I have not +yet had Number 1 from MD; but I shall by Monday, which I reckon +will be just a fortnight after you had my first. I am +resolved to bring over a great deal of china. I loved it +mightily to-day. <a name="citation11d"></a><a href="#footnote11d" +class="citation">[11d]</a> What shall I bring?</p> +<p>16. Morning. Sir John Holland, <a +name="citation11e"></a><a href="#footnote11e" +class="citation">[11e]</a> Comptroller of the Household, has sent +to desire my acquaintance: I have a <a name="page12"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 12</span>mind to refuse him, because he is a +Whig, and will, I suppose, be out among the rest; but he is a man +of worth and learning. Tell me, do you like this journal +way of writing? Is it not tedious and dull?</p> +<p>Night. I dined to-day with a cousin, a printer, <a +name="citation12a"></a><a href="#footnote12a" +class="citation">[12a]</a> where Patty Rolt lodges, and then came +home, after a visit or two; and it has been a very insipid +day. Mrs. Long’s misfortune is confirmed to me; +bailiffs were in her house; she retired to private lodgings; +thence to the country, nobody knows where: her friends leave +letters at some inn, and they are carried to her; and she writes +answers without dating them from any place. I swear, it +grieves me to the soul.</p> +<p>17. To-day I dined six miles out of town, with Will +Pate, <a name="citation12b"></a><a href="#footnote12b" +class="citation">[12b]</a> the learned woollen-draper; Mr. +Stratford went with me; six miles here is nothing: we left Pate +after sunset, and were here before it was dark. This letter +shall go on Tuesday, whether I hear from MD or no. My +health continues pretty well; pray God Stella may give me a good +account of hers! and I hope you are now at Trim, or soon +designing it. I was disappointed to-night: the fellow gave +me a letter, and I hoped to see little MD’s hand; and it +was only to invite me to a venison pasty to-day: so I lost my +pasty into the bargain. Pox on these declining +courtiers! Here is Mr. Brydges, <a +name="citation12c"></a><a href="#footnote12c" +class="citation">[12c]</a> the Paymaster-General, desiring my +acquaintance; but I hear the Queen sent Lord Shrewsbury <a +name="citation12d"></a><a href="#footnote12d" +class="citation">[12d]</a> to assure him he may keep his place; +and he promises me <a name="page13"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +13</span>great assistance in the affair of the +First-Fruits. Well, I must turn over this leaf to-night, +though the side would hold another line; but pray consider this +is a whole sheet; it holds a plaguy deal, and you must be content +to be weary; but I’ll do so no more. Sir Simon +Harcourt is made Attorney-General, and not Lord Keeper.</p> +<p>18. To-day I dined with Mr. Stratford at Mr. +Addison’s retirement near Chelsea; then came to town; got +home early, and began a letter to the <i>Tatler</i>, <a +name="citation13a"></a><a href="#footnote13a" +class="citation">[13a]</a> about the corruptions of style and +writing, etc., and, having not heard from you, am resolved this +letter shall go to-night. Lord Wharton was sent for to town +in mighty haste, by the Duke of Devonshire: <a +name="citation13b"></a><a href="#footnote13b" +class="citation">[13b]</a> they have some project in hand; but it +will not do, for every hour we expect a thorough revolution, and +that the Parliament will be dissolved. When you see Joe, +tell him Lord Wharton is too busy to mind any of his affairs; but +I will get what good offices I can from Mr. Addison, and will +write to-day to Mr. Pratt; and bid Joe not to be discouraged, for +I am confident he will get the money under any Government; but he +must have patience.</p> +<p>19. I have been scribbling this morning, and I believe +shall hardly fill this side to-day, but send it as it is; and it +is good enough for naughty girls that won’t write to a +body, and to a good boy like Presto. I thought to have sent +this to-night, but was kept by company, and could not; and, to +say the truth, I had a little mind to expect one post more for a +letter from MD. Yesterday at noon died the Earl of +Anglesea, <a name="citation13c"></a><a href="#footnote13c" +class="citation">[13c]</a> the great support of the Tories; so +that employment of Vice-Treasurer of Ireland is again +vacant. We were <a name="page14"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 14</span>to have been great friends, and I +could hardly have a loss that could grieve me more. The +Bishop of Durham <a name="citation14a"></a><a href="#footnote14a" +class="citation">[14a]</a> died the same day. The Duke of +Ormond’s daughter <a name="citation14b"></a><a +href="#footnote14b" class="citation">[14b]</a> was to visit me +to-day at a third place by way of advance, <a +name="citation14c"></a><a href="#footnote14c" +class="citation">[14c]</a> and I am to return it to-morrow. +I have had a letter from Lady Berkeley, begging me for charity to +come to Berkeley Castle, for company to my lord, <a +name="citation14d"></a><a href="#footnote14d" +class="citation">[14d]</a> who has been ill of a dropsy; but I +cannot go, and must send my excuse to-morrow. I am told +that in a few hours there will be more removals.</p> +<p>20. To-day I returned my visits to the Duke’s +daughters; <a name="citation14e"></a><a href="#footnote14e" +class="citation">[14e]</a> the insolent drabs came up to my very +mouth to salute me. Then I heard the report confirmed of +removals; my Lord President Somers; the Duke of Devonshire, Lord +Steward; and Mr. Boyle, <a name="citation14f"></a><a +href="#footnote14f" class="citation">[14f]</a> Secretary of +State, are all turned out to-day. I never remember such +bold steps taken by a Court: I am almost shocked at it, though I +did not care if they were all hanged. We are astonished why +the Parliament is not yet dissolved, and why they keep a matter +of that importance to the last. We shall have a strange +winter here, between the struggles of a cunning provoked +discarded party, and the triumphs of one in power; of both which +I shall be an indifferent spectator, and return very peaceably to +Ireland, <a name="page15"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +15</span>when I have done my part in the affair I am entrusted +with, whether it succeeds or no. To-morrow I change my +lodgings in Pall Mall for one in Bury Street, <a +name="citation15a"></a><a href="#footnote15a" +class="citation">[15a]</a> where I suppose I shall continue while +I stay in London. If anything happens to-morrow, I will add +it.—Robin’s Coffee-house. <a +name="citation15b"></a><a href="#footnote15b" +class="citation">[15b]</a> We have great news just now from +Spain; Madrid taken, and Pampeluna. I am here ever +interrupted.</p> +<p>21. I have just received your letter, which I will not +answer now; God be thanked all things are so well. I find +you have not yet had my second: I had a letter from Parvisol, who +tells me he gave Mrs. Walls a bill of twenty pounds for me, to be +given to you; but you have not sent it. This night the +Parliament is dissolved: great news from Spain; King Charles and +Stanhope are at Madrid, and Count Staremberg has taken +Pampeluna. Farewell. This is from St. James’s +Coffee-house. I will begin my answer to your letter +to-night, but not send it this week. Pray tell me whether +you like this journal way of writing.—I don’t like +your reasons for not going to Trim. Parvisol tells me he +can sell your horse. Sell it, with a pox? Pray let +him know that he shall sell his soul as soon. What? sell +anything that Stella loves, and may sometimes ride? It is hers, +and let her do as she pleases: pray let him know this by the +first that you know goes to Trim. Let him sell my grey, and +be hanged.</p> +<h3>LETTER IV.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Sept.</i> 21, 1710.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Here</span> must I begin another letter, +on a whole sheet, for fear saucy little MD should be angry, and +think <i>much</i> that the paper is too <i>little</i>. I +had your letter this night, as <a name="page16"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 16</span>told you just and no more in my last; +for this must be taken up in answering yours, saucebox. I +believe I told you where I dined to-day; and to-morrow I go out +of town for two days to dine with the same company on Sunday; +Molesworth <a name="citation16a"></a><a href="#footnote16a" +class="citation">[16a]</a> the Florence Envoy, Stratford, and +some others. I heard to-day that a gentlewoman from Lady +Giffard’s house had been at the Coffee-house to inquire for +me. It was Stella’s mother, I suppose. I shall +send her a penny-post letter <a name="citation16b"></a><a +href="#footnote16b" class="citation">[16b]</a> to-morrow, and +contrive to see her without hazarding seeing Lady Giffard, which +I will not do until she begs my pardon.</p> +<p>22. I dined to-day at Hampstead with Lady Lucy, etc., +and when I got home found a letter from Joe, with one enclosed to +Lord Wharton, which I will send to his Excellency, and second it +as well as I can; but to talk of getting the Queen’s order +is a jest. Things are in such a combustion here, that I am +advised not to meddle yet in the affair I am upon, which concerns +the clergy of a whole kingdom; and does he think anybody will +trouble the Queen about Joe? We shall, I hope, get a +recommendation from the Lord Lieutenant to the trustees for the +linen business, and I hope that will do; and so I will write to +him in a few days, and he must have patience. This is an +answer to part of your letter as well as his. I lied; it is +to-morrow I go to the country, and I won’t answer a bit +more of your letter yet.</p> +<p>23. Here is such a stir and bustle with this little MD +of ours; I must be writing every night; I can’t go to bed +without a word to them; I can’t put out my candle till I +have bid them good-night: O Lord, O Lord! Well, I dined the +first time to-day, with Will Frankland and his fortune: <a +name="page17"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 17</span>she is not +very handsome. Did I not say I would go out of town +to-day? I hate lying abroad and clutter; I go to-morrow in +Frankland’s chariot, and come back at night. Lady +Berkeley has invited me to Berkeley Castle, and Lady Betty +Germaine <a name="citation17a"></a><a href="#footnote17a" +class="citation">[17a]</a> to Drayton in Northamptonshire; and +I’ll go to neither. Let me alone, I must finish my +pamphlet. I have sent a long letter to Bickerstaff: <a +name="citation17b"></a><a href="#footnote17b" +class="citation">[17b]</a> let the Bishop of Clogher smoke <a +name="citation17c"></a><a href="#footnote17c" +class="citation">[17c]</a> it if he can. Well, I’ll +write to the Bishop of Killala; but you might have told him how +sudden and unexpected my journey was though. Deuce take +Lady S—; and if I know D—y, he is a rawboned-faced +fellow, not handsome, nor visibly so young as you say: she +sacrifices two thousand pounds a year, and keeps only six +hundred. Well, you have had all my land journey in my +second letter, and so much for that. So, you have got into +Presto’s lodgings; very fine, truly! We have had a +fortnight of the most glorious weather on earth, and still +continues: I hope you have made the best of it. Ballygall +<a name="citation17d"></a><a href="#footnote17d" +class="citation">[17d]</a> will be a pure <a +name="citation17e"></a><a href="#footnote17e" +class="citation">[17e]</a> good place for air, if Mrs. Ashe makes +good her promise. Stella writes like an emperor: I am +afraid it hurts your eyes; take care of that pray, pray, Mrs. +Stella. Can’t you do what you will with your own +horse? Pray don’t let that puppy Parvisol sell +him. Patrick is drunk about three times a week, and I bear +it, and he has got the better of me; but one of these days I will +positively turn him off to the wide <a name="page18"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 18</span>world, when none of you are by to +intercede for him.—Stuff—how can I get her husband +into the Charter-house? get a — into the +Charter-house.—Write constantly! Why, sirrah, +don’t I write every day, and sometimes twice a day to +MD? Now I have answered all your letter, and the rest must +be as it can be: send me my bill. Tell Mrs. Brent <a +name="citation18a"></a><a href="#footnote18a" +class="citation">[18a]</a> what I say of the Charter-house. +I think this enough for one night; and so farewell till this time +to-morrow.</p> +<p>24. To-day I dined six miles out of town at Will +Pate’s, with Stratford, Frankland, and the Molesworths, <a +name="citation18b"></a><a href="#footnote18b" +class="citation">[18b]</a> and came home at night, and was weary +and lazy. I can say no more now, but good-night.</p> +<p>25. I was so lazy to-day that I dined at next door, <a +name="citation18c"></a><a href="#footnote18c" +class="citation">[18c]</a> and have sat at home since six, +writing to the Bishop of Clogher, Dean Sterne, and Mr. Manley: +the last, because I am in fear for him about his place, and have +sent him my opinion, what I and his other friends here think he +ought to do. I hope he will take it well. My advice +was, to keep as much in favour as possible with Sir Thomas +Frankland, his master here.</p> +<p>26. Smoke how I widen the margin by lying in bed when I +write. My bed lies on the wrong side for me, so that I am +forced often to write when I am up. Manley, you must know, +has had people putting in for his place already; and has been +complained of for opening letters. Remember that last +Sunday, September 24, 1710, was as hot as midsummer. This +was written in the morning; it is now night, and Presto in +bed. Here’s a clutter, I have gotten MD’s +second letter, and I must answer it here. I gave the bill +to Tooke, and so— Well, I dined to-day with Sir John +Holland the Comptroller, and sat with him till eight; then came +home, and sent my letters, and writ part of a lampoon, <a +name="citation18d"></a><a href="#footnote18d" +class="citation">[18d]</a> which goes <a name="page19"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 19</span>on very slow: and now I am writing to +saucy MD; no wonder, indeed, good boys must write to naughty +girls. I have not seen your mother yet; my penny-post +letter, I suppose, miscarried: I will write another. Mr. +S— came to see me; and said M— was going to the +country next morning with her husband (who I find is a surly +brute); so I could only desire my service to her.</p> +<p>27. To-day all our company dined at Will +Frankland’s, with Steele and Addison too. This is the +first rainy day since I came to town; I cannot afford to answer +your letter yet. Morgan, <a name="citation19a"></a><a +href="#footnote19a" class="citation">[19a]</a> the puppy, writ me +a long letter, to desire I would recommend him for purse-bearer +or secretary to the next Lord Chancellor that would come with the +next Governor. I will not answer him; but beg you will say +these words to his father Raymond, <a name="citation19b"></a><a +href="#footnote19b" class="citation">[19b]</a> or anybody that +will tell him: That Dr. Swift has received his letter; and would +be very ready to serve him, but cannot do it in what he desires, +because he has no sort of interest in the persons to be applied +to. These words you may write, and let Joe, or Mr. +Warburton, <a name="citation19c"></a><a href="#footnote19c" +class="citation">[19c]</a> give them to him: a pox on him! +However, it is by these sort of ways that fools get +preferment. I must not end yet, because I cannot say +good-night without losing a line, and then MD would scold; but +now, good-night.</p> +<p>28. I have the finest piece of Brazil tobacco for +Dingley that ever was born. <a name="citation19d"></a><a +href="#footnote19d" class="citation">[19d]</a> You talk of +Leigh; why, he won’t be in Dublin these two months: he goes +to the country, then <a name="page20"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 20</span>returns to London, to see how the +world goes here in Parliament. Good-night, sirrahs; no, no, +not night; I writ this in the morning, and looking carelessly I +thought it had been of last night. I dined to-day with Mrs. +Barton <a name="citation20a"></a><a href="#footnote20a" +class="citation">[20a]</a> alone at her lodgings; where she told +me for certain, that Lady S— <a name="citation20b"></a><a +href="#footnote20b" class="citation">[20b]</a> was with child +when she was last in England, and pretended a tympany, and saw +everybody; then disappeared for three weeks, her tympany was +gone, and she looked like a ghost, etc. No wonder she +married when she was so ill at containing. Connolly <a +name="citation20c"></a><a href="#footnote20c" +class="citation">[20c]</a> is out; and Mr. Roberts in his place, +who loses a better here, but was formerly a Commissioner in +Ireland. That employment cost Connolly three thousand +pounds to Lord Wharton; so he has made one ill bargain in his +life.</p> +<p>29. I wish MD a merry Michaelmas. I dined with Mr. +Addison, and Jervas the painter, at Addison’s country +place; and then came home, and writ more to my lampoon. I +made a <i>Tatler</i> since I came: guess which it is, and whether +the Bishop of Clogher smokes it. I saw Mr. Sterne <a +name="citation20d"></a><a href="#footnote20d" +class="citation">[20d]</a> to-day: he will do as you order, and I +will give him chocolate for Stella’s health. He goes +not these three weeks. I wish I could send it some other +way. So now to your letter, brave boys. I don’t +like your way of saving shillings: nothing vexes me but that it +does not make Stella a coward in a coach. <a +name="citation20e"></a><a href="#footnote20e" +class="citation">[20e]</a> I <a name="page21"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 21</span>don’t think any lady’s +advice about my ear signifies twopence: however I will, in +compliance to you, ask Dr. Cockburn. Radcliffe <a +name="citation21a"></a><a href="#footnote21a" +class="citation">[21a]</a> I know not, and Barnard <a +name="citation21b"></a><a href="#footnote21b" +class="citation">[21b]</a> I never see. Walls will +certainly be stingier for seven years, upon pretence of his +robbery. So Stella puns again; why, ’tis well enough; +but I’ll not second it, though I could make a dozen: I +never thought of a pun since I left Ireland.—Bishop of +Clogher’s bill? Why, he paid it to me; do you think I +was such a fool to go without it? As for the four +shillings, I will give you a bill on Parvisol for it on +t’other side of this paper; and pray tear off the two +letters I shall write to him and Joe, or let Dingley transcribe +and send them; though that to Parvisol, I believe, he must have +my hand for. No, no, I’ll eat no grapes; I ate about +six the other day at Sir John Holland’s; but would not give +sixpence for a thousand, they are so bad this year. Yes, +faith, I hope in God Presto and MD will be together this time +twelvemonth. What then? Last year I suppose I was at +Laracor; but next I hope to eat my Michaelmas goose at my two +little gooses’ lodgings. I drink no <i>aile</i> (I +suppose you mean <i>ale</i>); but yet good wine every day, of +five and six shillings a bottle. O Lord, how much Stella +writes! pray don’t carry that too far, young women, but be +temperate, to hold out. To-morrow I go to Mr. Harley. <a +name="citation21c"></a><a href="#footnote21c" +class="citation">[21c]</a> Why, small hopes from the Duke of +Ormond: he loves me very well, I believe, and would, in my turn, +give me something to make me easy; and I have good interest among +his best friends. But I don’t think of anything +further than the business I am upon. You see I writ to +Manley <a name="page22"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +22</span>before I had your letter, and I fear he will be +out. Yes, Mrs. Owl, Bligh’s corpse <a +name="citation22a"></a><a href="#footnote22a" +class="citation">[22a]</a> came to Chester when I was there; and +I told you so in my letter, or forgot it. I lodge in Bury +Street, where I removed a week ago. I have the first floor, +a dining-room, and bed-chamber, at eight shillings a week; plaguy +deep, but I spend nothing for eating, never go to a tavern, and +very seldom in a coach; yet after all it will be expensive. +Why do you trouble yourself, Mistress Stella, about my +instrument? I have the same the Archbishop gave me; and it +is as good now the bishops are away. The Dean friendly! the +Dean be poxed: a great piece of friendship indeed, what you heard +him tell the Bishop of Clogher; I wonder he had the face to talk +so: but he lent me money, and that’s enough. Faith, I +would not send this these four days, only for writing to Joe and +Parvisol. Tell the Dean that when the bishops send me any +packets, they must not write to me at Mr. Steele’s; but +direct for Mr. Steele, at his office at the Cockpit, and let the +enclosed be directed for me: that mistake cost me eighteenpence +the other day.</p> +<p>30. I dined with Stratford to-day, but am not to see Mr. +Harley till Wednesday: it is late, and I send this before there +is occasion for the bell; because I would have Joe have his +letter, and Parvisol too; which you must so contrive as not to +cost them double postage. I can say no more, but that I am, +etc.</p> +<h3>LETTER V.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Sept.</i> 30, 1710.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Han’t</span> I brought myself into a +fine <i>præmunire</i>, <a name="citation22b"></a><a +href="#footnote22b" class="citation">[22b]</a> to begin writing +letters in whole sheets? and now I dare not leave it off. I +cannot tell whether you like these journal letters: I believe +they would be dull to me to read them <a name="page23"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 23</span>over; but, perhaps, little MD is +pleased to know how Presto passes his time in her absence. +I always begin my last the same day I ended my former. I +told you where I dined to-day at a tavern with Stratford: Lewis, +<a name="citation23a"></a><a href="#footnote23a" +class="citation">[23a]</a> who is a great favourite of +Harley’s, was to have been with us; but he was hurried to +Hampton Court, and sent his excuse; and that next Wednesday he +would introduce me to Harley. ’Tis good to see what a +lamentable confession the Whigs all make me of my ill usage: but +I mind them not. I am already represented to Harley as a +discontented person, that was used ill for not being Whig enough; +and I hope for good usage from him. The Tories drily tell +me, I may make my fortune, if I please; but I do not understand +them—or rather, I do understand them.</p> +<p>Oct. 1. To-day I dined at Molesworth’s, the +Florence Envoy; and sat this evening with my friend Darteneuf, <a +name="citation23b"></a><a href="#footnote23b" +class="citation">[23b]</a> whom you have heard me talk of; the +greatest punner of this town next myself. Have you smoked +the <i>Tatler</i> that I writ? <a name="citation23c"></a><a +href="#footnote23c" class="citation">[23c]</a> It is much +liked here, and I think it a pure <a name="citation23d"></a><a +href="#footnote23d" class="citation">[23d]</a> one. +To-morrow I go with Delaval, <a name="citation23e"></a><a +href="#footnote23e" class="citation">[23e]</a> the Portugal +Envoy, to dine with Lord Halifax near Hampton Court. <a +name="citation23f"></a><a href="#footnote23f" +class="citation">[23f]</a> Your Manley’s <a +name="page24"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 24</span>brother, a +Parliament-man here, has gotten an employment; <a +name="citation24a"></a><a href="#footnote24a" +class="citation">[24a]</a> and I am informed uses much interest +to preserve his brother: and, to-day, I spoke to the elder +Frankland to engage his father (Postmaster here); and I hope he +will be safe, although he is cruelly hated by all the Tories of +Ireland. I have almost finished my lampoon, and will print +it for revenge on a certain great person. <a +name="citation24b"></a><a href="#footnote24b" +class="citation">[24b]</a> It has cost me but three +shillings in meat and drink since I came here, as thin as the +town is. I laugh to see myself so disengaged in these +revolutions. Well, I must leave off, and go write to Sir +John Stanley, <a name="citation24c"></a><a href="#footnote24c" +class="citation">[24c]</a> to desire him to engage Lady Hyde as +my mistress to engage Lord Hyde <a name="citation24d"></a><a +href="#footnote24d" class="citation">[24d]</a> in favour of Mr. +Pratt. <a name="citation24e"></a><a href="#footnote24e" +class="citation">[24e]</a></p> +<p>2. Lord Halifax was at Hampton Court at his lodgings, +and I dined with him there with Methuen, <a +name="citation24f"></a><a href="#footnote24f" +class="citation">[24f]</a> and Delaval, and the late +Attorney-General. <a name="citation24g"></a><a +href="#footnote24g" class="citation">[24g]</a> I went to +the Drawing-room <a name="page25"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +25</span>before dinner (for the Queen was at Hampton Court), and +expected to see nobody; but I met acquaintance enough. I +walked in the gardens, saw the cartoons of Raphael, and other +things; and with great difficulty got from Lord Halifax, who +would have kept me to-morrow to show me his house and park, and +improvements. We left Hampton Court at sunset, and got here +in a chariot and two horses time enough by starlight. +That’s something charms me mightily about London; that you +go dine a dozen miles off in October, stay all day, and return so +quickly: you cannot do anything like this in Dublin. <a +name="citation25a"></a><a href="#footnote25a" +class="citation">[25a]</a> I writ a second penny post +letter to your mother, and hear nothing of her. Did I tell +you that Earl Berkeley died last Sunday was se’nnight, at +Berkeley Castle, of a dropsy? Lord Halifax began a health +to me to-day; it was the Resurrection of the Whigs, which I +refused unless he would add their Reformation too and I told him +he was the only Whig in England I loved, or had any good opinion +of.</p> +<p>3. This morning Stella’s sister <a +name="citation25b"></a><a href="#footnote25b" +class="citation">[25b]</a> came to me with a letter from her +mother, who is at Sheen; but will soon be in town, and will call +to see me: she gave me a bottle of palsy water, <a +name="citation25c"></a><a href="#footnote25c" +class="citation">[25c]</a> a small one, and desired I would send +it you by the first convenience, as I will; and she promises a +quart bottle of the same: your sister looked very well, and seems +a good modest sort of girl. I went then to Mr. Lewis, first +secretary to Lord Dartmouth, <a name="citation25d"></a><a +href="#footnote25d" class="citation">[25d]</a> and favourite to +Mr. Harley, who is to introduce me to-morrow morning. Lewis +had with him one Mr. Dyot, <a name="citation25e"></a><a +href="#footnote25e" class="citation">[25e]</a> a Justice of +Peace, worth twenty thousand pounds, <a name="page26"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 26</span>a Commissioner of the Stamp Office, +and married to a sister of Sir Philip Meadows, <a +name="citation26a"></a><a href="#footnote26a" +class="citation">[26a]</a> Envoy to the Emperor. I tell you +this, because it is odds but this Mr. Dyot will be hanged; for he +is discovered to have counterfeited stamped paper, in which he +was a Commissioner; and, with his accomplices, has cheated the +Queen of a hundred thousand pounds. You will hear of it +before this come to you, but may be not so particularly; and it +is a very odd accident in such a man. Smoke Presto writing +news to MD. I dined to-day with Lord Mountjoy at +Kensington, and walked from thence this evening to town like an +emperor. Remember that yesterday, October 2, was a cruel +hard frost, with ice; and six days ago I was dying with +heat. As thin as the town is, I have more dinners than +ever; and am asked this month by some people, without being able +to come for pre-engagements. Well, but I should write +plainer, when I consider Stella cannot read, <a +name="citation26b"></a><a href="#footnote26b" +class="citation">[26b]</a> and Dingley is not so skilful at my +ugly hand. I had to-night a letter from Mr. Pratt, who +tells me Joe will have his money when there are trustees +appointed by the Lord Lieutenant for receiving and disposing the +linen fund; and whenever those trustees are appointed, I will +solicit whoever is Lord Lieutenant, and am in no fear of +succeeding. So pray tell or write him word, and bid him not +be cast down; for Ned Southwell <a name="citation26c"></a><a +href="#footnote26c" class="citation">[26c]</a> and Mr. Addison +both think Pratt in the right. Don’t lose your money +at Manley’s to-night, sirrahs.</p> +<p>4. After I had put out my candle last night, my landlady +came into my room, with a servant of Lord Halifax, to desire I +would go dine with him at his house near Hampton Court; <a +name="page27"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 27</span>but I sent +him word, I had business of great importance that hindered me, +etc. And to-day I was brought privately to Mr. Harley, who +received me with the greatest respect and kindness imaginable: he +has appointed me an hour on Saturday at four, afternoon, when I +will open my business to him; which expression I would not use if +I were a woman. I know you smoked it; but I did not till I +writ it. I dined to-day at Mr. Delaval’s, the Envoy +for Portugal, with Nic Rowe <a name="citation27a"></a><a +href="#footnote27a" class="citation">[27a]</a> the poet, and +other friends; and I gave my lampoon to be printed. I have +more mischief in my heart; and I think it shall go round with +them all, as this hits, and I can find hints. I am certain +I answered your 2d letter, and yet I do not find it here. I +suppose it was in my 4th: and why N. 2d, 3d; is it not enough to +say, as I do, 1, 2, 3? etc. I am going to work at another +<i>Tatler</i>: <a name="citation27b"></a><a href="#footnote27b" +class="citation">[27b]</a> I’ll be far enough but I +say the same thing over two or three times, just as I do when I +am talking to little MD; but what care I? they can read it as +easily as I can write it: I think I have brought these lines +pretty straight again. I fear it will be long before I +finish two sides at this rate. Pray, dear MD, when I +occasionally give you any little commission mixed with my +letters, don’t forget it, as that to Morgan and Joe, etc., +for I write just as I can remember, otherwise I would put them +all together. I was to visit Mr. Sterne to-day, and give +him your commission about handkerchiefs: that of chocolate I will +do myself, and send it him when he goes, and you’ll pay me +when <i>the giver’s bread</i>, <a name="citation27c"></a><a +href="#footnote27c" class="citation">[27c]</a> etc. +To-night I will read a pamphlet, to amuse myself. God +preserve your dear healths!</p> +<p>5. This morning Delaval came to see me, and we went +together to Kneller’s, <a name="citation27d"></a><a +href="#footnote27d" class="citation">[27d]</a> who was not in +town. In the way we met <a name="page28"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 28</span>the electors for Parliament-men: <a +name="citation28a"></a><a href="#footnote28a" +class="citation">[28a]</a> and the rabble came about our coach, +crying, “A Colt, a Stanhope,” etc. We were +afraid of a dead cat, or our glasses broken, and so were always +of their side. I dined again at Delaval’s; and in the +evening, at the Coffee-house, heard Sir Andrew Fountaine <a +name="citation28b"></a><a href="#footnote28b" +class="citation">[28b]</a> was come to town. This has been +but an insipid sort of day, and I have nothing to remark upon it +worth threepence: I hope MD had a better, with the Dean, the +Bishop, or Mrs. Walls. <a name="citation28c"></a><a +href="#footnote28c" class="citation">[28c]</a> Why, the +reason you lost four and eightpence last night but one at +Manley’s was, because you played bad games: I took notice +of six that you had ten to one against you: Would any but a mad +lady go out twice upon Manilio; Basto, and two small diamonds? <a +name="citation28d"></a><a href="#footnote28d" +class="citation">[28d]</a> Then in that game of spades, you +blundered when you had ten-ace; I never saw the like of you: and +now you are in a huff because I tell you this. Well, +here’s two and eightpence halfpenny towards your loss.</p> +<p>6. Sir Andrew Fountaine came this morning, and caught me +writing in bed. I went into the city with him; and we dined +at the Chop-house with Will Pate, <a name="citation28e"></a><a +href="#footnote28e" class="citation">[28e]</a> the learned +woollen-draper: <a name="page29"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +29</span>then we sauntered at China-shops <a +name="citation29a"></a><a href="#footnote29a" +class="citation">[29a]</a> and booksellers; went to the tavern, +drank two pints of white wine, and never parted till ten: and now +I am come home, and must copy out some papers I intend for Mr. +Harley, whom I am to see, as I told you, to-morrow afternoon; so +that this night I shall say little to MD, but that I heartily +wish myself with them, and will come as soon as I either fail, or +compass my business. We now hear daily of elections; and, +in a list I saw yesterday of about twenty, there are seven or +eight more Tories than in the last Parliament; so that I believe +they need not fear a majority, with the help of those who will +vote as the Court pleases. But I have been told that Mr. +Harley himself would not let the Tories be too numerous, for fear +they should be insolent, and kick against him; and for that +reason they have kept several Whigs in employments, who expected +to be turned out every day; as Sir John Holland the Comptroller, +and many others. And so get you gone to your cards, and +your claret and orange, at the Dean’s; and I’ll go +write.</p> +<p>7. I wonder when this letter will be finished: it must +go by Tuesday, that’s certain; and if I have one from MD +before, I will not answer it, that’s as certain too. +’Tis now morning, and I did not finish my papers for Mr. +Harley last night; for you must understand Presto was sleepy, and +made blunders and blots. Very pretty that I must be writing +to young women in a morning fresh and fasting, faith. Well, +good-morrow to you; and so I go to business, and lay aside this +paper till night, sirrahs.—At night. Jack How <a +name="citation29b"></a><a href="#footnote29b" +class="citation">[29b]</a> told Harley that if there were a lower +place in hell than another, it was reserved for his porter, who +tells lies so gravely, and with so civil a manner. This +porter I have had to deal with, going this evening at four to +visit Mr. Harley, by his own <a name="page30"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 30</span>appointment. But the fellow +told me no lie, though I suspected every word he said. He +told me his master was just gone to dinner, with much company, +and desired I would come an hour hence: which I did, expecting to +hear Mr. Harley was gone out; but they had just done +dinner. Mr. Harley came out to me, brought me in, and +presented to me his son-in-law Lord Doblane <a +name="citation30a"></a><a href="#footnote30a" +class="citation">[30a]</a> (or some such name) and his own son, +<a name="citation30b"></a><a href="#footnote30b" +class="citation">[30b]</a> and, among others, Will Penn <a +name="citation30c"></a><a href="#footnote30c" +class="citation">[30c]</a> the Quaker: we sat two hours drinking +as good wine as you do; and two hours more he and I alone; where +he heard me tell my business; entered into it with all kindness; +asked for my powers, and read them; and read likewise a memorial +<a name="citation30d"></a><a href="#footnote30d" +class="citation">[30d]</a> I had drawn up, and put it in his +pocket to show the Queen; told me the measures he would take; +and, in short, said everything I could wish: told me, he must +bring Mr. St. John <a name="citation30e"></a><a +href="#footnote30e" class="citation">[30e]</a> (Secretary of +State) and me acquainted; and spoke so many things of personal +kindness and esteem for me, that I am inclined half to believe +what some friends have told me, that he would do everything to +bring me over. He has desired to dine with me (what a +comical mistake was that!). I mean he has desired me to +dine with him on Tuesday; and after four hours being with him, +set me down at St. James’s Coffee-house in a +hackney-coach. All this is odd and comical, if you consider +him and me. He knew my Christian name very well. I +could not forbear saying thus much upon this matter, although you +will think it tedious. But I’ll tell you; <a +name="page31"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 31</span>you must +know, ’tis fatal <a name="citation31a"></a><a +href="#footnote31a" class="citation">[31a]</a> to me to be a +scoundrel and a prince the same day: for, being to see him at +four, I could not engage myself to dine at any friend’s; so +I went to Tooke, <a name="citation31b"></a><a href="#footnote31b" +class="citation">[31b]</a> to give him a ballad, and dine with +him; but he was not at home: so I was forced to go to a blind <a +name="citation31c"></a><a href="#footnote31c" +class="citation">[31c]</a> chop-house, and dine for tenpence upon +gill-ale, <a name="citation31d"></a><a href="#footnote31d" +class="citation">[31d]</a> bad broth, and three chops of mutton; +and then go reeking from thence to the First Minister of +State. And now I am going in charity to send Steele a +<i>Tatler</i>, who is very low of late. I think I am +civiller than I used to be; and have not used the expression of +“you in Ireland” and “we in England” as I +did when I was here before, to your great indignation.—They +may talk of the you know what; <a name="citation31e"></a><a +href="#footnote31e" class="citation">[31e]</a> but, gad, if it +had not been for that, I should never have been able to get the +access I have had; and if that helps me to succeed, then that +same thing will be serviceable to the Church. But how far +we must depend upon new friends, I have learnt by long practice, +though I think among great Ministers, they are just as good as +old ones. And so I think this important day has made a +great hole in this side of the paper; and the fiddle-faddles of +to-morrow and Monday will make up the rest; and, besides, I shall +see Harley on Tuesday before this letter goes.</p> +<p>8. I must tell you a great piece of refinement <a +name="citation31f"></a><a href="#footnote31f" +class="citation">[31f]</a> of Harley. He charged me to come +to him often: I told him I was loth to trouble him in so much +business as he had, and desired I might have leave to come at his +levee; which he immediately refused, and said, that was not a +place for friends to come to. ’Tis now but morning; +and I have got a foolish trick, I must say something to MD when I +wake, and wish them a good-morrow; for this is not a shaving-day, +Sunday, so I have time enough: but get you gone, you rogues, I +must go write: Yes, ’twill vex me to the blood if any of +these long letters <a name="page32"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +32</span>should miscarry: if they do, I will shrink to +half-sheets again; but then what will you do to make up the +journal? there will be ten days of Presto’s life lost; and +that will be a sad thing, faith and troth.—At night. +I was at a loss to-day for a dinner, unless I would have gone a +great way, so I dined with some friends that board hereabout, <a +name="citation32a"></a><a href="#footnote32a" +class="citation">[32a]</a> as a spunger; <a +name="citation32b"></a><a href="#footnote32b" +class="citation">[32b]</a> and this evening Sir Andrew Fountaine +would needs have me go to the tavern; where, for two bottles of +wine, Portugal and Florence, among three of us, we had sixteen +shillings to pay; but if ever he catches me so again, I’ll +spend as many pounds: and therefore I have it among my +extraordinaries but we had a neck of mutton dressed <i>à +la Maintenon</i>, that the dog could not eat: and it is now +twelve o’clock, and I must go sleep. I hope this +letter will go before I have MD’s third. Do you +believe me? and yet, faith, I long for MD’s third too and +yet I would have it to say, that I writ five for two. I am +not fond at all of St. James’s Coffee-house, <a +name="citation32c"></a><a href="#footnote32c" +class="citation">[32c]</a> as I used to be. I hope it will +mend in winter; but now they are all out of town at elections, or +not come from their country houses. Yesterday I was going +with Dr. Garth <a name="citation32d"></a><a href="#footnote32d" +class="citation">[32d]</a> to dine with Charles Main, <a +name="citation32e"></a><a href="#footnote32e" +class="citation">[32e]</a> near the Tower, who has an employment +there: he is of Ireland; the Bishop of Clogher knows him well: an +honest, good-natured fellow, a thorough hearty laugher, mightily +beloved by the men of wit: his mistress is never above a +cook-maid. And so, good-night, etc.</p> +<p>9. I dined to-day at Sir John Stanley’s; my Lady +Stanley <a name="citation32f"></a><a href="#footnote32f" +class="citation">[32f]</a> is one of my favourites: I have as +many here as the Bishop of Killala has in Ireland. I am +thinking what scurvy company I shall be to MD when I come back: +they know everything of me already: I will tell you no more, or I +shall have nothing to say, no story to tell, nor any kind of +thing. I was <a name="page33"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +33</span>very uneasy last night with ugly, nasty, filthy wine, +that turned sour on my stomach. I must go to the tavern: +oh, but I told you that before. To-morrow I dine at +Harley’s, and will finish this letter at my return; but I +can write no more now, because of the Archbishop: faith, +’tis true; for I am going now to write to him an account of +what I have done in the business with Harley: <a +name="citation33a"></a><a href="#footnote33a" +class="citation">[33a]</a> and, faith, young women, I’ll +tell you what you must count upon, that I never will write one +word on the third side in these long letters.</p> +<p>10. Poor MD’s letter was lying so huddled up among +papers, I could not find it: I mean poor Presto’s +letter. Well, I dined with Mr. Harley to-day, and hope some +things will be done; but I must say no more: and this letter must +be sent to the post-house, and not by the bellman. <a +name="citation33b"></a><a href="#footnote33b" +class="citation">[33b]</a> I am to dine again there on +Sunday next; I hope to some good issue. And so now, soon as +ever I can in bed, I must begin my 6th to MD as gravely as if I +had not written a word this month: fine doings, faith! +Methinks I don’t write as I should, because I am not in +bed: see the ugly wide lines. God Almighty ever bless you, +etc.</p> +<p>Faith, this is a whole treatise; I’ll go reckon the +lines on the other sides. I’ve reckoned them. <a +name="citation33c"></a><a href="#footnote33c" +class="citation">[33c]</a></p> +<h3>LETTER VI.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Oct.</i> 10, 1710.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">So</span>, as I told you just now in the +letter I sent half an hour ago, I dined with Mr. Harley to-day, +who presented me to the Attorney-General, Sir Simon Harcourt, +with much compliment on all sides, etc. Harley told me he +had shown my memorial to the Queen, and seconded it very +heartily; and he desires me to dine with him again on Sunday, +when he promises to settle it with Her Majesty, <a +name="page34"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 34</span>before she +names a Governor: <a name="citation34a"></a><a +href="#footnote34a" class="citation">[34a]</a> and I protest I am +in hopes it will be done, all but the forms, by that time; for he +loves the Church. This is a popular thing, and he would not +have a Governor share in it; and, besides, I am told by all +hands, he has a mind to gain me over. But in the letter I +writ last post (yesterday) to the Archbishop, I did not tell him +a syllable of what Mr. Harley said to me last night, because he +charged me to keep it secret; so I would not tell it to you, but +that, before this goes, I hope the secret will be over. I +am now writing my poetical “Description of a Shower in +London,” and will send it to the <i>Tatler</i>. <a +name="citation34b"></a><a href="#footnote34b" +class="citation">[34b]</a> This is the last sheet of a +whole quire I have written since I came to town. Pray, now +it comes into my head, will you, when you go to Mrs. Walls, +contrive to know whether Mrs. Wesley <a name="citation34c"></a><a +href="#footnote34c" class="citation">[34c]</a> be in town, and +still at her brother’s, and how she is in health, and +whether she stays in town. I writ to her from Chester, to +know what I should do with her note; and I believe the poor woman +is afraid to write to me: so I must go to my business, etc.</p> +<p>11. To-day at last I dined with Lord Mountrath, <a +name="citation34d"></a><a href="#footnote34d" +class="citation">[34d]</a> and carried Lord Mountjoy, and Sir +Andrew Fountaine with me; and was looking over them at ombre till +eleven this evening like a fool: they played running ombre +half-crowns; and Sir Andrew Fountaine won eight guineas of Mr. +Coote; <a name="citation34e"></a><a href="#footnote34e" +class="citation">[34e]</a> so I am come home late, and will say +but little to MD this night. I have gotten half a bushel of +coals, and Patrick, the extravagant whelp, had a fire ready for +me; but I picked off the coals before I went to bed. It is +a sign London is now an empty place, when it will not furnish me +with matter for above five or six lines in a day. Did you +smoke in my last how I told you the very day and the place you +were playing at ombre? But I interlined and altered a +little, after I had <a name="page35"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +35</span>received a letter from Mr. Manley, that said you were at +it in his house, while he was writing to me; but without his help +I guessed within one day. Your town is certainly much more +sociable than ours. I have not seen your mother yet, +etc.</p> +<p>12. I dined to-day with Dr. Garth and Mr. Addison, at +the Devil Tavern <a name="citation35a"></a><a href="#footnote35a" +class="citation">[35a]</a> by Temple Bar, and Garth treated; and +’tis well I dine every day, else I should be longer making +out my letters: for we are yet in a very dull state, only +inquiring every day after new elections, where the Tories carry +it among the new members six to one. Mr. Addison’s +election <a name="citation35b"></a><a href="#footnote35b" +class="citation">[35b]</a> has passed easy and undisputed; and I +believe if he had a mind to be chosen king, he would hardly be +refused. An odd accident has happened at Colchester: one +Captain Lavallin, <a name="citation35c"></a><a +href="#footnote35c" class="citation">[35c]</a> coming from +Flanders or Spain, found his wife with child by a clerk of +Doctors’ Commons, whose trade, you know, it is to prevent +fornications: and this clerk was the very same fellow that made +the discovery of Dyot’s <a name="citation35d"></a><a +href="#footnote35d" class="citation">[35d]</a> counterfeiting the +stamp-paper. Lavallin has been this fortnight hunting after +the clerk, to kill him; but the fellow was constantly employed at +the Treasury, about the discovery he made: the wife had made a +shift to patch up the business, alleging that the clerk had told +her her husband was dead and other excuses; but t’other day +somebody told Lavallin his wife had intrigues before he married +her: upon which he goes down in a rage, shoots his wife through +the head, then falls on his sword; and, to make the matter sure, +at the same time discharges a pistol through his own head, and +died on the spot, his wife surviving him about two hours, but in +what circumstances of mind and body is terrible to imagine. +I have finished my poem on the “Shower,” all but the +beginning; and am going on with my <i>Tatler</i>. They have +fixed about <a name="page36"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +36</span>fifty things on me since I came: I have printed but +three. <a name="citation36a"></a><a href="#footnote36a" +class="citation">[36a]</a> One advantage I get by writing to you +daily, or rather you get, is, that I shall remember not to write +the same things twice; and yet, I fear, I have done it often +already: but I will mind and confine myself to the accidents of +the day; and so get you gone to ombre, and be good girls, and +save your money, and be rich against Presto comes, and write to +me now and then: I am thinking it would be a pretty thing to hear +sometimes from saucy MD; but do not hurt your eyes, Stella, I +charge you.</p> +<p>13. O Lord, here is but a trifle of my letter written +yet; what shall Presto do for prattle-prattle, to entertain +MD? The talk now grows fresher of the Duke of Ormond for +Ireland; though Mr. Addison says he hears it will be in +commission, and Lord Galway <a name="citation36b"></a><a +href="#footnote36b" class="citation">[36b]</a> one. These +letters of mine are a sort of journal, where matters open by +degrees; and, as I tell true or false, you will find by the event +whether my intelligence be good; but I do not care twopence +whether it be or no.—At night. To-day I was all about +St. Paul’s, and up at the top like a fool, with Sir Andrew +Fountaine and two more; and spent seven shillings for my dinner +like a puppy: this is the second time he has served me so; but I +will never do it again, though all mankind should persuade me, +unconsidering puppies! There is a young fellow here in town +we are all fond of, and about a year or two come from the +University, one Harrison, <a name="citation36c"></a><a +href="#footnote36c" class="citation">[36c]</a> a little pretty +fellow, with a <a name="page37"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +37</span>great deal of wit, good sense, and good nature; has +written some mighty pretty things; that in your 6th +<i>Miscellanea</i>, <a name="citation37a"></a><a +href="#footnote37a" class="citation">[37a]</a> about the Sprig of +an Orange, is his: he has nothing to live on but being governor +to one of the Duke of Queensberry’s <a +name="citation37b"></a><a href="#footnote37b" +class="citation">[37b]</a> sons for forty pounds a year. +The fine fellows are always inviting him to the tavern, and make +him pay his club. Henley <a name="citation37c"></a><a +href="#footnote37c" class="citation">[37c]</a> is a great crony +of his: they are often at the tavern at six or seven shillings +reckoning, and he always makes the poor lad pay his full +share. A colonel and a lord were at him and me the same way +to-night: I absolutely refused, and made Harrison lag behind, and +persuaded him not to go to them. I tell you this, because I +find all rich fellows have that humour of using all people +without any consideration of their fortunes; but I will see them +rot before they shall serve me so. Lord Halifax is always +teasing me to go down to his country house, which will cost me a +guinea to his servants, and twelve shillings coach-hire; and he +shall be hanged first. Is not this a plaguy silly +story? But I am vexed at the heart; for I love the young +fellow, and am resolved to stir up people to do something for +him: he is a Whig, and I will put him upon some of my cast Whigs; +for I have done with them; and they have, I hope, done with this +kingdom for our time. They were sure of the four members +for London above all places, and they have lost three in the +four. <a name="citation37d"></a><a href="#footnote37d" +class="citation">[37d]</a> Sir Richard Onslow, <a +name="citation37e"></a><a href="#footnote37e" +class="citation">[37e]</a> we hear, has lost <a +name="page38"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 38</span>for Surrey; +and they are overthrown in most places. Lookee, +gentlewomen, if I write long letters, I must write you news and +stuff, unless I send you my verses; and some I dare not; and +those on the “Shower in London” I have sent to the +<i>Tatler</i>, and you may see them in Ireland. I fancy you +will smoke me in the <i>Tatler</i> I am going to write; for I +believe I have told you the hint. I had a letter sent me +to-night from Sir Matthew Dudley, and found it on my table when I +came in. Because it is extraordinary, I will transcribe it +from beginning to end. It is as follows: “Is the +Devil in you? Oct. 13, 1710.” I would have +answered every particular passage in it, only I wanted +time. Here is enough for to-night, such as it is, etc.</p> +<p>14. Is that tobacco at the top of the paper, <a +name="citation38a"></a><a href="#footnote38a" +class="citation">[38a]</a> or what? I do not remember I +slobbered. Lord, I dreamt of Stella, etc., so confusedly +last night, and that we saw Dean Bolton <a +name="citation38b"></a><a href="#footnote38b" +class="citation">[38b]</a> and Sterne <a +name="citation38c"></a><a href="#footnote38c" +class="citation">[38c]</a> go into a shop: and she bid me call +them to her, and they proved to be two parsons I know not; and I +walked without till she was shifting, and such stuff, mixed with +much melancholy and uneasiness, and things not as they should be, +and I know not how: and it is now an ugly gloomy +morning.—At night. Mr. Addison and I dined with Ned +Southwell, and walked in the Park; and at the Coffee-house I +found a letter from the Bishop of Clogher, and a packet from +MD. I opened the Bishop’s letter; but put up +MD’s, and visited a lady just come to town; and am now got +into bed, and going to open your little letter: and God send I +may find MD well, and happy, and merry, and that they love Presto +as they do fires. Oh, <a name="page39"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 39</span>I will not open it yet! yes I will! +no I will not! I am going; I cannot stay till I turn over. +<a name="citation39a"></a><a href="#footnote39a" +class="citation">[39a]</a> What shall I do? My +fingers itch; and now I have it in my left hand; and now I will +open it this very moment.—I have just got it, and am +cracking the seal, and cannot imagine what is in it; I fear only +some letter from a bishop, and it comes too late; I shall employ +nobody’s credit but my own. Well, I see +though— Pshaw, ’tis from Sir Andrew +Fountaine. What, another! I fancy that’s from +Mrs. Barton; <a name="citation39b"></a><a href="#footnote39b" +class="citation">[39b]</a> she told me she would write to me; but +she writes a better hand than this: I wish you would inquire; it +must be at Dawson’s <a name="citation39c"></a><a +href="#footnote39c" class="citation">[39c]</a> office at the +Castle. I fear this is from Patty Rolt, by the +scrawl. Well, I will read MD’s letter. Ah, no; +it is from poor Lady Berkeley, to invite me to Berkeley Castle +this winter; and now it grieves my heart: she says, she hopes my +lord is in a fair way of recovery; <a name="citation39d"></a><a +href="#footnote39d" class="citation">[39d]</a> poor lady! Well, +now I go to MD’s letter: faith, it is all right; I hoped it +was wrong. Your letter, N. 3, that I have now received, is +dated Sept. 26; and Manley’s letter, that I had five days +ago, was dated Oct. 3, that’s a fortnight difference: I +doubt it has lain in Steele’s office, and he forgot. +Well, there’s an end of that: he is turned out of his +place; <a name="citation39e"></a><a href="#footnote39e" +class="citation">[39e]</a> and you must desire those who send me +packets, to enclose them in a paper directed to Mr. Addison, at +St. James’s Coffee-house: not common letters, but packets: +the Bishop of Clogher may mention it to the Archbishop when he +sees him. As for your letter, it makes me mad: slidikins, I +have been the best boy in Christendom, and you come with your two +eggs a penny.—Well; but stay, I will look over my book: +adad, I think there was a chasm between my N. 2 and N. 3. +Faith, I will not promise to write to you every week; but I will +write <a name="page40"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +40</span>every night, and when it is full I will send it; that +will be once in ten days, and that will be often enough: and if +you begin to take up the way of writing to Presto, only because +it is Tuesday, a Monday bedad it will grow a task; but write when +you have a mind.—No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no—Agad, +agad, agad, agad, agad, agad; no, poor Stellakins. <a +name="citation40a"></a><a href="#footnote40a" +class="citation">[40a]</a> Slids, I would the horse were in +your—chamber! Have not I ordered Parvisol to obey +your directions about him? And han’t I said in my +former letters that you may pickle him, and boil him, if you +will? What do you trouble me about your horses for? +Have I anything to do with them?—Revolutions a hindrance to +me in my business? Revolutions to me in my business? +If it were not for the revolutions, I could do nothing at all; +and now I have all hopes possible, though one is certain of +nothing; but to-morrow I am to have an answer, and am promised an +effectual one. I suppose I have said enough in this and a +former letter how I stand with new people; ten times better than +ever I did with the old; forty times more caressed. I am to +dine to-morrow at Mr. Harley’s; and if he continues as he +has begun, no man has been ever better treated by another. +What you say about Stella’s mother, I have spoken enough to +it already. I believe she is not in town; for I have not +yet seen her. My lampoon is cried up to the skies; but +nobody suspects me for it, except Sir Andrew Fountaine: at least +they say nothing of it to me. Did not I tell you of a great +man who received me very coldly? <a name="citation40b"></a><a +href="#footnote40b" class="citation">[40b]</a> That’s +he; but say nothing; ’twas only a little revenge. I +will remember to bring it over. The Bishop of Clogher has +smoked my <i>Tatler</i>, <a name="citation40c"></a><a +href="#footnote40c" class="citation">[40c]</a> about shortening +of words, etc. But, God So! <a name="citation40d"></a><a +href="#footnote40d" class="citation">[40d]</a> etc.</p> +<p><a name="page41"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +41</span>15. I will write plainer if I can remember it; for +Stella must not spoil her eyes, and Dingley can’t read my +hand very well; and I am afraid my letters are too long: then you +must suppose one to be two, and read them at twice. I dined +to-day with Mr. Harley: Mr. Prior <a name="citation41a"></a><a +href="#footnote41a" class="citation">[41a]</a> dined with +us. He has left my memorial with the Queen, who has +consented to give the First-Fruits and Twentieth Parts, <a +name="citation41b"></a><a href="#footnote41b" +class="citation">[41b]</a> and will, we hope, declare it +to-morrow in the Cabinet. But I beg you to tell it to no +person alive; for so I am ordered, till in public: and I hope to +get something of greater value. After dinner came in Lord +Peterborow: <a name="citation41c"></a><a href="#footnote41c" +class="citation">[41c]</a> we renewed our acquaintance, and he +grew mightily fond of me. They began to talk of a paper of +verses called “Sid Hamet.” Mr. Harley repeated +part, and then pulled them out, and gave them to a gentleman at +the table to read, though they had all read them often. +Lord Peterborow would let nobody read them but himself: so he +did; and Mr. Harley bobbed <a name="citation41d"></a><a +href="#footnote41d" class="citation">[41d]</a> me at every line, +to take notice of the beauties. Prior rallied Lord +Peterborow for author of them; and Lord Peterborow said he knew +them to be his; and Prior then turned it upon me, and I on +him. I am not guessed at all in town to be the author; yet +so it is: but that is a secret only to you. <a +name="citation41e"></a><a href="#footnote41e" +class="citation">[41e]</a> Ten to one whether you see them +in Ireland; yet here they run prodigiously. Harley +presented me to Lord President of Scotland, <a +name="citation41f"></a><a href="#footnote41f" +class="citation">[41f]</a> and Mr. Benson, <a +name="citation41g"></a><a href="#footnote41g" +class="citation">[41g]</a> Lord of the Treasury. Prior <a +name="page42"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 42</span>and I came +away at nine, and sat at the Smyrna <a name="citation42a"></a><a +href="#footnote42a" class="citation">[42a]</a> till eleven, +receiving acquaintance.</p> +<p>16. This morning early I went in a chair, and Patrick +before it, to Mr. Harley, to give him another copy of my +memorial, as he desired; but he was full of business, going to +the Queen, and I could not see him; but he desired I would send +up the paper, and excused himself upon his hurry. I was a +little baulked; but they tell me it is nothing. I shall +judge by next visit. I tipped his porter with half a crown; +and so I am well there for a time at least. I dined at +Stratford’s in the City, and had Burgundy and Tokay: came +back afoot like a scoundrel: then went with Mr. Addison and +supped with Lord Mountjoy, which made me sick all night. I +forgot that I bought six pounds of chocolate for Stella, and a +little wooden box; and I have a great piece of Brazil tobacco for +Dingley, <a name="citation42b"></a><a href="#footnote42b" +class="citation">[42b]</a> and a bottle of palsy-water <a +name="citation42c"></a><a href="#footnote42c" +class="citation">[42c]</a> for Stella: all which, with the two +handkerchiefs that Mr. Sterne has bought, and you must pay him +for, will be put in the box, directed to Mrs. Curry’s, and +sent by Dr. Hawkshaw, <a name="citation42d"></a><a +href="#footnote42d" class="citation">[42d]</a> whom I have not +seen; but Sterne has undertaken it. The chocolate is a +present, madam, for Stella. Don’t read this, you +little rogue, with your little eyes; but give it to Dingley, pray +now; and I will write as plain as the skies: and let Dingley +write Stella’s part, and Stella dictate to her, when she +apprehends her eyes, etc.</p> +<p>17. This letter should have gone this post, if I had not +been taken up with business, and two nights being late out; so it +must stay till Thursday. I dined to-day with your Mr. <a +name="page43"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 43</span>Sterne, <a +name="citation43a"></a><a href="#footnote43a" +class="citation">[43a]</a> by invitation, and drank Irish wine; +<a name="citation43b"></a><a href="#footnote43b" +class="citation">[43b]</a> but, before we parted, there came in +the prince of puppies, Colonel Edgworth; <a +name="citation43c"></a><a href="#footnote43c" +class="citation">[43c]</a> so I went away. This day came +out the <i>Tatler</i>, made up wholly of my “Shower,” +and a preface to it. They say it is the best thing I ever +writ, and I think so too. I suppose the Bishop of Clogher +will show it you. Pray tell me how you like it. Tooke +is going on with my <i>Miscellany</i>. <a +name="citation43d"></a><a href="#footnote43d" +class="citation">[43d]</a> I’d give a penny the +letter to the Bishop of Killaloe <a name="citation43e"></a><a +href="#footnote43e" class="citation">[43e]</a> was in it: +’twould do him honour. Could not you contrive to say, +you hear they are printing my things together; and that you with +the bookseller had that letter among the rest: but don’t +say anything of it as from me. I forget whether it was good +or no; but only having heard it much commended, perhaps it may +deserve it. Well, I have to-morrow to finish this letter +in, and then I will send it next day. I am so vexed that +you should write your third to me, when you had but my second, +and I had written five, which now I hope you have all: and so I +tell you, you are saucy, little, pretty, dear rogues, etc.</p> +<p>18. To-day I dined, by invitation, with Stratford and +others, at a young merchant’s in the City, with Hermitage +and Tokay, and stayed till nine, and am now come home. And +that dog Patrick is abroad, and drinking, and I cannot I get my +night-gown. I have a mind to turn that puppy away: he has +been drunk ten times in three weeks. But I han’t time +to say more; so good-night, etc.</p> +<p><a name="page44"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +44</span>19. I am come home from dining in the city with +Mr. Addison, at a merchant’s; and just now, at the +Coffee-house, we have notice that the Duke of Ormond was this day +declared Lord Lieutenant at Hampton Court, in Council. I +have not seen Mr. Harley since; but hope the affair is done about +First-Fruits. I will see him, if possible, to-morrow +morning; but this goes to-night. I have sent a box to Mr. +Sterne, to send to you by some friend: I have directed it for Mr. +Curry, at his house; so you have warning when it comes, as I hope +it will soon. The handkerchiefs will be put in some +friend’s pocket, not to pay custom. And so here ends +my sixth, sent when I had but three of MD’s: now I am +beforehand, and will keep so; and God Almighty bless dearest MD, +etc.</p> +<h3>LETTER VII.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Oct.</i> 19, 1710.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Faith</span>, I am undone! this paper is +larger than the other, and yet I am condemned to a sheet; but, +since it is MD, I did not value though I were condemned to a +pair. I told you in my letter to-day where I had been, and +how the day passed; and so, etc.</p> +<p>20. To-day I went to Mr. Lewis, at the Secretary’s +office, to know when I might see Mr. Harley; and by and by comes +up Mr. Harley himself, and appoints me to dine with him +to-morrow. I dined with Mrs. Vanhomrigh, <a +name="citation44a"></a><a href="#footnote44a" +class="citation">[44a]</a> and went to wait on the two Lady +Butlers; <a name="citation44b"></a><a href="#footnote44b" +class="citation">[44b]</a> but the porter answered they were not +at home: the meaning was, the youngest, Lady Mary, is to be +married to-morrow to Lord Ashburnham, <a +name="citation44c"></a><a href="#footnote44c" +class="citation">[44c]</a> the best match now in England, twelve +thousand pounds a year, and abundance of money. Tell me how +my “Shower” is <a name="page45"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 45</span>liked in Ireland: I never knew +anything pass better here. I spent the evening with Wortley +Montagu <a name="citation45a"></a><a href="#footnote45a" +class="citation">[45a]</a> and Mr. Addison, over a bottle of +Irish wine. Do they know anything in Ireland of my +greatness among the Tories? Everybody reproaches me of it +here; but I value them not. Have you heard of the verses +about the “Rod of Sid Hamet”? Say nothing of +them for your life. Hardly anybody suspects me for them; +only they think nobody but Prior or I could write them. But +I doubt they have not reached you. There is likewise a +ballad full of puns on the Westminster Election, <a +name="citation45b"></a><a href="#footnote45b" +class="citation">[45b]</a> that cost me half an hour: it runs, +though it be good for nothing. But this is likewise a +secret to all but MD. If you have them not, I will bring +them over.</p> +<p>21. I got MD’s fourth to-day at the +Coffee-house. God Almighty bless poor, dear Stella, and her +eyes and head! What shall we do to cure them? poor, dear +life! Your disorders are a pull-back for your good +qualities. Would to Heaven I were this minute shaving your +poor, dear head, either here or there! Pray do not write, +nor read this letter, nor anything else; and I will write plainer +for Dingley to read from henceforward, though my pen is apt to +ramble when I think whom I am writing to. I will not answer +your letter until I tell you that I dined this day with Mr. +Harley, who presented me to the Earl of Stirling, <a +name="citation45c"></a><a href="#footnote45c" +class="citation">[45c]</a> a Scotch lord; and in the evening came +in Lord Peterborow. I stayed till nine before Mr. Harley +would let me go, or tell me anything of my affair. He says +the Queen has now granted the First-Fruits and Twentieth Parts; +but he will not give me leave to write to the Archbishop, because +the Queen designs to signify it to the Bishops in Ireland in +form; and to take <a name="page46"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +46</span>notice, that it was done upon a memorial from me; which, +Mr. Harley tells me he does to make it look more respectful to +me, etc.; and I am to see him on Tuesday. I know not +whether I told you that, in my memorial which was given to the +Queen, I begged for two thousand pounds a year more, though it +was not in my commission; but that, Mr. Harley says, cannot yet +be done, and that he and I must talk of it further: however, I +have started it, and it may follow in time. Pray say +nothing of the First-Fruits being granted, unless I give leave at +the bottom of this. I believe never anything was compassed +so soon, and purely done by my personal credit with Mr. Harley, +who is so excessively obliging, that I know not what to make of +it, unless to show the rascals of the other party that they used +a man unworthily who had deserved better. The memorial +given to the Queen from me speaks with great plainness of Lord +Wharton. I believe this business is as important to you as +the Convocation disputes from Tisdall. <a +name="citation46"></a><a href="#footnote46" +class="citation">[46]</a> I hope in a month or two all the +forms of settling this matter will be over; and then I shall have +nothing to do here. I will only add one foolish thing more, +because it is just come into my head. When this thing is +made known, tell me impartially whether they give any of the +merit to me, or no; for I am sure I have so much, that I will +never take it upon me.—Insolent sluts! because I say +Dublin, Ireland, therefore you must say London, England: that is +Stella’s malice.—Well, for that I will not answer +your letter till to-morrow-day, and so and so: I will go write +something else, and it will not be much; for ’tis late.</p> +<p><a name="page47"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +47</span>22. I was this morning with Mr. Lewis, the +under-secretary to Lord Dartmouth, two hours, talking politics, +and contriving to keep Steele in his office of stamped paper: he +has lost his place of Gazetteer, three hundred pounds a year, for +writing a <i>Tatler</i>, <a name="citation47a"></a><a +href="#footnote47a" class="citation">[47a]</a> some months ago, +against Mr. Harley, who gave it him at first, and raised the +salary from sixty to three hundred pounds. This was +devilish ungrateful; and Lewis was telling me the particulars: +but I had a hint given me, that I might save him in the other +employment: and leave was given me to clear matters with +Steele. Well, I dined with Sir Matthew Dudley, and in the +evening went to sit with Mr. Addison, and offer the matter at +distance to him, as the discreeter person; but found party had so +possessed him, that he talked as if he suspected me, and would +not fall in with anything I said. So I stopped short in my +overture, and we parted very drily; and I shall say nothing to +Steele, and let them do as they will; but, if things stand as +they are, he will certainly lose it, unless I save him; and +therefore I will not speak to him, that I may not report to his +disadvantage. Is not this vexatious? and is there so much +in the proverb of proffered service? When shall I grow +wise? I endeavour to act in the most exact points of honour +and conscience; and my nearest friends will not understand it +so. What must a man expect from his enemies? This +would vex me, but it shall not; and so I bid you good-night, +etc.</p> +<p>23. I know ’tis neither wit nor diversion to tell +you every day where I dine; neither do I write it to fill my +letter; but I fancy I shall, some time or other, have the +curiosity of seeing some particulars how I passed my life when I +was absent from MD this time; and so I tell you now that I dined +to-day at Molesworth’s, the Florence Envoy, then went to +the Coffee-house, where I behaved myself coldly enough to Mr. +Addison, and so came home to scribble. We dine together +to-morrow and next day by invitation; but I shall <a +name="page48"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 48</span>alter my +behaviour to him, till he begs my pardon, or else we shall grow +bare acquaintance. I am weary of friends; and friendships +are all monsters, but MD’s.</p> +<p>24. I forgot to tell you, that last night I went to Mr. +Harley’s, hoping—faith, I am blundering, for it was +this very night at six; and I hoped he would have told me all +things were done and granted: but he was abroad, and came home +ill, and was gone to bed, much out of order, unless the porter +lied. I dined to-day at Sir Matthew Dudley’s, with +Mr. Addison, etc.</p> +<p>25. I was to-day to see the Duke of Ormond; and, coming +out, met Lord Berkeley of Stratton, <a name="citation48a"></a><a +href="#footnote48a" class="citation">[48a]</a> who told me that +Mrs. Temple, <a name="citation48b"></a><a href="#footnote48b" +class="citation">[48b]</a> the widow, died last Saturday, which, +I suppose, is much to the outward grief and inward joy of the +family. I dined to-day with Addison and Steele, and a +sister of Mr. Addison, who is married to one Mons. Sartre, <a +name="citation48c"></a><a href="#footnote48c" +class="citation">[48c]</a> a Frenchman, prebendary of +Westminster, who has a delicious house and garden; yet I thought +it was a sort of monastic life in those cloisters, and I liked +Laracor better. Addison’s sister is a sort of a wit, +very like him. I am not fond of her, etc.</p> +<p>26. I was to-day to see Mr. Congreve, <a +name="citation48d"></a><a href="#footnote48d" +class="citation">[48d]</a> who is almost blind with cataracts +growing on his eyes; and his case is, that he must wait two or +three years, until the cataracts are riper, and till he is quite +blind, and then he must have them couched; and, besides, he is +never rid of the gout, yet he looks young and fresh, and is as +cheerful as ever. He is younger by three years or more than +I; and I am twenty <a name="page49"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +49</span>years younger than he. He gave me a pain in the +great toe, by mentioning the gout. I find such suspicions +frequently, but they go off again. I had a second letter +from Mr. Morgan, <a name="citation49a"></a><a href="#footnote49a" +class="citation">[49a]</a> for which I thank you: I wish you were +whipped, for forgetting to send him that answer I desired you in +one of my former, that I could do nothing for him of what he +desired, having no credit at all, etc. Go, be far enough, +you negligent baggages. I have had also a letter from +Parvisol, with an account how my livings are set; and that they +are fallen, since last year, sixty pounds. A comfortable +piece of news! He tells me plainly that he finds you have +no mind to part with the horse, because you sent for him at the +same time you sent him my letter; so that I know not what must be +done. It is a sad thing that Stella must have her own +horse, whether Parvisol will or no. So now to answer your +letter that I had three or four days ago. I am not now in +bed, but am come home by eight; and, it being warm, I write +up. I never writ to the Bishop of Killala, which, I +suppose, was the reason he had not my letter. I have not +time, there is the short of it.—As fond as the Dean <a +name="citation49b"></a><a href="#footnote49b" +class="citation">[49b]</a> is of my letter, he has not written to +me. I would only know whether Dean Bolton <a +name="citation49c"></a><a href="#footnote49c" +class="citation">[49c]</a> paid him the twenty pounds; and for +the rest, he may kiss—And that you may ask him, because I +am in pain about it, that Dean Bolton is such a whipster. +’Tis the most obliging thing in the world in Dean Sterne to +be so kind to you. I believe he knows it will please me, +and makes up, that way, his other usage. <a +name="citation49d"></a><a href="#footnote49d" +class="citation">[49d]</a> No, we have had none of your +snow, but a little one morning; yet I think it was great snow for +an hour or so, but no longer. I had heard of Will +Crowe’s <a name="citation49e"></a><a href="#footnote49e" +class="citation">[49e]</a> death before, but not the foolish +circumstance that hastened his end. No, I have taken care +that <a name="page50"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +50</span>Captain Pratt <a name="citation50a"></a><a +href="#footnote50a" class="citation">[50a]</a> shall not suffer +by Lord Anglesea’s death. <a name="citation50b"></a><a +href="#footnote50b" class="citation">[50b]</a> I will try +some contrivance to get a copy of my picture from Jervas. I +will make Sir Andrew Fountaine buy one as for himself, and I will +pay him again, and take it, that is, provided I have money to +spare when I leave this.—Poor John! is he gone? and Madam +Parvisol <a name="citation50c"></a><a href="#footnote50c" +class="citation">[50c]</a> has been in town! Humm. Why, +Tighe <a name="citation50d"></a><a href="#footnote50d" +class="citation">[50d]</a> and I, when he comes, shall not take +any notice of each other; I would not do it much in this town, +though we had not fallen out.—I was to-day at Mr. +Sterne’s lodging: he was not within; and Mr. Leigh is not +come to town; but I will do Dingley’s errand when I see +him. What do I know whether china be dear or no? I +once took a fancy of resolving to grow mad for it, but now it is +off; I suppose I told you in some former letter. And so you +only want some salad-dishes, and plates, and etc. Yes, yes, +you shall. I suppose you have named as much as will cost +five pounds.—Now to Stella’s little postscript; and I +am almost crazed that you vex yourself for not writing. +Cannot you dictate to Dingley, and not strain your little, dear +eyes? I am sure it is the grief of my soul to think you are +out of order. Pray be quiet; and, if you will write, shut +your eyes, and write just a line, and no more, thus, “How +do you do, Mrs. Stella?” That was written with my +eyes shut. Faith, I think it is better than when they are +open: and then Dingley may stand by, and tell you when you go too +high or too low.—My letters of business, with packets, if +there be any more occasion for such, must be enclosed to Mr. +Addison, at St. James’s Coffee-house: but I hope to hear, +as soon as I see Mr. Harley, that the main difficulties are over, +and that the rest will be but form.—Take two or three +nutgalls, take two or three—galls, stop your receipt in +your—I have no need on’t. Here is a +clutter! Well, so much for your letter, which I will now +put up in my letter-partition in my cabinet, as I always do every +letter as soon as I answer it. Method <a +name="page51"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 51</span>is good in +all things. Order governs the world. The Devil is the +author of confusion. A general of an army, a minister of +state; to descend lower, a gardener, a weaver, etc. That +may make a fine observation, if you think it worth finishing; but +I have not time. Is not this a terrible long piece for one +evening? I dined to-day with Patty Rolt at my cousin +Leach’s, <a name="citation51a"></a><a href="#footnote51a" +class="citation">[51a]</a> with a pox, in the City: he is a +printer, and prints the <i>Postman</i>, oh hoo, and is my cousin, +God knows how, and he married Mrs. Baby Aires of Leicester; and +my cousin Thomson was with us: and my cousin Leach offers to +bring me acquainted with the author of the <i>Postman</i>; <a +name="citation51b"></a><a href="#footnote51b" +class="citation">[51b]</a> and says he does not doubt but the +gentleman will be glad of my acquaintance; and that he is a very +ingenious man, and a great scholar, and has been beyond +sea. But I was modest and said, may be the gentleman was +shy, and not fond of new acquaintance; and so put it off: and I +wish you could hear me repeating all I have said of this in its +proper tone, just as I am writing it. It is all with the +same cadence with “Oh hoo,” or as when little girls +say, “I have got an apple, miss, and I won’t give you +some.” It is plaguy twelvepenny weather this last +week, and has cost me ten shillings in coach and chair +hire. If the fellow that has your money will pay it, let me +beg you to buy Bank Stock with it, which is fallen near thirty +per cent. and pays eight pounds per cent. and you have the +principal when you please: it will certainly soon rise. I +would to God Lady Giffard would put in the four hundred pounds +she owes you, <a name="citation51c"></a><a href="#footnote51c" +class="citation">[51c]</a> and take the five per cent. common +interest, and give you the remainder. I will speak to your +mother about it when I see her. I am resolved <a +name="page52"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 52</span>to buy three +hundred pounds of it for myself, and take up what I have in +Ireland; and I have a contrivance for it, that I hope will do, by +making a friend of mine buy it as for himself, and I will pay him +when I can get in my money. I hope Stratford will do me +that kindness. I’ll ask him to-morrow or next +day.</p> +<p>27. Mr. Rowe <a name="citation52a"></a><a +href="#footnote52a" class="citation">[52a]</a> the poet desired +me to dine with him to-day. I went to his office (he is +under-secretary in Mr. Addison’s place that he had in +England), and there was Mr. Prior; and they both fell commending +my “Shower” beyond anything that has been written of +the kind: there never was such a “Shower” since +Danae’s, etc. You must tell me how it is liked among +you. I dined with Rowe; Prior could not come: and after +dinner we went to a blind tavern, <a name="citation52b"></a><a +href="#footnote52b" class="citation">[52b]</a> where Congreve, +Sir Richard Temple, <a name="citation52c"></a><a +href="#footnote52c" class="citation">[52c]</a> Estcourt, <a +name="citation52d"></a><a href="#footnote52d" +class="citation">[52d]</a> and Charles Main, <a +name="citation52e"></a><a href="#footnote52e" +class="citation">[52e]</a> were over a bowl of bad punch. +The knight sent for six flasks of his own wine for me, and we +stayed till twelve. But now my head continues pretty well; +I have left off my drinking, and only take a spoonful mixed with +water, for fear of the gout, or some ugly distemper; and now, +because it is late, I will, etc.</p> +<p>28. Garth and Addison and I dined to-day at a hedge <a +name="citation52f"></a><a href="#footnote52f" +class="citation">[52f]</a> tavern; then I went to Mr. Harley, but +he was denied, or not at home: so I fear I shall not hear my +business is done before this goes. Then I visited Lord +Pembroke, <a name="citation52g"></a><a href="#footnote52g" +class="citation">[52g]</a> who is just come <a +name="page53"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 53</span>to town; and +we were very merry talking of old things; and I hit him with one +pun. Then I went to see the Ladies Butler, and the son of a +whore of a porter denied them: so I sent them a threatening +message by another lady, for not excepting me always to the +porter. I was weary of the Coffee-house, and Ford <a +name="citation53a"></a><a href="#footnote53a" +class="citation">[53a]</a> desired me to sit with him at next +door; which I did, like a fool, chatting till twelve, and now am +got into bed. I am afraid the new Ministry is at a terrible +loss about money: the Whigs talk so, it would give one the +spleen; and I am afraid of meeting Mr. Harley out of +humour. They think he will never carry through this +undertaking. God knows what will come of it. I should +be terribly vexed to see things come round again: it will ruin +the Church and clergy for ever; but I hope for better. I +will send this on Tuesday, whether I hear any further news of my +affair or not.</p> +<p>29. Mr. Addison and I dined to-day with Lord Mountjoy; +which is all the adventures of this day.—I chatted a while +to-night in the Coffee-house, this being a full night; and now am +come home, to write some business.</p> +<p>30. I dined to-day at Mrs. Vanhomrigh’s, and sent +a letter to poor Mrs. Long, <a name="citation53b"></a><a +href="#footnote53b" class="citation">[53b]</a> who writes to us, +but is God knows where, and will not tell anybody the place of +her residence. I came home early, and must go write.</p> +<p>31. The month ends with a fine day; and I have been +walking, and visiting Lewis, and concerting where to see Mr. +Harley. I have no news to send you. Aire, <a +name="citation53c"></a><a href="#footnote53c" +class="citation">[53c]</a> they say, is taken, though the +Whitehall letters this morning say quite the contrary: ’tis +good, if it be true. I dined with Mr. Addison and Dick +Stewart, Lord Mountjoy’s brother; <a +name="citation53d"></a><a href="#footnote53d" +class="citation">[53d]</a> a treat of Addison’s. They +were half-fuddled, but not I; for I mixed water with my wine, and +left them together <a name="page54"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +54</span>between nine and ten; and I must send this by the +bellman, which vexes me, but I will put it off no longer. +Pray God it does not miscarry. I seldom do so; but I can +put off little MD no longer. Pray give the under note to +Mrs. Brent.</p> +<p>I am a pretty gentleman; and you lose all your money at cards, +sirrah Stella. I found you out; I did so.</p> +<p>I am staying before I can fold up this letter, till that ugly +D is dry in the last line but one. Do not you see it? +O Lord, I am loth to leave you, faith—but it must be so, +till the next time. Pox take that D; I will blot it, to dry +it.</p> +<h3>LETTER VIII.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Oct.</i> 31, 1710.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">So</span>, now I have sent my seventh to +your fourth, young women; and now I will tell you what I would +not in my last, that this morning, sitting in my bed, I had a fit +of giddiness: the room turned round for about a minute, and then +it went off, leaving me sickish, but not very: and so I passed +the day as I told you; but I would not end a letter with telling +you this, because it might vex you: and I hope in God I shall +have no more of it. I saw Dr. Cockburn <a +name="citation54a"></a><a href="#footnote54a" +class="citation">[54a]</a> to-day, and he promises to send me the +pills that did me good last year; and likewise has promised me an +oil for my ear, that he has been making for that ailment for +somebody else.</p> +<p>Nov. 1. I wish MD a merry new year. You know this +is the first day of it with us. <a name="citation54b"></a><a +href="#footnote54b" class="citation">[54b]</a> I had no +giddiness to-day; but I drank brandy, and have bought a pint for +two shillings. I sat up the night before my giddiness +pretty late, and writ very much; so I will impute it to +that. But I never eat fruit, nor drink ale; but drink +better wine than you do, as I <a name="page55"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 55</span>did to-day with Mr. Addison at Lord +Mountjoy’s: then went at five to see Mr. Harley, who could +not see me for much company; but sent me his excuse, and desired +I would dine with him on Friday; and then I expect some answer to +this business, which must either be soon done, or begun again; +and then the Duke of Ormond and his people will interfere for +their honour, and do nothing. I came home at six, and spent +my time in my chamber, without going to the Coffee-house, which I +grow weary of; and I studied at leisure, writ not above forty +lines, some inventions of my own, and some hints, and read not at +all, and this because I would take care of Presto, for fear +little MD should be angry.</p> +<p>2. I took my four pills last night, and they lay an hour +in my throat, and so they will do to-night. I suppose I +could swallow four affronts as easily. I dined with Dr. +Cockburn to-day, and came home at seven; but Mr. Ford has been +with me till just now, and it is near eleven. I have had no +giddiness to-day. Mr. Dopping <a name="citation55a"></a><a +href="#footnote55a" class="citation">[55a]</a> I have seen; and +he tells me coldly, my “Shower” is liked well enough; +there’s your Irish judgment! I writ this post to the +Bishop of Clogher. It is now just a fortnight since I heard +from you. I must have you write once a fortnight, and then +I will allow for wind and weather. How goes ombre? +Does Mrs. Walls <a name="citation55b"></a><a href="#footnote55b" +class="citation">[55b]</a> win constantly, as she used to +do? And Mrs. Stoyte; <a name="citation55c"></a><a +href="#footnote55c" class="citation">[55c]</a> I have not thought +of her this long time: how does she? I find we have a cargo +of Irish coming for London: I am sorry for it; but I never go +near them. And Tighe is landed; but Mrs. Wesley, <a +name="citation55d"></a><a href="#footnote55d" +class="citation">[55d]</a> they say, is going home to her +husband, like a fool. Well, little monkeys mine, I must go +write; and so good-night.</p> +<p><a name="page56"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +56</span>3. I ought to read these letters I write, after I +have done; for, looking over thus much, I found two or three +literal mistakes, which should not be when the hand is so +bad. But I hope it does not puzzle little Dingley to read, +for I think I mend: but methinks, when I write plain, I do not +know how, but we are not alone, all the world can see us. A +bad scrawl is so snug, it looks like a PMD. <a +name="citation56a"></a><a href="#footnote56a" +class="citation">[56a]</a> We have scurvy <i>Tatlers</i> of +late: so pray do not suspect me. I have one or two hints I +design to send him, and never any more: he does not deserve +it. He is governed by his wife most abominably, <a +name="citation56b"></a><a href="#footnote56b" +class="citation">[56b]</a> as bad as —. I never saw +her since I came; nor has he ever made me an invitation: either +he dares not, or is such a thoughtless Tisdall <a +name="citation56c"></a><a href="#footnote56c" +class="citation">[56c]</a> fellow, that he never minds <a +name="citation56d"></a><a href="#footnote56d" +class="citation">[56d]</a> it. So what care I for his wit? +for he is the worst company in the world, till he has a bottle of +wine in his head. I cannot write straighter in bed, so you +must be content.—At night in bed. Stay, let me see +where’s this letter to MD among these papers? Oh! +here. Well, I will go on now; but I am very busy (smoke the +new pen.) I dined with Mr. Harley to-day, and am invited +there again on Sunday. I have now leave to write to the +Primate and Archbishop of Dublin, that the Queen has granted the +First-Fruits; but they are to take no notice of it, till a letter +is sent them by the Queen’s orders from Lord Dartmouth, +Secretary of State, to signify it. The bishops are to be +made a corporation, to dispose of the revenue, etc.; and I shall +write to the Archbishop of Dublin to-morrow (I have had no +giddiness to-day). I know not whether they will have any +occasion for me longer to be here; nor can I judge till I see +what letter the Queen sends to the bishops, and what they will do +upon it. If despatch <a name="page57"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 57</span>be used, it may be done in six weeks; +but I cannot judge. They sent me to-day a new Commission, +signed by the Primate and Archbishop of Dublin, <a +name="citation57a"></a><a href="#footnote57a" +class="citation">[57a]</a> and promise me letters to the two +archbishops here; but mine a — for it all. The thing +is done, and has been so these ten days; though I had only leave +to tell it to-day. I had this day likewise a letter from +the Bishop of Clogher, who complains of my not writing; and, what +vexes me, says he knows you have long letters from me every +week. Why do you tell him so? ’Tis not right, +faith: but I won’t be angry with MD at distance. I +writ to him last post, before I had his; and will write again +soon, since I see he expects it, and that Lord and Lady Mountjoy +<a name="citation57b"></a><a href="#footnote57b" +class="citation">[57b]</a> put him off upon me, to give +themselves ease. Lastly, I had this day a letter from a +certain naughty rogue called MD, and it was N. 5; which I shall +not answer to-night, I thank you. No, faith, I have other +fish to fry; but to-morrow or next day will be time enough. +I have put MD’s commissions in a memorandum paper. I +think I have done all before, and remember nothing but this +to-day about glasses and spectacles and spectacle cases. I +have no commission from Stella, but the chocolate and +handkerchiefs; and those are bought, and I expect they will be +soon sent. I have been with, and sent to, Mr. Sterne, two +or three times to know; but he was not within. Odds my +life, what am I doing? I must go write and do business.</p> +<p>4. I dined to-day at Kensington, with Addison, Steele, +etc., came home, and writ a short letter to the Archbishop of +Dublin, to let him know the Queen has granted the thing, +etc. I writ in the Coffee-house, for I stayed at Kensington +till <a name="page58"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 58</span>nine, +and am plaguy weary; for Colonel Proud <a +name="citation58a"></a><a href="#footnote58a" +class="citation">[58a]</a> was very ill company, and I will never +be of a party with him again; and I drank punch, and that and ill +company has made me hot.</p> +<p>5. I was with Mr. Harley from dinner to seven this +night, and went to the Coffee-house, where Dr. Davenant <a +name="citation58b"></a><a href="#footnote58b" +class="citation">[58b]</a> would fain have had me gone and drink +a bottle of wine at his house hard by, with Dr. Chamberlen, <a +name="citation58c"></a><a href="#footnote58c" +class="citation">[58c]</a> but the puppy used so many words, that +I was afraid of his company; and though we promised to come at +eight, I sent a messenger to him, that Chamberlen was going to a +patient, and therefore we would put it off till another time: so +he, and the Comptroller, <a name="citation58d"></a><a +href="#footnote58d" class="citation">[58d]</a> <a +name="page59"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 59</span>and I, were +prevailed on by Sir Matthew Dudley to go to his house, where I +stayed till twelve, and left them. Davenant has been +teasing me to look over some of his writings that he is going to +publish; but the rogue is so fond of his own productions, that I +hear he will not part with a syllable; and he has lately put out +a foolish pamphlet, called <i>The Third Part of Tom Double</i>; +to make his court to the Tories, whom he had left.</p> +<p>6. I was to-day gambling <a name="citation59a"></a><a +href="#footnote59a" class="citation">[59a]</a> in the City to see +Patty Rolt, who is going to Kingston, where she lodges; but, to +say the truth, I had a mind for a walk to exercise myself, and +happened to be disengaged: for dinners are ten times more +plentiful with me here than ever, or than in Dublin. I +won’t answer your letter yet, because I am busy. I +hope to send this before I have another from MD: it would be a +sad thing to answer two letters together, as MD does from +Presto. But when the two sides are full, away the letter +shall go, that is certain, like it or not like it; and that will +be about three days hence, for the answering-night will be a long +one.</p> +<p>7. I dined to-day at Sir Richard Temple’s, with +Congreve, Vanbrugh, Lieutenant-General Farrington, <a +name="citation59b"></a><a href="#footnote59b" +class="citation">[59b]</a> etc. Vanbrugh, I believe I told +you, had a long quarrel with me about those verses on his house; +<a name="citation59c"></a><a href="#footnote59c" +class="citation">[59c]</a> but we were very civil and cold. +Lady Marlborough used to tease him with them, which had made him +angry, though he be a good-natured fellow. It was a +Thanksgiving-day, <a name="citation59d"></a><a +href="#footnote59d" class="citation">[59d]</a> and I was at +Court, where the Queen passed us by with all Tories about her; +not one Whig: <a name="page60"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +60</span>Buckingham, <a name="citation60a"></a><a +href="#footnote60a" class="citation">[60a]</a> Rochester, <a +name="citation60b"></a><a href="#footnote60b" +class="citation">[60b]</a> Leeds, <a name="citation60c"></a><a +href="#footnote60c" class="citation">[60c]</a> Shrewsbury, <a +name="citation60d"></a><a href="#footnote60d" +class="citation">[60d]</a> Berkeley of Stratton, <a +name="citation60e"></a><a href="#footnote60e" +class="citation">[60e]</a> Lord Keeper Harcourt, <a +name="citation60f"></a><a href="#footnote60f" +class="citation">[60f]</a> Mr. Harley, Lord Pembroke, <a +name="citation60g"></a><a href="#footnote60g" +class="citation">[60g]</a> etc.; and I have seen her without one +Tory. The Queen made me a curtsey, and said, in a sort of +familiar way to Presto, “How does MD?” I +considered she was a Queen, and so excused her. <a +name="citation60h"></a><a href="#footnote60h" +class="citation">[60h]</a> I do not miss the Whigs at +Court; but have as many acquaintance there as formerly.</p> +<p>8. Here’s ado and a clutter! I must now +answer MD’s fifth; but first you must know I dined at the +Portugal Envoy’s <a name="citation60i"></a><a +href="#footnote60i" class="citation">[60i]</a> to-day, with +Addison, Vanbrugh, Admiral Wager, <a name="citation60j"></a><a +href="#footnote60j" class="citation">[60j]</a> Sir Richard +Temple, <a name="citation60k"></a><a href="#footnote60k" +class="citation">[60k]</a> Methuen, <a name="citation60l"></a><a +href="#footnote60l" class="citation">[60l]</a> etc. I was +weary of their company, and stole away at five, and came home +like a good boy, and studied till ten, and had a fire, O ho! and +now am in bed. I have no fireplace in my bed-chamber; but +’tis very warm weather when one’s in bed. Your +fine cap, <a name="citation60m"></a><a href="#footnote60m" +class="citation">[60m]</a> Madam Dingley, is too little, and too +hot: I will have <a name="page61"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +61</span>that fur taken off; I wish it were far enough; and my +old velvet cap is good for nothing. Is it velvet under the +fur? I was feeling, but cannot find: if it be, ’twill +do without it else I will face it; but then I must buy new +velvet: but may be I may beg a piece. What shall I +do? Well, now to rogue MD’s letter. God be +thanked for Stella’s eyes mending; and God send it holds; +but faith you writ too much at a time: better write less, or +write it at ten times. Yes, faith, a long letter in a +morning from a dear friend is a dear thing. I smoke a +compliment, little mischievous girls, I do so. But who are +those <i>Wiggs</i> that think I am turned Tory? Do you mean +Whigs? Which <i>Wiggs</i> and <i>wat</i> do you mean? +I know nothing of Raymond, and only had one letter from him a +little after I came here. [Pray remember Morgan.] Raymond +is indeed like to have much influence over me in London, and to +share much of my conversation. I shall, no doubt, introduce +him to Harley, and Lord Keeper, and the Secretary of State. +The <i>Tatler</i> upon Ithuriel’s spear <a +name="citation61a"></a><a href="#footnote61a" +class="citation">[61a]</a> is not mine, madam. What a +puzzle there is betwixt you and your judgment! In general +you may be sometimes sure of things, as that about <i>style</i>, +<a name="citation61b"></a><a href="#footnote61b" +class="citation">[61b]</a> because it is what I have frequently +spoken of; but guessing is mine a—, and I defy mankind, if +I please. Why, I writ a pamphlet when I was last in London, +that you and a thousand have seen, and never guessed it to be +mine. Could you have guessed the “Shower in +Town” to be mine? How chance you did not see that +before your last letter went? but I suppose you in Ireland did +not think it worth mentioning. Nor am I suspected for the +lampoon; only Harley said he smoked me; (have I told you so +before?) and some others knew it. ’Tis called +“The Rod of Sid Hamet.” And I have written +several other things that I hear commended, and nobody suspects +me for them; nor you shall not know till I see you again. +What do you mean, “That <a name="page62"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 62</span>boards near me, that I dine with now +and then?” I know no such person: I do not dine with +boarders. <a name="citation62a"></a><a href="#footnote62a" +class="citation">[62a]</a> What the pox! You know +whom I have dined with every day since I left you, better than I +do. What do you mean, sirrah? Slids, my ailment has +been over these two months almost. Impudence, if you vex +me, I will give ten shillings a week for my lodging; for I am +almost st—k out of this with the sink, and it helps me to +verses in my “Shower.” <a name="citation62b"></a><a +href="#footnote62b" class="citation">[62b]</a> Well, Madam +Dingley, what say you to the world to come? What +ballad? Why go look, it was not good for much: have +patience till I come back: patience is a gay thing as, etc. +I hear nothing of Lord Mountjoy’s coming for Ireland. +When is Stella’s birthday? in March? Lord bless me, +my turn at Christ Church; <a name="citation62c"></a><a +href="#footnote62c" class="citation">[62c]</a> it is so natural +to hear you write about that, I believe you have done it a +hundred times; it is as fresh in my mind, the verger coming to +you; and why to you? Would he have you preach for me? +O, pox on your spelling of Latin, <i>Johnsonibus atque</i>, that +is the way. How did the Dean get that name by the +end? ’Twas you betrayed me: not I, faith; I’ll +not break his head. Your mother is still in the country, I +suppose; for she promised to see me when she came to town. +I writ to her four days ago, to desire her to break it to Lady +Giffard, to put some money for you in the Bank, which was then +fallen thirty per cent. Would to God mine had been here, I +should have gained one hundred pounds, and got as good interest +as in Ireland, and much securer. I would fain have borrowed +three hundred pounds; but money is so scarce here, there is no +borrowing, by this fall of stocks. ’Tis rising now, +and I knew it would: it fell from one hundred and twenty-nine to +ninety-six. I have not heard since from your mother. +Do you think I would be so unkind not to see her, that you desire +me in a style so <a name="page63"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +63</span>melancholy? Mrs. Raymond, <a +name="citation63a"></a><a href="#footnote63a" +class="citation">[63a]</a> you say, is with child: I am sorry for +it; and so is, I believe, her husband. Mr. Harley speaks +all the kind things to me in the world; and, I believe, would +serve me, if I were to stay here; but I reckon in time the Duke +of Ormond may give me some addition to Laracor. Why should +the Whigs think I came to England to leave them? Sure my +journey was no secret. I protest sincerely, I did all I +could to hinder it, as the Dean can tell you, although now I do +not repent it. But who the Devil cares what they +think? Am I under obligations in the least to any of them +all? Rot ’em, for ungrateful dogs; I will make them +repent their usage before I leave this place. They say here +the same thing of my leaving the Whigs; but they own they cannot +blame me, considering the treatment I have had. I will take +care of your spectacles, as I told you before, and of the Bishop +of Killala’s; but I will not write to him, I have not +time. What do you mean by my fourth, Madam Dinglibus? +Does not Stella say you have had my fifth, Goody Blunder? +You frighted me till I looked back. Well, this is enough +for one night. Pray give my humble service to Mrs. Stoyte +and her sister, Kate is it, or Sarah? <a +name="citation63b"></a><a href="#footnote63b" +class="citation">[63b]</a> I have forgot her name, +faith. I think I will even (and to Mrs. Walls and the +Archdeacon) send this to-morrow: no, faith, that will be in ten +days from the last. I will keep it till Saturday, though I +write no more. But what if a letter from MD should come in +the meantime? Why then I would only say, “Madam, I +have received your sixth letter; your most humble servant to +command, Presto”; and so conclude. Well, now I will +write and think a little, and so to bed, and dream of MD.</p> +<p>9. I have my mouth full of water, and was going to spit +it out, because I reasoned with myself, how could I write when my +mouth was full? Han’t you done things like that, +reasoned wrong at first thinking? Well, I was to see Mr. +Lewis this morning, and am to dine a few days hence, as he tells +me, with Mr. Secretary St. John; and I must <a +name="page64"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 64</span>contrive to +see Harley soon again, to hasten this business from the +Queen. I dined to-day at Lord Mountrath’s, <a +name="citation64a"></a><a href="#footnote64a" +class="citation">[64a]</a> with Lord Mountjoy, <a +name="citation64b"></a><a href="#footnote64b" +class="citation">[64b]</a> etc.; but the wine was not good, so I +came away, stayed at the Coffee-house till seven, then came home +to my fire, the maidenhead of my second half-bushel, and am now +in bed at eleven, as usual. ’Tis mighty warm; yet I +fear I should catch cold this wet weather, if I sat an evening in +my room after coming from warm places: and I must make much of +myself, because MD is not here to take care of Presto; and I am +full of business, writing, etc., and do not care for the +Coffee-house; and so this serves for all together, not to tell it +you over and over, as silly people do; but Presto is a wiser man, +faith, than so, let me tell you, gentlewomen. See, I am got +to the third side; but, faith, I will not do that often; but I +must say something early to-day, till the letter is done, and on +Saturday it shall go; so I must leave something till to-morrow, +till to-morrow and next day.</p> +<p>10. O Lord, I would this letter was with you with all my +heart! If it should miscarry, what a deal would be +lost! I forgot to leave a gap in the last line but one for +the seal, like a puppy; but I should have allowed for night, +good-night; but when I am taking leave, I cannot leave a bit, +faith; but I fancy the seal will not come there. I dined +to-day at Lady Lucy’s, where they ran down my +“Shower”; and said, “Sid Hamet” was the +silliest poem they ever read; and told Prior so, whom they +thought to be author of it. Don’t you wonder I never +dined there before? But I am too busy, and they live too +far off; and, besides, I do not like women so much as I +did. (MD, you must know, are not women.) I supped +to-night at Addison’s, with Garth, Steele, and Mr. Dopping; +and am come home late. Lewis has sent to me to desire I +will dine with some company I shall like. I suppose it is +Mr. Secretary St. John’s appointment. I had a letter +just now from Raymond, who is at Bristol, and says he will be at +London in a fortnight, <a name="page65"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 65</span>and leave his wife behind him; and +desires any lodging in the house where I am: but that must not +be. I shall not know what to do with him in town: to be +sure, I will not present him to any acquaintance of mine; and he +will live a delicate life, a parson and a perfect stranger! +Paaast twelvvve o’clock, <a name="citation65"></a><a +href="#footnote65" class="citation">[65]</a> and so good-night, +etc. Oh! but I forgot, Jemmy Leigh is come to town; says he +has brought Dingley’s things, and will send them with the +first convenience. My parcel, I hear, is not sent +yet. He thinks of going for Ireland in a month, etc. +I cannot write to-morrow, because—what, because of the +Archbishop; because I will seal my letter early; because I am +engaged from noon till night; because of many kind of things; and +yet I will write one or two words to-morrow morning, to keep up +my journal constant, and at night I will begin my ninth.</p> +<p>11. Morning by candlelight. You must know that I +am in my nightgown every morning between six and seven, and +Patrick is forced to ply me fifty times before I can get on my +nightgown; and so now I will take my leave of my own dear MD for +this letter, and begin my next when I come home at night. +God Almighty bless and protect dearest MD. Farewell, +etc.</p> +<p>This letter’s as long as a sermon, faith.</p> +<h3>LETTER IX.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Nov.</i> 11, 1710.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">dined</span> to-day, by invitation, with +the Secretary of State, Mr. St. John. Mr. Harley came in to +us before dinner, and made me his excuses for not dining with us, +because he was to receive people who came to propose advancing +money to the Government: there dined with us only Mr. Lewis, <a +name="page66"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 66</span>and Dr. +Freind <a name="citation66a"></a><a href="#footnote66a" +class="citation">[66a]</a> (that writ “Lord +Peterborow’s Actions in Spain”). I stayed with +them till just now between ten and eleven, and was forced again +to give my eighth to the bellman, which I did with my own hands, +rather than keep it till next post. The Secretary used me +with all the kindness in the world. Prior came in after +dinner; and, upon an occasion, he (the Secretary) said, +“The best thing I ever read is not yours, but Dr. +Swift’s on Vanbrugh”; which I do not reckon so very +good neither. <a name="citation66b"></a><a href="#footnote66b" +class="citation">[66b]</a> But Prior was damped, until I +stuffed him with two or three compliments. I am thinking +what a veneration we used to have for Sir William Temple, because +he might have been Secretary of State at fifty; and here is a +young fellow, hardly thirty, in that employment. <a +name="citation66c"></a><a href="#footnote66c" +class="citation">[66c]</a> His father is a man of pleasure, +<a name="citation66d"></a><a href="#footnote66d" +class="citation">[66d]</a> that walks the Mall, and frequents St. +James’s Coffee-house, and the chocolate-houses; and the +young son is principal Secretary of State. Is there not +something very odd in that? He told me, among other things, +that Mr. Harley complained he could keep nothing from me, I had +the way so much of getting into him. I knew that was a +refinement; and so I told him, and it was so: indeed, it is hard +to see these great men use me like one who was their betters, and +the puppies with you in Ireland hardly regarding me: but <a +name="page67"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 67</span>there are +some reasons for all this, which I will tell you when we +meet. At coming home, I saw a letter from your mother, in +answer to one I sent her two days ago. It seems she is in +town; but cannot come out in a morning, just as you said; and God +knows when I shall be at leisure in an afternoon: for if I should +send her a penny-post letter, and afterwards not be able to meet +her, it would vex me; and, besides, the days are short, and why +she cannot come early in a morning, before she is wanted, I +cannot imagine. I will desire her to let Lady Giffard know +that she hears I am in town; and that she would go to see me, to +inquire after you. I wonder she will confine herself so +much to that old beast’s humour. You know I cannot in +honour see Lady Giffard, <a name="citation67a"></a><a +href="#footnote67a" class="citation">[67a]</a> and consequently +not go into her house. This I think is enough for the first +time.</p> +<p>12. And how could you write with such thin paper? +(I forgot to say this in my former.) Cannot you get +thicker? Why, that’s a common caution that +writing-masters give their scholars; you must have heard it a +hundred times. ’Tis this:</p> +<blockquote><p>“If paper be thin,<br /> +Ink will slip in;<br /> +But, if it be thick,<br /> +You may write with a stick.” <a name="citation67b"></a><a +href="#footnote67b" class="citation">[67b]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>I had a letter to-day from poor Mrs. Long, <a +name="citation67c"></a><a href="#footnote67c" +class="citation">[67c]</a> giving me an account of her present +life, obscure in a remote country town, and how easy she is under +it. Poor creature! ’tis just such an alteration in +life, as if Presto should be banished from MD, and condemned to +converse with Mrs. Raymond. I dined to-day with Ford, Sir +Richard Levinge, <a name="citation67d"></a><a href="#footnote67d" +class="citation">[67d]</a> etc., at a <a name="page68"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 68</span>place where they board, <a +name="citation68a"></a><a href="#footnote68a" +class="citation">[68a]</a> hard by. I was lazy, and not +very well, sitting so long with company yesterday. I have +been very busy writing this evening at home, and had a fire: I am +spending my second half-bushel of coals; and now am in bed, and +’tis late.</p> +<p>13. I dined to-day in the City, and then went to +christen Will Frankland’s <a name="citation68b"></a><a +href="#footnote68b" class="citation">[68b]</a> child; and Lady +Falconbridge <a name="citation68c"></a><a href="#footnote68c" +class="citation">[68c]</a> was one of the godmothers: this is a +daughter of Oliver Cromwell, and extremely like him by his +pictures that I have seen. I stayed till almost eleven, and +am now come home and gone to bed. My business in the City +was, to thank Stratford for a kindness he has done me, which now +I will tell you. I found Bank Stock was fallen thirty-four +in the hundred, and was mighty desirous to buy it; but I was a +little too late for the cheapest time, being hindered by business +here; for I was so wise to guess to a day when it would +fall. My project was this: I had three hundred pounds in +Ireland; and so I writ to Mr. Stratford in the City, to desire he +would buy me three hundred pounds in Bank Stock, and that he +should keep the papers, and that I would be bound to pay him for +them; and, if it should rise or fall, I would take my chance, and +pay him interest in the meantime. I showed my letter to one +or two people who understand those things; and they said money +was so hard to be got here, that no man would do it for me. +However, Stratford, who is the most generous man alive, has done +it: but it costs one hundred pounds and a half, that is, ten +shillings; so that three hundred pounds cost me three hundred +pounds and thirty shillings. This was done about a week +ago, and I can have five pounds for my bargain already. +Before it fell, it was one hundred and thirty pounds; and we are +sure it will be the same again. I told you I writ to your +mother, to desire that Lady Giffard <a name="page69"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 69</span>would do the same with what she owes +you; but she tells your mother she has no money. I would to +God all you had in the world was there. Whenever you lend +money, take this rule, to have two people bound, who have both +visible fortunes; for they will hardly die together; and, when +one dies, you fall upon the other, and make him add another +security: and if Rathburn (now I have his name) pays you in your +money, let me know, and I will direct Parvisol accordingly: +however, he shall wait on you and know. So, ladies, enough +of business for one night. Paaaaast twelvvve +o’clock. I must only add, that, after a long fit of +rainy weather, it has been fair two or three days, and is this +day grown cold and frosty; so that you must give poor little +Presto leave to have a fire in his chamber morning and evening +too; and he will do as much for you.</p> +<p>14. What, has your Chancellor <a +name="citation69a"></a><a href="#footnote69a" +class="citation">[69a]</a> lost his senses, like Will Crowe? <a +name="citation69b"></a><a href="#footnote69b" +class="citation">[69b]</a> I forgot to tell Dingley that I +was yesterday at Ludgate, bespeaking the spectacles at the great +shop there, and shall have them in a day or two. This has +been an insipid day. I dined with Mrs. Vanhomrigh, and came +gravely home, after just visiting the Coffee-house. Sir +Richard Cox, <a name="citation69c"></a><a href="#footnote69c" +class="citation">[69c]</a> they say, is sure of going over Lord +Chancellor, who is as arrant a puppy as ever ate bread: but the +Duke of Ormond has a natural affection to puppies; which is a +thousand pities, being none himself. I have been amusing +myself at home till now, and in bed bid you good-night.</p> +<p>15. I have been visiting this morning, but nobody was at +home, Secretary St. John, Sir Thomas Hanmer, <a +name="citation69d"></a><a href="#footnote69d" +class="citation">[69d]</a> Sir <a name="page70"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 70</span>Chancellor Cox-comb, etc. I +attended the Duke of Ormond with about fifty other Irish +gentlemen at Skinners’ Hall, where the Londonderry Society +laid out three hundred pounds to treat us and his Grace with a +dinner. Three great tables with the dessert laid in mighty +figure. Sir Richard Levinge and I got discreetly to the +head of the second table, to avoid the crowd at the first: but it +was so cold, and so confounded a noise with the trumpets and +hautboys, that I grew weary, and stole away before the second +course came on; so I can give you no account of it, which is a +thousand pities. I called at Ludgate for Dingley’s +glasses, and shall have them in a day or two; and I doubt it will +cost me thirty shillings for a microscope, but not without +Stella’s permission; for I remember she is a +virtuoso. Shall I buy it or no? ’Tis not the +great bulky ones, nor the common little ones, to impale a louse +(saving your presence) upon a needle’s point; but of a more +exact sort, and clearer to the sight, with all its equipage in a +little trunk that you may carry in your pocket. Tell me, +sirrah, shall I buy it or not for you? I came home +straight, etc.</p> +<p>16. I dined to-day in the city with Mr. Manley, <a +name="citation70"></a><a href="#footnote70" +class="citation">[70]</a> who invited Mr. Addison and me, and +some other friends, to his lodging, and entertained us very +handsomely. I returned with Mr. Addison, and loitered till +nine in the Coffee-house, where I am hardly known, by going so +seldom. I am here soliciting for Trounce; you know him: he +was gunner in the former yacht, and would fain be so in the +present one if you remember him, a good, lusty, fresh-coloured +fellow. Shall I stay till I get another letter from MD +before I close up this? Mr. Addison and I meet a little +seldomer than formerly, although we are still at bottom as good +friends as ever, but differ a little about party.</p> +<p>17. To-day I went to Lewis at the Secretary’s +office; where I saw and spoke to Mr. Harley, who promised, in a +few days, to finish the rest of my business. I reproached +him for putting me on the necessity of minding him of it, <a +name="page71"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 71</span>and rallied +him, etc., which he took very well. I dined to-day with one +Mr. Gore, elder brother to a young merchant of my acquaintance; +and Stratford and my other friend merchants dined with us, where +I stayed late, drinking claret and burgundy; and am just got to +bed, and will say no more, but that it now begins to be time to +have a letter from my own little MD; for the last I had above a +fortnight ago, and the date was old too.</p> +<p>18. To-day I dined with Lewis and Prior at an +eating-house, but with Lewis’s wine. Lewis went away, +and Prior and I sat on, where we complimented one another for an +hour or two upon our mutual wit and poetry. Coming home at +seven, a gentleman unknown stopped me in the Pall Mall, and asked +my advice; said he had been to see the Queen (who was just come +to town), and the people in waiting would not let him see her; +that he had two hundred thousand men ready to serve her in the +war; that he knew the Queen perfectly well, and had an apartment +at Court, and if she heard he was there, she would send for him +immediately; that she owed him two hundred thousand pounds, etc., +and he desired my opinion, whether he should go try again whether +he could see her; or because, perhaps, she was weary after her +journey, whether he had not better stay till to-morrow. I +had a mind to get rid of my companion, and begged him of all love +to go and wait on her immediately; for that, to my knowledge, the +Queen would admit him; that this was an affair of great +importance, and required despatch: and I instructed him to let me +know the success of his business, and come to the Smyrna +Coffee-house, where I would wait for him till midnight; and so +ended this adventure. I would have fain given the man half +a crown; but was afraid to offer it him, lest he should be +offended; for, beside his money, he said he had a thousand pounds +a year. I came home not early; and so, madams both, +good-night, etc.</p> +<p>19. I dined to-day with poor Lord Mountjoy, who is ill +of the gout; and this evening I christened our coffee-man <a +name="page72"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +72</span>Elliot’s <a name="citation72a"></a><a +href="#footnote72a" class="citation">[72a]</a> child, where the +rogue had a most noble supper, and Steele and I sat among some +scurvy company over a bowl of punch; so that I am come home late, +young women, and can’t stay to write to little rogues.</p> +<p>20. I loitered at home, and dined with Sir Andrew +Fountaine at his lodging, and then came home: a silly day.</p> +<p>21. I was visiting all this morning, and then went to +the Secretary’s office, and found Mr. Harley, with whom I +dined; and Secretary St. John, etc., and Harley promised in a +very few days to finish what remains of my business. Prior +was of the company, and we all dine at the Secretary’s +to-morrow. I saw Stella’s mother this morning: she +came early, and we talked an hour. I wish you would propose +to Lady Giffard to take the three hundred pounds out of her +hands, and give her common interest for life, and security that +you will pay her: the Bishop of Clogher, or any friend, would be +security for you, if you gave them counter-security; and it may +be argued that it will pass better to be in your hands than hers, +in case of mortality, etc. Your mother says, if you write, +she will second it; and you may write to your mother, and then it +will come from her. She tells me Lady Giffard has a mind to +see me, by her discourse; but I told her what to say, with a +vengeance. She told Lady Giffard she was going to see me: +she looks extremely well. I am writing <a +name="citation72b"></a><a href="#footnote72b" +class="citation">[72b]</a> in my bed like a tiger; and so +good-night, etc.</p> +<p>22. I dined with Secretary St. John; and Lord Dartmouth, +who is t’other Secretary, dined with us, and Lord Orrery <a +name="citation72c"></a><a href="#footnote72c" +class="citation">[72c]</a> and Prior, etc. Harley called, +but could not dine with us, and would have had me away while I +was at dinner; but I did <a name="page73"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 73</span>not like the company he was to +have. We stayed till eight, and I called at the +Coffee-house, and looked where the letters lie; but no letter +directed for Mr. Presto: at last I saw a letter to Mr. Addison, +and it looked like a rogue’s hand; so I made the fellow +give it me, and opened it before him, and saw three letters all +for myself: so, truly, I put them in my pocket, and came home to +my lodging. Well, and so you shall hear: well, and so I +found one of them in Dingley’s hand, and t’other in +Stella’s, and the third in Domville’s. <a +name="citation73a"></a><a href="#footnote73a" +class="citation">[73a]</a> Well, so you shall hear; so, +said I to myself, What now, two letters from MD together? +But I thought there was something in the wind; so I opened one, +and I opened t’other; and so you shall hear, one was from +Walls. Well, but t’other was from our own dear MD; +yes it was. O faith, have you received my seventh, young +women, already? Then I must send this to-morrow, else there +will be old <a name="citation73b"></a><a href="#footnote73b" +class="citation">[73b]</a> doings at our house, +faith.—Well, I won’t answer your letter in this: no, +faith, catch me at that, and I never saw the like. Well; +but as to Walls, tell him (with service to him and wife, etc.) +that I have no imagination of Mr. Pratt’s <a +name="citation73c"></a><a href="#footnote73c" +class="citation">[73c]</a> losing his place: and while Pratt +continues, Clements is in no danger; and I have already engaged +Lord Hyde <a name="citation73d"></a><a href="#footnote73d" +class="citation">[73d]</a> he speaks of, for Pratt and twenty +others; but, if such a thing should happen, I will do what I +can. I have above ten businesses of other people’s +now on my hands, and, I believe, shall miscarry in half. It +is your sixth I now have received. I writ last post to the +Bishop of Clogher again. Shall I send this to-morrow? +Well, I will, to oblige MD. Which would you rather, a short +letter every week, or a long one every fortnight? A long +one; well, it shall be done, and so good-night. Well, but +is <a name="page74"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 74</span>this a +long one? No, I warrant you: too long for naughty +girls.</p> +<p>23. I only ask, have you got both the ten pounds, or +only the first; I hope you mean both. Pray be good +housewives; and I beg you to walk when you can, for health. +Have you the horse in town? and do you ever ride him? how +often? Confess. Ahhh, sirrah, have I caught +you? Can you contrive to let Mrs. Fenton <a +name="citation74a"></a><a href="#footnote74a" +class="citation">[74a]</a> know, that the request she has made me +in her letter I will use what credit I have to bring about, +although I hear it is very difficult, and I doubt I shall not +succeed? Cox is not to be your Chancellor: all joined +against him. I have been supping with Lord Peterborow at +his house, with Prior, Lewis, and Dr. Freind. ’Tis +the ramblingest lying rogue on earth. Dr. Raymond is come +to town: ’tis late, and so I bid you good-night.</p> +<p>24. I tell you, pretty management! Ned Southwell +told me the other day he had a letter from the bishops of +Ireland, with an address to the Duke of Ormond, to intercede with +the Queen to take off the First-Fruits. I dined with him +to-day, and saw it, with another letter to him from the Bishop of +Kildare, <a name="citation74b"></a><a href="#footnote74b" +class="citation">[74b]</a> to call upon me for the papers, etc.; +and I had last post one from the Archbishop of Dublin, telling me +the reason of this proceeding; that, upon hearing the Duke of +Ormond was declared Lord Lieutenant, they met; and the bishops +were for this project, and talked coldly of my being solicitor, +as one that was favoured by t’other party, etc., but +desired that I would still solicit. <a name="citation74c"></a><a +href="#footnote74c" class="citation">[74c]</a> Now the +wisdom of this is admirable; for I had given the Archbishop an <a +name="page75"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 75</span>account of my +reception from Mr. Harley, and how he had spoken to the Queen, +and promised it should be done; but Mr. Harley ordered me to tell +no person alive. Some time after, he gave me leave to let +the Primate and Archbishop know that the Queen had remitted the +First-Fruits; and that in a short time they should have an +account of it in form from Lord Dartmouth, Secretary of +State. So while their letter was on the road to the Duke of +Ormond and Southwell, mine was going to them with an account of +the thing being done. I writ a very warm answer <a +name="citation75"></a><a href="#footnote75" +class="citation">[75]</a> to the Archbishop immediately; and +showed my resentments, as I ought, against the bishops; only, in +good manners, excepting himself. I wonder what they will +say when they hear the thing is done. I was yesterday +forced to tell Southwell so, that the Queen had done it, etc.; +for he said, my Lord Duke would think of it some months hence, +when he was going for Ireland; and he had it three years in doing +formerly, without any success. I give you free leave to +say, on occasion, that it is done; and that Mr. Harley prevailed +on the Queen to do it, etc., as you please. As I hope to +live, I despise the credit of it, out of an excess of pride; and +desire you will not give me the least merit when you talk of it; +but I would vex the bishops, and have it spread that Mr. Harley +had done it: pray do so. Your mother sent me last night a +parcel of wax candles, and a bandbox full of small +plumcakes. I thought it had been something for you; and, +without opening them, sent answer by the maid that brought them, +that I would take care to send the things, etc.; but I will write +her thanks. Is this a long letter, sirrahs? Now, are +you satisfied? I have had no fit since the first: I drink +brandy every morning, and take pills every night. Never +fear, I an’t vexed at this puppy business of the bishops, +<a name="page76"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 76</span>although I +was a little at first. I will tell you my reward: Mr. +Harley will think he has done me a favour; the Duke of Ormond, +perhaps, that I have put a neglect on him; and the bishops in +Ireland, that I have done nothing at all. So goes the +world. But I have got above all this, and, perhaps, I have +better reason for it than they know: and so you shall hear no +more of First-Fruits, dukes, Harleys, archbishops, and +Southwells.</p> +<p>I have slipped off Raymond upon some of his countrymen, to +show him the town, etc., and I lend him Patrick. He desires +to sit with me in the evenings; upon which I have given Patrick +positive orders that I am not within at evenings.</p> +<h3>LETTER X.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Nov.</i> 25, 1710.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">will</span> tell you something +that’s plaguy silly: I had forgot to say on the 23d in my +last, where I dined; and because I had done it constantly, I +thought it was a great omission, and was going to interline it; +but at last the silliness of it made me cry, Pshah, and I let it +alone. I was to-day to see the Parliament meet; but only +saw a great crowd; and Ford and I went to see the tombs at +Westminster, and sauntered so long I was forced to go to an +eating-house for my dinner. Bromley <a +name="citation76a"></a><a href="#footnote76a" +class="citation">[76a]</a> is chosen Speaker, <i>nemine +contradicente</i>: Do you understand those two words? And +Pompey, Colonel Hill’s <a name="citation76b"></a><a +href="#footnote76b" class="citation">[76b]</a> black, designs to +stand Speaker for the footmen. <a name="citation76c"></a><a +href="#footnote76c" class="citation">[76c]</a> I am <a +name="page77"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 77</span>engaged to +use my interest for him, and have spoken to Patrick to get him +some votes. We are now all impatient for the Queen’s +speech, what she will say about removing the Ministry, etc. +I have got a cold, and I don’t know how; but got it I have, +and am hoarse: I don’t know whether it will grow better or +worse. What’s that to you? I won’t answer +your letter to-night. I’ll keep you a little longer +in suspense: I can’t send it. Your mother’s +cakes are very good, and one of them serves me for a breakfast, +and so I’ll go sleep like a good boy.</p> +<p>26. I have got a cruel cold, and stayed within all this +day in my nightgown, and dined on sixpennyworth of victuals, and +read and writ, and was denied to everybody. Dr. Raymond <a +name="citation77a"></a><a href="#footnote77a" +class="citation">[77a]</a> called often, and I was denied; and at +last, when I was weary, I let him come up, and asked him, without +consequence, how Patrick denied me, and whether he had the art of +it? So by this means he shall be used to have me denied to +him; otherwise he would be a plaguy trouble and hindrance to me: +he has sat with me two hours, and drank a pint of ale cost me +fivepence, and smoked his pipe, and it is now past eleven that he +is just gone. Well, my eighth is with you now, young women; +and your seventh to me is somewhere in a post-boy’s bag; +and so go to your gang of deans, and Stoytes, and Walls, and lose +your money; go, sauceboxes: and so good-night, and be happy, dear +rogues. Oh, but your box was sent to Dr. Hawkshaw by +Sterne, and you will have it with Hawkshaw, and spectacles, etc., +etc.</p> +<p>27. To-day Mr. Harley met me in the Court of Requests, +<a name="citation77b"></a><a href="#footnote77b" +class="citation">[77b]</a> <a name="page78"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 78</span>and whispered me to dine with +him. At dinner I told him what those bishops had done, and +the difficulty I was under. He bid me never trouble myself; +he would tell the Duke of Ormond the business was done, and that +he need not concern himself about it. So now I am easy, and +they may hang themselves for a parcel of insolent, ungrateful +rascals. I suppose I told you in my last, how they sent an +address to the Duke of Ormond, and a letter to Southwell, to call +on me for the papers, after the thing was over; but they had not +received my letter, though the Archbishop might, by what I writ +to him, have expected it would be done. Well, there is an +end of that; and in a little time the Queen will send them +notice, etc. And so the methods will be settled; and then I +shall think of returning, although the baseness of those bishops +makes me love Ireland less than I did.</p> +<p>28. Lord Halifax sent to invite me to dinner; where I +stayed till six, and crossed him in all his Whig talk, and made +him often come over to me. I know he makes court to the new +men, although he affects to talk like a Whig. I had a +letter to-day from the Bishop of Clogher; but I writ to him +lately, that I would obey his commands to the Duke of +Ormond. He says I bid him read the London +“Shaver,” and that you both swore it was +“Shaver,” and not “Shower.” <a +name="citation78a"></a><a href="#footnote78a" +class="citation">[78a]</a> You all lie, and you are +puppies, and can’t read Presto’s hand. The +Bishop is out entirely in his conjectures of my share in the +<i>Tatlers</i>.—I have other things to mind, and of much +greater importance; <a name="citation78b"></a><a +href="#footnote78b" class="citation">[78b]</a> else I have little +to do to be acquainted with a new Ministry, who consider me a +little more than Irish bishops do.</p> +<p>29. Now for your saucy, good dear letter: let me see, +what does it say? come then. I dined to-day with Ford, and +went home early; he debauched <a name="citation78c"></a><a +href="#footnote78c" class="citation">[78c]</a> me to his chamber +again <a name="page79"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 79</span>with +a bottle of wine till twelve: so good-night. I cannot write +an answer now, you rogues.</p> +<p>30. To-day I have been visiting, which I had long +neglected; and I dined with Mrs. Barton alone; and sauntered at +the Coffee-house till past eight, and have been busy till eleven, +and now I’ll answer your letter, saucebox. Well, let +me see now again. My wax candle’s almost out, but +however I’ll begin. Well then, do not be so tedious, +Mr. Presto; what can you say to MD’s letter? Make +haste, have done with your preambles—Why, I say I am glad +you are so often abroad; your mother thinks it is want of +exercise hurts you, and so do I. (She called here to-night, +but I was not within, that’s by the bye.) Sure you do +not deceive me, Stella, when you say you are in better health +than you were these three weeks; for Dr. Raymond told me +yesterday, that Smyth of the Blind Quay had been telling Mr. +Leigh that he left you extremely ill; and in short, spoke so, +that he almost put poor Leigh into tears, and would have made me +run distracted; though your letter is dated the 11th instant, and +I saw Smyth in the city above a fortnight ago, as I passed by in +a coach. Pray, pray, don’t write, Stella, until you +are mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty well in your eyes, and are +sure it won’t do you the least hurt. Or come, +I’ll tell you what; you, Mistress Stella, shall write your +share at five or six sittings, one sitting a day; and then comes +Dingley all together, and then Stella a little crumb towards the +end, to let us see she remembers Presto; and then conclude with +something handsome and genteel, as your most humblecumdumble, or, +etc. O Lord! does Patrick write word of my not coming till +spring? Insolent man! he know my secrets? No; as my +Lord Mayor said, No; if I thought my shirt knew, etc. +Faith, I will come as soon as it is any way proper for me to +come; but, to say the truth, I am at present a little involved +with the <a name="page80"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +80</span>present Ministry in some certain things (which I tell +you as a secret); and soon as ever I can clear my hands, I will +stay no longer; for I hope the First-Fruit business will be soon +over in all its forms. But, to say the truth, the present +Ministry have a difficult task, and want me, etc. Perhaps +they may be just as grateful as others: but, according to the +best judgment I have, they are pursuing the true interest of the +public; and therefore I am glad to contribute what is in my +power. For God’s sake, not a word of this to any +alive.—Your Chancellor? <a name="citation80a"></a><a +href="#footnote80a" class="citation">[80a]</a> Why, madam, +I can tell you he has been dead this fortnight. Faith, I +could hardly forbear our little language about a nasty dead +Chancellor, as you may see by the blot. <a +name="citation80b"></a><a href="#footnote80b" +class="citation">[80b]</a> Ploughing? A pox plough +them; they’ll plough me to nothing. But have you got +your money, both the ten pounds? How durst he pay you the +second so soon? Pray be good huswifes. Ay, well, and +Joe, why, I had a letter lately from Joe, desiring I would take +some care of their poor town, <a name="citation80c"></a><a +href="#footnote80c" class="citation">[80c]</a> who, he says, will +lose their liberties. To which I desired Dr. Raymond would +return answer, that the town had behaved themselves so ill to me, +so little regarded the advice I gave them, and disagreed so much +among themselves, that I was resolved never to have more to do +with them; but that whatever personal kindness I could do to Joe, +should be done. Pray, when you happen to see Joe, tell him +this, lest Raymond should have blundered or forgotten—Poor +Mrs. Wesley!—Why these poligyes <a +name="citation80d"></a><a href="#footnote80d" +class="citation">[80d]</a> for being abroad? Why should you +be at home at all, until Stella is quite well?—So, here is +Mistress Stella again, with her two eggs, etc. My +“Shower” admired with you; why, the Bishop of Clogher +says, he has seen something of mine of the same sort, better than +the “Shower.” I suppose he means “The +Morning”; <a name="citation80e"></a><a href="#footnote80e" +class="citation">[80e]</a> but it is not half so good. I +want your judgment of things, and not your country’s. +How does MD like it? <a name="page81"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 81</span>and do they taste it <i>all</i>? +etc. I am glad Dean Bolton <a name="citation81a"></a><a +href="#footnote81a" class="citation">[81a]</a> has paid the +twenty pounds. Why should not I chide the Bishop of Clogher +for writing to the Archbishop of Cashel, <a +name="citation81b"></a><a href="#footnote81b" +class="citation">[81b]</a> without sending the letter first to +me? It does not signify a —; for he has no credit at +Court. Stuff—they are all puppies. I will break +your head in good earnest, young woman, for your nasty jest about +Mrs. Barton. <a name="citation81c"></a><a href="#footnote81c" +class="citation">[81c]</a> Unlucky sluttikin, what a word +is there! Faith, I was thinking yesterday, when I was with +her, whether she could break them or no, and it quite spoilt my +imagination. “Mrs. Walls, does Stella win as she +pretends?” “No indeed, Doctor; she loses +always, and will play so <i>ventersomely</i>, how can she +win?” See here now; an’t you an impudent lying +slut? Do, open Domville’s letter; what does it +signify, if you have a mind? Yes, faith, you write smartly +with your eyes shut; all was well but the <i>n</i>. See how +I can do it; <i>Madam Stella</i>, <i>your humble servant</i>. <a +name="citation81d"></a><a href="#footnote81d" +class="citation">[81d]</a> O, but one may look whether one +goes crooked or no, and so write on. I will tell you what +you may do; you may write with your eyes half shut, just as when +one is going to sleep: I have done so for two or three lines now; +it is but just seeing enough to go straight.—Now, Madam +Dingley, I think I bid you tell Mr. Walls that, in case there be +occasion, I will serve his friend as far as I can; but I hope +there will be none. Yet I believe you will have a new +Parliament; but I care not whether you have or no a better. +You are mistaken in all your conjectures about the +<i>Tatlers</i>. I have given him one or two hints, and you +have heard me talk about the Shilling. <a +name="citation81e"></a><a href="#footnote81e" +class="citation">[81e]</a> Faith, these answering letters +are very long ones: you have taken up almost the room of a week +in journals; and I will tell you what, I saw fellows wearing +crosses to-day, <a name="citation81f"></a><a href="#footnote81f" +class="citation">[81f]</a> and I wondered what was the matter; +but just this minute I recollect it is little Presto’s +birthday; and I was resolved <a name="page82"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 82</span>these three days to remember it when +it came, but could not. Pray, drink my health to-day at +dinner; do, you rogues. Do you like “Sid +Hamet’s Rod”? Do you understand it all? +Well, now at last I have done with your letter, and so I will lay +me down to sleep, and about, fair maids; and I hope merry maids +all.</p> +<p>Dec. 1. Morning. I wish Smyth were hanged. I +was dreaming the most melancholy things in the world of poor +Stella, and was grieving and crying all night.—Pshah, it is +foolish: I will rise and divert myself; so good-morrow; and God +of His infinite mercy keep and protect you! The Bishop of +Clogher’s letter is dated Nov. 21. He says you +thought of going with him to Clogher. I am heartily glad of +it, and wish you would ride there, and Dingley go in a +coach. I have had no fit since my first, although sometimes +my head is not quite in good order.—At night. I was +this morning to visit Mr. Pratt, who is come over with poor, sick +Lord Shelburne: they made me dine with them; and there I stayed, +like a booby, till eight, looking over them at ombre, and then +came home. Lord Shelburne’s giddiness is turned into +a colic, and he looks miserably.</p> +<p>2. Steele, the rogue, has done the imprudentest thing in +the world: he said something in a <i>Tatler</i>, <a +name="citation82a"></a><a href="#footnote82a" +class="citation">[82a]</a> that we ought to use the word Great +Britain, and not England, in common conversation, as, “The +finest lady in Great Britain,” etc. Upon this, Rowe, +Prior, and I sent him a letter, turning this into ridicule. +He has to-day printed the letter, <a name="citation82b"></a><a +href="#footnote82b" class="citation">[82b]</a> and signed it +J.S., M.P., and N.R., the first letters of all our names. +Congreve told me to-day, he smoked it immediately. Congreve +and I, and Sir Charles Wager, dined to-day at Delaval’s, +the Portugal Envoy; and I stayed there till eight, and came home, +and am now writing to you before I do business, because that dog +Patrick is not at home, and the fire is not made, and I am not in +my gear. Pox take him!—I was looking by chance at the +top of this side, and find I make plaguy mistakes in words; so +that you must fence against that as well as bad <a +name="page83"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +83</span>writing. Faith, I can’t nor won’t read +what I have written. (Pox of this puppy!) Well, I’ll +leave you till I am got to bed, and then I will say a word or +two.—Well, ’tis now almost twelve, and I have been +busy ever since, by a fire too (I have my coals by half a bushel +at a time, I’ll assure you), and now I am got to bed. +Well, and what have you to say to Presto now he is abed? +Come now, let us hear your speeches. No, ’tis a lie; +I an’t sleepy yet. Let us sit up a little longer, and +talk. Well, where have you been to-day, that you are but +just this minute come home in a coach? What have you +lost? Pay the coachman, Stella. No, faith, not I, +he’ll grumble.—What new acquaintance have you got? +come, let us hear. I have made Delaval promise to send me +some Brazil tobacco from Portugal for you, Madam Dingley. I +hope you will have your chocolate and spectacles before this +comes to you.</p> +<p>3. Pshaw, I must be writing to these dear saucy brats +every night, whether I will or no, let me have what business I +will, or come home ever so late, or be ever so sleepy; but an old +saying, and a true one,</p> +<blockquote><p>“Be you lords, or be you earls,<br /> +You must write to naughty girls.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>I was to-day at Court, and saw Raymond among the Beefeaters, +staying to see the Queen: so I put him in a better station, made +two or three dozen of bows, and went to church, and then to Court +again, to pick up a dinner, as I did with Sir John Stanley; and +then we went to visit Lord Mountjoy, and just now left him; and +’tis near eleven at night, young women; and methinks this +letter comes pretty near to the bottom, and ’tis but eight +days since the date, and don’t think I’ll write on +the other side, I thank you for nothing. Faith, if I would +use you to letters on sheets as broad as this room, you would +always expect them from me. O, faith, I know you well +enough; but an old saying, etc.,</p> +<blockquote><p>“Two sides in a sheet,<br /> +And one in a street.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="page84"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 84</span>I think +that’s but a silly old saying; and so I’ll go to +sleep, and do you so too.</p> +<p>4. I dined to-day with Mrs. Vanhomrigh, and then came +home, and studied till eleven. No adventure at all +to-day.</p> +<p>5. So I went to the Court of Requests (we have had the +Devil and all of rain by the bye) to pick up a dinner; and Henley +made me go dine with him and one Colonel Bragg <a +name="citation84a"></a><a href="#footnote84a" +class="citation">[84a]</a> at a tavern; cost me money, +faith. Congreve was to be there, but came not. I came +with Henley to the Coffee-house, where Lord Salisbury <a +name="citation84b"></a><a href="#footnote84b" +class="citation">[84b]</a> seemed mighty desirous to talk with +me; and, while he was wriggling himself into my favour, that dog +Henley asked me aloud, whether I would go to see Lord Somers as I +had promised (which was a lie); and all to vex poor Lord +Salisbury, who is a high Tory. He played two or three other +such tricks; and I was forced to leave my lord, and I came home +at seven, and have been writing ever since, and will now go to +bed. The other day I saw Jack Temple <a +name="citation84c"></a><a href="#footnote84c" +class="citation">[84c]</a> in the Court of Requests: it was the +first time of seeing him; so we talked two or three careless +words, and parted. Is it true that your Recorder and Mayor, +and fanatic aldermen, a month or two ago, at a solemn feast, +drank Mr. Harley’s, Lord Rochester’s, <a +name="citation84d"></a><a href="#footnote84d" +class="citation">[84d]</a> and other Tory healths? Let me +know; it was confidently said here.—The scoundrels! +It shan’t do, Tom.</p> +<p>6. When is this letter to go, I wonder? harkee, young +women, tell me that. Saturday next for certain, and not +before: then it will be just a fortnight; time enough for naughty +girls, and long enough for two letters, faith. Congreve and +Delaval have at last prevailed on Sir Godfrey Kneller to entreat +me to let him draw my picture for nothing; but I know not yet +when I shall sit. <a name="citation84e"></a><a +href="#footnote84e" class="citation">[84e]</a>—It is such +monstrous rainy weather, that there is no doing with it. +Secretary St. John sent to me this morning, that my dining <a +name="page85"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 85</span>with him +to-day was put off till to-morrow; so I peaceably sat with my +neighbour Ford, dined with him, and came home at six, and am now +in bed as usual; and now it is time to have another letter from +MD, yet I would not have it till this goes; for that would look +like two letters for one. Is it not whimsical that the Dean +has never once written to me? And I find the Archbishop +very silent to that letter I sent him with an account that the +business was done. I believe he knows not what to write or +say; and I have since written twice to him, both times with a +vengeance. <a name="citation85a"></a><a href="#footnote85a" +class="citation">[85a]</a> Well, go to bed, sirrahs, and so +will I. But have you lost to-day? Three +shillings! O fie, O fie!</p> +<p>7. No, I won’t send this letter to-day, nor till +Saturday, faith; and I am so afraid of one from MD between this +and that; if it comes, I will just say I received a letter, and +that is all. I dined to-day with Mr. Secretary St. John, +where were Lord Anglesea, <a name="citation85b"></a><a +href="#footnote85b" class="citation">[85b]</a> Sir Thomas Hanmer, +Prior, Freind, etc., and then made a debauch after nine at +Prior’s house, and have eaten cold pie, and I hate the +thoughts of it, and I am full, and I don’t like it, and I +will go to bed, and it is late, and so good-night.</p> +<p>8. To-day I dined with Mr. Harley and Prior; but Mr. St. +John did not come, though he promised: he chid me for not seeing +him oftener. Here is a damned, libellous pamphlet come out +against Lord Wharton, giving the character first, and then +telling some of his actions: the character is very well, but the +facts indifferent. <a name="citation85c"></a><a +href="#footnote85c" class="citation">[85c]</a> It has been +sent by dozens to several gentlemen’s lodgings, and I had +one or two of them; but nobody knows the author or printer. +We are terribly afraid of the plague; they say it is at <a +name="page86"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 86</span>Newcastle. <a +name="citation86a"></a><a href="#footnote86a" +class="citation">[86a]</a> I begged Mr. Harley for the love +of God to take some care about it, or we are all ruined. +There have been orders for all ships from the Baltic to pass +their quarantine before they land; but they neglect it. You +remember I have been afraid these two years.</p> +<p>9. O, faith, you are a saucy rogue. I have had +your sixth letter just now, before this is gone; but I will not +answer a word of it, only that I never was giddy since my first +fit; but I have had a cold just a fortnight, and cough with it +still morning and evening; but it will go off. It is, +however, such abominable weather that no creature can walk. +They say here three of your Commissioners will be turned out, +Ogle, South, and St. Quintin; <a name="citation86b"></a><a +href="#footnote86b" class="citation">[86b]</a> and that Dick +Stewart <a name="citation86c"></a><a href="#footnote86c" +class="citation">[86c]</a> and Ludlow will be two of the new +ones. I am a little soliciting for another: it is poor Lord +Abercorn, <a name="citation86d"></a><a href="#footnote86d" +class="citation">[86d]</a> but that is a secret; I mean, that I +befriend him is a secret; but I believe it is too late, by his +own fault and ill fortune. I dined with him to-day. I +am heartily sorry you do not go to Clogher, faith, I am; and so +God Almighty protect poor, dear, dear, dear, dearest MD. +Farewell till to-night. I’ll begin my eleventh +to-night; so I am always writing to little MD.</p> +<h3>LETTER XI.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Dec.</i> 9, 1710.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">So</span>, young women, I have just sent +my tenth to the post-office, and, as I told you, have received +your seventh (faith, I am afraid I mistook, and said your sixth, +and then we shall be all in confusion this month.) Well, I +told you I dined with Lord Abercorn to-day; and that is enough +till <a name="page87"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 87</span>by +and bye; for I must go write idle things, and twittle twattle. <a +name="citation87a"></a><a href="#footnote87a" +class="citation">[87a]</a> What’s here to do with +your little MD’s? and so I put this by for a while. +’Tis now late, and I can only say MD is a dear, saucy +rogue, and what then? Presto loves them the better.</p> +<p>10. This son of a b— Patrick is out of the way, +and I can do nothing; am forced to borrow coals: ’tis now +six o’clock, and I am come home after a pure walk in the +park; delicate weather, begun only to-day. A terrible storm +last night: we hear one of your packet-boats is cast away, and +young Beau Swift <a name="citation87b"></a><a href="#footnote87b" +class="citation">[87b]</a> in it, and General Sankey: <a +name="citation87c"></a><a href="#footnote87c" +class="citation">[87c]</a> I know not the truth; you will +before me. Raymond talks of leaving the town in a few days, +and going in a month to Ireland, for fear his wife should be too +far gone, and forced to be brought to bed here. I think he +is in the right; but perhaps this packet-boat will fright +him. He has no relish for London; and I do not wonder at +it. He has got some Templars from Ireland that show him the +town. I do not let him see me above twice a week, and that +only while I am dressing in the morning.—So, now the +puppy’s come in, and I have got my own ink, but a new pen; +and so now you are rogues and sauceboxes till I go to bed; for I +must go study, sirrahs. Now I think of it, tell the Bishop +of Clogher, he shall not cheat me of one inch of my bell +metal. You know it is nothing but to save the town money; +and Enniskillen can afford it better than Laracor: he shall have +but one thousand five hundred weight. I have been reading, +etc., as usual, and am now going to bed; and I find this +day’s article is long enough: so get you gone till +to-morrow, and then. I dined with Sir Matthew Dudley.</p> +<p>11. I am come home again as yesterday, and the puppy had +again locked up my ink, notwithstanding all I said to <a +name="page88"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 88</span>him +yesterday; but he came home a little after me, so all is well: +they are lighting my fire, and I’ll go study. The +fair weather is gone again, and it has rained all day. I do +not like this open weather, though some say it is healthy. +They say it is a false report about the plague at Newcastle. <a +name="citation88a"></a><a href="#footnote88a" +class="citation">[88a]</a> I have no news to-day: I dined +with Mrs. Vanhomrigh, to desire them to buy me a scarf; and Lady +Abercorn <a name="citation88b"></a><a href="#footnote88b" +class="citation">[88b]</a> is to buy me another, to see who does +best: mine is all in rags. I saw the Duke of Richmond <a +name="citation88c"></a><a href="#footnote88c" +class="citation">[88c]</a> yesterday at Court again, but would +not speak to him: I believe we are fallen out. I am now in +bed; and it has rained all this evening, like wildfire: have you +so much rain in your town? Raymond was in a fright, as I +expected, upon the news of this shipwreck; but I persuaded him, +and he leaves this town in a week. I got him acquainted +with Sir Robert Raymond, <a name="citation88d"></a><a +href="#footnote88d" class="citation">[88d]</a> the +Solicitor-General, who owns him to be of his family; and I +believe it may do him a kindness, by being recommended to your +new Lord Chancellor.—I had a letter from Mrs. Long, that +has quite turned my stomach against her: no less than two nasty +jests in it, with dashes to suppose them. She is corrupted +in that country town <a name="citation88e"></a><a +href="#footnote88e" class="citation">[88e]</a> with vile +conversation.—I will not answer your letter till I have +leisure: so let this go on as it will, what care I? what cares +saucy Presto?</p> +<p>12. I was to-day at the Secretary’s office with +Lewis, and in came Lord Rivers; <a name="citation88f"></a><a +href="#footnote88f" class="citation">[88f]</a> who took Lewis out +and whispered <a name="page89"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +89</span>him; and then came up to me to desire my acquaintance, +etc., so we bowed and complimented a while, and parted and I +dined with Phil. Savage <a name="citation89a"></a><a +href="#footnote89a" class="citation">[89a]</a> and his Irish +Club, at their boarding-place; and, passing an evening scurvily +enough, did not come home till eight. Mr. Addison and I +hardly meet once a fortnight; his Parliament and my different +friendships keep us asunder. Sir Matthew Dudley turned away +his butler yesterday morning; and at night the poor fellow died +suddenly in the streets: was not it an odd event? But what +care you? But then I knew the butler.—Why, it seems +your packet-boat is not lost: psha, how silly that is, when I had +already gone through the forms, and said it was a sad thing, and +that I was sorry for it! But when must I answer this letter +of our MD’s? Here it is, it lies between this paper +on t’other side of the leaf: one of these +odd-come-shortly’s I’ll consider, and so +good-night.</p> +<p>13. Morning. I am to go trapesing with Lady Kerry +<a name="citation89b"></a><a href="#footnote89b" +class="citation">[89b]</a> and Mrs. Pratt <a +name="citation89c"></a><a href="#footnote89c" +class="citation">[89c]</a> to see sights all this day: they +engaged me yesterday morning at tea. You hear the havoc +making in the army: Meredith, Maccartney, and Colonel Honeywood +<a name="citation89d"></a><a href="#footnote89d" +class="citation">[89d]</a> are obliged to sell their commands at +half-value, and leave <a name="page90"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 90</span>the army, for drinking destruction to +the present Ministry, and dressing up a hat on a stick, and +calling it Harley; then drinking a glass with one hand, and +discharging a pistol with the other at the maukin, <a +name="citation90a"></a><a href="#footnote90a" +class="citation">[90a]</a> wishing it were Harley himself; and a +hundred other such pretty tricks, as inflaming their soldiers, +and foreign Ministers, against the late changes at Court. +Cadogan <a name="citation90b"></a><a href="#footnote90b" +class="citation">[90b]</a> has had a little paring: his mother <a +name="citation90c"></a><a href="#footnote90c" +class="citation">[90c]</a> told me yesterday he had lost the +place of Envoy; but I hope they will go no further with him, for +he was not at those mutinous meetings.—Well, these saucy +jades take up so much of my time with writing to them in a +morning; but, faith, I am glad to see you whenever I can: a +little snap and away; and so hold your tongue, for I must rise: +not a word, for your life. How nowww? So, very well; +stay till I come home, and then, perhaps, you may hear further +from me. And where will you go to-day, for I can’t be +with you for these ladies? It is a rainy, ugly day. +I’d have you send for Walls, and go to the Dean’s; +but don’t play small games when you lose. +You’ll be ruined by Manilio, Basto, the queen, and two +small trumps, in red. <a name="citation90d"></a><a +href="#footnote90d" class="citation">[90d]</a> I confess +’tis a good hand against the player: but then there are +Spadilio, Punto, the king, strong trumps, against you, which, +with one trump more, are three tricks ten ace: for, suppose you +play your Manilio—Oh, silly, how I prate, and can’t +get away from this MD in a morning! Go, get you gone, dear +naughty girls, and let me rise. There, Patrick locked up my +ink again the third time last night: the rogue gets the better of +me; but I will rise in spite of you, sirrahs.—At +night. Lady Kerry, Mrs. Pratt, Mrs. Cadogan, <a +name="citation90e"></a><a href="#footnote90e" +class="citation">[90e]</a> and I, in one coach; Lady +Kerry’s <a name="page91"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +91</span>son <a name="citation91a"></a><a href="#footnote91a" +class="citation">[91a]</a> and his governor, and two gentlemen, +in another; maids, and misses and little master (Lord +Shelburne’s <a name="citation91b"></a><a +href="#footnote91b" class="citation">[91b]</a> children), in a +third, all hackneys, set out at ten o’clock this morning +from Lord Shelburne’s house in Piccadilly to the Tower, and +saw all the sights, lions, <a name="citation91c"></a><a +href="#footnote91c" class="citation">[91c]</a> etc.; then to +Bedlam; <a name="citation91d"></a><a href="#footnote91d" +class="citation">[91d]</a> then dined at the chop-house behind +the Exchange; then to Gresham College <a +name="citation91e"></a><a href="#footnote91e" +class="citation">[91e]</a> (but the keeper was not at home); and +concluded the night at the Puppet-show, <a +name="citation91f"></a><a href="#footnote91f" +class="citation">[91f]</a> whence we came home safe at eight, and +I left them. The ladies were all in mobs <a +name="citation91g"></a><a href="#footnote91g" +class="citation">[91g]</a> (how do you call it?), undrest; and it +was the rainiest day that ever dripped; and I am weary; and it is +now past eleven.</p> +<p>14. Stay, I’ll answer some of your letter this +morning in bed: let me see; come and appear, little letter. +Here I am, says he: and what say you to Mrs. MD this morning +fresh and fasting? Who dares think MD negligent? I +allow them a fortnight; and they give it me. I could fill a +letter in a week; but it is longer every day; and so I keep it a +fortnight, and then ’tis cheaper by one half. I have +never been giddy, dear Stella, since that morning: I have taken a +whole box of pills, and kecked <a name="citation91h"></a><a +href="#footnote91h" class="citation">[91h]</a> at them every +night, and drank a pint of brandy at mornings.—Oh then, <a +name="page92"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 92</span>you kept +Presto’s little birthday: <a name="citation92a"></a><a +href="#footnote92a" class="citation">[92a]</a> would to God I had +been with you! I forgot it, as I told you before. +R<i>e</i>diculous, madam? I suppose you mean +r<i>i</i>diculous: let me have no more of that; ’tis the +author of the <i>Atalantis’s</i> <a +name="citation92b"></a><a href="#footnote92b" +class="citation">[92b]</a> spelling. I have mended it in +your letter. And can Stella read this writing without +hurting her dear eyes? O, faith, I am afraid not. +Have a care of those eyes, pray, pray, pretty +Stella.—’Tis well enough what you observe, that, if I +writ better, perhaps you would not read so well, being used to +this manner; ’tis an alphabet you are used to: you know +such a pot-hook makes a letter; and you know what letter, and so +and so.—I’ll swear he told me so, and that they were +long letters too; but I told him it was a gasconnade of yours, +etc. I am talking of the Bishop of Clogher, how he +forgot. Turn over. <a name="citation92c"></a><a +href="#footnote92c" class="citation">[92c]</a> I had not +room on t’other side to say that, so I did it on this: I +fancy that’s a good Irish blunder. Ah, why do not you +go down to Clogher, nautinautinautideargirls; I dare not say +<i>nauti</i> without <i>dear</i>: O, faith, you govern me. +But, seriously, I’m sorry you don’t go, as far as I +can judge at this distance. No, we would get you another +horse; I will make Parvisol get you one. I always doubted +that horse of yours: prythee sell him, and let it be a present to +me. My heart aches when I think you ride him. Order +Parvisol to sell him, and that you are to return me the money: I +shall never be easy until he is out of your hands. Faith, I +have dreamt five or six times of horses stumbling since I had +your letter. If he can’t sell <a +name="page93"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 93</span>him, let him +run this winter. Faith, if I was near you, I would whip +your — to some tune, for your grave, saucy answer about the +Dean and <i>Johnsonibus</i>; I would, young women. And did +the Dean preach for me? <a name="citation93a"></a><a +href="#footnote93a" class="citation">[93a]</a> Very +well. Why, would they have me stand here and preach to +them? No, the <i>Tatler</i> of the Shilling <a +name="citation93b"></a><a href="#footnote93b" +class="citation">[93b]</a> was not mine, more than the hint, and +two or three general heads for it. I have much more +important business on my hands; and, besides, the Ministry hate +to think that I should help him, and have made reproaches on it; +and I frankly told them I would do it no more. This is a +secret though, Madam Stella. You win eight shillings? you +win eight fiddlesticks. Faith, you say nothing of what you +lose, young women.—I hope Manley is in no great danger; for +Ned Southwell is his friend, and so is Sir Thomas Frankland; and +his brother John Manley stands up heartily for him. On +t’other side, all the gentlemen of Ireland here are +furiously against him. Now, Mistress Dingley, an’t +you an impudent slut, to expect a letter next packet from Presto, +when you confess yourself that you had so lately two letters in +four days? Unreasonable baggage! No, little Dingley, +I am always in bed by twelve; I mean my candle is out by twelve, +and I take great care of myself. Pray let everybody know, +upon occasion, that Mr. Harley got the First-Fruits from the +Queen for the clergy of Ireland, and that nothing remains but the +forms, etc. So you say the Dean and you dined at +Stoyte’s, and Mrs. Stoyte was in raptures that I remembered +her. I must do it but seldom, or it will take off her +rapture. But what now, you saucy sluts? all this written in a +morning, and I must rise and go abroad. Pray stay till +night: do not think I will squander mornings upon you, pray, good +madam. Faith, if I go on longer in this trick of writing in +the morning, I shall be afraid of leaving it off, and think you +expect it, and be in awe. Good-morrow, sirrahs, I will +rise.—At night. I went to-day to the Court of +Requests (I will not answer the rest of your letter yet, that by +the way), in <a name="page94"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +94</span>hopes to dine with Mr. Harley: but Lord Dupplin, <a +name="citation94a"></a><a href="#footnote94a" +class="citation">[94a]</a> his son-in-law, told me he did not +dine at home; so I was at a loss, until I met with Mr. Secretary +St. John, and went home and dined with him, where he told me of a +good bite. <a name="citation94b"></a><a href="#footnote94b" +class="citation">[94b]</a> Lord Rivers told me two days +ago, that he was resolved to come Sunday fortnight next to hear +me preach before the Queen. I assured him the day was not +yet fixed, and I knew nothing of it. To-day the Secretary +told me that his father, Sir Harry St. John, <a +name="citation94c"></a><a href="#footnote94c" +class="citation">[94c]</a> and Lord Rivers were to be at St. +James’s Church, to hear me preach there; and were assured I +was to preach: so there will be another bite; for I know nothing +of the matter, but that Mr. Harley and St. John are resolved I +must preach before the Queen; and the Secretary of State has told +me he will give me three weeks’ warning; but I desired to +be excused, which he will not. St. John, “You shall +not be excused”: however, I hope they will forget it; for +if it should happen, all the puppies hereabouts will throng to +hear me, and expect something wonderful, and be plaguily baulked; +for I shall preach plain honest stuff. I stayed with St. +John till eight, and then came home; and Patrick desired leave to +go abroad, and by and by comes up the girl to tell me, a +gentleman was below in a coach, who had a bill to pay me; so I +let him come up, and who should it be but Mr. Addison and Sam +Dopping, to haul me out to supper, where I stayed till +twelve. If Patrick had been at home, I should have +’scaped this; for I have taught him to deny me almost as +well as Mr. Harley’s porter.—Where did I leave off in +MD’s letter? let me see. So, now I have it. You +are pleased to say, Madam <a name="page95"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 95</span>Dingley, that those who go for +England can never tell when to come back. Do you mean this +as a reflection upon Presto, madam? Sauceboxes, I will come +back as soon as I can, as hope saved, <a +name="citation95a"></a><a href="#footnote95a" +class="citation">[95a]</a> and I hope with some advantage, unless +all Ministries be alike, as perhaps they may. I hope +Hawkshaw is in Dublin before now, and that you have your things, +and like your spectacles: if you do not, you shall have +better. I hope Dingley’s tobacco did not spoil +Stella’s chocolate, and that all is safe: pray let me +know. Mr. Addison and I are different as black and white, +and I believe our friendship will go off, by this damned business +of party: he cannot bear seeing me fall in so with this Ministry: +but I love him still as well as ever, though we seldom +meet.—Hussy, Stella, you jest about poor Congreve’s +eyes; <a name="citation95b"></a><a href="#footnote95b" +class="citation">[95b]</a> you do so, hussy; but I’ll bang +your bones, faith.—Yes, Steele was a little while in +prison, or at least in a spunging-house, some time before I came, +but not since. <a name="citation95c"></a><a href="#footnote95c" +class="citation">[95c]</a>—Pox on your convocations, and +your Lamberts; <a name="citation95d"></a><a href="#footnote95d" +class="citation">[95d]</a> they write with a vengeance! I +suppose you think it a piece of affectation in me to wish your +Irish folks would not like my “Shower,”; but you are +mistaken. I should be glad to have the general applause +there as I have here (though I say it); but I have only that of +one or two, and therefore I would have none at all, but let you +all be in the wrong. I don’t know, this is not what I +would say; but I am so tosticated with supper and stuff, that I +can’t express myself.—What you say of “Sid +Hamet” is well enough; that an enemy should like it, and a +friend not; and that telling the author would make both change +their opinions. Why did you not tell Griffyth <a +name="citation95e"></a><a href="#footnote95e" +class="citation">[95e]</a> that you fancied there was something +<a name="page96"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 96</span>in it of +my manner; but first spur up his commendation to the height, as +we served my poor uncle about the sconce that I mended? +Well, I desired you to give what I intended for an answer to Mrs. +Fenton, <a name="citation96a"></a><a href="#footnote96a" +class="citation">[96a]</a> to save her postage, and myself +trouble; and I hope I have done it, if you han’t.</p> +<p>15. Lord, what a long day’s writing was +yesterday’s answer to your letter, sirrahs! I dined +to-day with Lewis and Ford, whom I have brought acquainted. +Lewis told me a pure thing. I had been hankering with Mr. +Harley to save Steele his other employment, and have a little +mercy on him; and I had been saying the same thing to Lewis, who +is Mr. Harley’s chief favourite. Lewis tells Mr. +Harley how kindly I should take it, if he would be reconciled to +Steele, etc. Mr. Harley, on my account, falls in with it, +and appoints Steele a time to let him attend him, which Steele +accepts with great submission, but never comes, nor sends any +excuse. Whether it was blundering, sullenness, insolence, +or rancour of party, I cannot tell; but I shall trouble myself no +more about him. I believe Addison hindered him out of mere +spite, being grated <a name="citation96b"></a><a +href="#footnote96b" class="citation">[96b]</a> to the soul to +think he should ever want my help to save his friend; yet now he +is soliciting me to make another of his friends Queen’s +Secretary at Geneva; and I’ll do it if I can; it is poor +Pastoral Philips. <a name="citation96c"></a><a +href="#footnote96c" class="citation">[96c]</a></p> +<p>16. O, why did you leave my picture behind you at +t’other lodgings? Forgot it? Well; but pray +remember it now, and don’t roll it up, d’ye hear; but +hang it carefully in some part of your room, where chairs and +candles and mop-sticks won’t spoil it, sirrahs. No, +truly, I will not be <a name="page97"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 97</span>godfather to Goody Walls this bout, +and I hope she will have no more. There will be no quiet +nor cards for this child. I hope it will die the day after +the christening. Mr. Harley gave me a paper, with an +account of the sentence you speak of against the lads that +defaced the statue, <a name="citation97a"></a><a +href="#footnote97a" class="citation">[97a]</a> and that Ingoldsby +<a name="citation97b"></a><a href="#footnote97b" +class="citation">[97b]</a> reprieved that part of it of standing +before the statue. I hope it was never executed. We +have got your Broderick out; <a name="citation97c"></a><a +href="#footnote97c" class="citation">[97c]</a> Doyne <a +name="citation97d"></a><a href="#footnote97d" +class="citation">[97d]</a> is to succeed him, and Cox <a +name="citation97e"></a><a href="#footnote97e" +class="citation">[97e]</a> Doyne. And so there’s an +end of your letter; ’tis all answered; and now I must go on +upon my own stock. Go on, did I say? Why, I have +written enough; but this is too soon to send it yet, young women; +faith, I dare not use you to it, you’ll always expect it; +what remains shall be only short journals of a day, and so +I’ll rise for this morning.—At night. I dined +with my opposite neighbour, Darteneuf; and I was soliciting this +day to present the Bishop of Clogher Vice-Chancellor; <a +name="citation97f"></a><a href="#footnote97f" +class="citation">[97f]</a> but it won’t do; they are all +set against him, and the Duke of Ormond, they say, has resolved +to dispose of it somewhere else. Well; little saucy rogues, +do not stay out too late to-night, because it is Saturday night, +and young women should come home soon then.</p> +<p>17. I went to Court to seek a dinner: but the Queen was +not at church, she has got a touch of the gout; so the Court <a +name="page98"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 98</span>was thin, and +I went to the Coffee-house; and Sir Thomas Frankland and his +eldest son and I went and dined with his son William. <a +name="citation98a"></a><a href="#footnote98a" +class="citation">[98a]</a> I talked a great deal to Sir +Thomas about Manley; and find he is his good friend, and so has +Ned Southwell been, and I hope he will be safe, though all the +Irish folks here are his mortal enemies. There was a +devilish bite to-day. They had it, I know not how, that I +was to preach this morning at St. James’s Church; an +abundance went, among the rest Lord Radnor, who never is abroad +till three in the afternoon. I walked all the way home from +Hatton Garden at six, by moonlight, a delicate night. +Raymond called at nine, but I was denied; and now I am in bed +between eleven and twelve, just going to sleep, and dream of my +own dear roguish impudent pretty MD.</p> +<p>18. You will now have short days’ works, just a +few lines to tell you where I am, and what I am doing; only I +will keep room for the last day to tell you news, if there be any +worth sending. I have been sometimes like to do it at the +top of my letter, until I remark it would be old before it +reached you. I was hunting to dine with Mr. Harley to-day, +but could not find him; and so I dined with honest Dr. Cockburn, +and came home at six, and was taken out to next door by Dopping +and Ford, to drink bad claret and oranges; and we let Raymond +come to us, who talks of leaving the town to-morrow, but I +believe will stay a day or two longer. It is now late, and +I will say no more, but end this line with bidding my own dear +saucy MD good-night, etc.</p> +<p>19. I am come down proud stomach in one instance, for I +went to-day to see the Duke of Buckingham, <a +name="citation98b"></a><a href="#footnote98b" +class="citation">[98b]</a> but came too late: then I visited Mrs. +Barton, <a name="citation98c"></a><a href="#footnote98c" +class="citation">[98c]</a> and thought to have dined with some of +the Ministry; but it rained, and Mrs. Vanhomrigh <a +name="page99"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 99</span>was nigh, and +I took the opportunity of paying her for a scarf she bought me, +and dined there; at four I went to congratulate with Lord +Shelburne, for the death of poor Lady Shelburne dowager; <a +name="citation99a"></a><a href="#footnote99a" +class="citation">[99a]</a> he was at his country house, and +returned while I was there, and had not heard of it, and he took +it very well. I am now come home before six, and find a +packet from the Bishop of Clogher, with one enclosed to the Duke +of Ormond, which is ten days earlier dated than another I had +from Parvisol; however, ’tis no matter, for the Duke has +already disposed of the Vice-Chancellorship to the Archbishop of +Tuam, <a name="citation99b"></a><a href="#footnote99b" +class="citation">[99b]</a> and I could not help it, for it is a +thing wholly you know in the Duke’s power; and I find the +Bishop has enemies about the Duke. I write this while +Patrick is folding up my scarf, and doing up the fire (for I keep +a fire, it costs me twelvepence a week); and so be quiet till I +am gone to bed, and then sit down by me a little, and we will +talk a few words more. Well; now MD is at my bedside; and +now what shall we say? How does Mrs. Stoyte? What had +the Dean for supper? How much did Mrs. Walls win? +Poor Lady Shelburne: well, go get you to bed, sirrahs.</p> +<p>20. Morning. I was up this morning early, and +shaved by candlelight, and write this by the fireside. Poor +Raymond just came in and took his leave of me; he is summoned by +high order from his wife, but pretends he has had enough of +London. I was a little melancholy to part with him; he goes +to Bristol, where they are to be with his merchant brother, and +now thinks of staying till May; so she must be brought to bed in +England. He was so easy and manageable, that I almost +repent I suffered him to see me so seldom. But he is gone, +and will save Patrick some lies in a week: Patrick is grown +admirable at it, and will make his fortune. <a +name="page100"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 100</span>How now, +sirrah, must I write in a morning to your impudence?</p> +<blockquote><p>Stay till night,<br /> +And then I’ll write,<br /> +In black and white,<br /> +By candlelight,<br /> +Of wax so bright,<br /> +It helps the sight—<br /> +A bite, a bite!</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Marry come up, Mistress Boldface.—At night. Dr. +Raymond came back, and goes to-morrow. I did not come home +till eleven, and found him here to take leave of me. I went +to the Court of Requests, thinking to find Mr. Harley and dine +with him, and refused Henley, and everybody, and at last knew not +where to go, and met Jemmy Leigh by chance, and he was just in +the same way, so I dined at his lodgings on a beef-steak, and +drank your health; then left him and went to the tavern with Ben +Tooke and Portlack, the Duke of Ormond’s secretary, +drinking nasty white wine till eleven. I am sick, and +ashamed of it, etc.</p> +<p>21. I met that beast Ferris, Lord Berkeley’s <a +name="citation100a"></a><a href="#footnote100a" +class="citation">[100a]</a> steward formerly; I walked with him a +turn in the Park, and that scoundrel dog is as happy as an +emperor, has married a wife with a considerable estate in land +and houses about this town, and lives at his ease at +Hammersmith. See your confounded sect! <a +name="citation100b"></a><a href="#footnote100b" +class="citation">[100b]</a> Well; I had the same luck +to-day with Mr. Harley; ’twas a lovely day, and went by +water into the City, and dined with Stratford at a +merchant’s house, and walked home with as great a dunce as +Ferris, I mean honest Colonel Caulfeild, <a +name="citation100c"></a><a href="#footnote100c" +class="citation">[100c]</a> and came home by eight, and now am in +bed, and going to sleep for a wager, and will send this letter on +Saturday, and so; but first I will wish you a merry <a +name="page101"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 101</span>Christmas +and a happy New Year, and pray God we may never keep them asunder +again.</p> +<p>22. Morning. I am going now to Mr. Harley’s +levee on purpose to vex him; I will say I had no other way of +seeing him, etc. Patrick says it is a dark morning, and +that the Duke of Argyle <a name="citation101a"></a><a +href="#footnote101a" class="citation">[101a]</a> is to be +knighted to-day; the booby means installed at Windsor. But +I must rise, for this is a shaving-day, and Patrick says there is +a good fire; I wish MD were by it, or I by MD’s.—At +night. I forgot to tell you, Madam Dingley, that I paid +nine shillings for your glass and spectacles, of which three were +for the Bishop’s case: I am sorry I did not buy you such +another case; but if you like it, I will bring one over with me; +pray tell me: the glass to read was four shillings, the +spectacles two. And have you had your chocolate? +Leigh says he sent the petticoat by one Mr. Spencer. Pray +have you no further commissions for me? I paid the +glass-man but last night, and he would have made me a present of +the microscope worth thirty shillings, and would have sent it +home along with me; I thought the deuce was in the man: he said I +could do him more service than that was worth, etc. I +refused his present, but promised him all service I could do him; +and so now I am obliged in honour to recommend him to +everybody.—At night. I went to Mr. Harley’s +levee; he came and asked me what I had to do there, and bid me +come and dine with him on a family dinner; which I did, and it +was the first time I ever saw his lady <a +name="citation101b"></a><a href="#footnote101b" +class="citation">[101b]</a> and daughter; <a +name="citation101c"></a><a href="#footnote101c" +class="citation">[101c]</a> at five my Lord Keeper <a +name="citation101d"></a><a href="#footnote101d" +class="citation">[101d]</a> came in: I <a +name="page102"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 102</span>told Mr. +Harley, he had formerly presented me to Sir Simon Harcourt, but +now must to my Lord Keeper; so he laughed, etc.</p> +<p>23. Morning. This letter goes to-night without +fail; I hope there is none from you yet at the Coffee-house; I +will send and see by and by, and let you know, and so and +so. Patrick goes to see for a letter: what will you lay, is +there one from MD or no? No, I say; done for +sixpence. Why has the Dean never once written to me? +I won sixpence; I won sixpence; there is not one letter to +Presto. Good-morrow, dear sirrahs: Stratford and I dine +to-day with Lord Mountjoy. God Almighty preserve and bless +you; farewell, etc.</p> +<p>I have been dining at Lord Mountjoy’s; and am come to +study; our news from Spain this post takes off some of our +fears. The Parliament is prorogued to-day, or adjourned +rather till after the holidays. Bank Stock is 105, so I may +get 12 shillings for my bargain already. Patrick, the +puppy, is abroad, and how shall I send this letter? +Good-night, little dears both, and be happy; and remember your +poor Presto, that wants you sadly, as hope saved. Let me go +study, naughty girls, and don’t keep me at the bottom of +the paper. O, faith, if you knew what lies on my hands +constantly, you would wonder to see how I could write such long +letters; but we’ll talk of that some other time. +Good-night again, and God bless dear MD with His best blessings, +yes, yes, and Dingley and Stella and me too, etc.</p> +<p>Ask the Bishop of Clogher about the pun I sent him of Lord +Stawel’s brother; <a name="citation102"></a><a +href="#footnote102" class="citation">[102]</a> it will be a pure +bite. This letter has 199 lines in it, beside all +postscripts; I had a curiosity to reckon.</p> +<p>There is a long letter for you.</p> +<p>It is longer than a sermon, faith.</p> +<p>I had another letter from Mrs. Fenton, who says you were <a +name="page103"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 103</span>with her; I +hope you did not go on purpose. I will answer her letter +soon; it is about some money in Lady Giffard’s hands.</p> +<p>They say you have had eight packets due to you; so pray, +madams, do not blame Presto, but the wind.</p> +<p>My humble service to Mrs. Walls and Mrs. Stoyte; I missed the +former a good while.</p> +<h3>LETTER XII.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Dec.</i> 23, 1710.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> sent my 11th to-night as +usual, and begin the dozenth, and I told you I dined with +Stratford at Lord Mountjoy’s, and I will tell you no more +at present, guess for why; because I am going to mind things, and +mighty affairs, not your nasty First-Fruits—I let them +alone till Mr. Harley gets the Queen’s letter—but +other things of greater moment, that you shall know one day, when +the ducks have eaten up all the dirt. So sit still a while +just by me, while I am studying, and don’t say a word, I +charge you, and when I am going to bed, I will take you along, +and talk with you a little while, so there, sit there.—Come +then, let us see what we have to say to these saucy brats, that +will not let us go sleep at past eleven. Why, I am a little +impatient to know how you do; but that I take it for a standing +maxim, that when you are silent, all is pretty well, because that +is the way I will deal with you; and if there was anything you +ought to know now, I would write by the first post, although I +had written but the day before. Remember this, young women; +and God Almighty preserve you both, and make us happy together; +and tell me how accompts stand between us, that you may be paid +long before it is due, not to want. I will return no more +money while I stay, so that you need not be in pain to be paid; +but let me know at least a month before you can want. +Observe this, d’ye hear, little dear sirrahs, and love +Presto, as Presto loves MD, etc.</p> +<p><a name="page104"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +104</span>24. You will have a merrier Christmas Eve than we +here. I went up to Court before church; and in one of the +rooms, there being but little company, a fellow in a red coat +without a sword came up to me, and, after words of course, asked +me how the ladies did? I asked, “What +ladies?” He said, “Mrs. Dingley and Mrs. +Johnson.” “Very well,” said I, +“when I heard from them last: and pray when came you from +thence, sir?” He said, “I never was in +Ireland”; and just at that word Lord Winchelsea <a +name="citation104a"></a><a href="#footnote104a" +class="citation">[104a]</a> comes up to me, and the man went off: +as I went out I saw him again, and recollected him, it was Vedeau +<a name="citation104b"></a><a href="#footnote104b" +class="citation">[104b]</a> with a pox: I then went and made my +apologies, that my head was full of something I had to say to +Lord Winchelsea, etc., and I asked after his wife, and so all was +well; and he inquired after my lodging, because he had some +favour to desire of me in Ireland, to recommend somebody to +somebody, I know not what it is. When I came from church, I +went up to Court again, where Sir Edmond Bacon <a +name="citation104c"></a><a href="#footnote104c" +class="citation">[104c]</a> told me the bad news from Spain, <a +name="citation104d"></a><a href="#footnote104d" +class="citation">[104d]</a> which you will hear before this +reaches you; as we have it now, we are undone there, and it was +odd to see the whole countenances of the Court changed so in two +hours. Lady Mountjoy <a name="citation104e"></a><a +href="#footnote104e" class="citation">[104e]</a> carried me home +to dinner, where I stayed not long after, and came home early, +and now am got into bed, for you must always write to your +MD’s in bed, that is a maxim.</p> +<blockquote><p>Mr. White and Mr. Red,<br /> +Write to MD when abed;<br /> +Mr. Black and Mr. Brown,<br /> +Write to MD when you’re down;<br /> +Mr. Oak and Mr. Willow,<br /> +Write to MD on your pillow.—</p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="page105"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 105</span>What +is this? faith, I smell fire; what can it be? this house has a +thousand stinks in it. I think to leave it on Thursday, and +lodge over the way. Faith, I must rise, and look at my +chimney, for the smell grows stronger, stay—I have been up, +and in my room, and found all safe, only a mouse within the +fender to warm himself, which I could not catch. I smelt +nothing there, but now in my bed-chamber I smell it again; I +believe I have singed the woollen curtain, and that is all, +though I cannot smoke it. Presto is plaguy silly to-night, +an’t he? Yes, and so he be. Ay, but if I should +wake and see fire. Well; I will venture; so good-night, +etc.</p> +<p>25. Pray, young women, if I write so much as this every +day, how will this paper hold a fortnight’s work, and +answer one of yours into the bargain? You never think of +this, but let me go on like a simpleton. I wish you a merry +Christmas, and many, many a one with poor Presto at some pretty +place. I was at church to-day by eight, and received the +Sacrament, and came home by ten; then went to Court at two: it +was a Collar-day, that is, when the Knights of the Garter wear +their collars; but the Queen stayed so late at Sacrament, that I +came back, and dined with my neighbour Ford, because all people +dine at home on this day. This is likewise a Collar-day all +over England in every house, at least where there is +<i>brawn</i>: that’s very well.—I tell you a good +pun; a fellow hard by pretends to cure agues, and has set out a +sign, and spells it <i>egoes</i>; a gentleman and I observing it, +he said, “How does that fellow pretend to cure +<i>agues</i>?” I said I did not know; but I was sure +it was not by a <i>spell</i>. That is admirable. And +so you asked the Bishop about that pun of Lord Stawel’s +brother. Bite! Have I caught you, young women? +Must you pretend to ask after roguish puns, and Latin ones +too? Oh but you smoked me, and did not ask the +Bishop. Oh but you are a fool, and you did. I met +Vedeau again at Court to-day, and I observed he had a sword on; I +fancy he was broke, and has got a commission, but I never asked +him. Vedeau I think his name is, yet Parvisol’s man +is Vedel, that is true. Bank Stock will fall like +stock-fish by this bad news, <a name="page106"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 106</span>and two days ago I could have got +twelve pounds by my bargain; but I do not intend to sell, and in +time it will rise. It is odd that my Lord Peterborow +foretold this loss two months ago, one night at Mr. +Harley’s, when I was there; he bid us count upon it, that +Stanhope would lose Spain before Christmas; that he would venture +his head upon it, and gave us reasons; and though Mr. Harley +argued the contrary, he still held to his opinion. I was +telling my Lord Angelsea this at Court this morning; and a +gentleman by said he had heard my Lord Peterborow affirm the same +thing. I have heard wise folks say, “An ill tongue +may do much.” And ’tis an odd saying,</p> +<blockquote><p>“Once I guessed right,<br /> +And I got credit by’t;<br /> +Thrice I guessed wrong,<br /> +And I kept my credit on.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>No, it is you are sorry, not I.</p> +<p>26. By the Lord Harry, I shall be undone here with +Christmas boxes. The rogues of the Coffee-house have raised +their tax, everyone giving a crown; and I gave mine for shame, +besides a great many half-crowns to great men’s porters, +etc. I went to-day by water into the city, and dined with +no less a man than the City Printer. <a +name="citation106a"></a><a href="#footnote106a" +class="citation">[106a]</a> There is an intimacy between +us, built upon reasons that you shall know when I see you; but +the rain caught me within twelvepenny length of home. I +called at Mr. Harley’s, who was not within, dropped my +half-crown with his porter, drove to the Coffee-house, where the +rain kept me till nine. I had letters to-day from the +Archbishop of Dublin and Mr. Bernage; <a +name="citation106b"></a><a href="#footnote106b" +class="citation">[106b]</a> the latter sends me a melancholy +account of Lady Shelburne’s <a name="citation106c"></a><a +href="#footnote106c" class="citation">[106c]</a> <a +name="page107"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 107</span>death, and +his own disappointments, and would gladly be a captain; if I can +help him, I will.</p> +<p>27. Morning. I bespoke a lodging over the way for +to-morrow, and the dog let it yesterday to another; I gave him no +earnest, so it seems he could do it; Patrick would have had me +give him earnest to bind him; but I would not. So I must go +saunter to-day for a lodging somewhere else. Did you ever +see so open a winter in England? We have not had two frosty +days; but it pays it off in rain: we have not had three fair days +these six weeks. O, faith, I dreamt mightily of MD last +night; but so confused, I cannot tell a word. I have made +Ford acquainted with Lewis; and to-day we dined together: in the +evening I called at one or two neighbours, hoping to spend a +Christmas evening; but none were at home, they were all gone to +be merry with others. I have often observed this, that in +merry times everybody is abroad; where the deuce are they? +So I went to the Coffee-house, and talked with Mr. Addison an +hour, who at last remembered to give me two letters, which I +cannot answer to-night, nor to-morrow neither, I can assure you, +young women, count upon that. I have other things to do +than to answer naughty girls, an old saying and true,</p> +<blockquote><p>Letters from MD’s<br /> +Must not be answered in ten days:</p> +</blockquote> +<p>it is but bad rhyme, etc.</p> +<p>28. To-day I had a message from Sir Thomas Hanmer, to +dine with him; the famous Dr. Smalridge <a +name="citation107a"></a><a href="#footnote107a" +class="citation">[107a]</a> was of the company, and we sat till +six; and I came home to my new lodgings in St. Albans Street, <a +name="citation107b"></a><a href="#footnote107b" +class="citation">[107b]</a> where I pay the same rent (eight +shillings a week) for an apartment two pair of stairs; but I have +the use of the parlour to receive persons of quality, and I am +got into my new bed, etc.</p> +<p><a name="page108"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +108</span>29. Sir Andrew Fountaine has been very ill this +week; and sent to me early this morning to have prayers, which +you know is the last thing. I found the doctors and all in +despair about him. I read prayers to him, found he had +settled all things; and, when I came out, the nurse asked me +whether I thought it possible he could live; for the doctors +thought not. I said, I believed he would live; for I found +the seeds of life in him, which I observe seldom fail (and I +found them in poor, dearest Stella, when she was ill many years +ago); and to-night I was with him again, and he was mightily +recovered, and I hope he will do well, and the doctor approved my +reasons; but, if he should die, I should come off scurvily. +The Secretary of State (Mr. St. John) sent to me to dine with +him; Mr. Harley and Lord Peterborow dined there too; and at night +came Lord Rivers. Lord Peterborow goes to Vienna in a day +or two: he has promised to make me write to him. Mr. Harley +went away at six; but we stayed till seven. I took the +Secretary aside, and complained to him of Mr. Harley, that he had +got the Queen to grant the First-Fruits, promised to bring me to +her, and get her letter to the bishops of Ireland; but the last +part he had not done in six weeks, and I was in danger to lose +reputation, etc. He took the matter right, desired me to be +with him on Sunday morning, and promises me to finish the affair +in four days; so I shall know in a little time what I have to +trust to.—It is nine o’clock, and I must go study, +you little rogues; and so good-night, etc.</p> +<p>30. Morning. The weather grows cold, you +sauceboxes. Sir Andrew Fountaine, they bring me word, is +better. I will go rise, for my hands are starving while I +write in bed. Night. Now Sir Andrew Fountaine is +recovering, he desires to be at ease; for I called in the morning +to read prayers, but he had given orders not to be +disturbed. I have lost a legacy by his living; for he told +me he had left me a picture and some books, etc. I called +to see my quondam neighbour Ford (do you know what <i>quondam</i> +is, though?), and he engaged me to dine with him; for he always +dines at home on Opera-days. I came home at six, writ to +the Archbishop, <a name="page109"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +109</span>then studied till past eleven, and stole to bed, to +write to MD these few lines, to let you know I am in good health +at the present writing hereof, and hope in God MD is so +too. I wonder I never write politics to you: I could make +you the profoundest politician in all the lane.—Well, but +when shall we answer this letter, No. 8 of MD’s? Not +till next year, faith. O Lord—bo—but that will +be a Monday next. Cod’s-so, is it? and so it is: +never saw the like.—I made a pun t’other day to Ben +Portlack <a name="citation109"></a><a href="#footnote109" +class="citation">[109]</a> about a pair of drawers. Poh, +said he, that’s mine a— all over. Pray, pray, +Dingley, let me go sleep; pray, pray, Stella, let me go slumber; +and put out my wax-candle.</p> +<p>31. Morning. It is now seven, and I have got a +fire, but am writing abed in my bed-chamber. ’Tis not +shaving-day, so I shall be ready early to go before church to Mr. +St. John; and to-morrow I will answer our MD’s letter.</p> +<blockquote><p>Would you answer MD’s letter,<br /> +On New Year’s Day you’ll do it better;<br /> +For, when the year with MD ’gins,<br /> +It without MD never lins.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>(These proverbs have always old words in them; lins is leave +off.)</p> +<blockquote><p>But, if on New Year you write nones,<br /> +MD then will bang your bones.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>But Patrick says I must rise.—Night. I was early +this morning with Secretary St. John, and gave him a memorial to +get the Queen’s letter for the First-Fruits, who has +promised to do it in a very few days. He told me he had +been with the Duke of Marlborough, who was lamenting his former +wrong steps in joining with the Whigs, and said he was worn out +with age, fatigues, and misfortunes. I swear it pitied me; +and I really think they will not do well in too much mortifying +that man, although indeed it is his own fault. He is +covetous as hell, and ambitious as the Prince of it: he would +fain have been General for life, and has broken all endeavours +for peace, to keep his greatness and <a name="page110"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 110</span>get money. He told the Queen +he was neither covetous nor ambitious. She said if she +could have conveniently turned about, she would have laughed, and +could hardly forbear it in his face. He fell in with all +the abominable measures of the late Ministry, because they +gratified him for their own designs. Yet he has been a +successful General, and I hope he will continue his +command. O Lord, smoke the politics to MD! Well; but, +if you like them, I will scatter a little now and then, and mine +are all fresh from the chief hands. Well, I dined with Mr. +Harley, and came away at six: there was much company, and I was +not merry at all. Mr. Harley made me read a paper of verses +of Prior’s. I read them plain, without any fine +manner; and Prior swore, I should never read any of his again; +but he would be revenged, and read some of mine as bad. I +excused myself, and said I was famous for reading verses the +worst in the world; and that everybody snatched them from me when +I offered to begin. So we laughed.—Sir Andrew +Fountaine still continues ill. He is plagued with some sort +of bile.</p> +<p>Jan. 1. Morning. I wish my dearest, pretty Dingley +and Stella a happy New Year, and health, and mirth, and good +stomachs, and Fr’s company. Faith, I did not know how +to write Fr. I wondered what was the matter; but now I +remember I always write Pdfr. Patrick wishes me a happy New +Year, and desires I would rise, for it is a good fire, and faith +’tis cold. I was so politic last night with MD, never +saw the like. Get the <i>Examiners</i>, and read them; the +last nine or ten are full of the reasons for the late change, and +of the abuses of the last Ministry; and the great men assure me +they are all true. They are written by their encouragement +and direction. I must rise and go see Sir Andrew Fountaine; +but perhaps to-night I may answer MD’s letter: so <a +name="page111"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +111</span>good-morrow, my mistresses all, good-morrow.</p> +<blockquote><p>I wish you both a merry New Year,<br /> +Roast beef, minced pies, and good strong beer,<br /> +And me a share of your good cheer,<br /> +That I was there, or you were here;<br /> +And you’re a little saucy dear.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Good-morrow again, dear sirrahs; one cannot rise for your +play.—At night. I went this morning to visit Lady +Kerry and Lord Shelburne; and they made me dine with them. +Sir Andrew Fountaine is better. And now let us come and see +what this saucy, dear letter of MD says. Come out, letter, +come out from between the sheets; here it is underneath, and it +will not come out. Come out again, I say: so there. +Here it is. What says Presto to me, pray? says it. +Come, and let me answer for you to your ladies. Hold up +your head then, like a good letter. There. Pray, how +have you got up with Presto, Madam Stella? You write your +eighth when you receive mine: now I write my twelfth when I +receive your eighth. Do not you allow for what are upon the +road, simpleton? What say you to that? And so you +kept Presto’s little birthday, I warrant: would to God I +had been at the health rather than here, where I have no manner +of pleasure, nothing but eternal business upon my hands. I +shall grow wise in time; but no more of that: only I say Amen +with my heart and vitals, that we may never be asunder again ten +days together while poor Presto +lives.—————————————I +can’t be merry so near any splenetic talk; so I made that +long line, and now all’s well again. Yes, you are a +pretending slut, indeed, with your fourth and fifth in the +margin, and your journal, and everything. Wind—we saw +no wind here, nothing at all extraordinary at any time. We +had it once when you had it not. But an old saying and a +true:</p> +<blockquote><p>“I hate all wind,<br /> +Before and behind,<br /> +From cheeks with eyes,<br /> +Or from blind.—”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Your chimney fall down! God preserve you. I +suppose you only mean a brick or two: but that’s a +d—ned lie of your chimney being carried to the next house +with the wind. Don’t put such things upon us; those +matters will not pass <a name="page112"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 112</span>here: keep a little to +possibilities. My Lord Hertford <a +name="citation112a"></a><a href="#footnote112a" +class="citation">[112a]</a> would have been ashamed of such a +stretch. You should take care of what company you converse +with: when one gets that faculty, ’tis hard to break +one’s self of it. Jemmy Leigh talks of going over; +but <i>quando</i>? I do not know when he will go. Oh, +now you have had my ninth, now you are come up with me; marry +come up with you, indeed. I know all that business of Lady +S—. <a name="citation112b"></a><a href="#footnote112b" +class="citation">[112b]</a> Will nobody cut that +D—y’s throat? Five hundred pounds do you call +poor pay for living three months the life of a king? They +say she died with grief, partly, being forced to appear as a +witness in court about some squabble among their +servants.—The Bishop of Clogher showed you a pamphlet. <a +name="citation112c"></a><a href="#footnote112c" +class="citation">[112c]</a> Well, but you must not give +your mind to believe those things; people will say +anything. The <i>Character</i> is here reckoned admirable, +but most of the facts are trifles. It was first printed +privately here; and then some bold cur ventured to do it +publicly, and sold two thousand in two days: who the author is +must remain uncertain. Do you pretend to know, +impudence? How durst you think so? Pox on your +Parliaments: the Archbishop has told me of it; but we do not +vouchsafe to know anything of it here. No, no, no more of +your giddiness yet; thank you, Stella, for asking after it; thank +you; God Almighty bless you for your kindness to poor +Presto. You write to Lady Giffard and your mother upon what +I advise when it is too late. But yet I fancy this bad news +will bring down stocks so low, that one might buy to great +advantage. I design to venture going to see your mother +some day when Lady Giffard is abroad. Well, keep your +Rathburn <a name="citation112d"></a><a href="#footnote112d" +class="citation">[112d]</a> and stuff. I thought he was to +pay in your money upon his houses to be flung down about the what +do you call it.—Well, Madam Dingley, I sent your enclosed +<a name="page113"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 113</span>to +Bristol, but have not heard from Raymond since he went. +Come, come, young women, I keep a good fire; it costs me +twelvepence a week, and I fear something more; vex me, and I will +have one in my bed-chamber too. No, did not I tell you but +just now, we have no high winds here? Have you forgot +already?—Now you’re at it again, silly Stella; why +does your mother say my candles are scandalous? They are +good sixes in the pound, and she said I was extravagant enough to +burn them by daylight. I never burn fewer at a time than +one. What would people have? The D— burst +Hawkshaw. He told me he had not the box; and the next day +Sterne told me he had sent it a fortnight ago. Patrick +could not find him t’other day, but he shall +to-morrow. Dear life and heart, do you tease me? does +Stella tease Presto? That palsy-water was in the box; it +was too big for a packet, and I was afraid of its breaking. +Leigh was not in town then; or I would not have trusted it to +Sterne, whom yet I have befriended enough to do me more kindness +than that. I’ll never rest till you have it, or till +it is in a way for you to have it. Poor dear rogue, naughty +to think it teases me; how could I ever forgive myself for +neglecting anything that related to your health? Sure I +were a Devil if I did. +———————————— +See how far I am forced to stand from Stella, because I am afraid +she thinks poor Presto has not been careful about her little +things; I am sure I bought them immediately according to order, +and packed them up with my own hands, and sent them to Sterne, +and was six times with him about sending them away. I am +glad you are pleased with your glasses. I have got another +velvet cap; a new one Lord Herbert <a name="citation113"></a><a +href="#footnote113" class="citation">[113]</a> bought and +presented me one morning I was at breakfast with him, where he +was as merry and easy as ever I saw him, yet had received a +challenge half an hour before, and half an hour after fought a +duel. It was about ten days ago. You <a +name="page114"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 114</span>are +mistaken in your guesses about <i>Tatlers</i>: I did neither +write that on Noses nor Religion, <a name="citation114"></a><a +href="#footnote114" class="citation">[114]</a> nor do I send him +of late any hints at all.—Indeed, Stella, when I read your +letter, I was not uneasy at all; but when I came to answer the +particulars, and found that you had not received your box, it +grated me to the heart, because I thought, through your little +words, that you imagined I had not taken the care I ought. +But there has been some blunder in this matter, which I will know +to-morrow, and write to Sterne, for fear he should not be +within.—And pray, pray, Presto, pray now do.—No, +Raymond was not above four times with me while he stayed, and +then only while I was dressing. Mrs. Fenton has written me +another letter about some money of hers in Lady Giffard’s +hands, that is entrusted to me by my mother, not to come to her +husband. I send my letters constantly every fortnight, and, +if you will have them oftener, you may, but then they will be the +shorter. Pray, let Parvisol sell the horse. I think I +spoke to you of it in a former letter: I am glad you are rid of +him, and was in pain while I thought you rode him; but, if he +would buy you another, or anybody else, and that you could be +often able to ride, why do not you do it?</p> +<p>2. I went this morning early to the Secretary of State, +Mr. St. John; and he told me from Mr. Harley that the warrant was +now drawn, in order for a patent for the First-Fruits: it must +pass through several offices, and take up some time, because in +things the Queen gives they are always considerate; but that, he +assures me, ’tis granted and done, and past all dispute, +and desires I will not be in any pain at all. I will write +again to the Archbishop to-morrow, and tell him this, and I +desire you will say it on occasion. From the Secretary I +went to Mr. Sterne, who said he would write to you to-night; and +that the box must be at Chester; and that some friend of his goes +very soon, and will carry it over. I dined with Mr. +Secretary St. John, and at six went to Darteneufs house to drink +punch with <a name="page115"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +115</span>him, and Mr. Addison, and little Harrison, <a +name="citation115a"></a><a href="#footnote115a" +class="citation">[115a]</a> a young poet, whose fortune I am +making. Steele was to have been there, but came not, nor +never did twice, since I knew him, to any appointment. I +stayed till past eleven, and am now in bed. Steele’s +last <i>Tatler</i> came out to-day. You will see it before +this comes to you, and how he takes leave of the world. He +never told so much as Mr. Addison of it, who was surprised as +much as I; but, to say the truth, it was time, for he grew cruel +dull and dry. To my knowledge he had several good hints to +go upon; but he was so lazy and weary of the work that he would +not improve them. I think I will send this after <a +name="citation115b"></a><a href="#footnote115b" +class="citation">[115b]</a> to-morrow: shall I before ’tis +full, Dingley?</p> +<p>3. Lord Peterborow yesterday called me into a +barber’s shop, and there we talked deep politics: he +desired me to dine with him to-day at the Globe in the Strand; he +said he would show me so clearly how to get Spain, that I could +not possibly doubt it. I went to-day accordingly, and saw +him among half a dozen lawyers and attorneys and hang-dogs, +signing of deeds and stuff before his journey; for he goes +to-morrow to Vienna. I sat among that scurvy company till +after four, but heard nothing of Spain; only I find, by what he +told me before, that he fears he shall do no good in his present +journey. <a name="citation115c"></a><a href="#footnote115c" +class="citation">[115c]</a> We are to be mighty constant +correspondents. So I took my leave of him, and called at +Sir Andrew Fountaine’s, who mends much. I came home, +an’t please you, at six, and have been studying till now +past eleven.</p> +<p>4. Morning. Morrow, little dears. O, faith, +I have been dreaming; I was to be put in prison. I do not +know why, and I was so afraid of a black dungeon; and then all I +had <a name="page116"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 116</span>been +inquiring yesterday of Sir Andrew Fountaine’s sickness I +thought was of poor Stella. The worst of dreams is, that +one wakes just in the humour they leave one. Shall I send +this to-day? With all my heart: it is two days within the +fortnight; but may be MD are in haste to have a round dozen: and +then how are you come up to me with your eighth, young +women? But you indeed ought to write twice slower than I, +because there are two of you; I own that. Well then, I will +seal up this letter by my morning candle, and carry it into the +city with me, where I go to dine, and put it into the post-office +with my own fair hands. So, let me see whether I have any +news to tell MD. They say they will very soon make some +inquiries into the corruptions of the late Ministry; and they +must do it, to justify their turning them out. Atterbury, +<a name="citation116a"></a><a href="#footnote116a" +class="citation">[116a]</a> we think, is to be Dean of Christ +Church in Oxford; but the College would rather have +Smalridge—What’s all this to you? What care you +for Atterburys and Smalridges? No, you care for nothing but +Presto, faith. So I will rise, and bid you farewell; yet I +am loth to do so, because there is a great bit of paper yet to +talk upon; but Dingley will have it so: “Yes,” says +she, “make your journals shorter, and send them +oftener;” and so I will. And I have cheated you +another way too; for this is clipped paper, and holds at least +six lines less than the former ones. I will tell you a good +thing I said to my Lord Carteret. <a name="citation116b"></a><a +href="#footnote116b" class="citation">[116b]</a> +“So,” says he, “my Lord came up to me, and +asked me,” etc. “No,” said I, “my +Lord never did, nor ever can come up to you.” We all +pun here sometimes. Lord Carteret set down Prior +t’other day in his chariot; and Prior <a +name="page117"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 117</span>thanked him +for his <i>charity</i>; that was fit for Dilly. <a +name="citation117a"></a><a href="#footnote117a" +class="citation">[117a]</a> I do not remember I heard one +good one from the Ministry; which is really a shame. Henley +is gone to the country for Christmas. The puppy comes here +without his wife, <a name="citation117b"></a><a +href="#footnote117b" class="citation">[117b]</a> and keeps no +house, and would have me dine with him at eating-houses; but I +have only done it once, and will do it no more. He had not +seen me for some time in the Coffee-house, and asking after me, +desired Lord Herbert to tell me I was a beast for ever, after the +order of Melchisedec. Did you ever read the Scripture? <a +name="citation117c"></a><a href="#footnote117c" +class="citation">[117c]</a> It is only changing the word +priest to beast.—I think I am bewitched, to write so much +in a morning to you, little MD. Let me go, will you? and +I’ll come again to-night in a fine clean sheet of paper; +but I can nor will stay no longer now; no, I won’t, for all +your wheedling: no, no, look off, do not smile at me, and say, +“Pray, pray, Presto, write a little more.” Ah! +you are a wheedling slut, you be so. Nay, but prithee turn +about, and let me go, do; ’tis a good girl, and do. +O, faith, my morning candle is just out, and I must go now in +spite of my teeth; for my bed-chamber is dark with curtains, and +I am at the wrong side. So farewell, etc. etc.</p> +<p>I am in the dark almost: I must have another candle, when I am +up, to seal this; but I will fold it up in the dark, and make +what you can of this, for I can only see this paper I am writing +upon. Service to Mrs. Walls and Mrs. Stoyte.</p> +<p>God Almighty bless you, etc. What I am doing I +can’t see; but I will fold it up, and not look on it +again.</p> +<h3><a name="page118"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +118</span>LETTER XIII.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Jan.</i> 4, 1710–11.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">was</span> going into the City (where I +dined) and put my 12th, with my own fair hands, into the +post-office as I came back, which was not till nine this +night. I dined with people that you never heard of, nor is +it worth your while to know; an authoress and a printer. <a +name="citation118a"></a><a href="#footnote118a" +class="citation">[118a]</a> I walked home for exercise, and +at eleven got to bed; and, all the while I was undressing myself, +there was I speaking monkey things in air, just as if MD had been +by, and did not recollect myself till I got into bed. I +writ last night to the Archbishop, and told him the warrant was +drawn for the First-Fruits; and I told him Lord Peterborow was +set out for his journey to Vienna; but it seems the Lords have +addressed to have him stay, to be examined about Spanish affairs, +upon this defeat there, and to know where the fault lay, +etc. So I writ to the Archbishop a lie; but I think it was +not a sin.</p> +<p>5. Mr. Secretary St. John sent for me this morning so +early, that I was forced to go without shaving, which put me +quite out of method. I called at Mr. Ford’s, and +desired him to lend me a shaving; and so made a shift to get into +order again. Lord! here is an impertinence: Sir Andrew +Fountaine’s mother and sister <a name="citation118b"></a><a +href="#footnote118b" class="citation">[118b]</a> are come above a +hundred miles, from Worcester, to see him before he died. +They got here but yesterday; and he must have been past hopes, or +past fears, before they could reach him. I fell a scolding +when I heard they were coming; and the people about him wondered +at me, and said what a mighty content it would be on both sides +to die when they were with him! I knew the mother; she is +the greatest Overdo <a name="citation118c"></a><a +href="#footnote118c" class="citation">[118c]</a> upon earth; and +the sister, they say, is worse; the poor man will relapse again +<a name="page119"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 119</span>among +them. Here was the scoundrel brother always crying in the +outer room till Sir Andrew was in danger; and the dog was to have +all his estate if he died; and it is an ignorant, worthless, +scoundrel-rake: and the nurses were comforting him, and desiring +he would not take on so. I dined to-day the first time with +Ophy Butler <a name="citation119a"></a><a href="#footnote119a" +class="citation">[119a]</a> and his wife; and you supped with the +Dean, and lost two-and-twenty pence at cards. And so Mrs. +Walls is brought to bed of a girl, who died two days after it was +christened; and, betwixt you and me, she is not very sorry: she +loves her ease and diversions too well to be troubled with +children. I will go to bed.</p> +<p>6. Morning. I went last night to put some coals on +my fire after Patrick was gone to bed; and there I saw in a +closet a poor linnet he has bought to bring over to Dingley: it +cost him sixpence, and is as tame as a dormouse. I believe +he does not know he is a bird: where you put him, there he +stands, and seems to have neither hope nor fear; I suppose in a +week he will die of the spleen. Patrick advised with me +before he bought him. I laid fairly before him the +greatness of the sum, and the rashness of the attempt; showed how +impossible it was to carry him safe over the salt sea: but he +would not take my counsel; and he will repent it. +’Tis very cold this morning in bed; and I hear there is a +good fire in the room without (what do you call it?), the +dining-room. I hope it will be good weather, and so let me +rise, sirrahs, do so.—At night. I was this morning to +visit the Dean, <a name="citation119b"></a><a +href="#footnote119b" class="citation">[119b]</a> or Mr. +Prolocutor, I think you call him, don’t you? Why +should not I go to the Dean’s as well as you? A +little, black man, of pretty near fifty? Ay, the +same. A good, pleasant man? Ay, the same. +Cunning enough? Yes. One that understands his own +interests? As well as anybody. How comes it MD and I +don’t meet there sometimes? A very good face, and +abundance of wit? Do <a name="page120"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 120</span>you know his lady? O Lord! +whom do you mean? <a name="citation120a"></a><a +href="#footnote120a" class="citation">[120a]</a> I mean Dr. +Atterbury, Dean of Carlisle and Prolocutor. Pshaw, Presto, +you are a fool: I thought you had meant our Dean of St. +Patrick’s.—Silly, silly, silly, you are silly, both +are silly, every kind of thing is silly. As I walked into +the city I was stopped with clusters of boys and wenches buzzing +about the cake-shops like flies. <a name="citation120b"></a><a +href="#footnote120b" class="citation">[120b]</a> There had +the fools let out their shops two yards forward into the streets, +all spread with great cakes frothed with sugar, and stuck with +streamers of tinsel. And then I went to Bateman’s the +bookseller, and laid out eight-and-forty shillings for +books. I bought three little volumes of Lucian in French +for our Stella, and so and so. Then I went to +Garraway’s <a name="citation120c"></a><a +href="#footnote120c" class="citation">[120c]</a> to meet +Stratford and dine with him; but it was an idle day with the +merchants, and he was gone to our end of the town: so I dined +with Sir Thomas Frankland at the Post Office, and we drank your +Manley’s health. It was in a newspaper that he was +turned out; but Secretary St. John told me it was false: only +that newswriter is a plaguy Tory. I have not seen one bit +of Christmas merriment.</p> +<p>7. Morning. Your new Lord Chancellor <a +name="citation120d"></a><a href="#footnote120d" +class="citation">[120d]</a> sets out to-morrow for Ireland: I +never saw him. He carries over one Trapp <a +name="citation120e"></a><a href="#footnote120e" +class="citation">[120e]</a> a parson as his chaplain, a sort of +pretender to wit, a second-rate pamphleteer for the cause, whom +they pay by sending him to Ireland. I never saw Trapp +neither. I met Tighe <a name="citation120f"></a><a +href="#footnote120f" class="citation">[120f]</a> <a +name="page121"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 121</span>and your +Smyth of Lovet’s yesterday by the Exchange. Tighe and +I took no notice of each other; but I stopped Smyth, and told him +of the box that lies for you at Chester, because he says he goes +very soon to Ireland, I think this week: and I will send this +morning to Sterne, to take measures with Smyth; so good-morrow, +sirrahs, and let me rise, pray. I took up this paper when I +came in at evening, I mean this minute, and then said I, +“No, no, indeed, MD, you must stay”; and then was +laying it aside, but could not for my heart, though I am very +busy, till I just ask you how you do since morning; by and by we +shall talk more, so let me leave you: softly down, little paper, +till then; so there—now to business; there, I say, get you +gone; no, I will not push you neither, but hand you on one +side—So—Now I am got into bed, I’ll talk with +you. Mr. Secretary St. John sent for me this morning in all +haste; but I would not lose my shaving, for fear of missing +church. I went to Court, which is of late always very full; +and young Manley and I dined at Sir Matthew +Dudley’s.—I must talk politics. I protest I am +afraid we shall all be embroiled with parties. The Whigs, +now they are fallen, are the most malicious toads in the +world. We have had now a second misfortune, the loss of +several Virginia ships. I fear people will begin to think +that nothing thrives under this Ministry: and if the Ministry can +once be rendered odious to the people, the Parliament may be +chosen Whig or Tory as the Queen pleases. Then I think our +friends press a little too hard on the Duke of Marlborough. +The country members <a name="citation121"></a><a +href="#footnote121" class="citation">[121]</a> are violent to +have past faults inquired into, and they have reason; but I do +not observe the Ministry to be very fond of it. In my +opinion we have nothing to save us but a Peace; and I am sure we +cannot have such a one as we hoped; and then the Whigs will bawl +what they would have done had they continued in power. I +tell the Ministry this as much as I dare; and shall venture to +say a little more to them, especially about the Duke of +Marlborough, who, as the Whigs give out, will lay <a +name="page122"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 122</span>down his +command; and I question whether ever any wise State laid aside a +general who had been successful nine years together, whom the +enemy so much dread, and his own soldiers cannot but believe must +always conquer; and you know that in war opinion is nine parts in +ten. The Ministry hear me always with appearance of regard, +and much kindness; but I doubt they let personal quarrels mingle +too much with their proceedings. Meantime, they seem to +value all this as nothing, and are as easy and merry as if they +had nothing in their hearts or upon their shoulders; like +physicians, who endeavour to cure, but feel no grief, whatever +the patient suffers.—Pshaw, what is all this? Do you +know one thing, that I find I can write politics to you much +easier than to anybody alive? But I swear my head is full; +and I wish I were at Laracor, with dear, charming MD, etc.</p> +<p>8. Morning. Methinks, young women, I have made a +great progress in four days, at the bottom of this side already, +and no letter yet come from MD (that word interlined is +morning). I find I have been writing State affairs to +MD. How do they relish it? Why, anything that comes +from Presto is welcome; though really, to confess the truth, if +they had their choice, not to disguise the matter, they had +rather, etc. Now, Presto, I must tell you, you grow silly, +says Stella. That is but one body’s opinion, +madam. I promised to be with Mr. Secretary St. John this +morning; but I am lazy, and will not go, because I had a letter +from him yesterday, to desire I would dine there to-day. I +shall be chid; but what care I?—Here has been Mrs. South +with me, just come from Sir Andrew Fountaine, and going to +market. He is still in a fever, and may live or die. +His mother and sister are now come up, and in the house; so there +is a lurry. <a name="citation122"></a><a href="#footnote122" +class="citation">[122]</a> I gave Mrs. South half a pistole +for a New Year’s gift. So good-morrow, dears both, +till anon.—At night. Lord! I have been with Mr. +Secretary from dinner till eight; and, <a +name="page123"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 123</span>though I +drank wine and water, I am so hot! Lady Stanley <a +name="citation123a"></a><a href="#footnote123a" +class="citation">[123a]</a> came to visit Mrs. St. John, <a +name="citation123b"></a><a href="#footnote123b" +class="citation">[123b]</a> and sent up for me to make up a +quarrel with Mrs. St. John, whom I never yet saw; and do you +think that devil of a Secretary would let me go, but kept me by +main force, though I told him I was in love with his lady, and it +was a shame to keep back a lover, etc.? But all would not +do; so at last I was forced to break away, but never went up, it +was then too late; and here I am, and have a great deal to do +to-night, though it be nine o’clock; but one must say +something to these naughty MD’s, else there will be no +quiet.</p> +<p>9. To-day Ford and I set apart to go into the City to +buy books; but we only had a scurvy dinner at an alehouse; and he +made me go to the tavern and drink Florence, four and sixpence a +flask; damned wine! so I spent my money, which I seldom do, and +passed an insipid day, and saw nobody, and it is now ten +o’clock, and I have nothing to say, but that ’tis a +fortnight to-morrow since I had a letter from MD; but if I have +it time enough to answer here, ’tis well enough, otherwise +woe betide you, faith. I will go to the toyman’s, +here just in Pall Mall, and he sells great hugeous battoons; <a +name="citation123c"></a><a href="#footnote123c" +class="citation">[123c]</a> yes, faith, and so he does. +Does not he, Dingley? Yes, faith. Don’t lose +your money this Christmas.</p> +<p>10. I must go this morning to Mr. Secretary St. +John. I promised yesterday, but failed, so can’t +write any more till night to poor, dear MD.—At night. +O, faith, Dingley. I had company in the morning, and could +not go where I <a name="page124"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +124</span>designed; and I had a basket from Raymond at Bristol, +with six bottles of wine and a pound of chocolate, and some +tobacco to snuff; and he writ under, the carriage was paid; but +he lied, or I am cheated, or there is a mistake; and he has +written to me so confusedly about some things, that Lucifer could +not understand him. This wine is to be drunk with +Harley’s brother <a name="citation124a"></a><a +href="#footnote124a" class="citation">[124a]</a> and Sir Robert +Raymond, Solicitor-General, in order to recommend the Doctor to +your new Lord Chancellor, who left this place on Monday; and +Raymond says he is hasting to Chester, to go with him.—I +suppose he leaves his wife behind; for when he left London he had +no thoughts of stirring till summer. So I suppose he will +be with you before this. Ford came and desired I would dine +with him, because it was Opera-day; which I did, and sent excuses +to Lord Shelburne, who had invited me.</p> +<p>11. I am setting up a new Tatler, little Harrison, <a +name="citation124b"></a><a href="#footnote124b" +class="citation">[124b]</a> whom I have mentioned to you. +Others have put him on it, and I encourage him; and he was with +me this morning and evening, showing me his first, which comes +out on Saturday. I doubt he will not succeed, for I do not +much approve his manner; but the scheme is Mr. Secretary St. +John’s and mine, and would have done well enough in good +hands. I recommended him to a printer, <a +name="citation124c"></a><a href="#footnote124c" +class="citation">[124c]</a> whom I sent for, and settled the +matter between them this evening. Harrison has just left +me, and I am tired with correcting his trash.</p> +<p>12. I was this morning upon some business with Mr. +Secretary St. John, and he made me promise to dine with him; +which otherwise I would have done with Mr. Harley, whom I have +not been with these ten days. I cannot but think they have +mighty difficulties upon them; yet I always <a +name="page125"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 125</span>find them +as easy and disengaged as schoolboys on a holiday. Harley +has the procuring of five or six millions on his shoulders, and +the Whigs will not lend a groat; <a name="citation125a"></a><a +href="#footnote125a" class="citation">[125a]</a> which is the +only reason of the fall of stocks: for they are like Quakers and +fanatics, that will only deal among themselves, while all others +deal indifferently with them. Lady Marlborough offers, if +they will let her keep her employments, never to come into the +Queen’s presence. The Whigs say the Duke of +Marlborough will serve no more; but I hope and think +otherwise. I would to Heaven I were this minute with MD at +Dublin; for I am weary of politics, that give me such melancholy +prospects.</p> +<p>13. O, faith, I had an ugly giddy fit last night in my +chamber, and I have got a new box of pills to take, and hope I +shall have no more this good while. I would not tell you +before, because it would vex you, little rogues; but now it is +over. I dined to-day with Lord Shelburne; and to-day little +Harrison’s new <i>Tatler</i> came out: there is not much in +it, but I hope he will mend. You must understand that, upon +Steele’s leaving off, there were two or three scrub +<i>Tatlers</i> <a name="citation125b"></a><a href="#footnote125b" +class="citation">[125b]</a> came out, and one of them holds on +still, and to-day it advertised against Harrison’s; and so +there must be disputes which are genuine, like the strops for +razors. <a name="citation125c"></a><a href="#footnote125c" +class="citation">[125c]</a> I am afraid the little toad has +not the true vein for it. I will tell you a copy of +verses. When Mr. St. John was turned out from being +Secretary at War, three years ago, he retired to the country: +there he was talking of something he would have written over his +summer-house, and a gentleman gave him these verses—</p> +<blockquote><p>From business and the noisy world retired,<br /> +Nor vexed by love, nor by ambition fired;<br /> +Gently I wait the call of Charon’s boat,<br /> +Still drinking like a fish, and — like a stoat.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="page126"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 126</span>He +swore to me he could hardly bear the jest; for he pretended to +retire like a philosopher, though he was but twenty-eight years +old: and I believe the thing was true: for he had been a thorough +rake. I think the three grave lines do introduce the last +well enough. Od so, but I will go sleep; I sleep early +now.</p> +<p>14. O, faith, young women, I want a letter from MD; +’tis now nineteen days since I had the last: and where have +I room to answer it, pray? I hope I shall send this away +without any answer at all; for I’ll hasten it, and away it +goes on Tuesday, by which time this side will be full. I +will send it two days sooner on purpose out of spite; and the +very next day after, you must know, your letter will come, and +then ’tis too late, and I will so laugh, never saw the +like! ’Tis spring with us already. I ate +asparagus t’other day. Did you ever see such a +frostless winter? Sir Andrew Fountaine lies still extremely +ill; it costs him ten guineas a day to doctors, surgeons, and +apothecaries, and has done so these three weeks. I dined +to-day with Mr. Ford; he sometimes chooses to dine at home, and I +am content to dine with him; and at night I called at the +Coffee-house, where I had not been in a week, and talked coldly a +while with Mr. Addison. All our friendship and dearness are +off: we are civil acquaintance, talk words of course, of when we +shall meet, and that is all. I have not been at any house +with him these six weeks: t’other day we were to have dined +together at the Comptroller’s; <a +name="citation126a"></a><a href="#footnote126a" +class="citation">[126a]</a> but I sent my excuses, being engaged +to the Secretary of State. Is not it odd? But I think +he has used me ill; and I have used him too well, at least his +friend Steele.</p> +<p>15. It has cost me three guineas to-day for a periwig. +<a name="citation126b"></a><a href="#footnote126b" +class="citation">[126b]</a> I <a name="page127"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 127</span>am undone! It was made by a +Leicester lad, who married Mr. Worrall’s daughter, where my +mother lodged; <a name="citation127a"></a><a href="#footnote127a" +class="citation">[127a]</a> so I thought it would be cheap, and +especially since he lives in the city. Well, London +lickpenny: <a name="citation127b"></a><a href="#footnote127b" +class="citation">[127b]</a> I find it true. I have +given Harrison hints for another <i>Tatler</i> to-morrow. +The jackanapes wants a right taste: I doubt he won’t +do. I dined with my friend Lewis of the Secretary’s +office, and am got home early, because I have much business to +do; but before I begin, I must needs say something to MD, +faith—No, faith, I lie, it is but nineteen days to-day +since my last from MD. I have got Mr. Harley to promise +that whatever changes are made in the Council, the Bishop of +Clogher shall not be removed, and he has got a memorial +accordingly. I will let the Bishop know so much in a post +or two. This is a secret; but I know he has enemies, and +they shall not be gratified, if they designed any such thing, +which perhaps they might; for some changes there will be +made. So drink up your claret, and be quiet, and do not +lose your money.</p> +<p>16. Morning. Faith, I will send this letter to-day +to shame you, if I han’t one from MD before night, +that’s certain. Won’t you grumble for want of +the third side, pray now? Yes, I warrant you; yes, yes, you +shall have the third, you shall so, when you can catch it, some +other time; when you be writing girls.—O, faith, I think I +won’t stay till night, but seal up this just now, and carry +it in my pocket, and whip it into the post-office as I come home +at evening. I am going out early this +morning.—Patrick’s bills for coals and candles, etc., +come sometimes to three shillings a week; I keep very good fires, +though the weather be warm. Ireland will never be happy +till you get <a name="page128"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +128</span>small coal <a name="citation128a"></a><a +href="#footnote128a" class="citation">[128a]</a> likewise; +nothing so easy, so convenient, so cheap, so pretty, for lighting +a fire. My service to Mrs. Stoyte and Walls; has she a boy +or a girl? A girl, hum; and died in a week, humm; and was +poor Stella forced to stand for godmother?—Let me know how +accompts stand, that you may have your money betimes. +There’s four months for my lodging, that must be thought on +too: and so go dine with Manley, and lose your money, do, +extravagant sluttikin, but don’t fret.—It will be +just three weeks when I have the next letter, that’s +to-morrow. Farewell, dearest beloved MD; and love poor, +poor Presto, who has not had one happy day since he left you, as +hope saved.—It is the last sally I will ever make, but I +hope it will turn to some account. I have done more for +these, <a name="citation128b"></a><a href="#footnote128b" +class="citation">[128b]</a> and I think they are more honest than +the last; however, I will not be disappointed. I would make +MD and me easy; and I never desired more.—Farewell, etc. +etc.</p> +<h3>LETTER XIV.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Jan.</i> 16, 1710–11.</p> +<p>O <span class="smcap">faith</span>, young women, I have sent +my letter N. 13 without one crumb of an answer to any of +MD’s, there’s for you now; and yet Presto ben’t +angry, faith, not a bit, only he will begin to be in pain next +Irish post, except he sees MD’s little handwriting in the +glass-frame at the bar of St. James’s Coffee-house, where +Presto would never go but for that purpose. Presto is at +home, God help him, every night from six till bed-time, and has +as little enjoyment <a name="page129"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 129</span>or pleasure in life at present as +anybody in the world, although in full favour with all the +Ministry. As hope saved, nothing gives Presto any sort of +dream of happiness but a letter now and then from his own dearest +MD. I love the expectation of it; and when it does not +come, I comfort myself that I have it yet to be happy with. +Yes, faith, and when I write to MD, I am happy too; it is just as +if methinks you were here, and I prating to you, and telling you +where I have been: “Well,” says you, “Presto, +come, where have you been to-day? come, let’s hear +now.” And so then I answer: “Ford and I were +visiting Mr. Lewis and Mr. Prior; and Prior has given me a fine +Plautus; and then Ford would have had me dine at his lodgings, +and so I would not; and so I dined with him at an eating-house, +which I have not done five times since I came here; and so I came +home, after visiting Sir Andrew Fountaine’s mother and +sister, and Sir Andrew Fountaine is mending, though +slowly.”</p> +<p>17. I was making, this morning, some general visits, and +at twelve I called at the Coffee-house for a letter from MD; so +the man said he had given it to Patrick. Then I went to the +Court of Requests and Treasury, to find Mr. Harley, and, after +some time spent in mutual reproaches, I promised to dine with +him. I stayed there till seven, then called at +Sterne’s and Leigh’s to talk about your box, and to +have it sent by Smyth. Sterne says he has been making +inquiries, and will set things right as soon as possible. I +suppose it lies at Chester, at least I hope so, and only wants a +lift over to you. Here has little Harrison been to complain +that the printer I recommended to him for his <i>Tatler</i> is a +coxcomb; and yet to see how things will happen; for this very +printer is my cousin, his name is Dryden Leach; <a +name="citation129a"></a><a href="#footnote129a" +class="citation">[129a]</a> did you never hear of Dryden Leach, +he that prints the <i>Postman</i>? He acted Oroonoko; <a +name="citation129b"></a><a href="#footnote129b" +class="citation">[129b]</a> he’s in love with Miss Cross. +<a name="citation129c"></a><a href="#footnote129c" +class="citation">[129c]</a>—Well, so I came <a +name="page130"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 130</span>home to +read my letter from Stella, but the dog Patrick was abroad; at +last he came, and I got my letter. I found another hand had +superscribed it; when I opened it, I found it written all in +French, and subscribed Bernage: <a name="citation130a"></a><a +href="#footnote130a" class="citation">[130a]</a> faith, I was +ready to fling it at Patrick’s head. Bernage tells me +he had been to desire your recommendation to me, to make him a +captain; and your cautious answer, that he had as much power with +me as you, was a notable one; if you were here, I would present +you to the Ministry as a person of ability. Bernage should +let me know where to write to him; this is the second letter I +have had without any direction; however, I beg I may not have a +third, but that you will ask him, and send me how I shall direct +to him. In the meantime, tell him that if regiments are to +be raised here, as he says, I will speak to George Granville, <a +name="citation130b"></a><a href="#footnote130b" +class="citation">[130b]</a> Secretary at War, to make him a +captain; and use what other interest I conveniently can. I +think that is enough, and so tell him, and do not trouble me with +his letters, when I expect them from MD; do you hear, young +women? write to Presto.</p> +<p>18. I was this morning with Mr. Secretary St. John, and +we were to dine at Mr. Harley’s alone, about some business +of importance; but there were two or three gentlemen there. +Mr. Secretary and I went together from his office to Mr. +Harley’s, and thought to have been very wise; but the deuce +a bit, the company stayed, and more came, and Harley went away at +seven, and the Secretary and I stayed with the rest of the +company till eleven; I would then have had him come away; but he +was in for’t; and though he swore he would come away at +that flask, there I left him. I wonder at the civility of +these people; when he saw I would drink no more, he would always +pass the bottle by me, and yet I could not keep the toad from +drinking himself, nor he would not let <a +name="page131"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 131</span>me go +neither, nor Masham, <a name="citation131a"></a><a +href="#footnote131a" class="citation">[131a]</a> who was with +us. When I got home, I found a parcel directed to me; and +opening it, I found a pamphlet written entirely against myself, +not by name, but against something I writ: <a +name="citation131b"></a><a href="#footnote131b" +class="citation">[131b]</a> it is pretty civil, and affects to be +so, and I think I will take no notice of it; ’tis against +something written very lately; and indeed I know not what to say, +nor do I care. And so you are a saucy rogue for losing your +money to-day at Stoyte’s; to let that bungler beat you, +fie, Stella, an’t you ashamed? Well, I forgive you +this once, never do so again; no, noooo. Kiss and be +friends, sirrah.—Come, let me go sleep, I go earlier to bed +than formerly; and have not been out so late these two months; +but the Secretary was in a drinking humour. So good-night, +myownlittledearsaucyinsolentrogues.</p> +<p>19. Then you read that long word in the last line; no, +<a name="citation131c"></a><a href="#footnote131c" +class="citation">[131c]</a> faith, han’t you. Well, +when will this letter come from our MD? to-morrow or next day +without fail; yes, faith, and so it is coming. This was an +insipid snowy day, no walking day, and I dined gravely with Mrs. +Vanhomrigh, and came home, and am now got to bed a little after +ten; I remember old Culpepper’s maxim:</p> +<blockquote><p>“Would you have a settled head,<br /> +You must early go to bed:<br /> +I tell you, and I tell’t again,<br /> +You must be in bed at ten.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>20. And so I went to-day with my new wig, o hoao, to <a +name="page132"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 132</span>visit Lady +Worsley, <a name="citation132"></a><a href="#footnote132" +class="citation">[132]</a> whom I had not seen before, although +she was near a month in town. Then I walked in the Park to +find Mr. Ford, whom I had promised to meet; and coming down the +Mall, who should come towards me but Patrick, and gives me five +letters out of his pocket. I read the superscription of the +first, “Pshoh,” said I; of the second, +“Pshoh” again; of the third, “Pshah, pshah, +pshah”; of the fourth, “A gad, a gad, a gad, +I’m in a rage”; of the fifth and last, “O +hoooa; ay marry this is something, this is our MD”; so +truly we opened it, I think immediately, and it began the most +impudently in the world, thus: “Dear Presto, We are even +thus far.” “Now we are even,” quoth +Stephen, when he gave his wife six blows for one. I +received your ninth four days after I had sent my +thirteenth. But I’ll reckon with you anon about that, +young women. Why did not you recant at the end of your +letter, when you got my eleventh, tell me that, huzzies base? +were we even then, were we, sirrah? But I won’t +answer your letter now, I’ll keep it for another +time. We had a great deal of snow to-day, and ’tis +terrible cold. I dined with Ford, because it was his +Opera-day and snowed, so I did not care to stir farther. I +will send to-morrow to Smyth.</p> +<p>21. Morning. It has snowed terribly all night, and +is vengeance cold. I am not yet up, but cannot write long; +my hands will freeze. “Is there a good fire, +Patrick?” “Yes, sir.” “Then I +will rise; come, take away the candle.” You must know +I write on the dark side of my bed-chamber, and am forced to have +a candle till I rise, for the bed stands between me and the +window, and I keep the curtains shut this cold weather. So +pray let me rise; and Patrick, here, take away the +candle.—At night. We are now here in <a +name="page133"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 133</span>high frost +and snow, the largest fire can hardly keep us warm. It is +very ugly walking; a baker’s boy broke his thigh +yesterday. I walk slow, make short steps, and never tread +on my heel. ’Tis a good proverb the Devonshire people +have:</p> +<blockquote><p> “Walk +fast in snow,<br /> + In frost walk slow;<br /> + And still as you go,<br /> + Tread on your toe.<br /> +When frost and snow are both together,<br /> +Sit by the fire, and spare shoe-leather.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>I dined to-day with Dr. Cockburn, <a +name="citation133a"></a><a href="#footnote133a" +class="citation">[133a]</a> but will not do so again in haste, he +has generally such a parcel of Scots with him.</p> +<p>22. Morning. Starving, starving, uth, uth, uth, +uth, uth.—Don’t you remember I used to come into your +chamber, and turn Stella out of her chair, and rake up the fire +in a cold morning, and cry Uth, uth, uth? etc. O, faith, I +must rise, my hand is so cold I can write no more. So +good-morrow, sirrahs.—At night. I went this morning +to Lady Giffard’s house, and saw your mother, and made her +give me a pint bottle of palsy-water, <a +name="citation133b"></a><a href="#footnote133b" +class="citation">[133b]</a> which I brought home in my pocket; +and sealed and tied up in a paper, and sent it to Mr. Smyth, who +goes to-morrow for Ireland, and sent a letter to him to desire +his care of it, and that he would inquire at Chester about the +box. He was not within: so the bottle and letter were left +for him at his lodgings, with strict orders to give them to him; +and I will send Patrick in a day or two, to know whether it was +given, etc. Dr. Stratford <a name="citation133c"></a><a +href="#footnote133c" class="citation">[133c]</a> and I dined +to-day with Mr. Stratford <a name="citation133d"></a><a +href="#footnote133d" class="citation">[133d]</a> in the City, by +appointment; but I chose to walk there, for exercise in the +frost. But the weather had given a little, as you women +call it, so it was something slobbery. I did not get home +till nine.</p> +<p class="poetry">And now I’m in bed,<br /> +To break your head.</p> +<p><a name="page134"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +134</span>23. Morning. They tell me it freezes again, +but it is not so cold as yesterday: so now I will answer a bit of +your letter.—At night. O, faith, I was just going to +answer some of our MD’s letter this morning, when a printer +came in about some business, and stayed an hour; so I rose, and +then came in Ben Tooke, and then I shaved and scribbled; and it +was such a terrible day, I could not stir out till one, and then +I called at Mrs. Barton’s, and we went to Lady +Worsley’s, where we were to dine by appointment. The +Earl of Berkeley <a name="citation134a"></a><a +href="#footnote134a" class="citation">[134a]</a> is going to be +married to Lady Louisa Lennox, the Duke of Richmond’s +daughter. I writ this night to Dean Sterne, and bid him +tell you all about the bottle of palsy-water by Smyth; and +to-morrow morning I will say something to your letter.</p> +<p>24. Morning. Come now to your letter. As for +your being even with me, I have spoken to that already. So +now, my dearly beloved, let us proceed to the next. You are +always grumbling that you han’t letters fast enough; +“surely we shall have your tenth;” and yet, before +you end your letter, you own you have my eleventh.—And why +did not MD go into the country with the Bishop of Clogher? faith, +such a journey would have done you good; Stella should have rode, +and Dingley gone in the coach. The Bishop of Kilmore <a +name="citation134b"></a><a href="#footnote134b" +class="citation">[134b]</a> I know nothing of; he is old, and may +die; he lives in some obscure corner, for I never heard of +him. As for my old friends, if you mean the Whigs, I never +see them, as you may find by my journals, except Lord Halifax, +and him very seldom; Lord Somers never since the first visit, for +he has been a false, deceitful rascal. <a +name="citation134c"></a><a href="#footnote134c" +class="citation">[134c]</a> My new friends are very kind, +and I have promises enough, but I do not count <a +name="page135"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 135</span>upon them, +and besides my pretences are very young to them. However, +we will see what may be done; and if nothing at all, I shall not +be disappointed; although perhaps poor MD may, and then I shall +be sorrier for their sakes than my own.—Talk of a merry +Christmas (why do you write it so then, young women? sauce for +the goose is sauce for the gander), I have wished you all that +two or three letters ago. Good lack; and your news, that +Mr. St. John is going to Holland; he has no such thoughts, to +quit the great station he is in; nor, if he had, could I be +spared to go with him. So, faith, politic Madam Stella, you +come with your two eggs a penny, etc. Well, Madam Dingley, +and so Mrs. Stoyte invites you, and so you stay at Donnybrook, +and so you could not write. You are plaguy exact in your +journals, from Dec. 25 to Jan. 4. Well, Smyth and the +palsy-water I have handled already, and he does not lodge (or +rather did not, for, poor man, now he is gone) at Mr. +Jesse’s, and all that stuff; but we found his lodging, and +I went to Stella’s mother on my own head, for I never +remembered it was in the letter to desire another bottle; but I +was so fretted, so tosticated, and so impatient that Stella +should have her water (I mean decently, do not be rogues), and so +vexed with Sterne’s carelessness.—Pray God, +Stella’s illness may not return! If they come seldom, +they begin to be weary; I judge by myself; for when I seldom +visit, I grow weary of my acquaintance.—Leave a good deal +of my tenth unanswered! Impudent slut, when did you ever +answer my tenth, or ninth, or any other number? or who desires +you to answer, provided you write? I defy the D— to +answer my letters: sometimes there may be one or two things I +should be glad you would answer; but I forget them, and you never +think of them. I shall never love answering letters again, +if you talk of answering. Answering, quotha! pretty +answerers truly.—As for the pamphlet you speak of, and call +it scandalous, and that one Mr. Presto is said to write it, hear +my answer. Fie, child, you must not mind what every idle +body tells you—I believe you lie, and that the dogs were +not crying it when <a name="page136"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +136</span>you said so; come, tell truth. I am sorry you go +to St. Mary’s <a name="citation136"></a><a +href="#footnote136" class="citation">[136]</a> so soon, you will +be as poor as rats; that place will drain you with a vengeance: +besides, I would have you think of being in the country in +summer. Indeed, Stella, pippins produced plentifully; +Parvisol could not send from Laracor: there were about half a +score, I would be glad to know whether they were good for +anything.—Mrs. Walls at Donnybrook with you; why is not she +brought to bed? Well, well, well, Dingley, pray be +satisfied; you talk as if you were angry about the Bishop’s +not offering you conveniences for the journey; and so he +should.—What sort of Christmas? Why, I have had no +Christmas at all; and has it really been Christmas of late? +I never once thought of it. My service to Mrs. Stoyte, and +Catherine; and let Catherine get the coffee ready against I come, +and not have so much care on her countenance; for all will go +well.—Mr. Bernage, Mr. Bernage, Mr. Fiddlenage, I have had +three letters from him now successively; he sends no directions, +and how the D— shall I write to him? I would have +burnt his last, if I had not seen Stella’s hand at the +bottom: his request is all nonsense. How can I assist him +in buying? and if he be ordered to go to Spain, go he must, or +else sell, and I believe one can hardly sell in such a +juncture. If he had stayed, and new regiments raised, I +would have used my endeavour to have had him removed; although I +have no credit that way, or very little: but, if the regiment +goes, he ought to go too; he has had great indulgence, and +opportunities of saving; and I have urged him to it a hundred +times. What can I do? whenever it lies in my power to do +him a good office, I will do it. Pray draw up this into a +handsome speech, and represent it to him from me, and that I +would write, if I knew where to direct to him; and so I have told +you, and desired you would tell him, fifty times. Yes, +Madam Stella, I think I can read your long concluding word, but +you can’t read mine after bidding you good-night. And +yet methinks, I mend extremely in my writing; but when +Stella’s eyes are <a name="page137"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 137</span>well, I hope to write as bad as +ever.—So now I have answered your letter, and mine is an +answer; for I lay yours before me, and I look and write, and +write and look, and look and write again.—So good-morrow, +madams both, and I will go rise, for I must rise; for I take +pills at night, and so I must rise early, I don’t know +why.</p> +<p>25. Morning. I did not tell you how I passed my +time yesterday, nor bid you good-night, and there was good +reason. I went in the morning to Secretary St. John about +some business; he had got a great Whig with him; a creature of +the Duke of Marlborough, who is a go-between to make peace +between the Duke and the Ministry: so he came out of his closet, +and, after a few words, desired I would dine with him at three; +but Mr. Lewis stayed till six before he came; and there we sat +talking, and the time slipped so, that at last, when I was +positive to go, it was past two o’clock; so I came home, +and went straight to bed. He would never let me look at his +watch, and I could not imagine it above twelve when we went +away. So I bid you good-night for last night, and now I bid +you good-morrow, and I am still in bed, though it be near ten, +but I must rise.</p> +<p>26, 27, 28, 29, 30. I have been so lazy and negligent +these last four days that I could not write to MD. My head +is not in order, and yet is not absolutely ill, but giddyish, and +makes me listless; I walk every day, and take drops of Dr. +Cockburn, and I have just done a box of pills; and to-day Lady +Kerry sent me some of her bitter drink, which I design to take +twice a day, and hope I shall grow better. I wish I were +with MD; I long for spring and good weather, and then I will come +over. My riding in Ireland keeps me well. I am very +temperate, and eat of the easiest meats as I am directed, and +hope the malignity will go off; but one fit shakes me a long +time. I dined to-day with Lord Mountjoy, yesterday at Mr. +Stone’s, in the City, on Sunday at Vanhomrigh’s, +Saturday with Ford, and Friday I think at Vanhomrigh’s; and +that is all the journal I can send MD, for I was so lazy while I +was well, that I could not write. I thought to have sent +this <a name="page138"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +138</span>to-night, but ’tis ten, and I’ll go to bed, +and write on t’other side to Parvisol to-morrow, and send +it on Thursday; and so good-night, my dears; and love Presto, and +be healthy, and Presto will be so too, etc.</p> +<p>Cut off these notes handsomely, d’ye hear, sirrahs, and +give Mrs. Brent hers, and keep yours till you see Parvisol, and +then make up the letter to him, and send it him by the first +opportunity; and so God Almighty bless you both, here and ever, +and poor Presto.</p> +<p>What, I warrant you thought at first that these last lines +were another letter.</p> +<p>Dingley, Pray pay Stella six fishes, and place them to the +account of your humble servant, Presto.</p> +<p>Stella, Pray pay Dingley six fishes, and place them to the +account of your humble servant, Presto.</p> +<p>There are bills of exchange for you.</p> +<h3>LETTER XV.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Jan.</i> 31, 1710–11.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">am</span> to send you my fourteenth +to-morrow; but my head, having some little disorders, confounds +all my journals. I was early this morning with Mr. +Secretary St. John about some business, so I could not scribble +my morning lines to MD. They are here intending to tax all +little printed penny papers a halfpenny every half-sheet, which +will utterly ruin Grub Street, and I am endeavouring to prevent +it. <a name="citation138a"></a><a href="#footnote138a" +class="citation">[138a]</a> Besides, I was forwarding an +impeachment against a certain great person; that was two of my +businesses with the Secretary, were they not worthy ones? +It was Ford’s birthday, and I refused the Secretary, and +dined with Ford. We are here in as smart a frost for the +time as I have seen; delicate walking weather, and the Canal and +Rosamond’s Pond <a name="citation138b"></a><a +href="#footnote138b" class="citation">[138b]</a> full of the <a +name="page139"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 139</span>rabble +sliding and with skates, if you know what those are. +Patrick’s bird’s water freezes in the gallipot, and +my hands in bed.</p> +<p>Feb. 1. I was this morning with poor Lady Kerry, who is +much worse in her head than I. She sends me bottles of her +bitter; and we are so fond of one another, because our ailments +are the same; don’t you know that, Madam Stella? +Han’t I seen you conning ailments with Joe’s wife, <a +name="citation139a"></a><a href="#footnote139a" +class="citation">[139a]</a> and some others, sirrah? I +walked into the City to dine, because of the walk, for we must +take care of Presto’s health, you know, because of poor +little MD. But I walked plaguy carefully, for fear of +sliding against my will; but I am very busy.</p> +<p>2. This morning Mr. Ford came to me to walk into the +City, where he had business, and then to buy books at +Bateman’s; and I laid out one pound five shillings for a +Strabo and Aristophanes, and I have now got books enough to make +me another shelf, and I will have more, or it shall cost me a +fall; and so as we came back, we drank a flask of right French +wine at Ben Tooke’s chamber; and when I got home, Mrs. +Vanhomrigh sent me word her eldest daughter <a +name="citation139b"></a><a href="#footnote139b" +class="citation">[139b]</a> was taken suddenly very ill, and +desired I would come and see her. I went, and found it was +a silly trick of Mrs. Armstrong, <a name="citation139c"></a><a +href="#footnote139c" class="citation">[139c]</a> Lady +Lucy’s sister, who, with Moll Stanhope, was visiting there: +however, I rattled off the daughter.</p> +<p>3. To-day I went and dined at Lady Lucy’s, where +you know I have not been this long time. They are plaguy +Whigs, especially the sister Armstrong, the most insupportable of +all women, pretending to wit, without any taste. She was +running down the last <i>Examiner</i>, <a +name="citation139d"></a><a href="#footnote139d" +class="citation">[139d]</a> the prettiest I had read, with a +character of the present Ministry.—I left them at five, and +came home. But I forgot to tell you, that this morning <a +name="page140"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 140</span>my cousin +Dryden Leach, the printer, came to me with a heavy complaint, +that Harrison the new Tatler had turned him off, and taken the +last Tatler’s printers again. He vowed revenge; I +answered gravely, and so he left me, and I have ordered Patrick +to deny me to him from henceforth: and at night comes a letter +from Harrison, telling me the same thing, and excused his doing +it without my notice, because he would bear all the blame; and in +his <i>Tatler</i> of this day <a name="citation140a"></a><a +href="#footnote140a" class="citation">[140a]</a> he tells you the +story, how he has taken his old officers, and there is a most +humble letter from Morphew and Lillie to beg his pardon, etc. <a +name="citation140b"></a><a href="#footnote140b" +class="citation">[140b]</a> And lastly, this morning Ford +sent me two letters from the Coffee-house (where I hardly ever +go), one from the Archbishop of Dublin, and t’other +from—Who do you think t’other was +from?—I’ll tell you, because you are friends; why, +then it was, faith, it was from my own dear little MD, N. +10. Oh, but will not answer it now, no, noooooh, I’ll +keep it between the two sheets; here it is, just under; oh, I +lifted up the sheet and saw it there: lie still, you shan’t +be answered yet, little letter; for I must go to bed, and take +care of my head.</p> +<p>4. I avoid going to church yet, for fear of my head, +though it has been much better these last five or six days, since +I have taken Lady Kerry’s bitter. Our frost holds +like a dragon. I went to Mr. Addison’s, and dined +with him at his lodgings; I had not seen him these three weeks, +we are grown common acquaintance; yet what have not I done for +his friend Steele? Mr. Harley reproached me the last time I +saw him, that to please me he would be reconciled to Steele, and +had promised and appointed to see him, and that Steele never +came. Harrison, whom Mr. Addison recommended to me, I have +introduced to the Secretary of State, who has promised me to take +care of him; and I have represented Addison himself so to the +Ministry, that they think and talk in his favour, though they +hated him before.—Well, he is now in my debt, and +there’s an end; and I never had the least obligation to +him, and there’s <a name="page141"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 141</span>another end. This evening I +had a message from Mr. Harley, desiring to know whether I was +alive, and that I would dine with him to-morrow. They dine +so late, that since my head has been wrong I have avoided being +with them.—Patrick has been out of favour these ten days; I +talk dry and cross to him, and have called him +“friend” three or four times. But, sirrahs, get +you gone.</p> +<p>5. Morning. I am going this morning to see Prior, +who dines with me at Mr. Harley’s; so I can’t stay +fiddling and talking with dear little brats in a morning, and +’tis still terribly cold.—I wish my cold hand was in +the warmest place about you, young women, I’d give ten +guineas upon that account with all my heart, faith; oh, it +starves my thigh; so I’ll rise and bid you good-morrow, my +ladies both, good-morrow. Come, stand away, let me rise: +Patrick, take away the candle. Is there a good +fire?—So—up-a-dazy.—At night. Mr. Harley +did not sit down till six, and I stayed till eleven; henceforth I +will choose to visit him in the evenings, and dine with him no +more if I can help it. It breaks all my measures, and hurts +my health; my head is disorderly, but not ill, and I hope it will +mend.</p> +<p>6. Here has been such a hurry with the Queen’s +Birthday, so much fine clothes, and the Court so crowded that I +did not go there. All the frost is gone. It thawed on +Sunday, and so continues, yet ice is still on the Canal (I did +not mean that of Laracor, but St. James’s Park) and boys +sliding on it. Mr. Ford pressed me to dine with him in his +chamber.—Did not I tell you Patrick has got a bird, a +linnet, to carry over to Dingley? It was very tame at +first, and ’tis now the wildest I ever saw. He keeps +it in a closet, where it makes a terrible litter; but I say +nothing: I am as tame as a clout. When must we answer our +MD’s letter? One of these odd-come-shortlies. +This is a week old, you see, and no farther yet. Mr. Harley +desired I would dine with him again to-day; but I refused him, +for I fell out with him yesterday, <a name="citation141"></a><a +href="#footnote141" class="citation">[141]</a> <a +name="page142"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 142</span>and will +not see him again till he makes me amends: and so I go to +bed.</p> +<p>7. I was this morning early with Mr. Lewis of the +Secretary’s office, and saw a letter Mr. Harley had sent to +him, desiring to be reconciled; but I was deaf to all entreaties, +and have desired Lewis to go to him, and let him know I expect +further satisfaction. If we let these great Ministers +pretend too much, there will be no governing them. He +promises to make me easy, if I will but come and see him; but I +won’t, and he shall do it by message, or I will cast him +off. I’ll tell you the cause of our quarrel when I +see you, and refer it to yourselves. In that he did +something, which he intended for a favour; and I have taken it +quite otherwise, disliking both the thing and the manner, and it +has heartily vexed me, and all I have said is truth, though it +looks like jest; and I absolutely refused to submit to his +intended favour, and expect further satisfaction. Mr. Ford +and I dined with Mr. Lewis. We have a monstrous deal of +snow, and it has cost me two shillings to-day in chair and coach, +and walked till I was dirty besides. I know not what it is +now to read or write after I am in bed. The last thing I do +up is to write something to our MD, and then get into bed, and +put out my candle, and so go sleep as fast as ever I can. +But in the mornings I do write sometimes in bed, as you know.</p> +<p>8. Morning. <i>I have desired Apronia to be always +careful</i>, <i>especially about the legs</i>. Pray, do you +see any such great wit in that sentence? I must freely own +that I do not. But party carries everything nowadays, and +what a splutter have I heard about the wit of that saying, +repeated with admiration above a hundred times in half an +hour! Pray read it over again this moment, and consider +it. I think the word is <i>advised</i>, and not +<i>desired</i>. I should not have remembered it if I had +not heard it so often. Why—ay—You must know I +dreamed it just now, and waked with it in my mouth. Are you +bit, or are you not, sirrahs? I met Mr. Harley in the Court +of Requests, and he asked me <a name="page143"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 143</span>how long I had learnt the trick of +writing to myself? He had seen your letter through the +glass case at the Coffee-house, and would swear it was my hand; +and Mr. Ford, who took and sent it me, was of the same +mind. I remember others have formerly said so too. I +think I was little MD’s writing-master. <a +name="citation143"></a><a href="#footnote143" +class="citation">[143]</a>—But come, what is here to do, +writing to young women in a morning? I have other fish to +fry; so good-morrow, my ladies all, good-morrow. Perhaps +I’ll answer your letter to-night, perhaps I won’t; +that’s as saucy little Presto takes the humour.—At +night. I walked in the Park to-day in spite of the weather, +as I do always when it does not actually rain. Do you know +what it has gone and done? We had a thaw for three days, +then a monstrous dirt and snow, and now it freezes, like a +pot-lid, upon our snow. I dined with Lady Betty Germaine, +the first time since I came for England; and there did I sit, +like a booby, till eight, looking over her and another lady at +piquet, when I had other business enough to do. It was the +coldest day I felt this year.</p> +<p>9. Morning. After I had been abed an hour last +night, I was forced to rise and call to the landlady and maid to +have the fire removed in a chimney below stairs, which made my +bed-chamber smoke, though I had no fire in it. I have been +twice served so. I never lay so miserable an hour in my +life. Is it not plaguy vexatious?—It has snowed all +night, and rains this morning.—Come, where’s +MD’s letter? Come, Mrs. Letter, make your +appearance. Here am I, says she, answer me to my +face.—O, faith, I am sorry you had my twelfth so soon; I +doubt you will stay longer for the rest. I’m so +’fraid you have got my fourteenth while I am writing this; +and I would always have one letter from Presto reading, one +travelling, and one writing. As for the box, I now believe +it lost. It is directed for Mr. Curry, at his house in +Capel Street, etc. I had a letter yesterday from Dr. +Raymond in Chester, who says he sent his man everywhere, and +cannot find it; and <a name="page144"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 144</span>God knows whether Mr. Smyth will +have better success. Sterne spoke to him, and I writ to him +with the bottle of palsy-water; that bottle, I hope, will not +miscarry: I long to hear you have it. O, faith, you have +too good an opinion of Presto’s care. I am negligent +enough of everything but MD, and I should not have trusted +Sterne.—But it shall not go so: I will have one more tug +for it.—As to what you say of Goodman Peasly and Isaac, <a +name="citation144a"></a><a href="#footnote144a" +class="citation">[144a]</a> I answer as I did before. Fie, +child, you must not give yourself the way to believe any such +thing: and afterwards, only for curiosity, you may tell me how +these things are approved, and how you like them; and whether +they instruct you in the present course of affairs, and whether +they are printed in your town, or only sent from hence.—Sir +Andrew Fountaine is recovered; so take your sorrow again, but +don’t keep it, fling it to the dogs. And does little +MD walk indeed?—I’m glad of it at heart.—Yes, +we have done with the plague here: it was very saucy in you to +pretend to have it before your betters. Your intelligence +that the story is false about the officers forced to sell, <a +name="citation144b"></a><a href="#footnote144b" +class="citation">[144b]</a> is admirable. You may see them +all three here every day, no more in the army than you. +Twelve shillings for mending the strong box; that is, for putting +a farthing’s worth of iron on a hinge, and gilding it; give +him six shillings, and I’ll pay it, and never employ him or +his again.—No indeed, I put off preaching as much as I +can. I am upon another foot: nobody doubts here whether I +can preach, and you are fools.—The account you give of that +weekly paper <a name="citation144c"></a><a href="#footnote144c" +class="citation">[144c]</a> agrees with us here. Mr. Prior +was like to be insulted in the street for being supposed the +author of it; but one of the last papers cleared him. +Nobody knows who it is, but those few in the secret, I suppose +the Ministry and the printer.—Poor Stella’s +eyes! God bless them, and send them better. Pray +spare them, and write not above two lines a day in broad +daylight. How <a name="page145"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 145</span>does Stella look, Madam +Dingley? Pretty well, a handsome young woman still. +Will she pass in a crowd? Will she make a figure in a +country church?—Stay a little, fair ladies. I this +minute sent Patrick to Sterne: he brings back word that your box +is very safe with one Mr. Earl’s sister in Chester, and +that Colonel Edgworth’s widow <a name="citation145a"></a><a +href="#footnote145a" class="citation">[145a]</a> goes for Ireland +on Monday next, and will receive the box at Chester, and deliver +it you safe: so there are some hopes now.—Well, let us go +on to your letter.—The warrant is passed for the +First-Fruits. The Queen does not send a letter; but a +patent will be drawn here, and that will take up time. Mr. +Harley of late has said nothing of presenting me to the Queen: I +was overseen <a name="citation145b"></a><a href="#footnote145b" +class="citation">[145b]</a> when I mentioned it to you. He +has such a weight of affairs on him, that he cannot mind all; but +he talked of it three or four times to me, long before I dropped +it to you. What, is not Mrs. Walls’ business over +yet? I had hopes she was up and well, and the child dead +before this time.—You did right, at last, to send me your +accompts; but I did not stay for them, I thank you. I hope +you have your bill sent in my last, and there will be eight +pounds’ interest soon due from Hawkshaw: pray look at his +bond. I hope you are good managers; and that, when I say +so, Stella won’t think I intend she should grudge herself +wine. But going to those expensive lodgings requires some +fund. I wish you had stayed till I came over, for some +reasons. That Frenchwoman <a name="citation145c"></a><a +href="#footnote145c" class="citation">[145c]</a> will be +grumbling again in a little time: and if you are invited anywhere +to the country, it will vex you to pay in absence; and the +country may be necessary for poor Stella’s health: but do +as you like, and do not blame Presto.—Oh, but you are +telling your reasons.—Well, I have read them; do as you +please.—Yes, Raymond says he must stay longer than he +thought, because he cannot settle his affairs. M— is +in the country at some friend’s, comes <a +name="page146"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 146</span>to town in +spring, and then goes to settle in Herefordshire. Her +husband is a surly, ill-natured brute, and cares not she should +see anybody. O Lord, see how I blundered, and left two +lines short; it was that ugly score in the paper <a +name="citation146a"></a><a href="#footnote146a" +class="citation">[146a]</a> that made me mistake.—I believe +you lie about the story of the fire, only to make it more +odd. Bernage must go to Spain; and I will see to recommend +him to the Duke of Argyle, his General, when I see the Duke next: +but the officers tell me it would be dishonourable in the last +degree for him to sell now, and he would never be preferred in +the army; so that, unless he designs to leave it for good and +all, he must go. Tell him so, and that I would write if I +knew where to direct to him; which I have said fourscore times +already. I had rather anything almost than that you should +strain yourselves to send a letter when it is inconvenient; we +have settled that matter already. I’ll write when I +can, and so shall MD; and upon occasions extraordinary I will +write, though it be a line; and when we have not letters soon, we +agree that all things are well; and so that’s settled for +ever, and so hold your tongue.—Well, you shall have your +pins; but for candles’ ends, I cannot promise, because I +burn them to the stumps; besides, I remember what Stella told +Dingley about them many years ago, and she may think the same +thing of me.—And Dingley shall have her hinged +spectacles.—Poor dear Stella, how durst you write those two +lines by candlelight? bang your bones! Faith, this letter +shall go to-morrow, I think, and that will be in ten days from +the last, young women; that’s too soon of all conscience: +but answering yours has filled it up so quick, and I do not +design to use you to three pages in folio, no, nooooh. All +this is one morning’s work in bed;—and so +good-morrow, little sirrahs; that’s for the rhyme. <a +name="citation146b"></a><a href="#footnote146b" +class="citation">[146b]</a> You want politics: faith, I +can’t think of any; but may be at night I may tell you a +passage. Come, sit off the bed, <a name="page147"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 147</span>and let me rise, will you?—At +night. I dined to-day with my neighbour Vanhomrigh; it was +such dismal weather I could not stir further. I have had +some threatenings with my head, but no fits. I still drink +Dr. Radcliffe’s <a name="citation147a"></a><a +href="#footnote147a" class="citation">[147a]</a> bitter, and will +continue it.</p> +<p>10. I was this morning to see the Secretary of State, +and have engaged him to give a memorial from me to the Duke of +Argyle in behalf of Bernage. The Duke is a man that +distinguishes people of merit, and I will speak to him myself; +but the Secretary backing it will be very effectual, and I will +take care to have it done to purpose. Pray tell Bernage so, +and that I think nothing can be luckier for him, and that I would +have him go by all means. I will order it that the Duke +shall send for him when they are in Spain; or, if he fails, that +he shall receive him kindly when he goes to wait on him. +Can I do more? Is not this a great deal?—I now send +away this letter, that you may not stay.—I dined with Ford +upon his Opera-day, and am now come home, and am going to study; +do not you presume to guess, sirrahs, impudent saucy dear +boxes. Towards the end of a letter I could not say saucy +boxes without putting dear between. An’t that right +now? Farewell. <i>This</i> should <i>be</i> longer, +<i>but</i> that <i>I</i> send <i>it</i> to-<i>night</i>. <a +name="citation147b"></a><a href="#footnote147b" +class="citation">[147b]</a></p> +<p>O silly, silly loggerhead!</p> +<p>I send a letter this post to one Mr. Staunton, and I direct it +to Mr. Acton’s in St. Michael’s Lane. He +formerly lodged there, but he has not told me where to +direct. Pray send to that Acton, whether <a +name="citation147c"></a><a href="#footnote147c" +class="citation">[147c]</a> the letter is come there, and whether +he has sent it to Staunton.</p> +<p>If Bernage designs to sell his commission and stay at home, +pray let him tell me so, that my recommendation to the Duke of +Argyle may not be in vain.</p> +<h3><a name="page148"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +148</span>LETTER XVI.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Feb.</i> 10, 1710–11.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> just despatched my fifteenth +to the post; I tell you how things will be, after I have got a +letter from MD. I am in furious haste to finish mine, for +fear of having two of MD’s to answer in one of +Presto’s, which would be such a disgrace, never saw the +like; but, before you write to me, I write at my leisure, like a +gentleman, a little every day, just to let you know how matters +go, and so and so; and I hope before this comes to you, +you’ll have got your box and chocolate, and Presto will +take more care another time.</p> +<p>11. Morning. I must rise and go see my Lord +Keeper, <a name="citation148a"></a><a href="#footnote148a" +class="citation">[148a]</a> which will cost me two shillings in +coach-hire. Don’t you call them two thirteens? <a +name="citation148b"></a><a href="#footnote148b" +class="citation">[148b]</a>—At night. It has rained +all day, and there was no walking. I read prayers to Sir +Andrew Fountaine in the forenoon, and I dined with three +Irishmen, at one Mr. Cope’s <a name="citation148c"></a><a +href="#footnote148c" class="citation">[148c]</a> lodgings; the +other two were one Morris an archdeacon, <a +name="citation148d"></a><a href="#footnote148d" +class="citation">[148d]</a> and Mr. Ford. When I came home +this evening, I expected that little jackanapes Harrison would +have come to get help about his <i>Tatler</i> for Tuesday: I have +fixed two evenings in the week which I allow him to come. +The toad never came, and I expecting him fell a reading, and left +off other business.—Come, what are you doing? How do +you pass your time this ugly weather? Gaming and drinking, +I suppose: fine diversions for young ladies, truly! I wish +you had some of our Seville oranges, and we some of your +wine. We have the finest oranges for twopence apiece, and +the basest wine for six shillings a bottle. They tell me +wine grows cheap with you. I am resolved to have half a +hogshead when I get to Ireland, if it be good and <a +name="page149"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 149</span>cheap, as +it used to be; and I will treat MD at my table in an evening, oh +hoa, and laugh at great Ministers of State.</p> +<p>12. The days are grown fine and long, — be +thanked. O, faith, you forget all our little sayings, and I +am angry. I dined to-day with Mr. Secretary St. John: I +went to the Court of Requests at noon, and sent Mr. Harley into +the House to call the Secretary, to let him know I would not dine +with him if he dined late. By good luck the Duke of Argyle +was at the lobby of the House too, and I kept him in talk till +the Secretary came out; then told them I was glad to meet them +together, and that I had a request to the Duke, which the +Secretary must second, and his Grace must grant. The Duke +said he was sure it was something insignificant, and wished it +was ten times greater. At the Secretary’s house I +writ a memorial, and gave it to the Secretary to give the Duke, +and shall see that he does it. It is, that his Grace will +please to take Mr. Bernage into his protection; and if he finds +Bernage answers my character, to give him all +encouragement. Colonel Masham <a name="citation149a"></a><a +href="#footnote149a" class="citation">[149a]</a> and Colonel Hill +<a name="citation149b"></a><a href="#footnote149b" +class="citation">[149b]</a> (Mrs. Masham’s <a +name="citation149c"></a><a href="#footnote149c" +class="citation">[149c]</a>) brother tell me my request is +reasonable, and they will second it heartily to the Duke too: so +I reckon Bernage is on a very good foot when he goes to +Spain. Pray tell him this, though perhaps I will write to +him before he goes; yet where shall I direct? for I suppose he +has left Connolly’s. <a name="citation149d"></a><a +href="#footnote149d" class="citation">[149d]</a></p> +<p>13. I have left off Lady Kerry’s bitter, and got +another box of pills. I have no fits of giddiness, but only +some little disorders towards it; and I walk as much as I +can. Lady Kerry is just as I am, only a great deal worse: I +dined <a name="page150"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +150</span>to-day at Lord Shelburne’s, where she is, and we +con ailments, which makes us very fond of each other. I +have taken Mr. Harley into favour again, and called to see him, +but he was not within; I will use to visit him after dinner, for +he dines too late for my head: then I went to visit poor +Congreve, who is just getting out of a severe fit of the gout; +and I sat with him till near nine o’clock. He gave me +a <i>Tatler</i> <a name="citation150a"></a><a +href="#footnote150a" class="citation">[150a]</a> he had written +out, as blind as he is, for little Harrison. It is about a +scoundrel that was grown rich, and went and bought a coat of arms +at the Herald’s, and a set of ancestors at Fleet Ditch; +’tis well enough, and shall be printed in two or three +days, and if you read those kind of things, this will divert +you. It is now between ten and eleven, and I am going to +bed.</p> +<p>14. This was Mrs. Vanhomrigh’s daughter’s <a +name="citation150b"></a><a href="#footnote150b" +class="citation">[150b]</a> birthday, and Mr. Ford and I were +invited to dinner to keep it, and we spent the evening there, +drinking punch. That was our way of beginning Lent; and in +the morning Lord Shelburne, Lady Kerry, Mrs. Pratt, and I, went +to Hyde Park, instead of going to church; for, till my head is a +little settled, I think it better not to go; it would be so silly +and troublesome to go out sick. Dr. Duke <a +name="citation150c"></a><a href="#footnote150c" +class="citation">[150c]</a> died suddenly two or three nights +ago; he was one of the wits when we were children, but turned +parson, and left it, and never writ farther than a prologue or +recommendatory copy of verses. He had a fine living given +him by the Bishop of Winchester <a name="citation150d"></a><a +href="#footnote150d" class="citation">[150d]</a> about three +months ago; he got his living suddenly, and he got his dying so +too.</p> +<p>15. I walked purely to-day about the Park, the rain +being just over, of which we have had a great deal, mixed with +little short frosts. I went to the Court of Requests, +thinking, if Mr. Harley dined early, to go with him. But +meeting Leigh <a name="page151"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +151</span>and Sterne, they invited me to dine with them, and away +we went. When we got into his room, one H—, a +worthless Irish fellow, was there, ready to dine with us; so I +stepped out, and whispered them, that I would not dine with that +fellow: they made excuses, and begged me to stay; but away I went +to Mr. Harley’s, and he did not dine at home; and at last I +dined at Sir John Germaine’s, <a name="citation151a"></a><a +href="#footnote151a" class="citation">[151a]</a> and found Lady +Betty but just recovered of a miscarriage. I am writing an +inscription for Lord Berkeley’s <a +name="citation151b"></a><a href="#footnote151b" +class="citation">[151b]</a> tomb; you know the young rake his +son, the new Earl, is married to the Duke of Richmond’s +daughter, <a name="citation151c"></a><a href="#footnote151c" +class="citation">[151c]</a> at the Duke’s country house, +and are now coming to town. She will be fluxed in two +months, and they’ll be parted in a year. You ladies +are brave, bold, venturesome folks; and the chit is but +seventeen, and is ill-natured, covetous, vicious, and proud in +extremes. And so get you gone to Stoyte to-morrow.</p> +<p>16. Faith, this letter goes on but slow; ’tis a +week old, and the first side not written. I went to-day +into the City for a walk, but the person I designed to dine with +was not at home; so I came back, and called at Congreve’s, +and dined with him and Estcourt, <a name="citation151d"></a><a +href="#footnote151d" class="citation">[151d]</a> and laughed till +six; then went to Mr. Harley’s, who was not gone to dinner; +there I stayed till nine, and we made up our quarrel, and he has +invited me to dinner to-morrow, which is the day of the week +(Saturday) that Lord Keeper and Secretary St. John dine with him +privately, and at last they have consented to let me among them +on that day. Atterbury and Prior went to bury poor Dr. +Duke. Congreve’s nasty white wine has given me the +heart-burn.</p> +<p>17. I took some good walks in the Park to-day, and then +went to Mr. Harley. Lord Rivers was got there before me, +and I chid him for presuming to come on a day when only Lord +Keeper and the Secretary and I were to be there; but he regarded +me not; so we all dined together, and sat down at four; and the +Secretary has invited me to dine with him to-morrow. I told +them I had no hopes they could ever <a name="page152"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 152</span>keep in, but that I saw they loved +one another so well, as indeed they seem to do. They call +me nothing but Jonathan; and I said I believed they would leave +me Jonathan as they found me; and that I never knew a Ministry do +anything for those whom they make companions of their pleasures; +and I believe you will find it so; but I care not. I am +upon a project of getting five hundred pounds, <a +name="citation152a"></a><a href="#footnote152a" +class="citation">[152a]</a> without being obliged to anybody; but +that is a secret, till I see my dearest MD; and so hold your +tongue, and do not talk, sirrahs, for I am now about it.</p> +<p>18. My head has no fits, but a little disordered before +dinner; yet I walk stoutly, and take pills, and hope to +mend. Secretary St. John would needs have me dine with him +to-day; and there I found three persons I never saw, two I had no +acquaintance with, and one I did not care for: so I left them +early and came home, it being no day to walk, but scurvy rain and +wind. The Secretary tells me he has put a cheat on me; for +Lord Peterborow sent him twelve dozen flasks of burgundy, on +condition that I should have my share; but he never was quiet +till they were all gone, so I reckon he owes me thirty-six +pounds. Lord Peterborow is now got to Vienna, and I must +write to him to-morrow. I begin now to be towards looking +for a letter from some certain ladies of Presto’s +acquaintance, that live at St. Mary’s, <a +name="citation152b"></a><a href="#footnote152b" +class="citation">[152b]</a> and are called in a certain language, +our little MD. No, stay, I don’t expect one these six +days, that will be just three weeks; an’t I a reasonable +creature? We are plagued here with an October Club, that +is, a set of above a hundred Parliament men of the country, who +drink October beer at home, and meet every evening at a tavern +near the Parliament to consult affairs, and drive things on to +extremes against the Whigs, to call the old Ministry to account, +and get off five or six heads. <a name="citation152c"></a><a +href="#footnote152c" class="citation">[152c]</a> The +Ministry seem not to regard them; yet one of them in confidence +told me that there <a name="page153"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +153</span>must be something thought on, to settle things +better. I’ll tell you one great State secret: the +Queen, sensible how much she was governed by the late Ministry, +runs a little into t’other extreme, and is jealous in that +point, even of those who got her out of the others’ +hands. The Ministry is for gentler measures, and the other +Tories for more violent. Lord Rivers, talking to me the +other day, cursed the paper called the <i>Examiner</i>, for +speaking civilly of the Duke of Marlborough; this I happened to +talk of to the Secretary, who blamed the warmth of that lord and +some others, and swore that if their advice were followed they +would be blown up in twenty-four hours. And I have reason +to think that they will endeavour to prevail on the Queen to put +her affairs more in the hands of a Ministry than she does at +present; and there are, I believe, two men thought on, one of +them you have often met the name of in my letters. But so +much for politics.</p> +<p>19. This proved a terrible rainy day, which prevented my +walk into the City, and I was only able to run and dine with my +neighbour Vanhomrigh, where Sir Andrew Fountaine dined too, who +has just began to sally out, and has shipped his mother and +sister, who were his nurses, back to the country. This +evening was fair, and I walked a little in the Park, till Prior +made me go with him to the Smyrna Coffee-house, where I sat a +while, and saw four or five Irish persons, who are very handsome, +genteel fellows; but I know not their names. I came away at +seven, and got home. Two days ago I writ to Bernage, and +told him what I had done, and directed the letter to Mr. +Curry’s, to be left with Dingley. Brigadiers Hill and +Masham, brother and husband to Mrs. Masham, the Queen’s +favourite, Colonel Disney, <a name="citation153"></a><a +href="#footnote153" class="citation">[153]</a> and <a +name="page154"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 154</span>I, have +recommended Bernage to the Duke of Argyle; and Secretary St. John +has given the Duke my memorial; and, besides, Hill tells me, that +Bernage’s colonel, Fielding, <a name="citation154"></a><a +href="#footnote154" class="citation">[154]</a> designs to make +him his captain-lieutenant: but I believe I said this to you +before, and in this letter; but I will not look.</p> +<p>20. Morning. It snows terribly again; and +’tis mistaken, for I now want a little good weather. +I bid you good-morrow; and, if it clear up, get you gone to poor +Mrs. Walls, who has had a hard time of it, but is now pretty well +again. I am sorry it is a girl: the poor Archdeacon too, +see how simply he looked when they told him: what did it cost +Stella to be gossip? I’ll rise; so, d’ye hear, +let me see you at night; and do not stay late out, and catch +cold, sirrahs.—At night. It grew good weather, and I +got a good walk, and dined with Ford upon his Opera-day; but, now +all his wine is gone, I shall dine with him no more. I hope +to send this letter before I hear from MD, methinks there +is—something great in doing so, only I can’t express +where it lies; and, faith, this shall go by Saturday, as sure as +you’re a rogue. Mrs. Edgworth was to set out but last +Monday; so you won’t have your box so soon perhaps as this +letter; but Sterne told me since that it is safe at Chester, and +that she will take care of it. I’d give a guinea you +had it.</p> +<p>21. Morning. Faith, I hope it will be fair for me +to walk into the City; for I take all occasions of +walking.—I should be plaguy busy at Laracor if I were there +now, cutting down willows, planting others, scouring my canal, +and every kind of thing. If Raymond goes over this summer, +you must submit, and make them a visit, that we may have another +eel and trout fishing; and that Stella may ride by, and see <a +name="page155"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 155</span>Presto in +his morning-gown in the garden, and so go up with Joe to the Hill +of Bree, and round by Scurlock’s Town. O Lord, how I +remember names! faith, it gives me short sighs; therefore no more +of that, if you love me. Good-morrow, I will go rise like a +gentleman; my pills say I must.—At night. Lady Kerry +sent to desire me to engage some lords about an affair she has in +their house here: I called to see her, but found she had already +engaged every lord I knew, and that there was no great difficulty +in the matter; and it rained like a dog; so I took coach, for +want of better exercise, and dined privately with a hang-dog in +the City, and walked back in the evening. The days are now +long enough to walk in the Park after dinner; and so I do +whenever it is fair. This walking is a strange remedy: Mr. +Prior walks, to make himself fat, and I to bring myself down; he +has generally a cough, which he only calls a cold; we often walk +round the Park together. So I’ll go sleep.</p> +<p>22. It snowed all this morning prodigiously, and was +some inches thick in three or four hours. I dined with Mr. +Lewis of the Secretary’s office at his lodgings: the +chairmen that carried me squeezed a great fellow against a wall, +who wisely turned his back, and broke one of the side-glasses in +a thousand pieces. I fell a scolding, pretended I was like +to be cut to pieces, and made them set down the chair in the +Park, while they picked out the bits of glasses; and, when I paid +them, I quarrelled still; so they dared not grumble, and I came +off for my fare; but I was plaguily afraid they would have said, +“God bless your honour, won’t you give us something +for our glass?” Lewis and I were forming a project +how I might get three or four hundred pounds, <a +name="citation155"></a><a href="#footnote155" +class="citation">[155]</a> which I suppose may come to +nothing. I hope Smyth has brought you your +palsy-drops. How does Stella do? I begin more and +more to desire to know. The three weeks since I had your +last is over within two days, and I will allow three for +accidents.</p> +<p>23. The snow is gone every bit, except the remainder of +<a name="page156"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 156</span>some +great balls made by the boys. Mr. Sterne was with me this +morning about an affair he has before the Treasury. That +drab Mrs. Edgworth is not yet set out, but will infallibly next +Monday: and this is the third infallible Monday, and pox take +her! So you will have this letter first; and this shall go +to-morrow; and, if I have one from MD in that time, I will not +answer it till my next; only I will say, “Madam, I received +your letter, and so, and so.” I dined to-day with my +Mistress Butler, <a name="citation156a"></a><a +href="#footnote156a" class="citation">[156a]</a> who grows very +disagreeable.</p> +<p>24. Morning. This letter certainly goes this +evening, sure as you’re alive, young women, and then you +will be so shamed that I have had none from you; and, if I was to +reckon like you, I would say, I were six letters before you, for +this is N. 16, and I have had your N. 10. But I reckon you +have received but fourteen, and have sent eleven. I think +to go to-day a Minister-of-State-hunting in the Court of +Requests; for I have something to say to Mr. Harley. And it +is fine, cold, sunshiny weather; I wish dear MD would walk this +morning in your Stephen’s Green; ’tis as good as our +Park, but not so large. <a name="citation156b"></a><a +href="#footnote156b" class="citation">[156b]</a> Faith, +this summer we’ll take a coach for sixpence <a +name="citation156c"></a><a href="#footnote156c" +class="citation">[156c]</a> to the Green Well, the two walks, and +thence all the way to Stoyte’s. <a +name="citation156d"></a><a href="#footnote156d" +class="citation">[156d]</a> My hearty service to Goody +Stoyte and Catherine; and I hope Mrs. Walls had a good +time. How inconstant I am! I can’t imagine I was ever +in love with her. Well, I’m going; what have you to +say? <i>I do not care how I write now</i>. <a +name="citation156e"></a><a href="#footnote156e" +class="citation">[156e]</a> I don’t design to write +on this side; these few lines are but so much more than your due; +so I will write <i>large</i> or small as I please. O, +faith, my hands are starving in bed; I believe it is a hard +frost. I must rise, and bid you good-bye, for I’ll +seal this letter <a name="page157"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +157</span>immediately, and carry it in my pocket, and put it into +the post-office with my own fair hands. Farewell.</p> +<p>This letter is just a fortnight’s journal to-day. +Yes, and so it is, I’m sure, says you, with your two eggs a +penny.</p> +<p>Lele, lele, lele. <a name="citation157"></a><a +href="#footnote157" class="citation">[157]</a></p> +<p>O Lord, I am saying lele, lele, to myself, in all our little +keys: and, now you talk of keys, that dog Patrick broke the +key-general of the chest of drawers with six locks, and I have +been so plagued to get a new one, besides my good two +shillings!</p> +<h3>LETTER XVII.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Feb.</i> 24, 1710–11.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Now</span>, young women, I gave in my +sixteenth this evening. I dined with Ford (it was his +Opera-day) as usual; it is very convenient to me to do so, for +coming home early after a walk in the Park, which now the days +will allow. I called on the Secretary at his office, and he +had forgot to give the memorial about Bernage to the Duke of +Argyle; but, two days ago, I met the Duke, who desired I would +give it him myself, which should have more power with him than +all the Ministry together, as he protested solemnly, repeated it +two or three times, and bid me count upon it. So that I +verily believe Bernage will be in a very good way to establish +himself. I think I can do no more for him at present, and +there’s an end of that; and so get you gone to bed, for it +is late.</p> +<p>25. The three weeks are out yesterday since I had your +last, and so now I will be expecting every day a pretty dear +letter from my own MD, and hope to hear that Stella has been much +better in her head and eyes: my head continues as it was, no +fits, but a little disorder every day, which I can easily bear, +if it will not grow worse. I dined to-day with Mr. <a +name="page158"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 158</span>Secretary +St. John, on condition I might choose my company, which were Lord +Rivers, Lord Carteret, Sir Thomas Mansel, <a +name="citation158a"></a><a href="#footnote158a" +class="citation">[158a]</a> and Mr. Lewis; I invited Masham, +Hill, Sir John Stanley, and George Granville, but they were +engaged; and I did it in revenge of his having such bad company +when I dined with him before; so we laughed, etc. And I +ventured to go to church to-day, which I have not done this month +before. Can you send me such a good account of +Stella’s health, pray now? Yes, I hope, and better +too. We dined (says you) at the Dean’s, and played at +cards till twelve, and there came in Mr. French, and Dr. Travors, +and Dr. Whittingham, and Mr. (I forget his name, that I always +tell Mrs. Walls of) the banker’s son, a pox on him. +And we were so merry; I vow they are pure good company. But +I lost a crown; for you must know I had always hands tempting me +to go out, but never took in anything, and often two black aces +without a manilio; was not that hard, Presto? Hold your +tongue, etc.</p> +<p>26. I was this morning with Mr. Secretary about some +business, and he tells me that Colonel Fielding is now going to +make Bernage his captain-lieutenant, that is, a captain by +commission, and the perquisites of the company; but not +captain’s pay, only the first step to it. I suppose +he will like it; and the recommendation to the Duke of Argyle +goes on. And so trouble me no more about your Bernage; the +jackanapes understands what fair solicitors he has got, I warrant +you. Sir Andrew Fountaine and I dined, by invitation, with +Mrs. Vanhomrigh. You say they are of no consequence: why, +they keep as good female company as I do male; I see all the +drabs of quality at this end of the town with them: I saw two +Lady Bettys <a name="citation158b"></a><a href="#footnote158b" +class="citation">[158b]</a> there this afternoon; the beauty of +one, the good-breeding and nature of t’other, and the wit +of neither, would have made a fine woman. Rare walking in +<a name="page159"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 159</span>the Park +now: why don’t you walk in the Green of St. Stephen? +The walks there are finer gravelled than the Mall. What +beasts the Irish women are, never to walk!</p> +<p>27. Darteneuf and I, and little Harrison the new Tatler, +and Jervas the painter, dined to-day with James, <a +name="citation159"></a><a href="#footnote159" +class="citation">[159]</a> I know not his other name, but it is +one of Darteneuf’s dining-places, who is a true +epicure. James is clerk of the kitchen to the Queen, and +has a little snug house at St. James’s; and we had the +Queen’s wine, and such very fine victuals that I could not +eat it. Three weeks and three days since my last letter +from MD; rare doings! why, truly we were so busy with poor Mrs. +Walls, that indeed, Presto, we could not write, we were afraid +the poor woman would have died; and it pitied us to see the +Archdeacon, how concerned he was. The Dean never came to +see her but once; but now she is up again, and we go and sit with +her in the evenings. The child died the next day after it +was born; and I believe, between friends, she is not very sorry +for it.—Indeed, Presto, you are plaguy silly to-night, and +han’t guessed one word right; for she and the child are +both well, and it is a fine girl, likely to live; and the Dean +was godfather, and Mrs. Catherine and I were godmothers; I was +going to say Stoyte, but I think I have heard they don’t +put maids and married women together; though I know not why I +think so, nor I don’t care; what care I? but I must prate, +etc.</p> +<p>28. I walked to-day into the City for my health, and +there dined; which I always do when the weather is fair, and +business permits, that I may be under a necessity of taking a +good walk, which is the best thing I can do at present for my +health. Some bookseller has raked up everything I writ, and +published it t’other day in one volume; but I know nothing +of it, ’twas without my knowledge or consent: it makes a <a +name="page160"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +160</span>four-shilling book, and is called <i>Miscellanies in +Prose and Verse</i>. <a name="citation160a"></a><a +href="#footnote160a" class="citation">[160a]</a> Tooke +pretends he knows nothing of it; but I doubt he is at the +bottom. One must have patience with these things; the best +of it is, I shall be plagued no more. However, I will bring +a couple of them over with me for MD; perhaps you may desire to +see them. I hear they sell mightily.</p> +<p>March 1. Morning. I have been calling to Patrick +to look in his almanac for the day of the month; I did not know +but it might be leap-year. The almanac says ’tis the +third after leap-year; and I always thought till now, that every +third year was leap-year. I am glad they come so seldom; +but I’m sure ’twas otherwise when I was a young man; +I see times are mightily changed since then.—Write to me, +sirrahs; be sure do by the time this side is done, and I’ll +keep t’other side for the answer: so I’ll go write to +the Bishop of Clogher; good-morrow, sirrahs.—Night. I +dined to-day at Mrs. Vanhomrigh’s, being a rainy day; and +Lady Betty Butler, knowing it, sent to let me know she expected +my company in the evening, where the Vans (so we call them) were +to be. The Duchess <a name="citation160b"></a><a +href="#footnote160b" class="citation">[160b]</a> and they do not +go over this summer with the Duke; so I go to bed.</p> +<p>2. This rainy weather undoes me in coaches and +chairs. I was traipsing to-day with your Mr. Sterne, to go +along with them to Moore, <a name="citation160c"></a><a +href="#footnote160c" class="citation">[160c]</a> and recommend +his business to the Treasury. Sterne tells me <a +name="page161"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 161</span>his +dependence is wholly on me; but I have absolutely refused to +recommend it to Mr. Harley, because I have troubled him lately so +much with other folks’ affairs; and besides, to tell the +truth, Mr. Harley told me he did not like Sterne’s +business: however, I will serve him, because I suppose MD would +have me. But, in saying his dependence lies wholly on me, +he lies, and is a fool. I dined with Lord Abercorn, whose +son Peasley <a name="citation161a"></a><a href="#footnote161a" +class="citation">[161a]</a> will be married at Easter to ten +thousand pounds.</p> +<p>3. I forgot to tell you that yesterday morning I was at +Mr. Harley’s levee: he swore I came in spite, to see him +among a parcel of fools. My business was to desire I might +let the Duke of Ormond know how the affair stood of the +First-Fruits. He promised to let him know it, and engaged +me to dine with him to-day. Every Saturday, Lord Keeper, +Secretary St. John, and I dine with him, and sometimes Lord +Rivers; and they let in none else. Patrick brought me some +letters into the Park; among which one was from Walls; and +t’other, yes, faith, t’other was from our little MD, +N. 11. I read the rest in the Park, and MD’s in a +chair as I went from St. James’s to Mr. Harley; and glad +enough I was, faith, to read it, and see all right. Oh, but +I won’t answer it these three or four days at least, or may +be sooner. An’t I silly? faith, your letters would +make a dog silly, if I had a dog to be silly, but it must be a +little dog.—I stayed with Mr. Harley till past nine, where +we had much discourse together after the rest were gone; and I +gave him very truly my opinion where he desired it. He +complained he was not very well, and has engaged me to dine with +him again on Monday. So I came home afoot, like a fine +gentleman, to tell you all this.</p> +<p>4. I dined to-day with Mr. Secretary St. John; and after +dinner he had a note from Mr. Harley, that he was much out of +order. <a name="citation161b"></a><a href="#footnote161b" +class="citation">[161b]</a> Pray God preserve his health! +everything depends upon it. The Parliament at present +cannot go a step without him, nor the Queen neither. I long +to be in Ireland; but the Ministry beg me to stay: however, when +this Parliament lurry <a name="citation161c"></a><a +href="#footnote161c" class="citation">[161c]</a> is over, I will +endeavour to steal away; by which time I hope the First-Fruit +business will be done. This kingdom is certainly ruined as +much as was ever any bankrupt <a name="page162"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 162</span>merchant. We must have peace, +let it be a bad or a good one, though nobody dares talk of +it. The nearer I look upon things, the worse I like +them. I believe the confederacy will soon break to pieces, +and our factions at home increase. The Ministry is upon a +very narrow bottom, and stand like an isthmus, between the Whigs +on one side, and violent Tories on the other. They are able +seamen; but the tempest is too great, the ship too rotten, and +the crew all against them. Lord Somers has been twice in +the Queen’s closet, once very lately; and your Duchess of +Somerset, <a name="citation162"></a><a href="#footnote162" +class="citation">[162]</a> who now has the key, is a most +insinuating woman; and I believe they will endeavour to play the +same game that has been played against them.—I have told +them of all this, which they know already, but they cannot help +it. They have cautioned the Queen so much against being +governed, that she observes it too much. I could talk till +to-morrow upon these things, but they make me melancholy. I +could not but observe that lately, after much conversation with +Mr. Harley, though he is the most fearless man alive, and the +least apt to despond, he confessed to me that uttering his mind +to me gave him ease.</p> +<p>5. Mr. Harley continues out of order, yet his affairs +force him abroad: he is subject to a sore throat, and was cupped +last night: I sent and called two or three times. I hear he +is better this evening. I dined to-day in the City with Dr. +Freind at a third body’s house, where I was to pass for +somebody else; and there was a plaguy silly jest carried on, that +made me sick of it. Our weather grows fine, and I will walk +like camomile. And pray walk you to your Dean’s, or +your Stoyte’s, or your Manley’s, or your +Walls’. But your new lodgings make you so proud, you +will walk less than ever. Come, let me go to bed, +sirrahs.</p> +<p>6. Mr. Harley’s going out yesterday has put him a +little backwards. I called twice, and sent, for I am in +pain for <a name="page163"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +163</span>him. Ford caught me, and made me dine with him on +his Opera-day; so I brought Mr. Lewis with me, and sat with him +till six. I have not seen Mr. Addison these three weeks; +all our friendship is over. I go to no Coffee-house. +I presented a parson of the Bishop of Clogher’s, one +Richardson, <a name="citation163a"></a><a href="#footnote163a" +class="citation">[163a]</a> to the Duke of Ormond to-day: he is +translating prayers and sermons into Irish, and has a project +about instructing the Irish in the Protestant religion.</p> +<p>7. Morning. Faith, a little would make me, I could +find in my heart, if it were not for one thing, I have a good +mind, if I had not something else to do, I would answer your dear +saucy letter. O, Lord, I am going awry with writing in +bed. O, faith, but I must answer it, or I shan’t have +room, for it must go on Saturday; and don’t think I will +fill the third side, I an’t come to that yet, young +women. Well then, as for your Bernage, I have said enough: +I writ to him last week.—Turn over that leaf. Now, +what says MD to the world to come? I tell you, Madam +Stella, my head is a great deal better, and I hope will keep +so. How came yours to be fifteen days coming, and you had +my fifteenth in seven? Answer me that, rogues. Your +being with Goody Walls is excuse enough: I find I was mistaken in +the sex, ’tis a boy. <a name="citation163b"></a><a +href="#footnote163b" class="citation">[163b]</a> Yes, I +understand your cypher, and Stella guesses right, as she always +does. He <a name="citation163c"></a><a href="#footnote163c" +class="citation">[163c]</a> gave me al bsadnuk lboinlpl dfaonr +ufainf btoy dpionufnad, <a name="citation163d"></a><a +href="#footnote163d" class="citation">[163d]</a> which I sent him +again by Mr. Lewis, to whom I writ a very complaining letter that +was showed him; and so the matter ended. He told me he had +a quarrel with me; I said I had another with him, and we returned +to our friendship, and I should think he <a +name="page164"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 164</span>loves me as +well as a great Minister can love a man in so short a time. +Did not I do right? I am glad at heart you have got your +palsy-water; <a name="citation164a"></a><a href="#footnote164a" +class="citation">[164a]</a> pray God Almighty it may do my +dearest little Stella good! I suppose Mrs. Edgworth set out +last Monday se’ennight. Yes, I do read the +<i>Examiners</i>, and they are written very finely, as you +judge. I do not think they are too severe on the Duke; <a +name="citation164b"></a><a href="#footnote164b" +class="citation">[164b]</a> they only tax him of avarice, and his +avarice has ruined us. You may count upon all things in +them to be true. The author has said it is not Prior, but +perhaps it may be Atterbury.—Now, Madam Dingley, says she, +’tis fine weather, says she; yes, says she, and we have got +to our new lodgings. I compute you ought to save eight +pounds by being in the others five months; and you have no more +done it than eight thousand. I am glad you are rid of that +squinting, blinking Frenchman. I will give you a bill on +Parvisol for five pounds for the half-year. And must I go +on at four shillings a week, and neither eat nor drink for +it? Who the Devil said Atterbury and your Dean were +alike? I never saw your Chancellor, nor his chaplain. +The latter has a good deal of learning, and is a well-wisher to +be an author: your Chancellor is an excellent man. As for +Patrick’s bird, he bought him for his tameness, and is +grown the wildest I ever saw. His wings have been quilled +thrice, and are now up again: he will be able to fly after us to +Ireland, if he be willing.—Yes, Mrs. Stella, Dingley writes +more like Presto than you; for all you superscribed the letter, +as who should say, Why should not I write like our Presto as well +as Dingley? You with your awkward SS; <a +name="citation164c"></a><a href="#footnote164c" +class="citation">[164c]</a> cannot you write them thus, SS? +No, but always SSS. Spiteful sluts, to affront +Presto’s writing; as that when you shut your eyes you write +most like Presto. I know the time when I did not write to +you half so plain as I do now; but I take pity on you both. +I am very much concerned for Mrs. Walls’s eyes. Walls +says nothing of it to me in his letter <a +name="page165"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 165</span>dated after +yours. You say, “If she recovers, she may lose her +sight.” I hope she is in no danger of her life. +Yes, Ford is as sober as I please: I use him to walk with me as +an easy companion, always ready for what I please, when I am +weary of business and Ministers. I don’t go to a +Coffee-house twice a month. I am very regular in going to +sleep before eleven.—And so you say that Stella is a pretty +girl; and so she be, and methinks I see her just now as handsome +as the day is long. Do you know what? when I am writing in +our language, I make up my mouth just as if I was speaking +it. I caught myself at it just now. And I suppose +Dingley is so fair and so fresh as a lass in May, and has her +health, and no spleen.—In your account you sent do you +reckon as usual from the 1st of November <a +name="citation165a"></a><a href="#footnote165a" +class="citation">[165a]</a> was twelvemonth? Poor Stella, +will not Dingley leave her a little daylight to write to +Presto? Well, well, we’ll have daylight shortly, +spite of her teeth; and zoo <a name="citation165b"></a><a +href="#footnote165b" class="citation">[165b]</a> must cly Lele +and Hele, and Hele aden. Must loo mimitate Pdfr, pay? +Iss, and so la shall. And so lele’s fol ee +rettle. Dood-mollow.—At night. Mrs. Barton sent +this morning to invite me to dinner; and there I dined, just in +that genteel manner that MD used when they would treat some +better sort of body than usual.</p> +<p>8. O dear MD, my heart is almost broken. You will +hear the thing before this comes to you. I writ a full +account of it this night to the Archbishop of Dublin; and the +Dean may tell you the particulars from the Archbishop. I +was in a sorry way to write, but thought it might be proper to +send a true account of the fact; for you will hear a thousand +lying circumstances. It is of Mr. Harley’s being +stabbed this afternoon, at three o’clock, at a Committee of +the Council. <a name="page166"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +166</span>I was playing Lady Catharine Morris’s <a +name="citation166a"></a><a href="#footnote166a" +class="citation">[166a]</a> cards, where I dined, when young +Arundel <a name="citation166b"></a><a href="#footnote166b" +class="citation">[166b]</a> came in with the story. I ran +away immediately to the Secretary, which was in my way: no one +was at home. I met Mrs. St. John in her chair; she had +heard it imperfectly. I took a chair to Mr. Harley, who was +asleep, and they hope in no danger; but he has been out of order, +and was so when he came abroad to-day, and it may put him in a +fever: I am in mortal pain for him. That desperate French +villain, Marquis de Guiscard, <a name="citation166c"></a><a +href="#footnote166c" class="citation">[166c]</a> stabbed Mr. +Harley. Guiscard was taken up by Mr. Secretary St. +John’s warrant for high treason, and brought before the +Lords to be examined; there he stabbed Mr. Harley. I have +told all the particulars already to the Archbishop. I have +now, at nine, sent again, and they tell me he is in a fair +way. Pray pardon my distraction; I now think of all his +kindness to me.—The poor creature now lies stabbed in his +bed by a desperate French Popish villain. Good-night, and +God preserve you both, and pity me; I want it.</p> +<p>9. Morning; seven, in bed. Patrick is just come +from Mr. Harley’s. He slept well till four; the +surgeon sat <a name="citation166d"></a><a href="#footnote166d" +class="citation">[166d]</a> up with him: he is asleep again: he +felt a pain in his wound when he waked: they apprehend him in no +danger. This account <a name="page167"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 167</span>the surgeon left with the porter, to +tell people that send. Pray God preserve him. I am +rising, and going to Mr. Secretary St. John. They say +Guiscard will die with the wounds Mr. St. John and the rest gave +him. I shall tell you more at night.—Night. Mr. +Harley still continues on the mending hand; but he rested ill +last night, and felt pain. I was early with the Secretary +this morning, and I dined with him, and he told me several +particularities of this accident, too long to relate now. +Mr. Harley is still mending this evening, but not at all out of +danger; and till then I can have no peace. Good-night, +etc., and pity Presto.</p> +<p>10. Mr. Harley was restless last night; but he has no +fever, and the hopes of his mending increase. I had a +letter from Mr. Walls, and one from Mr. Bernage. I will +answer them here, not having time to write. Mr. Walls +writes about three things. First, about a hundred pounds +from Dr. Raymond, of which I hear nothing, and it is now too +late. Secondly, about Mr. Clements: <a +name="citation167a"></a><a href="#footnote167a" +class="citation">[167a]</a> I can do nothing in it, because I am +not to mention Mr. Pratt; and I cannot recommend without knowing +Mr. Pratt’s objections, whose relation Clements is, and who +brought him into the place. The third is about my being +godfather to the child: <a name="citation167b"></a><a +href="#footnote167b" class="citation">[167b]</a> that is in my +power, and (since there is no remedy) will submit. I wish +you could hinder it; but if it can’t be helped, pay what +you think proper, and get the Provost to stand for me, and let +his Christian name be Harley, in honour of my friend, now lying +stabbed and doubtful of his life. As for Bernage, he writes +me word that his colonel has offered to make him +captain-lieutenant for a hundred pounds. He was such a fool +to offer him money without writing to me till it was done, though +I have had a dozen letters from him; and then he desires I would +say nothing of this, for fear his colonel should be angry. +People are mad. What can I do? I engaged Colonel +Disney, who was one of his solicitors to the Secretary, and then +told him the story. He assured me that Fielding +(Bernage’s colonel) said he might have got that sum; but, +on account <a name="page168"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +168</span>of those great recommendations he had, would give it +him for nothing: and I would have Bernage write him a letter of +thanks, as of a thing given him for nothing, upon +recommendations, etc. Disney tells me he will again speak +to Fielding, and clear up this matter; then I will write to +Bernage. A pox on him for promising money till I had it +promised to me; and then making it such a ticklish point, that +one cannot expostulate with the colonel upon it: but let him do +as I say, and there is an end. I engaged the Secretary of +State in it; and am sure it was meant a kindness to me, and that +no money should be given, and a hundred pounds is too much in a +Smithfield bargain, <a name="citation168a"></a><a +href="#footnote168a" class="citation">[168a]</a> as a +major-general told me, whose opinion I asked. I am now +hurried, and can say no more. Farewell, etc. etc.</p> +<p>How shall I superscribe to your new lodgings, pray, +madams? Tell me but that, impudence and saucy-face.</p> +<p>Are not you sauceboxes to write “lele” <a +name="citation168b"></a><a href="#footnote168b" +class="citation">[168b]</a> like Presto? O poor Presto!</p> +<p>Mr. Harley is better to-night, that makes me so pert, you +saucy Gog and Magog.</p> +<h3>LETTER XVIII.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>March</i> 10, 1710–11.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Pretty</span> little MD must expect little +from me till Mr. Harley is out of danger. We hope he is so +now; but I am subject to fear for my friends. He has a head +full of the whole business of the nation, was out of order when +the villain stabbed him, and had a cruel contusion by the second +blow. But all goes on well yet. Mr. Ford and I dined +with Mr. Lewis, and we hope the best.</p> +<p>11. This morning Mr. Secretary and I met at Court, where +<a name="page169"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 169</span>he went +to the Queen, who is out of order, and aguish: I doubt the worse +for this accident to Mr. Harley. We went together to his +house, and his wound looks well, and he is not feverish at all, +and I think it is foolish in me to be so much in pain as I +am. I had the penknife in my hand, which is broken within a +quarter of an inch of the handle. I have a mind to write +and publish an account of all the particularities of this fact: +<a name="citation169a"></a><a href="#footnote169a" +class="citation">[169a]</a> it will be very curious, and I would +do it when Mr. Harley is past danger.</p> +<p>12. We have been in terrible pain to-day about Mr. +Harley, who never slept last night, and has been very +feverish. But this evening I called there; and young Mr. +Harley (his only son) tells me he is now much better, and was +then asleep. They let nobody see him, and that is perfectly +right. The Parliament cannot go on till he is well, and are +forced to adjourn their money businesses, which none but he can +help them in. Pray God preserve him.</p> +<p>13. Mr. Harley is better to-day, slept well all night, +and we are a little out of our fears. I send and call three +or four times every day. I went into the City for a walk, +and dined there with a private man; and coming home this evening, +broke my shin in the Strand over a tub of sand left just in the +way. I got home dirty enough, and went straight to bed, +where I have been cooking it with gold-beater’s skin, and +have been peevish enough with Patrick, who was near an hour +bringing a rag from next door. It is my right shin, where +never any humour fell when t’other used to swell; so I +apprehend it less: however, I shall not stir till ’tis +well, which I reckon will be in a week. I am very careful +in these sort of things; but I wish I had Mrs. J—’s +water: <a name="citation169b"></a><a href="#footnote169b" +class="citation">[169b]</a> she is out of town, and I must make a +shift with alum. I will dine with Mrs. Vanhomrigh till I am +well, who lives but five doors off; and that I may venture.</p> +<p>14. My journals are like to be very diverting, now I +cannot <a name="page170"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +170</span>stir abroad, between accounts of Mr. Harley’s +mending, and of my broken shin. I just walked to my +neighbour Vanhomrigh at two, and came away at six, when little +Harrison the Tatler came to me, and begged me to dictate a paper +to him, which I was forced in charity to do. Mr. Harley +still mends; and I hope in a day or two to trouble you no more +with him, nor with my shin. Go to bed and sleep, sirrahs, +that you may rise to-morrow and walk to Donnybrook, and lose your +money with Stoyte and the Dean; do so, dear little rogues, and +drink Presto’s health. O pray, don’t you drink +Presto’s health sometimes with your deans, and your +Stoytes, and your Walls, and your Manleys, and your everybodies, +pray now? I drink MD’s to myself a hundred thousand +times.</p> +<p>15. I was this morning at Mr. Secretary St. John’s +for all my shin; and he has given me for young Harrison the +Tatler the prettiest employment in Europe; secretary to my Lord +Raby, <a name="citation170a"></a><a href="#footnote170a" +class="citation">[170a]</a> who is to be Ambassador Extraordinary +at the Hague, where all the great affairs will be concerted; so +we shall lose the <i>Tatlers</i> in a fortnight. I will +send Harrison to-morrow morning to thank the Secretary. +Poor Biddy Floyd <a name="citation170b"></a><a +href="#footnote170b" class="citation">[170b]</a> has got the +smallpox. I called this morning to see Lady Betty Germaine, +and when she told me so, I fairly took my leave. I have the +luck of it; <a name="citation170c"></a><a href="#footnote170c" +class="citation">[170c]</a> for about ten days ago I was to see +Lord Carteret; <a name="citation170d"></a><a href="#footnote170d" +class="citation">[170d]</a> and my lady was entertaining me with +telling of a young lady, a cousin, who was then ill in the house +of the smallpox, and is since dead: it was near Lady +Betty’s, and I fancy Biddy took the fright by it. I +dined <a name="page171"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +171</span>with Mr. Secretary; and a physician came in just from +Guiscard, who tells us he is dying of his wounds, and can hardly +live till to-morrow. A poor wench that Guiscard kept, sent +him a bottle of sack; but the keeper would not let him touch it, +for fear it was poison. He had two quarts of old clotted +blood come out of his side to-day, and is delirious. I am +sorry he is dying; for they had found out a way to hang +him. He certainly had an intention to murder the Queen.</p> +<p>16. I have made but little progress in this letter for +so many days, thanks to Guiscard and Mr. Harley; and it would be +endless to tell you all the particulars of that odious +fact. I do not yet hear that Guiscard is dead, but they say +’tis impossible he should recover. I walked too much +yesterday for a man with a broken shin; to-day I rested, and went +no farther than Mrs. Vanhomrigh’s, where I dined; and Lady +Betty Butler coming in about six, I was forced in good manners to +sit with her till nine; then I came home, and Mr. Ford came in to +visit my shin, and sat with me till eleven: so I have been very +idle and naughty. It vexes me to the pluck <a +name="citation171a"></a><a href="#footnote171a" +class="citation">[171a]</a> that I should lose walking this +delicious day. Have you seen the <i>Spectator</i> <a +name="citation171b"></a><a href="#footnote171b" +class="citation">[171b]</a> yet, a paper that comes out every +day? ’Tis written by Mr. Steele, who seems to have +gathered new life, and have a new fund of wit; it is in the same +nature as his <i>Tatlers</i>, and they have all of them had +something pretty. I believe Addison and he club. I +never see them; and I plainly told Mr. Harley and Mr. St. John, +ten days ago, before my Lord Keeper and Lord Rivers, that I had +been foolish enough to spend my credit with them in favour of +Addison and Steele; but that I would engage and promise never to +say one word in their behalf, having been used so ill for what I +had already done.—So, now I am got into the way of prating +again, there will be no quiet for me.</p> +<p class="poetry">When Presto begins to prate,<br /> +Give him a rap upon the pate.</p> +<p>O Lord, how I blot! it is time to leave off, etc.</p> +<p><a name="page172"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +172</span>17. Guiscard died this morning at two; and the +coroner’s inquest have found that he was killed by bruises +received from a messenger, so to clear the Cabinet Councillors +from whom he received his wounds. I had a letter from +Raymond, who cannot hear of your box; but I hope you have it +before this comes to your hands. I dined to-day with Mr. +Lewis of the Secretary’s office. Mr. Harley has +abundance of extravasated blood comes from his breast out of his +wound, and will not be well so soon as we expected. I had +something to say, but cannot call it to mind. (What was +it?)</p> +<p>18. I was to-day at Court to look for the Duke of +Argyle, and gave him the memorial about Bernage. The Duke +goes with the first fair wind. I could not find him, but I +have given the memorial to another to give him; and, however, it +shall be sent after him. Bernage has made a blunder in +offering money to his colonel without my advice; however, he is +made captain-lieutenant, only he must recruit the company, which +will cost him forty pounds, and that is cheaper than an +hundred. I dined to-day with Mr. Secretary St. John, and +stayed till seven, but would not drink his champagne and +burgundy, for fear of the gout. My shin mends, but is not +well. I hope it will by the time I send this letter, next +Saturday.</p> +<p>19. I went to-day into the City, but in a coach, and +sossed <a name="citation172a"></a><a href="#footnote172a" +class="citation">[172a]</a> up my leg on the seat; and as I came +home, I went to see poor Charles Barnard’s <a +name="citation172b"></a><a href="#footnote172b" +class="citation">[172b]</a> books, which are to be sold by +auction, and I itch to lay out nine or ten pounds for some fine +editions of fine authors. But ’tis too far, and I +shall let it slip, as I usually do all such opportunities. +I dined in a coffee-house with Stratford upon chops and some of +his wine. Where did MD dine? Why, poor MD dined at +home to-day, because of the Archbishop, and they could not go +abroad, and had a breast of mutton and a pint of wine. I +hope Mrs. Walls mends; and pray give me an account what sort of +godfather I made, and whether I behaved myself handsomely. +<a name="page173"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 173</span>The Duke +of Argyle is gone; and whether he has my memorial, I know not, +till I see Dr. Arbuthnot, <a name="citation173a"></a><a +href="#footnote173a" class="citation">[173a]</a> to whom I gave +it. That hard name belongs to a Scotch doctor, an +acquaintance of the Duke’s and me; Stella can’t +pronounce it. Oh that we were at Laracor this fine day! the +willows begin to peep, and the quicks to bud. My dream is +out: I was a-dreamed last night that I ate ripe +cherries.—And now they begin to catch the pikes, and will +shortly the trouts (pox on these Ministers!)—and I would +fain know whether the floods were ever so high as to get over the +holly bank or the river walk; if so, then all my pikes are gone; +but I hope not. Why don’t you ask Parvisol these +things, sirrahs? And then my canal, and trouts, and whether +the bottom be fine and clear? But harkee, ought not +Parvisol to pay in my last year’s rents and arrears out of +his hands? I am thinking, if either of you have heads to +take his accounts, it should be paid in to you; otherwise to Mr. +Walls. I will write an order on t’other side; and do +as you will. Here’s a world of business; but I must +go sleep, I’m drowsy; and so good-night, etc.</p> +<p>20. This sore shin ruins me in coach-hire; no less than +two shillings to-day going and coming from the City, where I +dined with one you never heard of, and passed an insipid +day. I writ this post to Bernage, with the account I told +you above. I hope he will like it; ’tis his own +fault, or it would have been better. I reckon your next +letter will be full of Mr. Harley’s stabbing. He +still mends, but abundance of extravasated blood has come out of +the wound: he keeps his bed, and sees nobody. The +Speaker’s eldest son <a name="citation173b"></a><a +href="#footnote173b" class="citation">[173b]</a> is just dead of +the smallpox, and the House is adjourned a week, to <a +name="page174"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 174</span>give him +time to wipe off his tears. I think it very handsomely +done; but I believe one reason is, that they want Mr. Harley so +much. Biddy Floyd is like to do well: and so go to your +Dean’s, and roast his oranges, and lose your money, do so, +you saucy sluts. Stella, you lost three shillings and +fourpence t’other night at Stoyte’s, yes, you did, +and Presto stood in a corner, and saw you all the while, and then +stole away. I dream very often I am in Ireland, and that I +have left my clothes and things behind me, and have not taken +leave of anybody; and that the Ministry expect me to-morrow, and +such nonsense.</p> +<p>21. I would not for a guinea have a letter from you till +this goes; and go it shall on Saturday, faith. I dined with +Mrs. Vanhomrigh, to save my shin, and then went on some business +to the Secretary, and he was not at home.</p> +<p>22. Yesterday was a short day’s journal: but what +care I? what cares saucy Presto? Darteneuf <a +name="citation174a"></a><a href="#footnote174a" +class="citation">[174a]</a> invited me to dinner to-day. Do +not you know Darteneuf? That’s the man that knows +everything, and that everybody knows; and that knows where a knot +of rabble are going on a holiday, and when they were there last: +and then I went to the Coffee-house. My shin mends, but is +not quite healed: I ought to keep it up, but I don’t; I +e’en let it go as it comes. Pox take Parvisol and his +watch! If I do not receive the ten-pound bill I am to get +towards it, I will neither receive watch nor chain; so let +Parvisol know.</p> +<p>23. I this day appointed the Duke of Ormond to meet him +at Ned Southwell’s, about an affair of printing Irish +Prayer-Books, etc., <a name="citation174b"></a><a +href="#footnote174b" class="citation">[174b]</a> but the Duke +never came. There Southwell had letters that two packets +are taken; so if MD writ then, the letters are gone; for they are +packets coming hither. Mr. Harley is not yet well, but his +extravasated blood continues, and I doubt he will not be quite +well in a good while: I find you have heard of the fact by +Southwell’s letters from Ireland: what do you think of +it? I dined with <a name="page175"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 175</span>Sir John Perceval, <a +name="citation175a"></a><a href="#footnote175a" +class="citation">[175a]</a> and saw his lady sitting in the bed, +in the forms of a lying-in woman; and coming home my sore shin +itched, and I forgot what it was, and rubbed off the scab, and +blood came; but I am now got into bed, and have put on alum curd, +and it is almost well. Lord Rivers told me yesterday a +piece of bad news, as a secret, that the Pretender is going to be +married to the Duke of Savoy’s daughter. <a +name="citation175b"></a><a href="#footnote175b" +class="citation">[175b]</a> ’Tis very bad if it be +true. We were walking in the Mall with some Scotch lords, +and he could not tell it until they were gone, and he bade me +tell it to none but the Secretary of State and MD. This +goes to-morrow, and I have no room but to bid my dearest little +MD good-night.</p> +<p>24. I will now seal up this letter, and send it; for I +reckon to have none from you (’tis morning now) between +this and night; and I will put it in the post with my own +hands. I am going out in great haste; so farewell, etc.</p> +<h3>LETTER XIX.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>March</i> 24, 1710–11.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was a little cross in Presto not +to send to-day to the Coffee-house to see whether there was a +letter from MD before I sent away mine; but, faith, I did it on +purpose, because I would scorn to answer two letters of yours +successively. This way of journal is the worst in the world +for writing of news, unless one does it the last day; and so I +will observe henceforward, if there be any politics or stuff +worth sending. My shin mends in spite of the scratching +last night. I dined to-day at Ned Southwell’s with +the <a name="page176"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +176</span>Bishop of Ossory <a name="citation176a"></a><a +href="#footnote176a" class="citation">[176a]</a> and a parcel of +Irish gentlemen. Have you yet seen any of the +<i>Spectators</i>? Just three weeks to-day since I had your +last, N. 11. I am afraid I have lost one by the packet that +was taken; that will vex me, considering the pains MD take to +write, especially poor pretty Stella, and her weak eyes. +God bless them and the owner, and send them well, and little me +together, I hope ere long. This illness of Mr. Harley puts +everything backwards, and he is still down, and like to be so, by +that extravasated blood which comes from his breast to the wound: +it was by the second blow Guiscard gave him after the penknife +was broken. I am shocked at that villainy whenever I think +of it. Biddy Floyd is past danger, but will lose all her +beauty: she had them mighty thick, especially about her nose.</p> +<p>25. Morning. I wish you a merry New Year; this is +the first day of the year, you know, with us, and ’tis +Lady-day. I must rise and go to my Lord Keeper: it is not +shaving-day to-day, so I shall be early. I am to dine with +Mr. Secretary St. John. Good-morrow, my mistresses both, +good-morrow. Stella will be peeping out of her room at Mrs. +De Caudres’ <a name="citation176b"></a><a +href="#footnote176b" class="citation">[176b]</a> down upon the +folks as they come from church; and there comes Mrs. Proby, <a +name="citation176c"></a><a href="#footnote176c" +class="citation">[176c]</a> and that is my Lady Southwell, <a +name="citation176d"></a><a href="#footnote176d" +class="citation">[176d]</a> and there is Lady Betty Rochfort. <a +name="citation176e"></a><a href="#footnote176e" +class="citation">[176e]</a> I long to hear how you are <a +name="page177"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 177</span>settled in +your new lodgings. I wish I were rid of my old ones, and +that Mrs. Brent could contrive to put up my books in boxes, and +lodge them in some safe place, and you keep my papers of +importance. But I must rise, I tell you.—At +night. So I visited and dined as I told you, and what of +that? We have let Guiscard be buried at last, after showing +him pickled in a trough this fortnight for twopence apiece: and +the fellow that showed would point to his body, and, “See, +gentlemen, this is the wound that was given him by his Grace the +Duke of Ormond; and this is the wound,” etc., and then the +show was over, and another set of rabble came in. +’Tis hard our laws would not suffer us to hang his body in +chains, because he was not tried; and in the eye of our law every +man is innocent till then.—Mr. Harley is still very weak, +and never out of bed.</p> +<p>26. This was a most delicious day; and my shin being +past danger, I walked like lightning above two hours in the +Park. We have generally one fair day, and then a great deal +of rain for three or four days together. All things are at +a stop in Parliament for want of Mr. Harley; they cannot stir an +inch without him in their most material affairs: and we fear, by +the caprice of Radcliffe, who will admit none but his own +surgeon, <a name="citation177"></a><a href="#footnote177" +class="citation">[177]</a> he has not been well looked +after. I dined at an alehouse with Mr. Lewis, but had his +wine. Don’t you begin to see the flowers and blossoms +of the field? How busy should I be now at Laracor! No +news of your box? I hope you have it, and are this minute +drinking the chocolate, and that the smell of the Brazil tobacco +has not affected it. I would be glad to know whether you +like it, because I would send you more by people that are now +every day thinking of going to Ireland; therefore pray tell me, +and tell me soon: and I will have the strong box.</p> +<p>27. A rainy, wretched, scurvy day from morning till +night: <a name="page178"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +178</span>and my neighbour Vanhomrigh invited me to dine with +them and this evening I passed at Mr. Prior’s with Dr. +Freind; and ’tis now past twelve, so I must go sleep.</p> +<p>28. Morning. O, faith, you’re an impudent +saucy couple of sluttikins for presuming to write so soon, said I +to myself this morning; who knows but there may be a letter from +MD at the Coffee-house? Well, you must know, and so, I just +now sent Patrick, and he brought me three letters, but not one +from MD, no indeed, for I read all the superscriptions; and not +one from MD. One I opened, it was from the Archbishop; <a +name="citation178a"></a><a href="#footnote178a" +class="citation">[178a]</a> t’other I opened, it was from +Staunton; <a name="citation178b"></a><a href="#footnote178b" +class="citation">[178b]</a> the third I took, and looked at the +hand. Whose hand is this? says I; yes, says I, whose hand +is this? Then there was wax between the folds; then I began +to suspect; then I peeped; faith, it was Walls’s hand after +all: then I opened it in a rage, and then it was little +MD’s hand, dear, little, pretty, charming MD’s sweet +hand again. O Lord, an’t here a clutter and a stir, +and a bustle? never saw the like. Faith, I believe yours +lay some days at the post-office, and that it came before my +eighteenth went, but that I did not expect it, and I hardly ever +go there. Well, and so you think I’ll answer this +letter now; no, faith, and so I won’t. I’ll +make you wait, young women; but I’ll inquire immediately +about poor Dingley’s exchequer trangum. <a +name="citation178c"></a><a href="#footnote178c" +class="citation">[178c]</a> What, is that Vedel again a +soldier? was he broke? I’ll put it in Ben +Tooke’s hand. I hope Vedel could not sell +it.—At night. Vedel, Vedel, poh, pox, I think it is +Vedeau; <a name="citation178d"></a><a href="#footnote178d" +class="citation">[178d]</a> ay, Vedeau, now I have it; let me +see, do you name him in yours? Yes, Mr. John Vedeau is the +brother; but where does this brother live? I’ll +inquire. This was a fast-day for the public; so I dined +late with Sir Matthew Dudley, whom I have not been with a <a +name="page179"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 179</span>great +while. He is one of those that must lose his employment +whenever the great shake comes; and I can’t contribute to +keep him in, though I have dropped words in his favour to the +Ministry; but he is too violent a Whig, and friend to the Lord +Treasurer, <a name="citation179a"></a><a href="#footnote179a" +class="citation">[179a]</a> to stay in. ’Tis odd to +think how long they let those people keep their places; but the +reason is, they have not enough to satisfy all expecters, and so +they keep them all in hopes, that they may be good boys in the +meantime; and thus the old ones hold in still. The +Comptroller <a name="citation179b"></a><a href="#footnote179b" +class="citation">[179b]</a> told me that there are eight people +expect his staff. I walked after dinner to-day round the +Park. What, do I write politics to little young +women? Hold your tongue, and go to your Dean’s.</p> +<p>29. Morning. If this be a fine day, I will walk +into the City, and see Charles Barnard’s library. +What care I for your letter, saucy N. 12? I will say +nothing to it yet: faith, I believe this will be full before its +time, and then go it must. I will always write once a +fortnight; and if it goes sooner by filling sooner, why, then +there is so much clear gain. Morrow, morrow, rogues and +lasses both, I can’t lie scribbling here in bed for your +play; I must rise, and so morrow again.—At night. +Your friend Montgomery and his sister are here, as I am told by +Patrick. I have seen him often, but take no notice of him: +he is grown very ugly and pimpled. They tell me he is a +gamester, and wins money.—How could I help it, pray? +Patrick snuffed the candle too short, and the grease ran down +upon the paper. <a name="citation179c"></a><a +href="#footnote179c" class="citation">[179c]</a> It +an’t my fault, ’tis Patrick’s fault; pray now +don’t blame Presto. I walked to-day in the City, and +dined at a private house, and went to see the auction of poor +Charles Barnard’s books; they were in the middle of the +physic books, so I bought none; and they are so dear, I believe I +shall buy none, and there is an end; and go to Stoyte’s, +and I’ll go sleep.</p> +<p><a name="page180"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +180</span>30. Morning. This is Good Friday, you must +know; and I must rise and go to Mr. Secretary about some +business, and Mrs. Vanhomrigh desires me to breakfast with her, +because she is to intercede for Patrick, who is so often drunk +and quarrelsome in the house, that I was resolved to send him +over; but he knows all the places where I send, and is so used to +my ways, that it would be inconvenient to me; but when I come to +Ireland, I will discharge him. <a name="citation180a"></a><a +href="#footnote180a" class="citation">[180a]</a> Sir Thomas +Mansel, <a name="citation180b"></a><a href="#footnote180b" +class="citation">[180b]</a> one of the Lords of the Treasury, +setting me down at my door to-day, saw Patrick, and swore he was +a Teague-lander. <a name="citation180c"></a><a +href="#footnote180c" class="citation">[180c]</a> I am so +used to his face, I never observed it, but thought him a pretty +fellow. Sir Andrew Fountaine and I supped this fast-day +with Mrs. Vanhomrigh. We were afraid Mr. Harley’s +wound would turn to a fistula; but we think the danger is now +past. He rises every day, and walks about his room, and we +hope he will be out in a fortnight. Prior showed me a +handsome paper of verses he has writ on Mr. Harley’s +accident: <a name="citation180d"></a><a href="#footnote180d" +class="citation">[180d]</a> they are not out; I will send them to +you, if he will give me a copy.</p> +<p>31. Morning. What shall we do to make April fools +this year, now it happens on Sunday? Patrick brings word +that Mr. Harley still mends, and is up every day. I design +to see him in a few days: and he brings me word too that he has +found out Vedeau’s brother’s shop: I shall call there +in a day or two. It seems the wife lodges next door to the +brother. I doubt the scoundrel was broke, and got a +commission, or perhaps is a volunteer gentleman, and expects to +get one by his valour. Morrow, sirrahs, let me +rise.—At night. I dined to-day with Sir Thomas +Mansel. We were walking in the Park, and Mr. Lewis came to +us. Mansel asked where we dined. We said, +“Together.” He said, we should dine <a +name="page181"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 181</span>with him, +only his wife <a name="citation181a"></a><a href="#footnote181a" +class="citation">[181a]</a> desired him to bring nobody, because +she had only a leg of mutton. I said I would dine with him +to choose; but he would send a servant to order a plate or two: +yet this man has ten thousand pounds a year in land, and is a +Lord of the Treasury, and is not covetous neither, but runs out +merely by slattering <a name="citation181b"></a><a +href="#footnote181b" class="citation">[181b]</a> and +negligence. The worst dinner I ever saw at the Dean’s +was better: but so it is with abundance of people here. I +called at night at Mr. Harley’s, who begins to walk in his +room with a stick, but is mighty weak.—See how much I have +lost with that ugly grease. <a name="citation181c"></a><a +href="#footnote181c" class="citation">[181c]</a> ’Tis +your fault, pray; and I’ll go to bed.</p> +<p>April 1. The Duke of Buckingham’s house fell down +last night with an earthquake, and is half swallowed up; +won’t you go and see it?—An April fool, an April +fool, oh ho, young women. Well, don’t be angry. +I will make you an April fool no more till the next time; we had +no sport here, because it is Sunday, and Easter Sunday. I +dined with the Secretary, who seemed terribly down and +melancholy, which Mr. Prior and Lewis observed as well as I: +perhaps something is gone wrong; perhaps there is nothing in +it. God bless my own dearest MD, and all is well.</p> +<p>2. We have such windy weather, ’tis troublesome +walking, yet all the rabble have got into our Park these Easter +holidays. I am plagued with one Richardson, an Irish +parson, and his project of printing Irish Bibles, etc., to make +you Christians in that country: I befriend him what I can, on +account of the Archbishop and Bishop of Clogher.—But what +business have I to meddle, etc. Do not you remember that, +sirrah Stella? what was that about, when you thought I was +meddling with something that was not my business? O, faith, +you are an impudent slut, I remember your doings, I’ll +never forget you as long as I live. Lewis and I dined +together at his lodgings. But where’s the answer to +this <a name="page182"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +182</span>letter of MD’s? O, faith, Presto, you must +think of that. Time enough, says saucy Presto.</p> +<p>3. I was this morning to see Mrs. Barton: I love her +better than anybody here, and see her seldomer. Why, really +now, so it often happens in the world, that where one loves a +body best—pshah, pshah, you are so silly with your moral +observations. Well, but she told me a very good +story. An old gentlewoman died here two months ago, and +left in her will, to have eight men and eight maids bearers, who +should have two guineas apiece, ten guineas to the parson for a +sermon, and two guineas to the clerk. But bearers, parson, +and clerk must be all true virgins; and not to be admitted till +they took their oaths of virginity: so the poor woman still lies +unburied, and so must do till the general resurrection.—I +called at Mr. Secretary’s, to see what the D— ailed +him on Sunday. I made him a very proper speech; told him I +observed he was much out of temper; that I did not expect he +would tell me the cause, but would be glad to see he was in +better; and one thing I warned him of, never to appear cold to +me, for I would not be treated like a schoolboy; that I had felt +too much of that in my life already (meaning from Sir William +Temple); that I expected every great Minister who honoured me +with his acquaintance, if he heard or saw anything to my +disadvantage, would let me know it in plain words, and not put me +in pain to guess by the change or coldness of his countenance or +behaviour; for it was what I would hardly bear from a crowned +head, and I thought no subject’s favour was worth it; and +that I designed to let my Lord Keeper <a +name="citation182a"></a><a href="#footnote182a" +class="citation">[182a]</a> and Mr. Harley know the same thing, +that they might use me accordingly. He took all right; said +I had reason; vowed nothing ailed him but sitting up whole nights +at business, and one night at drinking; would have had me dine +with him and Mrs. Masham’s brother, to make up matters; but +I would not. I don’t know, but I would not. But +indeed I was engaged with my old friend Rollinson; <a +name="citation182b"></a><a href="#footnote182b" +class="citation">[182b]</a> you never heard of him before.</p> +<p><a name="page183"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +183</span>4. I sometimes look a line or two back, and see +plaguy mistakes of the pen; how do you get over them? You +are puzzled sometimes. Why, I think what I said to Mr. +Secretary was right. Don’t you remember how I used to +be in pain when Sir William Temple would look cold and out of +humour for three or four days, and I used to suspect a hundred +reasons? I have plucked up my spirit since then, faith; he +spoilt a fine gentleman. I dined with my neighbour +Vanhomrigh, and MD, poor MD, at home on a loin of mutton and half +a pint of wine, and the mutton was raw, poor Stella could not +eat, poor dear rogue, and Dingley was so vexed; but we will dine +at Stoyte’s to-morrow. Mr. Harley promised to see me +in a day or two, so I called this evening; but his son and others +were abroad, and he asleep, so I came away, and found out Mrs. +Vedeau. She drew out a letter from Dingley, and said she +would get a friend to receive the money. I told her I would +employ Mr. Tooke in it henceforward. Her husband bought a +lieutenancy of foot, and is gone to Portugal. He sold his +share of the shop to his brother, and put out the money to +maintain her, all but what bought the commission. She +lodges within two doors of her brother. She told me it made +her very melancholy to change her manner of life thus, but trade +was dead, etc. She says she will write to you soon. I +design to engage Ben Tooke, and then receive the parchment from +her.—I gave Mr. Dopping a copy of Prior’s verses on +Mr. Harley; he sent them yesterday to Ireland, so go look for +them, for I won’t be at the trouble to transcribe them +here. They will be printed in a day or two. Give my +hearty service to Stoyte and Catherine: upon my word I love them +dearly, and desire you will tell them so: pray desire Goody +Stoyte not to let Mrs. Walls and Mrs. Johnson cheat her of her +money at ombre, but assure her from me that she is a +bungler. Dine with her to-day, and tell her so, and drink +my health, and good voyage, and speedy return, and so +you’re a rogue.</p> +<p><a name="page184"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +184</span>5. Morning. Now let us proceed to examine a +saucy letter from one Madam MD.—God Almighty bless poor +dear Stella, and send her a great many birthdays, all happy, and +healthy, and wealthy, and with me ever together, and never +asunder again, unless by chance. When I find you are happy +or merry there, it makes me so here, and I can hardly imagine you +absent when I am reading your letter, or writing to you. +No, faith, you are just here upon this little paper, and +therefore I see and talk with you every evening constantly, and +sometimes in the morning, but not always in the morning, because +that is not so modest to young ladies.—What, you would fain +palm a letter on me more than you sent: and I, like a fool, must +look over all yours, to see whether this was really N. 12, or +more. [Patrick has this moment brought me letters from the +Bishop of Clogher and Parvisol; my heart was at my mouth for fear +of one from MD; what a disgrace would it be to have two of yours +to answer together! But, faith, this shall go to-night, for +fear; and then come when it will, I defy it.] No, you are +not naughty at all, write when you are disposed. And so the +Dean told you the story of Mr. Harley from the Archbishop; I +warrant it never spoiled your supper, or broke off your +game. Nor yet, have not you the box? I wish Mrs. +Edgworth had the —. But you have it now, I suppose; +and is the chocolate good, or has the tobacco spoilt it? +Leigh stays till Sterne has done his business, no longer; and +when that will be, God knows: I befriend him as much as I can, +but Harley’s accident stops that as well as all things +else. You guess, Madam Dingley, that I shall stay a round +twelvemonth; as hope saved, I would come over, if I could, this +minute; but we will talk of that by and by. Your affair of Vedeau +I have told you of already; now to the next, turn over the +leaf. Mrs. Dobbins lies, I have no more provision here or +in Ireland than I had. I am pleased that Stella the +conjurer approves what I did with Mr. Harley; <a +name="citation184"></a><a href="#footnote184" +class="citation">[184]</a> but your generosity makes me mad; I +know you repine inwardly at Presto’s absence; you think he +has broken his <a name="page185"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +185</span>word of coming in three months, and that this is always +his trick; and now Stella says she does not see possibly how I +can come away in haste, and that MD is satisfied, etc. +An’t you a rogue to overpower me thus? I did not +expect to find such friends as I have done. They may indeed +deceive me too. But there are important reasons [Pox on +this grease, this candle tallow!] why they should not. <a +name="citation185a"></a><a href="#footnote185a" +class="citation">[185a]</a> I have been used barbarously by +the late Ministry; I am a little piqued in honour to let people +see I am not to be despised. The assurances they give me, +without any scruple or provocation, are such as are usually +believed in the world; they may come to nothing, but the first +opportunity that offers, and is neglected, I shall depend no +more, but come away. I could say a thousand things on this +head, if I were with you. I am thinking why Stella should +not go to the Bath, if she be told it will do her good. I +will make Parvisol get up fifty pounds, and pay it you; and you +may be good housewives, and live cheap there some months, and +return in autumn, or visit London, as you please: pray think of +it. I writ to Bernage, directed to Curry’s; I wish he +had the letter. I will send the bohea tea, if I can. +The Bishop of Kilmore, <a name="citation185b"></a><a +href="#footnote185b" class="citation">[185b]</a> I don’t +keep such company; an old dying fool whom I never was with in my +life. So I am no godfather; <a name="citation185c"></a><a +href="#footnote185c" class="citation">[185c]</a> all the +better. Pray, Stella, explain those two words of yours to +me, what you mean by <i>villian</i> and <i>dainger</i>; <a +name="citation185d"></a><a href="#footnote185d" +class="citation">[185d]</a> and you, Madam Dingley, what is +<i>christianing</i>?—Lay your letter <i>this way</i>, +<i>this way</i>, and the devil a bit of difference between this +way and the other way. No; I will show you, lay them +<i>this way</i>, <i>this way</i>, and not <i>that way</i>, +<i>that way</i>. <a name="citation185e"></a><a +href="#footnote185e" class="citation">[185e]</a>—You shall +have your aprons; and I will put all your commissions as they +come, in a paper together, and do not think I will forget +MD’s orders, because they are friends; I will be as careful +as if they were <a name="page186"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +186</span>strangers. I knew not what to do about this +Clements. <a name="citation186a"></a><a href="#footnote186a" +class="citation">[186a]</a> Walls will not let me say +anything as if Mr. Pratt was against him; and now the Bishop of +Clogher has written to me in his behalf. This thing does +not rightly fall in my way, and that people never consider: I +always give my good offices where they are proper, and that I am +judge of; however, I will do what I can. But, if he has the +name of a Whig, it will be hard, considering my Lord Anglesea and +Hyde <a name="citation186b"></a><a href="#footnote186b" +class="citation">[186b]</a> are very much otherwise, and you know +they have the employment of Deputy Treasurer. If the frolic +should take you of going to the Bath, I here send you a note on +Parvisol; if not, you may tear it, and there’s an +end. Farewell.</p> +<p>If you have an imagination that the Bath will do you good, I +say again, I would have you go; if not, or it be inconvenient, +burn this note. Or, if you would go, and not take so much +money, take thirty pounds, and I will return you twenty from +hence. Do as you please, sirrahs. I suppose it will +not be too late for the first season; if it be, I would have you +resolve however to go the second season, if the doctors say it +will do you good, and you fancy so.</p> +<h3>LETTER XX.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>April</i> 5, 1711.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">put</span> my nineteenth in the +post-office just now myself, as I came out of the City, where I +dined. This rain ruins me in coach-hire; I walked away +sixpennyworth, and came within a shilling length, and then took a +coach, <a name="citation186c"></a><a href="#footnote186c" +class="citation">[186c]</a> and got a lift back for nothing; and +am now busy.</p> +<p>6. Mr. Secretary desired I would see him this morning; +said he had several things to say to me, and said not one; and +the Duke of Ormond sent to desire I would meet him at <a +name="page187"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 187</span>Mr. +Southwell’s by ten this morning too, which I did, thinking +it was some particular matter. All the Irish in town were +there, to consult upon preventing a Bill for laying a duty on +Irish yarn; so we talked a while, and then all went to the lobby +of the House of Commons, to solicit our friends, and the Duke +came among the rest; and Lord Anglesea solicited admirably, and I +did wonders. But, after all, the matter was put off till +Monday, and then we are to be at it again. I dined with +Lord Mountjoy, and looked over him at chess, which put me in mind +of Stella and Griffyth. <a name="citation187"></a><a +href="#footnote187" class="citation">[187]</a> I came home, +and that dog Patrick was not within; so I fretted, and fretted, +and what good did that do me?</p> +<p class="poetry">And so get you gone to your deans,<br /> +You couple of queans.</p> +<p>I cannot find rhyme to Walls and Stoyte.—Yes, yes,</p> +<p class="poetry">You expect Mrs. Walls,<br /> +Be dressed when she calls,<br /> +To carry you to Stoyte,<br /> +Or else <i>honi soit</i>.</p> +<p>Henley told me that the Tories were insup-port-able people, +because they are for bringing in French claret, and will not +<i>sup-port</i>. Mr. Harley will hardly get abroad this +week or ten days yet. I reckon, when I send away this +letter, he will be just got into the House of Commons. My +last letter went in twelve days, and so perhaps may this. +No it won’t, for those letters that go under a fortnight +are answers to one of yours, otherwise you must take the days as +they happen, some dry, some wet, some barren, some fruitful, some +merry, some insipid; some, etc.—I will write you word +exactly the first day I see young gooseberries, and pray observe +how much later you are. We have not had five fine days this +five weeks, but rain or wind. ’Tis a late spring they +say here.—Go to bed, you two dear saucy brats, and +don’t keep me up all night.</p> +<p>7. Ford has been at Epsom, to avoid Good Friday and <a +name="page188"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 188</span>Easter +Sunday. He forced me to-day to dine with him; and tells me +there are letters from Ireland, giving an account of a great +indiscretion in the Archbishop of Dublin, who applied a story out +of Tacitus very reflectingly on Mr. Harley, and that twenty +people have written of it; I do not believe it yet. <a +name="citation188a"></a><a href="#footnote188a" +class="citation">[188a]</a> I called this evening to see +Mr. Secretary, who has been very ill with the gravel and pain in +his back, by burgundy and champagne, added to the sitting up all +night at business; I found him drinking tea while the rest were +at champagne, and was very glad of it. I have chid him so +severely that I hardly knew whether he would take it well: then I +went and sat an hour with Mrs. St. John, who is growing a great +favourite of mine; she goes to the Bath on Wednesday, for she is +much out of health, and has begged me to take care of the +Secretary.</p> +<p>8. I dined to-day with Mr. Secretary St. John; he gave +me a letter to read, which was from the publisher of the +newspaper called the <i>Postboy</i>; <a +name="citation188b"></a><a href="#footnote188b" +class="citation">[188b]</a> in it there was a long copy of a +letter from Dublin, giving an account of what the Whigs said upon +Mr. Harley’s being stabbed, and how much they abuse him and +Mr. Secretary St. John; and at the end there were half a dozen +lines, telling the story of the Archbishop of Dublin, and abusing +him horribly; this was to be printed on Tuesday. I told the +Secretary I would not suffer that about the Archbishop to be +printed, and so I crossed it out; and afterwards, to prevent all +danger, I made him give me the letter, and, upon further thought, +would let none of it be published: and I sent for the printer, +and told him so, and ordered him, in the Secretary’s name, +to print <a name="page189"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +189</span>nothing reflecting on anybody in Ireland till he had +showed it me. Thus I have prevented a terrible scandal to +the Archbishop, by a piece of perfect good fortune. I will +let him know it by next post; and pray, if you pick it out, let +me know, and whether he is thankful for it; but say nothing.</p> +<p>9. I was to-day at the House of Commons again about +their yarn, at Lord Anglesea’s desire; but the business is +again put off till Monday. I dined with Sir John Stanley, +by an assignation I had made with Mr. St. John, and George +Granville, the Secretary at War; but they let in other company, +some ladies, and so we were not so easy as I intended. My +head is pretty tolerable, but every day I feel some little +disorders; I have left off snuff since Sunday, finding myself +much worse after taking a good deal at the +Secretary’s. I would not let him drink one drop of +champagne or burgundy without water, and in compliment I did so +myself. He is much better; but when he is well, he is like +Stella, and will not be governed. So go to your +Stoyte’s, and I’ll go sleep.</p> +<p>10. I have been visiting Lady Worsley and Mrs. Barton +to-day, and dined soberly with my friend Lewis. The Dauphin +is dead of an apoplexy; I wish he had lived till the finishing of +this letter, that it might be news to you. Duncombe, <a +name="citation189"></a><a href="#footnote189" +class="citation">[189]</a> the rich alderman, died to-day, and I +hear has left the Duke of Argyle, who married his niece, two +hundred thousand pounds; I hope it is true, for I love that Duke +mightily. I writ this evening to the Archbishop of Dublin, +about what I told you; and then went to take leave of poor Mrs. +St. John, who gave me strict charge to take care of the Secretary +in her absence; said she had none to trust but me; and the poor +creature’s tears came fresh in her eyes. Before we +took leave, I was drawn in by the other ladies and Sir John +Stanley to raffle for a fan, with a pox; it was four guineas, and +we put in <a name="page190"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +190</span>seven shillings apiece, several raffling for absent +people; but I lost, and so missed an opportunity of showing my +gallantry to Mrs. St. John, whom I designed to have presented it +to if I had won. Is Dilly <a name="citation190a"></a><a +href="#footnote190a" class="citation">[190a]</a> gone to the +Bath? His face will whizz in the water; I suppose he will +write to us from thence, and will take London in his way +back.—The rabble will say, “There goes a drunken +parson”; and, which is worse, they will say true. Oh, +but you must know I carried Ford to dine with Mr. St. John last +Sunday, that he may brag, when he goes back, of dining with a +Secretary of State. The Secretary and I went away early, +and left him drinking with the rest, and he told me that two or +three of them were drunk. They talk of great promotions to +be made; that Mr. Harley is to be Lord Treasurer, and Lord +Poulett <a name="citation190b"></a><a href="#footnote190b" +class="citation">[190b]</a> Master of the Horse, etc., but they +are only conjecture. The Speaker is to make Mr. Harley a +compliment the first time he comes into the House, which I hope +will be in a week. He has had an ill surgeon, by the +caprice of that puppy Dr. Radcliffe, which has kept him back so +long; and yesterday he got a cold, but is better +to-day.—What! I think I am stark mad, to write so much in +one day to little saucy MD; here is a deal of stuff, indeed! +can’t you bid those little dear rogues good-night, and let +them go sleep, Mr. Presto? When your tongue runs +there’s no ho with you, pray.</p> +<p>11. Again at the lobby (like a lobcock) <a +name="citation190c"></a><a href="#footnote190c" +class="citation">[190c]</a> of the House of Commons, about your +Irish yarn, and again put off till Friday; and I and Patrick went +into the City by water, where I dined, and then I went to the +auction of Charles Barnard’s books; but the good ones were +so monstrous dear, I could not reach them, so I laid out one +pound seven shillings but very indifferently, and came away, and +will go there no more. Henley would fain engage me to go +with Steele and Rowe, <a name="page191"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 191</span>etc., to an invitation at Sir +William Read’s. <a name="citation191a"></a><a +href="#footnote191a" class="citation">[191a]</a> Surely you +have heard of him. He has been a mountebank, and is the +Queen’s oculist; he makes admirable punch, and treats you +in gold vessels. But I am engaged, and will not go, neither +indeed am I fond of the jaunt. So good-night, and go +sleep.</p> +<p>12. I went about noon to the Secretary, who is very ill +with a cold, and sometimes of the gravel, with his champagne, +etc. I scolded him like a dog, and he promises faithfully +more care for the future. To-day my Lord Anglesea, and Sir +Thomas Hammer, and Prior, and I dined, by appointment, with +Lieutenant-General Webb. <a name="citation191b"></a><a +href="#footnote191b" class="citation">[191b]</a> My lord +and I stayed till ten o’clock; but we drank soberly, and I +always with water. There was with us one Mr. Campain, <a +name="citation191c"></a><a href="#footnote191c" +class="citation">[191c]</a> one of the October Club, if you know +what that is; a Club of country members, who think the Ministers +are too backward in punishing and turning out the Whigs. I +found my lord and the rest thought I had more credit with the +Ministry than I pretend to have, and would have engaged me to put +them upon something that would satisfy their desires, and indeed +I think they have some reason to complain; however, I will not +burn my fingers. I will remember Stella’s chiding, +“What had you to do with what did not belong to you?” +etc. However, you will give me leave to tell the Ministry +my thoughts when they ask them, and other people’s thoughts +sometimes when they do not ask; so thinks Dingley.</p> +<p>13. I called this morning at Mrs. Vedeau’s again, +who has employed a friend to get the money; it will be done in a +<a name="page192"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +192</span>fortnight, and then she will deliver me up the +parchment. I went then to see Mr. Harley, who I hope will +be out in a few days; he was in excellent good humour, only +complained to me of the neglect of Guiscard’s cure, how +glad he would have been to have had him live. Mr. Secretary +came in to us, and we were very merry till Lord Chamberlain (Duke +of Shrewsbury) <a name="citation192a"></a><a href="#footnote192a" +class="citation">[192a]</a> came up; then Colonel Masham and I +went off, after I had been presented to the Duke, and that we +made two or three silly compliments suitable to the +occasion. Then I attended at the House of Commons about +your yarn, and it is again put off. Then Ford drew me to +dine at a tavern; it happened to be the day and the house where +the October Club dine. After we had dined, coming down we +called to inquire whether our yarn business had been over that +day, and I sent into the room for Sir George Beaumont. <a +name="citation192b"></a><a href="#footnote192b" +class="citation">[192b]</a> But I had like to be drawn into +a difficulty; for in two minutes out comes Mr. Finch, <a +name="citation192c"></a><a href="#footnote192c" +class="citation">[192c]</a> Lord Guernsey’s son, to let me +know that my Lord Compton, <a name="citation192d"></a><a +href="#footnote192d" class="citation">[192d]</a> the steward of +this feast, desired, in the name of the Club, that I would do +them the honour to dine with them. I sent my excuses, +adorned with about thirty compliments, and got off as fast as I +could. It would have been a most improper thing for me to +dine there, considering my friendship with the Ministry. +The Club is about a hundred and fifty, and near eighty of them +were then going to dinner at two long tables in a great +ground-room. At evening I went to the auction of +Barnard’s books, and laid out three pounds three shillings, +but I’ll go there no more; and so I said once before, but +now I’ll keep to it. I forgot to tell that when I +dined at Webb’s with Lord Anglesea, I spoke to him of +Clements, as one recommended for a very honest <a +name="page193"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 193</span>gentleman +and good officer, and hoped he would keep him. He said he +had not thought otherwise, and that he should certainly hold his +place while he continued to deserve it; and I could not find +there had been any intentions from his lordship against +him. But I tell you, hunny, the impropriety of this. +A great man will do a favour for me, or for my friend; but why +should he do it for my friend’s friend? +Recommendations should stop before they come to that. Let +any friend of mine recommend one of his to me for a thing in my +power, I will do it for his sake; but to speak to another for my +friend’s friend is against all reason; and I desire you +will understand this, and discourage any such troubles given +me.—I hope this may do some good to Clements, it can do him +no hurt; and I find by Mrs. Pratt, <a name="citation193"></a><a +href="#footnote193" class="citation">[193]</a> that her husband +is his friend; and the Bishop of Clogher says Clements’s +danger is not from Pratt, but from some other enemies, that think +him a Whig.</p> +<p>14. I was so busy this morning that I did not go out +till late. I writ to-day to the Duke of Argyle, but said +nothing of Bernage, who, I believe, will not see him till Spain +is conquered, and that is, not at all. I was to-day at Lord +Shelburne’s, and spoke to Mrs. Pratt again about Clements; +her husband himself wants some good offices, and I have done him +very good ones lately, and told Mrs. Pratt I expected her husband +should stand by Clements in return. Sir Andrew Fountaine +and I dined with neighbour Vanhomrigh; he is mighty ill of an +asthma, and apprehends himself in much danger; ’tis his own +fault, that will rake and drink, when he is but just crawled out +of his grave. I will send this letter just now, because I +think my half-year is out for my lodging; and, if you please, I +would be glad it were paid off, and some deal boxes made for my +books, and kept in some safe place. I would give something +for their keeping: but I doubt that lodging will not serve me +when I come back; I would have a larger place for books, and a +stable, if possible. So pray be so kind to pay the lodging, +and all accounts about it; and <a name="page194"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 194</span>get Mrs. Brent to put up my +things. I would have no books put in that trunk where my +papers are. If you do not think of going to the Bath, I +here send you a bill on Parvisol for twenty pounds Irish, out of +which you will pay for the lodging, and score the rest to +me. Do as you please, and love poor Presto, that loves MD +better than his life a thousand millions of times. +Farewell, MD, etc. etc.</p> +<h3>LETTER XXI.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>April</i> 14, 1711.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Remember</span>, sirrahs, that there are +but nine days between the dates of my two former letters. I +sent away my twentieth this moment, and now am writing on like a +fish, as if nothing was done. But there was a cause for my +hasting away the last, for fear it should not come time enough +before a new quarter began. I told you where I dined +to-day; but forgot to tell you what I believe, that Mr. Harley +will be Lord Treasurer in a short time, and other great removes +and promotions made. This is my thought, etc.</p> +<p>15. I was this morning with Mr. Secretary, and he is +grown pretty well. I dined with him to-day, and drank some +of that wine which the Duke of Tuscany used to send to Sir +William Temple: <a name="citation194"></a><a href="#footnote194" +class="citation">[194]</a> he always sends some to the chief +Ministers. I liked it mightily, but he does not; and he +ordered his butler to send me a chest of it to-morrow. +Would to God MD had it! The Queen is well again, and was at +chapel to-day, etc.</p> +<p>16. I went with Ford into the City to-day, and dined +with Stratford, and drank Tokay, and then we went to the auction; +but I did not lay out above twelve shillings. My head is a +little out of order to-night, though no formal fit. My Lord +Keeper has sent to invite me to dinner to-morrow, and +you’ll dine better with the Dean; and God bless you. +I forgot to <a name="page195"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +195</span>tell you that yesterday was sent me a <i>Narrative</i> +printed, with all the circumstances of Mr. Harley’s +stabbing. I had not time to do it myself; so I sent my +hints to the author of the <i>Atalantis</i>, <a +name="citation195a"></a><a href="#footnote195a" +class="citation">[195a]</a> and she has cooked it into a sixpenny +pamphlet, in her own style, only the first page is left as I was +beginning it. But I was afraid of disobliging Mr. Harley or +Mr. St. John in one critical point about it, and so would not do +it myself. It is worth your reading, for the circumstances +are all true. My chest of Florence was sent me this +morning, and cost me seven and sixpence to two servants. I +would give two guineas you had it, etc.</p> +<p>17. I was so out of order with my head this morning, +that I was going to send my excuses to my Lord Keeper; but +however I got up at eleven, and walked there after two, and +stayed till eight. There was Sir Thomas Mansel, Prior, +George Granville, and Mr. Cæsar, <a +name="citation195b"></a><a href="#footnote195b" +class="citation">[195b]</a> and we were very merry. My head +is still wrong, but I have had no formal fit, only I totter a +little. I have left off snuff altogether. I have a +noble roll of tobacco for grating, very good. Shall I send +it to MD, if she likes that sort? My Lord Keeper and our +this day’s company are to dine on Saturday with George +Granville, and to-morrow I dine with Lord Anglesea.</p> +<p>18. Did you ever see such a blundering goosecap as +Presto? I saw the number 21 at top, and so I went on as if +it were the day of the month, whereas this is but Wednesday the +18th. How shall I do to blot and alter them? I have +made a shift to do it behind, but it is a great botch. I +dined with Lord Anglesea to-day, but did not go to the House of +Commons about the yarn; my head was not well enough. I know +not what is the matter; it has never been thus before: two days +together giddy from morning till night, but not with any violence +or pain; and I totter a little, but can make shift to walk. +I doubt I must fall to my pills again: I think of going into the +country a little way. I tell you what you <a +name="page196"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 196</span>must do +henceforward: you must enclose your letter in a fair half-sheet +of paper, and direct the outside “To Erasmus Lewis, +Esquire, at my Lord Dartmouth’s office at Whitehall”: +for I never go to the Coffee-house, and they will grudge to take +in my letters. I forgot to tell you that your mother was to +see me this morning, and brought me a flask of sweet-water for a +present, admirable for my head; but I shall not smell to +it. She is going to Sheen, with Lady Giffard: she would +fain send your papers over to you, or give them to me. Say +what you would have done, and it shall be done; because I love +Stella, and she is a good daughter, they say, and so is +Dingley.</p> +<p>19. This morning General Webb was to give me a visit: he +goes with a crutch and stick, yet was forced to come up two pair +of stairs. I promised to dine with him, but afterwards sent +my excuses, and dined privately in my friend Lewis’s +lodgings at Whitehall, with whom I had much business to talk of, +relating to the public and myself. Little Harrison the +Tatler goes to-morrow to the secretaryship I got him at the +Hague, and Mr. St. John has made him a present of fifty guineas +to bear his charges. An’t I a good friend? Why +are not you a young fellow, that I might prefer you? I had +a letter from Bernage from Kinsale: he tells me his commission +for captain-lieutenant was ready for him at his arrival: so there +are two jackanapeses I have done with. My head is something +better this evening, though not well.</p> +<p>20. I was this morning with Mr. Secretary, whose packets +were just come in, and among them a letter from Lord Peterborow +to me: he writes so well, I have no mind to answer him, and so +kind, that I must answer him. The Emperor’s <a +name="citation196"></a><a href="#footnote196" +class="citation">[196]</a> death must, I think, cause great +alterations in Europe, and, I believe, will hasten a peace. +We reckon our King Charles will be chosen Emperor, and the Duke +of Savoy set up for Spain; but I believe he will make nothing of +it. <a name="page197"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +197</span>Dr. Freind and I dined in the City at a +printer’s, and it has cost me two shillings in coach-hire, +and a great deal more this week and month, which has been almost +all rain, with now and then sunshine, and is the truest April +that I have known these many years. The lime-trees in the +Park are all out in leaves, though not large leaves yet. +Wise people are going into the country; but many think the +Parliament can hardly be up these six weeks. Mr. Harley was +with the Queen on Tuesday. I believe certainly he will be +Lord Treasurer: I have not seen him this week.</p> +<p>21. Morning. Lord Keeper, and I, and Prior, and +Sir Thomas Mansel, have appointed to dine this day with George +Granville. My head, I thank God, is better; but to be +giddyish three or four days together mortified me. I take +no snuff, and I will be very regular in eating little and the +gentlest meats. How does poor Stella just now, with her +deans and her Stoytes? Do they give you health for the +money you lose at ombre, sirrah? What say you to +that? Poor Dingley frets to see Stella lose that four and +elevenpence, the other night. Let us rise. Morrow, +sirrahs. I will rise, spite of your little teeth; +good-morrow.—At night. O, faith, you are little dear +saucyboxes. I was just going in the morning to tell you +that I began to want a letter from MD, and in four minutes after +Mr. Ford sends me one that he had picked up at St. James’s +Coffee-house; for I go to no coffee-house at all. And, +faith, I was glad at heart to see it, and to see Stella so +brisk. O Lord, what pretending? Well, but I will not +answer it yet; I’ll keep it for t’other side. +Well, we dined to-day according to appointment: Lord Keeper went +away at near eight, I at eight, and I believe the rest will be +fairly fuddled; for young Harcourt, <a name="citation197"></a><a +href="#footnote197" class="citation">[197]</a> Lord +Keeper’s son, began to prattle before I came away. It +will not do with Prior’s lean carcass. I drink <a +name="page198"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 198</span>little, +miss my glass often, put water in my wine, and go away before the +rest, which I take to be a good receipt for sobriety. Let +us put it into rhyme, and so make a proverb—</p> +<p class="poetry">Drink little at a time;<br /> +Put water with your wine;<br /> +Miss your glass when you can;<br /> +And go off the first man.</p> +<p>God be thanked, I am much better than I was, though something +of a totterer. I ate but little to-day, and of the gentlest +meat. I refused ham and pigeons, pease-soup, stewed beef, +cold salmon, because they were too strong. I take no snuff +at all, but some herb snuff prescribed by Dr. Radcliffe.</p> +<p class="poetry">Go to your deans,<br /> +You couple of queans.</p> +<p>I believe I said that already. What care I? what cares +Presto?</p> +<p>22. Morning. I must rise and go to the +Secretary’s. Mr. Harley has been out of town this +week to refresh himself before he comes into Parliament. +Oh, but I must rise, so there is no more to be said; and so +morrow, sirrahs both.—Night. I dined to-day with the +Secretary, who has engaged me for every Sunday; and I was an hour +with him this morning deep in politics, where I told him the +objections of the October Club, and he answered all except one, +that no inquiries are made into past mismanagement. But +indeed I believe they are not yet able to make any: the late +Ministry were too cunning in their rogueries, and fenced +themselves with an Act of general pardon. I believe Mr. +Harley must be Lord Treasurer; yet he makes one difficulty which +is hard to answer: he must be made a lord, and his estate is not +large enough, and he is too generous to make it larger; and if +the Ministry should change soon by any accident, he will be left +in the suds. Another difficulty is, that if he be made a +peer, they will want him prodigiously in the House of Commons, of +which he is the great mover, and after him <a +name="page199"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 199</span>the +Secretary, and hardly any else of weight. Two shillings +more to-day for coach and chair. I shall be ruined.</p> +<p>23. So you expect an answer to your letter, do you +so? Yes, yes, you shall have an answer, you shall, young +women. I made a good pun on Saturday to my Lord +Keeper. After dinner we had coarse Doiley napkins, <a +name="citation199a"></a><a href="#footnote199a" +class="citation">[199a]</a> fringed at each end, upon the table, +to drink with: my Lord Keeper spread one of them between him and +Mr. Prior; I told him I was glad to see there was such a +fringeship [friendship] between Mr. Prior and his lordship. +Prior swore it was the worst he ever heard: I said I thought so +too; but at the same time I thought it was most like one of +Stella’s that ever I heard. I dined to-day with Lord +Mountjoy, and this evening saw the Venetian Ambassador <a +name="citation199b"></a><a href="#footnote199b" +class="citation">[199b]</a> coming from his first public +audience. His coach was the most monstrous, huge, fine, +rich gilt thing that ever I saw. I loitered this evening, +and came home late.</p> +<p>24. I was this morning to visit the Duchess of Ormond, +<a name="citation199c"></a><a href="#footnote199c" +class="citation">[199c]</a> who has long desired it, or +threatened she would not let me visit her daughters. I sat +an hour with her, and we were good company, when in came the +Countess of Bellamont, <a name="citation199d"></a><a +href="#footnote199d" class="citation">[199d]</a> with a +pox. I went out, and we did not know one another; yet +hearing me named, she asked, “What, is that Dr. +Swift?” said she and I were very well acquainted, and fell +a railing at me without mercy, as a lady told me that was there; +yet I never was but once in the company of that drab of a +Countess. Sir Andrew Fountaine and I dined with my +neighbour Van. I design in two days, if possible, to go +lodge at Chelsea for the air, and put myself under a necessity of +walking to and from London every day. I writ this post to +the Bishop of Clogher a long politic letter, to entertain <a +name="page200"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 200</span>him. +I am to buy statues and harnese <a name="citation200a"></a><a +href="#footnote200a" class="citation">[200a]</a> for them, with a +vengeance. I have packed and sealed up MD’s twelve +letters against I go to Chelsea. I have put the last +commissions of MD in my account-book; but if there be any former +ones, I have forgot them. I have Dingley’s +pocket-book down, and Stella’s green silk apron, and the +pound of tea; pray send me word if you have any other, and down +they shall go. I will not answer your letter yet, saucy +boxes. You are with the Dean just now, Madam Stella, losing +your money. Why do not you name what number you have +received? You say you have received my letters, but do not +tell the number.</p> +<p>25. I was this day dining in the City with very +insignificant, low, and scurvy company. I had a letter from +the Archbishop of Dublin, with a long denial of the report raised +on him, <a name="citation200b"></a><a href="#footnote200b" +class="citation">[200b]</a> which yet has been since assured to +me from those who say they have it from the first hand; but I +cannot believe them. I will show it to the Secretary +to-morrow. I will not answer yours till I get to +Chelsea.</p> +<p>26. Chelsea. I have sent two boxes of lumber to my +friend Darteneuf’s house, and my chest of Florence and +other things to Mrs. Vanhomrigh, where I dined to-day. I +was this morning with the Secretary, and showed him the +Archbishop’s letter, and convinced him of his Grace’s +innocence, and I will do the same to Mr. Harley. I got here +in the stage-coach with Patrick and my portmanteau for sixpence, +and pay six shillings a week for one silly room with confounded +coarse sheets. <a name="citation200c"></a><a href="#footnote200c" +class="citation">[200c]</a> We have had such a horrible +deal of rain, that there is no walking to London, and I must go +as I came until it mends; and besides the whelp has taken my +lodging as far from London as this town <a +name="page201"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 201</span>could +afford, at least half a mile farther than he need; but I must be +content. The best is, I lodge just over against Dr. +Atterbury’s house, and yet perhaps I shall not like the +place the better for that. Well, I will stay till to-morrow +before I answer your letter; and you must suppose me always +writing at Chelsea from henceforward, till I alter, and say +London. This letter goes on Saturday, which will be just a +fortnight; so go and cheat Goody Stoyte, etc.</p> +<p>27. Do you know that I fear my whole chest of Florence +is turned sour, at least the two first flasks were so, and hardly +drinkable. How plaguy unfortunate am I! and the +Secretary’s own is the best I ever tasted; and I must not +tell him, but be as thankful as if it were the best in +Christendom. I went to town in the sixpenny stage to-day; +and hearing Mr. Harley was not at home, I went to see him, +because I knew by the message of his lying porter that he was at +home. He was very well, and just going out, but made me +promise to dine with him; and betwixt that and indeed strolling +about, I lost four pound seven shillings at play—with +a——a—a—bookseller, and got but about half +a dozen books. <a name="citation201a"></a><a href="#footnote201a" +class="citation">[201a]</a> I will buy no more books now, +that’s certain. Well, I dined at Mr. Harley’s, +came away at six, shifted my gown, cassock, and periwig, and +walked hither to Chelsea, as I always design to do when it is +fair. I am heartily sorry to find my friend the Secretary +stand a little ticklish with the rest of the Ministry; there have +been one or two disobliging things that have happened, too long +to tell: and t’other day in Parliament, upon a debate of +about thirty-five millions that have not been duly accounted for, +Mr. Secretary, in his warmth of speech, and zeal for his friend +Mr. Brydges, <a name="citation201b"></a><a href="#footnote201b" +class="citation">[201b]</a> on whom part of the blame was +falling, said he did not know that either Mr. Brydges or the late +Ministry were at all to blame in this matter; which was very +desperately spoken, and giving up the whole cause: for the chief +quarrel against <a name="page202"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +202</span>the late Ministry was the ill management of the +treasure, and was more than all the rest together. I had +heard of this matter: but Mr. Foley <a name="citation202a"></a><a +href="#footnote202a" class="citation">[202a]</a> beginning to +discourse to-day at table, without naming Mr. St. John, I turned +to Mr. Harley, and said if the late Ministry were not to blame in +that article, he (Mr. Harley) ought to lose his head for putting +the Queen upon changing them. He made it a jest; but by +some words dropped, I easily saw that they take things ill of Mr. +St. John; and by some hints given me from another hand that I +deal with, I am afraid the Secretary will not stand long. +This is the fate of Courts. I will, if I meet Mr. St. John +alone on Sunday, tell him my opinion, and beg him to set himself +right, else the consequences may be very bad; for I see not how +they can well want him neither, and he would make a troublesome +enemy. But enough of politics.</p> +<p>28. Morning. I forgot to tell you that Mr. Harley +asked me yesterday how he came to disoblige the Archbishop of +Dublin. Upon which (having not his letter about me) I told +him what the Bishop had written to me on that subject, <a +name="citation202b"></a><a href="#footnote202b" +class="citation">[202b]</a> and desired I might read him the +letter some other time. But after all, from what I have +heard from other hands, I am afraid the Archbishop is a little +guilty. Here is one Brent Spencer, a brother of Mr. +Proby’s, <a name="citation202c"></a><a href="#footnote202c" +class="citation">[202c]</a> who affirms it, and says he has leave +to do so from Charles Dering, <a name="citation202d"></a><a +href="#footnote202d" class="citation">[202d]</a> who heard the +words; and that Ingoldsby, <a name="citation202e"></a><a +href="#footnote202e" class="citation">[202e]</a> abused the +Archbishop, etc. Well, but now for your saucy letter: I +have no room to answer it; O yes, enough on t’other +side. Are you no sicker? Stella jeers Presto for not +coming over by Christmas; but indeed Stella does not jeer, but +reproach, poor poor Presto. And how can I come away and the +First-Fruits not finished? I am of opinion the Duke of +Ormond will do <a name="page203"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +203</span>nothing in them before he goes, which will be in a +fortnight, they say; and then they must fall to me to be done in +his absence. No, indeed, I have nothing to print: you know +they have printed the <i>Miscellanies</i> <a +name="citation203a"></a><a href="#footnote203a" +class="citation">[203a]</a> already. Are they on your side +yet? If you have my snuff box, I will have your strong +box. Hi, does Stella take snuff again? or is it only +because it is a fine box? Not the <i>Meddle</i>, but the +<i>Medley</i>, <a name="citation203b"></a><a href="#footnote203b" +class="citation">[203b]</a> you fool. Yes, yes, a wretched +thing, because it is against you Tories: now I think it very +fine, and the <i>Examiner</i> a wretched thing.—Twist your +mouth, sirrah. Guiscard, and what you will read in the +<i>Narrative</i>, <a name="citation203c"></a><a +href="#footnote203c" class="citation">[203c]</a> I ordered to be +written, and nothing else. The <i>Spectator</i> is written +by Steele, with Addison’s help: it is often very +pretty. Yesterday it was made of a noble hint I gave him +long ago for his <i>Tatlers</i>, about an Indian supposed to +write his Travels into England. <a name="citation203d"></a><a +href="#footnote203d" class="citation">[203d]</a> I repent +he ever had it. I intended to have written a book on that +subject. I believe he has spent it all in one paper, and +all the under-hints there are mine too; but I never see him or +Addison. The Queen is well, but I fear will be no long +liver; for I am told she has sometimes the gout in her bowels (I +hate the word <i>bowels</i>). My ears have been, these +three months past, much better than any time these two years; but +now they begin to be a little out of order again. My head +is better, though not right; but I trust to air and +walking. You have got my letter, but what number? I +suppose 18. Well, my shin has been well this month. +No, Mrs. Westley <a name="citation203e"></a><a +href="#footnote203e" class="citation">[203e]</a> came away +without her husband’s knowledge, while she was in the +country: she has written to me for some tea. They lie; Mr. +Harley’s wound was very terrible: he had convulsions, and +very narrowly escaped. The bruise was nine times worse than +the wound: he is weak still. Well, Brooks married; I know +all that. I am sorry <a name="page204"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 204</span>for Mrs. Walls’s eye: I hope +’tis better. O yes, you are great walkers: but I have +heard them say, “Much talkers, little walkers”: and I +believe I may apply the old proverb to you—</p> +<blockquote><p>If you talked no more than you walked,<br /> +Those that think you wits would be baulked.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Yes, Stella shall have a large printed Bible: I have put it +down among my commissions for MD. I am glad to hear you +have taken the fancy of intending to read the Bible. Pox +take the box; is not it come yet? This is trusting to your +young fellows, young women; ’tis your fault: I thought you +had such power with Sterne that he would fly over Mount Atlas to +serve you. You say you are not splenetic; but if you be, +faith, you will break poor Presto’s—I will not say +the rest; but I vow to God, if I could decently come over now, I +would, and leave all schemes of politics and ambition for +ever. I have not the opportunities here of preserving my +health by riding, etc., that I have in Ireland; and the want of +health is a great cooler of making one’s court. You +guess right about my being bit with a direction from Walls, and +the letter from MD: I believe I described it in one of my +last. This goes to-night; and I must now rise and walk to +town, and walk back in the evening. God Almighty bless and +preserve poor MD. Farewell.</p> +<p>O, faith, don’t think, saucy noses, that I’ll fill +this third side: I can’t stay a letter above a fortnight: +it must go then; and you would rather see a short one like this, +than want it a week longer.</p> +<p>My humble service to the Dean, and Mrs. Walls, and good, kind, +hearty Mrs. Stoyte, and honest Catherine.</p> +<h3><a name="page205"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +205</span>LETTER XXII.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Chelsea</span>, +<i>April</i> 28, 1711.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">At</span> night. I say at night, +because I finished my twenty-first this morning here, and put it +into the post-office my own self, like a good boy. I think +I am a little before you now, young women: I am writing my +twenty-second, and have received your thirteenth. I got to +town between twelve and one, and put on my new gown and periwig, +and dined with Lord Abercorn, where I had not been since the +marriage of his son Lord Peasley, <a name="citation205a"></a><a +href="#footnote205a" class="citation">[205a]</a> who has got ten +thousand pounds with a wife. I am now a country +gentleman. I walked home as I went, and am a little weary, +and am got into bed: I hope in God the air and exercise will do +me a little good. I have been inquiring about statues for +Mrs. Ashe: I made Lady Abercorn <a name="citation205b"></a><a +href="#footnote205b" class="citation">[205b]</a> go with me; and +will send them word next post to Clogher. I hate to buy for +her: I am sure she will maunder. I am going to study.</p> +<p>29. I had a charming walk to and from town to-day: I +washed, shaved and all, and changed gown and periwig, by half an +hour after nine, and went to the Secretary, who told me how he +had differed with his friends in Parliament: I apprehended this +division, and told him a great deal of it. I went to Court, +and there several mentioned it to me as what they much +disliked. I dined with the Secretary; and we proposed doing +some business of importance in the afternoon, which he broke to +me first, and said how he and Mr. Harley were convinced of the +necessity of it; yet he suffered one of his under-secretaries to +come upon us after dinner, who stayed till six, and so nothing +was done: and what care I? he shall send to me the next time, and +ask twice. To-morrow I go to the election at Westminster +School, where lads are chosen for the University: they say it is +a sight, and a great trial of wits. Our Expedition Fleet is +but just sailed: I believe it will come to nothing. Mr. <a +name="page206"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 206</span>Secretary +frets at their tediousness, but hopes great things from it, +though he owns four or five princes are in the secret; and, for +that reason, I fear it is no secret to France. There are +eight regiments; and the Admiral <a name="citation206a"></a><a +href="#footnote206a" class="citation">[206a]</a> is your +Walker’s brother the midwife.</p> +<p>30. Morn. I am here in a pretty pickle: it rains +hard; and the cunning natives of Chelsea have outwitted me, and +taken up all the three stage coaches. What shall I +do? I must go to town: this is your fault. I cannot +walk: I will borrow a coat. This is the blind side of my +lodging out of town; I must expect such inconveniences as +these. Faith, I’ll walk in the rain. +Morrow.—At night. I got a gentleman’s chaise by +chance, and so went to town for a shilling, and lie this night in +town. I was at the election of lads at Westminster to-day, +and a very silly thing it is; but they say there will be fine +doings to-morrow. I dined with Dr. Freind, <a +name="citation206b"></a><a href="#footnote206b" +class="citation">[206b]</a> the second master of the school, with +a dozen parsons and others: Prior would make me stay. Mr. +Harley is to hear the election to-morrow; and we are all to dine +with tickets, and hear fine speeches. ’Tis terrible +rainy weather again: I lie at a friend’s in the City.</p> +<p>May 1. I wish you a merry May Day, and a thousand +more. I was baulked at Westminster; I came too late: I +heard no speeches nor verses. They would not let me in to +their dining-place for want of a ticket; and I would not send in +for one, because Mr. Harley excused his coming, and Atterbury was +not there; and I cared not for the rest: and so my friend Lewis +and I dined with Kitt Musgrave, <a name="citation206c"></a><a +href="#footnote206c" class="citation">[206c]</a> if you know such +a man: and, the weather mending, I walked gravely home <a +name="page207"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 207</span>this +evening; and so I design to walk and walk till I am well: I fancy +myself a little better already. How does poor Stella? +Dingley is well enough. Go, get you gone, naughty girl, you +are well enough. O dear MD, contrive to have some share of +the country this spring: go to Finglas, or Donnybrook, or +Clogher, or Killala, or Lowth. Have you got your box +yet? Yes, yes. Do not write to me again till this +letter goes: I must make haste, that I may write two for +one. Go to the Bath: I hope you are now at the Bath, if you +had a mind to go; or go to Wexford: do something for your +living. Have you given up my lodging, according to +order? I have had just now a compliment from Dean +Atterbury’s lady, <a name="citation207a"></a><a +href="#footnote207a" class="citation">[207a]</a> to command the +garden and library, and whatever the house affords. I lodge +just over against them; but the Dean is in town with his +Convocation: so I have my Dean and Prolocutor as well as you, +young women, though he has not so good wine, nor so much +meat.</p> +<p>2. A fine day, but begins to grow a little warm; and +that makes your little fat Presto sweat in the forehead. +Pray, are not the fine buns sold here in our town; was it not +<i>Rrrrrrrrrare Chelsea buns</i>? <a name="citation207b"></a><a +href="#footnote207b" class="citation">[207b]</a> I bought +one to-day in my walk; it cost me a penny; it was stale, and I +did not like it, as the man said, etc. Sir Andrew Fountaine +and I dined at Mrs. Vanhomrigh’s, and had a flask of my +Florence, which lies in their cellar; and so I came home gravely, +and saw nobody of consequence to-day. I am very easy here, +nobody plaguing me in a morning; and Patrick saves many a score +lies. I sent over to Mrs. Atterbury to know whether I might +wait on her; but she is gone a visiting: we have exchanged some +compliments, but I have not seen her yet. We have no news +in our town.</p> +<p>3. I did not go to town to-day, it was so terrible +rainy; <a name="page208"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +208</span>nor have I stirred out of my room till eight this +evening, when I crossed the way to see Mrs. Atterbury, and thank +her for her civilities. She would needs send me some veal, +and small beer, and ale, to-day at dinner; and I have lived a +scurvy, dull, splenetic day, for want of MD: I often thought how +happy I could have been, had it rained eight thousand times more, +if MD had been with a body. My Lord Rochester <a +name="citation208a"></a><a href="#footnote208a" +class="citation">[208a]</a> is dead this morning; they say at one +o’clock; and I hear he died suddenly. To-morrow I +shall know more. He is a great loss to us: I cannot think +who will succeed him as Lord President. I have been writing +a long letter to Lord Peterborow, and am dull.</p> +<p>4. I dined to-day at Lord Shelburne’s, where Lady +Kerry <a name="citation208b"></a><a href="#footnote208b" +class="citation">[208b]</a> made me a present of four India +handkerchiefs, which I have a mind to keep for little MD, only +that I had rather, etc. I have been a mighty +handkerchief-monger, and have bought abundance of snuff ones +since I have left off taking snuff. And I am resolved, when +I come over, MD shall be acquainted with Lady Kerry: we have +struck up a mighty friendship; and she has much better sense than +any other lady of your country. We are almost in love with +one another: but she is most egregiously ugly; but perfectly +well-bred, and governable as I please. I am resolved, when +I come, to keep no company but MD: you know I kept my resolution +last time; and, except Mr. Addison, conversed with none but you +and your club of deans and Stoytes. ’Tis three weeks, +young women, since I had a letter from you; and yet, methinks, I +would not have another for five pounds till this is gone; and yet +I send every day to the Coffee-house, and I would fain have a +letter, and not have a letter: and I do not know what, nor I do +not know how, and this goes on very slow; it is a week to-morrow +since I began it. I am a poor country <a +name="page209"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 209</span>gentleman, +and do not know how the world passes. Do you know that +every syllable I write I hold my lips just for all the world as +if I were talking in our own little language to MD? Faith, +I am very silly; but I cannot help it for my life. I got +home early to-night. My solicitors, that used to ply me +every morning, knew not where to find me; and I am so happy not +to hear “Patrick, Patrick,” called a hundred times +every morning. But I looked backward, and find I have said +this before. What care I? Go to the Dean, and roast +the oranges.</p> +<p>5. I dined to-day with my friend Lewis, and we were deep +in politics how to save the present Ministry; for I am afraid of +Mr. Secretary, as I believe I told you. I went in the +evening to see Mr. Harley; and, upon my word, I was in perfect +joy. Mr. Secretary was just going out of the door; but I +made him come back, and there was the old Saturday Club, Lord +Keeper, Lord Rivers, Mr. Secretary, Mr. Harley, and I; the first +time since his stabbing. Mr. Secretary went away; but I +stayed till nine, and made Mr. Harley show me his breast, and +tell all the story; and I showed him the Archbishop of +Dublin’s letter, and defended him effectually. We +were all in mighty good humour. Lord Keeper and I left them +together, and I walked here after nine two miles, and I found a +parson drunk fighting with a seaman, and Patrick and I were so +wise to part them, but the seaman followed him to Chelsea, +cursing at him, and the parson slipped into a house, and I know +no more. It mortified me to see a man in my coat so +overtaken. A pretty scene for one that just came from +sitting with the Prime Ministers! I had no money in my +pocket, and so could not be robbed. However, nothing but +Mr. Harley shall make me take such a journey again. We +don’t yet know who will be President in Lord +Rochester’s room. I measured, and found that the +penknife would have killed Mr. Harley if it had gone but half the +breadth of my thumb-nail lower, so near was he to death. I +was so curious as to ask him what were his thoughts while they <a +name="page210"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 210</span>were +carrying him home in the chair. He said he concluded +himself a dead man. He will not allow that Guiscard gave +him the second stab; though my Lord Keeper, who is blind, and I +that was not there, are positive in it. He wears a plaster +still as broad as half a crown. Smoke how wide the lines +are, but, faith, I don’t do it on purpose: but I have +changed my side in this new Chelsea bed, and I do not know how, +methinks, but it is so unfit, and so awkward, never saw the +like.</p> +<p>6. You must remember to enclose your letters in a fair +paper, and direct the outside thus: “To Erasmus Lewis, +Esq.; at my Lord Dartmouth’s office at +Whitehall.” I said so before, but it may miscarry, +you know, yet I think none of my letters did ever miscarry; +faith, I think never one; among all the privateers and the +storms. O, faith, my letters are too good to be lost. +MD’s letters may tarry, but never miscarry, as the old +woman used to say. And indeed, how should they miscarry, +when they never come before their time? It was a terrible +rainy day; yet I made a shift to steal fair weather overhead +enough to go and come in. I was early with the Secretary, +and dined with him afterwards. In the morning I began to +chide him, and tell him my fears of his proceedings. But +Arthur Moore <a name="citation210a"></a><a href="#footnote210a" +class="citation">[210a]</a> came up and relieved him. But I +forgot, for you never heard of Arthur Moore. But when I get +Mr. Harley alone, I will know the bottom. You will have Dr. +Raymond over before this letter, and what care you?</p> +<p>7. I hope and believe my walks every day do me +good. I was busy at home, and set out late this morning, +and dined with Mrs. Vanhomrigh, at whose lodgings I always change +my gown and periwig. I visited this afternoon, and among +others, poor Biddy Floyd, <a name="citation210b"></a><a +href="#footnote210b" class="citation">[210b]</a> who is very red, +but I believe won’t be much marked. As I was coming +home, I met Sir George Beaumont <a name="citation210c"></a><a +href="#footnote210c" class="citation">[210c]</a> in the Pall +Mall, who would needs walk with me as far as Buckingham +House. I was telling him of my head; he said he had been +ill of the <a name="page211"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +211</span>same disorder, and by all means forbid me bohea tea, +which, he said, always gave it him; and that Dr. Radcliffe said +it was very bad. Now I had observed the same thing, and +have left it off this month, having found myself ill after it +several times; and I mention it that Stella may consider it for +her own poor little head: a pound lies ready packed up and +directed for Mrs. Walls, to be sent by the first +convenience. Mr. Secretary told me yesterday that Mr. +Harley would this week be Lord Treasurer and a peer; so I expect +it every day; yet perhaps it may not be till Parliament is up, +which will be in a fortnight.</p> +<p>8. I was to-day with the Duke of Ormond, and recommended +to him the care of poor Joe Beaumont, who promises me to do him +all justice and favour, and give him encouragement; and desired I +would give a memorial to Ned Southwell about it, which I will, +and so tell Joe when you see him, though he knows it already by a +letter I writ to Mr. Warburton. <a name="citation211a"></a><a +href="#footnote211a" class="citation">[211a]</a> It was +bloody hot walking to-day. I dined in the City, and went +and came by water; and it rained so this evening again, that I +thought I should hardly be able to get a dry hour to walk home +in. I will send to-morrow to the Coffee-house for a letter +from MD; but I would not have one methinks till this is gone, as +it shall on Saturday. I visited the Duchess of Ormond this +morning; she does not go over with the Duke. I spoke to her +to get a lad touched for the evil, <a name="citation211b"></a><a +href="#footnote211b" class="citation">[211b]</a> the son of a +grocer in Capel Street, one Bell; the ladies have bought sugar +and plums of him. Mrs. Mary used to go there often. +This is Patrick’s account; and the poor fellow has been +here some months with his boy. But the Queen has not been +able to touch, and it now grows so warm, I fear she will not at +all. Go, go, go to the Dean’s, and let him carry you +to Donnybrook, and cut asparagus. Has Parvisol sent you any +this year? I cannot sleep in the beginnings <a +name="page212"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 212</span>of the +nights, the heat or something hinders me, and I am drowsy in the +mornings.</p> +<p>9. Dr. Freind came this morning to visit +Atterbury’s lady and children as physician, and persuaded +me to go with him to town in his chariot. He told me he had +been an hour before with Sir Cholmley Dering, Charles +Dering’s nephew, and head of that family in Kent, for which +he is Knight of the shire. He said he left him dying of a +pistol-shot quite through the body, by one Mr. Thornhill. <a +name="citation212a"></a><a href="#footnote212a" +class="citation">[212a]</a> They fought at sword and pistol +this morning in Tuttle Fields, <a name="citation212b"></a><a +href="#footnote212b" class="citation">[212b]</a> their pistols so +near that the muzzles touched. Thornhill discharged first; +and Dering, having received the shot, discharged his pistol as he +was falling, so it went into the air. The story of this +quarrel is long. Thornhill had lost seven teeth by a kick +in the mouth from Dering, who had first knocked him down; this +was above a fortnight ago. Dering was next week to be +married to a fine young lady. This makes a noise here, but +you will not value it. Well, Mr. Harley, Lord Keeper, and +one or two more, are to be made lords immediately; their patents +are now passing, and I read the preamble to Mr. Harley’s, +full of his praises. Lewis and I dined with Ford: I found +the wine; two flasks of my Florence, and two bottles of six that +Dr. Raymond sent me of French wine; he sent it to me to drink +with Sir Robert Raymond and Mr. Harley’s brother, <a +name="citation212c"></a><a href="#footnote212c" +class="citation">[212c]</a> whom I had introduced him to; but +they never could find time to come; and now I have left the town, +and it is too late. Raymond will think it a cheat. +What care I, sirrah?</p> +<p>10. Pshaw, pshaw. Patrick brought me four letters +to-day: <a name="page213"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +213</span>from Dilly at Bath; Joe; Parvisol; and what was the +fourth, who can tell? Stand away, who’ll guess? +Who can it be? You old man with a stick, can you tell who +the fourth is from? Iss, an please your honour, it is from +one Madam MD, Number Fourteen. Well; but I can’t send +this away now, because it was here, and I was in town; but it +shall go on Saturday, and this is Thursday night, and it will be +time enough for Wexford. Take my method: I write here to +Parvisol to lend Stella twenty pounds, and to take her note +promissory to pay it in half a year, etc. You shall see, +and if you want more, let me know afterwards; and be sure my +money shall be always paid constantly too. Have you been +good or ill housewives, pray?</p> +<p>11. Joe has written me to get him a collector’s +place, nothing less; he says all the world knows of my great +intimacy with Mr. Harley, and that the smallest word to him will +do. This is the constant cant of puppies who are at a +distance, and strangers to Courts and Ministers. My answer +is this, which pray send: that I am ready to serve Joe as far as +I can; that I have spoken to the Duke of Ormond about his money, +as I writ to Warburton; that for the particular he mentions, it +is a work of time, which I cannot think of at present; but, if +accidents and opportunities should happen hereafter, I would not +be wanting; that I know best how far my credit goes; that he is +at a distance, and cannot judge; that I would be glad to do him +good, and if fortune throws an opportunity in my way I shall not +be wanting. This is my answer, which you may send or read +to him. Pray contrive that Parvisol may not run away with +my two hundred pounds; but get Burton’s <a +name="citation213"></a><a href="#footnote213" +class="citation">[213]</a> note, and let the money be returned me +by bill. Don’t laugh, for I will be suspicious. +Teach Parvisol to enclose, and direct the outside to Mr. +Lewis. I will answer your letter in my next, only what I +take notice of here excepted. <a name="page214"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 214</span>I forgot to tell you that at the +Court of Requests to-day I could not find a dinner I liked, and +it grew late, and I dined with Mrs. Vanhomrigh, etc.</p> +<p>12. Morning. I will finish this letter before I go +to town, because I shall be busy, and have neither time nor place +there. Farewell, etc. etc.</p> +<h3>LETTER XXIII.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Chelsea</span>, +<i>May</i> 12, 1711.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">sent</span> you my twenty-second this +afternoon in town. I dined with Mr. Harley and the old +Club, Lord Rivers, Lord Keeper, and Mr. Secretary. They +rallied me last week, and said I must have Mr. St. John’s +leave; so I writ to him yesterday, that foreseeing I should never +dine again with Sir Simon Harcourt, Knight, and Robert Harley, +Esq., I was resolved to do it to-day. The jest is, that +before Saturday <a name="citation214"></a><a href="#footnote214" +class="citation">[214]</a> next we expect they will be lords; for +Mr. Harley’s patent is drawing, to be Earl of Oxford. +Mr. Secretary and I came away at seven, and he brought me to our +town’s end in his coach; so I lost my walk. St. John +read my letter to the company, which was all raillery, and passed +purely.</p> +<p>13. It rained all last night and this morning as heavy +as lead; but I just got fair weather to walk to town before +church. The roads are all over in deep puddle. The +hay of our town is almost fit to be mowed. I went to Court +after church (as I always do on Sundays), and then dined with Mr. +Secretary, who has engaged me for every Sunday; and poor MD dined +at home upon a bit of veal and a pint of wine. Is it not +plaguy insipid to tell you every day where I dine? yet now I have +got into the way of it, I cannot forbear it neither. +Indeed, Mr. Presto, you had better go answer MD’s letter, +N. 14. I will answer it when I please, Mr. Doctor. <a +name="page215"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 215</span>What is +that you say? The Court was very full this morning, +expecting Mr. Harley would be declared Earl of Oxford and have +the Treasurer’s staff. Mr. Harley never comes to +Court at all; somebody there asked me the reason. +“Why,” said I, “the Lord of Oxford +knows.” He always goes to the Queen by the back +stairs. I was told for certain, you jackanapes, Lord Santry +<a name="citation215a"></a><a href="#footnote215a" +class="citation">[215a]</a> was dead, Captain Cammock <a +name="citation215b"></a><a href="#footnote215b" +class="citation">[215b]</a> assured me so; and now he’s +alive again, they say; but that shan’t do: he shall be dead +to me as long as he lives. Dick Tighe <a +name="citation215c"></a><a href="#footnote215c" +class="citation">[215c]</a> and I meet, and never stir our +hats. I am resolved to mistake him for Witherington, the +little nasty lawyer that came up to me so sternly at the Castle +the day I left Ireland. I’ll ask the gentleman I saw +walking with him how long Witherington has been in town.</p> +<p>14. I went to town to-day by water. The hail quite +discouraged me from walking, and there is no shade in the +greatest part of the way. I took the first boat, and had a +footman my companion; then I went again by water, and dined in +the City with a printer, to whom I carried a pamphlet in +manuscript, that Mr. Secretary gave me. The printer sent it +to the Secretary for his approbation, and he desired me to look +it over, which I did, and found it a very scurvy piece. The +reason I tell you so, is because it was done by your parson Slap, +Scrap, Flap (what d’ye call him), Trapp, <a +name="citation215d"></a><a href="#footnote215d" +class="citation">[215d]</a> your Chancellor’s +chaplain. ’Tis called <i>A Character of the Present +Set of Whigs</i>, and is going to be printed, and no <a +name="page216"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 216</span>doubt the +author will take care to produce it in Ireland. Dr. Freind +was with me, and pulled out a twopenny pamphlet just published, +called <i>The State of Wit</i>, <a name="citation216a"></a><a +href="#footnote216a" class="citation">[216a]</a> giving a +character of all the papers that have come out of late. The +author seems to be a Whig, yet he speaks very highly of a paper +called the <i>Examiner</i>, and says the supposed author of it is +Dr. Swift. But above all things he praises the +<i>Tatlers</i> and <i>Spectators</i>; and I believe Steele and +Addison were privy to the printing of it. Thus is one +treated by these impudent dogs. And that villain Curll <a +name="citation216b"></a><a href="#footnote216b" +class="citation">[216b]</a> has scraped up some trash, and calls +it Dr. Swift’s <i>Miscellanies</i>, with the name at large: +and I can get no satisfaction of him. Nay, Mr. Harley told +me he had read it, and only laughed at me before Lord Keeper and +the rest. Since I came home, I have been sitting with the +Prolocutor, Dean Atterbury, who is my neighbour over the way, but +generally keeps in town with his Convocation. ’Tis +late, etc.</p> +<p>15. My walk to town to-day was after ten, and +prodigiously hot. I dined with Lord Shelburne, and have +desired Mrs. Pratt, who lodges there, to carry over Mrs. +Walls’s tea; I hope she will do it, and they talk of going +in a fortnight. My way is this: I leave my best gown and +periwig at Mrs. Vanhomrigh’s, then walk up the Pall Mall, +through the Park, out at Buckingham House, and so to Chelsea a +little beyond the church: I set out about sunset, and get here in +something less than an hour; it is two good miles, and just five +thousand seven hundred and forty-eight steps; so there is four +miles a day walking, without reckoning what I walk while I stay +in town. When I pass the Mall in the evening, it is +prodigious to see the number of ladies walking there; and I +always cry shame at the ladies of Ireland, who never walk at all, +as if their legs were of no use, but to be laid aside. I +have been now almost three weeks here, and I <a +name="page217"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 217</span>thank God, +am much better in my head, if it does but continue. I tell +you what, if I was with you, when we went to Stoyte at +Donnybrook, we would only take a coach to the hither end of +Stephen’s Green, and from thence go every step on foot, +yes, faith, every step; it would do DD <a +name="citation217a"></a><a href="#footnote217a" +class="citation">[217a]</a> good as well as Presto. <a +name="citation217b"></a><a href="#footnote217b" +class="citation">[217b]</a> Everybody tells me I look +better already; for, faith, I looked sadly, that is +certain. My breakfast is milk porridge: I do not love it; +faith, I hate it, but it is cheap and wholesome; and I hate to be +obliged to either of those qualities for anything. <a +name="citation217c"></a><a href="#footnote217c" +class="citation">[217c]</a></p> +<p>16. I wonder why Presto will be so tedious in answering +MD’s letters; because he would keep the best to the last, I +suppose. Well, Presto must be humoured, it must be as he +will have it, or there will be an old to do. <a +name="citation217d"></a><a href="#footnote217d" +class="citation">[217d]</a> Dead with heat; are not you +very hot? My walks make my forehead sweat rarely; sometimes +my morning journey is by water, as it was to-day with one Parson +Richardson, <a name="citation217e"></a><a href="#footnote217e" +class="citation">[217e]</a> who came to see me, on his going to +Ireland; and with him I send Mrs. Walls’s tea, and three +books <a name="citation217f"></a><a href="#footnote217f" +class="citation">[217f]</a> I got from the Lords of the Treasury +for the College. I dined with Lord Shelburne to-day; Lady +Kerry and Mrs. Pratt are going likewise for Ireland.—Lord! +I forgot, I dined with Mr. Prior to-day, at his house, with Dean +Atterbury and others; and came home pretty late, and I think +I’m in a fuzz, and don’t know what I say, never saw +the like.</p> +<p>17. Sterne came here by water to see me this morning, +and I went back with him to his boat. He tells me that Mrs. +Edgworth <a name="citation217g"></a><a href="#footnote217g" +class="citation">[217g]</a> married a fellow in her journey to +Chester; so I believe she little thought of anybody’s box +but her own. I desired Sterne to give me directions where +to get the box in Chester, which he says he will to-morrow; and I +will write <a name="page218"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +218</span>to Richardson to get it up there as he goes by, and +whip it over. It is directed to Mrs. Curry: you must +caution her of it, and desire her to send it you when it +comes. Sterne says Jemmy Leigh loves London mightily; that +makes him stay so long, I believe, and not Sterne’s +business, which Mr. Harley’s accident has put much +backward. We expect now every day that he will be Earl of +Oxford and Lord Treasurer. His patent is passing; but, they +say, Lord Keeper’s not yet; at least his son, young +Harcourt, told me so t’other day. I dined to-day +privately with my friend Lewis at his lodgings at +Whitehall. T’other day at Whitehall I met a lady of +my acquaintance, whom I had not seen before since I came to +England; we were mighty glad to see each other, and she has +engaged me to visit her, as I design to do. It is one Mrs. +Colledge: she has lodgings at Whitehall, having been seamstress +to King William, worth three hundred a year. Her father was +a fanatic joiner, <a name="citation218a"></a><a +href="#footnote218a" class="citation">[218a]</a> hanged for +treason in Shaftesbury’s plot. This noble person and +I were brought acquainted, some years ago, by Lady Berkeley. <a +name="citation218b"></a><a href="#footnote218b" +class="citation">[218b]</a> I love good creditable +acquaintance: I love to be the worst of the company: I am not of +those that say, “For want of company, welcome +trumpery.” I was this evening with Lady Kerry and +Mrs. Pratt at Vauxhall, to hear the nightingales; but they are +almost past singing.</p> +<p>18. I was hunting the Secretary to-day in vain about +some business, and dined with Colonel Crowe, late Governor of +Barbados, <a name="citation218c"></a><a href="#footnote218c" +class="citation">[218c]</a> and your friend Sterne was the third: +he is very kind to Sterne, and helps him in his business, which +lies asleep till Mr. Harley is Lord Treasurer, because nothing of +moment is now done in the Treasury, the change being <a +name="page219"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 219</span>expected +every day. I sat with Dean Atterbury till one o’clock +after I came home; so ’tis late, etc.</p> +<p>19. Do you know that about our town we are mowing +already and making hay, and it smells so sweet as we walk through +the flowery meads; but the hay-making nymphs are perfect drabs, +nothing so clean and pretty as farther in the country. +There is a mighty increase of dirty wenches in straw hats since I +knew London. I stayed at home till five o’clock, and +dined with Dean Atterbury; then went by water to Mr. +Harley’s, where the Saturday Club was met, with the +addition of the Duke of Shrewsbury. I whispered Lord Rivers +that I did not like to see a stranger among us; and the rogue +told it aloud: but Mr. Secretary said the Duke writ to have +leave; so I appeared satisfied, and so we laughed. Mr. +Secretary told me the Duke of Buckingham <a +name="citation219"></a><a href="#footnote219" +class="citation">[219]</a> had been talking to him much about me, +and desired my acquaintance. I answered it could not be, +for he had not made sufficient advances. Then the Duke of +Shrewsbury said he thought that Duke was not used to make +advances. I said I could not help that; for I always +expected advances in proportion to men’s quality, and more +from a duke than any other man. The Duke replied that he +did not mean anything of his quality; which was handsomely said +enough; for he meant his pride: and I have invented a notion to +believe that nobody is proud. At ten all the company went +away; and from ten to twelve Mr. Harley and I sat together, where +we talked through a great deal of matters I had a mind to settle +with him; and then walked in a fine moonshine night to Chelsea, +where I got by one. Lord Rivers conjured me not to walk so +late; but I would, because I had no other way; but I had no money +to lose.</p> +<p>20. By what the Lord Keeper told me last night, I find +he will not be made a peer so soon; but Mr. Harley’s patent +for Earl of Oxford is now drawing, and will be done in three +days. We made him own it, which he did scurvily, and <a +name="page220"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 220</span>then talked +of it like the rest. Mr. Secretary had too much company +with him to-day; so I came away soon after dinner. I give +no man liberty to swear or talk b—dy, and I found some of +them were in constraint, so I left them to themselves. I +wish you a merry Whitsuntide, and pray tell me how you pass away +your time; but, faith, you are going to Wexford, and I fear this +letter is too late; it shall go on Thursday, and sooner it +cannot, I have so much business to hinder me answering +yours. Where must I direct in your absence? Do you +quit your lodgings?</p> +<p>21. Going to town this morning, I met in the Pall Mall a +clergyman of Ireland, whom I love very well and was glad to see, +and with him a little jackanapes, of Ireland too, who married +Nanny Swift, Uncle Adam’s <a name="citation220a"></a><a +href="#footnote220a" class="citation">[220a]</a> daughter, one +Perry; perhaps you may have heard of him. His wife has sent +him here, to get a place from Lowndes; <a +name="citation220b"></a><a href="#footnote220b" +class="citation">[220b]</a> because my uncle and Lowndes married +two sisters, and Lowndes is a great man here in the Treasury; but +by good luck I have no acquaintance with him: however, he +expected I should be his friend to Lowndes, and one word of mine, +etc., the old cant. But I will not go two yards to help +him. I dined with Mrs. Vanhomrigh, where I keep my best +gown and periwig, to put on when I come to town and be a +spark.</p> +<p>22. I dined to-day in the City, and coming home this +evening, I met Sir Thomas Mansel and Mr. Lewis in the Park. +Lewis whispered me that Mr. Harley’s patent for the Earl of +Oxford was passed in Mr. Secretary St. John’s office; so +to-morrow or next day, I suppose, he will be declared Earl of +Oxford, and have the staff. <a name="citation220c"></a><a +href="#footnote220c" class="citation">[220c]</a> This man +has grown by persecutions, turnings out, and stabbing. What +waiting, and crowding, and bowing will be at his levee! yet, if +human nature be capable of so much constancy, I should <a +name="page221"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 221</span>believe he +will be the same man still, bating the necessary forms of +grandeur he must keep up. ’Tis late, sirrahs, and +I’ll go sleep.</p> +<p>23. Morning. I sat up late last night, and waked +late to-day; but will now answer your letter in bed before I go +to town, and I will send it to-morrow; for perhaps you +mayn’t go so soon to Wexford.—No, you are not out in +your number; the last was Number 14, and so I told you twice or +thrice; will you never be satisfied? What shall we do for +poor Stella? Go to Wexford, for God’s sake: I wish +you were to walk there by three miles a day, with a good lodging +at every mile’s end. Walking has done me so much +good, that I cannot but prescribe it often to poor Stella. +Parvisol has sent me a bill for fifty pounds, which I am sorry +for, having not written to him for it, only mentioned it two +months ago; but I hope he will be able to pay you what I have +drawn upon him for: he never sent me any sum before, but one bill +of twenty pounds half a year ago. You are welcome as my +blood to every farthing I have in the world; and all that grieves +me is, I am not richer, for MD’s sake, as hope saved. <a +name="citation221"></a><a href="#footnote221" +class="citation">[221]</a> I suppose you give up your +lodgings when you go to Wexford; yet that will be inconvenient +too: yet I wish again you were under a necessity of rambling the +country until Michaelmas, faith. No, let them keep the +shelves, with a pox; yet they are exacting people about those +four weeks; or Mrs. Brent may have the shelves, if she +please. I am obliged to your Dean for his kind offer of +lending me money. Will that be enough to say? A +hundred people would lend me money, or to any man who has not the +reputation of a squanderer. O, faith, I should be glad to +be in the same kingdom with MD, however, although you are at +Wexford. But I am kept here by a most capricious fate, +which I would break through, if I could do it with decency or +honour.—To return without some mark of distinction would +look extremely little; and I would likewise gladly be somewhat +richer than I am. I will say no more, but beg you <a +name="page222"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 222</span>to be easy +till Fortune take her course, and to believe that MD’s +felicity is the great end I aim at in all my pursuits. And +so let us talk no more on this subject, which makes me +melancholy, and that I would fain divert. Believe me, no +man breathing at present has less share of happiness in life than +I: I do not say I am unhappy at all, but that everything here is +tasteless to me for want of being as I would be. And so, a +short sigh, and no more of this. Well, come and let’s +see what’s next, young women. Pox take Mrs. Edgworth +and Sterne! I will take some methods about that box. +What orders would you have me give about the picture? +Can’t you do with it as if it were your own? No, I +hope Manley will keep his place; for I hear nothing of Sir Thomas +Frankland’s losing his. Send nothing under cover to +Mr. Addison, but “To Erasmus Lewis, Esq.; at my Lord +Dartmouth’s office at Whitehall.” Direct your +outside so.—Poor dear Stella, don’t write in the +dark, nor in the light neither, but dictate to Dingley; she is a +naughty, healthy girl, and may drudge for both. Are you +good company together? and don’t you quarrel too +often? Pray love one another, and kiss one another just +now, as Dingley is reading this; for you quarrelled this morning +just after Mrs. Marget <a name="citation222"></a><a +href="#footnote222" class="citation">[222]</a> had poured water +on Stella’s head: I heard the little bird say so. +Well, I have answered everything in your letter that required it, +and yet the second side is not full. I’ll come home +at night, and say more; and to-morrow this goes for +certain. Go, get you gone to your own chambers, and let +Presto rise like a modest gentleman, and walk to town. I +fancy I begin to sweat less in the forehead by constant walking +than I used to do; but then I shall be so sunburnt, the ladies +will not like me. Come, let me rise, sirrahs. +Morrow.—At night. I dined with Ford to-day at his +lodgings, and I found wine out of my own cellar, some of my own +chest of the great Duke’s wine: it begins to turn. +They say wine with you in Ireland is half a crown a bottle. +’Tis as Stella says; nothing that once grows dear in +Ireland ever <a name="page223"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +223</span>grows cheap again, except corn, with a pox, to ruin the +parson. I had a letter to-day from the Archbishop of +Dublin, giving me further thanks about vindicating him to Mr. +Harley and Mr. St. John, and telling me a long story about your +Mayor’s election, <a name="citation223"></a><a +href="#footnote223" class="citation">[223]</a> wherein I find he +has had a finger, and given way to further talk about him; but we +know nothing of it here yet. This walking to and fro, and +dressing myself, takes up so much of my time that I cannot go +among company so much as formerly; yet what must a body do? +I thank God I yet continue much better since I left the town; I +know not how long it may last. I am sure it has done me +some good for the present. I do not totter as I did, but +walk firm as a cock, only once or twice for a minute, I do not +know how; but it went off, and I never followed it. Does +Dingley read my hand as well as ever? do you, sirrah? Poor +Stella must not read Presto’s ugly small hand.</p> +<blockquote><p>Preserve your eyes,<br /> +If you be wise.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Your friend Walls’s tea will go in a day or two towards +Chester by one Parson Richardson. My humble service to her, +and to good Mrs. Stoyte, and Catherine; and pray walk while you +continue in Dublin. I expect your next but one will be from +Wexford. God bless dearest MD.</p> +<p>24. Morning. Mr. Secretary has sent his groom +hither, to invite me to dinner to-day, etc. God Almighty +for ever bless and preserve you both, and give you health, +etc. Amen. Farewell, etc.</p> +<p>Do not I often say the same thing two or three times in the +same letter, sirrah?</p> +<p>Great wits, they say, have but short memories; that’s +good vile conversation.</p> +<h3><a name="page224"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +224</span>LETTER XXIV.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Chelsea</span>, +<i>May</i> 24, 1711.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Morning</span>. Once in my life the +number of my letters and of the day of the month is the same; +that’s lucky, boys; that’s a sign that things will +meet, and that we shall make a figure together. What, will +you still have the impudence to say London, England, because I +say Dublin, Ireland? Is there no difference between London +and Dublin, saucyboxes? I have sealed up my letter, and am +going to town. Morrow, sirrahs.—At night. I +dined with the Secretary to-day; we sat down between five and +six. Mr. Harley’s patent passed this morning: he is +now Earl of Oxford, Earl Mortimer, and Lord Harley of Wigmore +Castle. My letter was sealed, or I would have told you this +yesterday; but the public news may tell it you. The Queen, +for all her favour, has kept a rod <a name="citation224"></a><a +href="#footnote224" class="citation">[224]</a> for him in her +closet this week; I suppose he will take it from her, though, in +a day or two. At eight o’clock this evening it rained +prodigiously, as it did from five; however, I set out, and in +half-way the rain lessened, and I got home, but tolerably wet; +and this is the first wet walk I have had in a month’s time +that I am here but, however, I got to bed, after a short visit to +Atterbury.</p> +<p>25. It rained this morning, and I went to town by water; +and Ford and I dined with Mr. Lewis by appointment. I +ordered Patrick to bring my gown and periwig to Mr. Lewis, +because I designed to go to see Lord Oxford, and so I told the +dog; but he never came, though I stayed an hour longer than I +appointed; so I went in my old gown, and sat with him two hours, +but could not talk over some business I had with him; so he has +desired me to dine with him on Sunday, and I must disappoint the +Secretary. My lord set me down at a coffee-house, where I +waited for the Dean of Carlisle’s chariot to bring me to +Chelsea; for it has rained prodigiously all this afternoon. +The Dean did not come himself, but sent <a +name="page225"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 225</span>me his +chariot, which has cost me two shillings to the coachman; and so +I am got home, and Lord knows what is become of Patrick. I +think I must send him over to you; for he is an intolerable +rascal. If I had come without a gown, he would have served +me so, though my life and preferment should have lain upon it: +and I am making a livery for him will cost me four pounds; but I +will order the tailor to-morrow to stop till further +orders. My Lord Oxford can’t yet abide to be called +“my lord”; and when I called him “my +lord,” he called me “Dr. Thomas Swift,” <a +name="citation225a"></a><a href="#footnote225a" +class="citation">[225a]</a> which he always does when he has a +mind to tease me. By a second hand, he proposed my being +his chaplain, which I by a second hand excused; but we had no +talk of it to-day: but I will be no man’s chaplain +alive. But I must go and be busy.</p> +<p>26. I never saw Patrick till this morning, and that only +once, for I dressed myself without him; and when I went to town +he was out of the way. I immediately sent for the tailor, +and ordered him to stop his hand in Patrick’s clothes till +further orders. Oh, if it were in Ireland, I should have +turned him off ten times ago; and it is no regard to him, but +myself, that has made me keep him so long. Now I am afraid +to give the rogue his clothes. What shall I do? I +wish MD were here to entreat for him, just here at the +bed’s side. Lady Ashburnham <a +name="citation225b"></a><a href="#footnote225b" +class="citation">[225b]</a> has been engaging me this long time +to dine with her, and I set to-day apart for it; and whatever was +the mistake, she sent me word she was at dinner and undressed, +but would be glad to see me in the afternoon: so I dined with +Mrs. Vanhomrigh, and would not go to see her at all, in a +huff. My fine Florence is turning sour with a vengeance, +and I have not drunk half of it. As I was coming home +to-night, Sir Thomas Mansel and Tom Harley <a +name="citation225c"></a><a href="#footnote225c" +class="citation">[225c]</a> met me <a name="page226"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 226</span>in the Park, and made me walk with +them till nine, like unreasonable whelps; so I got not here till +ten: but it was a fine evening, and the foot-path clean enough +already after this hard rain.</p> +<p>27. Going this morning to town, I saw two old lame +fellows, walking to a brandy-shop, and when they got to the door, +stood a long time complimenting who should go in first. +Though this be no jest to tell, it was an admirable one to +see. I dined to-day with my Lord Oxford and the ladies, the +new Countess, and Lady Betty, <a name="citation226a"></a><a +href="#footnote226a" class="citation">[226a]</a> who has been +these three days a lady born. My lord left us at seven, and +I had no time to speak to him about some affairs; but he promises +in a day or two we shall dine alone; which is mighty likely, +considering we expect every moment that the Queen will give him +the staff, and then he will be so crowded he will be good for +nothing: for aught I know he may have it to-night at Council.</p> +<p>28. I had a petition sent me t’other day from one +Stephen Gernon, setting forth that he formerly lived with Harry +Tenison, <a name="citation226b"></a><a href="#footnote226b" +class="citation">[226b]</a> who gave him an employment of gauger, +and that he was turned out after Harry’s death, and came +for England, and is now starving, or, as he expresses it, <i>that +the staff of life has been of late a stranger to his +appetite</i>. To-day the poor fellow called, and I knew him +very well, a young slender fellow with freckles in his face: you +must remember him; he waited at table as a better sort of +servant. I gave him a crown, and promised to do what I +could to help him to a service, which I did for Harry +Tenison’s memory. It was bloody hot walking to-day, +and I was so lazy I dined where my new gown was, at Mrs. +Vanhomrigh’s, and came back like a fool, and the Dean of +Carlisle has sat with me till eleven. Lord Oxford has not +the staff yet.</p> +<p><a name="page227"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +227</span>29. I was this morning in town by ten, though it +was shaving-day, and went to the Secretary about some affairs, +then visited the Duke and Duchess of Ormond; but the latter was +dressing to go out, and I could not see her. My Lord Oxford +had the staff given him this morning; so now I must call him Lord +Oxford no more, but Lord Treasurer: I hope he will stick there: +this is twice he has changed his name this week; and I heard +to-day in the City (where I dined) that he will very soon have +the Garter.—Pr’ythee, do not you observe how +strangely I have changed my company and manner of living? I +never go to a coffee-house; you hear no more of Addison, Steele, +Henley, Lady Lucy, Mrs. Finch, <a name="citation227a"></a><a +href="#footnote227a" class="citation">[227a]</a> Lord Somers, +Lord Halifax, etc. I think I have altered for the +better. Did I tell you the Archbishop of Dublin has writ me +a long letter of a squabble in your town about choosing a Mayor, +and that he apprehended some censure for the share he had in it? +<a name="citation227b"></a><a href="#footnote227b" +class="citation">[227b]</a> I have not heard anything of it +here; but I shall not be always able to defend him. We hear +your Bishop Hickman is dead; <a name="citation227c"></a><a +href="#footnote227c" class="citation">[227c]</a> but nobody here +will do anything for me in Ireland; so they may die as fast or +slow as they please.—Well, you are constant to your deans, +and your Stoyte, and your Walls. Walls will have her tea +soon; Parson Richardson is either going or gone to Ireland, and +has it with him. I hear Mr. Lewis has two letters for me: I +could not call for them to-day, but will to-morrow; and perhaps +one of them may be from our little MD, who knows, man? who can +tell? Many a more unlikely thing has happened.—Pshaw, +I write so plaguy little, I can hardly see it myself. +<i>Write bigger</i>, <i>sirrah</i> <a name="citation227d"></a><a +href="#footnote227d" class="citation">[227d]</a> Presto. +No, but I won’t. Oh, you are a saucy rogue, Mr. +Presto, you are so impudent. <a name="page228"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 228</span>Come, dear rogues, let Presto go to +sleep; I have been with the Dean, and ’tis near twelve.</p> +<p>30. I am so hot and lazy after my morning’s walk, +that I loitered at Mrs. Vanhomrigh’s, where my best gown +and periwig are, and out of mere listlessness dine there very +often; so I did to-day; but I got little MD’s letter, N. 15 +(you see, sirrahs, I remember to tell the number), from Mr. +Lewis, and I read it in a closet they lend me at Mrs. +Van’s; and I find Stella is a saucy rogue and a great +writer, and can write finely still when her hand is in, and her +pen good. When I came here to-night, I had a mighty mind to +go swim after I was cool, for my lodging is just by the river; +and I went down with only my nightgown and slippers on at eleven, +but came up again; however, one of these nights I will +venture.</p> +<p>31. I was so hot this morning with my walk, that I +resolve to do so no more during this violent burning +weather. It is comical that now we happen to have such heat +to ripen the fruit there has been the greatest blast that was +ever known, and almost all the fruit is despaired of. I +dined with Lord Shelburne: Lady Kerry and Mrs. Pratt are going to +Ireland. I went this evening to Lord Treasurer, and sat +about two hours with him in mixed company; he left us, and went +to Court, and carried two staves with him, so I suppose we shall +have a new Lord Steward or Comptroller to-morrow; I smoked that +State secret out by that accident. I will not answer your +letter yet, sirrahs; no I won’t, madam.</p> +<p>June 1. I wish you a merry month of June. I dined +again with the Vans and Sir Andrew Fountaine. I always give +them a flask of my Florence, which now begins to spoil, but it is +near an end. I went this afternoon to Mrs. Vedeau’s, +and brought away Madam Dingley’s parchment and letter of +attorney. Mrs. Vedeau tells me she has sent the bill a +fortnight ago. I will give the parchment to Ben Tooke, and +you shall send him a letter of attorney at your leisure, enclosed +to Mr. Presto. Yes, I now think your mackerel is full as +good as ours, which I did not think formerly. I was bit +about two staves, for there is no new officer made to-day. +This <a name="page229"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +229</span>letter will find you still in Dublin, I suppose, or at +Donnybrook, or losing your money at Walls’ (how does she +do?).</p> +<p>2. I missed this day by a blunder and dining in the +City. <a name="citation229a"></a><a href="#footnote229a" +class="citation">[229a]</a></p> +<p>3. No boats on Sunday, never: so I was forced to walk, +and so hot by the time I got to Ford’s lodging that I was +quite spent; I think the weather is mad. I could not go to +church. I dined with the Secretary as usual, and old +Colonel Graham <a name="citation229b"></a><a href="#footnote229b" +class="citation">[229b]</a> that lived at Bagshot Heath, and they +said it was Colonel Graham’s house. Pshaw, I remember +it very well, when I used to go for a walk to London from Moor +Park. What, I warrant you do not remember the Golden Farmer +<a name="citation229c"></a><a href="#footnote229c" +class="citation">[229c]</a> neither, figgarkick soley? <a +name="citation229d"></a><a href="#footnote229d" +class="citation">[229d]</a></p> +<p>4. When must we answer this letter, this N. 15 of our +little MD? Heat and laziness, and Sir Andrew Fountaine, +made me dine to-day again at Mrs. Van’s; and, in short, +this weather is unsupportable: how is it with you? Lady +Betty Butler and Lady Ashburnham sat with me two or three hours +this evening in my closet at Mrs. Van’s. They are +very good girls; and if Lady Betty went to Ireland, you should +let her be acquainted with you. How does Dingley do this +hot weather? Stella, I think, never complains of it; she +loves hot weather. There has not been a drop of rain since +Friday se’ennight. Yes, you do love hot weather, +naughty Stella, you do so; and Presto can’t abide it. +Be a good girl then, and I will love you; and love one another, +and don’t be quarrelling girls.</p> +<p>5. I dined in the City to-day, and went from hence early +to town, and visited the Duke of Ormond and Mr. Secretary. +They say my Lord Treasurer has a dead warrant in his <a +name="page230"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 230</span>pocket; +they mean a list of those who are to be turned out of employment; +and we every day now expect those changes. I passed by the +Treasury to-day, and saw vast crowds waiting to give Lord +Treasurer petitions as he passes by. He is now at the top +of power and favour: he keeps no levees yet. I am cruel +thirsty this hot weather.—I am just this minute going to +swim. I take Patrick down with me, to hold my nightgown, +shirt, and slippers, and borrow a napkin of my landlady for a +cap. So farewell till I come up; but there is no danger, +don’t be frighted.—I have been swimming this +half-hour and more; and when I was coming out I dived, to make my +head and all through wet, like a cold bath; but, as I dived, the +napkin fell off and is lost, and I have that to pay for. O, +faith, the great stones were so sharp, I could hardly set my feet +on them as I came out. It was pure and warm. I got to +bed, and will now go sleep.</p> +<p>6. Morning. This letter shall go to-morrow; so I +will answer yours when I come home to-night. I feel no hurt +from last night’s swimming. I lie with nothing but +the sheet over me, and my feet quite bare. I must rise and +go to town before the tide is against me. Morrow, sirrahs; +dear sirrahs, morrow.—At night. I never felt so hot a +day as this since I was born. I dined with Lady Betty +Germaine, and there was the young Earl of Berkeley <a +name="citation230a"></a><a href="#footnote230a" +class="citation">[230a]</a> and his fine lady. I never saw +her before, nor think her near so handsome as she passes +for.—After dinner, Mr. Bertue <a name="citation230b"></a><a +href="#footnote230b" class="citation">[230b]</a> would not let me +put ice in my wine, but said my Lord Dorchester <a +name="citation230c"></a><a href="#footnote230c" +class="citation">[230c]</a> got the bloody flux with it, and that +it was the worst thing in the world. Thus are we plagued, +thus are we plagued; yet I have done it five or six times this +summer, and was but the drier and the hotter for it. +Nothing makes me so excessively peevish as hot weather. +Lady Berkeley after dinner clapped my hat on <a +name="page231"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 231</span>another +lady’s head, and she in roguery put it upon the +rails. I minded them not; but in two minutes they called me +to the window, and Lady Carteret <a name="citation231a"></a><a +href="#footnote231a" class="citation">[231a]</a> showed me my hat +out of her window five doors off, where I was forced to walk to +it, and pay her and old Lady Weymouth <a +name="citation231b"></a><a href="#footnote231b" +class="citation">[231b]</a> a visit, with some more +beldames. Then I went and drank coffee, and made one or two +puns, with Lord Pembroke, <a name="citation231c"></a><a +href="#footnote231c" class="citation">[231c]</a> and designed to +go to Lord Treasurer; but it was too late, and beside I was half +broiled, and broiled without butter; for I never sweat after +dinner, if I drink any wine. Then I sat an hour with Lady +Betty Butler at tea, and everything made me hotter and +drier. Then I walked home, and was here by ten, so +miserably hot, that I was in as perfect a passion as ever I was +in my life at the greatest affront or provocation. Then I +sat an hour, till I was quite dry and cool enough to go swim; +which I did, but with so much vexation that I think I have given +it over: for I was every moment disturbed by boats, rot them; and +that puppy Patrick, standing ashore, would let them come within a +yard or two, and then call sneakingly to them. The only +comfort I proposed here in hot weather is gone; for there is no +jesting with those boats after it is dark: I had none last +night. I dived to dip my head, and held my cap on with both +my hands, for fear of losing it. Pox take the boats! +Amen. ’Tis near twelve, and so I’ll answer your +letter (it strikes twelve now) to-morrow morning.</p> +<p>7. Morning. Well, now let us answer MD’s +letter, N. 15, 15, 15, 15. Now have I told you the +number? 15, 15; there, impudence, to call names in the +beginning of your letter, before you say, How do you do, Mr. +Presto? There is your breeding! Where is your +manners, sirrah, to a gentleman? Get you gone, you couple +of jades.—No, I never sit up late now; but this abominable +hot weather will force me to eat or drink something that will do +me hurt. I do venture <a name="page232"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 232</span>to eat a few strawberries.—Why +then, do you know in Ireland that Mr. St. John talked so in +Parliament? <a name="citation232a"></a><a href="#footnote232a" +class="citation">[232a]</a> Your Whigs are plaguily bit; +for he is entirely for their being all out.—And are you as +vicious in snuff as ever? I believe, as you say, it does +neither hurt nor good; but I have left it off, and when anybody +offers me their box, I take about a tenth part of what I used to +do, and then just smell to it, and privately fling the rest +away. I keep to my tobacco still, <a +name="citation232b"></a><a href="#footnote232b" +class="citation">[232b]</a> as you say; but even much less of +that than formerly, only mornings and evenings, and very seldom +in the day.—As for Joe, <a name="citation232c"></a><a +href="#footnote232c" class="citation">[232c]</a> I have +recommended his case heartily to my Lord Lieutenant; and, by his +direction, given a memorial of it to Mr. Southwell, to whom I +have recommended it likewise. I can do no more, if he were +my brother. His business will be to apply himself to +Southwell. And you must desire Raymond, if Price of Galway +comes to town, to desire him to wait on Mr. Southwell, as +recommended by me for one of the Duke’s chaplains, which +was all I could do for him; and he must be presented to the Duke, +and make his court, and ply about, and find out some vacancy, and +solicit early for it. The bustle about your Mayor I had +before, as I told you, from the Archbishop of Dublin. Was +Raymond not come till May 18? So he says fine things of +me? Certainly he lies. I am sure I used him +indifferently enough; and we never once dined together, or +walked, or were in any third place; only he came sometimes to my +lodgings, and even there was oftener denied than +admitted.—What an odd bill is that you sent of +Raymond’s! A bill upon one Murry in Chester, which +depends entirely not only upon Raymond’s honesty, but his +discretion; and in money matters he is the last man I would +depend on. Why should Sir Alexander Cairnes <a +name="citation232d"></a><a href="#footnote232d" +class="citation">[232d]</a> in London pay me a bill, drawn <a +name="page233"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 233</span>by God +knows who, upon Murry in Chester? I was at Cairnes’s, +and they can do no such thing. I went among some friends, +who are merchants, and I find the bill must be sent to Murry, +accepted by him, and then returned back, and then Cairnes may +accept or refuse it as he pleases. Accordingly I gave Sir +Thomas Frankland the bill, who has sent it to Chester, and +ordered the postmaster there to get it accepted, and then send it +back, and in a day or two I shall have an answer; and therefore +this letter must stay a day or two longer than I intended, and +see what answer I get. Raymond should have written to Murry +at the same time, to desire Sir Alexander Cairnes to have +answered such a bill, if it come. But Cairnes’s +clerks (himself was not at home) said they had received no notice +of it, and could do nothing; and advised me to send to +Murry.—I have been six weeks to-day at Chelsea, and you +know it but just now. And so Dean — thinks I write +the <i>Medley</i>. Pox of his judgment! It is equal +to his honesty. Then you han’t seen the +<i>Miscellany</i> yet? <a name="citation233a"></a><a +href="#footnote233a" class="citation">[233a]</a> Why, +’tis a four-shilling book: has nobody carried it +over?—No, I believe Manley <a name="citation233b"></a><a +href="#footnote233b" class="citation">[233b]</a> will not lose +his place; for his friend <a name="citation233c"></a><a +href="#footnote233c" class="citation">[233c]</a> in England is so +far from being out that he has taken a new patent since the Post +Office Act; and his brother Jack Manley <a +name="citation233d"></a><a href="#footnote233d" +class="citation">[233d]</a> here takes his part firmly; and I +have often spoken to Southwell in his behalf, and he seems very +well inclined to him. But the Irish folks here in general +are horribly violent against him. Besides, he must consider +he could not send Stella wine if he were put out. And so he +is very kind, and sends you a dozen bottles of wine <i>at a +time</i>, and you win eight shillings <i>at a time</i>; and how +much do you lose? No, no, never one syllable about that, I +warrant you.—Why, this same Stella is so unmerciful a +writer, she has hardly left any room for Dingley. If you +have such summer there as here, sure the Wexford waters are good +by this time. I forgot what weather we had May 6th; go look +in my journal. We had terrible rain the 24th and <a +name="page234"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 234</span>25th, and +never a drop since. Yes, yes, I remember Berested’s +bridge; the coach sosses up and down as one goes that way, just +as at Hockley-in-the-Hole. <a name="citation234a"></a><a +href="#footnote234a" class="citation">[234a]</a> I never +impute any illness or health I have to good or ill weather, but +to want of exercise, or ill air, or something I have eaten, or +hard study, or sitting up; and so I fence against those as well +as I can: but who a deuce can help the weather? Will +Seymour, <a name="citation234b"></a><a href="#footnote234b" +class="citation">[234b]</a> the General, was excessively hot with +the sun shining full upon him; so he turns to the sun, and says, +“Harkee, friend, you had better go and ripen cucumbers than +plague me at this rate,” etc. Another time, fretting +at the heat, a gentleman by said it was such weather as pleased +God: Seymour said, “Perhaps it may; but I am sure it +pleases nobody else.” Why, Madam Dingley, the +First-Fruits are done. Southwell told me they went to +inquire about them, and Lord Treasurer said they were done, and +had been done long ago. And I’ll tell you a secret +you must not mention, that the Duke of Ormond is ordered to take +notice of them in his speech in your Parliament: and I desire you +will take care to say on occasion that my Lord Treasurer Harley +did it many months ago, before the Duke was Lord +Lieutenant. And yet I cannot possibly come over yet: so get +you gone to Wexford, and make Stella well. Yes, yes, I take care +not to walk late; I never did but once, and there are five +hundred people on the way as I walk. Tisdall is a puppy, and I +will excuse him the half-hour he would talk with me. As for +the <i>Examiner</i>, I have heard a whisper that after that of +this day, <a name="citation234c"></a><a href="#footnote234c" +class="citation">[234c]</a> which tells us what this Parliament +has done, you will hardly find them so good. I prophesy +they will be trash for the future; and methinks in this +day’s <i>Examiner</i> the author talks doubtfully, as if he +would <a name="page235"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +235</span>write no more. <a name="citation235a"></a><a +href="#footnote235a" class="citation">[235a]</a> Observe +whether the change be discovered in Dublin, only for your own +curiosity, that’s all. Make a mouth there. Mrs. +Vedeau’s business I have answered, and I hope the bill is +not lost. Morrow. ’Tis stewing hot, but I must +rise and go to town between fire and water. Morrow, sirrahs +both, morrow.—At night. I dined to-day with Colonel +Crowe, Governor of Jamaica, and your friend Sterne. I +presented Sterne to my Lord Treasurer’s brother, <a +name="citation235b"></a><a href="#footnote235b" +class="citation">[235b]</a> and gave him his case, and engaged +him in his favour. At dinner there fell the swingingest +long shower, and the most grateful to me, that ever I saw: it +thundered fifty times at least, and the air is so cool that a +body is able to live; and I walked home to-night with comfort, +and without dirt. I went this evening to Lord Treasurer, +and sat with him two hours, and we were in very good humour, and +he abused me, and called me Dr. Thomas Swift fifty times: I have +told you he does that when he has mind to make me mad. <a +name="citation235c"></a><a href="#footnote235c" +class="citation">[235c]</a> Sir Thomas Frankland gave me +to-day a letter from Murry, accepting my bill; so all is well: +only, by a letter from Parvisol, I find there are some +perplexities.—Joe has likewise written to me, to thank me +for what I have done for him; and desires I would write to the +Bishop of Clogher, that Tom Ashe <a name="citation235d"></a><a +href="#footnote235d" class="citation">[235d]</a> may not hinder +his father <a name="citation235e"></a><a href="#footnote235e" +class="citation">[235e]</a> from being portreve. I have +written and sent to Joe several times, that I will not trouble +myself at all about Trim. I wish them their liberty, but +they do not deserve it: so tell Joe, and send to him. I am +mighty happy with this rain: I was at the end of my patience, but +now I live again. This cannot go till Saturday; and perhaps +I may go out of town with Lord Shelburne and Lady Kerry to-morrow +for two or <a name="page236"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +236</span>three days. Lady Kerry has written to desire it; +but to-morrow I shall know farther.—O this dear rain, I +cannot forbear praising it: I never felt myself to be revived so +in my life. It lasted from three till five, hard as a horn, +and mixed with hail.</p> +<p>8. Morning. I am going to town, and will just +finish this there, if I go into the country with Lady Kerry and +Lord Shelburne: so morrow, till an hour or two hence.—In +town. I met Cairnes, who, I suppose, will pay me the money; +though he says I must send him the bill first, and I will get it +done in absence. Farewell, etc. etc.</p> +<h3>LETTER XXV.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Chelsea</span>, +<i>June</i> 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> been all this time at +Wycombe, between Oxford and London, with Lord Shelburne, who has +the squire’s house at the town’s end, and an estate +there in a delicious country. Lady Kerry and Mrs. Pratt +were with us, and we passed our time well enough; and there I +wholly disengaged myself from all public thoughts, and everything +but MD, who had the impudence to send me a letter there; but +I’ll be revenged: I will answer it. This day, the +20th, I came from Wycombe with Lady Kerry after dinner, lighted +at Hyde Park Corner, and walked: it was twenty-seven miles, and +we came it in about five hours.</p> +<p>21. I went at noon to see Mr. Secretary at his office, +and there was Lord Treasurer: so I killed two birds, etc., and we +were glad to see one another, and so forth. And the +Secretary and I dined at Sir William Wyndham’s, <a +name="citation236"></a><a href="#footnote236" +class="citation">[236]</a> who married Lady Catharine Seymour, +your acquaintance, I <a name="page237"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 237</span>suppose. There were ten of us +at dinner. It seems, in my absence, they had erected a +Club, <a name="citation237a"></a><a href="#footnote237a" +class="citation">[237a]</a> and made me one; and we made some +laws to-day, which I am to digest and add to, against next +meeting. Our meetings are to be every Thursday. We +are yet but twelve: Lord Keeper and Lord Treasurer were proposed; +but I was against them, and so was Mr. Secretary, though their +sons are of it, and so they are excluded; but we design to admit +the Duke of Shrewsbury. The end of our Club is, to advance +conversation and friendship, and to reward deserving persons with +our interest and recommendation. We take in none but men of +wit or men of interest; and if we go on as we begin, no other +Club in this town will be worth talking of. The +Solicitor-General, Sir Robert Raymond, is one of our Club; and I +ordered him immediately to write to your Lord Chancellor in +favour of Dr. Raymond: so tell Raymond, if you see him; but I +believe this will find you at Wexford. This letter will +come three weeks after the last, so there is a week lost; but +that is owing to my being out of town; yet I think it is right, +because it goes enclosed to Mr. Reading: <a +name="citation237b"></a><a href="#footnote237b" +class="citation">[237b]</a> and why should he know how often +Presto writes to MD, pray?—I sat this evening with Lady +Betty Butler and Lady Ashburnham, and then came home by eleven, +and had a good cool walk; for we have had no extreme hot weather +this fortnight, but a great deal of rain at times, and a body can +live and breathe. I hope it will hold so. We had +peaches to-day.</p> +<p>22. I went late to-day to town, and dined with my friend +Lewis. I saw Will Congreve attending at the Treasury, by +order, with his brethren, the Commissioners of the Wine +Licences. I had often mentioned him with kindness to Lord +Treasurer; and Congreve told me that, after they had answered to +what they were sent for, my lord called him privately, and spoke +to him with great kindness, promising his protection, etc. +The poor man said he had been used so <a name="page238"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 238</span>ill of late years that he was quite +astonished at my lord’s goodness, etc., and desired me to +tell my lord so; which I did this evening, and recommended him +heartily. My lord assured me he esteemed him very much, and +would be always kind to him; that what he said was to make +Congreve easy, because he knew people talked as if his lordship +designed to turn everybody out, and particularly Congreve: which +indeed was true, for the poor man told me he apprehended +it. As I left my Lord Treasurer, I called on Congreve +(knowing where he dined), and told him what had passed between my +lord and me; so I have made a worthy man easy, and that is a good +day’s work. <a name="citation238a"></a><a +href="#footnote238a" class="citation">[238a]</a> I am +proposing to my lord to erect a society or academy for correcting +and settling our language, that we may not perpetually be +changing as we do. He enters mightily into it, so does the +Dean of Carlisle; <a name="citation238b"></a><a +href="#footnote238b" class="citation">[238b]</a> and I design to +write a letter to Lord Treasurer with the proposals of it, and +publish it; <a name="citation238c"></a><a href="#footnote238c" +class="citation">[238c]</a> and so I told my lord, and he +approves it. Yesterday’s <a +name="citation238d"></a><a href="#footnote238d" +class="citation">[238d]</a> was a sad <i>Examiner</i>, and last +week was very indifferent, though some little scraps of the old +spirit, as if he had given some hints; but yesterday’s is +all trash. It is plain the hand is changed.</p> +<p>23. I have not been in London to-day: for Dr. Gastrell +<a name="citation238e"></a><a href="#footnote238e" +class="citation">[238e]</a> and I dined, by invitation, with the +Dean of Carlisle, my neighbour; so I know not what they are doing +in the world, a mere country gentleman. And are not you +ashamed both to go into the country just when I did, and stay ten +days, just as I did, saucy monkeys? But I never rode; I had +no horses, and our coach was out of order, and we went and came +in a hired one. Do you keep your lodgings when you <a +name="page239"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 239</span>go to +Wexford? I suppose you do; for you will hardly stay above +two months. I have been walking about our town to-night, +and it is a very scurvy place for walking. I am thinking to +leave it, and return to town, now the Irish folks are gone. +Ford goes in three days. How does Dingley divert herself +while Stella is riding? work, or read, or walk? Does +Dingley ever read to you? Had you ever a book with you in +the country? Is all that left off? Confess. +Well, I’ll go sleep; ’tis past eleven, and I go early +to sleep: I write nothing at night but to MD.</p> +<p>24. Stratford and I, and Pastoral Philips (just come +from Denmark) dined at Ford’s to-day, who paid his way, and +goes for Ireland on Tuesday. The Earl of Peterborow is +returned from Vienna without one servant: he left them scattered +in several towns of Germany. I had a letter from him, four +days ago, from Hanover, where he desires I would immediately send +him an answer to his house at Parson’s Green, <a +name="citation239"></a><a href="#footnote239" +class="citation">[239]</a> about five miles off. I wondered +what he meant, till I heard he was come. He sent expresses, +and got here before them. He is above fifty, and as active +as one of five-and-twenty. I have not seen him yet, nor +know when I shall, or where to find him.</p> +<p>25. Poor Duke of Shrewsbury has been very ill of a +fever: we were all in a fright about him: I thank God, he is +better. I dined to-day at Lord Ashburnham’s, with his +lady, for he was not at home: she is a very good girl, and always +a great favourite of mine. Sterne tells me he has desired a +friend to receive your box in Chester, and carry it over. I +fear he will miscarry in his business, which was sent to the +Treasury before he was recommended; for I was positive only to +second his recommendations, and all his other friends failed +him. However, on your account I will do what I can for him +to-morrow with the secretary of the Treasury.</p> +<p>26. We had much company to-day at dinner at Lord +Treasurer’s. Prior never fails: he is a much better +courtier than I; and we expect every day that he will be a +Commissioner <a name="page240"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +240</span>of the Customs, and that in a short time a great many +more will be turned out. They blame Lord Treasurer for his +slowness in turning people out; but I suppose he has his +reasons. They still keep my neighbour Atterbury in suspense +about the deanery of Christ Church, <a name="citation240a"></a><a +href="#footnote240a" class="citation">[240a]</a> which has been +above six months vacant, and he is heartily angry. I reckon +you are now preparing for your Wexford expedition; and poor +Dingley is full of carking and caring, scolding. How long +will you stay? Shall I be in Dublin before you +return? Don’t fall and hurt yourselves, nor overturn +the coach. Love one another, and be good girls; and drink +Presto’s health in water, Madam Stella; and in good ale, +Madam Dingley.</p> +<p>27. The Secretary appointed me to dine with him to-day, +and we were to do a world of business: he came at four, and +brought Prior with him, and had forgot the appointment, and no +business was done. I left him at eight, and went to change +my gown at Mrs. Vanhomrigh’s; and there was Sir Andrew +Fountaine at ombre with Lady Ashburnham and Lady Frederic +Schomberg, and Lady Mary Schomberg, <a name="citation240b"></a><a +href="#footnote240b" class="citation">[240b]</a> and Lady Betty +Butler, and others, talking; and it put me in mind of the Dean +and Stoyte, and Walls, and Stella at play, and Dingley and I +looking on. I stayed with them till ten, like a fool. +Lady Ashburnham is something like Stella; so I helped her, and +wished her good cards. It is late, etc.</p> +<p>28. Well, but I must answer this letter of our +MD’s. Saturday approaches, and I han’t written +down this side. O, faith, Presto has been a sort of a lazy +fellow: but Presto will remove to town this day se’ennight; +the Secretary has commanded me to do so; and I believe he and I +shall go for some days to Windsor, where he will have leisure to +mind some business we have together. To-day, our Society +(it must not be called a Club) dined at Mr. Secretary’s: we +were but eight; the rest sent excuses, or were out of town. +<a name="page241"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 241</span>We sat +till eight, and made some laws and settlements; and then I went +to take leave of Lady Ashburnham, who goes out of town to-morrow, +as a great many of my acquaintance are already, and left the town +very thin. I shall make but short journeys this summer, and +not be long out of London. The days are grown sensibly +short already, all our fruit blasted. Your Duke of Ormond +is still at Chester; and perhaps this letter will be with you as +soon as he. Sterne’s business is quite blown up: they +stand to it to send him back to the Commissioners of the Revenue +in Ireland for a reference, and all my credit could not alter it, +though I almost fell out with the secretary of the Treasury, <a +name="citation241"></a><a href="#footnote241" +class="citation">[241]</a> who is my Lord Treasurer’s +cousin-germain, and my very good friend. It seems every +step he has hitherto taken hath been wrong; at least they say so, +and that is the same thing. I am heartily sorry for it; and +I really think they are in the wrong, and use him hardly; but I +can do no more.</p> +<p>29. Steele has had the assurance to write to me that I +would engage my Lord Treasurer to keep a friend of his in an +employment: I believe I told you how he and Addison served me for +my good offices in Steele’s behalf; and I promised Lord +Treasurer never to speak for either of them again. Sir +Andrew Fountaine and I dined to-day at Mrs. +Vanhomrigh’s. Dilly Ashe has been in town this +fortnight: I saw him twice; he was four days at Lord +Pembroke’s in the country, punning with him; his face is +very well. I was this evening two or three hours at Lord +Treasurer’s, who called me Dr. Thomas Swift twenty times; +that’s his way of teasing. I left him at nine, and +got home here by ten, like a gentleman; and to-morrow morning +I’ll answer your little letter, sirrahs.</p> +<p>30. Morning. I am terribly sleepy always in a +morning; I believe it is my walk over-night that disposes me to +sleep: faith, ’tis now striking eight, and I am but just +awake. Patrick comes early, and wakes me five or six times; +but I have excuses, though I am three parts asleep. I tell +him I <a name="page242"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +242</span>sat up late, or slept ill in the night, and often it is +a lie. I have now got little MD’s letter before me, +N. 16, no more, nor no less, no mistake. Dingley says, +“This letter won’t be above six lines”; and I +was afraid it was true, though I saw it filled on both +sides. The Bishop of Clogher writ me word you were in the +country, and that he heard you were well: I am glad at heart MD +rides, and rides, and rides. Our hot weather ended in May, +and all this month has been moderate: it was then so hot I was +not able to endure it; I was miserable every moment, and found +myself disposed to be peevish and quarrelsome: I believe a very +hot country would make me stark mad.—Yes, my head continues +pretty tolerable, and I impute it all to walking. Does +Stella eat fruit? I eat a little; but I always repent, and +resolve against it. No, in very hot weather I always go to +town by water; but I constantly walk back, for then the sun is +down. And so Mrs. Proby <a name="citation242"></a><a +href="#footnote242" class="citation">[242]</a> goes with you to +Wexford: she’s admirable company; you’ll grow plaguy +wise with those you frequent. Mrs. Taylor and Mrs. Proby! +take care of infection. I believe my two hundred pounds +will be paid, but that Sir Alexander Cairnes is a scrupulous +puppy: I left the bill with Mr. Stratford, who is to have the +money. Now, Madam Stella, what say you? you ride every day; +I know that already, sirrah; and, if you rid every day for a +twelvemonth, you would be still better and better. No, I +hope Parvisol will not have the impudence to make you stay an +hour for the money; if he does, I’ll <i>un-parvisol</i> +him; pray let me know. O Lord, how hasty we are! +Stella can’t stay writing and writing; she must write and +go a cock-horse, pray now. Well, but the horses are not +come to the door; the fellow can’t find the bridle; your +stirrup is broken; where did you put the whips, Dingley? +Marget, where have you laid Mrs. Johnson’s ribbon to tie +about her? reach me my mask: sup up this before you go. So, +so, a gallop, a gallop: sit fast, sirrah, and don’t ride +hard upon the stones.—Well, now Stella is gone, tell me, +Dingley, is she a good girl? and what <a name="page243"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 243</span>news is that you are to tell +me?—No, I believe the box is not lost: Sterne says it is +not.—No, faith, you must go to Wexford without seeing your +Duke of Ormond, unless you stay on purpose; perhaps you may be so +wise.—I tell you this is your sixteenth letter; will you +never be satisfied? No, no, I will walk late no more; I +ought less to venture it than other people, and so I was told: +but I will return to lodge in town next Thursday. When you +come from Wexford, I would have you send a letter of attorney to +Mr. Benjamin Tooke, bookseller, in London, directed to me; and he +shall manage your affair. I have your parchment safely +locked up in London.—O, Madam Stella, welcome home; was it +pleasant riding? did your horse stumble? how often did the man +light to settle your stirrup? ride nine miles! faith, you have +galloped indeed. Well, but where is the fine thing you +promised me? I have been a good boy, ask Dingley +else. I believe you did not meet the fine-thing-man: faith, +you are a cheat. So you will see Raymond and his wife in +town. Faith, that riding to Laracor gives me short sighs, +as well as you. All the days I have passed here have been +dirt to those. I have been gaining enemies by the scores, +and friends by the couples; which is against the rules of wisdom, +because they say one enemy can do more hurt than ten friends can +do good. But I have had my revenge at least, if I get +nothing else. And so let Fate govern.—Now I think +your letter is answered; and mine will be shorter than ordinary, +because it must go to-day. We have had a great deal of +scattering rain for some days past, yet it hardly keeps down the +dust.—We have plays acted in our town; and Patrick was at +one of them, oh oh. He was damnably mauled one day when he +was drunk; he was at cuffs with a brother-footman, who dragged +him along the floor upon his face, which looked for a week after +as if he had the leprosy; and I was glad enough to see it. +I have been ten times sending him over to you; yet now he has new +clothes, and a laced hat, which the hatter brought by his orders, +and he offered to pay for the lace out of his wages.—I am +to dine <a name="page244"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +244</span>to-day with Dilly at Sir Andrew Fountaine’s, who +has bought a new house, and will be weary of it in half a +year. I must rise and shave, and walk to town, unless I go +with the Dean in his chariot at twelve, which is too late: and I +have not seen that Lord Peterborow yet. The Duke of +Shrewsbury is almost well again, and will be abroad in a day or +two: what care you? There it is now: you do not care for my +friends. Farewell, my dearest lives and delights; I love +you better than ever, if possible, as hope saved, I do, and ever +will. God Almighty bless you ever, and make us happy +together! I pray for this twice every day; and I hope God +will hear my poor hearty prayers.—Remember, if I am used +ill and ungratefully, as I have formerly been, ’tis what I +am prepared for, and shall not wonder at it. Yet I am now +envied, and thought in high favour, and have every day numbers of +considerable men teasing me to solicit for them. And the +Ministry all use me perfectly well; and all that know them say +they love me. Yet I can count upon nothing, nor will, but +upon MD’s love and kindness.—They think me useful; +they pretended they were afraid of none but me, and that they +resolved to have me; they have often confessed this: yet all +makes little impression on me.—Pox of these speculations! +they give me the spleen; and that is a disease I was not born +to. Let me alone, sirrahs, and be satisfied: I am, as long +as MD and Presto are well.</p> +<blockquote><p>Little wealth,<br /> +And much health,<br /> +And a life by stealth:</p> +</blockquote> +<p>that is all we want; and so farewell, dearest MD; Stella, +Dingley, Presto, all together, now and for ever all +together. Farewell again and again.</p> +<h3><a name="page245"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +245</span>LETTER XXVI.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Chelsea</span>, +<i>June</i> 30, 1711.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">See</span> what large paper I am forced to +take, to write to MD; Patrick has brought me none clipped; but, +faith, the next shall be smaller. I dined to-day, as I told +you, with Dilly at Sir Andrew Fountaine’s: there were we +wretchedly punning, and writing together to Lord Pembroke. +Dilly is just such a puppy as ever; and it is so uncouth, after +so long an intermission. My twenty-fifth is gone this +evening to the post. I think I will direct my next (which +is this) to Mr. Curry’s, and let them send it to Wexford; +and then the next enclosed to Reading. Instruct me how I +shall do. I long to hear from you from Wexford, and what +sort of place it is. The town grows very empty and +dull. This evening I have had a letter from Mr. Philips, +the pastoral poet, to get him a certain employment from Lord +Treasurer. I have now had almost all the Whig poets my +solicitors; and I have been useful to Congreve, Steele, and +Harrison: but I will do nothing for Philips; I find he is more a +puppy than ever, so don’t solicit for him. Besides, I +will not trouble Lord Treasurer, unless upon some very +extraordinary occasion.</p> +<p>July 1. Dilly lies conveniently for me when I come to +town from Chelsea of a Sunday, and go to the Secretary’s; +so I called at his lodgings this morning, and sent for my gown, +and dressed myself there. He had a letter from the Bishop, +with an account that you were set out for Wexford the morning he +writ, which was June 26, and he had the letter the 30th; that was +very quick: the Bishop says you design to stay there two months +or more. Dilly had also a letter from Tom Ashe, full of +Irish news; that your Lady Lyndon <a name="citation245a"></a><a +href="#footnote245a" class="citation">[245a]</a> is dead, and I +know not what besides of Dr. Coghill <a +name="citation245b"></a><a href="#footnote245b" +class="citation">[245b]</a> losing <a name="page246"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 246</span>his drab, etc. The Secretary +was gone to Windsor, and I dined with Mrs. Vanhomrigh. Lord +Treasurer is at Windsor too; they will be going and coming all +summer, while the Queen is there, and the town is empty, and I +fear I shall be sometimes forced to stoop beneath my dignity, and +send to the ale-house for a dinner. Well, sirrahs, had you +a good journey to Wexford? did you drink ale by the way? were you +never overturned? how many things did you forget? do you lie on +straw in your new town where you are? Cudshoe, <a +name="citation246"></a><a href="#footnote246" +class="citation">[246]</a> the next letter to Presto will be +dated from Wexford. What fine company have you there? what +new acquaintance have you got? You are to write constantly +to Mrs. Walls and Mrs. Stoyte: and the Dean said, “Shall we +never hear from you?” “Yes, Mr. Dean, +we’ll make bold to trouble you with a letter.” +Then at Wexford; when you meet a lady, “Did your waters +pass well this morning, madam?” Will Dingley drink +them too? Yes, I warrant; to get her a stomach. I +suppose you are all gamesters at Wexford. Do not lose your +money, sirrah, far from home. I believe I shall go to +Windsor in a few days; at least, the Secretary tells me so. +He has a small house there, with just room enough for him and me; +and I would be satisfied to pass a few days there +sometimes. Sirrahs, let me go to sleep, it is past twelve +in our town.</p> +<p>2. Sterne came to me this morning, and tells me he has +yet some hopes of compassing his business: he was with Tom +Harley, the secretary of the Treasury, and made him doubt a +little he was in the wrong; the poor man tells me it will almost +undo him if he fails. I called this morning to see Will +Congreve, who lives much by himself, is forced to read <a +name="page247"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 247</span>for +amusement, and cannot do it without a magnifying-glass. I +have set him very well with the Ministry, and I hope he is in no +danger of losing his place. I dined in the City with Dr. +Freind, not among my merchants, but with a scrub instrument of +mischief of mine, whom I never mentioned to you, nor am like to +do. You two little saucy Wexfordians, you are now drinking +waters. You drink waters! you go fiddlestick. Pray +God send them to do you good; if not, faith, next summer you +shall come to the Bath.</p> +<p>3. Lord Peterborow desired to see me this morning at +nine; I had not seen him before since he came home. I met +Mrs. Manley <a name="citation247a"></a><a href="#footnote247a" +class="citation">[247a]</a> there, who was soliciting him to get +some pension or reward for her service in the cause, by writing +her <i>Atalantis</i>, and prosecution, etc., upon it. I +seconded her, and hope they will do something for the poor +woman. My lord kept me two hours upon politics: he comes +home very sanguine; he has certainly done great things at Savoy +and Vienna, by his negotiations: he is violent against a peace, +and finds true what I writ to him, that the Ministry seems for +it. He reasons well; yet I am for a peace. I took +leave of Lady Kerry, who goes to-morrow for Ireland; she picks up +Lord Shelburne and Mrs. Pratt at Lord Shelburne’s +house. I was this evening with Lord Treasurer: Tom Harley +was there, and whispered me that he began to doubt about +Sterne’s business; I told him he would find he was in the +wrong. I sat two or three hours at Lord Treasurer’s; +he rallied me sufficiently upon my refusing to take him into our +Club, and told a judge who was with us that my name was Thomas +Swift. I had a mind to prevent Sir H. Belasyse <a +name="citation247b"></a><a href="#footnote247b" +class="citation">[247b]</a> <a name="page248"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 248</span>going to Spain, who is a most +covetous cur, and I fell a railing against avarice, and turned it +so that he smoked me, and named Belasyse. I went on, and +said it was a shame to send him; to which he agreed, but desired +I would name some who understood business, and do not love money, +for he could not find them. I said there was something in a +Treasurer different from other men; that we ought not to make a +man a Bishop who does not love divinity, or a General who does +not love war; and I wondered why the Queen would make a man Lord +Treasurer who does not love money. He was mightily pleased +with what I said. He was talking of the First-Fruits of +England, and I took occasion to tell him that I would not for a +thousand pounds anybody but he had got them for Ireland, who got +them for England too. He bid me consider what a thousand +pounds was; I said I would have him to know I valued a thousand +pounds as little as he valued a million.—Is it not silly to +write all this? but it gives you an idea what our conversation is +with mixed company. I have taken a lodging in Suffolk +Street, and go to it on Thursday; and design to walk the Park and +the town, to supply my walking here: yet I will walk here +sometimes too, in a visit now and then to the Dean. <a +name="citation248"></a><a href="#footnote248" +class="citation">[248]</a> When I was almost at home, +Patrick told me he had two letters for me, and gave them to me in +the dark, yet I could see one of them was from saucy MD. I +went to visit the Dean for half an hour; and then came home, and +first read the other letter, which was from the Bishop of +Clogher, who tells me the Archbishop of Dublin mentioned in a +full assembly of the clergy the Queen’s granting the +First-Fruits, said it was done by the Lord Treasurer, and talked +much of my merit in it: but reading yours I find nothing of that: +perhaps the Bishop lies, out of a desire to please me. I +dined with Mrs. Vanhomrigh. Well, sirrahs, you are gone to +Wexford; but I’ll follow you.</p> +<p>4. Sterne came to me again this morning, to advise about +reasons and memorials he is drawing up; and we went to <a +name="page249"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 249</span>town by +water together; and having nothing to do, I stole into the City +to an instrument of mine, and then went to see poor Patty Rolt, +<a name="citation249a"></a><a href="#footnote249a" +class="citation">[249a]</a> who has been in town these two months +with a cousin of hers. Her life passes with boarding in +some country town as cheap as she can, and, when she runs out, +shifting to some cheaper place, or coming to town for a +month. If I were rich, I would ease her, which a little +thing would do. Some months ago I sent her a guinea, and it +patched up twenty circumstances. She is now going to +Berkhamstead in Hertfordshire. It has rained and hailed +prodigiously to-day, with some thunder. This is the last +night I lie at Chelsea; and I got home early, and sat two hours +with the Dean, and ate victuals, having had a very scurvy +dinner. I’ll answer your letter when I come to live +in town. You shall have a fine London answer: but first I +will go sleep, and dream of MD.</p> +<p>London, July 5. This day I left Chelsea for good +(that’s a genteel phrase), and am got into Suffolk +Street. I dined to-day at our Society, and we are adjourned +for a month, because most of us go into the country: we dined at +Lord Keeper’s with young Harcourt, and Lord Keeper was +forced to sneak off, and dine with Lord Treasurer, who had +invited the Secretary and me to dine with him; but we scorned to +leave our company, as George Granville did, whom we have +threatened to expel: however, in the evening I went to Lord +Treasurer, and, among other company, found a couple of judges +with him; one of them, Judge Powell, <a +name="citation249b"></a><a href="#footnote249b" +class="citation">[249b]</a> an old fellow with grey hairs, was +the merriest old gentleman I ever saw, spoke pleasant things, and +laughed and chuckled till he cried again. I stayed till +eleven, because I was not now to walk to Chelsea.</p> +<p>6. An ugly rainy day. I was to visit Mrs. Barton, +then called at Mrs. Vanhomrigh’s, where Sir Andrew +Fountaine and the rain kept me to dinner; and there did I loiter +all <a name="page250"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 250</span>the +afternoon, like a fool, out of perfect laziness, and the weather +not permitting me to walk: but I’ll do so no more. +Are your waters at Wexford good in this rain? I long to +hear how you are established there, how and whom you visit, what +is your lodging, what are your entertainments. You are got +far southwards; but I think you must eat no fruit while you drink +the waters. I ate some Kentish cherries t’other day, +and I repent it already; I have felt my head a little +disordered. We had not a hot day all June, or since, which +I reckon a mighty happiness. Have you left a direction with +Reading for Wexford? I will, as I said, direct this to +Curry’s, and the next to Reading; or suppose I send this at +a venture straight to Wexford? It would vex me to have it +miscarry. I had a letter to-night from Parvisol, that White +has paid me most of my remaining money; and another from Joe, +that they have had their election at Trim, but not a word of who +is chosen portreeve. <a name="citation250a"></a><a +href="#footnote250a" class="citation">[250a]</a> Poor Joe +is full of complaints, says he has enemies, and fears he will +never get his two hundred pounds; and I fear so too, although I +have done what I could.—I’ll answer your letter when +I think fit, when saucy Presto thinks fit, sirrahs. I am +not at leisure yet; when I have nothing to do, perhaps I may +vouchsafe.—O Lord, the two Wexford ladies; I’ll go +dream of you both.</p> +<p>7. It was the dismallest rainy day I ever saw: I went to +the Secretary in the morning, and he was gone to Windsor. +Then it began raining, and I struck in to Mrs. +Vanhomrigh’s, and dined, and stayed till night very dull +and insipid. I hate this town in summer; I’ll leave +it for a while, if I can have time.</p> +<p>8. I have a fellow of your town, one Tisdall, <a +name="citation250b"></a><a href="#footnote250b" +class="citation">[250b]</a> lodges in the <a +name="page251"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 251</span>same house +with me. Patrick told me Squire Tisdall and his lady lodged +here. I pretended I never heard of him; but I knew his ugly +face, and saw him at church in the next pew to me, and he often +looked for a bow, but it would not do. I think he lives in +Capel Street, and has an ugly fine wife in a fine coach. +Dr. Freind and I dined in the City by invitation, and I drank +punch, very good, but it makes me hot. People here are +troubled with agues by this continuance of wet, cold weather; but +I am glad to find the season so temperate. I was this +evening to see Will Congreve, who is a very agreeable +companion.</p> +<p>9. I was to-day in the City, and dined with Mr. +Stratford, who tells me Sir Alexander Cairnes makes difficulties +about paying my bill; so that I cannot give order yet to Parvisol +to deliver up the bond to Dr. Raymond. To-morrow I shall +have a positive answer: that Cairnes is a shuffling scoundrel; +and several merchants have told me so: what can one expect from a +Scot and a fanatic? I was at Bateman’s the +bookseller’s, to see a fine old library he has bought; and +my fingers itched, as yours would do at a china-shop; but I +resisted, and found everything too dear, and I have fooled away +too much money that way already. So go and drink your +waters, saucy rogue, and make yourself well; and pray walk while +you are there: I have a notion there is never a good walk in +Ireland. <a name="citation251"></a><a href="#footnote251" +class="citation">[251]</a> Do you find all places without +trees? Pray observe the inhabitants about Wexford; they are +old English; see what they have particular in their manners, +names, and language: magpies have been always there, and nowhere +else in Ireland, till of late years. They say the cocks and +dogs go to sleep at noon, and so do the people. Write your +travels, and bring home good eyes and health.</p> +<p>10. I dined to-day with Lord Treasurer: we did not sit +down till four. I despatched three businesses with him, and +forgot a fourth. I think I have got a friend an employment; +and besides I made him consent to let me bring Congreve to <a +name="page252"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 252</span>dine with +him. You must understand I have a mind to do a small thing, +only turn out all the Queen’s physicians; for in my +conscience they will soon kill her among them. And I must +talk over that matter with some people. My Lord Treasurer +told me the Queen and he between them have lost the paper about +the First-Fruits, but desires I will let the bishops know it +shall be done with the first opportunity.</p> +<p>11. I dined to-day with neighbour Van, and walked pretty +well in the Park this evening. Stella, hussy, don’t +you remember, sirrah, you used to reproach me about meddling in +other folk’s affairs? I have enough of it now: two +people came to me to-night in the Park to engage to speak to Lord +Treasurer in their behalf, and I believe they make up fifty who +have asked me the same favour. I am hardened, and resolve +to trouble him, or any other Minister, less than ever. And +I observe those who have ten times more credit than I will not +speak a word for anybody. I met yesterday the poor lad I +told you of, who lived with Mr. Tenison, <a +name="citation252a"></a><a href="#footnote252a" +class="citation">[252a]</a> who has been ill of an ague ever +since I saw him. He looked wretchedly, and was exceeding +thankful for half a crown I gave him. He had a crown from +me before.</p> +<p>12. I dined to-day with young Manley <a +name="citation252b"></a><a href="#footnote252b" +class="citation">[252b]</a> in the City, who is to get me out a +box of books and a hamper of wine from Hamburg. I inquired +of Mr. Stratford, who tells me that Cairnes has not yet paid my +two hundred pounds, but shams and delays from day to day. +Young Manley’s wife is a very indifferent person of a young +woman, goggle-eyed, and looks like a fool: yet he is a handsome +fellow, and married her for love after long courtship, and she +refused him until he got his last employment.—I believe I +shall not be so good a boy for writing as I was during your stay +at Wexford, unless I may send my letters every second time to +Curry’s; pray let me know. This, I think, shall go +there: or why not to Wexford itself? That is right, and so +it shall this next Tuesday, although it costs you tenpence. +What care I?</p> +<p><a name="page253"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +253</span>13. This toad of a Secretary is come from +Windsor, and I cannot find him; and he goes back on Sunday, and I +can’t see him to-morrow. I dined scurvily to-day with +Mr. Lewis and a parson; and then went to see Lord Treasurer, and +met him coming from his house in his coach: he smiled, and I +shrugged, and we smoked each other; and so my visit is +paid. I now confine myself to see him only twice a week: he +has invited me to Windsor, and betwixt two stools, etc. I +will go live at Windsor, if possible, that’s pozzz. I +have always the luck to pass my summer in London. I called +this evening to see poor Sir Matthew Dudley, a Commissioner of +the Customs; I know he is to be out for certain: he is in hopes +of continuing: I would not tell him bad news, but advised him to +prepare for the worst. Dilly was with me this morning, to +invite me to dine at Kensington on Sunday with Lord Mountjoy, who +goes soon for Ireland. Your late Chief-Justice Broderick <a +name="citation253a"></a><a href="#footnote253a" +class="citation">[253a]</a> is here, and they say violent as a +tiger. How is party among you at Wexford? Are the +majority of ladies for the late or present Ministry? Write +me Wexford news, and love Presto, because he is a good boy.</p> +<p>14. Although it was shaving-day, I walked to Chelsea, +and was there by nine this morning; and the Dean of Carlisle and +I crossed the water to Battersea, and went in his chariot to +Greenwich, where we dined at Dr. Gastrell’s, and passed the +afternoon at Lewisham, at the Dean of Canterbury’s; <a +name="citation253b"></a><a href="#footnote253b" +class="citation">[253b]</a> and there I saw Moll Stanhope, <a +name="citation253c"></a><a href="#footnote253c" +class="citation">[253c]</a> who is grown monstrously tall, but +not so handsome as formerly. It is the first little +rambling journey I have had this summer about London, and they +are the agreeablest pastimes one can have, in a friend’s +coach, and to good company. Bank Stock is fallen three or +four per cent. by the whispers about the town of the +Queen’s being ill, who is however very well.</p> +<p>15. How many books have you carried with you to <a +name="page254"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +254</span>Wexford? What, not one single book? Oh, but +your time will be so taken up; and you can borrow of the +parson. I dined to-day with Sir Andrew Fountaine and Dilly +at Kensington with Lord Mountjoy; and in the afternoon Stratford +came there, and told me my two hundred pounds were paid at last; +so that business is over, and I am at ease about it; and I wish +all your money was in the Bank too. I will have my other +hundred pounds there, that is in Hawkshaw’s hands. +Have you had the interest of it paid yet? I ordered +Parvisol to do it. What makes Presto write so +crooked? I will answer your letter to-morrow, and send it +on Tuesday. Here’s hot weather come again, yesterday +and to-day: fine drinking waters now. We had a sad pert +dull parson at Kensington to-day. I almost repent my coming +to town; I want the walks I had.</p> +<p>16. I dined in the City to-day with a hedge <a +name="citation254"></a><a href="#footnote254" +class="citation">[254]</a> acquaintance, and the day passed +without any consequence. I will answer your letter +to-morrow.</p> +<p>17. Morning. I have put your letter before me, and +am going to answer it. Hold your tongue: stand by. +Your weather and ours were not alike; we had not a bit of hot +weather in June, yet you complain of it on the 19th day. +What, you used to love hot weather then? I could never +endure it: I detest and abominate it. I would not live in a +hot country, to be king of it. What a splutter you keep +about my bonds with Raymond, and all to affront Presto! +Presto will be suspicious of everything but MD, in spite of your +little nose. Soft and fair, Madam Stella, how you gallop +away, in your spleen and your rage, about repenting my journey, +and preferment here, and sixpence a dozen, and nasty England, and +Laracor all my life. Hey-dazy, will you never have +done? I had no offers of any living. Lord Keeper told +me some months ago he would give me one when I pleased; but I +told him I would not take any from him; and the Secretary told me +t’other day he had <a name="page255"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 255</span>refused a very good one for me, but +it was in a place he did not like; and I know nothing of getting +anything here, and, if they would give me leave, I would come +over just now. Addison, I hear, has changed his mind about +going over; but I have not seen him these four months.—Oh +ay, that’s true, Dingley; that’s like herself: +millions of businesses to do before she goes. Yes, my head +has been pretty well, but threatening within these two or three +days, which I impute to some fruit I ate; but I will eat no more: +not a bit of any sort. I suppose you had a journey without +dust, and that was happy. I long for a Wexford letter, but +must not think of it yet: your last was finished but three weeks +ago. It is d—d news you tell me of Mrs. F—; it +makes me love England less a great deal. I know nothing of +the trunk being left or taken; so ’tis odd enough, if the +things in it were mine; and I think I was told that there are +some things for me that my mother left particularly to me. +I am really sorry for —; that scoundrel — will have +his estate after his mother’s death. Let me know if +Mrs. Walls has got her tea: I hope Richardson <a +name="citation255a"></a><a href="#footnote255a" +class="citation">[255a]</a> stayed in Dublin till it came. +Mrs. Walls needed not have that blemish in her eye; for I am not +in love with her at all. No, I do not like anything in the +<i>Examiner</i> after the 45th, except the first part of the +46th; <a name="citation255b"></a><a href="#footnote255b" +class="citation">[255b]</a> all the rest is trash; and if you +like them, especially the 47th, your judgment is spoiled by ill +company and want of reading, which I am more sorry for than you +think: and I have spent fourteen years in improving you to little +purpose. (Mr. Tooke is come here, and I must +stop.)—At night. I dined with Lord Treasurer to-day, +and he kept me till nine; so I cannot send this to-night, as I +intended, nor write some other letters. Green, <a +name="citation255c"></a><a href="#footnote255c" +class="citation">[255c]</a> his surgeon, was there, and dressed +his breast; that is, put on a plaster, which is still requisite: +and I took an opportunity to speak to him of the Queen; but he +cut me short with this saying, “<i>Laissez faire à +Don Antoine</i>,” which is a French proverb, expressing, +“Leave that to me.” I find he is <a +name="page256"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 256</span>against her +taking much physic; and I doubt he cannot persuade her to take +Dr. Radcliffe. However, she is very well now, and all the +story of her illness, except the first day or two, was a +lie. We had some business, that company hindered us from +doing, though he is earnest for it, yet would not appoint me a +certain day, but bids me come at all times till we can have +leisure. This takes up a great deal of my time, and I can +do nothing I would do for them. I was with the Secretary +this morning, and we both think to go to Windsor for some days, +to despatch an affair, if we can have leisure. Sterne met +me just now in the street by his lodgings, and I went in for an +hour to Jemmy Leigh, who loves London dearly: he asked after you +with great respect and friendship.—To return to your +letter. Your Bishop Mills <a name="citation256a"></a><a +href="#footnote256a" class="citation">[256a]</a> hates me +mortally: I wonder he should speak well of me, having abused me +in all places where he went. So you pay your way. +Cudsho: you had a fine supper, I warrant; two pullets, and a +bottle of wine, and some currants.—It is just three weeks +to-day since you set out to Wexford; you were three days going, +and I do not expect a letter these ten days yet, or rather this +fortnight. I got a grant of the <i>Gazette</i> <a +name="citation256b"></a><a href="#footnote256b" +class="citation">[256b]</a> for Ben Tooke this morning from Mr. +Secretary: it will be worth to him a hundred pounds a year.</p> +<p>18. To-day I took leave of Mrs. Barton, who is going +into the country; and I dined with Sir John Stanley, <a +name="citation256c"></a><a href="#footnote256c" +class="citation">[256c]</a> where I have not been this great +while. There dined with us Lord Rochester, and his fine +daughter, Lady Jane, <a name="citation256d"></a><a +href="#footnote256d" class="citation">[256d]</a> just growing a +top-toast. I have been endeavouring to save Sir Matthew <a +name="page257"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 257</span>Dudley, <a +name="citation257a"></a><a href="#footnote257a" +class="citation">[257a]</a> but fear I cannot. I walked the +Mall six times to-night for exercise, and would have done more; +but, as empty as the town is, a fool got hold of me, and so I +came home, to tell you this shall go to-morrow, without fail, and +follow you to Wexford, like a dog.</p> +<p>19. Dean Atterbury sent to me to dine with him at +Chelsea. I refused his coach, and walked, and am come back +by seven, because I would finish this letter, and some others I +am writing. Patrick tells me the maid says one Mr. Walls, a +clergyman, a tall man, was here to visit me. Is it your +Irish Archdeacon? I shall be sorry for it; but I shall make +shift to see him seldom enough, as I do Dilly. What can he +do here? or is it somebody else? The Duke of Newcastle <a +name="citation257b"></a><a href="#footnote257b" +class="citation">[257b]</a> is dead by the fall he had from his +horse. God send poor Stella her health, and keep MD +happy! Farewell, and love Presto, who loves MD above all +things ten million of times. God bless the dear Wexford +girls. Farewell again, etc. etc.</p> +<h3>LETTER XXVII.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>July</i> 19, 1711.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> just sent my 26th, and have +nothing to say, because I have other letters to write (pshaw, I +began too high); but I must lay the beginning like a nest-egg: +to-morrow I will say more, and fetch up this line to be +straight. This is enough at present for two dear saucy +naughty girls.</p> +<p>20. Have I told you that Walls has been with me, and +leaves the town in three days? He has brought no gown with +him. Dilly carried him to a play. He has come upon a +foolish errand, and goes back as he comes. I was this day +<a name="page258"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 258</span>with +Lord Peterborow, who is going another ramble: I believe I told +you so. I dined with Lord Treasurer, but cannot get him to +do his own business with me; he has put me off till +to-morrow.</p> +<p>21, 22. I dined yesterday with Lord Treasurer, who would +needs take me along with him to Windsor, although I refused him +several times, having no linen, etc. I had just time to +desire Lord Forbes <a name="citation258a"></a><a +href="#footnote258a" class="citation">[258a]</a> to call at my +lodging and order my man to send my things to-day to Windsor by +his servant. I lay last night at the Secretary’s +lodgings at Windsor, and borrowed one of his shirts to go to +Court in. The Queen is very well. I dined with Mr. +Masham; and not hearing anything of my things, I got Lord +Winchelsea to bring me to town. Here I found that Patrick +had broke open the closet to get my linen and nightgown, and sent +them to Windsor, and there they are; and he, not thinking I would +return so soon, is gone upon his rambles: so here I am left +destitute, and forced to borrow a nightgown of my landlady, and +have not a rag to put on to-morrow: faith, it gives me the +spleen.</p> +<p>23. Morning. It is a terrible rainy day, and +rained prodigiously on Saturday night. Patrick lay out last +night, and is not yet returned: faith, poor Presto is a desolate +creature; neither servant, nor linen, nor +anything.—Night. Lord Forbes’s man has brought +back my portmantua, and Patrick is come; so I am in Christian +circumstances: I shall hardly commit such a frolic again. I +just crept out to Mrs. Van’s, and dined, and stayed there +the afternoon: it has rained all this day. Windsor is a +delicious place: I never saw it before, except for an hour about +seventeen years ago. Walls has been here in my absence, I +suppose, to take his leave; for he designed not to stay above +five days in London. He says he and his wife will come here +for some months next year; and, in short, he dares not stay now +for fear of her.</p> +<p>24. I dined to-day with a hedge <a +name="citation258b"></a><a href="#footnote258b" +class="citation">[258b]</a> friend in the City; and <a +name="page259"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 259</span>Walls +overtook me in the street, and told me he was just getting on +horseback for Chester. He has as much curiosity as a cow: +he lodged with his horse in Aldersgate Street: he has bought his +wife a silk gown, and himself a hat. And what are you +doing? what is poor MD doing now? how do you pass your time at +Wexford? how do the waters agree with you? Let Presto know +soon; for Presto longs to know, and must know. Is not Madam +Proby curious company? I am afraid this rainy weather will +spoil your waters. We have had a great deal of wet these +three days. Tell me all the particulars of Wexford: the +place, the company, the diversions, the victuals, the wants, the +vexations. Poor Dingley never saw such a place in her life; +sent all over the town for a little parsley to a boiled chicken, +and it was not to be had; the butter is stark naught, except an +old English woman’s; and it is such a favour to get a pound +from her now and then! I am glad you carried down your +sheets with you, else you must have lain in sackcloth. O +Lord!</p> +<p>25. I was this forenoon with Mr. Secretary at his +office, and helped to hinder a man of his pardon, who is +condemned for a rape. The Under Secretary was willing to +save him, upon an old notion that a woman cannot be ravished; but +I told the Secretary he could not pardon him without a favourable +report from the judge; besides, he was a fiddler, and +consequently a rogue, and deserved hanging for some thing else; +and so he shall swing. What, I must stand up for the honour +of the fair sex! ’Tis true the fellow had lain with +her a hundred times before, but what care I for that! What, +must a woman be ravished because she is a whore?—The +Secretary and I go on Saturday to Windsor for a week. I +dined with Lord Treasurer, and stayed with him till past +ten. I was to-day at his levee, where I went against my +custom, because I had a mind to do a good office for a gentleman: +so I talked with him before my lord, that he might see me, and +then found occasion to recommend him this afternoon. I was +forced to excuse my coming to the levee, <a +name="page260"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 260</span>that I did +it to see the sight; for he was going to chide me away: I had +never been there but once, and that was long before he was +Treasurer. The rooms were all full, and as many Whigs as +Tories. He whispered me a jest or two, and bid me come to +dinner. I left him but just now; and ’tis late.</p> +<p>26. Mr. Addison and I have at last met again. I +dined with him and Steele to-day at young Jacob +Tonson’s. The two Jacobs <a +name="citation260a"></a><a href="#footnote260a" +class="citation">[260a]</a> think it is I who have made the +Secretary take from them the printing of the <i>Gazette</i>, +which they are going to lose, and Ben Tooke and another <a +name="citation260b"></a><a href="#footnote260b" +class="citation">[260b]</a> are to have it. Jacob came to +me the other day, to make his court; but I told him it was too +late, and that it was not my doing. I reckon they will lose +it in a week or two. Mr. Addison and I talked as usual, and +as if we had seen one another yesterday; and Steele and I were +very easy, though I writ him lately a biting letter, in answer to +one of his, where he desired me to recommend a friend of his to +Lord Treasurer. Go, get you gone to your waters, +sirrah. Do they give you a stomach? Do you eat +heartily?—We have had much rain to-day and yesterday.</p> +<p>27. I dined to-day in the City, and saw poor Patty Rolt, +and gave her a pistole to help her a little forward against she +goes to board in the country. She has but eighteen pounds a +year to live on, and is forced to seek out for cheap +places. Sometimes they raise their price, and sometimes +they starve her, and then she is forced to shift. Patrick +the puppy put too much ink in my standish, <a +name="citation260c"></a><a href="#footnote260c" +class="citation">[260c]</a> and, carrying too many things +together, I spilled it on my paper and floor. The town is +dull, wet, and empty; Wexford is worth two of it; I hope so at +least, and that poor little MD finds it so. I reckon upon +<a name="page261"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 261</span>going to +Windsor to-morrow with Mr. Secretary, unless he changes his mind, +or some other business prevents him. I shall stay there a +week, I hope.</p> +<p>28. Morning. Mr. Secretary sent me word he will +call at my lodgings by two this afternoon, to take me to Windsor; +so I must dine nowhere; and I promised Lord Treasurer to dine +with him to-day; but I suppose we shall dine at Windsor at five, +for we make but three hours there. <a name="citation261a"></a><a +href="#footnote261a" class="citation">[261a]</a> I am going +abroad, but have left Patrick to put up my things, and to be sure +to be at home half an hour before two.—Windsor, at +night. We did not leave London till three, and dined here +between six and seven; at nine I left the company, and went to +see Lord Treasurer, who is just come. I chid him for coming +so late; he chid me for not dining with him; said he stayed an +hour for me. Then I went and sat with Mr. Lewis till just +now, and it is past eleven. I lie in the same house with +the Secretary, one of the Prebendary’s houses. The +Secretary is not come from his apartment in the Castle. Do +you think that abominable dog Patrick was out after two to-day, +and I in a fright every moment, for fear the chariot should come; +and when he came in, he had not put up one rag of my +things! I never was in a greater passion, and would +certainly have cropped one of his ears, if I had not looked every +moment for the Secretary, who sent his equipage to my lodging +before, and came in a chair from Whitehall to me, and happened to +stay half an hour later than he intended. One of Lord +Treasurer’s servants gave me a letter to-night: I found it +was from —, with an offer of fifty pounds, to be paid me in +what manner I pleased; because, he said, he desired to be well +with me. I was in a rage; <a name="citation261b"></a><a +href="#footnote261b" class="citation">[261b]</a> but my friend +Lewis cooled me, and said it is what the best men sometimes meet +with; and I have been not seldom served in the like manner, +although not so grossly. In these cases I never demur a +moment, nor ever found the least inclination to take +anything. Well, I will go try to sleep in my new bed, and +to <a name="page262"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 262</span>dream +of poor Wexford MD, and Stella that drinks water, and Dingley +that drinks ale.</p> +<p>29. I was at Court and church to-day, as I was this day +se’ennight: I generally am acquainted with about thirty in +the drawing-room, and I am so proud I make all the lords come up +to me: one passes half an hour pleasant enough. We had a +dunce to preach before the Queen to-day, which often +happens. Windsor is a delicious situation, but the town is +scoundrel. I have this morning got the <i>Gazette</i> for +Ben Tooke and one Barber a printer; it will be about three +hundred pounds a year between them. The other fellow was +printer of the <i>Examiner</i>, which is now laid down. <a +name="citation262a"></a><a href="#footnote262a" +class="citation">[262a]</a> I dined with the Secretary: we +were a dozen in all, three Scotch lords, and Lord +Peterborow. The Duke of Hamilton <a +name="citation262b"></a><a href="#footnote262b" +class="citation">[262b]</a> would needs be witty, and hold up my +train as I walked upstairs. It is an ill circumstance that +on Sundays much company always meet at the great tables. +Lord Treasurer told at Court what I said to Mr. Secretary on this +occasion. The Secretary showed me his bill of fare, to +encourage me to dine with him. “Poh,” said I, +“show me a bill of company, for I value not your +dinner.” See how this is all blotted, <a +name="citation262c"></a><a href="#footnote262c" +class="citation">[262c]</a> I can write no more here, but to tell +you I love MD dearly, and God bless them.</p> +<p>30. In my conscience, I fear I shall have the +gout. I sometimes feel pains about my feet and toes: I +never drank till within these two years, and I did it to cure my +head. I often sit evenings with some of these people, and +drink in my turn; but I am now resolved to drink ten times less +than before; but they advise me to let what I drink be all wine, +and not to put water to it. Tooke and the printer stayed +to-day to <a name="page263"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +263</span>finish their affair, and treated me and two of the +Under Secretaries upon their getting the <i>Gazette</i>. +Then I went to see Lord Treasurer, and chid him for not taking +notice of me at Windsor. He said he kept a place for me +yesterday at dinner, and expected me there; but I was glad I did +not go, because the Duke of Buckingham was there, and that would +have made us acquainted; which I have no mind to. However, +we appointed to sup at Mr. Masham’s, and there stayed till +past one o’clock; and that is late, sirrahs: and I have +much business.</p> +<p>31. I have sent a noble haunch of venison this afternoon +to Mrs. Vanhomrigh: I wish you had it, sirrahs. I dined +gravely with my landlord the Secretary. The Queen was +abroad to-day in order to hunt; but, finding it disposed to rain, +she kept in her coach; she hunts in a chaise with one horse, +which she drives herself, and drives furiously, like Jehu, and is +a mighty hunter, like Nimrod. Dingley has heard of Nimrod, +but not Stella, for it is in the Bible. I was to-day at +Eton, which is but just cross the bridge, to see my Lord +Kerry’s son, <a name="citation263"></a><a +href="#footnote263" class="citation">[263]</a> who is at school +there. Mr. Secretary has given me a warrant for a buck; I +can’t send it to MD. It is a sad thing, faith, +considering how Presto loves MD, and how MD would love +Presto’s venison for Presto’s sake. God bless +the two dear Wexford girls!</p> +<p>Aug. 1. We had for dinner the fellow of that haunch of +venison I sent to London; ’twas mighty fat and good, and +eight people at dinner; that was bad. The Queen and I were +going to take the air this afternoon, but not together; and were +both hindered by a sudden rain. Her coaches and chaises all +went back, and the guards too; and I scoured into the +market-place for shelter. I intended to have walked up the +finest avenue I ever saw, two miles long, with two rows of elms +on each side. I walked in the evening a little upon the +terrace, and came home at eight: Mr. Secretary came soon after, +and we were engaging in deep discourse, and I was endeavouring to +settle some points of the greatest consequence, <a +name="page264"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 264</span>and had +wormed myself pretty well into him, when his Under Secretary came +in (who lodges in the same house with us) and interrupted all my +scheme. I have just left him: it is late, etc.</p> +<p>2. I have been now five days at Windsor, and Patrick has +been drunk three times that I have seen, and oftener I +believe. He has lately had clothes that have cost me five +pounds, and the dog thinks he has the whip-hand of me: he begins +to master me; so now I am resolved to part with him, and will use +him without the least pity. The Secretary and I have been +walking three or four hours to-day. The Duchess of +Shrewsbury <a name="citation264a"></a><a href="#footnote264a" +class="citation">[264a]</a> asked him, was not that +Dr.—Dr.— and she could not say my name in English, +but said Dr. Presto, which is Italian for Swift. Whimsical +enough, as Billy Swift <a name="citation264b"></a><a +href="#footnote264b" class="citation">[264b]</a> says. I go +to-morrow with the Secretary to his house at Bucklebury, +twenty-five miles from hence, and return early on Sunday +morning. I will leave this letter behind me locked up, and +give you an account of my journey when I return. I had a +letter yesterday from the Bishop of Clogher, who is coming up to +his Parliament. Have you any correspondence with him to +Wexford? Methinks, I now long for a letter from you, dated +Wexford, July 24, etc. O Lord, that would be so pretending; +<a name="citation264c"></a><a href="#footnote264c" +class="citation">[264c]</a> and then, says you, Stella +can’t write much, because it is bad to write when one +drinks the waters; and I think, says you, I find myself better +already, but I cannot tell yet whether it be the journey or the +waters. Presto is so silly to-night; yes he be; but Presto +loves MD dearly, as hope saved.</p> +<p>3. Morning. I am to go this day at noon, as I told +you, to Bucklebury: we dine at twelve, and expect to be there in +<a name="page265"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 265</span>four +hours. I cannot bid you good-night now, because I shall be +twenty-five miles from this paper to-night, and so my journal +must have a break; so good-morrow, etc.</p> +<p>4, 5. I dined yesterday at Bucklebury, where we lay two +nights, and set out this morning at eight, and were here at +twelve; in four hours we went twenty-six miles. Mr. +Secretary was a perfect country gentleman at Bucklebury: he +smoked tobacco with one or two neighbours; he inquired after the +wheat in such a field; he went to visit his hounds, and knew all +their names; he and his lady saw me to my chamber just in the +country fashion. His house is in the midst of near three +thousand pounds a year he had by his lady, <a +name="citation265"></a><a href="#footnote265" +class="citation">[265]</a> who is descended from Jack Newbury, of +whom books and ballads are written; and there is an old picture +of him in the house. She is a great favourite of +mine. I lost church to-day; but I dressed and shaved, and +went to Court, and would not dine with the Secretary, but engaged +myself to a private dinner with Mr. Lewis, and one friend +more. We go to London to-morrow; for Lord Dartmouth, the +other Secretary, is come, and they are here their weeks by +turns.</p> +<p>6. Lord Treasurer comes every Saturday to Windsor, and +goes away on Monday or Tuesday. I was with him this morning +at his levee, for one cannot see him otherwise here, he is so +hurried: we had some talk; and I told him I would stay this week +at Windsor by myself, where I can have more leisure to do some +business that concerns them. Lord Treasurer and the +Secretary thought to mortify me; for they told me they had been +talking a great deal of me to-day to the Queen, and she said she +had never heard of me. I told them that was their fault, +and not hers, etc., and so we laughed. I dined with the +Secretary, and let him go to London at five without me; and here +am I alone in the Prebendary’s house, which Mr. Secretary +has taken; only Mr. Lewis is in my neighbourhood, and we shall be +good company. <a name="page266"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 266</span>The Vice-Chamberlain, <a +name="citation266a"></a><a href="#footnote266a" +class="citation">[266a]</a> and Mr. Masham, and the Green Cloth, +<a name="citation266b"></a><a href="#footnote266b" +class="citation">[266b]</a> have promised me dinners. I +shall want but four till Mr. Secretary returns. We have a +music-meeting in our town to-night. I went to the rehearsal +of it, and there was Margarita, <a name="citation266c"></a><a +href="#footnote266c" class="citation">[266c]</a> and her sister, +and another drab, and a parcel of fiddlers: I was weary, and +would not go to the meeting, which I am sorry for, because I +heard it was a great assembly. Mr. Lewis came from it, and +sat with me till just now; and ’tis late.</p> +<p>7. I can do no business, I fear, because Mr. Lewis, who +has nothing or little to do here, sticks close to me. I +dined to-day with the gentlemen ushers, among scurvy company; but +the Queen was hunting the stag till four this afternoon, and she +drove in her chaise above forty miles, and it was five before we +went to dinner. Here are fine walks about this town. +I sometimes walk up the avenue.</p> +<p>8. There was a Drawing-room to-day at Court; but so few +company, that the Queen sent for us into her bed-chamber, where +we made our bows, and stood about twenty of us round the room, +while she looked at us round with her fan in her mouth, and once +a minute said about three words to some that were nearest her, +and then she was told dinner was ready, and went out. I +dined at the Green Cloth, by Mr. Scarborow’s <a +name="citation266d"></a><a href="#footnote266d" +class="citation">[266d]</a> invitation, who is in waiting. +It is much the best table in England, and costs the Queen a +thousand pounds a month while she is at Windsor or Hampton Court, +and is the only mark of magnificence or hospitality I can see in +the <a name="page267"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +267</span>Queen’s family: it is designed to entertain +foreign Ministers, and people of quality, who come to see the +Queen, and have no place to dine at.</p> +<p>9. Mr. Coke, the Vice-Chamberlain, made me a long visit +this morning, and invited me to dinner; but the toast, his lady, +<a name="citation267a"></a><a href="#footnote267a" +class="citation">[267a]</a> was unfortunately engaged to Lady +Sunderland. <a name="citation267b"></a><a href="#footnote267b" +class="citation">[267b]</a> Lord Treasurer stole here last +night, but did not lie at his lodgings in the Castle; and, after +seeing the Queen, went back again. I just drank a dish of +chocolate with him. I fancy I shall have reason to be angry +with him very soon; but what care I? I believe I shall die +with Ministries in my debt.—This night I received a certain +letter from a place called Wexford, from two dear naughty girls +of my acquaintance; but, faith, I will not answer it here, no in +troth. I will send this to Mr. Reading, supposing it will +find you returned; and I hope better for the waters.</p> +<p>10. Mr. Vice-Chamberlain lent me his horses to ride +about and see the country this morning. Dr. Arbuthnot, the +Queen’s physician and favourite, went out with me to show +me the places: we went a little after the Queen, and overtook +Miss Forester, <a name="citation267c"></a><a href="#footnote267c" +class="citation">[267c]</a> a maid of honour, on her palfrey, +taking the air; we made her go along with us. We saw a +place they have made for a famous horse-race to-morrow, where the +Queen will come. We met the Queen coming back, and Miss +Forester stood, like us, with her hat off while the Queen went +by. The Doctor and I left the lady where we found her, but +under other conductors; and we dined at a little <a +name="page268"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 268</span>place he +has taken, about a mile off.—When I came back I found Mr. +Scarborow had sent all about to invite me to the Green Cloth, and +lessened his company on purpose to make me easy. It is very +obliging, and will cost me thanks. Much company is come to +town this evening, to see to-morrow’s race. I was +tired with riding a trotting mettlesome horse a dozen miles, +having not been on horseback this twelvemonth. And Miss +Forester did not make it easier; she is a silly true maid of +honour, and I did not like her, although she be a toast, and was +dressed like a man. <a name="citation268a"></a><a +href="#footnote268a" class="citation">[268a]</a></p> +<p>11. I will send this letter to-day. I expect the +Secretary by noon. I will not go to the race unless I can +get room in some coach. It is now morning. I must +rise, and fold up and seal my letter. Farewell, and God +preserve dearest MD.</p> +<p>I believe I shall leave this town on Monday.</p> +<h3>LETTER XXVIII.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Windsor</span>, +<i>Aug.</i> 11, 1711.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">sent</span> away my twenty-seventh this +morning in an express to London, and directed to Mr. Reading: +this shall go to your lodgings, where I reckon you will be +returned before it reaches you. I intended to go to the +race <a name="citation268b"></a><a href="#footnote268b" +class="citation">[268b]</a> to-day, but was hindered by a visit: +I believe I told you so in my last. I dined to-day at the +Green Cloth, where everybody had been at the race but myself, and +we were twenty in all, and very noisy company; but I made the +Vice-Chamberlain and two friends more sit at a side table, to be +a little quiet. At six I went to see the Secretary, who is +returned; but Lord Keeper sent to desire I would sup with him, +where I stayed till just <a name="page269"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 269</span>now: Lord Treasurer and Secretary +were to come to us, but both failed. ’Tis late, +etc.</p> +<p>12. I was this morning to visit Lord Keeper, who made me +reproaches that I had never visited him at Windsor. He had +a present sent him of delicious peaches, and he was champing and +champing, but I durst not eat one; I wished Dingley had some of +them, for poor Stella can no more eat fruit than Presto. +Dilly Ashe is come to Windsor; and after church I carried him up +to the drawing-room, and talked to the Keeper and Treasurer, on +purpose to show them to him; and he saw the Queen and several +great lords, and the Duchess of Montagu; <a +name="citation269a"></a><a href="#footnote269a" +class="citation">[269a]</a> he was mighty happy, and resolves to +fill a letter to the Bishop. <a name="citation269b"></a><a +href="#footnote269b" class="citation">[269b]</a> My friend +Lewis and I dined soberly with Dr. Adams, <a +name="citation269c"></a><a href="#footnote269c" +class="citation">[269c]</a> the only neighbour prebendary. +One of the prebendaries here is lately a peer, by the death of +his father. He is now Lord Willoughby of Broke, <a +name="citation269d"></a><a href="#footnote269d" +class="citation">[269d]</a> and will sit in the House of Lords +with his gown. I supped to-night at Masham’s with +Lord Treasurer, Mr. Secretary, and Prior. The Treasurer +made us stay till twelve, before he came from the Queen, and +’tis now past two.</p> +<p>13. I reckoned upon going to London to-day; but by an +accident the Cabinet Council did not sit last night, and sat +to-day, so we go to-morrow at six in the morning. I missed +the race to-day by coming out too late, when everybody’s +coach was gone, and ride I would not: I felt my last riding three +days after. We had a dinner to-day at the Secretary’s +lodgings without him: Mr. Hare, <a name="citation269e"></a><a +href="#footnote269e" class="citation">[269e]</a> his Under +Secretary, Mr. Lewis, Brigadier Sutton, <a +name="citation269f"></a><a href="#footnote269f" +class="citation">[269f]</a> and I, dined together; and I made <a +name="page270"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 270</span>the +Vice-Chamberlain take a snap with us, rather than stay till five +for his lady, who was gone to the race. The reason why the +Cabinet Council was not held last night was because Mr. Secretary +St. John would not sit with your Duke of Somerset. <a +name="citation270a"></a><a href="#footnote270a" +class="citation">[270a]</a> So to-day the Duke was forced +to go to the race while the Cabinet was held. We have +music-meetings in our town, and I was at the rehearsal +t’other day; but I did not value it, nor would go to the +meeting. Did I tell you this before?</p> +<p>London, 14. We came to town this day in two hours and +forty minutes: twenty miles are nothing here. I found a +letter from the Archbishop of Dublin, sent me the Lord knows +how. He says some of the bishops will hardly believe that +Lord Treasurer got the Queen to remit the First-Fruits before the +Duke of Ormond was declared Lord Lieutenant, and that the bishops +have written a letter to Lord Treasurer to thank him. He +has sent me the address of the Convocation, ascribing, in good +part, that affair to the Duke, who had less share in it than MD; +for if it had not been for MD, I should not have been so good a +solicitor. I dined to-day in the City, about a little bit +of mischief, with a printer.—I found Mrs. Vanhomrigh all in +combustion, squabbling with her rogue of a landlord; she has left +her house, and gone out of our neighbourhood a good way. +Her eldest daughter is come of age, and going to Ireland to look +after her fortune, and get it in her own hands. <a +name="citation270b"></a><a href="#footnote270b" +class="citation">[270b]</a></p> +<p>15. I dined to-day with Mrs. Van, who goes to-night to +her new lodgings. I went at six to see Lord Treasurer; but +his company was gone, contrary to custom, and he was busy, <a +name="page271"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 271</span>and I was +forced to stay some time before I could see him. We were +together hardly an hour, and he went away, being in haste. +He desired me to dine with him on Friday, because there would be +a friend of his that I must see: my Lord Harley told me, when he +was gone, that it was Mrs. Masham his father meant, who is come +to town to lie-in, and whom I never saw, though her husband is +one of our Society. God send her a good time! her death +would be a terrible thing. <a name="citation271a"></a><a +href="#footnote271a" class="citation">[271a]</a>—Do you +know that I have ventured all my credit with these great +Ministers, to clear some misunderstandings betwixt them; and if +there be no breach, I ought to have the merit of it. +’Tis a plaguy ticklish piece of work, and a man hazards +losing both sides. It is a pity the world does not know my +virtue.—I thought the clergy in Convocation in Ireland +would have given me thanks for being their solicitor; but I hear +of no such thing. Pray talk occasionally on that subject, +and let me know what you hear. Do you know the greatness of +my spirit, that I value their thanks not a rush, but at my return +shall freely let all people know that it was my Lord +Treasurer’s action, wherein the Duke of Ormond had no more +share than a cat? And so they may go whistle, and +I’ll go sleep.</p> +<p>16. I was this day in the City, and dined at +Pontack’s <a name="citation271b"></a><a +href="#footnote271b" class="citation">[271b]</a> with Stratford, +and two other merchants. Pontack told us, although his wine +was so good, he sold it cheaper than others; he took but seven +shillings a flask. Are not these pretty rates? The +books he sent for from Hamburg are come, but not yet got out of +the custom-house. My library will be at least double when I +come back. I shall go to Windsor again on Saturday, to meet +our Society, who are <a name="page272"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 272</span>to sup at Mr. Secretary’s; but +I believe I shall return on Monday, and then I will answer your +letter, that lies here safe underneath;—I see it; lie +still: I will answer you when the ducks have eaten up the +dirt.</p> +<p>17. I dined to-day at Lord Treasurer’s with Mrs. +Masham, and she is extremely like one Mrs. Malolly, that was once +my landlady in Trim. She was used with mighty kindness and +respect, like a favourite. It signifies nothing going to +this Lord Treasurer about business, although it be his own. +He was in haste, and desires I will come again, and dine with him +to-morrow. His famous lying porter is fallen sick, and they +think he will die: I wish I had all my half-crowns again. I +believe I have told you he is an old Scotch fanatic, and the +damn’dest liar in his office alive. <a +name="citation272a"></a><a href="#footnote272a" +class="citation">[272a]</a> I have a mind to recommend +Patrick to succeed him: I have trained him up pretty well. +I reckon for certain you are now in town. The weather now +begins to alter to rain.</p> +<p>Windsor, 18. I dined to-day with Lord Treasurer, and he +would make me go with him to Windsor, although I was engaged to +the Secretary, to whom I made my excuses: we had in the coach +besides, his son and son-in-law, Lord Harley and Lord Dupplin, +who are two of our Society, and seven of us met by appointment, +and supped this night with the Secretary. It was past nine +before we got here, but a fine moonshiny night. I shall go +back, I believe, on Monday. ’Tis very late.</p> +<p>19. The Queen did not stir out to-day, she is in a +little fit of the gout. I dined at Mr. Masham’s; we +had none but our Society members, six in all, and I supped with +Lord Treasurer. The Queen has ordered twenty thousand +pounds to go on with the building at Blenheim, which has been +starved till now, since the change of the Ministry. <a +name="citation272b"></a><a href="#footnote272b" +class="citation">[272b]</a> I <a name="page273"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 273</span>suppose it is to reward his last +action of getting into the French lines. <a +name="citation273a"></a><a href="#footnote273a" +class="citation">[273a]</a> Lord Treasurer kept me till +past twelve.</p> +<p>London, 20. It rained terribly every step of our journey +to-day: I returned with the Secretary after a dinner of cold +meat, and went to Mrs. Van’s, where I sat the +evening. I grow very idle, because I have a great deal of +business. Tell me how you passed your time at Wexford; and +are not you glad at heart you have got home safe to your lodgings +at St. Mary’s, pray? And so your friends come to +visit you; and Mrs. Walls is much better of her eye; and the Dean +is just as he used to be: and what does Walls say of London? +’tis a reasoning coxcomb. And Goody Stoyte, and +Hannah what d’ye call her; no, her name an’t Hannah, +Catherine I mean; they were so glad to see the ladies again! and +Mrs. Manley wanted a companion at ombre.</p> +<p>21. I writ to-day to the Archbishop of Dublin, and +enclosed a long politic paper by itself. You know the +bishops are all angry (smoke the wax-candle drop at the bottom of +this paper) I have let the world know the First-Fruits were got +by Lord Treasurer before the Duke of Ormond was Governor. I +told Lord Treasurer all this, and he is very angry; but I +pacified him again by telling him they were fools, and knew +nothing of what passed here; but thought all was well enough if +they complimented the Duke of Ormond. Lord Treasurer gave +me t’other day a letter of thanks he received from the +bishops of Ireland, signed by seventeen; and says he will write +them an answer. The Dean of Carlisle sat with me to-day +till three; and I went to dine with Lord Treasurer, who dined +abroad, so did the Secretary, and I was left in the suds. +’Twas almost four, and I got to Sir Matthew Dudley, who had +half dined. Thornhill, who killed Sir Cholmley Dering, <a +name="citation273b"></a><a href="#footnote273b" +class="citation">[273b]</a> was murdered by two men, on Turnham +Green, last Monday night: as they stabbed him, <a +name="page274"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 274</span>they bid +him remember Sir Cholmley Dering. They had quarrelled at +Hampton Court, and followed and stabbed him on horseback. +We have only a Grub Street paper of it, but I believe it is +true. I went myself through Turnham Green the same night, +which was yesterday.</p> +<p>22. We have had terrible rains these two or three +days. I intended to dine at Lord Treasurer’s, but +went to see Lady Abercorn, who is come to town, and my lord; and +I dined with them, and visited Lord Treasurer this evening. +His porter is mending. I sat with my lord about three +hours, and am come home early to be busy. Passing by +White’s Chocolate-house, <a name="citation274a"></a><a +href="#footnote274a" class="citation">[274a]</a> my brother +Masham called me, and told me his wife was brought to bed of a +boy, and both very well. (Our Society, you must know, are +all brothers.) Dr. Garth told us that Mr. Henley <a +name="citation274b"></a><a href="#footnote274b" +class="citation">[274b]</a> is dead of an apoplexy. His +brother-in-law, Earl Poulett, is gone down to the Grange, to take +care of his funeral. The Earl of Danby, <a +name="citation274c"></a><a href="#footnote274c" +class="citation">[274c]</a> the Duke of Leeds’s eldest +grandson, a very hopeful young man of about twenty, is dead at +Utrecht of the smallpox.—I long to know whether you begin +to have any good effect by your waters.—Methinks this +letter goes on slowly; ’twill be a fortnight next Saturday +since it was begun, and one side not filled. O fie for +shame, Presto! Faith, I’m so tosticated to and from +Windsor, that I know not what to say; but, faith, I’ll go +to Windsor again on Saturday, if they ask me, not else. So +lose your money again, now you are come home; do, sirrah.</p> +<p>Take your magnifying-glass, Madam Dingley.</p> +<p>You shan’t read this, sirrah Stella; don’t read it +for your life, for fear of your dearest eyes.</p> +<p><a name="page275"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +275</span>There’s enough for this side; these Ministers +hinder me.</p> +<p>Pretty, dear, little, naughty, saucy MD.</p> +<p>Silly, impudent, loggerhead Presto.</p> +<p>23. Dilly and I dined to-day with Lord Abercorn, and had +a fine fat haunch of venison, that smelt rarely on one side: and +after dinner Dilly won half a crown of me at backgammon at his +lodgings, to his great content. It is a scurvy empty town +this melancholy season of the year; but I think our weather +begins to mend. The roads are as deep as in winter. +The grapes are sad things; but the peaches are pretty good, and +there are some figs. I sometimes venture to eat one, but +always repent it. You say nothing of the box sent half a +year ago. I wish you would pay me for Mrs. Walls’s +tea. Your mother is in the country, I suppose. Pray +send me the account of MD, Madam Dingley, as it stands since +November, <a name="citation275a"></a><a href="#footnote275a" +class="citation">[275a]</a> that is to say, for this year +(excluding the twenty pounds lent Stella for Wexford), for I +cannot look in your letters. I think I ordered that +Hawkshaw’s interest should be paid to you. When you +think proper, I will let Parvisol know you have paid that twenty +pounds, or part of it; and so go play with the Dean, and I will +answer your letter to-morrow. Good-night, sirrahs, and love +Presto, and be good girls.</p> +<p>24. I dined to-day with Lord Treasurer, who chid me for +not dining with him yesterday, for it seems I did not understand +his invitation; and their Club of the Ministry dined together, +and expected me. Lord Radnor <a name="citation275b"></a><a +href="#footnote275b" class="citation">[275b]</a> and I were +walking the Mall this evening; and Mr. Secretary met us, and took +a turn or two, and then stole away, and we both believed it was +to pick up some wench; and to-morrow he will be at the Cabinet +with the Queen: so goes the world! Prior has been out of +town these two months, nobody knows where, and is lately +returned. People confidently affirm he has been in France, +and I half believe it. It is said he was sent by the +Ministry, and for some overtures towards a peace. The +Secretary pretends he knows nothing of it. I believe <a +name="page276"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 276</span>your +Parliament will be dissolved. I have been talking about the +quarrel between your Lords and Commons with Lord Treasurer, and +did, at the request of some people, desire that the Queen’s +answer to the Commons’ address might express a dislike of +some principles, etc.; but was answered dubiously.—And so +now to your letter, fair ladies. I know drinking is bad; I +mean writing is bad in drinking the waters; and was angry to see +so much in Stella’s hand. But why Dingley drinks +them, I cannot imagine; but truly she’ll drink waters as +well as Stella: why not? I hope you now find the benefit of +them since you are returned; pray let me know particularly. +I am glad you are forced upon exercise, which, I believe, is as +good as the waters for the heart of them. ’Tis now +past the middle of August; so by your reckoning you are in +Dublin. It would vex me to the dogs that letters should +miscarry between Dublin and Wexford, after ’scaping the +salt seas. I will write no more to that nasty town in haste +again, I warrant you. I have been four Sundays together at +Windsor, of which a fortnight together; but I believe I shall not +go to-morrow, for I will not, unless the Secretary asks me. +I know all your news about the Mayor: it makes no noise here at +all, but the quarrel of your Parliament does; it is so very +extraordinary, and the language of the Commons so very +pretty. The <i>Examiner</i> has been down this month, and +was very silly the five or six last papers; but there is a +pamphlet come out, in answer to a letter to the seven Lords who +examined Gregg. <a name="citation276a"></a><a +href="#footnote276a" class="citation">[276a]</a> The Answer +<a name="citation276b"></a><a href="#footnote276b" +class="citation">[276b]</a> is by the real author of the +<i>Examiner</i>, as I believe; for it is very well written. +We had Trapp’s poem on the Duke of Ormond <a +name="citation276c"></a><a href="#footnote276c" +class="citation">[276c]</a> printed here, and the printer <a +name="page277"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 277</span>sold just +eleven of them. ’Tis a dull piece, not half so good +as Stella’s; and she is very modest to compare herself with +such a poetaster. I am heartily sorry for poor Mrs. +Parnell’s <a name="citation277a"></a><a +href="#footnote277a" class="citation">[277a]</a> death; she +seemed to be an excellent good-natured young woman, and I believe +the poor lad is much afflicted; they appeared to live perfectly +well together. Dilly is not tired at all with England, but +intends to continue here a good while: he is mighty easy to be at +distance from his two sisters-in-law. He finds some sort of +scrub acquaintance; goes now and then in disguise to a play; +smokes his pipe; reads now and then a little trash, and what else +the Lord knows. I see him now and then; for he calls here, +and the town being thin, I am less pestered with company than +usual. I have got rid of many of my solicitors, by doing +nothing for them: I have not above eight or nine left, and +I’ll be as kind to them. Did I tell you of a knight +who desired me to speak to Lord Treasurer to give him two +thousand pounds, or five hundred pounds a year, until he could +get something better? I honestly delivered my message to +the Treasurer, adding, the knight was a puppy, whom I would not +give a groat to save from the gallows. Cole Reading’s +father-in-law has been two or three times at me, to recommend his +lights to the Ministry, assuring me that a word of mine would, +etc. Did not that dog use to speak ill of me, and profess +to hate me? He knows not where I lodge, for I told him I +lived in the country; and I have ordered Patrick to deny me +constantly to him.—Did the Bishop of London <a +name="citation277b"></a><a href="#footnote277b" +class="citation">[277b]</a> die in Wexford? poor gentleman! +Did he drink the waters? were you at his burial? was it a great +funeral? so far from his <a name="page278"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 278</span>friends! But he was very old: +we shall all follow. And yet it was a pity, if God +pleased. He was a good man; not very learned: I believe he +died but poor. Did he leave any charity legacies? who held +up his pall? was there a great sight of clergy? do they design a +tomb for him?—Are you sure it was the Bishop of London? +because there is an elderly gentleman here that we give the same +title to: or did you fancy all this in your water, as others do +strange things in their wine? They say these waters trouble +the head, and make people imagine what never came to pass. +Do you make no more of killing a Bishop? are these your Whiggish +tricks?—Yes, yes, I see you are in a fret. O, faith, +says you, saucy Presto, I’ll break your head; what, +can’t one report what one hears, without being made a jest +and a laughing-stock? Are these your English tricks, with a +murrain? And Sacheverell will be the next Bishop? He +would be glad of an addition of two hundred pounds a year to what +he has, and that is more than they will give him, for aught I +see. He hates the new Ministry mortally, and they hate him, +and pretend to despise him too. They will not allow him to +have been the occasion of the late change; at least some of them +will not: but my Lord Keeper owned it to me the other day. +No, Mr. Addison does not go to Ireland this year: he pretended he +would; but he is gone to Bath with Pastoral Philips, for his +eyes.—So now I have run over your letter; and I think this +shall go to-morrow, which will be just a fortnight from the last, +and bring things to the old form again, after your rambles to +Wexford, and mine to Windsor. Are there not many literal +faults in my letters? I never read them over, and I fancy +there are. What do you do then? do you guess my meaning, or +are you acquainted with my manner of mistaking? I lost my +handkerchief in the Mall to-night with Lord Radnor; but I made +him walk with me to find it, and find it I did not. Tisdall +<a name="citation278"></a><a href="#footnote278" +class="citation">[278]</a> (that lodges with me) and I have had +no conversation, nor do we pull off our hats in the +streets. There is a <a name="page279"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 279</span>cousin of his (I suppose,) a young +parson, that lodges in the house too; a handsome, genteel +fellow. Dick Tighe <a name="citation279a"></a><a +href="#footnote279a" class="citation">[279a]</a> and his wife +lodged over against us; and he has been seen, out of our upper +windows, beating her two or three times: they are both gone to +Ireland, but not together; and he solemnly vows never to live +with her. Neighbours do not stick to say that she has a +tongue: in short, I am told she is the most urging, provoking +devil that ever was born; and he a hot, whiffling <a +name="citation279b"></a><a href="#footnote279b" +class="citation">[279b]</a> puppy, very apt to resent. +I’ll keep this bottom till to-morrow: I’m sleepy.</p> +<p>25. I was with the Secretary this morning, who was in a +mighty hurry, and went to Windsor in a chariot with Lord Keeper; +so I was not invited, and am forced to stay at home, but not at +all against my will; for I could have gone, and would not. +I dined in the City with one of my printers, for whom I got the +<i>Gazette</i>, and am come home early; and have nothing to say +to you more, but finish this letter, and not send it by the +bellman. Days grow short, and the weather grows bad, and +the town is splenetic, and things are so oddly contrived that I +cannot be absent; otherwise I would go for a few days to Oxford, +as I promised.—They say it is certain that Prior has been +in France, <a name="citation279c"></a><a href="#footnote279c" +class="citation">[279c]</a> nobody doubts it: I had not time to +ask the Secretary, he was in such haste. Well, I will take +my leave of dearest MD for a while; for I must begin my next +letter to-night: consider that, young women; and pray be merry, +and good girls, and love Presto. There <a +name="page280"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 280</span>is now but +one business the Ministry want me for, and when that is done, I +will take my leave of them. I never got a penny from them, +nor expect it. In my opinion, some things stand very +ticklish; I dare say nothing at this distance. Farewell, +dear sirrahs, dearest lives: there is peace and quiet with MD, +and nowhere else. They have not leisure here to think of +small things, which may ruin them; and I have been forward +enough. Farewell again, dearest rogues; I am never happy +but when I write or think of MD. I have enough of Courts +and Ministries, and wish I were at Laracor; and if I could with +honour come away this moment, I would. Bernage <a +name="citation280"></a><a href="#footnote280" +class="citation">[280]</a> came to see me to-day; he is just +landed from Portugal, and come to raise recruits; he looks very +well, and seems pleased with his station and manner of +life. He never saw London nor England before; he is +ravished with Kent, which was his first prospect when he +landed. Farewell again, etc. etc.</p> +<h3>LETTER XXIX.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Aug.</i> 25, 1711.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> got a pretty small gilt +sheet of paper, to write to MD. I have this moment sent my +28th by Patrick, who tells me he has put it in the post-office; +’tis directed to your lodgings: if it wants more particular +direction, you must set me right. It is now a solar month +and two days since the date of your last, N. 18; and I reckon you +are now quiet at home, and thinking to begin your 19th, which +will be full of your quarrel between the two Houses, all which I +know already. Where shall I dine to-morrow? can you +tell? Mrs. Vanhomrigh boards now, and cannot invite one; +and there I used to dine when I was at a loss: and all my friends +are gone out of town, and your town is now at the fullest, with +your Parliament and Convocation. But let me alone, sirrahs; +for Presto is going to be very busy; not Presto, but the other +I.</p> +<p><a name="page281"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +281</span>26. People have so left the town that I am at a +loss for a dinner. It is a long time since I have been at +London upon a Sunday; and the Ministers are all at Windsor. +It cost me eighteenpence in coach-hire before I could find a +place to dine in. I went to Frankland’s, <a +name="citation281a"></a><a href="#footnote281a" +class="citation">[281a]</a> and he was abroad, and the drab his +wife looked out at window, and bowed to me without inviting me +up: so I dined with Mr. Coote, <a name="citation281b"></a><a +href="#footnote281b" class="citation">[281b]</a> my Lord +Mountrath’s brother; my lord is with you in Ireland. +This morning at five my Lord Jersey <a name="citation281c"></a><a +href="#footnote281c" class="citation">[281c]</a> died of the gout +in his stomach, or apoplexy, or both: he was abroad yesterday, +and his death was sudden. He was Chamberlain to King +William, and a great favourite, turned out by the Queen as a +Tory, and stood now fair to be Privy Seal; and by his death will, +I suppose, make that matter easier, which has been a very +stubborn business at Court, as I have been informed. I +never remember so many people of quality to have died in so short +a time.</p> +<p>27. I went to-day into the City, to thank Stratford for +my books, and dine with him, and settle my affairs of my money in +the Bank, and receive a bill for Mrs. Wesley for some things I am +to buy for her; and the d— a one of all these could I +do. The merchants were all out of town, and I was forced to +go to a little hedge place for my dinner. May my enemies +live here in summer! and yet I am so unlucky that I cannot +possibly be out of the way at this juncture. People leave +the town so late in summer, and return so late in winter, that +they have almost inverted the seasons. It is autumn this +good while in St. James’s Park; the limes have been losing +their leaves, and those remaining on the trees are all parched: I +hate this season, where everything grows worse and worse. +The only good thing of it is the fruit, and <a +name="page282"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 282</span>that I dare +not eat. Had you any fruit at Wexford? A few +cherries, and durst not eat them. I do not hear we have yet +got a new Privy Seal. The Whigs whisper that our new +Ministry differ among themselves, and they begin to talk out Mr. +Secretary: they have some reasons for their whispers, although I +thought it was a greater secret. I do not much like the +posture of things; I always apprehended that any falling out +would ruin them, and so I have told them several times. The +Whigs are mighty full of hopes at present; and whatever is the +matter, all kind of stocks fall. I have not yet talked with +the Secretary about Prior’s journey. I should be apt +to think it may foretell a peace, and that is all we have to +preserve us. The Secretary is not come from Windsor, but I +expect him to-morrow. Burn all politics!</p> +<p>28. We begin to have fine weather, and I walked to-day +to Chelsea, and dined with the Dean of Carlisle, who is laid up +with the gout. It is now fixed that he is to be Dean of +Christ Church in Oxford. I was advising him to use his +interest to prevent any misunderstanding between our Ministers; +but he is too wise to meddle, though he fears the thing and the +consequences as much as I. He will get into his own warm, +quiet deanery, and leave them to themselves; and he is in the +right.—When I came home to-night, I found a letter from Mr. +Lewis, who is now at Windsor; and in it, forsooth, another which +looked like Presto’s hand; and what should it be but a 19th +from MD? O, faith, I ’scaped narrowly, for I sent my +28th but on Saturday; and what should I have done if I had two +letters to answer at once? I did not expect another from +Wexford, that is certain. Well, I must be contented; but +you are dear saucy girls, for all that, to write so soon again, +faith; an’t you?</p> +<p>29. I dined to-day with Lord Abercorn, and took my leave +of them: they set out to-morrow for Chester, and, I believe, will +now fix in Ireland. They have made a pretty good journey of +it: his eldest son <a name="citation282"></a><a +href="#footnote282" class="citation">[282]</a> is married to a +lady with ten <a name="page283"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +283</span>thousand pounds; and his second son <a +name="citation283a"></a><a href="#footnote283a" +class="citation">[283a]</a> has, t’other day, got a prize +in the lottery of four thousand pounds, beside two small ones of +two hundred pounds each: nay, the family was so fortunate, that +my lord bestowing one ticket, which is a hundred pounds, to one +of his servants, who had been his page, the young fellow got a +prize, which has made it another hundred. I went in the +evening to Lord Treasurer, who desires I will dine with him +to-morrow, when he will show me the answer he designs to return +to the letter of thanks from your bishops in Ireland. The +Archbishop of Dublin desired me to get myself mentioned in the +answer which my lord would send; but I sent him word I would not +open my lips to my lord upon it. He says it would convince +the bishops of what I have affirmed, that the First-Fruits were +granted before the Duke of Ormond was declared Governor; and I +writ to him that I would not give a farthing to convince +them. My Lord Treasurer began a health to my Lord Privy +Seal: Prior punned, and said it was so privy, he knew not who it +was; but I fancy they have fixed it all, and we shall know +to-morrow. But what care you who is Privy Seal, saucy +sluttikins?</p> +<p>30. When I went out this morning, I was surprised with +the news that the Bishop of Bristol is made Lord Privy +Seal. You know his name is Robinson, <a +name="citation283b"></a><a href="#footnote283b" +class="citation">[283b]</a> and that he was many years Envoy in +Sweden. All the friends of the present Ministry are +extremely glad, and the clergy above the rest. The Whigs +will fret to death to see a civil employment given to a +clergyman. It was a very handsome thing in my Lord +Treasurer, and will bind the Church to him for ever. I +dined with him to-day, but he had not written his letter; <a +name="citation283c"></a><a href="#footnote283c" +class="citation">[283c]</a> <a name="page284"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 284</span>but told me he would not offer to +send it without showing it to me: he thought that would not be +just, since I was so deeply concerned in the affair. We had +much company: Lord Rivers, Mar, <a name="citation284a"></a><a +href="#footnote284a" class="citation">[284a]</a> and Kinnoull, <a +name="citation284b"></a><a href="#footnote284b" +class="citation">[284b]</a> Mr. Secretary, George Granville, and +Masham: the last has invited me to the christening of his son +to-morrow se’ennight; and on Saturday I go to Windsor with +Mr. Secretary.</p> +<p>31. Dilly and I walked to-day to Kensington to Lady +Mountjoy, who invited us to dinner. He returned soon, to go +to a play, it being the last that will be acted for some time: he +dresses himself like a beau, and no doubt makes a fine +figure. I went to visit some people at Kensington: Ophy +Butler’s wife <a name="citation284c"></a><a +href="#footnote284c" class="citation">[284c]</a> there lies very +ill of an ague, which is a very common disease here, and little +known in Ireland. I am apt to think we shall soon have a peace, +by the little words I hear thrown out by the Ministry. I +have just thought of a project to bite the town. I have +told you that it is now known that Mr. Prior has been lately in +France. I will make a printer of my own sit by me one day, +and I will dictate to him a formal relation of Prior’s +journey, <a name="citation284d"></a><a href="#footnote284d" +class="citation">[284d]</a> with several particulars, all pure +invention; and I doubt not but it will take.</p> +<p>Sept. 1. Morning. I go to-day to Windsor with Mr. +Secretary; and Lord Treasurer has promised to bring me +back. The weather has been fine for some time, and I +believe we shall have a great deal of dust.—At night. +Windsor. The Secretary and I dined to-day at Parson’s +Green, at my Lord Peterborow’s house, who has left it and +his gardens to the Secretary during his absence. It is the +finest garden I have ever seen about this town; and abundance <a +name="page285"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 285</span>of hot +walls for grapes, where they are in great plenty, and ripening +fast. I durst not eat any fruit but one fig; but I brought +a basket full to my friend Lewis here at Windsor. Does +Stella never eat any? what, no apricots at Donnybrook! nothing +but claret and ombre! I envy people maunching and maunching +peaches and grapes, and I not daring to eat a bit. My head +is pretty well, only a sudden turn any time makes me giddy for a +moment, and sometimes it feels very stuffed; but if it grows no +worse, I can bear it very well. I take all opportunities of +walking; and we have a delicious park here just joining to the +Castle, and an avenue in the great park very wide and two miles +long, set with a double row of elms on each side. Were you +ever at Windsor? I was once, a great while ago; but had +quite forgotten it.</p> +<p>2. The Queen has the gout, and did not come to chapel, +nor stir out from her chamber, but received the sacrament there, +as she always does the first Sunday in the month. Yet we +had a great Court; and, among others, I saw your Ingoldsby, <a +name="citation285a"></a><a href="#footnote285a" +class="citation">[285a]</a> who, seeing me talk very familiarly +with the Keeper, Treasurer, etc., came up and saluted me, and +began a very impertinent discourse about the siege of +Bouchain. I told him I could not answer his questions, but +I would bring him one that should; so I went and fetched Sutton +(who brought over the express about a month ago), and delivered +him to the General, and bid him answer his questions; and so I +left them together. Sutton after some time comes back in a +rage, finds me with Lord Rivers and Masham, and there complains +of the trick I had played him, and swore he had been plagued to +death with Ingoldsby’s talk. But he told me Ingoldsby +asked him what I meant by bringing him; so, I suppose, he smoked +me a little. So we laughed, etc. My Lord Willoughby, +<a name="citation285b"></a><a href="#footnote285b" +class="citation">[285b]</a> who is one of the chaplains, and +Prebendary of Windsor, read prayers last night to the family; and +the Bishop of Bristol, who is Dean of Windsor, officiated last +night at the Cathedral. This they do to be popular; and it +pleases mightily. I dined with Mr. <a +name="page286"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 286</span>Masham, +because he lets me have a select company: for the Court here have +got by the end a good thing I said to the Secretary some weeks +ago. He showed me his bill of fare, to tempt me to dine +with him. “Poh,” said I, “I value not +your bill of fare; give me your bill of company.” +Lord Treasurer was mightily pleased, and told it everybody as a +notable thing. I reckon upon returning to-morrow: they say +the Bishop will then have the Privy Seal delivered him at a great +Council.</p> +<p>3. Windsor still. The Council was held so late +to-day that I do not go back to town till to-morrow. The +Bishop was sworn Privy Councillor, and had the Privy Seal given +him: and now the patents are passed for those who were this long +time to be made lords or earls. Lord Raby, <a +name="citation286"></a><a href="#footnote286" +class="citation">[286]</a> who is Earl of Strafford, is on +Thursday to marry a namesake of Stella’s; the daughter of +Sir H. Johnson in the City; he has three-score thousand pounds +with her, ready money; besides the rest at the father’s +death. I have got my friend Stratford to be one of the +directors of the South Sea Company, who were named to-day. +My Lord Treasurer did it for me a month ago; and one of those +whom I got to be printer of the <i>Gazette</i> I am recommending +to be printer to the same company. He treated Mr. Lewis and +me to-day at dinner. I supped last night and this with Lord +Treasurer, Keeper, etc., and took occasion to mention the +printer. I said it was the same printer whom my Lord +Treasurer has appointed to print for the South Sea Company. +He denied, and I insisted on it; and I got the laugh on my +side.</p> +<p>London, 4. I came as far as Brentford in Lord +Rivers’s chariot, who had business with Lord Treasurer; +then I went into Lord Treasurer’s. We stopped at +Kensington, where Lord Treasurer went to see Mrs. Masham, who is +now what they call in the straw. We got to town by three, +and <a name="page287"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 287</span>I +lighted at Lord Treasurer’s, who commanded me not to stir: +but I was not well; and when he went up, I begged the young lord +to excuse me, and so went into the City by water, where I could +be easier, and dined with the printer, and dictated to him some +part of Prior’s <i>Journey to France</i>. I walked +from the City, for I take all occasions of exercise. Our +journey was horridly dusty.</p> +<p>5. When I went out to-day, I found it had rained +mightily in the night, and the streets were as dirty as winter: +it is very refreshing after ten days dry.—I went into the +City, and dined with Stratford, thanked him for his books, gave +him joy of his being director, of which he had the first notice +by a letter from me. I ate sturgeon, and it lies on my +stomach. I almost finished Prior’s <i>Journey</i> at +the printer’s; and came home pretty late, with Patrick at +my heels.</p> +<p>7. Morning. But what shall we do about this letter +of MD’s, N. 19? Not a word answered yet, and so much +paper spent! I cannot do anything in it, sweethearts, till +night.—At night. O Lord, O Lord! the greatest +disgrace that ever was has happened to Presto. What do you +think? but, when I was going out this forenoon a letter came from +MD, N. 20, dated Dublin. O dear, O dear! O sad, O +sad!—Now I have two letters together to answer: here they +are, lying together. But I will only answer the first; for +I came in late. I dined with my friend Lewis at his +lodgings, and walked at six to Kensington to Mrs. Masham’s +son’s christening. It was very private; nobody there +but my Lord Treasurer, his son and son-in-law, that is to say, +Lord Harley and Lord Dupplin, and Lord Rivers and I. The +Dean of Rochester <a name="citation287a"></a><a +href="#footnote287a" class="citation">[287a]</a> christened the +child, but soon went away. Lord Treasurer and Lord Rivers +were godfathers; and Mrs. Hill, <a name="citation287b"></a><a +href="#footnote287b" class="citation">[287b]</a> Mrs. +Masham’s sister, godmother. The child roared like a +bull, and I gave Mrs. Masham joy of it; and she charged me to +take care of my nephew, because, Mr. Masham being a brother of +our Society, his son, you know, <a name="page288"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 288</span>is consequently a nephew. Mrs. +Masham sat up dressed in bed, but not, as they do in Ireland, +with all smooth about her, as if she was cut off in the middle; +for you might see the counterpane (what d’ye call it?) rise +about her hips and body. There is another name of the +counterpane; and you will laugh now, sirrahs. George +Granville came in at supper, and we stayed till eleven; and Lord +Treasurer set me down at my lodging in Suffolk Street. Did +I ever tell you that Lord Treasurer hears ill with the left ear, +just as I do? He always turns the right, and his servants +whisper him at that only. I dare not tell him that I am so +too, for fear he should think I counterfeited, to make my +court.</p> +<p>6. You must read this before the other; for I mistook, +and forgot to write yesterday’s journal, it was so +insignificant. I dined with Dr. Cockburn, and sat the +evening with Lord Treasurer till ten o’clock. On +Thursdays he has always a large select company, and expects +me. So good-night for last night, etc.</p> +<p>8. Morning. I go to Windsor with Lord Treasurer +to-day, and will leave this behind me, to be sent to the +post. And now let us hear what says the first letter, N. +19. You are still at Wexford, as you say, Madam +Dingley. I think no letter from me ever yet +miscarried. And so Inish-Corthy, <a +name="citation288a"></a><a href="#footnote288a" +class="citation">[288a]</a> and the river Slainy; fine words +those in a lady’s mouth. Your hand like +Dingley’s, you scambling, <a name="citation288b"></a><a +href="#footnote288b" class="citation">[288b]</a> scattering +sluttikin! <i>Yes</i>, <i>mighty like indeed</i>, <i>is not +it</i>? <a name="citation288c"></a><a href="#footnote288c" +class="citation">[288c]</a> Pisshh, do not talk of writing +or reading till your eyes are well, and long well; only I would +have Dingley read sometimes to you, that you may not lose the +desire of it. God be thanked, that the ugly numbing is +gone! Pray use exercise when you go to town. What +game is that ombra which Dr. Elwood <a name="citation288d"></a><a +href="#footnote288d" class="citation">[288d]</a> and you play at? +is it the Spanish game ombre? Your card-purse? you a +card-purse! you a fiddlestick. You have luck <a +name="page289"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 289</span>indeed; and +luck in a bag. What a devil! is that eight-shilling +tea-kettle copper, or tin japanned? It is like your Irish +politeness, raffling for tea-kettles. What a splutter you +keep, to convince me that Walls has no taste! My head +continues pretty well. Why do you write, dear sirrah +Stella, when you find your eyes so weak that you cannot see? what +comfort is there in reading what you write, when one knows +that? So Dingley cannot write, because of the clutter of +new company come to Wexford! I suppose the noise of their +hundred horses disturbs you; or do you lie in one gallery, as in +an hospital? What! you are afraid of losing in Dublin the +acquaintance you have got in Wexford, and chiefly the Bishop of +Raphoe, <a name="citation289a"></a><a href="#footnote289a" +class="citation">[289a]</a> an old, doting, perverse +coxcomb? Twenty at a time at breakfast. That is like +five pounds at a time, when it was never but once. I doubt, +Madam Dingley, you are apt to lie in your travels, though not so +bad as Stella; she tells thumpers, as I shall prove in my next, +if I find this receives encouragement.—So Dr. Elwood says +there are a world of pretty things in my works. A pox on +his praises! an enemy here would say more. The Duke of +Buckingham would say as much, though he and I are terribly fallen +out; and the great men are perpetually inflaming me against him: +they bring me all he says of me, and, I believe, make it worse +out of roguery.—No, ’tis not your pen is bewitched, +Madam Stella, but your old <i>scrawling</i>, <i>splay-foot +pot-hooks</i>, <i>s</i>, <i>s</i>, <a name="citation289b"></a><a +href="#footnote289b" class="citation">[289b]</a> ay that’s +it: there the s, s, s, there, there, that’s exact. +Farewell, etc.</p> +<p>Our fine weather is gone; and I doubt we shall have a rainy +journey to-day. Faith, ’tis shaving-day, and I have +much to do. When Stella says her pen was bewitched, it was +only because there was a hair in it. You know, the fellow +they call God-help-it had the same thoughts of his wife, and for +the same reason. I think this is very well observed, and I +unfolded the letter to tell you it.</p> +<p><a name="page290"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 290</span>Cut +off those two notes above; and see the nine pounds indorsed, and +receive the other; and send me word how my accounts stand, that +they may be adjusted by Nov. 1. <a name="citation290a"></a><a +href="#footnote290a" class="citation">[290a]</a> Pray be +very particular; but the twenty pounds I lend you is not to be +included: so make no blunder. I won’t wrong you, nor +you shan’t wrong me; that is the short. O Lord, how +stout Presto is of late! But he loves MD more than his life +a thousand times, for all his stoutness; tell them that; and that +I’ll swear it, as hope saved, ten millions of times, etc. +etc.</p> +<p>I open my letter once more, to tell Stella that if she does +not use exercise after her waters, it will lose all the effects +of them: I should not live if I did not take all opportunities of +walking. Pray, pray, do this, to oblige poor Presto.</p> +<h3>LETTER XXX.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Windsor</span>, +<i>Sept.</i> 8, 1711.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">made</span> the coachman stop, and put +in my twenty-ninth at the post-office at two o’clock +to-day, as I was going to Lord Treasurer, with whom I dined, and +came here by a quarter-past eight; but the moon shone, and so we +were not in much danger of overturning; which, however, he values +not a straw, and only laughs when I chide at him for it. +There was nobody but he and I, and we supped together, with Mr. +Masham, and Dr. Arbuthnot, the Queen’s favourite physician, +a Scotchman. I could not keep myself awake after supper, +but did all I was able to disguise it, and thought I came off +clear; but, at parting, he told me I had got my nap +already. It is now one o’clock; but he loves sitting +up late.</p> +<p>9. The Queen is still in the gout, but recovering: she +saw company in her bed-chamber after church; but the crowd was so +great, I could not see her. I dined with my brother Sir +William Wyndham, <a name="citation290b"></a><a +href="#footnote290b" class="citation">[290b]</a> and some others +of our Society, to avoid the great tables on Sunday at Windsor, +which I hate. <a name="page291"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 291</span>The usual company supped to-night at +Lord Treasurer’s, which was Lord Keeper, Mr. Secretary, +George Granville, Masham, Arbuthnot, and I. But showers +have hindered me from walking to-day, and that I do not +love.—Noble fruit, and I dare not eat a bit. I ate +one fig to-day, and sometimes a few mulberries, because it is +said they are wholesome, and you know a good name does +much. I shall return to town to-morrow, though I thought to +have stayed a week, to be at leisure for something I am +doing. But I have put it off till next; for I shall come +here again on Saturday, when our Society are to meet at supper at +Mr. Secretary’s. My life is very regular here: on +Sunday morning I constantly visit Lord Keeper, and sup at Lord +Treasurer’s with the same set of company. I was not +sleepy to-night; I resolved I would not; yet it is past midnight +at this present writing.</p> +<p>London, 10. Lord Treasurer and Masham and I left Windsor +at three this afternoon: we dropped Masham at Kensington with his +lady, and got home by six. It was seven before we sat down +to dinner, and I stayed till past eleven. Patrick came home +with the Secretary: I am more plagued with Patrick and my +portmantua than with myself. I forgot to tell you that when +I went to Windsor on Saturday I overtook Lady Giffard and Mrs. +Fenton <a name="citation291a"></a><a href="#footnote291a" +class="citation">[291a]</a> in a chariot, going, I suppose, to +Sheen. I was then in a chariot too, of Lord +Treasurer’s brother, who had business with the Treasurer; +and my lord came after, and overtook me at Turnham Green, four +miles from London; and then the brother went back, and I went in +the coach with Lord Treasurer: so it happened that those people +saw me, and not with Lord Treasurer. Mrs. F. was to see me +about a week ago; and desired I would get her son into the +Charter-house.</p> +<p>11. This morning the printer sent me an account of +Prior’s <i>Journey</i>; <a name="citation291b"></a><a +href="#footnote291b" class="citation">[291b]</a> it makes a +twopenny pamphlet. I suppose you will see it, for I dare +engage it will run; ’tis a formal, grave lie, from the +beginning to the end. I writ all but about the last page; +that I dictated, and the printer writ. <a +name="page292"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 292</span>Mr. +Secretary sent to me to dine where he did; it was at +Prior’s: when I came in, Prior showed me the pamphlet, +seemed to be angry, and said, “Here is our English +liberty!” I read some of it, and said I liked it +mightily, and envied the rogue the thought; for, had it come into +my head, I should have certainly done it myself. We stayed +at Prior’s till past ten; and then the Secretary received a +packet with the news of Bouchain being taken, for which the guns +will go off to-morrow. Prior owned his having been in +France, for it was past denying: it seems he was discovered by a +rascal at Dover, who had positive orders to let him pass. I +believe we shall have a peace.</p> +<p>12. It is terrible rainy weather, and has cost me three +shillings in coaches and chairs to-day, yet I was dirty into the +bargain. I was three hours this morning with the Secretary +about some business of moment, and then went into the City to +dine. The printer tells me he sold yesterday a thousand of +Prior’s <i>Journey</i>, and had printed five hundred +more. It will do rarely, I believe, and is a pure +bite. And what is MD doing all this while? got again to +their cards, their Walls, their deans, their Stoytes, and their +claret? Pray present my service to Mr. Stoyte and +Catherine. Tell Goody Stoyte she owes me a world of +dinners, and I will shortly come over and demand them.—Did +I tell you of the Archbishop of Dublin’s last letter? +He had been saying, in several of his former, that he would +shortly write to me something about myself; and it looked as if +he intended something for me: at last out it comes, and consists +of two parts. First, he advises me to strike in for some +preferment now I have friends; and secondly, he advises me, since +I have parts, and learning, and a happy pen, to think of some new +subject in divinity not handled by others, which I should manage +better than anybody. A rare spark this, with a pox! but I +shall answer him as rarely. Methinks he should have invited +me over, and given me some hopes or promises. But hang him! +and so good-night, etc.</p> +<p>13. It rained most furiously all this morning till about +<a name="page293"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 293</span>twelve, +and sometimes thundered; I trembled for my shillings, but it +cleared up, and I made a shift to get a walk in the Park, and +then went with the Secretary to dine with Lord Treasurer. +Upon Thursdays there is always a select company: we had the Duke +of Shrewsbury, Lord Rivers, the two Secretaries, Mr. Granville, +and Mr. Prior. Half of them went to Council at six; but +Rivers, Granville, Prior, and I, stayed till eight. Prior +was often affecting to be angry at the account of his journey to +Paris; and indeed the two last pages, which the printer got +somebody to add, <a name="citation293a"></a><a +href="#footnote293a" class="citation">[293a]</a> are so romantic, +they spoil all the rest. Dilly Ashe pretended to me that he +was only going to Oxford and Cambridge for a fortnight, and then +would come back. I could not see him as I appointed +t’other day; but some of his friends tell me he took leave +of them as going to Ireland; and so they say at his +lodging. I believe the rogue was ashamed to tell me so, +because I advised him to stay the winter, and he said he +would. I find he had got into a good set of scrub +acquaintance, and I thought passed his time very merrily; but I +suppose he languished after Balderig, and the claret of Dublin; +and, after all, I think he is in the right; for he can eat, +drink, and converse better there than here. Bernage was +with me this morning: he calls now and then; he is in terrible +fear of a peace. He said he never had his health so well as +in Portugal. He is a favourite of his Colonel.</p> +<p>14. I was mortified enough to-day, not knowing where in +the world to dine, the town is so empty. I met H. Coote, <a +name="citation293b"></a><a href="#footnote293b" +class="citation">[293b]</a> and thought he would invite me, but +he did not: Sir John Stanley did not come into my head; so I took +up with Mrs. Van, and dined with her and her damned landlady, +who, I believe, by her eyebrows, is a bawd. This evening I +met Addison and Pastoral Philips in the Park, and supped with +them at Addison’s lodgings: we were very good company, and +I yet know no man half so agreeable to me as he is. I sat +with them till twelve, so you may think it is late, young women; +however, I would have some little conversation with <a +name="page294"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 294</span>MD before +your Presto goes to bed, because it makes me sleep, and dream, +and so forth. Faith, this letter goes on slowly enough, +sirrahs; but I cannot write much at a time till you are quite +settled after your journey, you know, and have gone all your +visits, and lost your money at ombre. You never play at +chess now, Stella. That puts me in mind of Dick Tighe; I +fancy I told you he used to beat his wife here; and she deserved +it; and he resolves to part with her; and they went to Ireland in +different coaches. O Lord, I said all this before, I am +sure. Go to bed, sirrahs.</p> +<p>Windsor, 15. I made the Secretary stop at Brentford, +because we set out at two this afternoon, and fasting would not +agree with me. I only designed to eat a bit of +bread-and-butter; but he would light, and we ate roast beef like +dragons. And he made me treat him and two more gentlemen; +faith, it cost me a guinea. I do not like such jesting, yet +I was mightily pleased with it too. To-night our Society +met at the Secretary’s: there were nine of us; and we have +chosen a new member, the Earl of Jersey, <a +name="citation294a"></a><a href="#footnote294a" +class="citation">[294a]</a> whose father died lately. +’Tis past one, and I have stolen away.</p> +<p>16. I design to stay here this week by myself, about +some business that lies on my hands, and will take up a great +deal of time. Dr. Adams, <a name="citation294b"></a><a +href="#footnote294b" class="citation">[294b]</a> one of the +canons, invited me to-day to dinner. The tables are so full +here on Sunday that it is hard to dine with a few, and Dr. Adams +knows I love to do so; which is very obliging. The Queen +saw company in her bed-chamber; she looks very well, but she sat +down. I supped with Lord Treasurer as usual, and stayed +till past one as usual, and with our usual company, except Lord +Keeper, who did not come this time to Windsor. I hate these +suppers mortally, but I seldom eat anything.</p> +<p><a name="page295"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +295</span>17. Lord Treasurer and Mr. Secretary stay here +till to-morrow; some business keeps them, and I am sorry for it, +for they hinder me a day. Mr. Lewis and I were going to +dine soberly with a little Court friend at one. But Lord +Harley and Lord Dupplin kept me by force, and said we should dine +at Lord Treasurer’s, who intended to go at four to +London. I stayed like a fool, and went with the two young +lords to Lord Treasurer, who very fairly turned us all three out +of doors. They both were invited to the Duke of Somerset, +but he was gone to a horse-race, and would not come till five; so +we were forced to go to a tavern, and sent for wine from Lord +Treasurer’s, who at last, we were told, did not go to town +till the morrow, and at Lord Treasurer’s we supped again; +and I desired him to let me add four shillings to the bill I gave +him. We sat up till two, yet I must write to little MD.</p> +<p>18. They are all gone early this morning, and I am alone +to seek my fortune; but Dr. Arbuthnot engages me for my dinners; +and he yesterday gave me my choice of place, person, and victuals +for to-day. So I chose to dine with Mrs. Hill, who is one +of the dressers, and Mrs. Masham’s sister, no company but +us three, and to have a shoulder of mutton, a small one; which +was exactly, only there was too much victuals besides; and the +Doctor’s wife <a name="citation295a"></a><a +href="#footnote295a" class="citation">[295a]</a> was of the +company. And to-morrow Mrs. Hill and I are to dine with the +Doctor. I have seen a fellow often about Court whom I +thought I knew. I asked who he was, and they told me it was +the gentleman porter; then I called him to mind; he was +Killy’s acquaintance (I won’t say yours); I think his +name is Lovet, <a name="citation295b"></a><a href="#footnote295b" +class="citation">[295b]</a> or Lovel, or something like it. +I believe he does not know me, and in my present posture I shall +not be fond of renewing old acquaintance; I believe I used to see +him with the Bradleys; and, by the way, I have not seen Mrs. +Bradley since I came to England. I left your letter in +London, like a fool; and cannot answer it till I go back, <a +name="page296"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 296</span>which will +not be until Monday next; so this will be above a fortnight from +my last; but I will fetch it up in my next; so go and walk to the +Dean’s for your health this fine weather.</p> +<p>19. The Queen designs to have cards and dancing here +next week, which makes us think she will stay here longer than we +believed. Mrs. Masham is not well after her lying-in: I +doubt she got some cold; she is lame in one of her legs with a +rheumatic pain. Dr. Arbuthnot and Mrs. Hill go to-morrow to +Kensington to see her, and return the same night. Mrs. Hill +and I dined with the Doctor to-day. I rode out this morning +with the Doctor to see Cranburn, a house of Lord +Ranelagh’s, <a name="citation296a"></a><a +href="#footnote296a" class="citation">[296a]</a> and the Duchess +of Marlborough’s lodge, and the Park; the finest places +they are, for nature and plantations, that ever I saw; and the +finest riding upon artificial roads, made on purpose for the +Queen. Arbuthnot made me draw up a sham subscription for a +book, called <i>A History of the Maids of Honour since Harry the +Eighth</i>, showing they make the best wives, with a list of all +the maids of honour since, etc.; to pay a crown in hand, and the +other crown upon delivery of the book; and all in common forms of +those things. We got a gentleman to write it fair, because +my hand is known; and we sent it to the maids of honour, when +they came to supper. If they bite at it, it will be a very +good Court jest; and the Queen will certainly have it: we did not +tell Mrs. Hill.</p> +<p>20. To-day I was invited to the Green Cloth by Colonel +Godfrey, who married the Duke of Marlborough’s sister, <a +name="citation296b"></a><a href="#footnote296b" +class="citation">[296b]</a> mother to the Duke of Berwick by King +James: I must tell you those things that happened before you were +born. But I made my excuses, and young Harcourt (Lord +Keeper’s son) <a name="page297"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 297</span>and I dined with my next neighbour, +Dr. Adams. <a name="citation297a"></a><a href="#footnote297a" +class="citation">[297a]</a> Mrs. Masham is better, and will +be here in three or four days. She had need; for the +Duchess of Somerset is thought to gain ground daily.—We +have not sent you over all your bills; and I think we have +altered your money-bill. The Duke of Ormond is censured +here, by those in power, for very wrong management in the affair +of the mayoralty. <a name="citation297b"></a><a +href="#footnote297b" class="citation">[297b]</a> He is +governed by fools, and has usually much more sense than his +advisers, but never proceeds by it. I must know how your +health continues after Wexford. Walk and use exercise, +sirrahs both; and get somebody to play at shuttlecock with you, +Madam Stella, and walk to the Dean’s and Donnybrook.</p> +<p>21. Colonel Godfrey sent to me again to-day; so I dined +at the Green Cloth, and we had but eleven at dinner, which is a +small number there, the Court being always thin of company till +Saturday night.—This new ink and pen make a strange figure; +<i>I must write larger</i>, <i>yes I must</i>, <i>or Stella will +not be able to read this</i>. <a name="citation297c"></a><a +href="#footnote297c" class="citation">[297c]</a> S. S. S., +there is your S’s for you, Stella. The maids of +honour are bit, and have all contributed their crowns, and are +teasing others to subscribe for the book. I will tell Lord +Keeper and Lord Treasurer to-morrow; and I believe the Queen will +have it. After a little walk this evening, I squandered +away the rest of it in sitting at Lewis’s lodging, while he +and Dr. Arbuthnot played at picquet. I have that foolish +pleasure, which I believe nobody has beside me, except old Lady +Berkeley. <a name="citation297d"></a><a href="#footnote297d" +class="citation">[297d]</a> But I fretted when I came away: +I will loiter so no more, for I have a plaguy deal of business +upon my hands, and very little time to do it. The +pamphleteers begin to be very busy against the Ministry: I have +begged Mr. Secretary to make examples of <a +name="page298"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 298</span>one or two +of them, and he assures me he will. They are very bold and +abusive.</p> +<p>22. This being the day the Ministry come to Windsor, I +ate a bit or two at Mr. Lewis’s lodgings, because I must +sup with Lord Treasurer; and at half an hour after one, I led Mr. +Lewis a walk up the avenue, which is two miles long. We +walked in all about five miles; but I was so tired with his slow +walking, that I left him here, and walked two miles towards +London, hoping to meet Lord Treasurer, and return with him; but +it grew darkish, and I was forced to walk back, so I walked nine +miles in all; and Lord Treasurer did not come till after eight; +which is very wrong, for there was no moon, and I often tell him +how ill he does to expose himself so; but he only makes a jest of +it. I supped with him, and stayed till now, when it is half +an hour after two. He is as merry and careless and +disengaged as a young heir at one-and-twenty. ’Tis +late indeed.</p> +<p>23. The Secretary did not come last night, but at three +this afternoon. I have not seen him yet, but I verily think +they are contriving a peace as fast as they can, without which it +will be impossible to subsist. The Queen was at church +to-day, but was carried in a chair. I and Mr. Lewis dined +privately with Mr. Lowman, <a name="citation298"></a><a +href="#footnote298" class="citation">[298]</a> Clerk of the +Kitchen. I was to see Lord Keeper this morning, and told +him the jest of the maids of honour; and Lord Treasurer had it +last night. That rogue Arbuthnot puts it all upon me. +The Court was very full to-day. I expected Lord Treasurer +would have invited me to supper; but he only bowed to me; and we +had no discourse in the drawing-room. It is now seven at +night, and I am at home; and I hope Lord Treasurer will not send +for me to supper: if he does not, I will reproach him; and he +will pretend to chide me for not coming.—So farewell till I +go to bed, for I am going to be busy.—It is now past ten, +and I went down to ask the servants about Mr. Secretary: they +tell me the Queen is yet at Council, and that she went to supper, +and came out to the Council afterwards. It is <a +name="page299"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 299</span>certain +they are managing a peace. I will go to bed, and there is +an end.—It is now eleven, and a messenger is come from Lord +Treasurer to sup with them; but I have excused myself, and am +glad I am in bed; for else I should sit up till two, and drink +till I was hot. Now I’ll go sleep.</p> +<p>London, 24. I came to town by six with Lord Treasurer, +and have stayed till ten. That of the Queen’s going +out to sup, and coming in again, is a lie, as the Secretary told +me this morning; but I find the Ministry are very busy with Mr. +Prior, and I believe he will go again to France. I am told +so much, that we shall certainly have a peace very soon. I +had charming weather all last week at Windsor; but we have had a +little rain to-day, and yesterday was windy. Prior’s +<i>Journey</i> sells still; they have sold two thousand, although +the town is empty. I found a letter from Mrs. Fenton here, +desiring me, in Lady Giffard’s name, to come and pass a +week at Sheen, while she is at Moor Park. I will answer it +with a vengeance: and now you talk of answering, there is +MD’s N. 20 is yet to be answered: I had put it up so safe, +I could hardly find it; but here it is, faith, and I am afraid I +cannot send this till Thursday; for I must see the Secretary +to-morrow morning, and be in some other place in the evening.</p> +<p>25. Stella writes like an emperor, and gives such an +account of her journey, never saw the like. Let me see; +stand away, let us compute; you stayed four days at Inish-Corthy, +two nights at Mrs. Proby’s mother’s, and yet was but +six days in journey; for your words are, “We left Wexford +this day se’ennight, and came here last night.” +I have heard them say that “travellers may lie by +authority.” Make up this, if you can. How far +is it from Wexford to Dublin? how many miles did you travel in a +day? <a name="citation299"></a><a href="#footnote299" +class="citation">[299]</a> Let me see—thirty pounds +in two months is nine score pounds a year; <a +name="page300"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 300</span>a matter of +nothing in Stella’s purse! I dreamed Billy Swift was +alive, and that I told him you writ me word he was dead, and that +you had been at his funeral; and I admired at your impudence, and +was in mighty haste to run and let you know what lying rogues you +were. Poor lad! he is dead of his mother’s former +folly and fondness; and yet now I believe, as you say, that her +grief will soon wear off.—O yes, Madam Dingley, mightily +tired of the company, no doubt of it, at Wexford! And your +description of it is excellent; clean sheets, but bare walls; I +suppose then you lay upon the walls.—Mrs. Walls has got her +tea; but who pays me the money? Come, I shall never get it; +so I make a present of it, to stop some gaps, etc. +Where’s the thanks of the house? So, that’s +well; why, it cost four-and-thirty shillings English—you +must adjust that with Mrs. Walls; I think that is so many pence +more with you.—No, Leigh and Sterne, I suppose, were not at +the water-side: I fear Sterne’s business will not be done; +I have not seen him this good while. I hate him, for the +management of that box; and I was the greatest fool in nature for +trusting to such a young jackanapes; I will speak to him once +more about it, when I see him. Mr. Addison and I met once +more since, and I supped with him; I believe I told you so +somewhere in this letter. The Archbishop chose an admirable +messenger in Walls, to send to me; yet I think him fitter for a +messenger than anything.—The D— she has! I did +not observe her looks. Will she rot out of modesty with +Lady Giffard? I pity poor Jenny <a +name="citation300"></a><a href="#footnote300" +class="citation">[300]</a>—but her husband is a dunce, and +with respect to him she loses little by her deafness. I +believe, Madam Stella, in your accounts you mistook one liquor +for another, and it was an hundred and forty quarts of wine, and +thirty-two of water.—This is all written in the morning +before I go to the Secretary, as I am now doing. I have +answered your letter a little shorter than ordinary; but I have a +mind it should go to-day, and I will give you my journal at night +in my next; for I’m so afraid of another <a +name="page301"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 301</span>letter +before this goes: I will never have two together again +unanswered.—What care I for Dr. Tisdall and Dr. Raymond, or +how many children they have! I wish they had a hundred +apiece.—Lord Treasurer promises me to answer the +bishops’ letter to-morrow, and show it me; and I believe it +will confirm all I said, and mortify those that threw the merit +on the Duke of Ormond; for I have made him jealous of it; and +t’other day, talking of the matter, he said, “I am +your witness, you got it for them before the Duke was Lord +Lieutenant.” My humble service to Mrs. Walls, Mrs. +Stoyte, and Catherine. Farewell, etc.</p> +<p>What do you do when you see any literal mistakes in my +letters? how do you set them right? for I never read them over to +correct them. Farewell, again.</p> +<p>Pray send this note to Mrs. Brent, to get the money when +Parvisol comes to town, or she can send to him.</p> +<h3>LETTER XXXI.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Sept.</i> 25, 1711.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">dined</span> in the City to-day, and at +my return I put my 30th into the post-office; and when I got home +I found for me one of the noblest letters I ever read: it was +from —, three sides and a half in folio, on a large sheet +of paper; the two first pages made up of satire upon London, and +crowds and hurry, stolen from some of his own schoolboy’s +exercises: the side and a half remaining is spent in desiring me +to recommend Mrs. South, your Commissioner’s widow, <a +name="citation301"></a><a href="#footnote301" +class="citation">[301]</a> to my Lord Treasurer for a +pension. He is the prettiest, discreetest fellow that ever +my eyes beheld, or that ever dipped pen into ink. I know +not what to say to him. A pox on him, I have too many such +customers on this side already. I think I will send him +word that I never saw my Lord Treasurer in my life: I am sure I +industriously avoided the name of any great person when I saw +him, for fear of his <a name="page302"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 302</span>reporting it in Ireland. And +this recommendation must be a secret too, for fear the Duke of +Bolton <a name="citation302a"></a><a href="#footnote302a" +class="citation">[302a]</a> should know it, and think it was too +mean. I never read so d—d a letter in my life: a +little would make me send it over to you.—I must send you a +pattern, the first place I cast my eyes on, I will not pick and +choose. <i>In this place</i> (meaning the Exchange in +London), <i>which is the compendium of old Troynovant</i>, <i>as +that is of the whole busy world</i>, <i>I got such a surfeit</i>, +<i>that I grew sick of mankind</i>, <i>and resolved for ever +after to bury myself in the shady retreat of</i> —. +You must know that London has been called by some Troynovant, or +New Troy. Will you have any more? Yes, one little bit +for Stella, because she’ll be fond of it. This +wondrous theatre (meaning London) was no more to me than a +desert, and I should less complain of solitude in a Connaught +shipwreck, or even the great bog of Allen. A little scrap +for Mrs. Marget, <a name="citation302b"></a><a +href="#footnote302b" class="citation">[302b]</a> and then I have +done. <i>Their royal fanum</i>, <i>wherein the idol Pecunia +is daily worshipped</i>, <i>seemed to me to be just like a hive +of bees working and labouring under huge weights of +cares</i>. Fanum is a temple, but he means the Exchange; +and Pecunia is money: so now Mrs. Marget will understand her +part. One more paragraph, and I— Well, come, +don’t be in such a rage, you shall have no more. +Pray, Stella, be satisfied; ’tis very pretty: and that I +must be acquainted with such a dog as this!—Our peace goes +on fast. Prior was with the Secretary two hours this +morning: I was there a little after he went away, and was told +it. I believe he will soon be despatched again to France; +and I will put somebody to write an account of his second +journey: I hope you have seen the other. This latter has +taken up my time with storming at it.</p> +<p>26. Bernage has been with me these two days; yesterday I +sent for him to let him know that Dr. Arbuthnot is putting in +strongly to have his brother made a captain over <a +name="page303"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +303</span>Bernage’s <a name="citation303a"></a><a +href="#footnote303a" class="citation">[303a]</a> head. +Arbuthnot’s brother is but an ensign, but the Doctor has +great power with the Queen: yet he told me he would not do +anything hard to a gentleman who is my friend; and I have engaged +the Secretary and his Colonel <a name="citation303b"></a><a +href="#footnote303b" class="citation">[303b]</a> for him. +To-day he told me very melancholy, that the other had written +from Windsor (where he went to solicit) that he has got the +company; and Bernage is full of the spleen. I made the +Secretary write yesterday a letter to the Colonel in +Bernage’s behalf. I hope it will do yet; and I have +written to Dr. Arbuthnot to Windsor, not to insist on doing such +a hardship. I dined in the City at Pontack’s, with +Stratford; it cost me seven shillings: he would have treated, but +I did not let him. I have removed my money from the Bank to +another fund. I desire Parvisol may speak to Hawkshaw to +pay in my money when he can, for I will put it in the funds; and, +in the meantime, borrow so much of Mr. Secretary, who offers to +lend it me. Go to the Dean’s, sirrahs.</p> +<p>27. Bernage was with me again to-day, and is in great +fear, and so was I; but this afternoon, at Lord +Treasurer’s, where I dined, my brother, George Granville, +Secretary at War, after keeping me a while in suspense, told me +that Dr. Arbuthnot had waived the business, because he would not +wrong a friend of mine; that his brother is to be a lieutenant, +and Bernage is made a captain. I called at his lodging, and +the soldier’s coffee-house, to put him out of pain, but +cannot find him; so I have left word, and shall see him to-morrow +morning, I suppose. Bernage is now easy; he has ten +shillings a day, beside lawful cheating. However, he gives +a private sum to his Colonel, but it is very cheap: his Colonel +loves him well, but is surprised to see him have so many +friends. So he is now quite off my hands. I left the +company early to-night, at Lord Treasurer’s; but the +Secretary followed me, to desire I would go with him to +W—. Mr. Lewis’s man came in before I could +finish that word beginning with a W, which ought to be Windsor, +and brought me a very handsome rallying letter from Dr. <a +name="page304"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 304</span>Arbuthnot, +to tell me he had, in compliance to me, given up his +brother’s pretensions in favour of Bernage, this very +morning; that the Queen had spoken to Mr. Granville to make the +company easy in the other’s having the captainship. +Whether they have done it to oblige me or no, I must own it +so. He says he this very morning begged Her Majesty to give +Mr. Bernage the company. I am mighty well pleased to have +succeeded so well; but you will think me tedious, although you +like the man, as I think.</p> +<p>Windsor, 28. I came here a day sooner than ordinary, at +Mr. Secretary’s desire, and supped with him and Prior, and +two private Ministers from France, and a French priest. <a +name="citation304a"></a><a href="#footnote304a" +class="citation">[304a]</a> I know not the two +Ministers’ names; but they are come about the peace. +The names the Secretary called them, I suppose, were feigned; +they were good rational men. We have already settled all +things with France, and very much to the honour and advantage of +England; and the Queen is in mighty good humour. All this +news is a mighty secret; the people in general know that a peace +is forwarding. The Earl of Strafford <a +name="citation304b"></a><a href="#footnote304b" +class="citation">[304b]</a> is to go soon to Holland, and let +them know what we have been doing: and then there will be the +devil and all to pay; but we’ll make them swallow it with a +pox. The French Ministers stayed with us till one, and the +Secretary and I sat up talking till two; so you will own +’tis late, sirrahs, and time for your little saucy Presto +to go to bed and sleep adazy; and God bless poor little MD: I +hope they are now fast asleep, and dreaming of Presto.</p> +<p>29. Lord Treasurer came to-night, as usual, at half an +hour after eight, as dark as pitch. I am weary of chiding +him; so I commended him for observing his friend’s advice, +and coming so early, etc. I was two hours with Lady +Oglethorpe <a name="citation304c"></a><a href="#footnote304c" +class="citation">[304c]</a> <a name="page305"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 305</span>to-night, and then supped with Lord +Treasurer, after dining at the Green Cloth: I stayed till two; +this is the effect of Lord Treasurer’s being here; I must +sup with him; and he keeps cursed hours. Lord Keeper and +the Secretary were absent; they cannot sit up with him. +This long sitting up makes the periods in my letters so +short. I design to stay here all the next week, to be at +leisure by myself, to finish something of weight I have upon my +hands, and which must soon be done. I shall then think of +returning to Ireland, if these people will let me; and I know +nothing else they have for me to do. I gave Dr. Arbuthnot +my thanks for his kindness to Bernage, whose commission is now +signed. Methinks I long to know something of Stella’s +health, how it continues after Wexford waters.</p> +<p>30. The Queen was not at chapel to-day, and all for the +better, for we had a dunce to preach: she has a little of the +gout. I dined with my brother Masham, and a moderate +company, and would not go to Lord Treasurer’s till after +supper at eleven o’clock, and pretended I had mistaken the +hour; so I ate nothing: and a little after twelve the company +broke up, the Keeper and Secretary refusing to stay; so I saved +this night’s debauch. Prior went away yesterday with +his Frenchmen, and a thousand reports are raised in this +town. Some said they knew one to be the Abbé de +Polignac: others swore it was the Abbé du Bois. The +Whigs are in a rage about the peace; but we’ll wherret <a +name="citation305a"></a><a href="#footnote305a" +class="citation">[305a]</a> them, I warrant, boys. Go, go, +go to the Dean’s and don’t mind politics, young +women, they are not good after the waters; they are stark naught: +they strike up into the head. Go, get two black aces, and +fish for a manilio.</p> +<p>Oct. 1. Sir John Walter, <a name="citation305b"></a><a +href="#footnote305b" class="citation">[305b]</a> an honest +drunken fellow, is now in waiting, and invited me to the Green +Cloth to-day, that he might not be behindhand with Colonel +Godfrey, who is a Whig. I was engaged to the Mayor’s +feast with <a name="page306"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +306</span>Mr. Masham; but waiting to take leave of Lord +Treasurer, I came too late, and so returned sneaking to the Green +Cloth, and did not see my Lord Treasurer neither; but was +resolved not to lose two dinners for him. I took leave +to-day of my friend and solicitor Lord Rivers, who is commanded +by the Queen to set out for Hanover on Thursday. The +Secretary does not go to town till to-morrow; he and I, and two +friends more, drank a sober bottle of wine here at home, and +parted at twelve; he goes by seven to-morrow morning, so I shall +not see him. I have power over his cellar in his absence, +and make little use of it. Lord Dartmouth and my friend +Lewis stay here this week; but I can never work out a dinner from +Dartmouth. Masham has promised to provide for me: I squired +his lady out of her chaise to-day, and must visit her in a day or +two. So you have had a long fit of the finest weather in +the world; but I am every day in pain that it will go off. +I have done no business to-day; I am very idle.</p> +<p>2. My friend Lewis and I, to avoid over much eating and +great tables, dined with honest Jemmy Eckershall, <a +name="citation306"></a><a href="#footnote306" +class="citation">[306]</a> Clerk of the Kitchen, now in waiting, +and I bespoke my dinner: but the cur had your acquaintance Lovet, +the gentleman porter, to be our company. Lovet, towards the +end of dinner, after twenty wrigglings, said he had the honour to +see me formerly at Moor Park, and thought he remembered my +face. I said I thought I remembered him, and was glad to +see him, etc., and I escaped for that much, for he was very +pert. It has rained all this day, and I doubt our good +weather is gone. I have been very idle this afternoon, +playing at twelvepenny picquet with Lewis: I won seven shillings, +which is the only money I won this year: I have not played above +four times, and I think always at Windsor. Cards are very +dear: there is a duty on them of sixpence a pack, which spoils +small gamesters.</p> +<p>3. Mr. Masham sent this morning to desire I would ride +out with him, the weather growing again very fine. I was <a +name="page307"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 307</span>very busy, +and sent my excuses; but desired he would provide me a +dinner. I dined with him, his lady, and her sister, Mrs. +Hill, who invites us to-morrow to dine with her, and we are to +ride out in the morning. I sat with Lady Oglethorpe till +eight this evening, then was going home to write; looked about +for the woman that keeps the key of the house: she told me +Patrick had it. I cooled my heels in the cloisters till +nine, then went in to the music-meeting, where I had been often +desired to go; but was weary in half an hour of their fine stuff, +and stole out so privately that everybody saw me; and cooled my +heels in the cloisters again till after ten: then came in +Patrick. I went up, shut the chamber door, and gave him two +or three swinging cuffs on the ear, and I have strained the thumb +of my left hand with pulling him, which I did not feel until he +was gone. He was plaguily afraid and humbled.</p> +<p>4. It was the finest day in the world, and we got out +before eleven, a noble caravan of us. The Duchess of +Shrewsbury in her own chaise with one horse, and Miss Touchet <a +name="citation307a"></a><a href="#footnote307a" +class="citation">[307a]</a> with her, Mrs. Masham and Mrs. +Scarborow, one of the dressers, in one of the Queen’s +chaises; Miss Forester and Miss Scarborow, <a +name="citation307b"></a><a href="#footnote307b" +class="citation">[307b]</a> two maids of honour, and Mrs. Hill on +horseback. The Duke of Shrewsbury, Mr. Masham, George +Fielding, <a name="citation307c"></a><a href="#footnote307c" +class="citation">[307c]</a> Arbuthnot, and I, on horseback +too. Mrs. Hill’s horse was hired for Miss Scarborow, +but she took it in civility; her own horse was galled and could +not be rid, but kicked and winced: the hired horse was not worth +eighteenpence. I borrowed coat, boots, and horse, and in +short we had all the difficulties, and more than we used to have +in making a party from Trim to Longfield’s. <a +name="citation307d"></a><a href="#footnote307d" +class="citation">[307d]</a> My coat was light camlet, faced +with red velvet, and silver buttons. We <a +name="page308"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 308</span>rode in the +great park and the forest about a dozen miles, and the Duchess +and I had much conversation: we got home by two, and Mr. Masham, +his lady, Arbuthnot and I, dined with Mrs. Hill. Arbuthnot +made us all melancholy, by some symptoms of bloody u—e: he +expects a cruel fit of the stone in twelve hours; he says he is +never mistaken, and he appears like a man that was to be racked +to-morrow. I cannot but hope it will not be so bad; he is a +perfectly honest man, and one I have much obligation to. It +rained a little this afternoon, and grew fair again. Lady +Oglethorpe sent to speak to me, and it was to let me know that +Lady Rochester <a name="citation308a"></a><a href="#footnote308a" +class="citation">[308a]</a> desires she and I may be better +acquainted. ’Tis a little too late; for I am not now +in love with Lady Rochester: they shame me out of her, because +she is old. Arbuthnot says he hopes my strained thumb is +not the gout; for he has often found people so mistaken. I +do not remember the particular thing that gave it me, only I had +it just after beating Patrick, and now it is better; so I believe +he is mistaken.</p> +<p>5. The Duchess of Shrewsbury sent to invite me to +dinner; but I was abroad last night when her servant came, and +this morning I sent my excuses, because I was engaged, which I +was sorry for. Mrs. Forester taxed me yesterday about the +<i>History of the Maids of Honour</i>; <a +name="citation308b"></a><a href="#footnote308b" +class="citation">[308b]</a> but I told her fairly it was no jest +of mine; for I found they did not relish it altogether well; and +I have enough already of a quarrel with that brute Sir John +Walter, who has been railing at me in all companies ever since I +dined with him; that I abused the Queen’s meat and drink, +and said nothing at the table was good, and all a d—d lie; +for after dinner, commending the wine, I said I thought it was +something small. You would wonder how all my friends laugh +at this quarrel. It will be such a jest for the Keeper, +Treasurer, and Secretary.—I dined with honest Colonel +Godfrey, took a good walk of an <a name="page309"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 309</span>hour on the terrace, and then came +up to study; but it grows bloody cold, and I have no waistcoat +here.</p> +<p>6. I never dined with the chaplains till to-day; but my +friend Gastrell and the Dean of Rochester <a +name="citation309a"></a><a href="#footnote309a" +class="citation">[309a]</a> had often invited me, and I happened +to be disengaged: it is the worst provided table at Court. +We ate on pewter: every chaplain, when he is made a dean, gives a +piece of plate, and so they have got a little, some of it very +old. One who was made Dean of Peterborough (a small +deanery) said he would give no plate; he was only Dean of +Pewterborough. The news of Mr. Hill’s miscarriage in +his expedition <a name="citation309b"></a><a href="#footnote309b" +class="citation">[309b]</a> came to-day, and I went to visit Mrs. +Masham and Mrs. Hill, his two sisters, to condole with +them. I advised them by all means to go to the +music-meeting to-night, to show they were not cast down, etc., +and they thought my advice was right, and went. I doubt Mr. +Hill and his admiral made wrong steps; however, we lay it all to +a storm, etc. I sat with the Secretary at supper; then we +both went to Lord Treasurer’s supper, and sat till +twelve. The Secretary is much mortified about Hill, because +this expedition was of his contriving, and he counted much upon +it; but Lord Treasurer was just as merry as usual, and old +laughing at Sir John Walter and me falling out. I said +nothing grieved me but that they would take example, and perhaps +presume upon it, and get out of my government; but that I thought +I was not obliged to govern bears, though I governed men. +They promise to be as obedient as ever, and so we laughed; and so +I go to bed; for it is colder still, and you have a fire now, and +are at cards at home.</p> +<p>7. Lord Harley and I dined privately to-day with Mrs. +Masham and Mrs. Hill, and my brother Masham. I saw Lord +Halifax at Court, and we joined and talked; and the Duchess of +Shrewsbury came up and reproached me for not dining with +her. I said that was not so soon done, for I expected more +advances from ladies, especially duchesses: she promised to +comply with any demands I pleased; and I agreed to dine with her +to-morrow, if I did not go to London <a name="page310"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 310</span>too soon, as I believe I shall +before dinner. Lady Oglethorpe brought me and the Duchess +of Hamilton <a name="citation310a"></a><a href="#footnote310a" +class="citation">[310a]</a> together to-day in the drawing-room, +and I have given her some encouragement, but not much. +Everybody has been teasing Walter. He told Lord Treasurer +that he took his company from him that were to dine with him: my +lord said, “I will send you Dr. Swift:” Lord +Keeper bid him take care what he did; “for,” said he, +“Dr. Swift is not only all our favourite, but our +governor.” The old company supped with Lord +Treasurer, and got away by twelve.</p> +<p>London, 8. I believe I shall go no more to Windsor, for +we expect the Queen will come in ten days to Hampton Court. +It was frost last night, and cruel cold to-day. I could not +dine with the Duchess, for I left Windsor half an hour after one +with Lord Treasurer, and we called at Kensington, where Mrs. +Masham was got to see her children for two days. I dined, +or rather supped, with Lord Treasurer, and stayed till after +ten. Tisdall <a name="citation310b"></a><a +href="#footnote310b" class="citation">[310b]</a> and his family +are gone from hence, upon some wrangle with the family. +Yesterday I had two letters brought me to Mr. Masham’s; one +from Ford, and t’other from our little MD, N. 21. I +would not tell you till to-day, because I would not. I +won’t answer it till the next, because I have slipped two +days by being at Windsor, which I must recover here. Well, +sirrahs, I must go to sleep. The roads were as dry as at +midsummer to-day. This letter shall go to-morrow.</p> +<p>9. Morning. It rains hard this morning. I +suppose our fair weather is now at an end. I think +I’ll put on my waistcoat to-day: shall I? Well, I +will then, to please MD. I think of dining at home to-day +upon a chop and a pot. The town continues yet very +thin. Lord Strafford is gone to Holland, to tell them what +we have done here toward a peace. We shall soon hear what +the Dutch say, and how they take it. My humble service to +Mrs. Walls, Mrs. Stoyte, and Catherine.—Morrow, dearest +sirrahs, and farewell; and God Almighty bless MD, poor little +dear MD, for so I mean, <a name="page311"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 311</span>and Presto too. I’ll +write to you again to-night, that is, I’ll begin my next +letter. Farewell, etc.</p> +<p>This little bit belongs to MD; we must always write on the +margin: <a name="citation311a"></a><a href="#footnote311a" +class="citation">[311a]</a> you are saucy rogues.</p> +<h3>LETTER XXXII.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Oct.</i> 9, 1711.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">was</span> forced to lie down at twelve +to-day, and mend my night’s sleep: I slept till after two, +and then sent for a bit of mutton and pot of ale from the next +cook’s shop, and had no stomach. I went out at four, +and called to see Biddy Floyd, which I had not done these three +months: she is something marked, but has recovered her complexion +quite, and looks very well. Then I sat the evening with +Mrs. Vanhomrigh, and drank coffee, and ate an egg. I +likewise took a new lodging to-day, not liking a ground-floor, +nor the ill smell, and other circumstances. I lodge, or +shall lodge, by Leicester Fields, and pay ten shillings a week; +that won’t hold out long, faith. I shall lie here but +one night more. It rained terribly till one o’clock +to-day. I lie, for I shall lie here two nights, till +Thursday, and then remove. Did I tell you that my friend +Mrs. Barton has a brother <a name="citation311b"></a><a +href="#footnote311b" class="citation">[311b]</a> drowned, that +went on the expedition with Jack Hill? He was a +lieutenant-colonel, and a coxcomb; and she keeps her chamber in +form, and the servants say she receives no messages.—Answer +MD’s letter, Presto, d’ye hear? No, says +Presto, I won’t yet, I’m busy; you’re a saucy +rogue. Who talks?</p> +<p>10. It cost me two shillings in coach-hire to dine in +the City with a printer. I have sent, and caused to be +sent, three pamphlets out in a fortnight. I will ply the +rogues warm; and whenever anything of theirs makes a noise, it +shall have an answer. I have instructed an under +spur-leather to write <a name="page312"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 312</span>so, that it is taken for mine. +A rogue that writes a newspaper, called <i>The Protestant +Postboy</i>, has reflected on me in one of his papers; but the +Secretary has taken him up, and he shall have a squeeze +extraordinary. He says that an ambitious tantivy, <a +name="citation312a"></a><a href="#footnote312a" +class="citation">[312a]</a> missing of his towering hopes of +preferment in Ireland, is come over to vent his spleen on the +late Ministry, etc. I’ll tantivy him with a +vengeance. I sat the evening at home, and am very busy, and +can hardly find time to write, unless it were to MD. I am +in furious haste.</p> +<p>11. I dined to-day with Lord Treasurer. Thursdays +are now his days when his choice company comes, but we are too +much multiplied. George Granville sent his excuses upon +being ill; I hear he apprehends the apoplexy, which would grieve +me much. Lord Treasurer calls Prior nothing but Monsieur +Baudrier, which was the feigned name of the Frenchman that writ +his <i>Journey to Paris</i>. <a name="citation312b"></a><a +href="#footnote312b" class="citation">[312b]</a> They +pretend to suspect me, so I talk freely of it, and put them out +of their play. Lord Treasurer calls me now Dr. Martin, +because martin <a name="citation312c"></a><a href="#footnote312c" +class="citation">[312c]</a> is a sort of a swallow, and so is a +swift. When he and I came last Monday from Windsor, we were +reading all the signs on the road. <a name="citation312d"></a><a +href="#footnote312d" class="citation">[312d]</a> He is a +pure trifler; tell the Bishop of Clogher so. I made him +make two lines in verse for the Bell and Dragon, and they were +rare bad ones. I suppose Dilly is with you by this time: +what could his reason be of leaving London, and not owning +it? ’Twas plaguy silly. I believe his natural +inconstancy made him weary. I think he is the king of +inconstancy. I stayed with Lord Treasurer till ten; we had +five lords and three commoners. Go to ombre, sirrahs.</p> +<p>12. Mrs. Vanhomrigh has changed her lodging as well as +I. She found she had got with a bawd, and removed. I +<a name="page313"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 313</span>dined +with her to-day; for though she boards, her landlady does not +dine with her. I am grown a mighty lover of herrings; but +they are much smaller here than with you. In the afternoon +I visited an old major-general, and ate six oysters; then sat an +hour with Mrs. Colledge, <a name="citation313a"></a><a +href="#footnote313a" class="citation">[313a]</a> the +joiner’s daughter that was hanged; it was the joiner was +hanged, and not his daughter; with Thompson’s wife, a +magistrate. There was the famous Mrs. Floyd of Chester, +who, I think, is the handsomest woman (except MD) that ever I +saw. She told me that twenty people had sent her the verses +upon Biddy, <a name="citation313b"></a><a href="#footnote313b" +class="citation">[313b]</a> as meant to her: and, indeed, in +point of handsomeness, she deserves them much better. I +will not go to Windsor to-morrow, and so I told the Secretary +to-day. I hate the thoughts of Saturday and Sunday suppers +with Lord Treasurer. Jack Hill is come home from his +unfortunate expedition, and is, I think, now at Windsor: I have +not yet seen him. He is privately blamed by his own friends +for want of conduct. He called a council of war, and +therein it was determined to come back. But they say a +general should not do that, because the officers will always give +their opinion for returning, since the blame will not lie upon +them, but the general. I pity him heartily. Bernage +received his commission to-day.</p> +<p>13. I dined to-day with Colonel Crowe, <a +name="citation313c"></a><a href="#footnote313c" +class="citation">[313c]</a> late Governor of Barbadoes; he is a +great acquaintance of your friend Sterne, to whom I trusted the +box. Lord Treasurer has refused Sterne’s business, +and I doubt he is a rake; Jemmy Leigh stays for him, and nobody +knows where to find him. I am so busy now I have hardly +time to spare to write to our little MD, but in a fortnight I +hope it will be over. I am going now to be busy, etc.</p> +<p>14. I was going to dine with Dr. Cockburn, but Sir +Andrew Fountaine met me, and carried me to Mrs. Van’s, +where I drank the last bottle of Raymond’s wine, admirable +good, better than any I get among the Ministry. I must pick +up time to answer this letter of MD’s; I’ll do it in +a day or two <a name="page314"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +314</span>for certain.—I am glad I am not at Windsor, for +it is very cold, and I won’t have a fire till +November. I am contriving how to stop up my grate with +bricks. Patrick was drunk last night; but did not come to +me, else I should have given him t’other cuff. I sat +this evening with Mrs. Barton; it is the first day of her seeing +company; but I made her merry enough, and we were three hours +disputing upon Whig and Tory. She grieved for her brother +only for form, and he was a sad dog. Is Stella well enough +to go to church, pray? no numbings left? no darkness in your +eyes? do you walk and exercise? Your exercise is +ombre.—People are coming up to town: the Queen will be at +Hampton Court in a week. Lady Betty Germaine, I hear, is +come; and Lord Pembroke is coming: his wife <a +name="citation314a"></a><a href="#footnote314a" +class="citation">[314a]</a> is as big with child as she can +tumble.</p> +<p>15. I sat at home till four this afternoon to-day +writing, and ate a roll and butter; then visited Will Congreve an +hour or two, and supped with Lord Treasurer, who came from +Windsor to-day, and brought Prior with him. The Queen has +thanked Prior for his good service in France, and promised to +make him a Commissioner of the Customs. Several of that +Commission are to be out; among the rest, my friend Sir Matthew +Dudley. I can do nothing for him, he is so hated by the +Ministry. Lord Treasurer kept me till twelve, so I need not +tell you it is now late.</p> +<p>16. I dined to-day with Mr. Secretary at Dr. +Coatesworth’s, <a name="citation314b"></a><a +href="#footnote314b" class="citation">[314b]</a> where he now +lodges till his house be got ready in Golden Square. One +Boyer, <a name="citation314c"></a><a href="#footnote314c" +class="citation">[314c]</a> a French dog, has abused me in a +pamphlet, and I have got him up in a messenger’s hands: <a +name="page315"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 315</span>the +Secretary promises me to swinge him. Lord Treasurer told me +last night that he had the honour to be abused with me in a +pamphlet. I must make that rogue an example, for warning to +others. I was to see Jack Hill this morning, who made that +unfortunate expedition; and there is still more misfortune; for +that ship, which was admiral of his fleet, <a +name="citation315a"></a><a href="#footnote315a" +class="citation">[315a]</a> is blown up in the Thames, by an +accident and carelessness of some rogue, who was going, as they +think, to steal some gunpowder: five hundred men are lost. +We don’t yet know the particulars. I am got home by +seven, and am going to be busy, and you are going to play and +supper; you live ten times happier than I; but I should live ten +times happier than you if I were with MD. I saw Jemmy Leigh +to-day in the street, who tells me that Sterne has not lain above +once these three weeks in his lodgings, and he doubts he takes +ill courses; he stays only till he can find Sterne to go along +with him, and he cannot hear of him. I begged him to +inquire about the box when he comes to Chester, which he +promises.</p> +<p>17. The Secretary and I dined to-day with Brigadier +Britton, <a name="citation315b"></a><a href="#footnote315b" +class="citation">[315b]</a> a great friend of his. The lady +of the house is very gallant, about thirty-five; she is said to +have a great deal of wit; but I see nothing among any of them +that equals MD by a bar’s length, as hope saved. My +Lord Treasurer is much out of order; he has a sore throat, and +the gravel, and a pain in his breast where the wound was: pray +God preserve him. The Queen comes to Hampton Court on +Tuesday next; people are coming fast to town, and I must answer +MD’s letter, which I can hardly find time to do, though I +am at home the greatest part of the day. Lady Betty +Germaine and I were disputing Whig and Tory to death this +morning. She is grown very fat, and <a +name="page316"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 316</span>looks +mighty well. Biddy Floyd was there, and she is, I think, +very much spoiled with the smallpox.</p> +<p>18. Lord Treasurer is still out of order, and that +breaks our method of dining there to-day. He is often +subject to a sore throat, and some time or other it will kill +him, unless he takes more care than he is apt to do. It was +said about the town that poor Lord Peterborow was dead at +Frankfort; but he is something better, and the Queen is sending +him to Italy, where I hope the warm climate will recover him: he +has abundance of excellent qualities, and we love one another +mightily. I was this afternoon in the City, ate a bit of +meat, and settled some things with a printer. I will answer +your letter on Saturday, if possible, and then send away this; so +to fetch up the odd days I lost at Windsor, and keep constant to +my fortnight. Ombre time is now coming on, and we shall +have nothing but Manley, and Walls, and Stoytes, and the +Dean. Have you got no new acquaintance? Poor girls; +nobody knows MD’s good qualities.—’Tis very +cold; but I will not have a fire till November, that’s +pozz.—Well, but coming home to-night, I found on my table a +letter from MD; faith, I was angry, that is, with myself; and I +was afraid too to see MD’s hand so soon, for fear of +something, I don’t know what: at last I opened it, and it +was over well, and a bill for the two hundred guineas. +However, ’tis a sad thing that this letter is not gone, nor +your twenty-first answered yet.</p> +<p>19. I was invited to-day to dine with Mrs. Van, with +some company who did not come; but I ate nothing but herrings; +you must know I hardly ever eat of above one thing, and that the +plainest ordinary meat at table; I love it best, and believe it +wholesomest. You love rarities; yes you do; I wish you had +all that I ever see where I go. I was coming home early, +and met the Secretary in his chair, who persuaded me to go with +him to Britton’s; for he said he had been all day at +business, and had eaten nothing. So I went, and the time +passed so, that we stayed till two, so you may believe ’tis +late enough.</p> +<p><a name="page317"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +317</span>20. This day has gone all wrong, by sitting up so +late last night. Lord Treasurer is not yet well, and +can’t go to Windsor. I dined with Sir Matthew Dudley, +and took occasion to hint to him that he would lose his +employment, for which I am very sorry. Lord Pembroke and +his family are all come to town. I was kept so long at a +friend’s this evening that I cannot send this +to-night. When I knocked at my lodgings, a fellow asked me +where lodged Dr. Swift? I told him I was the person: he +gave me a letter he brought from the Secretary’s office, +and I gave him a shilling: when I came up, I saw Dingley’s +hand: faith, I was afraid, I do not know what. At last it +was a formal letter, from Dingley about her exchequer +business. Well, I’ll do it on Monday, and settle it +with Tooke. And now, boys, for your letter, I mean the +first, N. 21. Let’s see; come out, little +letter. I never had the letter from the Bishop that Raymond +mentions; but I have written to Ned Southwell, to desire the Duke +of Ormond to speak to his reverence, that he may leave off his +impertinence. What a pox can they think I am doing for the +Archbishop here? You have a pretty notion of me in Ireland, +to make me an agent for the Archbishop of Dublin.—Why! do +you think I value your people’s ingratitude about my part +in serving them? I remit them their first-fruits of +ingratitude, as freely as I got the other remitted to them. +The Lord Treasurer defers writing his letter to them, or else +they would be plaguily confounded by this time. For he +designs to give the merit of it wholly to the Queen and me, and +to let them know it was done before the Duke of Ormond was Lord +Lieutenant. You visit, you dine abroad, you see friends; +you pilgarlick; <a name="citation317a"></a><a +href="#footnote317a" class="citation">[317a]</a> you walk from +Finglas, you a cat’s foot. O Lord—Lady Gore <a +name="citation317b"></a><a href="#footnote317b" +class="citation">[317b]</a> hung her child by the <i>waist</i>; +<a name="page318"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 318</span>what is +that waist? <a name="citation318"></a><a href="#footnote318" +class="citation">[318]</a> I don’t understand that +word; he must hang on till you explain or spell it.—I +don’t believe he was pretty, that’s a +liiii.—Pish! burn your First-Fruits; again at it. +Stella has made twenty false spellings in her writing; I’ll +send them to you all back again on the other side of this letter, +to mend them; I won’t miss one. Why, I think there +were seventeen bishops’ names to the letter Lord Oxford +received.—I will send you some pamphlets by Leigh; put me +in mind of it on Monday, for I shall go then to the printer; yes, +and the <i>Miscellany</i>. I am mightily obliged to Walls, +but I don’t deserve it by any usage of him here, having +seen him but twice, and once en passant. Mrs. Manley +forsworn ombre! What! and no blazing star appear? no +monsters born? no whale thrown up? have you not found out some +evasion for her? She had no such regard to oaths in her +younger days. I got the books for nothing, Madam Dingley; +but the wine I got not; it was but a promise.—Yes, my head +is pretty well in the main, only now and then a little +threatening or so.—You talk of my reconciling some great +folks. I tell you what. The Secretary told me last +night that he had found the reason why the Queen was cold to him +for some months past; that a friend had told it him yesterday; +and it was, that they suspected he was at the bottom with the +Duke of Marlborough. Then he said he had reflected upon all +I had spoken to him long ago, but he thought it had only been my +suspicion, and my zeal and kindness for him. I said I had +reason to take that very ill, to imagine I knew so little of the +world as to talk at a venture to a great Minister; that I had +gone between him and Lord Treasurer often, and told each of them +what I had said to the other, and that I <a +name="page319"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 319</span>had +informed him so before. He said all that you may imagine to +excuse himself, and approve my conduct. I told him I knew +all along that this proceeding of mine was the surest way to send +me back to my willows in Ireland, but that I regarded it not, +provided I could do the kingdom service in keeping them well +together. I minded him how often I had told Lord Treasurer, +Lord Keeper, and him together, that all things depended on their +union, and that my comfort was to see them love one another; and +I had told them all singly that I had not said this by chance, +etc. He was in a rage to be thus suspected; swears he will be +upon a better foot, or none at all; and I do not see how they can +well want him in this juncture. I hope to find a way of +settling this matter. I act an honest part, that will bring +me neither honour nor praise. MD must think the better of +me for it: nobody else shall ever know of it. Here’s +politics enough for once; but Madam DD gave me occasion for +it. I think I told you I have got into lodgings that +don’t smell ill—O Lord! the spectacles: well, +I’ll do that on Monday too; although it goes against me to +be employed for folks that neither you nor I care a groat +for. Is the eight pounds from Hawkshaw included in the +thirty-nine pounds five shillings and twopence? How do I +know by this how my account stands? Can’t you write +five or six lines to cast it up? Mine is forty-four pounds +per annum, and eight pounds from Hawkshaw makes fifty-two +pounds. Pray set it right, and let me know; you had +best.—And so now I have answered N. 21, and ’tis +late, and I will answer N. 22 in my next: this cannot go +to-night, but shall on Tuesday: and so go to your play, and lose +your money, with your two eggs a penny; silly jade; you witty? +very pretty.</p> +<p>21. Mrs. Van would have me dine with her again to-day, +and so I did, though Lady Mountjoy has sent two or three times to +have me see and dine with her, and she is a little body I love +very well. My head has ached a little in the evenings these +three or four days, but it is not of the <a +name="page320"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 320</span>giddy sort, +so I do not much value it. I was to see Lord Harley to-day, +but Lord Treasurer took physic; and I could not see him. He +has voided much gravel, and is better, but not well: he talks of +going on Tuesday to see the Queen at Hampton Court; I wish he may +be able. I never saw so fine a summer day as this was: how +is it with you, pray? and can’t you remember, naughty +packs? I han’t seen Lord Pembroke yet. He will +be sorry to miss Dilly: I wonder you say nothing of Dilly’s +being got to Ireland; if he be not there soon, I shall have some +certain odd thoughts: guess them if you can.</p> +<p>22. I dined in the City to-day with Dr. Freind, at one +of my printers: I inquired for Leigh, but could not find him: I +have forgot what sort of apron you want. I must rout among +your letters, a needle in a bottle of hay. I gave Sterne +directions, but where to find him Lord knows. I have +bespoken the spectacles; got a set of <i>Examiners</i>, and five +pamphlets, which I have either written or contributed to, except +the best, which is the <i>Vindication of the Duke of +Marlborough</i>, and is entirely of the author of the +<i>Atalantis</i>. <a name="citation320"></a><a +href="#footnote320" class="citation">[320]</a> I have +settled Dingley’s affair with Tooke, who has undertaken it, +and understands it. I have bespoken a <i>Miscellany</i>: +what would you have me do more? It cost me a shilling +coming home; it rains terribly, and did so in the morning. +Lord Treasurer has had an ill day, in much pain. He writes +and does business in his chamber now he is ill: the man is +bewitched: he desires to see me, and I’ll maul him, but he +will not value it a rush. I am half weary of them +all. I often burst out into these thoughts, and will +certainly steal away as soon as I decently can. I have many +friends, and many enemies; and the last are more constant in +their nature. I have no shuddering at all to think of +retiring to my old circumstances, if you can be easy; but I will +always live in Ireland as I did the last time; I will not hunt +for dinners there, nor converse with more than a very few.</p> +<p><a name="page321"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +321</span>23. Morning. This goes to-day, and shall be +sealed by and by. Lord Treasurer takes physic again to-day: +I believe I shall dine with Lord Dupplin. Mr. Tooke brought +me a letter directed for me at Morphew’s the +bookseller. I suppose, by the postage, it came from +Ireland. It is a woman’s hand, and seems false spelt +on purpose: it is in such sort of verse as Harris’s +petition; <a name="citation321a"></a><a href="#footnote321a" +class="citation">[321a]</a> rallies me for writing merry things, +and not upon divinity; and is like the subject of the +Archbishop’s last letter, as I told you. Can you +guess whom it came from? It is not ill written; pray find +it out. There is a Latin verse at the end of it all rightly +spelt; yet the English, as I think, affectedly wrong in many +places. My plaguing time is coming. A young fellow +brought me a letter from Judge Coote, <a +name="citation321b"></a><a href="#footnote321b" +class="citation">[321b]</a> with recommendation to be lieutenant +of a man-of-war. He is the son of one Echlin, <a +name="citation321c"></a><a href="#footnote321c" +class="citation">[321c]</a> who was minister of Belfast before +Tisdall, and I have got some other new customers; but I shall +trouble my friends as little as possible. Saucy Stella used +to jeer me for meddling with other folks’ affairs; but now +I am punished for it.—Patrick has brought the candle, and I +have no more room. Farewell, etc. etc.</p> +<p>Here is a full and true account of Stella’s new +spelling:—<a name="citation321d"></a><a +href="#footnote321d" class="citation">[321d]</a></p> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p>Plaguely,</p> +</td> +<td><p>Plaguily.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Dineing,</p> +</td> +<td><p>Dining.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Straingers,</p> +</td> +<td><p>Strangers.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Chais,</p> +</td> +<td><p>Chase.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Waist,</p> +</td> +<td><p>Wast.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Houer,</p> +</td> +<td><p>Hour.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Immagin,</p> +</td> +<td><p>Imagine.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A bout,</p> +</td> +<td><p>About.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><a name="page322"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +322</span>Intellegence,</p> +</td> +<td><p>Intelligence.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Merrit,</p> +</td> +<td><p>Merit.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Aboundance,</p> +</td> +<td><p>Abundance.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Secreet,</p> +</td> +<td><p>Secret.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Phamphlets,</p> +</td> +<td><p>Pamphlets.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Bussiness,</p> +</td> +<td><p>Business.</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>Tell me truly, sirrah, how many of these are mistakes of the +pen, and how many are you to answer for as real ill +spelling? There are but fourteen; I said twenty by +guess. You must not be angry, for I will have you spell +right, let the world go how it will. Though, after all, +there is but a mistake of one letter in any of these words. +I allow you henceforth but six false spellings in every letter +you send me.</p> +<h3>LETTER XXXIII.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Oct.</i> 23, 1711.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">dined</span> with Lord Dupplin as I told +you I would, and put my thirty-second into the post-office my own +self; and I believe there has not been one moment since we parted +wherein a letter was not upon the road going or coming to or from +PMD. If the Queen knew it, she would give us a pension; for +it is we bring good luck to their post-boys and their packets; +else they would break their necks and sink. But, an old +saying and a true one:</p> +<p class="poetry">Be it snow, or storm, or hail,<br /> +PMD’s letters never fail;<br /> +Cross winds may sometimes make them tarry,<br /> +But PMD’s letters can’t miscarry.</p> +<p>Terrible rain to-day, but it cleared up at night enough to +save my twelvepence coming home. Lord Treasurer is much +better this evening. I hate to have him ill, he is so +confoundedly careless. I won’t answer your letter +yet, so be satisfied.</p> +<p>24. I called at Lord Treasurer’s to-day at noon: +he was eating some broth in his bed-chamber, undressed, with a <a +name="page323"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 323</span>thousand +papers about him. He has a little fever upon him, and his +eye terribly bloodshot; yet he dressed himself and went out to +the Treasury. He told me he had a letter from a lady with a +complaint against me; it was from Mrs. Cutts, a sister of Lord +Cutts, who writ to him that I had abused her brother: <a +name="citation323a"></a><a href="#footnote323a" +class="citation">[323a]</a> you remember the +“Salamander,” it is printed in the +<i>Miscellany</i>. I told my lord that I would never regard +complaints, and that I expected, whenever he received any against +me, he would immediately put them into the fire, and forget them, +else I should have no quiet. I had a little turn in my head +this morning; which, though it did not last above a moment, yet +being of the true sort, has made me as weak as a dog all this +day. ’Tis the first I have had this half-year. +I shall take my pills if I hear of it again. I dined at +Lady Mountjoy’s with Harry Coote, <a +name="citation323b"></a><a href="#footnote323b" +class="citation">[323b]</a> and went to see Lord Pembroke upon +his coming to town.—The Whig party are furious against a +peace, and every day some ballad comes out reflecting on the +Ministry on that account. The Secretary St. John has seized +on a dozen booksellers and publishers into his messengers’ +hands. <a name="citation323c"></a><a href="#footnote323c" +class="citation">[323c]</a> Some of the foreign Ministers +have published the preliminaries agreed on here between France +and England; and people rail at them as insufficient to treat a +peace upon; but the secret is, that the French have agreed to +articles much more important, which our Ministers have not +communicated, and the people, who think they know all, are +discontented that there is no more. This was an +inconvenience I foretold to the Secretary, but we could contrive +no way to fence against it. So there’s politics for +you.</p> +<p>25. The Queen is at Hampton Court: she went on Tuesday +in that terrible rain. I dined with Lewis at his <a +name="page324"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 324</span>lodgings, +to despatch some business we had. I sent this morning and +evening to Lord Treasurer, and he is much worse by going out; I +am in pain about evening. He has sent for Dr. Radcliffe; +pray God preserve him. The Chancellor of the Exchequer <a +name="citation324a"></a><a href="#footnote324a" +class="citation">[324a]</a> showed me to-day a ballad <a +name="citation324b"></a><a href="#footnote324b" +class="citation">[324b]</a> in manuscript against Lord Treasurer +and his South Sea project; it is very sharply written: if it be +not printed, I will send it you. If it be, it shall go in +your packet of pamphlets.—I found out your letter about +directions for the apron, and have ordered to be bought a cheap +green silk work apron; I have it by heart. I sat this +evening with Mrs. Barton, who is my near neighbour. It was +a delicious day, and I got my walk, and was thinking whether MD +was walking too just at that time that Presto was. This paper +does not cost me a farthing, I have it from the Secretary’s +office. I long till to-morrow to know how my Lord Treasurer +sleeps this night, and to hear he mends: we are all undone +without him; so pray for him, sirrahs, and don’t stay too +late at the Dean’s.</p> +<p>26. I dined with Mrs. Van; for the weather is so bad, +and I am so busy, that I can’t dine with great folks: and +besides I dare eat but little, to keep my head in order, which is +better. Lord Treasurer is very ill, but I hope in no +danger. We have no quiet with the Whigs, they are so +violent against a peace; but I’ll cool them, with a +vengeance, very soon. I have not heard from the Bishop of +Clogher, whether he has got his statues. <a +name="citation324c"></a><a href="#footnote324c" +class="citation">[324c]</a> I writ to him six weeks ago; +he’s so busy with his Parliament. I won’t +answer your letter yet, say what you will, saucy girls.</p> +<p>27. I forgot to go about some business this morning, +which cost me double the time; and I was forced to be at the +Secretary’s office till four, and lose my dinner; so I went +to Mrs. Van’s, and made them get me three herrings, which I +am very fond of, and they are a light victuals: besides, I was <a +name="page325"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 325</span>to have +supped at Lady Ashburnham’s; but the drab did not call for +us in her coach, as she promised, but sent for us, and so I sent +my excuses. It has been a terrible rainy day, but so +flattering in the morning, that I would needs go out in my new +hat. I met Leigh and Sterne as I was going into the +Park. Leigh says he will go to Ireland in ten days, if he +can get Sterne to go with him; so I will send him the things for +MD, and I have desired him to inquire about the box. I hate +that Sterne for his carelessness about it; but it was my +fault.</p> +<p>29. I was all this terrible rainy day with my friend +Lewis upon business of importance; and I dined with him, and came +home about seven, and thought I would amuse myself a little, +after the pains I had taken. I saw a volume of +Congreve’s plays in my room, that Patrick had taken to +read; and I looked into it, and in mere loitering read in it till +twelve, like an owl and a fool: if ever I do so again; never saw +the like. Count Gallas, <a name="citation325a"></a><a +href="#footnote325a" class="citation">[325a]</a> the +Emperor’s Envoy, you will hear, is in disgrace with us: the +Queen has ordered her Ministers to have no more commerce with +him; the reason is, the fool writ a rude letter to Lord +Dartmouth, Secretary of State, complaining of our proceedings +about a peace; and he is always in close confidence with Lord +Wharton and Sunderland, and others of the late Ministry. I +believe you begin to think there will be no peace; the Whigs here +are sure it cannot be, and stocks are fallen again. But I +am confident there will, unless France plays us tricks; and you +may venture a wager with any of your Whig acquaintance that we +shall not have another campaign. You will get more by it +than by ombre, sirrah.—I let slip telling you +yesterday’s journal, which I thought to have done this +morning, but blundered. I dined yesterday at Harry +Coote’s, with Lord Hatton, <a name="citation325b"></a><a +href="#footnote325b" class="citation">[325b]</a> Mr. Finch, a son +of Lord Nottingham, <a name="page326"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 326</span>and Sir Andrew Fountaine. I +left them soon, but hear they stayed till two in the morning, and +were all drunk: and so good-night for last night, and good-night +for to-night. You blundering goosecap, an’t you +ashamed to blunder to young ladies? I shall have a fire in +three or four days now, oh ho.</p> +<p>30. I was to-day in the City concerting some things with +a printer, and am to be to-morrow all day busy with Mr. Secretary +about the same. I won’t tell you now; but the +Ministers reckon it will do abundance of good, and open the eyes +of the nation, who are half bewitched against a peace. Few +of this generation can remember anything but war and taxes, and +they think it is as it should be; whereas ’tis certain we +are the most undone people in Europe, as I am afraid I shall make +appear beyond all contradiction. But I forgot; I +won’t tell you what I will do, nor what I will not do: so +let me alone, and go to Stoyte, and give Goody Stoyte and +Catherine my humble service; I love Goody Stoyte better than +Goody Walls. Who’ll pay me for this green +apron? I will have the money; it cost ten shillings and +sixpence. I think it plaguy dear for a cheap thing; but +they said that English silk would cockle, <a +name="citation326a"></a><a href="#footnote326a" +class="citation">[326a]</a> and I know not what. You have +the making into the bargain. ’Tis right Italian: I +have sent it and the pamphlets to Leigh, and will send the +<i>Miscellanies</i> and spectacles in a day or two. I would +send more; but, faith, I’m plaguy poor at present.</p> +<p>31. The devil’s in this Secretary: when I went +this morning he had people with him; but says he, “we are +to dine with Prior to-day, and then will do all our business in +the afternoon”: at two, Prior sends word he is otherwise +engaged; then the Secretary and I go and dine with Brigadier +Britton, sit till eight, grow merry, no business done; he is in +haste to see Lady Jersey; <a name="citation326b"></a><a +href="#footnote326b" class="citation">[326b]</a> we part, and +appoint no time to meet <a name="page327"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 327</span>again. This is the fault of +all the present Ministers, teasing me to death for my assistance, +laying the whole weight of their affairs upon it, yet slipping +opportunities. Lord Treasurer mends every day, though +slowly: I hope he will take care of himself. Pray, will you +send to Parvisol to send me a bill of twenty pounds as soon as he +can, for I want money. I must have money; I will have +money, sirrahs.</p> +<p>Nov. 1. I went to-day into the City to settle some +business with Stratford, and to dine with him; but he was +engaged, and I was so angry I would not dine with any other +merchant, but went to my printer, and ate a bit, and did business +of mischief with him, and I shall have the spectacles and +<i>Miscellany</i> to-morrow, and leave them with Leigh. A +fine day always makes me go into the City, if I can spare time, +because it is exercise; and that does me more good than +anything. I have heard nothing since of my head, but a +little, I don’t know how, sometimes: but I am very +temperate, especially now the Treasurer is ill, and the Ministers +often at Hampton Court, and the Secretary not yet fixed in his +house, and I hate dining with many of my old acquaintance. +Here has been a fellow discovered going out of the East India +House with sixteen thousand pounds in money and bills; he would +have escaped, if he had not been so uneasy with thirst, that he +stole out before his time, and was caught. But what is that +to MD? I wish we had the money, provided the East India +Company was never the worse; you know we must not covet, +etc. Our weather, for this fortnight past, is chequered, a +fair and a rainy day: this was very fine, and I have walked four +miles; wish MD would do so, lazy sluttikins.</p> +<p>2. It has rained all day with a continuendo, and I went +in a chair to dine with Mrs. Van; always there in a very rainy +day. But I made a shift to come back afoot. I live a +very retired life, pay very few visits, and keep but very little +<a name="page328"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 328</span>company; +I read no newspapers. I am sorry I sent you the +<i>Examiner</i>, for the printer is going to print them in a +small volume: it seems the author is too proud to have them +printed by subscription, though his friends offered, they say, to +make it worth five hundred pounds to him. The +<i>Spectators</i> are likewise printing in a larger and a smaller +volume, so I believe they are going to leave them off, and indeed +people grow weary of them, though they are often prettily +written. We have had no news for me to send you now towards +the end of my letter. The Queen has the gout a little: I +hoped the Lord Treasurer would have had it too, but Radcliffe +told me yesterday it was the rheumatism in his knee and foot; +however, he mends, and I hope will be abroad in a short +time. I am told they design giving away several employments +before the Parliament sits, which will be the thirteenth +instant. I either do not like, or not understand this +policy; and if Lord Treasurer does not mend soon, they must give +them just before the session. But he is the greatest +procrastinator in the world.</p> +<p>3. A fine day this, and I walked a pretty deal. I +stuffed the Secretary’s pockets with papers, which he must +read and settle at Hampton Court, where he went to-day, and stays +some time. They have no lodgings for me there, so I +can’t go, for the town is small, chargeable, and +inconvenient. Lord Treasurer had a very ill night last +night, with much pain in his knee and foot, but is easier +to-day.—And so I went to visit Prior about some business, +and so he was not within, and so Sir Andrew Fountaine made me +dine to-day again with Mrs. Van, and I came home soon, +remembering this must go to-night, and that I had a letter of +MD’s to answer. O Lord, where is it? let me see; so, +so, here it is. You grudge writing so soon. Pox on +that bill! the woman would have me manage that money for +her. I do not know what to do with it now I have it: I am +like the unprofitable steward in the Gospel: I laid it up in a +napkin; there thou hast what is thine own, etc. Well, well, +I know of your new Mayor. (I’ll tell you a pun: a +fishmonger owed a man two <a name="page329"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 329</span>crowns; so he sent him a piece of +bad ling and a tench, and then said he was paid: how is that now? +find it out; for I won’t tell it you: which of you finds it +out?) Well, but as I was saying, what care I for your +Mayor? I fancy Ford may tell Forbes right about my +returning to Ireland before Christmas, or soon after. +I’m sorry you did not go on with your story about Pray God +you be John; I never heard it in my life, and wonder what it can +be.—Ah, Stella, faith, you leaned upon your Bible to think +what to say when you writ that. Yes, that story of the +Secretary’s making me an example is true; “never +heard it before;” why, how could you hear it? is it +possible to tell you the hundredth part of what passes in our +companies here? The Secretary is as easy with me as Mr. +Addison was. I have often thought what a splutter Sir +William Temple makes about being Secretary of State: <a +name="citation329a"></a><a href="#footnote329a" +class="citation">[329a]</a> I think Mr. St. John the greatest +young man I ever knew; wit, capacity, beauty, quickness of +apprehension, good learning, and an excellent taste; the best +orator in the House of Commons, admirable conversation, good +nature, and good manners; generous, and a despiser of +money. His only fault is talking to his friends in way of +complaint of too great a load of business, which looks a little +like affectation; and he endeavours too much to mix the fine +gentleman and man of pleasure with the man of business. +What truth and sincerity he may have I know not: he is now but +thirty-two, and has been Secretary above a year. Is not all +this extraordinary? how he stands with the Queen and Lord +Treasurer I have told you before. This is his character; +and I believe you will be diverted by knowing it. I writ to +the Archbishop of Dublin, Bishop of Cloyne <a +name="citation329b"></a><a href="#footnote329b" +class="citation">[329b]</a> and of Clogher together, five weeks +ago from Windsor: I hope they had my letters; pray know if +Clogher had his.—Fig for your physician and his advice, +Madam Dingley: if I grow worse, I will; otherwise I will trust to +temperance and exercise: your fall of the leaf; what care I when +the leaves fall? I am sorry to see them fall with all <a +name="page330"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 330</span>my heart; +but why should I take physic because leaves fall off from trees? +that won’t hinder them from falling. If a man falls +from a horse, must I take physic for that?—This arguing +makes you mad; but it is true right reason, not to be +disproved.—I am glad at heart to hear poor Stella is +better; use exercise and walk, spend pattens and spare potions, +wear out clogs and waste claret. Have you found out my pun +of the fishmonger? don’t read a word more till you have got +it. And Stella is handsome again, you say? and is she +fat? I have sent to Leigh the set of <i>Examiners</i>: the +first thirteen were written by several hands, some good, some +bad; the next three-and-thirty were all by one hand, that makes +forty-six: then that author, <a name="citation330a"></a><a +href="#footnote330a" class="citation">[330a]</a> whoever he was, +laid it down on purpose to confound guessers; and the last six +were written by a woman. <a name="citation330b"></a><a +href="#footnote330b" class="citation">[330b]</a> Then there +is an account of Guiscard by the same woman, but the facts sent +by Presto. Then an answer to the letter to the Lords about +Gregg by Presto; Prior’s <i>Journey</i> by Presto; +<i>Vindication of the Duke of Marlborough</i>, entirely by the +same woman; Comment on Hare’s Sermon by the same woman, +only hints sent to the printer from Presto to give her. <a +name="citation330c"></a><a href="#footnote330c" +class="citation">[330c]</a> Then there’s the +<i>Miscellany</i>, an apron for Stella, a pound of chocolate, +without sugar, for Stella, a fine snuff-rasp of ivory, given me +by Mrs. St. John for Dingley, and a large roll of tobacco, which +she must hide or cut shorter out of modesty, and four pair of +spectacles for the Lord knows who. There’s the cargo, +I hope it will come safe. Oh, Mrs. Masham and I are very +well; we write to one another, but it is upon business; I believe +I told you so before: pray pardon my forgetfulness in these +cases; poor Presto can’t help it. MD shall have the +money as soon as Tooke gets it. And so I think I have +answered all, and the paper is out, and now I have fetched up my +week, and will send you another this <a name="page331"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 331</span>day fortnight.—Why, you +rogues, two crowns make <i>tench-ill-ling</i>: <a +name="citation331"></a><a href="#footnote331" +class="citation">[331]</a> you are so dull you could never have +found it out. Farewell, etc. etc.</p> +<h3>LETTER XXXIV.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Nov.</i> 3, 1711.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My</span> thirty-third lies now before me +just finished, and I am going to seal and send it, so let me know +whether you would have me add anything: I gave you my journal of +this day; and it is now nine at night, and I am going to be busy +for an hour or two.</p> +<p>4. I left a friend’s house to-day where I was +invited, just when dinner was setting on, and pretended I was +engaged, because I saw some fellows I did not know; and went to +Sir Matthew Dudley’s, where I had the same inconvenience, +but he would not let me go; otherwise I would have gone home, and +sent for a slice of mutton and a pot of ale, rather than dine +with persons unknown, as bad, for aught I know, as your deans, +parsons, and curates. Bad slabby weather to-day.—Now +methinks I write at ease, when I have no letter of MD’s to +answer. But I mistook, and have got the large paper. +The Queen is laid up with the gout at Hampton Court: she is now +seldom without it any long time together; I fear it will wear her +out in a very few years. I plainly find I have less +twitchings about my toes since these Ministers are sick and out +of town, and that I don’t dine with them. I would +compound for a light easy gout to be perfectly well in my +head.—Pray walk when the frost comes, young ladies go a +frost-biting. It comes into my head, that, from the very +time you first went to Ireland, I have been always plying you to +walk and read. The young fellows here have begun a kind of +fashion to walk, and many of them have got swingeing strong shoes +on purpose; it has got as far as several young lords; if it hold, +it would be a very good thing. Lady <a +name="page332"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 332</span>Lucy <a +name="citation332a"></a><a href="#footnote332a" +class="citation">[332a]</a> and I are fallen out; she rails at +me, and I have left visiting her.</p> +<p>5. MD was very troublesome to me last night in my sleep; +I was a dreamed, methought, that Stella was here. I asked +her after Dingley, and she said she had left her in Ireland, +because she designed her stay to be short, and such +stuff.—Monsieur Pontchartain, the Secretary of State in +France, and Monsieur Fontenelle, the Secretary of the Royal +Academy there (who writ the <i>Dialogues des Morts</i>, etc.), +have sent letters to Lord Pembroke that the Academy have, with +the King’s consent, chosen him one of their members in the +room of one who is lately dead. But the cautious gentleman +has given me the letters to show my Lord Dartmouth and Mr. St. +John, our two Secretaries, and let them see there is no treason +in them; which I will do on Wednesday, when they come from +Hampton Court. The letters are very handsome, and it is a +very great mark of honour and distinction to Lord Pembroke. +I hear the two French Ministers are come over again about the +peace; but I have seen nobody of consequence to know the +truth. I dined to-day with a lady of my acquaintance, who +was sick, in her bed-chamber, upon three herrings and a chicken: +the dinner was my bespeaking. We begin now to have +chestnuts and Seville oranges; have you the latter yet? +’Twas a terrible windy day, and we had processions in carts +of the Pope and the Devil, and the butchers rang their +cleavers. You know this is the Fifth of November, Popery +and gunpowder.</p> +<p>6. Since I am used to this way of writing, I fancy I +could hardly make out a long letter to MD without it. I +think I ought to allow for every line taken up by telling you +where I dined; but that will not be above seven lines in all, +half a line to a dinner. Your Ingoldsby <a +name="citation332b"></a><a href="#footnote332b" +class="citation">[332b]</a> is going over, and they say here he +is to be made a lord.—Here was I staying in my room till +two this afternoon for that puppy Sir Andrew Fountaine, who was +to go with me into the City, and never came; and if I had not +shot a dinner flying, with one Mr. <a name="page333"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 333</span>Murray, I might have fasted, or gone +to an alehouse.—You never said one word of Goody Stoyte in +your letter; but I suppose these winter nights we shall hear more +of her. Does the Provost <a name="citation333a"></a><a +href="#footnote333a" class="citation">[333a]</a> laugh as much as +he used to do? We reckon him here a good-for-nothing +fellow.—I design to write to your Dean one of these days, +but I can never find time, nor what to say.—I will think of +something: but if DD <a name="citation333b"></a><a +href="#footnote333b" class="citation">[333b]</a> were not in +Ireland I believe seriously I should not think of the place twice +a year. Nothing there ever makes the subject of talk in any +company where I am.</p> +<p>7. I went to-day to the City on business; but stopped at +a printer’s, and stayed there: it was a most delicious +day. I hear the Parliament is to be prorogued for a +fortnight longer; I suppose, either because the Queen has the +gout, or that Lord Treasurer is not well, or that they would do +something more towards a peace. I called at Lord +Treasurer’s at noon, and sat a while with Lord Harley, but +his father was asleep. A bookseller has reprinted or +new-titled a sermon of Tom Swift’s, <a +name="citation333c"></a><a href="#footnote333c" +class="citation">[333c]</a> printed last year, and publishes an +advertisement calling it <i>Dr. Swift’s Sermon</i>. +Some friend of Lord Galway <a name="citation333d"></a><a +href="#footnote333d" class="citation">[333d]</a> has, by his +directions, published a four-shilling book about his conduct in +Spain, to defend him; I have but just seen it. But what +care you for books, except Presto’s +<i>Miscellanies</i>? Leigh promised to call and see me, but +has not yet; I hope he will take care of his cargo, and get your +Chester box. A murrain take that box! everything is spoiled +that is in it. How does the strong box do? You say +nothing of Raymond: is his wife brought to bed again; or how? has +he finished his house; paid his debts; and put out the rest of +the money to use? I am glad to hear poor Joe is like to get +his two hundred pounds. I suppose Trim is now reduced to +slavery again. I am glad of it; the people were as great +rascals as <a name="page334"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +334</span>the gentlemen. But I must go to bed, sirrahs: the +Secretary is still at Hampton Court with my papers, or is come +only to-night. They plague me with attending them.</p> +<p>8. I was with the Secretary this morning, and we dined +with Prior, and did business this afternoon till about eight; and +I must alter and undo, and a clutter. I am glad the +Parliament is prorogued. I stayed with Prior till eleven; +the Secretary left us at eight. Prior, I believe, will be +one of those employed to make the peace, when a Congress is +opened. Lord Ashburnham told to-day at the Coffee-house +that Lord Harley <a name="citation334a"></a><a +href="#footnote334a" class="citation">[334a]</a> was yesterday +morning married to the Duke of Newcastle’s daughter, the +great heiress, and it got about all the town. But I saw +Lord Harley yesterday at noon in his nightgown, and he dined in +the City with Prior and others; so it is not true; but I hope it +will be so; for I know it has been privately managing this long +time: <a name="citation334b"></a><a href="#footnote334b" +class="citation">[334b]</a> the lady will not have half her +father’s estate; for the Duke left Lord Pelham’s son +his heir. <a name="citation334c"></a><a href="#footnote334c" +class="citation">[334c]</a> The widow Duchess will not +stand to the will, and she is now at law with Pelham. +However, at worst, the girl will have about ten thousand pounds a +year to support the honour; for Lord Treasurer will never save a +groat for himself. Lord Harley is a very valuable young +gentleman; and they say the girl is handsome, and has good sense, +but red hair.</p> +<p>9. I designed a jaunt into the City to-day to be merry, +but was disappointed; so one always is in this life; and I could +not see Lord Dartmouth to-day, with whom I had some +business. Business and pleasure both disappointed. +You can go to your Dean, and for want of him, Goody Stoyte, or +Walls, or Manley, and meet everywhere with cards and <a +name="page335"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +335</span>claret. I dined privately with a friend on a +herring and chicken, and half a flask of bad Florence. I +begin to have fires now, when the mornings are cold. I have +got some loose bricks at the back of my grate for good +husbandry. Fine weather. Patrick tells me my caps are +wearing out. I know not how to get others. I want a +necessary woman strangely. I am as helpless as an +elephant.—I had three packets from the Archbishop of +Dublin, cost me four shillings, all about Higgins, <a +name="citation335a"></a><a href="#footnote335a" +class="citation">[335a]</a> printed stuff, and two long +letters. His people forgot to enclose them to Lewis; and +they were only directed to Doctor Swift, without naming London or +anything else. I wonder how they reached me, unless the +postmaster directed them. I have read all the trash, and am +weary.</p> +<p>10. Why, if you must have it out, something is to be +published of great moment, <a name="citation335b"></a><a +href="#footnote335b" class="citation">[335b]</a> and three or +four great people are to see there are no mistakes in point of +fact: and ’tis so troublesome to send it among them, and +get their corrections, that I am weary as a dog. I dined +to-day with the printer, and was there all the afternoon; and it +plagues me, and there’s an end, and what would you +have? Lady Dupplin, Lord Treasurer’s daughter, <a +name="citation335c"></a><a href="#footnote335c" +class="citation">[335c]</a> is brought to bed of a son. +Lord Treasurer has had an ugly return of his gravel. +’Tis good for us to live in gravel pits, <a +name="citation335d"></a><a href="#footnote335d" +class="citation">[335d]</a> but not for gravel pits to live in +us; a man in this case should leave no stone unturned. Lord +Treasurer’s sickness, the Queen’s gout, the +forwarding the peace, occasion putting off the Parliament a +fortnight longer. My head has had no ill returns. I +had good walking to-day in the City, and take all opportunities +of it <a name="page336"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 336</span>on +purpose for my health; but I can’t walk in the Park, +because that is only for walking’s sake, and loses time, so +I mix it with business. I wish MD walked half as much as +Presto. If I was with you, I’d make you walk; I would +walk behind or before you, and you should have masks on, and be +tucked up like anything; and Stella is naturally a stout walker, +and carries herself firm; methinks I see her strut, and step +clever over a kennel; and Dingley would do well enough if her +petticoats were pinned up; but she is so embroiled, and so +fearful, and then Stella scolds, and Dingley stumbles, and is so +daggled. <a name="citation336a"></a><a href="#footnote336a" +class="citation">[336a]</a> Have you got the whalebone +petticoats among you yet? I hate them; a woman here may +hide a moderate gallant under them. Pshaw, what’s all +this I’m saying? Methinks I am talking to MD face to +face.</p> +<p>11. Did I tell you that old Frowde, <a +name="citation336b"></a><a href="#footnote336b" +class="citation">[336b]</a> the old fool, is selling his estate +at Pepperhara, and is skulking about the town nobody knows where? +and who do you think manages all this for him, but that rogue +Child, <a name="citation336c"></a><a href="#footnote336c" +class="citation">[336c]</a> the double squire of Farnham? I +have put Mrs. Masham, the Queen’s favourite, upon buying +it, but that is yet a great secret; and I have employed Lady +Oglethorpe to inquire about it. I was with Lady Oglethorpe +to-day, who is come to town for a week or two, and to-morrow I +will see to hunt out the old fool: he is utterly ruined, and at +this present in some blind alley with some dirty wench. He +has two sons that must starve, and he never gives them a +farthing. If Mrs. Masham buys the land, I will desire her +to get the Queen to give some pension to the old fool, to keep +him from absolutely starving. What do you meddle with other +people’s affairs for? says Stella. Oh, but Mr. <a +name="page337"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 337</span>Masham and +his wife are very urgent with me, since I first put them in the +head of it. I dined with Sir Matthew Dudley, who, I doubt, +will soon lose his employment.</p> +<p>12. Morning. I am going to hunt out old Frowde, +and to do some business in the City. I have not yet called +to Patrick to know whether it be fair.—It has been past +dropping these two days. Rainy weather hurts my pate and my +purse. He tells me ’tis very windy, and begins to +look dark; woe be to my shillings! an old saying and a true,</p> +<p class="poetry">Few fillings,<br /> +Many shillings.</p> +<p>If the day be dark, my purse will be light.</p> +<p class="poetry">To my enemies be this curse,<br /> +A dark day and a light purse.</p> +<p>And so I’ll rise, and go to my fire, for Patrick tells +me I have a fire; yet it is not shaving-day, nor is the weather +cold; this is too extravagant. What is become of +Dilly? I suppose you have him with you. Stella is +just now showing a white leg, and putting it into the +slipper. Present my service to her, and tell her I am +engaged to the Dean, and desire she will come too: or, Dingley, +can’t you write a note? This is Stella’s +morning dialogue, no, morning speech I mean.—Morrow, +sirrahs, and let me rise as well as you; but I promise you Walls +can’t dine with the Dean to-day, for she is to be at Mrs. +Proby’s just after dinner, and to go with Gracy Spencer <a +name="citation337"></a><a href="#footnote337" +class="citation">[337]</a> to the shops to buy a yard of muslin, +and a silver lace for an under petticoat. Morrow again, +sirrahs.—At night. I dined with Stratford in the +City, but could not finish my affairs with him; but now I am +resolved to buy five hundred pounds South Sea Stock, which will +cost me three hundred and eighty ready money; and I will make use +of the bill of a hundred pounds you sent me, and transfer Mrs. +Walls over to Hawkshaw; or if she dislikes it, I will borrow a +hundred pounds of the Secretary, and repay her. Three +shillings coach-hire to-day. I have spoken to +Frowde’s <a name="page338"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +338</span>brother to get me the lowest price of the estate, to +tell Mrs. Masham.</p> +<p>13. I dined privately with a friend to-day in the +neighbourhood. Last Saturday night I came home, and the +drab had just washed my room, and my bed-chamber was all wet, and +I was forced to go to bed in my own defence, and no fire: I was +sick on Sunday, and now have got a swingeing cold. I +scolded like a dog at Patrick, although he was out with me: I +detest washing of rooms; can’t they wash them in a morning, +and make a fire, and leave open the windows? I slept not a +wink last night for hawking <a name="citation338a"></a><a +href="#footnote338a" class="citation">[338a]</a> and spitting: +and now everybody has colds. Here’s a clutter: +I’ll go to bed and sleep if I can.</p> +<p>14. Lady Mountjoy sent to me two days ago, so I dined +with her to-day, and in the evening went to see Lord +Treasurer. I found Patrick had been just there with a how +d’ye, <a name="citation338b"></a><a href="#footnote338b" +class="citation">[338b]</a> and my lord had returned answer that +he desired to see me. Mrs. Masham was with him when I came, +and they are never disturbed: ’tis well she is not very +handsome; they sit alone together settling the nation. I +sat with Lady Oxford, and stopped Mrs. Masham as she came out, +and told her what progress I had made, etc., and then went to +Lord Treasurer: he is very well, only uneasy at rising or +sitting, with some rheumatic pain in his thigh, and a foot +weak. He showed me a small paper, sent by an unknown hand +to one Mr. Cook, who sent it to my lord: it was written in plain +large letters thus</p> +<blockquote><p>“Though G—d’s knife did not +succeed,<br /> +A F—n’s yet may do the deed.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>And a little below: “<i>Burn this</i>, <i>you +dog</i>.” My lord has <a name="page339"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 339</span>frequently such letters as these: +once he showed me one, which was a vision describing a certain +man, his dress, his sword, and his countenance, who was to murder +my lord. And he told me he saw a fellow in the chapel at +Windsor with a dress very like it. They often send him +letters signed, “Your humble servant, The Devil,” and +such stuff. I sat with him till after ten, and have +business to do.</p> +<p>15. The Secretary came yesterday to town from Hampton +Court, so I went to him early this morning; but he went back last +night again: and coming home to-night I found a letter from him +to tell me that he was just come from Hampton Court, and just +returning, and will not be here till Saturday night. A pox +take him! he stops all my business. I’ll beg leave to +come back when I have got over this, and hope to see MD in +Ireland soon after Christmas.—I’m weary of Courts, +and want my journeys to Laracor; they did me more good than all +the Ministries these twenty years. I dined to-day in the +City, but did no business as I designed. Lady Mountjoy +tells me that Dilly is got to Ireland, and that the Archbishop of +Dublin was the cause of his returning so soon. The +Parliament was prorogued two days ago for a fortnight, which, +with the Queen’s absence, makes the town very dull and +empty. They tell me the Duke of Ormond brings all the world +away with him from Ireland. London has nothing so bad in it +in winter as your knots of Irish folks; but I go to no +coffee-house, and so I seldom see them. This letter shall +go on Saturday; and then I am even with the world again. I +have lent money, and cannot get it, and am forced to borrow for +myself.</p> +<p>16. My man made a blunder this morning, and let up a +visitor, when I had ordered to see nobody; so I was forced to +hurry a hang-dog instrument of mine into my bed-chamber, and keep +him cooling his heels there above an hour.—I am going on +fairly in the common forms of a great cold; I believe it will +last me about ten days in all.—I should have told you, that +in those two verses sent to Lord Treasurer, G—d stands for +Guiscard; that is easy; but we differed <a +name="page340"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 340</span>about +F—n; I thought it was for Frenchman, because he hates them, +and they him: and so it would be, That although Guiscard’s +knife missed its design, the knife of a Frenchman might yet do +it. My lord thinks it stands for Felton, the name of him +that stabbed the first Duke of Buckingham. Sir Andrew Fountaine +and I dined with the Vans to-day, and my cold made me loiter all +the evening. Stay, young women, don’t you begin to +owe me a letter? just a month to-day since I had your N. +22. I’ll stay a week longer, and then, I’ll +expect like agog; till then you may play at ombre, and so forth, +as you please. The Whigs are still crying down our peace, +but we will have it, I hope, in spite of them: the Emperor comes +now with his two eggs a penny, and promises wonders to continue +the war; but it is too late; only I hope the fear of it will +serve to spur on the French to be easy and sincere: Night, +sirrahs; I’ll go early to bed.</p> +<p>17. Morning. This goes to-night; I will put it +myself in the post-office. I had just now a long letter +from the Archbishop of Dublin, giving me an account of the ending +your session, how it ended in a storm; which storm, by the time +it arrives here, will be only half nature. I can’t +help it, I won’t hide. I often advised the +dissolution of that Parliament, although I did not think the +scoundrels had so much courage; but they have it only in the +wrong, like a bully that will fight for a whore, and run away in +an army. I believe, by several things the Archbishop says, +he is not very well either with the Government or +clergy.—See how luckily my paper ends with a +fortnight.—God Almighty bless and preserve dearest little +MD.—I suppose your Lord Lieutenant is now setting out for +England. I wonder the Bishop of Clogher does not write to +me, or let me know of his statues, and how he likes them: I will +write to him again, as soon as I have leisure. Farewell, +dearest MD, and love Presto, who loves MD infinitely above all +earthly things, and who will.—My service to Mrs. Stoyte and +Catherine. I’m sitting in my bed, but will rise to +seal this. Morrow, dear rogues: Farewell again, dearest MD, +etc.</p> +<h3><a name="page341"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +341</span>LETTER XXXV.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Nov.</i> 17, 1711.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">put</span> my last this evening in the +post-office. I dined with Dr. Cockburn. This being +Queen Elizabeth’s birthday, we have the D— and all to +do among us. I just heard of the stir as my letter was +sealed this morning, and was so cross I would not open it to tell +you. I have been visiting Lady Oglethorpe <a +name="citation341a"></a><a href="#footnote341a" +class="citation">[341a]</a> and Lady Worsley; <a +name="citation341b"></a><a href="#footnote341b" +class="citation">[341b]</a> the latter is lately come to town for +the winter, and with child, and what care you? This is +Queen Elizabeth’s birthday, usually kept in this town by +apprentices, etc.; but the Whigs designed a mighty procession by +midnight, and had laid out a thousand pounds to dress up the +Pope, Devil, cardinals, Sacheverell, etc., and carry them with +torches about, and burn them. They did it by +contribution. Garth gave five guineas; Dr. Garth I mean, if +ever you heard of him. But they were seized last night, by +order from the Secretary: you will have an account of it, for +they bawl it about the streets already. <a +name="citation341c"></a><a href="#footnote341c" +class="citation">[341c]</a> They had some very foolish and +mischievous designs; and it was thought they would have put the +rabble upon assaulting my Lord Treasurer’s house and the +Secretary’s, and other violences. The militia was +raised to prevent it, and now, I suppose, all will be +quiet. The figures are now at the Secretary’s office +at Whitehall. I design to see them if I can.</p> +<p>18. I was this morning with Mr. Secretary, who just came +from Hampton Court. He was telling me more particulars +about this business of burning the Pope. It cost a great +deal of money, and had it gone on, would have cost three times as +much; but the town is full of it, and half a dozen <a +name="page342"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 342</span>Grub Street +papers already. The Secretary and I dined at Brigadier +Britton’s, but I left them at six, upon an appointment with +some sober company of men and ladies, to drink punch at Sir +Andrew Fountaine’s. We were not very merry; and I +don’t love rack punch, I love it better with brandy; are +you of my opinion? Why then, twelvepenny weather; sirrahs, +why don’t you play at shuttlecock? I have thought of +it a hundred times; faith, Presto will come over after Christmas, +and will play with Stella before the cold weather is gone. +Do you read the <i>Spectators</i>? I never do; they never +come in my way; I go to no coffee-houses. They say +abundance of them are very pretty; they are going to be printed +in small volumes; I’ll bring them over with me. I +shall be out of my hurry in a week, and if Leigh be not gone +over, I will send you by him what I am now finishing. I +don’t know where Leigh is; I have not seen him this good +while, though he promised to call: I shall send to him. The +Queen comes to town on Thursday for good and all.</p> +<p>19. I was this morning at Lord Dartmouth’s office, +and sent out for him from the Committee of Council, about some +business. I was asking him more concerning this bustle +about the figures in wax-work of the Pope, and Devil, etc. +He was not at leisure, or he would have seen them. I hear +the owners are so impudent, that they design to replevin them by +law. I am assured that the figure of the Devil is made as +like Lord Treasurer as they could. Why, I dined with a +friend in St. James’s Street. Lord Treasurer, I am +told, was abroad to-day; I will know to-morrow how he does after +it. The Duke of Marlborough is come, and was yesterday at +Hampton Court with the Queen; no, it was t’other day; no, +it was yesterday; for to-day I remember Mr. Secretary was going +to see him, when I was there, not at the Duke of +Marlborough’s, but at the Secretary’s; the Duke is +not so fond of me. What care I? I won seven shillings +to-night at picquet: I play twice a year or so.</p> +<p>20. I have been so teased with Whiggish discourse by <a +name="page343"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 343</span>Mrs. Barton +and Lady Betty Germaine, never saw the like. They turn all +this affair of the Pope-burning into ridicule; and, indeed, they +have made too great a clutter about it, if they had no real +reason to apprehend some tumults. I dined with Lady +Betty. I hear Prior’s commission is passed to be +Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary for the peace; my +Lord Privy Seal, who you know is Bishop of Bristol, is the other; +and Lord Strafford, already Ambassador at The Hague, the third: I +am forced to tell you, ignorant sluts, who is who. I was +punning scurvily with Sir Andrew Fountaine and Lord Pembroke this +evening: do you ever pun now? Sometimes with the Dean, or +Tom Leigh. <a name="citation343a"></a><a href="#footnote343a" +class="citation">[343a]</a> Prior puns very well. +Odso, I must go see His Excellency, ’tis a noble +advancement: but they could do no less, after sending him to +France. Lord Strafford is as proud as Hell, and how he will +bear one of Prior’s mean birth on an equal character with +him, I know not. And so I go to my business, and bid you +good-night.</p> +<p>21. I was this morning busy with my printer: I gave him +the fifth sheet, <a name="citation343b"></a><a +href="#footnote343b" class="citation">[343b]</a> and then I went +and dined with him in the City, to correct something, and alter, +etc., and I walked home in the dusk, and the rain overtook me: +and I found a letter here from Mr. Lewis; well, and so I opened +it; and he says the peace is past danger, etc. Well, and so +there was another letter enclosed in his: well, and so I looked +on the outside of this t’other letter. Well, and so +who do you think this t’other letter was from? Well, +and so I’ll tell you; it was from little MD, N. 23, 23, 23, +23. I tell you it is no more, I have told you so before: +but I just looked again to satisfy you. Hie, Stella, you +write like an emperor, a great deal together; a very good hand, +and but four false spellings in all. Shall I send them to +you? I am glad you did not take my correction ill. +Well, but I won’t answer your letter now, sirrah +saucyboxes, no, no; not yet; just a <a name="page344"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 344</span>month and three days from the last, +which is just five weeks: you see it comes just when I begin to +grumble.</p> +<p>22. Morning. Tooke has just brought me +Dingley’s money. I will give you a note for it at the +end of this letter. There was half a crown for entering the +letter of attorney; but I swore to stop that. I’ll +spend your money bravely here. Morrow, dear +sirrahs.—At night. I dined to-day with Sir Thomas +Hanmer; his wife, the Duchess of Grafton, <a +name="citation344a"></a><a href="#footnote344a" +class="citation">[344a]</a> dined with us: she wears a great high +head-dress, such as was in fashion fifteen years ago, and looks +like a mad woman in it; yet she has great remains of +beauty. I was this evening to see Lord Harley, and thought +to have sat with Lord Treasurer, but he was taken up with the +Dutch Envoy and such folks; and I would not stay. One +particular in life here, different from what I have in Dublin, +is, that whenever I come home I expect to find some letter for +me, and seldom miss; and never any worth a farthing, but often to +vex me. The Queen does not come to town till +Saturday. Prior is not yet declared; but these Ministers +being at Hampton Court, I know nothing; and if I write news from +common hands, it is always lies. You will think it +affectation; but nothing has vexed me more for some months past, +than people I never saw pretending to be acquainted with me, and +yet speak ill of me too; at least some of them. An old +crooked Scotch countess, whom I never heard of in my life, told +the Duchess of Hamilton <a name="citation344b"></a><a +href="#footnote344b" class="citation">[344b]</a> t’other +day that I often visited her. People of worth never do +that; so that a man only gets the scandal of having scurvy +acquaintance. Three ladies were railing against me some +time ago, and said they were very well acquainted with me; two of +which I had never heard of, and the third I had only seen twice +where I happened to visit. A man who has once seen me in a +coffee-house will ask me how I do, when he sees me talking at <a +name="page345"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 345</span>Court with +a Minister of State; who is sure to ask me how I came acquainted +with that scoundrel. But come, sirrahs, this is all stuff +to you, so I’ll say no more on this side the paper, but +turn over.</p> +<p>23. My printer invited Mr. Lewis and me to dine at a +tavern to-day, which I have not done five times since I came to +England; I never will call it Britain, pray don’t call it +Britain. My week is not out, and one side of this paper is +out, and I have a letter to answer of MD’s into the +bargain: must I write on the third side? faith, that will give +you an ill habit. I saw Leigh last night: he gives a +terrible account of Sterne; he reckons he is seduced by some +wench; he is over head and ears in debt, and has pawned several +things. Leigh says he goes on Monday next for Ireland, but +believes Sterne will not go with him; Sterne has kept him these +three months. Leigh has got the apron and things, and +promises to call for the box at Chester; but I despair of +it. Good-night, sirrahs; I have been late abroad.</p> +<p>24. I have finished my pamphlet <a +name="citation345a"></a><a href="#footnote345a" +class="citation">[345a]</a> to-day, which has cost me so much +time and trouble: it will be published in three or four days, +when the Parliament begins sitting. I suppose the Queen is +come to town, but know nothing, having been in the City finishing +and correcting with the printer. When I came home, I found +letters on my table as usual, and one from your mother, to tell +me that you desire your writings and a picture should be sent to +me, to be sent over to you. I have just answered her +letter, and promised to take care of them if they be sent to +me. She is at Farnham: it is too late to send them by +Leigh; besides, I will wait your orders, Madam Stella. I am +going to finish a letter to Lord Treasurer about reforming our +language; <a name="citation345b"></a><a href="#footnote345b" +class="citation">[345b]</a> but first I must put an end to a +ballad; and go you to your cards, sirrahs, this is card +season.</p> +<p>25. I was early with the Secretary to-day, but he was +gone to his devotions, and to receive the sacrament: several +rakes did the same; it was not for piety, but employments; +according <a name="page346"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +346</span>to Act of Parliament. I dined with Lady Mary +Dudley; <a name="citation346a"></a><a href="#footnote346a" +class="citation">[346a]</a> and passed my time since insipidly, +only I was at Court at noon, and saw fifty acquaintance I had not +met this long time: that is the advantage of a Court, and I fancy +I am better known than any man that goes there. Sir John +Walter’s <a name="citation346b"></a><a href="#footnote346b" +class="citation">[346b]</a> quarrel with me has entertained the +town ever since; and yet we never had a word, only he railed at +me behind my back. The Parliament is again to be prorogued +for eight or nine days, for the Whigs are too strong in the House +of Lords: other reasons are pretended, but that is the +truth. The prorogation is not yet known, but will be +to-morrow.</p> +<p>26. Mr. Lewis and I dined with a friend of his, and +unexpectedly there dined with us an Irish knight, one Sir John +St. Leger, <a name="citation346c"></a><a href="#footnote346c" +class="citation">[346c]</a> who follows the law here, but at a +great distance: he was so pert, I was forced to take him down +more than once. I saw to-day the Pope, and Devil, and the +other figures of cardinals, etc., fifteen in all, which have made +such a noise. I have put an under-strapper upon writing a +twopenny pamphlet <a name="citation346d"></a><a +href="#footnote346d" class="citation">[346d]</a> to give an +account of the whole design. My large pamphlet <a +name="citation346e"></a><a href="#footnote346e" +class="citation">[346e]</a> will be published to-morrow; copies +are sent to the great men this night. Domville <a +name="citation346f"></a><a href="#footnote346f" +class="citation">[346f]</a> is come home from his travels; I am +vexed at it: I have not seen him yet; I design to present him to +all the great men.</p> +<p>27. Domville came to me this morning, and we dined at +Pontack’s, and were all day together, till six this +evening: he is perfectly as fine a gentleman as I know; he set me +down at Lord Treasurer’s, with whom I stayed about an hour, +till Monsieur Buys, the Dutch Envoy, came to him about +business. My Lord Treasurer is pretty well, but stiff in +the <a name="page347"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 347</span>hips +with the remains of the rheumatism. I am to bring Domville +to my Lord Harley in a day or two. It was the dirtiest +rainy day that ever I saw. The pamphlet is published; Lord +Treasurer had it by him on the table, and was asking me about the +mottoes in the title-page; he gave me one of them himself. <a +name="citation347a"></a><a href="#footnote347a" +class="citation">[347a]</a> I must send you the pamphlet, +if I can.</p> +<p>28. Mrs. Van sent to me to dine with her to-day, because +some ladies of my acquaintance were to be there; and there I +dined. I was this morning to return Domville his visit, and +went to visit Mrs. Masham, who was not within. I am turned +out of my lodging by my landlady: it seems her husband and her +son are coming home; but I have taken another lodging hard by, in +Leicester Fields. I presented Mr. Domville to Mr. Lewis and +Mr. Prior this morning. Prior and I are called the two +Sosias, <a name="citation347b"></a><a href="#footnote347b" +class="citation">[347b]</a> in a Whig newspaper. Sosias, +can you read it? The pamphlet begins to make a noise: I was +asked by several whether I had seen it, and they advised me to +read it, for it was something very extraordinary. I shall +be suspected; and it will have several paltry answers. It +must take its fate, as Savage <a name="citation347c"></a><a +href="#footnote347c" class="citation">[347c]</a> said of his +sermon that he preached at Farnham on Sir William Temple’s +death. Domville saw Savage in Italy, and says he is a +coxcomb, and half mad: he goes in red, and with yellow +waistcoats, and was at ceremony kneeling to the Pope on a Palm +Sunday, which is much more than kissing his toe; and I believe it +will ruin him here when ’tis told. I’ll answer +your letter in my new lodgings: I have hardly room; I must borrow +from the other side.</p> +<p>29. New lodgings. My printer came this morning to +tell me he must immediately print a second edition, <a +name="citation347d"></a><a href="#footnote347d" +class="citation">[347d]</a> and Lord Treasurer made one or two +small additions: they must work day and night to have it out on +Saturday; they sold a <a name="page348"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 348</span>thousand in two days. Our +Society met to-day; nine of us were present: we dined at our +brother Bathurst’s. <a name="citation348a"></a><a +href="#footnote348a" class="citation">[348a]</a> We made +several regulations, and have chosen three new members, Lord +Orrery, <a name="citation348b"></a><a href="#footnote348b" +class="citation">[348b]</a> Jack Hill, who is Mrs. Masham’s +brother, he that lately miscarried in the expedition to Quebec, +and one Colonel Disney. <a name="citation348c"></a><a +href="#footnote348c" class="citation">[348c]</a>—We have +taken a room in a house near St. James’s to meet in. +I left them early about correcting the pamphlet, etc., and am now +got home, etc.</p> +<p>30. This morning I carried Domville to see my Lord +Harley, and I did some business with Lord Treasurer, and have +been all this afternoon with the printer, adding something to the +second edition. I dined with the printer: the pamphlet +makes a world of noise, and will do a great deal of good; it +tells abundance of most important facts which were not at all +known. I’ll answer your letter to-morrow morning; or +suppose I answer it just now, though it is pretty late. +Come then.—You say you are busy with Parliaments, etc.; +that’s more than ever I will be when I come back; but you +will have none these two years. Lord Santry, etc., yes, I +have had enough on’t. <a name="citation348d"></a><a +href="#footnote348d" class="citation">[348d]</a> I am glad +Dilly is mended; does not he thank me for showing him the Court +and the great people’s faces? He had his glass out at +the Queen and the rest. ’Tis right what Dilly says: I +depend upon nothing from my friends, but to go back as I +came. Never fear Laracor, ’twill mend with a peace, +or surely they’ll give me the Dublin parish. Stella +is in the right: the Bishop of Ossory <a +name="citation348e"></a><a href="#footnote348e" +class="citation">[348e]</a> is the silliest, best-natured wretch +breathing, of as little consequence as an egg-shell. Well, +the spelling I have mentioned before; only the next time say +<i>at least</i>, and not <a name="page349"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 349</span><i>at lest</i>. Pox on your +Newbury! <a name="citation349a"></a><a href="#footnote349a" +class="citation">[349a]</a> what can I do for him? +I’ll give his case (I am glad it is not a woman’s) to +what members I know; that’s all I can do. Lord +Treasurer’s lameness goes off daily. Pray God +preserve poor good Mrs. Stoyte; she would be a great loss to us +all: pray give her my service, and tell her she has my heartiest +prayers. I pity poor Mrs. Manley; but I think the child is +happy to die, considering how little provision it would have +had.—Poh, every pamphlet abuses me, and for things that I +never writ. Joe <a name="citation349b"></a><a +href="#footnote349b" class="citation">[349b]</a> should have +written me thanks for his two hundred pounds: I reckon he got it +by my means; and I must thank the Duke of Ormond, who I dare +swear will say he did it on my account. Are they golden +pippins, those seven apples? We have had much rain every +day as well as you. £7, 17s., 8d., old blunderer, not +18s.: I have reckoned it eighteen times. Hawkshaw’s +eight pounds is not reckoned and if it be secure, it may lie +where it is, unless they desire to pay it: so Parvisol may let it +drop till further orders; for I have put Mrs. Wesley’s +money into the Bank, and will pay her with +Hawkshaw’s.—I mean that Hawkshaw’s money goes +for an addition to MD, you know; but be good housewives. +Bernage never comes now to see me; he has no more to ask; but I +hear he has been ill.—A pox on Mrs. South’s <a +name="citation349c"></a><a href="#footnote349c" +class="citation">[349c]</a> affair; I can do nothing in it, but +by way of assisting anybody else that solicits it, by dropping a +favourable word, if it comes in my way. Tell Walls I do no +more for anybody with my Lord Treasurer, especially a thing of +this kind. Tell him I have spent all my discretion, and +have no more to use.—And so I have answered your letter +fully and plainly.—And so I have got to the third side of +my paper, which is more than belongs to you, young women.</p> +<p class="poetry">It goes to-morrow,<br /> +To nobody’s sorrow.</p> +<p>You are silly, not I; I’m a poet, if I had but, +etc.—Who’s silly now? rogues and lasses, tinderboxes +and buzzards. O <a name="page350"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 350</span>Lord, I am in a high vein of +silliness; methought I was speaking to dearest little MD face to +face. There; so, lads, enough for to-night; to cards with +the blackguards. Good-night, my delight, etc.</p> +<p>Dec. 1. Pish, sirrahs, put a date always at the bottom +of your letter, as well as the top, that I may know when you send +it; your last is of November 3, yet I had others at the same +time, written a fortnight after. Whenever you would have +any money, send me word three weeks before, and in that time you +will certainly have an answer, with a bill on Parvisol: pray do +this; for my head is full, and it will ease my memory. Why, +I think I quoted to you some of —’s letter, so you +may imagine how witty the rest was; for it was all of a bunch, as +Goodman Peesley <a name="citation350"></a><a href="#footnote350" +class="citation">[350]</a> says. Pray let us have no more +<i>bussiness</i>, but <i>busyness</i>: the deuce take me if I +know how to spell it; your wrong spelling, Madam Stella, has put +me out: it does not look right; let me see, <i>bussiness</i>, +<i>busyness</i>, <i>business</i>, <i>bisyness</i>, +<i>bisness</i>, <i>bysness</i>; faith, I know not which is right, +I think the second; I believe I never writ the word in my life +before; yes, sure I must, though; <i>business</i>, +<i>busyness</i>, <i>bisyness</i>.—I have perplexed myself, +and can’t do it. Prithee ask Walls. +<i>Business</i>, I fancy that’s right. Yes it is; I +looked in my own pamphlet, and found it twice in ten lines, to +convince you that I never writ it before. Oh, now I see it +as plain as can be; so yours is only an <i>s</i> too much. +The Parliament will certainly meet on Friday next: the Whigs will +have a great majority in the House of Lords, no care is taken to +prevent it; there is too much neglect; they are warned of it, and +that signifies nothing: it was feared there would be some peevish +address from the Lords against a peace. ’Tis said +about the town that several of the Allies begin now to be content +that a peace should be treated. This is all the news I +have. The Queen is pretty well: and so now I bid poor +dearest MD farewell till to-night; then I will talk with them +again.</p> +<p>The fifteen images that I saw were not worth forty <a +name="page351"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 351</span>pounds, so +I stretched a little when I said a thousand. The Grub +Street account of that tumult is published. The Devil is +not like Lord Treasurer: they were all in your odd antic masks, +bought in common shops. <a name="citation351a"></a><a +href="#footnote351a" class="citation">[351a]</a> I fear +Prior will not be one of the plenipotentiaries.</p> +<p>I was looking over this letter, and find I make many mistakes +of leaving out words; so ’tis impossible to find my +meaning, unless you be conjurers. I will take more care for +the future, and read over every day just what I have written that +day, which will take up no time to speak of.</p> +<h3>LETTER XXXVI.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Dec.</i> 1, 1711.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My</span> last was put in this +evening. I intended to dine with Mr. Masham to-day, and +called at White’s chocolate house to see if he was +there. Lord Wharton saw me at the door, and I saw him, but +took no notice, and was going away, but he came through the +crowd, called after me, and asked me how I did, etc. This +was pretty; and I believe he wished every word he spoke was a +halter to hang me. Masham did not dine at home, so I ate +with a friend in the neighbourhood. The printer has not +sent me the second edition; I know not the reason, for it +certainly came out to-day; perhaps they are glutted with it +already. I found a letter from Lord Harley on my table, to +tell me that his father desires I would make two small +alterations. I am going to be busy, etc.</p> +<p>2. Morning. See the blunder; I was making it the +37th day of the month, from the number above. Well, but I +am staying here for old Frowde, who appointed to call this +morning: I am ready dressed to go to church: I suppose he dare +not stir out but on Sundays. <a name="citation351b"></a><a +href="#footnote351b" class="citation">[351b]</a> The +printer called early this morning, told me the second edition +went off yesterday in five hours, and he must have a third ready +to-morrow, for they might have sold half another: his men are all +at work with it, though it be Sunday. This <a +name="page352"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 352</span>old fool +will not come, and I shall miss church. Morrow, +sirrahs.—At night. I was at Court to-day: the Queen +is well, and walked through part of the rooms. I dined with +the Secretary, and despatched some business. He tells me +the Dutch Envoy designs to complain of that pamphlet. The +noise it makes is extraordinary. It is fit it should answer +the pains I have been at about it. I suppose it will be +printed in Ireland. Some lay it to Prior, others to Mr. +Secretary St. John, but I am always the first they lay everything +to. I’ll go sleep, etc.</p> +<p>3. I have ordered Patrick not to let any odd fellow come +up to me; and a fellow would needs speak with me from Sir George +Pretyman. <a name="citation352a"></a><a href="#footnote352a" +class="citation">[352a]</a> I had never heard of him, and +would not see the messenger: but at last it proved that this Sir +George has sold his estate, and is a beggar. Smithers, the +Farnham carrier, brought me this morning a letter from your +mother, with three papers enclosed of Lady Giffard’s +writing; one owning some exchequer business of £100 to be +Stella’s; <a name="citation352b"></a><a +href="#footnote352b" class="citation">[352b]</a> another for +£100 that she has of yours, which I made over to you for +Mariston; and a third for £300; the last is on stamped +paper. I think they had better lie in England in some good +hand till Lady Giffard dies; and I will think of some such hand +before I come over. I was asking Smithers about all the +people of Farnham. Mrs. White <a name="citation352c"></a><a +href="#footnote352c" class="citation">[352c]</a> has left off +dressing, is troubled with lameness and swelled legs, and seldom +stirs out; but her old hang-dog husband as hearty as ever. +I was this morning with Lord Treasurer, about something he would +have altered in the pamphlet; <a name="citation352d"></a><a +href="#footnote352d" class="citation">[352d]</a> but it +can’t be till the fourth edition, which I believe will be +soon; for I dined with the printer, and he tells me they have +sold off half the third. Mrs. Perceval <a +name="citation352e"></a><a href="#footnote352e" +class="citation">[352e]</a> and her daughter have been in town <a +name="page353"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 353</span>these three +weeks, which I never heard till to-day; and Mrs. Wesley <a +name="citation353a"></a><a href="#footnote353a" +class="citation">[353a]</a> is come to town too, to consult Dr. +Radcliffe. The Whigs are resolved to bring that pamphlet +into the House of Lords to have it condemned, so I hear. +But the printer will stand to it, and not own the author; he must +say he had it from the penny-post. Some people talk as if +the House of Lords would do some peevish thing, for the Whigs are +now a great majority in it; our Ministers are too negligent of +such things: I have never slipped giving them warning; some of +them are sensible of it; but Lord Treasurer stands too much upon +his own legs. I fancy his good fortune will bear him out in +everything; but in reason I should think this Ministry to stand +very unsteady; if they can carry a peace, they may hold; I +believe not else.</p> +<p>4. Mr. Secretary sent to me to-day to dine with him +alone; but we had two more with us, which hindered me doing some +business. I was this morning with young Harcourt, secretary +to our Society, to take a room for our weekly meetings; and the +fellow asked us five guineas a week only to have leave to dine +once a week; was not that pretty? so we broke off with him, and +are to dine next Thursday at Harcourt’s (he is Lord +Keeper’s son). They have sold off above half the +third edition, and answers are coming out: the Dutch Envoy +refused dining with Dr. Davenant, <a name="citation353b"></a><a +href="#footnote353b" class="citation">[353b]</a> because he was +suspected to write it: I have made some alterations in every +edition, and it has cost me more trouble, for the time, since the +printing, than before. ’Tis sent over to Ireland, and +I suppose you will have it reprinted.</p> +<p>5. They are now printing the fourth edition, which is +reckoned very extraordinary, considering ’tis a dear +twelvepenny book, and not bought up in numbers by the party to +give away, as the Whigs do, but purely upon its own +strength. <a name="page354"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +354</span>I have got an under spur-leather to write an +<i>Examiner</i> again, <a name="citation354a"></a><a +href="#footnote354a" class="citation">[354a]</a> and the +Secretary and I will now and then send hints; but we would have +it a little upon the Grub Street, to be a match for their +writers. I dined with Lord Treasurer to-day at five: he +dined by himself after his family, and drinks no claret yet, for +fear of his rheumatism, of which he is almost well. He was +very pleasant, as he is always: yet I fancied he was a little +touched with the present posture of affairs. The Elector of +Hanover’s Minister here has given in a violent memorial +against the peace, and caused it to be printed. The Whig +lords are doing their utmost for a majority against Friday, and +design, if they can, to address the Queen against the +peace. Lord Nottingham, <a name="citation354b"></a><a +href="#footnote354b" class="citation">[354b]</a> a famous Tory +and speech-maker, is gone over to the Whig side: they toast him +daily, and Lord Wharton says, It is Dismal (so they call him from +his looks) will save England at last. Lord Treasurer was +hinting as if he wished a ballad was made on him, and I will get +up one against to-morrow. <a name="citation354c"></a><a +href="#footnote354c" class="citation">[354c]</a> He gave me +a scurrilous printed paper of bad verses on himself, under the +name of the English Catiline, and made me read them to the +company. It was his birthday, which he would not tell us, +but Lord Harley whispered it to me.</p> +<p>6. I was this morning making the ballad, two degrees +above Grub Street: at noon I paid a visit to Mrs. Masham, and +then went to dine with our Society. Poor Lord Keeper dined +below stairs, I suppose, on a bit of mutton. We chose two +members: we were eleven met, the greatest meeting we ever had: I +am next week to introduce Lord Orrery. The printer came +before we parted, and brought the ballad, <a +name="page355"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 355</span>which made +them laugh very heartily a dozen times. He is going to +print the pamphlet <a name="citation355"></a><a +href="#footnote355" class="citation">[355]</a> in small, a fifth +edition, to be taken off by friends, and sent into the +country. A sixpenny answer is come out, good for nothing, +but guessing me, among others, for the author. To-morrow is +the fatal day for the Parliament meeting, and we are full of +hopes and fears. We reckon we have a majority of ten on our +side in the House of Lords; yet I observed Mrs. Masham a little +uneasy: she assures me the Queen is stout. The Duke of +Marlborough has not seen the Queen for some days past; Mrs. +Masham is glad of it, because she says he tells a hundred lies to +his friends of what she says to him: he is one day humble, and +the next day on the high ropes. The Duke of Ormond, they +say, will be in town to-night by twelve.</p> +<p>7. This being the day the Parliament was to meet, and +the great question to be determined, I went with Dr. Freind to +dine in the City, on purpose to be out of the way, and we sent +our printer to see what was our fate; but he gave us a most +melancholy account of things. The Earl of Nottingham began, +and spoke against a peace, and desired that in their address they +might put in a clause to advise the Queen not to make a peace +without Spain; which was debated, and carried by the Whigs by +about six voices: and this has happened entirely by my Lord +Treasurer’s neglect, who did not take timely care to make +up all his strength, although every one of us gave him caution +enough. Nottingham has certainly been bribed. The +question is yet only carried in the Committee of the whole House, +and we hope when it is reported to the House to-morrow, we shall +have a majority, by some Scotch lords coming to town. +However, it is a mighty blow and loss of reputation to Lord +Treasurer, and may end in his ruin. I hear the thing only +as the printer brought it, who was at the debate; but how the +Ministry take it, or what their hopes and fears are, I cannot +tell until I see them. I shall be early with the Secretary +to-morrow, and then I will tell you more, and shall write a full +account to the Bishop <a name="page356"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 356</span>of Clogher to-morrow, and to the +Archbishop of Dublin, if I have time. I am horribly down at +present. I long to know how Lord Treasurer bears this, and +what remedy he has. The Duke of Ormond came this day to +town, and was there.</p> +<p>8. I was early this morning with the Secretary, and +talked over this matter. He hoped that when it was reported +this day in the House of Lords, they would disagree with their +Committee, and so the matter would go off, only with a little +loss of reputation to the Lord Treasurer. I dined with Mr. +Cockburn, and after, a Scotch member came in, and told us that +the clause was carried against the Court in the House of Lords +almost two to one. I went immediately to Mrs. Masham, and +meeting Dr. Arbuthnot (the Queen’s favourite physician), we +went together. She was just come from waiting at the +Queen’s dinner, and going to her own. She had heard +nothing of the thing being gone against us. It seems Lord +Treasurer had been so negligent that he was with the Queen while +the question was put in the House: I immediately told Mrs. Masham +that either she and Lord Treasurer had joined with the Queen to +betray us, or that they two were betrayed by the Queen: she +protested solemnly it was not the former, and I believed her; but +she gave me some lights to suspect the Queen is changed. +For yesterday, when the Queen was going from the House, where she +sat to hear the debate, the Duke of Shrewsbury, Lord Chamberlain, +asked her whether he or the Great Chamberlain Lindsey <a +name="citation356"></a><a href="#footnote356" +class="citation">[356]</a> ought to lead her out; she answered +short, “Neither of you,” and gave her hand to the +Duke of Somerset, who was louder than any in the House for the +clause against peace. She gave me one or two more instances +of this sort, which convince me that the Queen is false, or at +least very much wavering. Mr. Masham begged us to stay, +because Lord Treasurer would call, and we were resolved to fall +on him about his negligence in securing a <a +name="page357"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +357</span>majority. He came, and appeared in good humour as +usual, but I thought his countenance was much cast down. I +rallied him, and desired him to give me his staff, which he did: +I told him, if he would secure it me a week, I would set all +right: he asked how; I said I would immediately turn Lord +Marlborough, his two daughters, <a name="citation357a"></a><a +href="#footnote357a" class="citation">[357a]</a> the Duke and +Duchess of Somerset, and Lord Cholmondeley, <a +name="citation357b"></a><a href="#footnote357b" +class="citation">[357b]</a> out of all their employments; and I +believe he had not a friend but was of my opinion. +Arbuthnot asked how he came not to secure a majority. He +could answer nothing but that he could not help it, if people +would lie and forswear. A poor answer for a great +Minister. There fell from him a Scripture expression, that +“the hearts of kings are unsearchable.” <a +name="citation357c"></a><a href="#footnote357c" +class="citation">[357c]</a> I told him it was what I +feared, and was from him the worst news he could tell me. I +begged him to know what he had to trust to: he stuck a little; +but at last bid me not fear, for all would be well yet. We +would fain have had him eat a bit where he was, but he would go +home, it was past six: he made me go home with him. There +we found his brother and Mr. Secretary. He made his son +take a list of all in the House of Commons who had places, and +yet voted against the Court, in such a manner as if they should +lose their places: I doubt he is not able to compass it. +Lord Keeper came in an hour, and they were going upon +business. So I left him, and returned to Mrs. Masham; but +she had company with her, and I would not stay.—This is a +long journal, and of a day that may produce great alterations, +and hazard the ruin of England. The Whigs are all in +triumph; they foretold how all this would be, but we thought it +boasting. Nay, they said the Parliament should be dissolved +before Christmas, and perhaps it may: this is all your d—d +Duchess of <a name="page358"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +358</span>Somerset’s doings. I warned them of it nine +months ago, and a hundred times since: the Secretary always +dreaded it. I told Lord Treasurer I should have the +advantage of him; for he would lose his head, and I should only +be hanged, and so carry my body entire to the grave.</p> +<p>9. I was this morning with Mr. Secretary: we are both of +opinion that the Queen is false. I told him what I heard, +and he confirmed it by other circumstances. I then went to +my friend Lewis, who had sent to see me. He talks of +nothing but retiring to his estate in Wales. He gave me +reasons to believe the whole matter is settled between the Queen +and the Whigs; he hears that Lord Somers is to be Treasurer, and +believes that, sooner than turn out the Duchess of Somerset, she +will dissolve the Parliament, and get a Whiggish one, which may +be done by managing elections. Things are now in the +crisis, and a day or two will determine. I have desired him +to engage Lord Treasurer that as soon as he finds the change is +resolved on, he will send me abroad as Queen’s Secretary +somewhere or other, where I may remain till the new Ministers +recall me; and then I will be sick for five or six months, till +the storm has spent itself. I hope he will grant me this; +for I should hardly trust myself to the mercy of my enemies while +their anger is fresh. I dined to-day with the Secretary, +who affects mirth, and seems to hope all will yet be well. +I took him aside after dinner, told him how I had served them, +and had asked no reward, but thought I might ask security; and +then desired the same thing of him, to send me abroad before a +change. He embraced me, and swore he would take the same +care of me as himself, etc., but bid me have courage, for that in +two days my Lord Treasurer’s wisdom would appear greater +than ever; that he suffered all that had happened on purpose, and +had taken measures to turn it to advantage. I said, +“God send it”; but I do not believe a syllable; and, +as far as I can judge, the game is lost. I shall know more +soon, and my letters will at least be a good history to show you +the steps of this change.</p> +<p><a name="page359"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +359</span>10. I was this morning with Lewis, who thinks +they will let the Parliament sit till they have given the money, +and then dissolve them in spring, and break the Ministry. +He spoke to Lord Treasurer about what I desired him. My +lord desired him with great earnestness to assure me that all +would be well, and that I should fear nothing. I dined in +the City with a friend. This day the Commons went to the +Queen with their address, and all the Lords who were for the +peace went with them, to show their zeal. I have now some +further conviction that the Queen is false, and it begins to be +known.</p> +<p>11. I went between two and three to see Mrs. Masham; +while I was there she went to her bed-chamber to try a +petticoat. Lord Treasurer came in to see her, and seeing me +in the outer room, fell a rallying me: says he, “You had +better keep company with me, than with such a fellow as Lewis, +who has not the soul of a chicken, nor the heart of a +mite.” Then he went in to Mrs. Masham, and as he came +back desired her leave to let me go home with him to +dinner. He asked whether I was not afraid to be seen with +him. I said I never valued my Lord Treasurer in my life, +and therefore should have always the same esteem for Mr. Harley +and Lord Oxford. He seemed to talk confidently, as if he +reckoned that all this would turn to advantage. I could not +forbear hinting that he was not sure of the Queen, and that those +scoundrel, starving lords would never have dared to vote against +the Court, if Somerset had not assured them that it would please +the Queen. He said that was true, and Somerset did +so. I stayed till six; then De Buys, the Dutch Envoy, came +to him, and I left him. Prior was with us a while after +dinner. I see him and all of them cast down, though they +make the best of it.</p> +<p>12. Ford is come to town; I saw him last night: he is in +no fear, but sanguine, although I have told him the state of +things. This change so resembles the last, that I wonder +they do not observe it. The Secretary sent for me yesterday +to dine with him, but I was abroad; I hope he had something <a +name="page360"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 360</span>to say to +me. This is morning, and I write in bed. I am going +to the Duke of Ormond, whom I have not yet seen. Morrow, +sirrahs.—At night. I was to see the Duke of Ormond +this morning: he asked me two or three questions after his civil +way, and they related to Ireland: at last I told him that, from +the time I had seen him, I never once thought of Irish +affairs. He whispered me that he hoped I had done some good +things here: I said, if everybody else had done half as much, we +should not be as we are: then we went aside, and talked over +affairs. I told him how all things stood, and advised him +what was to be done. I then went and sat an hour with the +Duchess; then as long with Lady Oglethorpe, <a +name="citation360a"></a><a href="#footnote360a" +class="citation">[360a]</a> who is so cunning a devil that I +believe she could yet find a remedy, if they would take her +advice. I dined with a friend at Court.</p> +<p>13. I was this morning with the Secretary: he will needs +pretend to talk as if things would be well: “Will you +believe it,” said he, “if you see these people turned +out?” I said, yes, if I saw the Duke and Duchess of +Somerset out: he swore if they were not, he would give up his +place. Our Society dined to-day at Sir William +Wyndham’s; we were thirteen present. Lord Orrery and +two other members were introduced: I left them at seven. I +forgot to tell you that the printer told me yesterday that +Morphew, the publisher, was sent for by that Lord Chief-Justice, +<a name="citation360b"></a><a href="#footnote360b" +class="citation">[360b]</a> who was a manager against +Sacheverell; he showed him two or three papers and pamphlets; +among the rest mine of the <i>Conduct of the Allies</i>, +threatened him, asked who was the author, and has bound him over +to appear next term. He would not have the impudence to do +this, if he did not foresee what was coming at Court.</p> +<p>14. Lord Shelburne was with me this morning, to be +informed of the state of affairs, and desired I would answer all +his objections against a peace, which was soon done, for <a +name="page361"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 361</span>he would +not give me room to put in a word. He is a man of good +sense enough; but argues so violently, that he will some day or +other put himself into a consumption. He desires that he +may not be denied when he comes to see me, which I promised, but +will not perform. Leigh and Sterne set out for Ireland on +Monday se’nnight: I suppose they will be with you long +before this.—I was to-night drinking very good wine in +scurvy company, at least some of them; I was drawn in, but will +be more cautious for the future; ’tis late, etc.</p> +<p>15. Morning. They say the Occasional Bill <a +name="citation361"></a><a href="#footnote361" +class="citation">[361]</a> is brought to-day into the House of +Lords; but I know not. I will now put an end to my letter, +and give it into the post-house myself. This will be a +memorable letter, and I shall sigh to see it some years +hence. Here are the first steps toward the ruin of an +excellent Ministry; for I look upon them as certainly ruined; and +God knows what may be the consequences.—I now bid my +dearest MD farewell; for company is coming, and I must be at Lord +Dartmouth’s office by noon. Farewell, dearest MD; I +wish you a merry Christmas; I believe you will have this about +that time. Love Presto, who loves MD above all things a +thousand times. Farewell again, dearest MD, etc.</p> +<h3>LETTER XXXVII.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Dec.</i> 15, 1711.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">put</span> in my letter this evening +myself. I was to-day inquiring at the Secretary’s +office of Mr. Lewis how things went: I there met Prior, who told +me he gave all for gone, etc., and was of opinion the whole +Ministry would give up their places next week: Lewis thinks they +will not till spring, when the session is over; both of them +entirely despair. I went to see Mrs. Masham, who invited me +to dinner; but I was engaged to Lewis. At four I went to +Masham’s. He came and whispered me that he had it +from a very good hand that all would be well, and I found them +both very <a name="page362"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +362</span>cheerful. The company was going to the opera, but +desired I would come and sup with them. I did so at ten, +and Lord Treasurer was there, and sat with us till past twelve, +and was more cheerful than I have seen him these ten days. +Mrs. Masham told me he was mightily cast down some days ago, and +he could not indeed hide it from me. Arbuthnot is in good +hopes that the Queen has not betrayed us, but only has been +frightened, and flattered, etc. But I cannot yet be of his +opinion, whether my reasons are better, or that my fears are +greater. I do resolve, if they give up, or are turned out +soon, to retire for some months, and I have pitched upon the +place already: but I will take methods for hearing from MD, and +writing to them. But I would be out of the way upon the +first of the ferment; for they lay all things on me, even some I +have never read.</p> +<p>16. I took courage to-day, and went to Court with a very +cheerful countenance. It was mightily crowded; both parties +coming to observe each other’s faces. I have avoided +Lord Halifax’s bow till he forced it on me; but we did not +talk together. I could not make less than fourscore bows, +of which about twenty might be to Whigs. The Duke of +Somerset is gone to Petworth, and, I hear, the Duchess too, of +which I shall be very glad. Prince Eugene, <a +name="citation362"></a><a href="#footnote362" +class="citation">[362]</a> who was expected here some days ago, +we are now told, will not come at all. The Whigs designed +to have met him with forty thousand horse. Lord Treasurer +told me some days ago of his discourse with the Emperor’s +Resident, that puppy Hoffman, about Prince Eugene’s coming; +by which I found my lord would hinder it, if he could; and we +shall be all glad if he does not come, and think it a good point +gained. Sir Andrew Fountaine, Ford, and I dined to-day with +Mrs. Van, by invitation.</p> +<p>17. I have mistaken the day of the month, and been +forced to mend it thrice. I dined to-day with Mr. Masham <a +name="page363"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 363</span>and his +lady, by invitation. Lord Treasurer was to be there, but +came not. It was to entertain Buys, the Dutch Envoy, who +speaks English well enough: he was plaguily politic, telling a +thousand lies, of which none passed upon any of us. We are +still in the condition of suspense, and I think have little +hopes. The Duchess of Somerset is not gone to Petworth; +only the Duke, and that is a poor sacrifice. I believe the +Queen certainly designs to change the Ministry, but perhaps may +put it off till the session is over: and I think they had better +give up now, if she will not deal openly; and then they need not +answer for the consequences of a peace, when it is in other +hands, and may yet be broken. They say my Lord Privy Seal +sets out for Holland this week: so the peace goes on.</p> +<p>18. It has rained hard from morning till night, and cost +me three shillings in coach-hire. We have had abundance of +wet weather. I dined in the City, and was with the printer, +who has now a fifth edition of the <i>Conduct</i>, etc.: it is in +small, and sold for sixpence; they have printed as many as three +editions, because they are to be sent in numbers into the country +by great men, etc., who subscribe for hundreds. It has been +sent a fortnight ago to Ireland: I suppose you will print it +there. The Tory Lords and Commons in Parliament argue all +from it; and all agree that never anything of that kind was of so +great consequence, or made so many converts. By the time I +have sent this letter, I expect to hear from little MD: it will +be a month, two days hence, since I had your last, and I will +allow ten days for accidents. I cannot get rid of the +leavings of a cold I got a month ago, or else it is a new +one. I have been writing letters all this evening till I am +weary, and I am sending out another little thing, which I hope to +finish this week, and design to send to the printer in an unknown +hand. There was printed a Grub Street speech of Lord +Nottingham; <a name="citation363"></a><a href="#footnote363" +class="citation">[363]</a> and he was such an owl to complain of +it in the House of Lords, who have <a name="page364"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 364</span>taken up the printer for it. I +heard at Court that Walpole <a name="citation364a"></a><a +href="#footnote364a" class="citation">[364a]</a> (a great Whig +member) said that I and my whimsical Club writ it at one of our +meetings, and that I should pay for it. He will find he +lies: and I shall let him know by a third hand my thoughts of +him. He is to be Secretary of State, if the Ministry +changes; but he has lately had a bribe proved against him in +Parliament, while he was Secretary at War. He is one of the +Whigs’ chief speakers.</p> +<p>19. Sad dismal weather. I went to the +Secretary’s office, and Lewis made me dine with him. +I intended to have dined with Lord Treasurer. I have not +seen the Secretary this week. Things do not mend at +all. Lord Dartmouth despairs, and is for giving up; Lewis +is of the same mind; but Lord Treasurer only says, “Poh, +poh, all will be well.” I am come home early to +finish something I am doing; but I find I want heart and humour, +and would read any idle book that came in my way. I have +just sent away a penny paper to make a little mischief. +Patrick is gone to the burial of an Irish footman, who was Dr. +King’s <a name="citation364b"></a><a href="#footnote364b" +class="citation">[364b]</a> servant; he died of a consumption, a +fit death for a poor starving wit’s footman. The +Irish servants always club to bury a countryman.</p> +<p>20. I was with the Secretary this morning, and, for +aught I can see, we shall have a languishing death: I can know +nothing, nor themselves neither. I dined, you know, with +our Society, and that odious Secretary would make me President +next week; so I must entertain them this day se’nnight at +the Thatched House Tavern, <a name="citation364c"></a><a +href="#footnote364c" class="citation">[364c]</a> where we dined +<a name="page365"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 365</span>to-day: +it will cost me five or six pounds; yet the Secretary says he +will give me wine. I found a letter when I came home from +the Bishop of Clogher.</p> +<p>21. This is the first time I ever got a new cold before +the old one was going: it came yesterday, and appeared in all due +forms, eyes and nose running, etc., and is now very bad; and I +cannot tell how I got it. Sir Andrew Fountaine and I were +invited to dine with Mrs. Van. I was this morning with the +Duke of Ormond; and neither he nor I can think of anything to +comfort us in present affairs. We must certainly fall, if +the Duchess of Somerset be not turned out; and nobody believes +the Queen will ever part with her. The Duke and I were +settling when Mr. Secretary and I should dine with him, and he +fixes upon Tuesday; and when I came away I remembered it was +Christmas Day. I was to see Lady —, who is just up +after lying-in; and the ugliest sight I have seen, pale, dead, +old and yellow, for want of her paint. She has turned my +stomach. But she will soon be painted, and a beauty +again.</p> +<p>22. I find myself disordered with a pain all round the +small of my back, which I imputed to champagne I had drunk; but +find it to have been only my new cold. It was a fine frosty +day, and I resolved to walk into the City. I called at Lord +Treasurer’s at eleven, and stayed some time with +him.—He showed me a letter from a great Presbyterian parson +<a name="citation365"></a><a href="#footnote365" +class="citation">[365]</a> to him, complaining how their friends +had betrayed them by passing this Conformity Bill; and he showed +me the answer he had written, which his friends would not let him +send; but was a very good one. He is very cheerful; but +gives one no hopes, nor has any to give. I went into the +City, and there I dined.</p> +<p>23. Morning. As I was dressing to go to church, a +friend that was to see me advised me not to stir out; so I shall +keep at home to-day, and only eat some broth, if I can get +it. It is a terrible cold frost, and snow fell yesterday, +which <a name="page366"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +366</span>still remains: look there, you may see it from the +penthouses. The Lords made yesterday two or three votes +about peace, and Hanover, of a very angry kind to vex the +Ministry, and they will meet sooner by a fortnight than the +Commons; and they say, are preparing some knocking +addresses. Morrow, sirrahs. I’ll sit at home, +and when I go to bed I will tell you how I am.—I have sat +at home all day, and eaten only a mess of broth and a roll. +I have written a <i>Prophecy</i>, <a name="citation366a"></a><a +href="#footnote366a" class="citation">[366a]</a> which I design +to print; I did it to-day, and some other verses.</p> +<p>24. I went into the City to-day in a coach, and dined +there. My cold is going. It is now bitter hard frost, +and has been so these three or four days. My +<i>Prophecy</i> is printed, and will be published after Christmas +Day; I like it mightily: I don’t know how it will +pass. You will never understand it at your distance, +without help. I believe everybody will guess it to be mine, +because it is somewhat in the same manner with that of +“Merlin” <a name="citation366b"></a><a +href="#footnote366b" class="citation">[366b]</a> in the +<i>Miscellanies</i>. My Lord Privy Seal set out this day +for Holland: he’ll have a cold journey. I gave +Patrick half a crown for his Christmas box, on condition he would +be good, and he came home drunk at midnight. I have taken a +memorandum of it, because I never design to give him a groat +more. ’Tis cruel cold.</p> +<p>25. I wish MD a merry Christmas, and many a one; but +mine is melancholy: I durst not go to church to-day, finding +myself a little out of order, and it snowing prodigiously, and +freezing. At noon I went to Mrs. Van, who had this week +engaged me to dine there to-day: and there I received the news +that poor Mrs. Long <a name="citation366c"></a><a +href="#footnote366c" class="citation">[366c]</a> died at Lynn in +Norfolk on Saturday last, at four in the morning: she was sick +but four hours. We suppose it was the asthma, which she was +subject to as well as the dropsy, as she sent me word in her last +letter, <a name="page367"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +367</span>written about five weeks ago; but then said she was +recovered. I never was more afflicted at any death. +The poor creature had retired to Lynn two years ago, to live +cheap, and pay her debts. In her last letter she told me +she hoped to be easy by Christmas; and she kept her word, +although she meant it otherwise. She had all sorts of +amiable qualities, and no ill ones, but the indiscretion of too +much neglecting her own affairs. She had two thousand +pounds left her by an old grandmother, <a +name="citation367a"></a><a href="#footnote367a" +class="citation">[367a]</a> with which she intended to pay her +debts, and live on an annuity she had of one hundred pounds a +year, and Newburg House, which would be about sixty pounds +more. That odious grandmother living so long, forced her to +retire; for the two thousand pounds was settled on her after the +old woman’s death, yet her brute of a brother, Sir James +Long, <a name="citation367b"></a><a href="#footnote367b" +class="citation">[367b]</a> would not advance it for her; else +she might have paid her debts, and continued here, and lived +still: I believe melancholy helped her on to her grave. I +have ordered a paragraph to be put in the <i>Postboy</i>, <a +name="citation367c"></a><a href="#footnote367c" +class="citation">[367c]</a> giving an account of her death, and +making honourable mention of her; which is all I can do to serve +her memory: but one reason was spite; for her brother would fain +have her death a secret, to save the charge of bringing her up +here to bury her, or going into mourning. Pardon all this, +for the sake of a poor creature I had so much friendship for.</p> +<p>26. I went to Mr. Secretary this morning, and he would +have me dine with him. I called at noon at Mrs. +Masham’s, who desired me not to let the <i>Prophecy</i> be +published, for fear of angering the Queen about the Duchess of +Somerset; so I writ to the printer to stop them. They have +been printed and given about, but not sold. I saw Lord +Treasurer there, who had been two hours with the Queen; and Mrs. +Masham is in hopes things will do well again. <a +name="page368"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 368</span>I went at +night again, and supped at Mr. Masham’s, and Lord Treasurer +sat with us till one o’clock. So ’tis late, +etc.</p> +<p>27. I entertained our Society at the Thatched House +Tavern to-day at dinner; but brother Bathurst sent for wine, the +house affording none. The printer had not received my +letter, and so he brought up dozens apiece of the +<i>Prophecy</i>; but I ordered him to part with no more. +’Tis an admirable good one, and people are mad for +it. The frost still continues violently cold. Mrs. +Masham invited me to come to-night and play at cards; but our +Society did not part till nine. But I supped with Mrs. +Hill, her sister, and there was Mrs. Masham and Lord Treasurer, +and we stayed till twelve. He is endeavouring to get a +majority against next Wednesday, when the House of Lords is to +meet, and the Whigs intend to make some violent addresses against +a peace, if not prevented. God knows what will become of +us.—It is still prodigiously cold; but so I told you +already. We have eggs on the spit, I wish they may not be +addled. When I came home to-night I found, forsooth, a +letter from MD, N. 24, 24, 24, 24; there, do you know the numbers +now? and at the same time one from Joe, <a +name="citation368a"></a><a href="#footnote368a" +class="citation">[368a]</a> full of thanks: let him know I have +received it, and am glad of his success, but won’t put him +to the charge of a letter. I had a letter some time ago +from Mr. Warburton, <a name="citation368b"></a><a +href="#footnote368b" class="citation">[368b]</a> and I beg one of +you will copy out what I shall tell you, and send it by some +opportunity to Warburton. ’Tis as follows: The Doctor +has received Mr. Warburton’s letter, and desires he will +let the Doctor know where <a name="citation368c"></a><a +href="#footnote368c" class="citation">[368c]</a> that accident he +mentions is like soon to happen, and he will do what he can in +it.—And pray, madam, let them know that I do this to save +myself the trouble, and them the expense of a letter. And I +think that this is enough for one that comes home at twelve from +a Lord Treasurer and Mrs. Masham. Oh, I could tell you ten +thousand things of our mad politics, <a name="page369"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 369</span>upon what small circumstances great +affairs have turned. But I will go rest my busy head.</p> +<p>28. I was this morning with brother Bathurst to see the +Duke of Ormond. We have given his Grace some hopes to be +one of our Society. The Secretary and I and Bathurst are to +dine with him on Sunday next. The Duke is not in much +hopes, but has been very busy in endeavouring to bring over some +lords against next Wednesday. The Duchess caught me as I +was going out; she is sadly in fear about things, and blames me +for not mending them by my credit with Lord Treasurer; and I +blame her. She met me in the street at noon, and engaged me +to dine with her, which I did; and we talked an hour after dinner +in her closet. If we miscarry on Wednesday, I believe it +will be by some strange sort of neglect. They talk of +making eight new lords by calling up some peers’ eldest +sons; but they delay strangely. I saw Judge Coote <a +name="citation369a"></a><a href="#footnote369a" +class="citation">[369a]</a> to-day at the Duke of Ormond’s: +he desires to come and see me, to justify his principles.</p> +<p>29. Morning. This goes to-day. I will not +answer yours, your 24th, till next, which shall begin to-night, +as usual. Lord Shelburne has sent to invite me to dinner, +but I am engaged with Lewis at Ned Southwell’s. Lord +Northampton and Lord Aylesbury’s sons <a +name="citation369b"></a><a href="#footnote369b" +class="citation">[369b]</a> are both made peers; but we shall +want more. I write this post to your Dean. I owe the +Archbishop a letter this long time. All people that come +from Ireland complain of him, and scold me for protecting +him. Pray, Madam Dingley, let me know what Presto has +received for this year, or whether anything is due to him for +last: I cannot look over your former letters now. As for +Dingley’s own account of her exchequer money, I will give +it on t’other side. Farewell, my own dearest MD, and +love Presto; and God ever bless dearest MD, etc. etc. I +wish you many happy Christmases and new years.</p> +<p><a name="page370"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 370</span>I +have owned to the Dean a letter I just had from you, but that I +had not one this great while before.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Dingley’s +Account</span></p> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p>Received of Mr. Tooke</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">£6</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">17</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Deducted for entering the letter of attorney</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>For the three half-crowns it used to cost you, I +don’t know why nor wherefore</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>For exchange to Ireland</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">10</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>For coach-hire</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: right">In all, just</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">8</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>So there’s your money, and we are both even: for +I’ll pay you no more than that eight pounds Irish, and pray +be satisfied.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">Churchwarden’s accounts, +boys.</p> +<p>Saturday night. I have broke open my letter, and tore it +into the bargain, to let you know that we are all safe: the Queen +has made no less than twelve lords, <a name="citation370"></a><a +href="#footnote370" class="citation">[370]</a> to have a +majority; nine new ones, the other three peers’ sons; and +has turned out the Duke of Somerset. She is awaked at last, +and so is Lord Treasurer: I want nothing now but to see the +Duchess out. But we shall do without her. We are all +extremely happy. Give me joy, sirrahs. This is +written in a coffee-house. Three of the new lords are of +our Society.</p> +<h3><a name="page371"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +371</span>LETTER XXXVIII.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Dec.</i> 29, 1711.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">put</span> my letter in this evening, +after coming from dinner at Ned Southwell’s, where I drank +very good Irish wine, and we are in great joy at this happy turn +of affairs. The Queen has been at last persuaded to her own +interest and security, and I freely think she must have made both +herself and kingdom very unhappy, if she had done +otherwise. It is still a mighty secret that Masham is to be +one of the new lords; they say he does not yet know it himself; +but the Queen is to surprise him with it. Mr. Secretary +will be a lord at the end of the session; but they want him still +in Parliament. After all, it is a strange unhappy necessity +of making so many peers together; but the Queen has drawn it upon +herself, by her confounded trimming and moderation. Three, +as I told you, are of our Society.</p> +<p>30. I writ the Dean and you a lie yesterday; for the +Duke of Somerset is not yet turned out. I was to-day at +Court, and resolved to be very civil to the Whigs; but saw few +there. When I was in the bed-chamber talking to Lord +Rochester, he went up to Lady Burlington, <a +name="citation371a"></a><a href="#footnote371a" +class="citation">[371a]</a> who asked him who I was; and Lady +Sunderland and she whispered about me: I desired Lord Rochester +to tell Lady Sunderland I doubted she was not as much in love +with me as I was with her; but he would not deliver my +message. The Duchess of Shrewsbury came running up to me, +and clapped her fan up to hide us from the company, and we gave +one another joy of this change; but sighed when we reflected on +the Somerset family not being out. The Secretary and I, and +brother Bathurst, and Lord Windsor, dined with the Duke of +Ormond. Bathurst and Windsor <a name="citation371b"></a><a +href="#footnote371b" class="citation">[371b]</a> are to be two of +the <a name="page372"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 372</span>new +lords. I desired my Lord Radnor’s brother, <a +name="citation372a"></a><a href="#footnote372a" +class="citation">[372a]</a> at Court to-day, to let my lord know +I would call on him at six, which I did, and was arguing with him +three hours to bring him over to us, and I spoke so closely that +I believe he will be tractable; but he is a scoundrel, and though +I said I only talked for my love to him, I told a lie; for I did +not care if he were hanged: but everyone gained over is of +consequence. The Duke of Marlborough was at Court to-day, +and nobody hardly took notice of him. Masham’s being +a lord begins to take wind: nothing at Court can be kept a +secret. Wednesday will be a great day: you shall know +more.</p> +<p>31. Our frost is broken since yesterday, and it is very +slabbery; <a name="citation372b"></a><a href="#footnote372b" +class="citation">[372b]</a> yet I walked to the City and dined, +and ordered some things with the printer. I have settled +Dr. King in the Gazette; it will be worth two hundred pounds a +year to him. Our new lords’ patents are passed: I +don’t like the expedient, if we could have found any +other. I see I have said this before. I hear the Duke +of Marlborough is turned out of all his employments: I shall know +to-morrow when I am to carry Dr. King to dine with the +Secretary.—These are strong remedies; pray God the patient +is able to bear them. The last Ministry people are utterly +desperate.</p> +<p>Jan. 1. Now I wish my dearest little MD many happy new +years; yes, both Dingley and Stella, ay and Presto too, many +happy new years. I dined with the Secretary, and it is true +that the Duke of Marlborough is turned out of all. The Duke +of Ormond has got his regiment of foot-guards, I know not who has +the rest. If the Ministry be not sure of a peace, I shall wonder +at this step, and do not approve it at best. The Queen and Lord +Treasurer mortally hate the Duke of Marlborough, and to that he +owes his fall, more <a name="page373"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 373</span>than to his other faults: unless he +has been tampering too far with his party, of which I have not +heard any particulars; however it be, the world abroad will blame +us. I confess my belief that he has not one good quality in +the world beside that of a general, and even that I have heard +denied by several great soldiers. But we have had constant +success in arms while he commanded. Opinion is a mighty +matter in war, and I doubt the French think it impossible to +conquer an army that he leads, and our soldiers think the same; +and how far even this step may encourage the French to play +tricks with us, no man knows. I do not love to see personal +resentment mix with public affairs.</p> +<p>2. This being the day the Lords meet, and the new peers +to be introduced, I went to Westminster to see the sight; but the +crowd was too great in the house. So I only went into the +robing-room, to give my four brothers joy, and Sir Thomas Mansel, +<a name="citation373"></a><a href="#footnote373" +class="citation">[373]</a> and Lord Windsor; the other six I am +not acquainted with. It was apprehended the Whigs would +have raised some difficulties, but nothing happened. I went +to see Lady Masham at noon, and wish her joy of her new honour, +and a happy new year. I found her very well pleased; for +peerage will be some sort of protection to her upon any turn of +affairs. She engaged me to come at night, and sup with her +and Lord Treasurer: I went at nine, and she was not at home, so I +would not stay.—No, no, I won’t answer your letter +yet, young women. I dined with a friend in the +neighbourhood. I see nothing here like Christmas, except +brawn or mince-pies in places where I dine, and giving away my +half-crowns like farthings to great men’s porters and +butlers. Yesterday I paid seven good guineas to the fellow +at the tavern where I treated the Society. I have a great +mind to send you the bill. I think I told you some +articles. I have not heard whether anything was done in the +House of Lords after introducing the new ones. Ford has +been sitting with me till peeast tweeleve a clock.</p> +<p><a name="page374"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +374</span>3. This was our Society day: Lord Dupplin was +President; we choose every week; the last President treats and +chooses his successor. I believe our dinner cost fifteen +pounds beside wine. The Secretary grew brisk, and would not +let me go, nor Lord Lansdowne, <a name="citation374a"></a><a +href="#footnote374a" class="citation">[374a]</a> who would fain +have gone home to his lady, being newly married to Lady Mary +Thynne. It was near one when we parted, so you must think I +cannot write much to-night. The adjourning of the House of +Lords yesterday, as the Queen desired, was just carried by the +twelve new lords, and one more. Lord Radnor was not there: +I hope I have cured him. Did I tell you that I have brought +Dr. King in to be Gazetteer? It will be worth above two +hundred pounds a year to him: I believe I told you so before, but +I am forgetful. Go, get you gone to ombre, and claret, and +toasted oranges. I’ll go sleep.</p> +<p>4. I cannot get rid of the leavings of my cold. I +was in the City to-day, and dined with my printer, and gave him a +ballad made by several hands, I know not whom. I believe +Lord Treasurer had a finger in it; I added three stanzas; I +suppose Dr. Arbuthnot had the greatest share. I had been +overseeing some other little prints, and a pamphlet made by one +of my under-strappers. Somerset is not out yet. I +doubt not but you will have the <i>Prophecy</i> in Ireland, +although it is not published here, only printed copies given to +friends. Tell me, do you understand it? No, faith, +not without help. Tell me what you stick at, and I’ll +explain. We turned out a member of our Society yesterday +for gross neglect and non-attendance. I writ to him by +order to give him notice of it. It is Tom Harley, <a +name="citation374b"></a><a href="#footnote374b" +class="citation">[374b]</a> secretary to the Treasurer, and +cousin-german to Lord Treasurer. He is going to Hanover +from the Queen. I am <a name="page375"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 375</span>to give the Duke of Ormond notice of +his election as soon as I can see him.</p> +<p>5. I went this morning with a parishioner of mine, one +Nuttal, who came over here for a legacy of one hundred pounds, +and a roguish lawyer had refused to pay him, and would not +believe he was the man. I writ to the lawyer a sharp +letter, that I had taken Nuttal into my protection, and was +resolved to stand by him, and the next news was, that the lawyer +desired I would meet him, and attest he was the man, which I did, +and his money was paid upon the spot. I then visited Lord +Treasurer, who is now right again, and all well, only that the +Somerset family is not out yet. I hate that; I don’t +like it, as the man said, by, etc. Then I went and visited +poor Will Congreve, who had a French fellow tampering with one of +his eyes; he is almost blind of both. I dined with some +merchants in the City, but could not see Stratford, with whom I +had business. Presto, leave off your impertinence, and +answer our letter, saith MD. Yes, yes, one of these days, +when I have nothing else to do. O, faith, this letter is a +week written, and not one side done yet. These ugly spots are not +tobacco, but this is the last gilt sheet I have of large paper, +therefore hold your tongue. Nuttal was surprised when they +gave him bits of paper instead of money, but I made Ben Tooke put +him in his geers: <a name="citation375"></a><a +href="#footnote375" class="citation">[375]</a> he could not +reckon ten pounds, but was puzzled with the Irish way. Ben +Tooke and my printer have desired me to make them stationers to +the Ordnance, of which Lord Rivers is Master, instead of the Duke +of Marlborough. It will be a hundred pounds a year apiece +to them, if I can get it. I will try to-morrow.</p> +<p>6. I went this morning to Earl Rivers, gave him joy of +his new employment, and desired him to prefer my printer and +bookseller to be stationers to his office. He immediately +granted it me; but, like an old courtier, told me it was wholly +on my account, but that he heard I had intended to engage Mr. +Secretary to speak to him, and desired I would <a +name="page376"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 376</span>engage him +to do so, but that, however, he did it only for my sake. +This is a Court trick, to oblige as many as you can at +once. I read prayers to poor Mrs. Wesley, who is very much +out of order, instead of going to church; and then I went to +Court, which I found very full, in expectation of seeing Prince +Eugene, who landed last night, and lies at Leicester House; he +was not to see the Queen till six this evening. I hope and +believe he comes too late to do the Whigs any good. I +refused dining with the Secretary, and was like to lose my +dinner, which was at a private acquaintance’s. I went +at six to see the Prince at Court, but he was gone in to the +Queen; and when he came out, Mr. Secretary, who introduced him, +walked so near him that he quite screened me from him with his +great periwig. I’ll tell you a good passage: as +Prince Eugene was going with Mr. Secretary to Court, he told the +Secretary that Hoffman, the Emperor’s Resident, said to His +Highness that it was not proper to go to Court without a long +wig, and his was a tied-up one: “Now,” says the +Prince, “I knew not what to do, for I never had a long +periwig in my life; and I have sent to all my valets and footmen, +to see whether any of them have one, that I might borrow it, but +none of them has any.”—Was not this spoken very +greatly with some sort of contempt? But the Secretary said +it was a thing of no consequence, and only observed by gentlemen +ushers. I supped with Lord Masham, where Lord Treasurer and +Mr. Secretary supped with us: the first left us at twelve, but +the rest did not part till two, yet I have written all this, +because it is fresh: and now I’ll go sleep if I can; that +is, I believe I shall, because I have drank a little.</p> +<p>7. I was this morning to give the Duke of Ormond notice +of the honour done him to make him one of our Society, and to +invite him on Thursday next to the Thatched House: he has +accepted it with the gratitude and humility such a preferment +deserves, but cannot come till the next meeting, because Prince +Eugene is to dine with him that day, which I allowed for: a good +excuse, and will report accordingly. I dined with Lord +Masham, and sat there till eight this evening, and came <a +name="page377"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 377</span>home, +because I was not very well, but a little griped; but now I am +well again, I will not go, at least but very seldom, to Lord +Masham’s suppers. Lord Treasurer is generally there, +and that tempts me, but late sitting up does not agree with me: +there’s the short and the long, and I won’t do it; so +take your answer, dear little young women; and I have no more to +say to you to-night, because of the Archbishop, for I am going to +write a long letter to him, but not so politely as formerly: I +won’t trust him.</p> +<p>8. Well, then, come, let us see this letter; if I must +answer it, I must. What’s here now? yes, faith, I +lamented my birthday <a name="citation377a"></a><a +href="#footnote377a" class="citation">[377a]</a> two days after, +and that’s all: and you rhyme, Madam Stella; were those +verses made upon my birthday? faith, when I read them, I had them +running in my head all the day, and said them over a thousand +times; they drank your health in all their glasses, and wished, +etc. I could not get them out of my head. What? no, I +believe it was not; what do I say upon the eighth of +December? Compare, and see whether I say so. I am +glad of Mrs. Stoyte’s recovery, heartily glad; your Dolly +Manley’s and Bishop of Cloyne’s <a +name="citation377b"></a><a href="#footnote377b" +class="citation">[377b]</a> child I have no concern about: I am +sorry in a civil way, that’s all. Yes, yes, Sir +George St. George dead. <a name="citation377c"></a><a +href="#footnote377c" class="citation">[377c]</a>—Go, cry, +Madam Dingley; I have written to the Dean. Raymond will be +rich, for he has the building itch. I wish all he has got +may put him out of debt. Poh, I have fires like lightning; +they cost me twelvepence a week, beside small coal. I have +got four new caps, madam, very fine and convenient, with striped +cambric, instead of muslin; so Patrick need not mend them, but +take the old ones. Stella snatched Dingley’s word out +of her pen; Presto a cold? Why, all the world here is dead +with them: I never had anything like it in my life; ’tis +not gone in five weeks. I hope Leigh is with you before +this, and has brought your box. How do you like the ivory +rasp? Stella is angry; but I’ll have a finer thing +for her. Is <a name="page378"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +378</span>not the apron as good? I’m sure I shall +never be paid it; so all’s well again.—What? the +quarrel with Sir John Walter? <a name="citation378a"></a><a +href="#footnote378a" class="citation">[378a]</a> Why, we +had not one word of quarrel; only he railed at me when I was +gone: and Lord Keeper and Treasurer teased me for a week. +It was nuts to them; a serious thing with a vengeance.—The +Whigs may sell their estates then, or hang themselves, as they +are disposed; for a peace there will be. Lord Treasurer +told me that Connolly <a name="citation378b"></a><a +href="#footnote378b" class="citation">[378b]</a> was going to +Hanover. Your Provost <a name="citation378c"></a><a +href="#footnote378c" class="citation">[378c]</a> is a +coxcomb. Stella is a good girl for not being angry when I +tell her of spelling; I see none wrong in this. God +Almighty be praised that your disorder lessens; it increases my +hopes mightily that they will go off. And have you been +plagued with the fear of the plague? never mind those reports; I +have heard them five hundred times. Replevi? +Replevin, simpleton, ’tis Dingley I mean; but it is a hard +word, and so I’ll excuse it. I stated Dingley’s +accounts in my last. I forgot Catherine’s sevenpenny +dinner. I hope it was the beef-steaks; I’ll call and +eat them in spring; but Goody Stoyte must give me coffee, or +green tea, for I drink no bohea. Well, ay, the pamphlet; +but there are some additions to the fourth edition; the fifth +edition was of four thousand, in a smaller print, sold for +sixpence. Yes, I had the twenty-pound bill from Parvisol: +and what then? Pray now eat the Laracor apples; I beg you +not to keep them, but tell me what they are. You have had +Tooke’s bill in my last. And so there now, your whole +letter is answered. I tell you what I do; I lay your letter +before me, and take it in order, and answer what is necessary; +and so and so. Well, when I expected we were all undone, I +designed to retire for six months, and then steal over to +Laracor; and I had in my mouth a thousand times two lines of +Shakespeare, where Cardinal Wolsey says,</p> +<blockquote><p>“A weak old man, battered with storms of +state,<br /> +Is come to lay his weary bones among you.” <a +name="citation378d"></a><a href="#footnote378d" +class="citation">[378d]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>I beg your pardon; I have cheated you all this margin, I did +<a name="page379"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 379</span>not +perceive it; and I went on wider and wider like Stella; awkward +sluts; <i>she writes so so</i>, <i>there</i>: <a +name="citation379"></a><a href="#footnote379" +class="citation">[379]</a> that’s as like as two eggs a +penny.—“A weak old man,” now I am saying it, +and shall till to-morrow.—The Duke of Marlborough says +there is nothing he now desires so much as to contrive some way +how to soften Dr. Swift. He is mistaken; for those things +that have been hardest against him were not written by me. +Mr. Secretary told me this from a friend of the Duke’s; and +I’m sure now he is down, I shall not trample on him; +although I love him not, I dislike his being out.—Bernage +was to see me this morning, and gave some very indifferent +excuses for not calling here so long. I care not +twopence. Prince Eugene did not dine with the Duke of +Marlborough on Sunday, but was last night at Lady Betty +Germaine’s assemblee, and a vast number of ladies to see +him. Mr. Lewis and I dined with a private friend. I +was this morning to see the Duke of Ormond, who appointed me to +meet him at the Cockpit at one, but never came. I sat too +some time with the Duchess. We don’t like things very +well yet. I am come home early, and going to be busy. +I’ll go write.</p> +<p>9. I could not go sleep last night till past two, and +was waked before three by a noise of people endeavouring to break +open my window. For a while I would not stir, thinking it +might be my imagination; but hearing the noise continued, I rose +and went to the window, and then it ceased. I went to bed +again, and heard it repeated more violently; then I rose and +called up the house, and got a candle: the rogues had lifted up +the sash a yard; there are great sheds before my windows, +although my lodgings be a storey high; and if they get upon the +sheds they are almost even with my window. We observed +their track, and panes of glass fresh broken. The watchmen +told us to-day they saw them, but could not catch them. +They attacked others in the neighbourhood about the same time, +and actually robbed a house in Suffolk Street, which is the next +street but one to us. It is <a name="page380"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 380</span>said they are seamen discharged from +service. I went up to call my man, and found his bed empty; +it seems he often lies abroad. I challenged him this +morning as one of the robbers. He is a sad dog; and the +minute I come to Ireland I will discard him. I have this +day got double iron bars to every window in my dining-room and +bed-chamber; and I hide my purse in my thread stocking between +the bed’s head and the wainscot. Lewis and I dined +with an old Scotch friend, who brought the Duke of Douglas <a +name="citation380a"></a><a href="#footnote380a" +class="citation">[380a]</a> and three or four more Scots upon +us.</p> +<p>10. This was our Society day, you know; but the Duke of +Ormond could not be with us, because he dined with Prince +Eugene. It cost me a guinea contribution to a poet, who had +made a copy of verses upon monkeys, applying the story to the +Duke of Marlborough; the rest gave two guineas, except the two +physicians, <a name="citation380b"></a><a href="#footnote380b" +class="citation">[380b]</a> who followed my example. I +don’t like this custom: the next time I will give +nothing. I sat this evening at Lord Masham’s with +Lord Treasurer: I don’t like his countenance; nor I +don’t like the posture of things well.</p> +<p class="poetry">We cannot be stout,<br /> +Till Somerset’s out:</p> +<p>as the old saying is.</p> +<p>11. Mr. Lewis and I dined with the Chancellor of the +Exchequer, who eats the most elegantly of any man I know in +town. I walked lustily in the Park by moonshine till eight, +to shake off my dinner and wine; and then went to sup at Mr. +Domville’s with Ford, and stayed till twelve. It is +told me to-day as a great secret that the Duke of Somerset will +be out soon, that the thing is fixed; but what shall we do with +the Duchess? They say the Duke will make her leave the +Queen out of spite, if he be out. It has stuck upon that +fear a good while already. Well, but Lewis gave me a letter +from MD, N. 25. O Lord, I did not expect one this +fortnight, faith. You are mighty good, that’s +certain: but I won’t <a name="page381"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 381</span>answer it, because this goes +to-morrow, only what you say of the printer being taken up; I +value it not; all’s safe there; nor do I fear anything, +unless the Ministry be changed: I hope that danger is over. +However, I shall be in Ireland before such a change; which could +not be, I think, till the end of the session, if the Whigs’ +designs had gone on.—Have not you an apron by Leigh, Madam +Stella? have you all I mentioned in a former letter?</p> +<p>12. Morning. This goes to-day as usual. I +think of going into the City; but of that at night. +’Tis fine moderate weather these two or three days last. +Farewell, etc. etc.</p> +<h3>LETTER XXXIX.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Jan.</i> 12, 1711–12.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">When</span> I sealed up my letter this +morning, I looked upon myself to be not worth a groat in the +world. Last night, after Mr. Ford and I left Domville, Ford +desired me to go with him for a minute upon earnest business, and +then told me that both he and I were ruined; for he had trusted +Stratford with five hundred pounds for tickets for the lottery, +and he had been with Stratford, who confessed he had lost fifteen +thousand pounds by Sir Stephen Evans, <a +name="citation381"></a><a href="#footnote381" +class="citation">[381]</a> who broke last week; that he concluded +Stratford must break too; that he could not get his tickets, but +Stratford made him several excuses, which seemed very blind ones, +etc. And Stratford had near four hundred pounds of mine, to +buy me five hundred pounds in the South Sea Company. I came +home reflecting a little; nothing concerned me but MD. I +called all my philosophy and religion up; and, I thank God, it +did not keep me awake beyond my usual time above a quarter of an +hour. This morning I sent for Tooke, whom I had employed to +buy the stock of Stratford, and settle things with him. He +told me I was secure; for Stratford had transferred it to me in +form in the South Sea House, and he <a name="page382"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 382</span>had accepted it for me, and all was +done on stamped parchment. However, he would be further +informed; and at night sent me a note to confirm me. +However, I am not yet secure; and, besides, am in pain for Ford, +whom I first brought acquainted with Stratford. I dined in +the City.</p> +<p>13. Domville and I dined with Ford to-day by +appointment: the Lord Mansel told me at Court to-day that I was +engaged to him; but Stratford had promised Ford to meet him and +me to-night at Ford’s lodgings. He did so; said he +had hopes to save himself in his affair with Evans. Ford +asked him for his tickets: he said he would send them to-morrow; +but looking in his pocket-book, said he believed he had some of +them about him, and gave him as many as came to two hundred +pounds, which rejoiced us much; besides, he talked so frankly, +that we might think there is no danger. I asked him, Was +there any more to be settled between us in my affair? He +said, No; and answered my questions just as Tooke had got them +from others; so I hope I am safe. This has been a scurvy +affair. I believe Stella would have half laughed at me, to +see a suspicious fellow like me overreached. I saw Prince +Eugene to-day at Court: I don’t think him an ugly-faced +fellow, but well enough, and a good shape.</p> +<p>14. The Parliament was to sit to-day, and met; but were +adjourned by the Queen’s directions till Thursday. +She designs to make some important speech then. She +pretended illness; but I believe they were not ready, and they +expect some opposition: and the Scotch lords are angry, <a +name="citation382"></a><a href="#footnote382" +class="citation">[382]</a> and must be pacified. I was this +morning to invite the Duke of Ormond to our Society on Thursday, +where he is then to be introduced. He has appointed me at +twelve to-morrow about some business: I would fain have his help +to impeach a certain lord; but I doubt we shall make nothing of +it. I intended <a name="page383"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 383</span>to have dined with Lord Treasurer, +but I was told he would be busy: so I dined with Mrs. Van; and at +night I sat with Lord Masham till one. Lord Treasurer was +there, and chid me for not dining with him: he was in very good +humour. I brought home two flasks of burgundy in my chair: +I wish MD had them. You see it is very late; so I’ll +go to bed, and bid MD good night.</p> +<p>15. This morning I presented my printer and bookseller +to Lord Rivers, to be stationers to the Ordnance; stationers, +that’s the word; I did not write it plain at first. I +believe it will be worth three hundred pounds a year between +them. This is the third employment I have got for +them. Rivers told them the Doctor commanded him, and he +durst not refuse it. I would have dined with Lord Treasurer +to-day again, but Lord Mansel would not let me, and forced me +home with him. I was very deep with the Duke of Ormond +to-day at the Cockpit, where we met to be private; but I doubt I +cannot do the mischief I intended. My friend Penn came +there, Will Penn the Quaker, at the head of his brethren, to +thank the Duke for his kindness to their people in Ireland. +To see a dozen scoundrels with their hats on, and the Duke +complimenting with his off, was a good sight enough. I sat +this evening with Sir William Robinson, <a +name="citation383"></a><a href="#footnote383" +class="citation">[383]</a> who has mighty often invited me to a +bottle of wine: and it is past twelve.</p> +<p>16. This being fast-day, Dr. Freind and I went into the +City to dine late, like good fasters. My printer and +bookseller want me to hook in another employment for them in the +Tower, because it was enjoyed before by a stationer, although it +be to serve the Ordnance with oil, tallow, etc., and is worth +four hundred pounds per annum more: I will try what I can +do. They are resolved to ask several other employments of +the same nature to other offices; and I will then grease fat +sows, and see whether it be possible to satisfy them. Why +am not I a stationer? The Parliament sits to-morrow, <a +name="page384"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 384</span>and +Walpole, late Secretary at War, is to be swinged for bribery, and +the Queen is to communicate something of great importance to the +two Houses, at least they say so. But I must think of +answering your letter in a day or two.</p> +<p>17. I went this morning to the Duke of Ormond about some +business, and he told me he could not dine with us to-day, being +to dine with Prince Eugene. Those of our Society of the +House of Commons could not be with us, the House sitting late on +Walpole. I left them at nine, and they were not come. +We kept some dinner for them. I hope Walpole will be sent +to the Tower, and expelled the House; but this afternoon the +members I spoke with in the Court of Requests talked dubiously of +it. It will be a leading card to maul the Duke of +Marlborough for the same crime, or at least to censure him. +The Queen’s message was only to give them notice of the +peace she is treating, and to desire they will make some law to +prevent libels against the Government; so farewell to Grub +Street.</p> +<p>18. I heard to-day that the commoners of our Society did +not leave the Parliament till eleven at night, then went to those +I left, and stayed till three in the morning. Walpole is +expelled, and sent to the Tower. I was this morning again +with Lord Rivers, and have made him give the other employment to +my printer and bookseller; ’tis worth a great deal. I +dined with my friend Lewis privately, to talk over affairs. +We want to have this Duke of Somerset out, and he apprehends it +will not be, but I hope better. They are going now at last +to change the Commissioners of the Customs; my friend Sir Matthew +Dudley will be out, and three more, and Prior will be in. I +have made Ford copy out a small pamphlet, and sent it to the +press, that I might not be known for author; ’tis <i>A +Letter to the October Club</i>, <a name="citation384"></a><a +href="#footnote384" class="citation">[384]</a> if ever you heard +of such a thing.—Methinks this letter goes on but slowly +for almost a week: I want some little conversation with MD, and +to know what they are doing just now. I am <a +name="page385"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 385</span>sick of +politics. I have not dined with Lord Treasurer these three +weeks: he chides me, but I don’t care: I don’t.</p> +<p>19. I dined to-day with Lord Treasurer: this is his day +of choice company, where they sometimes admit me, but pretend to +grumble. And to-day they met on some extraordinary +business; the Keeper, Steward, both Secretaries, Lord Rivers, and +Lord Anglesea: I left them at seven, and came away, and have been +writing to the Bishop of Clogher. I forgot to know where to +direct to him since Sir George St. George’s death, <a +name="citation385a"></a><a href="#footnote385a" +class="citation">[385a]</a> but I have directed to the same +house: you must tell me better, for the letter is sent by the +bellman. Don’t write to me again till this is gone, I +charge you, for I won’t answer two letters together. +The Duke of Somerset is out, and was with his yellow liveries at +Parliament to-day. You know he had the same with the Queen, +when he was Master of the Horse: we hope the Duchess will follow, +or that he will take her away in spite. Lord Treasurer, I +hope, has now saved his head. Has the Dean received my +letter? ask him at cards to-night.</p> +<p>20. There was a world of people to-day at Court to see +Prince Eugene, but all bit, for he did not come. I saw the +Duchess of Somerset talking with the Duke of Buckingham; she +looked a little down, but was extremely courteous. The +Queen has the gout, but is not in much pain. Must I fill +this line too? <a name="citation385b"></a><a href="#footnote385b" +class="citation">[385b]</a> well then, so let it be. The +Duke of Beaufort <a name="citation385c"></a><a +href="#footnote385c" class="citation">[385c]</a> has a mighty +mind to come into our Society; shall we let him? I spoke to +the Duke of Ormond about it, and he doubts a little whether to +let him in or no. They say the Duke of Somerset is advised +by his friends to let his wife stay with the Queen; I am sorry +for it. I dined with the Secretary <a +name="page386"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 386</span>to-day, +with mixed company; I don’t love it. Our Society does +not meet till Friday, because Thursday will be a busy day in the +House of Commons, for then the Duke of Marlborough’s +bribery is to be examined into about the pension paid him by +those that furnished bread to the army.</p> +<p>21. I have been five times with the Duke of Ormond about +a perfect trifle, and he forgets it: I used him like a dog this +morning for it. I was asked to-day by several in the Court +of Requests whether it was true that the author of the +<i>Examiner</i> was taken up in an action of twenty thousand +pounds by the Duke of Marlborough? <a name="citation386a"></a><a +href="#footnote386a" class="citation">[386a]</a> I dined in +the City, where my printer showed me a pamphlet, called <i>Advice +to the October Club</i>, which he said was sent him by an unknown +hand: I commended it mightily; he never suspected me; ’tis +a twopenny pamphlet. I came home and got timely to bed; but +about eleven one of the Secretary’s servants came to me to +let me know that Lord Treasurer would immediately speak to me at +Lord Masham’s upon earnest business, and that, if I was +abed, I should rise and come. I did so: Lord Treasurer was +above with the Queen; and when he came down he laughed, and said +it was not he that sent for me: the business was of no great +importance, only to give me a paper, which might have been done +to-morrow. I stayed with them till past one, and then got +to bed again. Pize <a name="citation386b"></a><a +href="#footnote386b" class="citation">[386b]</a> take their +frolics. I thought to have answered your letter.</p> +<p>22. Dr. Gastrell was to see me this morning: he is an +eminent divine, one of the canons of Christ Church, and one I +love very well: he said he was glad to find I was not with James +Broad. I asked what he meant. “Why,” says +he, “have you not seen the Grub Street paper, that says Dr. +Swift was taken up as author of the <i>Examiner</i>, on an action +of twenty thousand pounds, and was now at James +Broad’s?” who, I suppose, is some bailiff. I +knew of this; but at the <a name="page387"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 387</span>Court of Requests twenty people told +me they heard I had been taken up. Lord Lansdowne observed +to the Secretary and me that the Whigs spread three lies +yesterday; that about me; and another, that Maccartney, who was +turned out last summer, <a name="citation387a"></a><a +href="#footnote387a" class="citation">[387a]</a> is again +restored to his places in the army; and the third, that Jack +Hill’s commission for Lieutenant of the Tower is stopped, +and that Cadogan is to continue. Lansdowne thinks they have +some design by these reports; I cannot guess it. Did I tell +you that Sacheverell has desired mightily to come and see me? but +I have put it off: he has heard that I have spoken to the +Secretary in behalf of a brother whom he maintains, and who +desires an employment. <a name="citation387b"></a><a +href="#footnote387b" class="citation">[387b]</a> +T’other day at the Court of Requests Dr. Yalden <a +name="citation387c"></a><a href="#footnote387c" +class="citation">[387c]</a> saluted me by name: Sacheverell, who +was just by, came up to me, and made me many acknowledgment and +compliments. Last night I desired Lord Treasurer to do +something for that brother of Sacheverell’s: he said he +never knew he had a brother, but thanked me for telling him, and +immediately put his name in his table-book. <a +name="citation387d"></a><a href="#footnote387d" +class="citation">[387d]</a> I will let Sacheverell know +this, that he may take his measures accordingly, but he shall be +none of my acquaintance. I dined to-day privately with the +Secretary, left him at six, paid a visit or two, and came +home.</p> +<p>23. I dined again to-day with the Secretary, but could +not despatch some business I had with him, he has so much besides +upon his hands at this juncture, and preparing against the great +business to-morrow, which we are top full of. The +Minister’s design is that the Duke of Marlborough shall be +censured as gently as possible, provided his friends will not +make head to defend him, but if they do, it may end in some <a +name="page388"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 388</span>severer +votes. A gentleman, who was just now with him, tells me he +is much cast down, and fallen away; but he is positive, if he has +but ten friends in the House, that they shall defend him to the +utmost, and endeavour to prevent the least censure upon him, +which I think cannot be, since the bribery is manifest. Sir +Solomon Medina <a name="citation388a"></a><a href="#footnote388a" +class="citation">[388a]</a> paid him six thousand pounds a year +to have the employment of providing bread for the army, and the +Duke owns it in his letter to the Commissioners of +Accounts. I was to-night at Lord Masham’s: Lord +Dupplin took out my new little pamphlet, and the Secretary read a +great deal of it to Lord Treasurer: they all commended it to the +skies, and so did I, and they began a health to the author. +But I doubt Lord Treasurer suspected; for he said, “This is +Mr. Davenant’s style,” which is his cant when he +suspects me. <a name="citation388b"></a><a href="#footnote388b" +class="citation">[388b]</a> But I carried the matter very +well. Lord Treasurer put the pamphlet in his pocket to read +at home. I’ll answer your letter to-morrow.</p> +<p>24. The Secretary made me promise to dine with him +to-day, after the Parliament was up: I said I would come; but I +dined at my usual time, knowing the House would sit late on this +great affair. I dined at a tavern with Mr. Domville and +another gentleman; I have not done so before these many +months. At ten this evening I went to the Secretary, but he +was not come home: I sat with his lady till twelve, then came +away; and he just came as I was gone, and he sent to my lodgings, +but I would not go back; and so I know not how things have +passed, but hope all is well; and I will tell you to-morrow +day. It is late, etc.</p> +<p>25. The Secretary sent to me this morning to know +whether we should dine together. I went to him, and there I +learned that the question went against the Duke of Marlborough, +by a majority of a hundred; so the Ministry is mighty well +satisfied, and the Duke will now be able to do <a +name="page389"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 389</span>no +hurt. The Secretary and I, and Lord Masham, etc., dined +with Lieutenant-General Withers, <a name="citation389a"></a><a +href="#footnote389a" class="citation">[389a]</a> who is just +going to look after the army in Flanders: the Secretary and I +left them a little after seven, and I am come home, and will now +answer your letter, because this goes to-morrow: let me +see—The box at Chester; oh, burn that box, and hang that +Sterne; I have desired one to inquire for it who went toward +Ireland last Monday, but I am in utter despair of it. No, I +was not splenetic; you see what plunges the Court has been at to +set all right again. And that Duchess is not out yet, and +may one day cause more mischief. Somerset shows all about a +letter from the Queen, desiring him to let his wife continue with +her. Is not that rare! I find Dingley smelled a rat; +because the Whigs are <i>upish</i>; but if ever I hear that word +again, I’ll <i>uppish</i> you. I am glad you got your +rasp safe and sound; does Stella like her apron? Your +critics about guarantees of succession are puppies; that’s +an answer to the objection. The answerers here made the +same objection, but it is wholly wrong. I am of your +opinion that Lord Marlborough is used too hardly: I have often +scratched out passages from papers and pamphlets sent me, before +they were printed, because I thought them too severe. But +he is certainly a vile man, and has no sort of merit beside the +military. The <i>Examiners</i> are good for little: I would +fain have hindered the severity of the two or three last, but +could not. I will either bring your papers over, or leave +them with Tooke, for whose honesty I will engage. And I +think it is best not to venture them with me at sea. Stella +is a prophet, by foretelling so very positively that all would be +well. Duke of Ormond speak against peace? No, +simpleton, he is one of the staunchest we have for the +Ministry. Neither trouble yourself about the printer: he +appeared the first day of the term, and is to appear when +summoned again; but nothing else will come of it. Lord +Chief-Justice <a name="citation389b"></a><a href="#footnote389b" +class="citation">[389b]</a> is <a name="page390"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 390</span>cooled since this new +settlement. No; I will not split my journals in half; I +will write but once a fortnight: but you may do as you will; +which is, read only half at once, and t’other half next +week. So now your letter is answered. (P— on +these blots.) What must I say more? I will set out in +March, if there be a fit of fine weather; unless the Ministry +desire me to stay till the end of the session, which may be a +month longer; but I believe they will not: for I suppose the +peace will be made, and they will have no further service for +me. I must make my canal fine this summer, as fine as I +can. I am afraid I shall see great neglects among my +quicksets. I hope the cherry-trees on the river walk are +fine things now. But no more of this.</p> +<p>26. I forgot to finish this letter this morning, and am +come home so late I must give it to the bellman; but I would have +it go to-night, lest you should think there is anything in the +story of my being arrested in an action of twenty thousand pounds +by Lord Marlborough, which I hear is in Dyer’s Letter, <a +name="citation390"></a><a href="#footnote390" +class="citation">[390]</a> and, consequently, I suppose, gone to +Ireland. Farewell, dearest MD, etc. etc.</p> +<h3>LETTER XL.</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Jan.</i> 26, 1711–12.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> no gilt paper left of this +size, so you must be content with plain. Our Society dined +together to-day, for it was put off, as I told you, upon Lord +Marlborough’s business on Thursday. The Duke of +Ormond dined with us to-day, the first time: we were thirteen at +table; and Lord Lansdowne came in after dinner, so that we wanted +but three. The Secretary proposed the Duke of Beaufort, who +<a name="page391"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 391</span>desires +to be one of our Society; but I stopped it, because the Duke of +Ormond doubts a little about it; and he was gone before it was +proposed. I left them at seven, and sat this evening with +poor Mrs. Wesley, who has been mightily ill to-day with a +fainting fit; she has often convulsions, too: she takes a mixture +with asafoetida, which I have now in my nose, and everything +smells of it. I never smelt it before; ’tis +abominable. We have eight packets, they say, due from +Ireland.</p> +<p>27. I could not see Prince Eugene at Court to-day, the +crowd was so great. The Whigs contrive to have a crowd +always about him, and employ the rabble to give the word, when he +sets out from any place. When the Duchess of Hamilton came +from the Queen after church, she whispered me that she was going +to pay me a visit. I went to Lady Oglethorpe’s, the +place appointed; for ladies always visit me in third places; and +she kept me till near four: she talks too much, is a plaguy +detractor, and I believe I shall not much like her. I was +engaged to dine with Lord Masham: they stayed as long as they +could, yet had almost dined, and were going in anger to pull down +the brass peg for my hat, but Lady Masham saved it. At +eight I went again to Lord Masham’s; Lord Treasurer is +generally there at night: we sat up till almost two. Lord +Treasurer has engaged me to contrive some way to keep the +Archbishop of York <a name="citation391"></a><a +href="#footnote391" class="citation">[391]</a> from being seduced +by Lord Nottingham. I will do what I can in it +to-morrow. ’Tis very late, so I must go sleep.</p> +<p>28. Poor Mrs. Manley, the author, is very ill of a +dropsy and sore leg: the printer tells me he is afraid she cannot +live long. I am heartily sorry for her: she has very +generous principles for one of her sort, and a great deal of good +sense and invention: she is about forty, very homely, and very +fat. Mrs. Van made me dine with her to-day. I was +this <a name="page392"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +392</span>morning with the Duke of Ormond and the Prolocutor +about what Lord Treasurer spoke to me yesterday; I know not what +will be the issue. There is but a slender majority in the +House of Lords, and we want more. We are sadly mortified at +the news of the French taking the town in Brazil from the +Portuguese. The sixth edition of three thousand of the +<i>Conduct of the Allies</i> is sold, and the printer talks of a +seventh: eleven thousand of them have been sold, which is a most +prodigious run. The little twopenny <i>Letter of Advice to +the October Club</i> does not sell: I know not the reason, for it +is finely written, I assure you; and, like a true author, I grow +fond of it, because it does not sell: you know that it is usual +to writers to condemn the judgment of the world: if I had hinted +it to be mine, everybody would have bought it, but it is a great +secret.</p> +<p>29. I borrowed one or two idle books of <i>Contes des +Fées</i>, <a name="citation392a"></a><a +href="#footnote392a" class="citation">[392a]</a> and have been +reading them these two days, although I have much business upon +my hands. I loitered till one at home; then went to Mr. +Lewis at his office; and the Vice-Chamberlain told me that Lady +Rialton <a name="citation392b"></a><a href="#footnote392b" +class="citation">[392b]</a> had yesterday resigned her employment +of lady of the bed-chamber, and that Lady Jane Hyde, <a +name="citation392c"></a><a href="#footnote392c" +class="citation">[392c]</a> Lord Rochester’s daughter, a +mighty pretty girl, is to succeed. He said, too, that Lady +Sunderland would resign in a day or two. I dined with +Lewis, and then went to see Mrs. Wesley, who is better +to-day. But you must know that Mr. Lewis gave me two +letters, one from the Bishop of Cloyne, with an enclosed from +Lord Inchiquin <a name="citation392d"></a><a href="#footnote392d" +class="citation">[392d]</a> to Lord Treasurer, which he desires I +would deliver and recommend. I am told that lord was much +in with Lord Wharton, and I remember he was to have been one of +the Lords Justices by <a name="page393"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 393</span>his recommendation; yet the Bishop +recommends him as a great friend to the Church, etc. +I’ll do what I think proper. T’other letter was +from little saucy MD, N. 26. O Lord, never saw the like, +under a cover, too, and by way of journal; we shall never have +done. Sirrahs, how durst you write so soon, sirrahs? +I won’t answer it yet.</p> +<p>30. I was this morning with the Secretary, who was sick, +and out of humour: he would needs drink champagne some days ago, +on purpose to spite me, because I advised him against it, and now +he pays for it. Stella used to do such tricks formerly; he +put me in mind of her. Lady Sunderland has resigned her +place too. It is Lady Catherine Hyde <a +name="citation393a"></a><a href="#footnote393a" +class="citation">[393a]</a> that succeeds Lady Rialton, and not +Lady Jane. Lady Catherine is the late Earl of +Rochester’s daughter. I dined with the Secretary, +then visited his lady; and sat this evening with Lady Masham: the +Secretary came to us; but Lord Treasurer did not; he dined with +the Master of the Rolls, <a name="citation393b"></a><a +href="#footnote393b" class="citation">[393b]</a> and stayed late +with him. Our Society does not meet till to-morrow +se’nnight, because we think the Parliament will be very +busy to-morrow upon the state of the war, and the Secretary, who +is to treat as President, must be in the House. I fancy my +talking of persons and things here must be very tedious to you, +because you know nothing of them, and I talk as if you did. +You know Kevin’s Street, and Werburgh Street, and (what do +you call the street where Mrs. Walls lives?) and Ingoldsby, <a +name="citation393c"></a><a href="#footnote393c" +class="citation">[393c]</a> and Higgins, <a +name="citation393d"></a><a href="#footnote393d" +class="citation">[393d]</a> and Lord Santry; <a +name="citation393e"></a><a href="#footnote393e" +class="citation">[393e]</a> but what care you for Lady Catherine +Hyde? Why do you say nothing of your health, sirrah? +I hope it is well.</p> +<p>31. Trimnel, Bishop of Norwich, <a +name="citation393f"></a><a href="#footnote393f" +class="citation">[393f]</a> who was with this Lord <a +name="page394"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 394</span>Sunderland +at Moor Park in their travels, preached yesterday before the +House of Lords; and to-day the question was put to thank him, and +print his sermon; but passed against him; for it was a terrible +Whig sermon. The Bill to repeal the Act for naturalising +Protestant foreigners passed the House of Lords to-day by a +majority of twenty, though the Scotch lords went out, and would +vote neither way, in discontent about the Duke of +Hamilton’s patent, if you know anything of it. A poem +is come out to-day inscribed to me, by way of a flirt; <a +name="citation394a"></a><a href="#footnote394a" +class="citation">[394a]</a> for it is a Whiggish poem, and good +for nothing. They plagued me with it in the Court of +Requests. I dined with Lord Treasurer at five alone, only +with one Dutchman. Prior is now a Commissioner of the +Customs. I told you so before, I suppose. When I came +home to-night, I found a letter from Dr. Sacheverell, thanking me +for recommending his brother to Lord Treasurer and Mr. Secretary +for a place. Lord Treasurer sent to him about it: so good a +solicitor was I, although I once hardly thought I should be a +solicitor for Sacheverell.</p> +<p>Feb. 1. Has not your Dean of St. Patrick received my +letter? you say nothing of it, although I writ above a month +ago. My printer has got the gout, and I was forced to go to +him to-day, and there I dined. It was a most delicious day: +why don’t you observe whether the same days be fine with +you? To-night, at six, Dr. Atterbury, and Prior, and I, and +Dr. Freind, met at Dr. Robert Freind’s <a +name="citation394b"></a><a href="#footnote394b" +class="citation">[394b]</a> house at Westminster, who is master +of the school: there we sat till one, and were good enough +company. I here take leave to tell politic Dingley that the +passage in the <i>Conduct of the Allies</i> is so far from being +blamable that the Secretary designs to insist upon it in the +House of Commons, when the Treaty of Barrier <a +name="citation394c"></a><a href="#footnote394c" +class="citation">[394c]</a> is debated there, as it now shortly +will, for they have ordered it to be laid before them. The +pamphlet of Advice to the October Club begins now to sell; but I +believe its fame will hardly reach Ireland: ’tis finely +written, I assure you. I long to answer your letter, but +won’t yet; you know, ’tis late, etc.</p> +<p><a name="page395"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +395</span>2. This ends Christmas, <a +name="citation395a"></a><a href="#footnote395a" +class="citation">[395a]</a> and what care I? I have neither +seen, nor felt, nor heard any Christmas this year. I passed +a lazy dull day. I was this morning with Lord Treasurer, to +get some papers from him, which he will remember as much as a +cat, although it be his own business. It threatened rain, +but did not much; and Prior and I walked an hour in the Park, +which quite put me out of my measures. I dined with a +friend hard by; and in the evening sat with Lord Masham till +twelve. Lord Treasurer did not come; this is an idle +dining-day usually with him. We want to hear from Holland +how our peace goes on; for we are afraid of those scoundrels the +Dutch, lest they should play us tricks. Lord Mar, <a +name="citation395b"></a><a href="#footnote395b" +class="citation">[395b]</a> a Scotch earl, was with us at Lord +Masham’s: I was arguing with him about the stubbornness and +folly of his countrymen; they are so angry about the affair of +the Duke of Hamilton, whom the Queen has made a duke of England, +and the House of Lords will not admit him. He swears he +would vote for us, but dare not, because all Scotland would +detest him if he did: he should never be chosen again, nor be +able to live there.</p> +<p>3. I was at Court to-day to look for a dinner, but did +not like any that were offered me; and I dined with Lord +Mountjoy. The Queen has the gout in her knee, and was not +at chapel. I hear we have a Dutch mail, but I know not what +news, although I was with the Secretary this morning. He +showed me a letter from the Hanover Envoy, Mr. Bothmar, +complaining that the Barrier Treaty is laid before the House of +Commons; and desiring that no infringement may be made in the +guarantee of the succession; but the Secretary has written him a +peppering answer. I fancy you understand all this, and are +able states-girls, since you have read the <i>Conduct of the +Allies</i>. We are all preparing against the Birthday; I +think it is Wednesday next. If the Queen’s gout +increases, it will spoil sport. Prince Eugene has two fine +suits made against it; and the Queen is to give him a sword worth +four thousand pounds, the diamonds set transparent.</p> +<p><a name="page396"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +396</span>4. I was this morning soliciting at the House of +Commons’ door for Mr. Vesey, a son of the Archbishop of +Tuam, <a name="citation396"></a><a href="#footnote396" +class="citation">[396]</a> who has petitioned for a Bill to +relieve him in some difficulty about his estate: I secured him +above fifty members. I dined with Lady Masham. We +have no packet from Holland, as I was told yesterday: and this +wind will hinder many people from appearing at the Birthday, who +expected clothes from Holland. I appointed to meet a +gentleman at the Secretary’s to-night, and they both +failed. The House of Commons have this day made many severe +votes about our being abused by our Allies. Those who spoke +drew all their arguments from my book, and their votes confirm +all I writ; the Court had a majority of a hundred and fifty: all +agree that it was my book that spirited them to these +resolutions; I long to see them in print. My head has not +been as well as I could wish it for some days past, but I have +not had any giddy fit, and I hope it will go over.</p> +<p>5. The Secretary turned me out of his room this morning, +and showed me fifty guineas rolled up, which he was going to give +some French spy. I dined with four Irishmen at a tavern +to-day: I thought I had resolved against it before, but I broke +it. I played at cards this evening at Lady Masham’s, +but I only played for her while she was waiting; and I won her a +pool, and supped there. Lord Treasurer was with us, but +went away before twelve. The ladies and lords have all +their clothes ready against to-morrow: I saw several mighty fine, +and I hope there will be a great appearance, in spite of that +spiteful French fashion of the Whiggish ladies not to come, which +they have all resolved to a woman; and I hope it will more spirit +the Queen against them for ever.</p> +<p>6. I went to dine at Lord Masham’s at three, and +met all the company just coming out of Court; a mighty crowd: +they stayed long for their coaches: I had an opportunity of +seeing several lords and ladies of my acquaintance in their <a +name="page397"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +397</span>fineries. Lady Ashburnham <a +name="citation397a"></a><a href="#footnote397a" +class="citation">[397a]</a> looked the best in my eyes. +They say the Court was never fuller nor finer. Lord +Treasurer, his lady, and two daughters and Mrs. Hill, dined with +Lord and Lady Masham; the five ladies were monstrous fine. +The Queen gave Prince Eugene the diamond sword to-day; but nobody +was by when she gave it except my Lord Chamberlain. There +was an entertainment of opera songs at night, and the Queen was +at all the entertainment, and is very well after it. I saw +Lady Wharton, <a name="citation397b"></a><a href="#footnote397b" +class="citation">[397b]</a> as ugly as the devil, coming out in +the crowd all in an undress; she has been with the Marlborough +daughters <a name="citation397c"></a><a href="#footnote397c" +class="citation">[397c]</a> and Lady Bridgewater <a +name="citation397d"></a><a href="#footnote397d" +class="citation">[397d]</a> in St. James’s, looking out of +the window all undressed to see the sight. I do not hear +that one Whig lady was there, except those of the +bed-chamber. Nothing has made so great a noise as one +Kelson’s chariot, that cost nine hundred and thirty pounds, +the finest was ever seen. The rabble huzzaed him as much as +they did Prince Eugene. This is Birthday chat.</p> +<p>7. Our Society met to-day: the Duke of Ormond was not +with us; we have lessened our dinners, which were grown so +extravagant that Lord Treasurer and everybody else cried +shame. I left them at seven, visited for an hour, and then +came home, like a good boy. The Queen is much better after +yesterday’s exercise: her friends wish she would use a +little more. I opposed Lord Jersey’s <a +name="citation397e"></a><a href="#footnote397e" +class="citation">[397e]</a> election into our Society, and he is +refused: I likewise opposed the Duke of Beaufort; but I believe +he will be chosen in spite of me: I don’t much care; I +shall not be with them above two months; for I resolve to set out +for Ireland the beginning of April next (before I treat them +again), and see my willows.</p> +<p>8. I dined to-day in the City. This morning a +scoundrel <a name="page398"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +398</span>dog, one of the Queen’s music, a German, whom I +had never seen, got access to me in my chamber by Patrick’s +folly, and gravely desired me to get an employment in the Customs +for a friend of his, who would be very grateful; and likewise to +forward a project of his own, for raising ten thousand pounds a +year upon operas: I used him civiller than he deserved; but it +vexed me to the pluck. <a name="citation398a"></a><a +href="#footnote398a" class="citation">[398a]</a> He was +told I had a mighty interest with Lord Treasurer, and one word of +mine, etc. Well; I got home early on purpose to answer +MD’s letter, N. 26; for this goes to-morrow.—Well; I +never saw such a letter in all my life; so saucy, so journalish, +so sanguine, so pretending, so everything. I satisfied all +your fears in my last: all is gone well, as you say; yet you are +an impudent slut to be so positive; you will swagger so upon your +sagacity that we shall never have done. Pray don’t +mislay your reply; I would certainly print it, if I had it here: +how long is it? I suppose half a sheet: was the answer written in +Ireland? Yes, yes, you shall have a letter when you come +from Ballygall. I need not tell you again who’s out +and who’s in: we can never get out the Duchess of +Somerset.—So, they say Presto writ the <i>Conduct</i>, +etc. Do they like it? I don’t care whether they +do or no; but the resolutions printed t’other day in the +Votes are almost quotations from it, and would never have passed +if that book had not been written. I will not meddle with +the Spectator, let him fair-sex it to the world’s +end. My disorder is over, but blood was not from the +p-les.—Well, Madam Dingley, the frost; why, we had a great +frost, but I forget how long ago; it lasted above a week or ten +days: I believe about six weeks ago; but it did not break so soon +with us, I think, as December 29; yet I think it was about that +time, on second thoughts. MD can have no letter from +Presto, says you; and yet four days before you own you had my +thirty-seventh, unreasonable sluts! The Bishop of +Gloucester is not dead, <a name="citation398b"></a><a +href="#footnote398b" class="citation">[398b]</a> and I am as +likely to succeed the Duke of Marlborough as him if he were; +there’s <a name="page399"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +399</span>enough for that now. It is not unlikely that the +Duke of Shrewsbury will be your Governor; at least I believe the +Duke of Ormond will not return.—Well, Stella again: why, +really three editions of the <i>Conduct</i>, etc., is very much +for Ireland; it is a sign you have some honest among you. +Well; I will do Mr. Manley <a name="citation399a"></a><a +href="#footnote399a" class="citation">[399a]</a> all the service +I can; but he will ruin himself. What business had he to +engage at all about the City? Can’t he wish his cause +well, and be quiet, when he finds that stirring will do it no +good, and himself a great deal of hurt? I cannot imagine +who should open my letter: it must be done at your side.—If +I hear of any thoughts of turning out Mr. Manley, I will +endeavour to prevent it. I have already had all the +gentlemen of Ireland here upon my back often, for defending +him. So now I have answered your saucy letter. My +humble service to Goody Stoyte and Catherine; I will come soon +for my dinner.</p> +<p>9. Morning. My cold goes off at last; but I think +I have got a small new one. I have no news since +last. They say we hear by the way of Calais, that peace is +very near concluding. I hope it may be true. +I’ll go and seal up my letter, and give it myself to-night +into the post-office; and so I bid my dearest MD farewell till +to-night. I heartily wish myself with them, as hope +saved. My willows, and quicksets, and trees, will be finely +improved, I hope, this year. It has been fine hard frosty +weather yesterday and to-day. Farewell, etc. etc. etc.</p> +<h3>LETTER XLI. <a name="citation399b"></a><a +href="#footnote399b" class="citation">[399b]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Feb.</i> 9, 1711–12.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">When</span> my letter is gone, and I have +none of yours to answer, my conscience is so clear, and my +shoulder so light, and I go on with such courage to prate upon +nothing <a name="page400"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +400</span>to deerichar MD, oo would wonder. I dined with +Sir Matthew Dudley, who is newly turned out of Commission of the +Customs. He affects a good heart, and talks in the +extremity of Whiggery, which was always his principle, though he +was gentle a little, while he kept in employment. We can +yet get no packets from Holland. I have not been with any +of the Ministry these two or three days. I keep out of +their way on purpose, for a certain reason, for some time, though +I must dine with the Secretary to-morrow, the choosing of the +company being left to me. I have engaged Lord Anglesea <a +name="citation400a"></a><a href="#footnote400a" +class="citation">[400a]</a> and Lord Carteret, <a +name="citation400b"></a><a href="#footnote400b" +class="citation">[400b]</a> and have promised to get three more; +but I have a mind that none else should be admitted: however, if +I like anybody at Court to-morrow, I may perhaps invite +them. I have got another cold, but not very bad. Nite +. . . MD.</p> +<p>10. I saw Prince Eugene at Court to-day very plain; +he’s plaguy yellow, and tolerably ugly besides. The +Court was very full, and people had their Birthday clothes. +I dined with the Secretary to-day. I was to invite five, +but I only invited two, Lord Anglesea and Lord Carteret. +Pshaw, I told you this but yesterday. We have no packets +from Holland yet. Here are a parcel of drunken Whiggish +lords, like your Lord Santry, <a name="citation400c"></a><a +href="#footnote400c" class="citation">[400c]</a> who come into +chocolate-houses and rail aloud at the Tories, and have +challenges sent them, and the next morning come and beg +pardon. General Ross <a name="citation400d"></a><a +href="#footnote400d" class="citation">[400d]</a> was like to +swinge the Marquis of Winchester <a name="citation400e"></a><a +href="#footnote400e" class="citation">[400e]</a> for this trick +t’other day; and we have nothing else now to talk of till +the Parliament has had another bout with the state of the war, as +they intended in a few days. They have ordered the Barrier +Treaty to be laid before them; and it was talked some time ago, +as if there was a design to impeach Lord <a +name="page401"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 401</span>Townshend, +who made it. I have no more politics now. Nite dee +MD.</p> +<p>11. I dined with Lord Anglesea to-day, who had seven +Irishmen to be my companions, of which two only were coxcombs; +one I did not know, and t’other was young Blith, <a +name="citation401a"></a><a href="#footnote401a" +class="citation">[401a]</a> who is a puppy of figure here, with a +fine chariot. He asked me one day at Court, when I had been +just talking with some lords who stood near me, “Doctor, +when shall we see you in the county of Meath?” I +whispered him to take care what he said, for the people would +think he was some barbarian. He never would speak to me +since, till we met to-day. I went to Lady Masham’s +to-night, and sat with Lord Treasurer and the Secretary there +till past two o’clock; and when I came home, found some +letters from Ireland, which I read, but can say nothing of them +till to-morrow, ’tis so very late; but I <a +name="citation401b"></a><a href="#footnote401b" +class="citation">[401b]</a> must always be . . ., <a +name="citation401c"></a><a href="#footnote401c" +class="citation">[401c]</a> late or early. Nite deelest +sollahs. <a name="citation401d"></a><a href="#footnote401d" +class="citation">[401d]</a></p> +<p>12. One letter was from the Bishop of Clogher last +night, and t’other from Walls, about Mrs. South’s <a +name="citation401e"></a><a href="#footnote401e" +class="citation">[401e]</a> salary, and his own pension of +£18 for his tithe of the park. I will do nothing in +either; the first I cannot serve in, and the other is a trifle; +only you may tell him I had his letter, and will speak to Ned +Southwell about what he desires me. You say nothing of your +Dean’s receiving my letter. I find Clements, <a +name="citation401f"></a><a href="#footnote401f" +class="citation">[401f]</a> whom I recommended to Lord Anglesea +last year, at Walls’s desire, or rather the Bishop of +Clogher’s, is mightily in Lord Anglesea’s +favour. You may tell the Bishop and Walls so; I said to +Lord Anglesea that I was [glad] I had the good luck to recommend +him, etc. I dined in the City with my printer, to consult +with him about some papers Lord Treasurer gave <a +name="page402"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 402</span>me last +night, as he always does, too late; however, I will do something +with them. My third cold is a little better; I never had +anything like it before, three colds successively; I hope I shall +have the fourth. <a name="citation402a"></a><a +href="#footnote402a" class="citation">[402a]</a> Those +messengers come from Holland to-day, and they brought over the +six packets that were due. I know not the particulars yet, +for when I was with the Secretary at noon they were just opening; +but one thing I find, that the Dutch are playing us tricks, and +tampering with the French; they are dogs; I shall know more +tomollow . . . MD. <a name="citation402b"></a><a +href="#footnote402b" class="citation">[402b]</a></p> +<p>13. I dined to-day privately with my friend Lewis, at +his lodgings, to consult about some observations on the Barrier +Treaty. Our news from Holland is not good. The French +raise difficulties, and make such offers to the Allies as cannot +be accepted. And the Dutch are uneasy that we are likely to +get anything for ourselves; and the Whigs are glad at all +this. I came home early, and have been very busy three or +four hours. I had a letter from Dr. Pratt <a +name="citation402c"></a><a href="#footnote402c" +class="citation">[402c]</a> to-day by a private hand, +recommending the bearer to me, for something that I shall not +trouble myself about. Wesley <a name="citation402d"></a><a +href="#footnote402d" class="citation">[402d]</a> writ to +recommend the same fellow to me. His expression is that, +hearing I am acquainted with my Lord Treasurer, he desires I +would do so and so: a matter of nothing. What puppies are +mankind! I hope I shall be wiser when I have once done with +Courts. I think you han’t troubled me much with your +recommendations. I would do you all the saavis <a +name="citation402e"></a><a href="#footnote402e" +class="citation">[402e]</a> I could.</p> +<p>Pray have you got your aplon, <a name="citation402f"></a><a +href="#footnote402f" class="citation">[402f]</a> maram Ppt? +I paid for it but yesterday; that puts me in mind of it. I +writ an inventory of what things I sent by Leigh in one of my +letters; did you compare it with what you got? I hear +nothing of your cards now; do you never play? Yes, at +Ballygall. Go to bed. Nite, deelest MD. <a +name="citation402g"></a><a href="#footnote402g" +class="citation">[402g]</a></p> +<p><a name="page403"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +403</span>14. Our Society dined to-day at Mr. +Secretary’s house. I went there at four; but hearing +the House of Commons would sit late upon the Barrier Treaty, I +went for an hour to Kensington, to see Lord Masham’s +children. My young nephew, <a name="citation403a"></a><a +href="#footnote403a" class="citation">[403a]</a> his son of six +months old, has got a swelling in his neck; I fear it is the +evil. We did not go to dinner till eight at night, and I +left them at ten. The Commons have been very severe on the +Barrier Treaty, as you will find by their votes. A Whig +member took out the <i>Conduct of the Allies</i>, and read that +passage about the succession with great resentment; but none +seconded him. The Church party carried every vote by a +great majority. The A.B. <a name="citation403b"></a><a +href="#footnote403b" class="citation">[403b]</a> Dublin is so +railed at by all who come from Ireland that I can defend him no +longer. Lord Anglesea assured me that the story of applying +Piso out of Tacitus <a name="citation403c"></a><a +href="#footnote403c" class="citation">[403c]</a> to Lord +Treasurer’s being wounded is true. I believe the Duke +of Beaufort will be admitted to our Society next meeting. +To-day I published the <i>Fable of Midas</i>, <a +name="citation403d"></a><a href="#footnote403d" +class="citation">[403d]</a> a poem, printed in a loose half-sheet +of paper. I know not how it will sell; but it passed +wonderfully at our Society to-night; and Mr. Secretary read it +before me the other night to Lord Treasurer, at Lord +Masham’s, where they equally approved of it. Tell me +how it passes with you. I think this paper is larger than +ordinary; for here is six days’ journal, and no nearer the +bottom. I fear these journals are very dull. Nite my +deelest lives.</p> +<p>15. Mr. Lewis and I dined by invitation with a Scotch +acquaintance, after I had been very busy in my chamber till two +afternoon. My third cold is now very troublesome on my +breast, especially in the morning. This is a great +revolution in my health; colds never used to return so soon with +me, or last so long. ’Tis very surprising this news +<a name="page404"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 404</span>to-day +of the Dauphin and Dauphiness both dying within six days. +They say the old King is almost heart-broke. He has had +prodigious mortifications in his family. The Dauphin has +left two little sons, of four and two years old; the eldest is +sick. There is a foolish story got about the town that Lord +Strafford, one of our Plenipotentiaries, is in the interests of +France; and it has been a good while said that Lord Privy Seal <a +name="citation404a"></a><a href="#footnote404a" +class="citation">[404a]</a> and he do not agree very well. +They are both long practised in business, but neither of them of +much parts. Strafford has some life and spirit, but is +infinitely proud, and wholly illiterate. Nite, MD.</p> +<p>16. I dined to-day in the City with my printer, to +finish something I am doing about the Barrier Treaty; <a +name="citation404b"></a><a href="#footnote404b" +class="citation">[404b]</a> but it is not quite done. I +went this evening to Lord Masham’s, where Lord Treasurer +sat with us till past twelve. The Lords have voted an +Address to the Queen, to tell her they are not satisfied with the +King of France’s offers. The Whigs brought it in of a +sudden; and the Court could not prevent it, and therefore did not +oppose it. The House of Lords is too strong in Whigs, +notwithstanding the new creations; for they are very diligent, +and the Tories as lazy: the side that is down has always most +industry. The Whigs intended to have made a vote that would +reflect on Lord Treasurer; but their project was not ripe. +I hit my face such a rap by calling the coach to stop to-night, +that it is plaguy sore, the bone beneath the eye. Nite dee +logues.</p> +<p>17. The Court was mighty full to-day, and has been these +many Sundays; but the Queen was not at chapel. She has got +a little fit of the gout in her foot. The good of going to +Court is that one sees all one’s acquaintance, whom +otherwise I should hardly meet twice a year. Prince Eugene +dines with the Secretary to-day, with about seven or eight +General Officers, or foreign Ministers. They will be all +drunk, I am sure. I never was in company with this Prince: +I have proposed to some lords that we should have a sober meal <a +name="page405"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 405</span>with him; +but I can’t compass it. It is come over in the Dutch +news prints that I was arrested on an action of twenty thousand +pounds by the Duke of Marlborough. I did not like my Court +invitation to-day; so Sir Andrew Fountaine and I went and dined +with Mrs. Van. I came home at six, and have been very busy +till this minute, and it is past twelve. So I got into bed +to write to MD . . . MD. <a name="citation405a"></a><a +href="#footnote405a" class="citation">[405a]</a> We reckon +the Dauphin’s death will put forward the peace a good +deal. Pray is Dr. Griffith <a name="citation405b"></a><a +href="#footnote405b" class="citation">[405b]</a> reconciled to me +yet? Have I done enough to soften him? . . . <a +name="citation405c"></a><a href="#footnote405c" +class="citation">[405c]</a> Nite deelest logues.</p> +<p>18. Lewis had Guiscard’s picture: he bought it, +and offered it to Lord Treasurer, who promised to send for it, +but never did; so I made Lewis give it me, and I have it in my +room; and now Lord Treasurer says he will take it from me: is +that fair? He designs to have it at length in the clothes +he was when he did the action, and a penknife in his hand; and +Kneller is to copy it from this that I have. I intended to +dine with Lord Treasurer to-day, but he has put me off till +to-morrow; so I dined with Lord Dupplin. You know Lord +Dupplin very well; he is a brother of the Society. Well, +but I have received a letter from the Bishop of Cloyne, to +solicit an affair for him with Lord Treasurer, and with the +Parliament, which I will do as soon as fly. I am not near +so keen about other people’s affairs as . . . <a +name="citation405d"></a><a href="#footnote405d" +class="citation">[405d]</a> Ppt used to reproach me about; +it was a judgment on me. Harkee, idle dearees both, +meetinks I begin to want a rettle flom <a +name="citation405e"></a><a href="#footnote405e" +class="citation">[405e]</a> MD: faith, and so I do. I doubt +you have been in pain about the report of my being +arrested. The pamphleteers have let me alone this month, +which is a great wonder: only the third part of the <i>Answer to +the Conduct</i>, which is lately come out. (Did I tell you +of it already?) The House of Commons <a +name="page406"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 406</span>goes on in +mauling the late Ministry and their proceedings. Nite +deelest MD. <a name="citation406a"></a><a href="#footnote406a" +class="citation">[406a]</a></p> +<p>19. I dined with Lord Treasurer to-day, and sat with him +till ten, in spite of my teeth, though my printer waited for me +to correct a sheet. I told him of four lines I writ +extempore with my pencil, on a bit of paper in his house, while +he lay wounded. Some of the servants, I suppose, made +waste-paper of them, and he never had heard of them. Shall +I tell them you? They were inscribed to Mr. Harley’s +physician. Thus</p> +<blockquote><p>On Britain Europe’s safety lies; <a +name="citation406b"></a><a href="#footnote406b" +class="citation">[406b]</a><br /> +Britain is lost, if Harley dies.<br /> +Harley depends upon your skill:<br /> +Think what you save, or what you kill.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Are not they well enough to be done off-hand; for that is the +meaning of the word extempore, which you did not know, did +you? I proposed that some company should dine with him on +the 8th of March, which was the day he was wounded, but he says +he designs that the Lords of the Cabinet, who then sat with him, +should dine that day with him: <a name="citation406c"></a><a +href="#footnote406c" class="citation">[406c]</a> however, he has +invited me too. I am not got rid of my cold; it plagues me +in the morning chiefly. Nite, MD.</p> +<p>20. After waiting to catch the Secretary coming out from +Sir Thomas Hanmer, for two hours, in vain, about some business, I +went into the City to my printer, to correct some sheets of the +<i>Barrier Treaty and Remarks</i>, which must be finished +to-morrow: I have been horrible busy for some days past, with +this and some other things; and I wanted some very necessary +papers, which the Secretary was to give me, and the pamphlet must +now be published without them. But they are all busy +too. Sir Thomas Hanmer is Chairman of the Committee for +drawing up a Representation of the state of the nation <a +name="citation406d"></a><a href="#footnote406d" +class="citation">[406d]</a> to the Queen, where all the wrong <a +name="page407"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 407</span>steps of +the Allies and late Ministry about the war will be +mentioned. The Secretary, I suppose, was helping him about +it to-day; I believe it will be a pepperer. Nite, deel +MD.</p> +<p>21. I have been six hours to-day morning writing +nineteen pages of a letter to Lord Treasurer, about forming a +Society or Academy to correct and fix the English language. <a +name="citation407a"></a><a href="#footnote407a" +class="citation">[407a]</a> (Is English a speech or a +language?) It will not be above five or six more. I +will send it to him to-morrow, and will print it, if he desires +me. I dined, you know, with our Society to-day: Thursday is +our day. We had a new member admitted; it was the Duke of +Beaufort. We had thirteen met: brother Ormond was not +there, but sent his excuse that Prince Eugene dined with +him. I left them at seven, being engaged to go to Sir +Thomas Hanmer, who desired I would see him at that hour. +His business was that I would <i>hoenlbp ihainm itavoi dsroanws +ubpl tohne sroegporaensiepnotlastoigobn</i>, <a +name="citation407b"></a><a href="#footnote407b" +class="citation">[407b]</a> which I consented to do; but know not +whether I shall succeed, because it is a little out of my +way. However, I have taken my share. Nite, MD.</p> +<p>22. I finished the rest of my letter to Lord Treasurer +to-day, and sent it to him about one o’clock; and then +dined privately with my friend Mr. Lewis, to talk over some +affairs of moment. I had gotten the thirteenth volume of +Rymer’s Collection of the Records of the Tower for the +University of Dublin. <a name="citation407c"></a><a +href="#footnote407c" class="citation">[407c]</a> I have two +volumes now. I will write to the Provost, to know how I +shall send them to him; no, I won’t, for I will bring them +myself among my own books. I was with Hanmer this morning, +and there were the Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer <a +name="citation407d"></a><a href="#footnote407d" +class="citation">[407d]</a> very busy with him, laying their +heads together about the representation. I went to Lord +Masham’s to-night, and Lady Masham made me read to her a +pretty twopenny pamphlet, called <i>The St. Albans </i><a +name="page408"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +408</span><i>Ghost</i>. <a name="citation408a"></a><a +href="#footnote408a" class="citation">[408a]</a> I thought +I had writ it myself; so did they; but I did not. Lord +Treasurer came down to us from the Queen, and we stayed till two +o’clock. That is the best night-place I have. +The usual <a name="citation408b"></a><a href="#footnote408b" +class="citation">[408b]</a> company are Lord and Lady Masham, +Lord Treasurer, Dr. Arbuthnot, and I; sometimes the Secretary, +and sometimes Mrs. Hill of the bed-chamber, Lady Masham’s +sister. I assure oo, it im vely rate now; but zis goes +to-morrow: and I must have time to converse with own richar +MD. Nite, deelest sollahs. <a name="citation408c"></a><a +href="#footnote408c" class="citation">[408c]</a></p> +<p>23. I have no news to tell you this last day, nor do I +know where I shall dine. I hear the Secretary is a little +out of order; perhaps I may dine there, perhaps not. I sent +Hanmer what he wanted from me, I know not how he will approve of +it. I was to do more of the same sort; I am going out, and +must carry zis in my pottick to give it at some general +post-house. I will talk further with oo at night. I +suppose in my next I shall answer a letter from MD that will be +sent me. On Tuesday it will be four weeks since I had your +last, N. 26. This day se’nnight I expect one, for +that will be something more than a full month. Farewell, MD +. . . deelest . . . MD MD MD . . . ME ME ME . . . logues . . . +lele. <a name="citation408d"></a><a href="#footnote408d" +class="citation">[408d]</a></p> +<h3>LETTER XLII. <a name="citation408e"></a><a +href="#footnote408e" class="citation">[408e]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Feb.</i> 23, 1711–12.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">After</span> having disposed my last +letter in the post-office, I am now to begin this with telling MD +that I dined with the Secretary to-day, who is much out of order +with a cold, and feverish; yet he went to the Cabinet Council +to-night at six, against my will. The Secretary is much the +<a name="page409"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 409</span>greatest +commoner in England, and turns the whole Parliament, who can do +nothing without him; and if he lives and has his health, will, I +believe, be one day at the head of affairs. I have told him +sometimes that, if I were a dozen years younger, I would +cultivate his favour, and trust my fortune with his. But +what care oo for all this? I am sorry when I came first +acquainted with this Ministry that I did not send you their names +and characters, and then you would have relished what <a +name="citation409a"></a><a href="#footnote409a" +class="citation">[409a]</a> I would have writ, especially if I +had let you into the particulars of affairs: but enough of +this. Nite, deelest logues.</p> +<p>24. I went early this morning to the Secretary, who is +not yet well. Sir Thomas Hanmer and the Chancellor of the +Exchequer came while I was there, and he would not let me stir; +so I did not go to church, but was busy with them till noon, +about the affair I told you in my last. The other two went +away; and I dined with the Secretary, and found my head very much +out of order, but no absolute fit; and I have not been well all +this day. It has shook me a little. I sometimes sit +up very late at Lord Masham’s, and have writ much for +several days past: but I will amend both; for I have now very +little business, and hope I shall have no more, and I am resolved +to be a great rider this summer in Ireland. I was to see +Mrs. Wesley this evening, who has been somewhat better for this +month past, and talks of returning to the Bath in a few +weeks. Our peace goes on but slowly; the Dutch are playing +tricks, and we do not push it strongly as we ought. The +fault of our Court is delay, of which the Queen has a great deal; +and Lord Treasurer is not without his share. But pay richar +MD ret us know a little of your life and tonvelsasens. <a +name="citation409b"></a><a href="#footnote409b" +class="citation">[409b]</a> Do you play at ombre, or visit +the Dean, and Goody Walls and Stoytes and Manleys, as +usual? I must have a letter from oo, to fill the other side +of this sheet. Let me know what you do. Is my aunt +alive yet?</p> +<p>Oh, pray, now I think of it, be so kind to step to my aunt, <a +name="page410"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 410</span>and take +notice of my great-grandfather’s picture; you know he has a +ring on his finger, with a seal of an anchor and dolphin about +it; but I think there is besides, at the bottom of the picture, +the same coat of arms quartered with another, which I suppose was +my great-grandmother’s. If this be so, it is a +stronger argument than the seal. And pray see whether you +think that coat of arms was drawn at the same time with the +picture, or whether it be of a later hand; and ask my aunt what +she knows about it. But perhaps there is no such coat of +arms on the picture, and I only dreamed it. My reason is, +because I would ask some herald here, whether I should choose +that coat, or one in Guillim’s large folio of heraldry, <a +name="citation410a"></a><a href="#footnote410a" +class="citation">[410a]</a> where my uncle Godwin is named with +another coat of arms of three stags. This is sad stuff to +rite; so nite, MD.</p> +<p>25. I was this morning again with the Secretary, and we +were two hours busy; and then went together to the Park, Hyde +Park, I mean; and he walked to cure his cold, and we were looking +at two Arabian horses sent some time ago to Lord Treasurer. <a +name="citation410b"></a><a href="#footnote410b" +class="citation">[410b]</a> The Duke of Marlborough’s +coach overtook us, with his Grace and Lord Godolphin in it; but +they did not see us, to our great satisfaction; for neither of us +desired that either of those two lords should see us +together. There was half a dozen ladies riding like +cavaliers to take the air. My head is better to-day. +I dined with the Secretary; but we did no business after dinner, +and at six I walked into the fields; the days are grown pure and +long; then I went to visit Perceval <a name="citation410c"></a><a +href="#footnote410c" class="citation">[410c]</a> and his family, +whom I had seen but twice since they came to town. They too +are going to the Bath next month. Countess Doll of Meath <a +name="citation410d"></a><a href="#footnote410d" +class="citation">[410d]</a> is such an owl that, <a +name="page411"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 411</span>wherever I +visit, people are asking me whether I know such an Irish lady, +and her figure and her foppery? I came home early, and have +been amusing myself with looking into one of Rymer’s +volumes of the Records of the Tower, and am mighty easy to think +I have no urgent business upon my hands. My third cold is +not yet off; I sometimes cough, and am not right with it in the +morning. Did I tell you that I believe it is Lady +Masham’s hot room that gives it me? I never knew such +a stove; and in my conscience I believe both my lord and she, my +Lord Treasurer, Mr. Secretary, and myself have all suffered by +it. We have all had colds together, but I walk home on +foot. Nite dee logues.</p> +<p>26. I was again busy with the Secretary. <a +name="citation411"></a><a href="#footnote411" +class="citation">[411]</a> We read over some papers, and +did a good deal of business; and I dined with him, and we were to +do more business after dinner; but after dinner is after +dinner—an old saying and a true, “much drinking, +little thinking.” We had company with us, and nothing +could be done, and I am to go there again to-morrow. I have +now nothing to do; and the Parliament, by the Queen’s +recommendation, is to take some method for preventing libels, +etc., which will include pamphlets, I suppose. I +don’t know what method they will take, but it comes on in a +day or two. To-day in the morning I visited upwards: first +I saw the Duke of Ormond below stairs, and gave him joy of his +being declared General in Flanders; then I went up one pair of +stairs, and sat with the Duchess; then I went up another pair of +stairs, and paid a visit to Lady Betty; and desired her woman to +go up to the garret, that I might pass half an hour with her, but +she was young and handsome, and would not. The Duke is our +President this week, and I have bespoke a small dinner on +purpose, for good example. Nite mi deelest logues.</p> +<p>27. I was again with the Secretary this morning; but we +<a name="page412"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 412</span>only +read over some papers with Sir Thomas Hanmer; then I called at +Lord Treasurer’s; it was his levee-day, but I went up to +his bed-chamber, and said what I had to say. I came down +and peeped in at the chamber, where a hundred fools were waiting, +and two streets were full of coaches. I dined in the City +with my printer, <a name="citation412a"></a><a +href="#footnote412a" class="citation">[412a]</a> and came back at +six to Lord Treasurer, who had invited me to dinner, but I +refused him. I sat there an hour or two, and then went to +Lord Masham’s. They were all abroad: so truly I came, +and read whatever stuff was next me. I can sit and be idle +now, which I have not been above a year past. However, I +will stay out the session, to see if they have any further +commands for me, and that, I suppose, will end in April. +But I may go somewhat before, for I hope all will be ended by +then, and we shall have either a certain peace, or certain +war. The Ministry is contriving new funds for money by +lotteries, and we go on as if the war were to continue, but I +believe it will not. ’Tis pretty late now, ung +oomens; so I bid oo nite, own dee dallars.</p> +<p>28. I have been packing up some books in a great box I +have bought, and must buy another for clothes and luggage. +This is a beginning towards a removal. I have sent to +Holland for a dozen shirts, and design to buy another new gown +and hat. I will come over like a zinkerman, <a +name="citation412b"></a><a href="#footnote412b" +class="citation">[412b]</a> and lay out nothing in clothes in +Ireland this good while. I have writ this night to the +Provost. Our Society met to-day as usual, and we were +fourteen, beside the Earl of Arran, <a name="citation412c"></a><a +href="#footnote412c" class="citation">[412c]</a> whom his +brother, the Duke of Ormond, brought among us against all +order. We were mightily shocked; but, after some whispers, +it ended in choosing Lord Arran one of our <a +name="page413"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 413</span>Society, +which I opposed to his face, but it was carried by all the rest +against me.</p> +<p>29. This is leap year, and this is leap day. +Prince George was born on this day. People are mistaken; +and some here think it is St. David’s Day; but they do not +understand the virtue of leap year. I have nothing to do +now, boys, and have been reading all this day like Gumdragon; and +yet I was dictating some trifles this morning to a printer. +I dined with a friend hard by, and the weather was so +discouraging I could not walk. I came home early, and have +read two hundred pages of Arran. Alexander the Great is +just dead: I do not think he was poisoned; betwixt you and me, +all those are but idle stories: it is certain that neither +Ptolemy nor Aristobulus thought so, and they were both with him +when he <a name="citation413a"></a><a href="#footnote413a" +class="citation">[413a]</a> died. It is a pity we have not +their histories. The Bill for limiting Members of +Parliament to have but so many places passed the House of +Commons, and will pass the House of Lords, in spite of the +Ministry, which you know is a great lessening of the +Queen’s power. Four of the new lords voted against +the Court in this point. It is certainly a good Bill in the +reign of an ill prince, but I think things are not settled enough +for it at present. And the Court may want a majority upon a +pinch. Nite deelest logues. Rove Pdfr.</p> +<p>March 1. I went into the City to inquire after poor +Stratford, <a name="citation413b"></a><a href="#footnote413b" +class="citation">[413b]</a> who has put himself a prisoner into +the Queen’s Bench, for which his friends blame him much, +because his creditors designed to be very easy with him. He +grasped at too many things together, and that was his ruin. +There is one circumstance relative to Lieutenant-General Meredith +<a name="citation413c"></a><a href="#footnote413c" +class="citation">[413c]</a> that is very melancholy: Meredith was +turned out of all his employments last year, and had about +£10,000 left to live on. Stratford, upon friendship, +desired he might have the management of it for Meredith, to put +it into the stocks and funds for the best advantage, and now he +has lost it all. You have heard me often talk of Stratford; +we were class-fellows <a name="page414"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 414</span>at school and university. I +dined with some merchants, his friends, to-day, and they said +they expected his breaking this good while. I gave him +notice of a treaty of peace, while it was a secret, of which he +might have made good use, but that helped to ruin him; for he +gave money, reckoning there would be actually a peace by this +time, and consequently stocks rise high. Ford narrowly +’scaped losing £500 by him, and so did I too. +Nite, my two deelest rives MD.</p> +<p>2. Morning. I was wakened at three this morning, +my man and the people of the house telling me of a great fire in +the Haymarket. I slept again, and two hours after my man +came in again, and told me it was my poor brother Sir William +Wyndham’s <a name="citation414a"></a><a +href="#footnote414a" class="citation">[414a]</a> house burnt, and +that two maids, leaping out of an upper room to avoid the fire, +both fell on their heads, one of them upon the iron spikes before +the door, and both lay dead in the streets. It is supposed +to have been some carelessness of one or both those maids. +The Duke of Ormond was there helping to put out the fire. +Brother Wyndham gave £6,000 but a few months ago for that +house, as he told me, and it was very richly furnished. I +shall know more particulars at night. He married Lady +Catherine Seymour, the Duke of Somerset’s daughter; you +know her, I believe.—At night. Wyndham’s young +child escaped very narrowly; Lady Catherine escaped barefoot; +they all went to Northumberland House. Mr. Brydges’s +<a name="citation414b"></a><a href="#footnote414b" +class="citation">[414b]</a> house, at next door, is damaged much, +and was like to be burnt. Wyndham has lost above +£10,000 by this accident; his lady above a thousand pounds +worth of clothes. It <a name="page415"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 415</span>was a terrible accident. He +was not at Court to-day. I dined with Lord Masham. +The Queen was not at church. Nite, MD.</p> +<p>3. Pray tell Walls that I spoke to the Duke of Ormond +and Mr. Southwell about his friend’s affair, who, I find, +needed not me for a solicitor, for they both told me the thing +would be done. I likewise mentioned his own affair to Mr. +Southwell, and I hope that will be done too, for Southwell seems +to think it reasonable, and I will mind him of it again. +Tell him this nakedly. You need not know the +particulars. They are secrets: one of them is about Mrs. +South having a pension; the other about his salary from the +Government for the tithes of the park that lie in his parish, to +be put upon the establishment, but oo must not know zees sings, +zey are secrets; and we must keep them flom nauty dallars. +I dined in the City with my printer, with whom I had some small +affair; but I have no large work on my hands now. I was +with Lord Treasurer this morning, and hat <a +name="citation415a"></a><a href="#footnote415a" +class="citation">[415a]</a> care oo for zat? Oo dined with +the Dean to-day. Monday is parson’s holiday, and oo +lost oo money at cards and dice; ze Givars <a +name="citation415b"></a><a href="#footnote415b" +class="citation">[415b]</a> device. So I’ll go to +bed. Nite, my two deelest logues.</p> +<p>4. I sat to-day with poor Mrs. Wesley, who made me dine +with her. She is much better than she was. I heartily +pray for her health, out of the entire love I bear to her worthy +husband. This day has passed very insignificantly. +But it is a great comfort to me now that I can come home and +read, and have nothing upon my hands to write. I was at +Lord Masham’s to-night, and stayed there till one. +Lord Treasurer was there; but I thought, I thought he looked +melancholy, just as he did at the beginning of the session, and +he was not so merry as usual. In short, the majority in the +House of Lords is a very weak one: and he has much ado to keep it +up; and he is not able to make those removes he would, and oblige +his friends; and I doubt too <a name="citation415c"></a><a +href="#footnote415c" class="citation">[415c]</a> he does not take +care enough about it, or rather cannot do all himself, and will +not <a name="page416"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +416</span>employ others: which is his great fault, as I have +often told you. ’Tis late. Nite, MD.</p> +<p>5. I wish you a merry Lent. I hate Lent; I hate +different diets, and furmity and butter, and herb porridge; and +sour devout faces of people who only put on religion for seven +weeks. I was at the Secretary’s office this morning; +and there a gentleman brought me two letters, dated last October; +one from the Bishop of Clogher, t’other from Walls. +The gentleman is called Colonel Newburgh. <a +name="citation416a"></a><a href="#footnote416a" +class="citation">[416a]</a> I think you mentioned him to me +some time ago; he has business in the House of Lords. I +will do him what service I can. The Representation of the +House of Commons is printed: <a name="citation416b"></a><a +href="#footnote416b" class="citation">[416b]</a> I have not +seen it yet; it is plaguy severe, they say. I dined with +Dr. Arbuthnot, and had a true Lenten dinner, not in point of +victuals, but spleen; for his wife and a child or two were sick +in the house, and that was full as mortifying as fish. We +have had fine mighty cold frosty weather for some days +past. I hope you take the advantage of it, and walk now and +then. You never answer that part of my letters where I +desire you to walk. I must keep my breath to cool my Lenten +porridge. Tell Jemmy Leigh that his boy that robbed him now +appears about the town: Patrick has seen him once or twice. +I knew nothing of his being robbed till Patrick told me he had +seen the boy. I wish it had been Sterne that had been +robbed, to be revenged for the box that he lost, <a +name="citation416c"></a><a href="#footnote416c" +class="citation">[416c]</a> and be p-xed to him. Nite, +MD.</p> +<p>6. I hear Mr. Prior has suffered by Stratford’s +breaking. I was yesterday to see Prior, who is not well, +and I thought he looked melancholy. He can ill afford to +lose money. I walked before dinner in the Mall a good while +with Lord Arran and Lord Dupplin, two of my brothers, and then we +went to dinner, where the Duke of Beaufort was our +President. We were but eleven to-day. We are now in +all nine lords and ten commoners. The Duke of Beaufort had +the confidence to propose his brother-in-law, the Earl of <a +name="page417"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 417</span>Danby, <a +name="citation417a"></a><a href="#footnote417a" +class="citation">[417a]</a> to be a member; but I opposed it so +warmly that it was waived. Danby is not above twenty, and +we will have no more boys, and we want but two to make up our +number. I stayed till eight, and then we all went away +soberly. The Duke of Ormond’s treat last week cost +£20, though it was only four dishes and four, without a +dessert; and I bespoke it in order to be cheap. Yet I could +not prevail to change the house. Lord Treasurer is in a +rage with us for being so extravagant: and the wine was not +reckoned neither; for that is always brought by him that is +President. Lord Orrery <a name="citation417b"></a><a +href="#footnote417b" class="citation">[417b]</a> is to be +President next week; and I will see whether it cannot be cheaper; +or else we will leave the house. . . . <a +name="citation417c"></a><a href="#footnote417c" +class="citation">[417c]</a> Lord Masham made me go home +with him to-night to eat boiled oysters. Take oysters, wash +them clean; that is, wash their shells clean; then put your +oysters into an earthen pot, with their hollow sides down, then +put this pot into a great kettle with water, and so let them +boil. Your oysters are boiled in their own liquor, and not +mixed water. Lord Treasurer was not with us; he was very +ill to-day with a swimming in the head, and is gone home to be +cupped, and sent to desire Lady Masham to excuse him to the +Queen. Nite, dee MD.</p> +<p>7. I was to-day at the House of Lords about a +friend’s Bill. Then I crossed the water at +Westminster Stairs to Southwark, went through St. George’s +Fields to the Mint, which is the dominion of the King’s <a +name="citation417d"></a><a href="#footnote417d" +class="citation">[417d]</a> Bench Prison, where Stratford lodges +in a blind alley, and writ to me to come to him; but he was gone +to the ’Change. I thought he had something to say to +me about his own affairs. I found him at his usual +coffee-house, and went to his own lodgings, and dined with him +and his wife, and other company. His business was only to +desire I would intercede with the Ministry about his +brother-in-law, Ben Burton, <a name="citation417e"></a><a +href="#footnote417e" class="citation">[417e]</a> of Dublin, the +banker, who is likely to come <a name="page418"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 418</span>into trouble, as we hear, about +spreading false Whiggish news. I hate Burton, and told +Stratford so; and I will advise the Duke of Ormond to make use of +it, to keep the rogue in awe. Mrs. Stratford tells me her +husband’s creditors have consented to give him liberty to +get up his debts abroad; and she hopes he will pay them +all. He was cheerfuller than I have seen him this great +while. I have walked much to-day.—Night, deelest +logues.</p> +<p>8. This day twelvemonth Mr. Harley was stabbed; but he +is ill, and takes physic to-day, I hear (’tis now morning), +and cannot have the Cabinet Council with him, as he intended, nor +me to say grace. I am going to see him. Pray read the +Representation; ’tis the finest that ever was writ. +Some of it is Pdfr’s style, but not very much. This +is the day of the Queen’s accession to the Crown; so it is +a great day. I am going to Court, and will dine with Lord +Masham; but I must go this moment to see the Secretary about some +businesses; so I will seal up this, and put it in the post my own +self. Farewell, deelest hearts and souls, MD. +Farewell MD MD MD FW FW FW ME ME Lele Lele Lele Sollahs lele.</p> +<h3>LETTER XLIII. <a name="citation418a"></a><a +href="#footnote418a" class="citation">[418a]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>March</i> 8, 1711–12.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">carried</span> my forty-second letter in +my pocket till evening, and then put it in the general +post.—I went in the morning to see Lord Treasurer, who had +taken physic, and was drinking his broth. I had been with +the Secretary before, to recommend a friend, one Dr. Freind, <a +name="citation418b"></a><a href="#footnote418b" +class="citation">[418b]</a> to be Physician-General; and the +Secretary promised to mention it to the Queen. I can serve +everybody but myself. Then I went to Court, and carried +Lord Keeper and the Secretary to dine with Lord Masham, when we +drank the Queen and Lord <a name="page419"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 419</span>Treasurer with every health, because +this was the day of his stabbing.—Then I went and played +pools at picquet with Lady Masham and Mrs. Hill; won ten +shillings, gave a crown to the box, and came home. I met at +my lodgings a letter from Joe, with a bit annexed from Ppt. +What Joe asks is entirely out of my way, and I take it for a +foolish whim in him. Besides, I know not who is to give a +patent: if the Duke of Ormond, I would speak to him; and if it +come in my head I will mention it to Ned Southwell. They +have no patents that I know of for such things here, but good +security is all; and to think that I would speak to Lord +Treasurer for any such matter at random is a jest. Did I +tell you of a race of rakes, called the Mohocks, <a +name="citation419a"></a><a href="#footnote419a" +class="citation">[419a]</a> that play the devil about this town +every night, slit people’s noses, and beat them, +etc.? Nite, sollahs, and rove Pdfr. Nite, MD.</p> +<p>9. I was at Court to-day, and nobody invited me to +dinner, except one or two, whom I did not care to dine with; so I +dined with Mrs. Van. Young Davenant <a +name="citation419b"></a><a href="#footnote419b" +class="citation">[419b]</a> was telling us at Court how he was +set upon by the Mohocks, and how they ran his chair through with +a sword. It is not safe being in the streets at night for +them. The Bishop of Salisbury’s son <a +name="citation419c"></a><a href="#footnote419c" +class="citation">[419c]</a> <a name="page420"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 420</span>is said to be of the gang. +They are all Whigs; and a great lady sent to me, to speak to her +father and to Lord Treasurer, to have a care of them, and to be +careful likewise of myself; for she heard they had malicious +intentions against the Ministers and their friends. I know +not whether there be anything in this, though others are of the +same opinion. The weather still continues very fine and +frosty. I walked in the Park this evening, and came home +early to avoid the Mohocks. Lord Treasurer is better. +Nite, my own two deelest MD.</p> +<p>10. I went this morning again to the Lord Treasurer, who +is quite recovered; and I stayed till he went out. I dined +with a friend in the City, about a little business of printing; +but not my own. You must buy a small twopenny pamphlet, +called <i>Law is a Bottomless Pit</i>. <a +name="citation420a"></a><a href="#footnote420a" +class="citation">[420a]</a> ’Tis very prettily +written, and there will be a Second Part. The Commons are +very slow in bringing in their Bill to limit the press, and the +pamphleteers make good use of their time; for there come out +three or four every day. Well, but is not it time, +methinks, to have a letter from MD? ’Tis now six +weeks since I had your Number 26. I can assure oo I expect +one before this goes; and I’ll make shorter day’s +journals than usual, ’cause I hope to fill up a good deal +of t’other side with my answer. Our fine weather +lasts yet, but grows a little windy. We shall have rain +soon, I dispose. Go to cards, sollahs, and I to seep. +Nite, MD.</p> +<p>11. Lord Treasurer has lent the long letter I writ him +<a name="citation420b"></a><a href="#footnote420b" +class="citation">[420b]</a> to Prior, and I can’t get Prior +to return it. I want to have it printed, and to make up +this Academy for the improvement of our language. Faith, we +never shall improve it so much as FW has done; sall we? No, +faith, ourrichar gangridge. <a name="citation420c"></a><a +href="#footnote420c" class="citation">[420c]</a> I dined +privately with my friend Lewis, and then went to see Ned +Southwell, and talk with him about Walls’s business, and <a +name="page421"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 421</span>Mrs. +South’s. The latter will be done; but his own +not. Southwell tells me that it must be laid before Lord +Treasurer, and the nature of it explained, and a great deal of +clutter, which is not worth the while; and maybe Lord Treasurer +won’t do it [at] last; and it is, as Walls says himself, +not above forty shillings a year difference. You must tell +Walls this, unless he would have the business a secret from you: +in that case only say I did all I could with Ned Southwell, and +it can’t be done; for it must be laid before Lord +Treasurer, etc., who will not do it; and besides, it is not worth +troubling his lordship. So nite, my two deelest nuntyes +nine MD. <a name="citation421a"></a><a href="#footnote421a" +class="citation">[421a]</a></p> +<p>12. Here is the D— and all to do with these +Mohocks. Grub Street papers about them fly like lightning, +and a list printed of near eighty put into several prisons, and +all a lie; and I begin almost to think there is no truth, or very +little, in the whole story. He that abused Davenant was a +drunken gentleman; none of that gang. My man tells me that +one of the lodgers heard in a coffee-house, publicly, that one +design of the Mohocks was upon me, if they could catch me; and +though I believe nothing of it, I forbear walking late, and they +have put me to the charge of some shillings already. I +dined to-day with Lord Treasurer and two gentlemen of the +Highlands of Scotland, yet very polite men. I sat there +till nine, and then went to Lord Masham’s, where Lord +Treasurer followed me, and we sat till twelve; and I came home in +a chair for fear of the Mohocks, and I have given him warning of +it too. Little Harrison, <a name="citation421b"></a><a +href="#footnote421b" class="citation">[421b]</a> whom I sent to +Holland, is now actually made Queen’s Secretary at The +Hague. It will be in the <i>Gazette</i> to-morrow. +’Tis worth twelve hundred pounds a year. Here is a +young fellow has writ some Sea Eclogues, poems of Mermen, +resembling pastorals of shepherds, and they are very pretty, and +the thought is new. Mermen are he-mermaids; Tritons, +natives of the sea. Do you understand me? I think to +recommend <a name="page422"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +422</span>him to our Society to-morrow. His name is Diaper. +<a name="citation422a"></a><a href="#footnote422a" +class="citation">[422a]</a> P— on him, I must do +something for him, and get him out of the way. I hate to +have any new wits rise, but when they do rise I would encourage +them; but they tread on our heels and thrust us off the +stage. Nite deelest MD.</p> +<p>13. You would laugh to see our printer constantly +attending our Society after dinner, and bringing us whatever new +thing he has printed, which he seldom fails to do. Yet he +had nothing to-day. Lord Lansdowne, one of our Society, was +offended at a passage in this day’s <i>Examiner</i>, which +he thinks reflects on him, as I believe it does, though in a +mighty civil way. ’Tis only that his underlings +cheat; but that he is a very fine gentleman every way, etc. <a +name="citation422b"></a><a href="#footnote422b" +class="citation">[422b]</a> Lord Orrery was President +to-day; but both our dukes were absent. Brother Wyndham +recommended Diaper to the Society. I believe we shall make +a contribution among ourselves, which I don’t like. +Lord Treasurer has yet done nothing for us, but we shall try him +soon. The company parted early, but Freind, and Prior, and +I, sat a while longer and reformed the State, and found fault +with the Ministry. Prior hates his Commission of the +Customs, because it spoils his wit. He says he dreams of +nothing but cockets, <a name="citation422c"></a><a +href="#footnote422c" class="citation">[422c]</a> and dockets, and +drawbacks, and other jargon words of the custom-house. Our +good weather went away yesterday, and the nights are now dark, +and I came home before ten. Night nown . . . deelest +sollahs.</p> +<p>14. I have been plagued this morning with solicitors, +and with nobody more than my brother, Dr. Freind, who must needs +have to get old Dr. Lawrence, <a name="citation422d"></a><a +href="#footnote422d" class="citation">[422d]</a> the +Physician-General, <a name="page423"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +423</span>turned out and himself in. He has argued with me +so long upon the reasonableness of it, that I am fully convinced +it is very unreasonable; and so I would tell the Secretary, if I +had not already made him speak to the Queen. Besides, I +know not but my friend Dr. Arbuthnot would be content to have it +himself, and I love him ten times better than Freind. +What’s all this to you? but I must talk of things as they +happen in the day, whether you know anything of them or no. +I dined in the City, and, coming back, one Parson Richardson <a +name="citation423a"></a><a href="#footnote423a" +class="citation">[423a]</a> of Ireland overtook me. He was +here last summer upon a project of converting the Irish and +printing Bibles, etc., in that language, and is now returned to +pursue it on. He tells me Dr. Coghill <a +name="citation423b"></a><a href="#footnote423b" +class="citation">[423b]</a> came last night [to] town. I +will send to see how he does to-morrow. He gave me a letter +from Walls about his old business. Nite, deelest MD.</p> +<p>15. I had intended to be early with the Secretary this +morning, when my man admitted upstairs one Mr. Newcomb, <a +name="citation423c"></a><a href="#footnote423c" +class="citation">[423c]</a> an officer, who brought me a letter +from the Bishop of Clogher, with four lines added by Mrs. Ashe, +all about that Newcomb. I think, indeed, his case is hard, +but God knows whether I shall be able to do him any +service. People will not understand: I am a very good +second, but I care not to begin a recommendation, unless it be +for an intimate friend. However, I will do what I +can. I missed the Secretary, and then walked to Chelsea to +dine with the Dean of Christ Church, <a +name="citation423d"></a><a href="#footnote423d" +class="citation">[423d]</a> who was engaged to Lord Orrery with +some other Christ Church men. He made me go with him +whether I would or not, for they have this long time admitted me +a Christ Church man. Lord Orrery, generally every winter, +gives his old acquaintance of that college a <a +name="page424"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +424</span>dinner. There were nine clergymen at table, and +four laymen. The Dean and I soon left them, and after a +visit or two, I went to Lord Masham’s, and Lord Treasurer, +Arbuthnot and I sat till twelve. And now I am come home and +got to bed. I came afoot, but had my man with me. +Lord Treasurer advised me not to go in a chair, because the +Mohocks insult chairs more than they do those on foot. They +think there is some mischievous design in those villains. +Several of them, Lord Treasurer told me, are actually taken +up. I heard at dinner that one of them was killed last +night. We shall know more in a little time. I +don’t like them, as the men said. <a +name="citation424a"></a><a href="#footnote424a" +class="citation">[424a]</a> Nite MD.</p> +<p>16. This morning, at the Secretary’s, I met +General Ross, <a name="citation424b"></a><a href="#footnote424b" +class="citation">[424b]</a> and recommended Newcomb’s case +to him, who promises to join with me in working up the Duke of +Ormond to do something for him. Lord Winchelsea <a +name="citation424c"></a><a href="#footnote424c" +class="citation">[424c]</a> told me to-day at Court that two of +the Mohocks caught a maid of old Lady Winchelsea’s, <a +name="citation424d"></a><a href="#footnote424d" +class="citation">[424d]</a> at the door of their house in the +Park, where she was with a candle, and had just lighted out +somebody. They cut all her face, and beat her without any +provocation. I hear my friend Lewis has got a Mohock in one +of the messenger’s hands. The Queen was at church +to-day, but was carried in an open chair. She has got an +ugly cough, Arbuthnot, her physician, says. I dined with +Crowe, <a name="citation424e"></a><a href="#footnote424e" +class="citation">[424e]</a> late Governor of Barbados; an +acquaintance of Sterne’s. <a name="citation424f"></a><a +href="#footnote424f" class="citation">[424f]</a> After +dinner I asked him whether he had heard of Sterne. +“Here he is,” said he, “at the door in a +coach:” and in came Sterne. He has been here this +week. He is buying a captainship in his cousin +Sterne’s <a name="citation424g"></a><a href="#footnote424g" +class="citation">[424g]</a> regiment. He told me he left +Jemmy Leigh playing at cards with you. He is to give 800 +guineas for his commission. I suppose you know all this +better than <a name="page425"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +425</span>I. How shall I have room to answer oo rettle <a +name="citation425a"></a><a href="#footnote425a" +class="citation">[425a]</a> hen I get it, I have gone so far +already? Nite, deelest logues MD.</p> +<p>17. Dr. Sacheverell came this morning to give me thanks +for getting his brother an employment. It was but six or +seven weeks since I spoke to Lord Treasurer for him. +Sacheverell brought Trapp <a name="citation425b"></a><a +href="#footnote425b" class="citation">[425b]</a> along with +him. We dined together at my printer’s, and I sat +with them till seven. I little thought, and I believe so +did he, that ever I should be his solicitor to the present +Ministry, when I left Ireland. This is the seventh I have +now provided for since I came, and can do nothing for +myself. I don’t care; I shall have Ministries and +other people obliged to me. Trapp is a coxcomb, and the +t’other is not very deep; and their judgment in things of +wit or sense is miraculous. The Second <i>Part of Law is a +Bottomless Pit</i> <a name="citation425c"></a><a +href="#footnote425c" class="citation">[425c]</a> is just now +printed, and better, I think, than the first. Night, my two +deel saucy dallars.</p> +<p>18. There is a proclamation out against the +Mohocks. One of those that are taken is a baronet. I +dined with poor Mrs. Wesley, who is returning to the Bath. +Mrs. Perceval’s <a name="citation425d"></a><a +href="#footnote425d" class="citation">[425d]</a> young daughter +has got the smallpox, but will do well. I walked this +evening in the Park, and met Prior, who made me go home with him, +where I stayed till past twelve, and could not get a coach, and +was alone, and was afraid enough of the Mohocks. I will do +so no more, though I got home safe. Prior and I were +talking discontentedly of some managements, that no more people +are turned out, which get Lord Treasurer many enemies: but +whether the fault be in him, or the Queen, I know not; I doubt, +in both. Ung omens, it is now seven weeks since I received +your last; but I expect one next Irish packet, to fill the rest +of this paper; but if it don’t come, I’ll do without +it: so I wish oo good luck at ombre with the Dean. Nite, +nuntyes nine. <a name="citation425e"></a><a href="#footnote425e" +class="citation">[425e]</a></p> +<p><a name="page426"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +426</span>19. Newcomb came to me this morning, and I went +to the Duke of Ormond to speak for him; but the Duke was just +going out to take the oaths for General. The Duke of +Shrewsbury is to be Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. I walked +with Domville and Ford to Kensington, where we dined, and it cost +me above a crown. I don’t like it, as the man said. +<a name="citation426a"></a><a href="#footnote426a" +class="citation">[426a]</a> It was very windy +walking. I saw there Lord Masham’s children. +The youngest, my nephew, I fear, has got the king’s evil; +the other two are daughters of three and four years old. +’Twas very windy walking. The gardens there are +mighty fine. I passed the evening at Lord Masham’s +with Lord Treasurer and Arbuthnot, as usual, and we stayed till +past one; but I had my man to come with me, and at home I found +three letters; one from one Fetherston, a parson, with a +postscript of Tisdall’s to recommend him: and Fetherston, +whom I never saw, has been so kind to give me a letter of +attorney to recover a debt for him. Another from Lord +Abercorn, to get him the dukedom of Chatelherault <a +name="citation426b"></a><a href="#footnote426b" +class="citation">[426b]</a> from the King of France; in which I +will do what I can, for his pretensions are very just. The +third, I warrant you, from our MD. ’Tis a great stir +this, of getting a dukedom from the King of France: but it is +only to speak to the Secretary, and get the Duke of Ormond to +engage in it, and mention the case to Lord Treasurer, etc., and +this I shall do. Nite deelest richar MD.</p> +<p>20. I was with the Duke of Ormond this morning, about +Lord Abercorn, Dr. Freind, and Newcomb. Some will do, and +some will not do; that’s wise, marams. <a +name="citation426c"></a><a href="#footnote426c" +class="citation">[426c]</a> The Duke of Shrewsbury is +certainly to be your Governor. I will go in a day or two, +and give the Duchess joy, and recommend the <a +name="page427"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 427</span>Archbishop +of Dublin to her. I writ to the Archbishop, some months +ago, that it would be so, and told him I would speak a good word +for him to the Duchess; and he says he has a great respect for +her, etc. I made our Society change their house, and we met +to-day at the Star and Garter in the Pall Mall. Lord Arran +was President. The other dog was so extravagant in his +bills, that for four dishes and four, first and second course, +without wine or dessert, he charged twenty-one pounds, six +shillings, and eightpence, to the Duke of Ormond. We +design, when all have been Presidents this turn, to turn it into +a reckoning of so much a head; but we shall break up when the +session ends. Nite deelest MD.</p> +<p>21. Morning. Now I will answer MD’s rettle, +N. 27; you that are adding to your number and grumbling, had made +it 26, and then altered <a name="citation427a"></a><a +href="#footnote427a" class="citation">[427a]</a> it to 27. +I believe it is above a month since your last; yes, it is above +seven weeks since I had your last: but I ought to consider that +this was twelve days right, <a name="citation427b"></a><a +href="#footnote427b" class="citation">[427b]</a> so that makes it +pretty even. O, the sirry zade, <a +name="citation427c"></a><a href="#footnote427c" +class="citation">[427c]</a> with her excuses of a fortnight at +Ballygall, seeing their friends, and landlord running away. +O Rold, hot a cruttle <a name="citation427d"></a><a +href="#footnote427d" class="citation">[427d]</a> and a +bustle!—No—if you will have it—I am not Dean of +Wells, <a name="citation427e"></a><a href="#footnote427e" +class="citation">[427e]</a> nor know anything of being so; nor is +there anything in the story; and that’s enough. It +was not Roper <a name="citation427f"></a><a href="#footnote427f" +class="citation">[427f]</a> sent that news: Roper is my humble +slave.—Yes, I heard of your resolves, and that Burton was +embroiled. Stratford spoke to me in his behalf; but I said +I hated the rascal. Poor Catherine gone to Wales? But +she will come back again, I hope. I would see her in my +journey, if she were near the road; and bring her over. Joe +<a name="citation427g"></a><a href="#footnote427g" +class="citation">[427g]</a> is a fool; that sort <a +name="page428"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 428</span>of business +is not at all in my way, pray put him off it. People laugh +when I mention it. Bed ee paadon, Maram; I’m drad oo +rike ee aplon: <a name="citation428a"></a><a href="#footnote428a" +class="citation">[428a]</a> no harm, I hope. And so . . . +DD wonders she has not a letter at the day; oo’ll have it +soon. . . . The D— he is! married to that +vengeance! Men are not to be believed. I don’t +think her a fool. Who would have her? Dilly will be +governed like an ass; and she will govern like a lion. Is +not that true, Ppt? Why, Sterne told me he left you at +ombre with Leigh; and yet you never saw him. I know nothing +of his wife being here: it may cost her a c— <a +name="citation428b"></a><a href="#footnote428b" +class="citation">[428b]</a> (I don’t care to write that +word plain). He is a little in doubt about buying his +commission. Yes, I will bring oo over all the little papers +I can think on. I thought I sent you, by Leigh, all that +were good at that time. The author of the <i>Sea +Eclogues</i> sent books to the Society yesterday, and we gave him +guineas apiece; and, maybe, will do further from him (for him, I +mean). So the Bishop of Clogher, and lady, were your guests +for a night or two. Why, Ppt, you are grown a great +gamester and company keeper. I did say to myself, when I +read those names, just what you guess; and you clear up the +matter wonderfully. You may converse with those two nymphs +if you please, but the — take me if ever I do. Iss, +fais, it is delightful to hear that Ppt is every way Ppt now, in +health, and looks, and all. Pray God keep her so, many, +many, many years. I doubt the session will not be over till +the end of April; however, I shall not wait for it, if the +Ministry will let me go sooner. I wish I were just now in +my garden at Laracor. I would set out for Dublin early on +Monday, and bring you an account of my young trees, which you are +better acquainted with than the Ministry, and so am I. Oh, +now you have got Number 41, have you so? Why, perhaps, I +forgot, and kept it to next post in my pocket: I have done such +tricks. My cold is better, but not gone. I want air +and riding. Hold ee tongue, oo Ppt, about colds <a +name="page429"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 429</span>at Moor +Park! the case is quite different. I will do what you +desire me for Tisdall, when I next see Lord Anglesea. Pray +give him my service. The weather is warm these three or +four days, and rainy. I am to dine to-day with Lewis and +Darteneuf at Somers’s, <a name="citation429a"></a><a +href="#footnote429a" class="citation">[429a]</a> the Clerk of the +Kitchen at Court. Darteneuf loves good bits and good +sups. Good mollows richar sollohs.—At night. I +dined, as I said; and it cost me a shilling for a chair. It +has rained all day, and is very warm. Lady Masham’s +young son, my nephew, is very ill; and she is out of mind <a +name="citation429b"></a><a href="#footnote429b" +class="citation">[429b]</a> with grief. I pity her +mightily. I am got home early, and going to write to the +Bishop of Clogher, but have no politics to send him. Nite +my own two deelest saucy d[ear] ones.</p> +<p>22. I am going into the City this morning with a friend +about some business; so I will immediately seal up this, and keep +it in my pottick till evening, and zen put it in the post. +The weather continues warm and gloomy. I have heard no news +since I went to bed, so can say no more. Pray send . . . +that I may have time to write to . . . <a +name="citation429c"></a><a href="#footnote429c" +class="citation">[429c]</a> about it. I have here +underneath given order for forty shillings to Mrs. Brent, which +you will send to Parvisol. Farewell, deelest deel MD, and +rove Pdfr dearly dearly. Farewell, MD, MD, FW, FW, FW, ME, +ME, ME, Lele lele lele lele lele lele, and lele aden.</p> +<h3>LETTER XLIV. <a name="citation429d"></a><a +href="#footnote429d" class="citation">[429d]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>March</i> 22, 1711–12.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Ugly</span>, nasty weather. I was in +the City to-day with Mrs. Wesley and Mrs. Perceval, to get money +from a banker for Mrs. Wesley, who goes to Bath on +Thursday. I left them there, and dined with a friend, and +went to see Lord <a name="page430"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +430</span>Treasurer; but he had people with him I did not know: +so I went to Lady Masham’s, and lost a crown with her at +picquet, and then sat with Lord Masham and Lord Treasurer, etc., +there till past one; but I had my man with me, to come +home. I gave in my forty-third, and one for the Bishop of +Clogher, to the post-office, as I came from the City; and so oo +know ’tis late now, and I have nothing to say for this +day. Our Mohocks are all vanished; however, I shall take +care of my person. Nite my own two deelest nuntyes MD.</p> +<p>23. I was this morning, before church, with the +Secretary, about Lord Abercorn’s business, and some +others. My soliciting season is come, and will last as long +as the session. I went late to Court, and the company was +almost gone. The Court serves me for a coffee-house; once a +week I meet acquaintance there, that I should not otherwise see +in a quarter. There is a flying report that the French have +offered a cessation of arms, and to give us Dunkirk, and the +Dutch Namur, for security, till the peace is made. The Duke +of Ormond, they say, goes in a week. Abundance of his +equipage is already gone. His <a name="citation430a"></a><a +href="#footnote430a" class="citation">[430a]</a> friends are +afraid the expense of this employment will ruin him, since he +must lose the government of Ireland. I dined privately with +a friend, and refused all dinners offered me at Court; which, +however, were but two, and I did not like either. Did I +tell you of a scoundrel about the Court that sells employments to +ignorant people, and cheats them of their money? He lately +made a bargain for the Vice-Chamberlain’s place, for seven +thousand pounds, and had received some guineas earnest; but the +whole thing was discovered t’other day, and examination +taken of it by Lord Dartmouth, and I hope he will be +swinged. The Vice-Chamberlain told me several particulars +of it last night at Lord Masham’s. Can DD play at +ombre yet, enough to hold the cards while Ppt steps into the next +room? Nite deelest sollahs. <a name="citation430b"></a><a +href="#footnote430b" class="citation">[430b]</a></p> +<p><a name="page431"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +431</span>24. This morning I recommended Newcomb again to +the Duke of Ormond, and left Dick Stewart <a +name="citation431a"></a><a href="#footnote431a" +class="citation">[431a]</a> to do it further. Then I went +to visit the Duchess of Hamilton, who was not awake. So I +went to the Duchess of Shrewsbury, and sat an hour at her +toilet. I talked to her about the Duke’s being Lord +Lieutenant. She said she knew nothing of it; but I rallied +her out of that, and she resolves not to stay behind the +Duke. I intend to recommend the Bishop of Clogher to her +for an acquaintance. He will like her very well: she is, +indeed, a most agreeable woman, and a great favourite of +mine. I know not whether the ladies in Ireland will like +her. I was at the Court of Requests, to get some lords to +be at a committee to-morrow, about a friend’s Bill: and +then the Duke of Beaufort gave me a poem, finely bound in folio, +printed at Stamford, and writ by a country squire. Lord +Exeter <a name="citation431b"></a><a href="#footnote431b" +class="citation">[431b]</a> desired the Duke to give it the +Queen, because the author is his friend; but the Duke desired I +would let him know whether it was good for anything. I +brought it home, and will return it to-morrow, as the dullest +thing I ever read; and advise the Duke not to present it. I +dined with Domville at his lodgings, by invitation; for he goes +in a few days for Ireland. Nite dee MD.</p> +<p>25. There is a mighty feast at a Tory sheriff’s +to-day in the City: twelve hundred dishes of meat.—Above +five lords, and several hundred gentlemen, will be there, and +give four or five guineas apiece, according to custom. Dr. +Coghill and I dined, by invitation, at Mrs. Van’s. It +has rained or mizzled all day, as my pockets feel. There +are two new answers come out to the <i>Conduct of the +Allies</i>. The last year’s <i>Examiners</i>, printed +together in a small volume, go off but slowly. The printer +over-printed himself by at least a thousand; so soon out of +fashion are party papers, however so well writ. The +<i>Medleys</i> are coming out in the same volume, and perhaps may +sell better. Our news about a cessation of arms begins to +flag, and I have not these three days seen anybody in business to +ask them about it. We <a name="page432"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 432</span>had a terrible fire last night in +Drury Lane, or thereabouts, and three or four people +destroyed. One of the maids of honour has the smallpox; but +the best is, she can lose no beauty; and we have one new handsome +maid of honour. Nite MD.</p> +<p>26. I forgot to tell you that on Sunday last, about +seven at night, it lightened above fifty times as I walked the +Mall, which I think is extraordinary at this time of the year, +and the weather was very hot. Had you anything of this in +Dublin? I intended to dine with Lord Treasurer to-day; but +Lord Mansel and Mr. Lewis made me dine with them at Kit +Musgrave’s. <a name="citation432a"></a><a +href="#footnote432a" class="citation">[432a]</a> I sat the +evening with Mrs. Wesley, who goes to-morrow morning to the +Bath. She is much better than she was. The news of +the French desiring a cessation of arms, etc., was but town +talk. We shall know in a few days, as I am told, whether +there will be a peace or not. The Duke of Ormond will go in +a week for Flanders, they say. Our Mohocks go on still, and +cut people’s faces every night; fais, they shan’t cut +mine, I like it better as it is. The dogs will cost me at +least a crown a week in chairs. I believe the souls of your +houghers of cattle have got into them, and now they don’t +distinguish between a cow and a Christian. I forgot to wish +you yesterday a happy New Year. You know the twenty-fifth +of March is the first day of the year, and now you must leave off +cards, and put out your fire. I’ll put out mine the +first of April, cold or not cold. I believe I shall lose +credit with you by not coming over at the beginning of April; but +I hoped the session would be ended, and I must stay till then; +yet I would fain be at the beginning of my willows growing. +Perceval tells me that the quicksets upon the flat in the garden +do not grow so well as those famous ones on the ditch. They +want digging about them. The cherry-trees, by the +river-side, my heart is set upon. Nite MD.</p> +<p>27. Society day. You know that, I suppose. +Dr. Arthburnett <a name="citation432b"></a><a +href="#footnote432b" class="citation">[432b]</a> was +President. His dinner was dressed in the <a +name="page433"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +433</span>Queen’s kitchen, and was mighty fine. We +ate it at Ozinda’s Chocolate-house, <a +name="citation433a"></a><a href="#footnote433a" +class="citation">[433a]</a> just by St. James’s. We +were never merrier, nor better company, and did not part till +after eleven. I did not summon Lord Lansdowne: he and I are +fallen out. There was something in an <i>Examiner</i> a +fortnight ago that he thought reflected on the abuses in his +office (he is Secretary at War), and he writ to the Secretary +that he heard I had inserted that paragraph. This I +resented highly, that he should complain of me before he spoke to +me. I sent him a peppering letter, and would not summon him +by a note, as I did the rest; nor ever will have anything to say +to him, till he begs my pardon. I met Lord Treasurer to-day +at Lady Masham’s. He would fain have carried me home +to dinner, but I begged his pardon. What! upon a Society +day! No, no. ’Tis rate, sollahs. I +an’t dlunk. Nite MD.</p> +<p>28. I was with my friend Lewis to-day, getting materials +for a little mischief; and I dined with Lord Treasurer, and three +or four fellows I never saw before. I left them at seven, +and came home, and have been writing to the Archbishop of Dublin, +and cousin Deane, <a name="citation433b"></a><a +href="#footnote433b" class="citation">[433b]</a> in answer to one +of his of four months old, that I spied by chance, routing among +my papers. I have a pain these two days exactly upon the +top of my left shoulder. I fear it is something rheumatic; +it winches <a name="citation433c"></a><a href="#footnote433c" +class="citation">[433c]</a> now and then. Shall I put +flannel to it? Domville is going to Ireland; he came here +this morning to take leave of me, but I shall dine with him +to-morrow. Does the Bishop of Clogher talk of coming for +England this summer? I think Lord Molesworth told me so +about two months ago. The weather is bad again; rainy and +very cold this evening. Do you know what the longitude +is? A projector <a name="citation433d"></a><a +href="#footnote433d" class="citation">[433d]</a> has been +applying himself to me, to recommend him to the <a +name="page434"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 434</span>Ministry, +because he pretends to have found out the longitude. I +believe he has no more found it out than he has found out mine . +. . <a name="citation434a"></a><a href="#footnote434a" +class="citation">[434a]</a> However, I will gravely hear +what he says, and discover him a knave or fool. Nite +MD.</p> +<p>29. I am plagued with these pains in my shoulder; I +believe it is rheumatic; I will do something for it +to-night. Mr. Lewis and I dined with Mr. Domville, to take +our leave of him. I drank three or four glasses of +champagne by perfect teasing, though it is bad for my pain; but +if it continue, I will not drink any wine without water till I am +well. The weather is abominably cold and wet. I am +got into bed, and have put some old flannel, for want of new, to +my shoulder, and rubbed it with Hungary water. <a +name="citation434b"></a><a href="#footnote434b" +class="citation">[434b]</a> It is plaguy hard. I +never would drink any wine, if it were not for my head, and +drinking has given me this pain. I will try abstemiousness +for a while. How does MD do now; how does DD and Ppt? +You must know I hate pain, as the old woman said. But +I’ll try to go seep. My flesh sucks up Hungary water +rarely. My man is an awkward rascal, and makes me +peevish. Do you know that t’other day he was forced +to beg my pardon, that he could not shave my head, his hand shook +so? He is drunk every day, and I design to turn him off +soon as ever I get to Ireland. I’ll write no more +now, but go to sleep, and see whether sleep and flannel will cure +my shoulder. Nite deelest MD.</p> +<p>30. I was not able to go to church or Court to-day for +my shoulder. The pain has left my shoulder, and crept to my +neck and collar-bone. It makes me think of poo Ppt’s +bladebone. Urge, urge, urge; dogs gnawing. I went in +a chair at two, and dined with Mrs. Van, where I could be easy, +and came back at seven. My Hungary water is gone; <a +name="page435"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 435</span>and +to-night I use spirits of wine, which my landlady tells me is +very good. It has rained terribly all day long, and is +extremely cold. I am very uneasy, and such cruel twinges +every moment! Nite deelest MD.</p> +<p>31. April 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. All these days I +have been extremely ill, though I twice crawled out a week ago; +but am now recovering, though very weak. The violence of my +pain abated the night before last: I will just tell you how I +was, and then send away this letter, which ought to have gone +Saturday last. The pain increased with mighty violence in +my left shoulder and collar-bone, and that side my neck. On +Thursday morning appeared great red spots in all those places +where my pain was, and the violence of the pain was confined to +my neck behind, a little on the left side; which was so violent +that I had not a minute’s ease, nor hardly a minute’s +sleep in three days and nights. The spots increased every +day, and bred little pimples, which are now grown white, and full +of corruption, though small. The red still continues too, +and most prodigious hot and inflamed. The disease is the +shingles. I eat nothing but water-gruel; am very weak; but +out of all violent pain. The doctors say it would have +ended in some violent disease if it had not come out thus. +I shall now recover fast. I have been in no danger of life, +but miserable torture. I must not write too much. So +adieu, deelest MD MD MD FW FW, ME ME ME, Lele. I can say +lele yet, oo see. Fais, I don’t conceal a bit, as +hope saved. <a name="citation435a"></a><a href="#footnote435a" +class="citation">[435a]</a></p> +<p>I <a name="citation435b"></a><a href="#footnote435b" +class="citation">[435b]</a> must purge and clyster after this; +and my next letter will not be in the old order of journal, till +I have done with physic. An’t oo surprised to see a +letter want half a side?</p> +<h3><a name="page436"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +436</span>LETTER XLV. <a name="citation436a"></a><a +href="#footnote436a" class="citation">[436a]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>April</i> 24, 1712.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">had</span> your twenty-eighth two or +three days ago. I can hardly answer it now. Since my +last I have been extremely ill. ’Tis this day just a +month since I felt a small pain on the tip of my left shoulder, +which grew worse, and spread for six days; then broke all out by +my collar and left side of my neck in monstrous red spots +inflamed, and these grew to small pimples. For four days I +had no rest, nor nights, for a pain in my neck; then I grew a +little better; afterward, where my pains were, a cruel itching +seized me, beyond whatever I could imagine, and kept me awake +several nights. I rubbed it vehemently, but did not scratch +it: then it grew into three or four great sores like blisters, +and run; at last I advised the doctor to use it like a blister, +so I did with melilot <a name="citation436b"></a><a +href="#footnote436b" class="citation">[436b]</a> plasters, which +still run: and am now in pain enough, but am daily mending. +I kept my chamber a fortnight, then went out a day or two, but +then confined myself again. Two days ago I went to a +neighbour to dine, but yesterday again kept at home. To-day +I will venture abroad a little, and hope to be well in a week or +ten days. I never suffered so much in my life. I have +taken my breeches in above two inches, so I am leaner, which +answers one question in your letter. The weather is mighty +fine. I write in the morning, because I am better +then. I will go and try to walk a little. I will give +DD’s certificate to Tooke to-morrow. Farewell, MD MD +MD, ME ME, FW FW ME ME.</p> +<h3><a name="page437"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +437</span>LETTER XLVI. <a name="citation437a"></a><a +href="#footnote437a" class="citation">[437a]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>May</i> 10, 1712.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> not yet ease or humour +enough to go on in my journal method, though I have left my +chamber these ten days. My pain continues still in my +shoulder and collar: I keep flannel on it, and rub it with +brandy, and take a nasty diet drink. I still itch terribly, +and have some few pimples; I am weak, and sweat; and then the +flannel makes me mad with itching; but I think my pain +lessens. A journal, while I was sick, would have been a +noble thing, made up of pain and physic, visits, and messages; +the two last were almost as troublesome as the two first. +One good circumstance is that I am grown much leaner. I +believe I told you that I have taken in my breeches two +inches. I had your N. 29 last night. In answer to +your good opinion of my disease, the doctors said they never saw +anything so odd of the kind; they were not properly shingles, but +<i>herpes miliaris</i>, and twenty other hard names. I can +never be sick like other people, but always something out of the +common way; and as for your notion of its coming without pain, it +neither came, nor stayed, nor went without pain, and the most +pain I ever bore in my life. Medemeris <a +name="citation437b"></a><a href="#footnote437b" +class="citation">[437b]</a> is retired in the country, with the +beast her husband, long ago. I thank the Bishop of Clogher +for his proxy; I will write to him soon. Here is +Dilly’s wife in town; but I have not seen her yet. +No, sinkerton: <a name="citation437c"></a><a href="#footnote437c" +class="citation">[437c]</a> ’tis not a sign of health, but +a sign that, if it had not come out, some terrible fit of +sickness would have followed. I was at our Society last +Thursday, to receive a new member, the Chancellor of the +Exchequer; <a name="citation437d"></a><a href="#footnote437d" +class="citation">[437d]</a> but I drink nothing above wine and +water. We shall have a peace, I hope, soon, or at least +entirely broke; but I believe the first. My <i>Letter to +Lord Treasurer</i>, about the English tongue, <a +name="citation437e"></a><a href="#footnote437e" +class="citation">[437e]</a> <a name="page438"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 438</span>is now printing; and I suffer my +name to be put at the end of it, which I never did before in my +life. <i>The Appendix to the Third Part of John Bull</i> <a +name="citation438a"></a><a href="#footnote438a" +class="citation">[438a]</a> was published yesterday; it is equal +to the rest. I hope you read <i>John Bull</i>. It was +a Scotch gentleman, <a name="citation438b"></a><a +href="#footnote438b" class="citation">[438b]</a> a friend of +mine, that writ it; but they put it upon me. The Parliament +will hardly be up till June. We were like to be undone some +days ago with a tack; but we carried it bravely, and the Whigs +came in to help us. Poor Lady Masham, I am afraid, will +lose her only son, about a twelvemonth old, with the king’s +evil. I never would let Mrs. Fenton see me during my +illness, though she often came; but she has been once here since +I recovered. Bernage has been twice to see me of +late. His regiment will be broke, and he only upon +half-pay; so perhaps he thinks he will want me again. I am +told here the Bishop of Clogher and family are coming over, but +he says nothing of it himself. I have been returning the +visits of those that sent howdees <a name="citation438c"></a><a +href="#footnote438c" class="citation">[438c]</a> in my sickness; +particularly the Duchess of Hamilton, who came and sat with me +two hours. I make bargains with all people that I dine +with, to let me scrub my back against a chair; and the Duchess of +Ormond <a name="citation438d"></a><a href="#footnote438d" +class="citation">[438d]</a> was forced to bear it the other +day. Many of my friends are gone to Kensington, where the +Queen has been removed for some time. This is a long letter +for a kick <a name="citation438e"></a><a href="#footnote438e" +class="citation">[438e]</a> body. I will begin the next in +the journal way, though my journals will be sorry ones. My +left hand is very weak, and trembles; but my right side has not +been touched.</p> +<p class="poetry">This is a pitiful letter<br /> +For want of a better;<br /> +But plagued with a tetter,<br /> +My fancy does fetter.</p> +<p>Ah! my poor willows and quicksets! Well, but you must +read <i>John Bull</i>. Do you understand it all? Did +I tell you <a name="page439"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +439</span>that young Parson Gery <a name="citation439a"></a><a +href="#footnote439a" class="citation">[439a]</a> is going to be +married, and asked my advice when it was too late to break +off? He tells me Elwick has purchased forty pounds a year +in land adjoining to his living. Ppt does not say one word +of her own little health. I am angry almost; but I +won’t, ’cause see im a dood dallar in odle sings; <a +name="citation439b"></a><a href="#footnote439b" +class="citation">[439b]</a> iss, and so im DD too. God +bless MD, and FW, and ME, ay and Pdfr too. Farewell, MD, +MD, MD, FW, FW, FW. ME, ME Lele. I can say lele it, +ung oomens, iss I tan, well as oo.</p> +<h3>LETTER XLVII. <a name="citation439c"></a><a +href="#footnote439c" class="citation">[439c]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>May</i> 31, 1712.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">cannot</span> yet arrive to my journal +letters, my pains continuing still, though with less violence; +but I don’t love to write journals while I am in pain; and +above all, not journals to MD. But, however, I am so much +mended, that I intend my next shall be in the old way; and yet I +shall, perhaps, break my resolution when I feel pain. I +believe I have lost credit with you, in relation to my coming +over; but I protest it is impossible for one who has anything to +do with this Ministry to be certain when he fixes any time. +There is a business which, till it take some turn or other, I +cannot leave this place in prudence or honour. And I never +wished so much as now that I had stayed in Ireland; but the die +is cast, and is now a spinning, and till it settles, I cannot +tell whether it be an ace or a sise. <a +name="citation439d"></a><a href="#footnote439d" +class="citation">[439d]</a> I am confident by what you know +yourselves, that you will justify <a name="page440"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 440</span>me in all this. The moment I +am used ill, I will leave them; but know not how to do it while +things are in suspense. The session will soon be over (I believe +in a fortnight), and the peace, we hope, will be made in a short +time; and there will be no further occasion for me; nor have I +anything to trust to but Court gratitude, so that I expect to see +my willows <a name="citation440a"></a><a href="#footnote440a" +class="citation">[440a]</a> a month after the Parliament is up: +but I will take MD in my way, and not go to Laracor like an +unmannerly spraenekich ferrow. <a name="citation440b"></a><a +href="#footnote440b" class="citation">[440b]</a> Have you +seen my <i>Letter to Lord Treasurer</i>? There are two +answers come out to it already; <a name="citation440c"></a><a +href="#footnote440c" class="citation">[440c]</a> though it is no +politics, but a harmless proposal about the improvement of the +English Tongue. I believe if I writ an essay upon a straw +some fool would answer it. About ten days hence I expect a +letter from MD; N. 30.—You are now writing it, near the +end, as I guess.—I have not received DD’s money; but +I will give you a note for it on Parvisol, and bed oo paadon <a +name="citation440d"></a><a href="#footnote440d" +class="citation">[440d]</a> I have not done it before. I am +just now thinking to go lodge at Kensington for the air. +Lady Masham has teased me to do it, but business has hindered me; +but now Lord Treasurer has removed thither. Fifteen of our +Society dined together under a canopy in an arbour at +Parson’s Green <a name="citation440e"></a><a +href="#footnote440e" class="citation">[440e]</a> last Thursday: I +never saw anything so fine and romantic. We got a great +victory last Wednesday in the House of Lords by a majority, I +think, of twenty-eight; and the Whigs had desired their friends +to bespeak places to see Lord Treasurer carried to the Tower. <a +name="citation440f"></a><a href="#footnote440f" +class="citation">[440f]</a> I met your Higgins <a +name="citation440g"></a><a href="#footnote440g" +class="citation">[440g]</a> here yesterday: he roars at the +insolence of the Whigs in Ireland, talks much of his own +sufferings and expenses in asserting the cause of the Church; and +I find he <a name="page441"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +441</span>would fain plead merit enough to desire that his +fortune should be mended. I believe he designs to make as +much noise as he can in order to preferment. Pray let the +Provost, when he sees you, give you ten English shillings, and I +will give as much here to the man who delivered me Rymer’s +books: <a name="citation441a"></a><a href="#footnote441a" +class="citation">[441a]</a> he knows the meaning. Tell him +I will not trust him, but that you can order it to be paid me +here; and I will trust you till I see you. Have I told you +that the rogue Patrick has left me these two months, to my great +satisfaction? I have got another, who seems to be much +better, if he continues it. I am printing a threepenny +pamphlet, <a name="citation441b"></a><a href="#footnote441b" +class="citation">[441b]</a> and shall print another in a +fortnight, and then I have done, unless some new occasion +starts. Is my curate Warburton married to Mrs. Melthrop in +my parish? so I hear. Or is it a lie? Has Raymond got +to his new house? Do you see Joe now and then? What +luck have you at ombre? How stands it with the Dean? . . . +<a name="citation441c"></a><a href="#footnote441c" +class="citation">[441c]</a> My service to Mrs. Stoyte, and +Catherine, if she be come from Wales. I have not yet seen +Dilly Ashe’s wife. I called once, but she was not at +home: I think she is under the doctor’s hand. . . . <a +name="citation441d"></a><a href="#footnote441d" +class="citation">[441d]</a> I believe the news of the Duke +of Ormond producing letters in the council of war, with orders +not to fight, will surprise you in Ireland. Lord Treasurer +said in the House of Lords that in a few days the treaty of peace +should be laid before them; and our Court thought it wrong to +hazard a battle, and sacrifice many lives in such a +juncture. If the peace holds, all will do well, otherwise I +know not how we shall weather it. And it was reckoned as a +wrong step in politics for Lord Treasurer to open himself so +much. The Secretary would not go so far to satisfy the +Whigs in the House of Commons; but there all went +swimmingly. I’ll say no more to oo to-nite, sellohs, +because I must send away the letter, not by the bell, <a +name="citation441e"></a><a href="#footnote441e" +class="citation">[441e]</a> but early: and besides, I have not +much more to say at zis <a name="page442"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 442</span>plesent liting. <a +name="citation442a"></a><a href="#footnote442a" +class="citation">[442a]</a> Does MD never read at all now, +pee? <a name="citation442b"></a><a href="#footnote442b" +class="citation">[442b]</a> But oo walk plodigiousry, I +suppose; oo make nothing of walking to, to, to, ay, to +Donnybrook. I walk too as much as I can, because sweating +is good; but I’ll walk more if I go to Kensington. I +suppose I shall have no apples this year neither, for I dined +t’other day with Lord Rivers, who is sick at his +country-house, and he showed me all his cherries blasted. +Nite deelest sollahs; farewell deelest rives; rove poo poo +Pdfr. Farewell deelest richar MD, MD, MD, FW, FW, FW, FW, +FW, ME, ME, Lele, ME, Lele, Lele, richar MD.</p> +<h3>LETTER XLVIII. <a name="citation442c"></a><a +href="#footnote442c" class="citation">[442c]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Kensington</span>, <i>June</i> 17, 1712.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> been so tosticated about +since my last, that I could not go on in my journal manner, +though my shoulder is a great deal better; however, I feel +constant pain in it, but I think it diminishes, and I have cut +off some slices from my flannel. I have lodged here near a +fortnight, partly for the air and exercise, partly to be near the +Court, where dinners are to be found. I generally get a +lift in a coach to town, and in the evening I walk back. On +Saturday I dined with the Duchess of Ormond at her lodge near +Sheen, and thought to get a boat back as usual. I walked by +the bank to Cue [Kew], but no boat, then to Mortlake, but no +boat, and it was nine o’clock. At last a little +sculler called, full of nasty people. I made him set me +down at Hammersmith, so walked two miles to this place, and got +here by eleven. Last night I had another such +difficulty. I was in the City till past ten at night; it +rained hard, but no coach to be had. It gave over a little, +and I walked all the way here, and got home by twelve. I +love these shabby difficulties when they are over; but I hate +them, because they arise from not having a thousand pound a +year. I had your N. 30 <a name="page443"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 443</span>about three days ago, which I will +now answer. And first, I did not relapse, but found <a +name="citation443a"></a><a href="#footnote443a" +class="citation">[443a]</a> I came out before I ought; and so, +and so, as I have told you in some of my last. The first +coming abroad made people think I was quite recovered, and I had +no more messages afterwards. Well, but <i>John Bull</i> is +not writ by the person you imagine, as hope! <a +name="citation443b"></a><a href="#footnote443b" +class="citation">[443b]</a> It is too good for another to +own. Had it been Grub Street, I would have let people think +as they please; and I think that’s right: is not it now? so +flap ee hand, and make wry mouth oo-self, sauci doxi. Now +comes DD. Why sollah, I did write in a fortnight my 47th; +and if it did not come in due time, can I help wind and weather? +am I a Laplander? am I a witch? can I work miracles? can I make +easterly winds? Now I am against Dr. Smith. I drink +little water with my wine, yet I believe he is right. Yet +Dr. Cockburn told me a little wine would not hurt me; but it is +so hot and dry, and water is so dangerous. The worst thing +here is my evenings at Lord Masham’s, where Lord Treasurer +comes, and we sit till after twelve. But it is convenient I +should be among them for a while as much as possible. I +need not tell oo why. But I hope that will be at an end in +a month or two, one way or other, and I am resolved it +shall. But I can’t go to Tunbridge, or anywhere else +out of the way, in this juncture. So Ppt designs for +Templeoag (what a name is that!). Whereabouts is that +place? I hope not very far from Dublin. Higgins is +here, roaring that all is wrong in Ireland, and would have me get +him an audience of Lord Treasurer to tell him so; but I will have +nothing to do in it, no, not I, faith. We have had no +thunder till last night, and till then we were dead for want of +rain; but there fell a great deal: no field looked green. I +reckon the Queen will go to Windsor in three or four weeks: and +if the Secretary takes a house there, I shall be sometimes with +him. But how affectedly Ppt talks of my being here all the +summer; which I do not intend: nor to stay one minute longer in +England than becomes the circumstances I am in. I wish <a +name="page444"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 444</span>you would +go soon into the country, and take a good deal of it; and where +better than Trim? Joe will be your humble servant, Parvisol +your slave, and Raymond at your command, for he piques himself on +good manners. I have seen Dilly’s wife—and I +have seen once or twice old Bradley <a name="citation444a"></a><a +href="#footnote444a" class="citation">[444a]</a> here. He +is very well, very old, and very wise: I believe I must go see +his wife, when I have leisure. I should be glad to see +Goody Stoyte and her husband; pray give them my humble service, +and to Catherine, and to Mrs. Walls—I am not the least bit +in love with Mrs. Walls—I suppose the cares of the husband +increase with the fruitfulness of the wife. I am grad at +halt <a name="citation444b"></a><a href="#footnote444b" +class="citation">[444b]</a> to hear of Ppt’s good health: +pray let her finish it by drinking waters. I hope DD had +her bill, and has her money. Remember to write a due time +before ME money is wanted, and be good galls, dood dallars, I +mean, and no crying dallars. I heard somebody coming +upstairs, and forgot I was in the country; and I was afraid of a +visitor: that is one advantage of being here, that I am not +teased with solicitors. Molt, the chemist, is my +acquaintance. My service to Dr. Smith. I sent the +question to him about Sir Walter Raleigh’s cordial, and the +answer he returned is in these words: “It is directly after +Mr. Boyle’s receipt.” That commission is +performed; if he wants any of it, Molt shall use him +fairly. I suppose Smith is one of your physicians. +So, now your letter is fully and impartially answered; not as +rascals answer me: I believe, if I writ an essay upon a straw, I +should have a shoal of answerers: but no matter for that; you see +I can answer without making any reflections, as becomes men of +learning. Well, but now for the peace: why, we expect it +daily; but the French have the staff in their own hands, and we +trust to their honesty. I wish it were otherwise. +Things are now in the way of being soon in the extremes of well +or ill. I hope and believe the first. Lord Wharton is +gone out of town in a rage, and curses himself and friends for +ruining themselves in defending Lord Marlborough and Godolphin, +and taking Nottingham <a name="page445"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 445</span>into their favour. He swears +he will meddle no more during this reign; a pretty speech at +sixty-six, and the Queen is near twenty years younger, and now in +very good health; for you must know her health is fixed by a +certain reason, that she has done with braces (I must use the +expression), and nothing ill is happened to her since; so she has +a new lease of her life. Read the <i>Letter to a Whig +Lord</i>. <a name="citation445a"></a><a href="#footnote445a" +class="citation">[445a]</a> Do you ever read? Why +don’t you say so? I mean does DD read to Ppt? +Do you walk? I think Ppt should walk to <a +name="citation445b"></a><a href="#footnote445b" +class="citation">[445b]</a> DD; as DD reads to Ppt, for Ppt oo +must know is a good walker; but not so good as Pdfr. I +intend to dine to-day with Mr. Lewis, but it threatens rain; and +I shall be too late to get a lift; and I must write to the Bishop +of Clogher. ’Tis now ten in the morning; and this is +all writ at a heat. Farewell deelest . . . deelest MD, MD, +MD, MD, MD, FW, FW, FW, ME, ME, ME, Lele, ME, Lele, ME, Lele, ME, +Lele, Lele, Lele, ME.</p> +<h3>LETTER XLIX. <a name="citation445c"></a><a +href="#footnote445c" class="citation">[445c]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Kensington</span>, <i>July</i> 1, 1712.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">never</span> was in a worse station for +writing letters than this, especially for writing to MD, since I +left off my journals. For I go to town early; and when I +come home at night, I generally go to Lord Masham, where Lord +Treasurer comes, and we stay till past twelve. But I am now +resolved to write journals again, though my shoulder is not yet +well; for I have still a few itching pimples, and a little pain +now and then. It is now high cherry-time with us; take +notice, is it so soon with you? And we have early apricots, +and gooseberries are ripe. On Sunday Archdeacon Parnell +came here to see me. It seems he has been ill for grief of +his wife’s death, <a name="citation445d"></a><a +href="#footnote445d" class="citation">[445d]</a> and has been two +months at the Bath. He has a <a name="page446"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 446</span>mind to go to Dunkirk with Jack +Hill, <a name="citation446a"></a><a href="#footnote446a" +class="citation">[446a]</a> and I persuade him to it, and have +spoke to Hill to receive him; but I doubt he won’t have +spirit to go. I have made Ford <a +name="citation446b"></a><a href="#footnote446b" +class="citation">[446b]</a> Gazetteer, and got two hundred pounds +a year settled on the employment by the Secretary of State, +beside the perquisites. It is the prettiest employment in +England of its bigness; yet the puppy does not seem satisfied +with it. I think people keep some follies to themselves, +till they have occasion to produce them. He thinks it not +genteel enough, and makes twenty difficulties. ’Tis +impossible to make any man easy. His salary is paid him +every week, if he pleases, without taxes or abatements. He +has little to do for it. He has a pretty office, with +coals, candles, papers, etc.; can frank what letters he will; and +his perquisites, if he takes care, may be worth one hundred +pounds more. I hear the Bishop of Clogher is landing, or +landed, in England; and I hope to see him in a few days. I +was to see Mrs. Bradley <a name="citation446c"></a><a +href="#footnote446c" class="citation">[446c]</a> on Sunday +night. Her youngest son is married to somebody worth +nothing, and her daughter was forced to leave Lady Giffard, +because she was striking up an intrigue with a footman, who +played well upon the flute. This is the mother’s +account of it. Yesterday the old Bishop of Worcester, <a +name="citation446d"></a><a href="#footnote446d" +class="citation">[446d]</a> who pretends to be a prophet, went to +the Queen, by appointment, to prove to Her Majesty, out of Daniel +and the Revelations, that four years hence there would be a war +of religion; that the King of France would be a Protestant, and +fight on their side; that the Popedom would be destroyed, etc.; +and declared that he would be content to give up his bishopric if +it were not true. Lord Treasurer, who told it me, was by, +and some others; and I am told Lord Treasurer confounded him +sadly in his own learning, which made the old fool very +quarrelsome. He is near <a name="page447"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 447</span>ninety years old. Old Bradley +is fat and lusty, and has lost his palsy. Have you seen +<i>Toland’s Invitation to Dismal</i>? <a +name="citation447a"></a><a href="#footnote447a" +class="citation">[447a]</a> How do you like it? But +it is an imitation of Horace, and perhaps you don’t +understand Horace. Here has been a great sweep of +employments, and we expect still more removals. The Court +seems resolved to make thorough work. Mr. Hill intended to +set out to-morrow for Dunkirk, of which he is appointed Governor; +but he tells me to-day that he cannot go till Thursday or +Friday. I wish it were over. Mr. Secretary tells me +he is [in] no fear at all that France will play tricks with +us. If we have Dunkirk once, all is safe. We rail now +all against the Dutch, who, indeed, have acted like knaves, +fools, and madmen. Mr. Secretary is soon to be made a +viscount. He desired I would draw the preamble of his +patent; but I excused myself from a work that might lose me a +great deal of reputation, and get me very little. We would +fain have the Court make him an earl, but it would not be; and +therefore he will not take the title of Bullenbrook, <a +name="citation447b"></a><a href="#footnote447b" +class="citation">[447b]</a> which is lately extinct in the elder +branch of his family. I have advised him to be called Lord +Pomfret; but he thinks that title is already in some other +family; <a name="citation447c"></a><a href="#footnote447c" +class="citation">[447c]</a> and, besides, he objects that it is +in Yorkshire, where he has no estate; but there is nothing in +that, and I love Pomfret. Don’t you love +Pomfret? Why? ’Tis in all our histories; they +are full of Pomfret Castle. But what’s all this to +you? You don’t care for this. Is Goody Stoyte +come to London? I have not heard of her yet. The Dean +of St. Patrick’s never had the manners to answer my +letter. I was t’other day to see Sterne <a +name="citation447d"></a><a href="#footnote447d" +class="citation">[447d]</a> and his wife. She is not half +so handsome as when I saw her with you at Dublin. <a +name="page448"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 448</span>They design +to pass the summer at a house near Lord Somers’s, about a +dozen miles off. You never told me how my <i>Letter to Lord +Treasurer</i> passes in Ireland. I suppose you are drinking +at this time Temple-something’s <a +name="citation448a"></a><a href="#footnote448a" +class="citation">[448a]</a> waters. Steele was arrested the +other day for making a lottery directly against an Act of +Parliament. He is now under prosecution; but they think it +will be dropped out of pity. <a name="citation448b"></a><a +href="#footnote448b" class="citation">[448b]</a> I believe +he will very soon lose his employment, for he has been mighty +impertinent of late in his <i>Spectators</i>; and I will never +offer a word in his behalf. Raymond writes me word that the +Bishop of Meath <a name="citation448c"></a><a +href="#footnote448c" class="citation">[448c]</a> was going to +summon me, in order to suspension, for absence, if the Provost +had not prevented him. I am prettily rewarded for getting +them their First-Fruits, with a p—. We have had very +little hot weather during the whole month of June; and for a week +past we have had a great deal of rain, though not every +day. I am just now told that the Governor of Dunkirk has +not orders yet to deliver up the town to Jack Hill and his +forces, but expects them daily. This must put off +Hill’s journey a while, and I don’t like these +stoppings in such an affair. Go, get oo gone, and drink oo +waters, if this rain has not spoiled them, sauci doxi. I +have no more to say to oo at plesent; but rove Pdfr, and MD, and +ME. And Podefr will rove Pdfr, and MD and ME. I wish +you had taken any account when I sent money to Mrs. Brent. +I believe I han’t done it a great while. And pray +send me notice when ME . . . to have it when it is due. <a +name="citation448d"></a><a href="#footnote448d" +class="citation">[448d]</a> Farewell, dearest MD FW FW FW +ME ME ME.</p> +<h3><a name="page449"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +449</span>LETTER L. <a name="citation449a"></a><a +href="#footnote449a" class="citation">[449a]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Kensington</span>, <i>July</i> 17, 1712.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">am</span> weary of living in this place, +and glad to leave it soon. The Queen goes on Tuesday to +Windsor, and I shall follow in three or four days after. I +can do nothing here, going early to London, and coming late from +it, and supping at Lady Masham’s. I dined to-day with +the Duke of Argyle at Cue [Kew], and would not go to the Court +to-night, because of writing to MD. The Bishop of Clogher +has been here this fortnight: I see him as often as I can. +Poor Master Ashe has a sad redness in his face; it is St. +Anthony’s fire; his face all swelled, and will break in his +cheek, but no danger. Since Dunkirk has been in our hands, +Grub Street has been very fruitful. Pdfr has writ five or +six Grub Street papers this last week. Have you seen +<i>Toland’s Invitation to Dismal</i>, <i>or Hue and Cry +after Dismal</i>, <i>or Ballad on Dunkirk</i>, <i>or Argument +that Dunkirk is not in our Hands</i>? Poh! you have seen +nothing. I am dead here with the hot weather; yet I walk +every night home, and believe it does me good: but my shoulder is +not yet right; itchings, and scratchings, and small +achings. Did I tell you I had made Ford Gazetteer, with two +hundred pounds a year salary, beside perquisites? I had a +letter lately from Parvisol, who says my canal looks very finely; +I long to see it; but no apples; all blasted again. He +tells me there will be a triennial visitation in August. I +must send Raymond another proxy. So now I will answer oo +rettle N. 33, <a name="citation449b"></a><a href="#footnote449b" +class="citation">[449b]</a> dated June 17. Ppt writes as +well as ever, for all her waters. I wish I had never come +here, as often and as heartily as Ppt. What had I to do +here? I have heard of the Bishop’s making me uneasy, +but I did not think it was because I never writ to him. A +little would make me write to him, but I don’t know what to +say. <a name="page450"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +450</span>I find I am obliged to the Provost for keeping the +Bishop <a name="citation450a"></a><a href="#footnote450a" +class="citation">[450a]</a> from being impertinent. Yes, +Maram DD, but oo would not be content with letters flom Pdfr of +six lines, or twelve either, fais. I hope Ppt will have +done with the waters soon, and find benefit by them. I +believe, if they were as far off as Wexford, they would do as +much good; for I take the journey to contribute as much as +anything. I can assure you the Bishop of Clogher’s +being here does not in the least affect my staying or +going. I never talked to Higgins but once in my life in the +street, and I believe he and I shall hardly meet but by +chance. What care I whether my <i>Letter to Lord +Treasurer</i> be commended there or no? Why does not +somebody among you answer it, as three or four have done +here? (I am now sitting with nothing but my nightgown, for +heat.) Ppt shall have a great Bible. I have put it +down in my memlandums <a name="citation450b"></a><a +href="#footnote450b" class="citation">[450b]</a> just now. +And DD shall be repaid her t’other book; but patience, all +in good time: you are so hasty, a dog would, etc. So Ppt +has neither won nor lost. Why, mun, I play sometimes too at +picket, that is picquet, I mean; but very seldom.—Out late? +why, ’tis only at Lady Masham’s, and that is in our +town; but I never come late here from London, except once in +rain, when I could not get a coach. We have had very little +thunder here; none these two months. Why, pray, madam +philosopher, how did the rain hinder the thunder from doing any +harm? I suppose it ssquenched it. So here comes Ppt +aden <a name="citation450c"></a><a href="#footnote450c" +class="citation">[450c]</a> with her little watery +postscript. O Rold, dlunken srut! <a +name="citation450d"></a><a href="#footnote450d" +class="citation">[450d]</a> drink Pdfr’s health ten times +in a morning! you are a whetter, fais; I sup MD’s fifteen +times evly molning in milk porridge. Lele’s fol oo +now—and lele’s fol oo rettle, and evly kind of sing +<a name="citation450e"></a><a href="#footnote450e" +class="citation">[450e]</a>—and now I must say something +else. You hear Secretary St. John is made Viscount +Bullinbrook. <a name="citation450f"></a><a href="#footnote450f" +class="citation">[450f]</a> I can hardly persuade him to +take that title, because the <a name="page451"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 451</span>eldest branch of his family had it +in an earldom, and it was last year extinct. If he did not +take it, I advised him to be Lord Pomfret, which I think is a +noble title. You hear of it often in the <i>Chronicles</i>, +Pomfret Castle: but we believed it was among the titles of some +other lord. Jack Hill sent his sister a pattern of a +head-dress from Dunkirk; it was like our fashion twenty years +ago, only not quite so high, and looked very ugly. I have +made Trapp <a name="citation451a"></a><a href="#footnote451a" +class="citation">[451a]</a> chaplain to Lord Bullinbroke, and he +is mighty happy and thankful for it. Mr. Addison returned +me my visit this morning. He lives in our town. I +shall be mighty retired, and mighty busy for a while at +Windsor. Pray why don’t MD go to Trim, and see +Laracor, and give me an account of the garden, and the river, and +the holly and the cherry-trees on the river-walk?</p> +<p>19. I could not send this letter last post, being called +away before I could fold or finish it. I dined yesterday +with Lord Treasurer; sat with him till ten at night; yet could +not find a minute for some business I had with him. He +brought me to Kensington, and Lord Bulingbrook would not let me +go away till two; and I am now in bed, very lazy and sleepy at +nine. I must shave head and face, and meet Lord Bullinbrook +at eleven, and dine again with Lord Treasurer. To-day there +will be another Grub, <a name="citation451b"></a><a +href="#footnote451b" class="citation">[451b]</a> <i>A Letter from +the Pretender to a Whig Lord</i>. Grub Street has but ten +days to live; then an Act of Parliament takes place that ruins +it, by taxing every half-sheet at a halfpenny. We have news +just come, but not the particulars, that the Earl of Albemarle, +<a name="citation451c"></a><a href="#footnote451c" +class="citation">[451c]</a> at the head of eight thousand Dutch, +is beaten, lost the greatest part of his men, and himself a +prisoner. This perhaps may cool their courage, and make +them think of a peace. The Duke of Ormond has got abundance +of credit by his good conduct of affairs in Flanders. We +had a good deal of <a name="page452"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +452</span>rain last night, very refreshing. ’Tis +late, and I must rise. Don’t play at ombre in your +waters, sollah. Farewell, deelest MD, MD MD MD FW FW ME ME +ME Lele Lele Lele.</p> +<h3>LETTER LI. <a name="citation452a"></a><a href="#footnote452a" +class="citation">[452a]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Aug.</i> 7, 1712.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">had</span> your N. 32 at Windsor: I just +read it, and immediately sealed it up again, and shall read it no +more this twelvemonth at least. The reason of my resentment +at it is, because you talk as glibly of a thing as if it were +done, which, for aught I know, is farther from being done than +ever, since I hear not a word of it, though the town is full of +it, and the Court always giving me joy and vexation. You +might be sure I would have let you know as soon as it was done; +but I believe you fancied I would affect not to tell it you, but +let you learn it from newspapers and reports. I remember +only there was something in your letter about ME’s money, +and that shall be taken care of on the other side. I left +Windsor on Monday last, upon Lord Bolingbroke’s being gone +to France, and somebody’s being here that I ought often to +consult with in an affair I am upon: but that person talks of +returning to Windsor again, and I believe I shall follow +him. I am now in a hedge-lodging very busy, as I am every +day till noon: so that this letter is like to be short, and you +are not to blame me these two months; for I protest, if I study +ever so hard, I cannot in that time compass what I am upon. +We have a fever both here and at Windsor, which hardly anybody +misses; but it lasts not above three or four days, and kills +nobody. <a name="citation452b"></a><a href="#footnote452b" +class="citation">[452b]</a> The Queen has forty servants +down of it at once. I dined yesterday with Treasurer, but +could do no business, though he sent for me, I thought, on +purpose; but he desires I will dine with him again to-day. +Windsor is a most delightful place, and at this time abounds in +dinners. My lodgings there <a name="page453"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 453</span>look upon Eton and the Thames. +I wish I was owner of them; they belong to a prebend. God +knows what was in your letter; and if it be not answered, whose +fault is it, sauci dallars?—Do you know that Grub Street is +dead and gone last week? No more ghosts or murders now for +love or money. I plied it pretty close the last fortnight, +and published at least seven penny papers of my own, besides some +of other people’s: but now every single half-sheet pays a +halfpenny to the Queen. <a name="citation453a"></a><a +href="#footnote453a" class="citation">[453a]</a> The +<i>Observator</i> is fallen; the <i>Medleys</i> are jumbled +together with the <i>Flying Post</i>; the <i>Examiner</i> is +deadly sick; the <i>Spectator</i> keeps up, and doubles its +price; I know not how long it will hold. Have you seen the +red stamp the papers are marked with? Methinks it is worth +a halfpenny, the stamping it. Lord Bolingbroke and Prior +set out for France last Saturday. My lord’s business +is to hasten the peace before the Dutch are too much mauled, and +hinder France from carrying the jest of beating them too +far. Have you seen the Fourth Part of <i>John Bull</i>? <a +name="citation453b"></a><a href="#footnote453b" +class="citation">[453b]</a> It is equal to the rest, and +extremely good. The Bishop of Clogher’s son has been +ill of St. Anthony’s fire, but is now quite well. I +was afraid his face would be spoiled, but it is not. Dilly +is just as he used to be, and puns as plentifully and as +bad. The two brothers see one another; but I think not the +two sisters. Raymond writ to me that he intended to invite +you to Trim. Are you, have you, will you be there? +Won’t oo see pool Laratol? <a name="citation453c"></a><a +href="#footnote453c" class="citation">[453c]</a> Parvisol +says I shall have no fruit. Blasts have taken away +all. Pray observe the cherry-trees on the river-walk; but +oo are too lazy to take such a journey. If you have not +your letters in due time for two months hence, <a +name="page454"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 454</span>impute it +to my being tosticated between this and Windsor. And pray +send me again the state of ME’s money; for I will not look +into your letter for it. Poor Lord Winchelsea <a +name="citation454a"></a><a href="#footnote454a" +class="citation">[454a]</a> is dead, to my great grief. He +was a worthy honest gentleman, and particular friend of mine: +and, what is yet worse, my old acquaintance, Mrs. Finch, <a +name="citation454b"></a><a href="#footnote454b" +class="citation">[454b]</a> is now Countess of Winchelsea, the +title being fallen to her husband, but without much estate. +I have been poring my eyes all this morning, and it is now past +two afternoon, so I shall take a little walk in the Park. +Do you play at ombre still? Or is that off by Mr. +Stoyte’s absence, and Mrs. Manley’s grief? +Somebody was telling me of a strange sister that Mrs. Manley has +got in Ireland, who disappointed you all about her being +handsome. My service to Mrs. Walls. Farewell, deelest +MD MD MD, FW FW FW, ME ME ME ME ME. Lele, logues both; rove +poo Pdfr.</p> +<h3>LETTER LII. <a name="citation454c"></a><a +href="#footnote454c" class="citation">[454c]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Windsor</span>, +<i>Sept.</i> 15, 1712.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">never</span> was so long without writing +to MD as now, since I left them, nor ever will again while I am +able to write. I have expected from one week to another +that something would be done in my own affairs; but nothing at +all is, nor I don’t know when anything will, or whether +ever at all, so slow are people at doing favours. I have +been much out of order of late with the old giddiness in my +head. I took a vomit for it two days ago, and will take +another about a day or two hence. I have eat mighty little +fruit; yet I impute my disorder to that little, and shall +henceforth wholly forbear it. I am engaged in a long work, +and have done all I can of it, and wait for some papers from the +Ministry for <a name="page455"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +455</span>materials for the rest; and they delay me, as if it +were a favour I asked of them; so that I have been idle here this +good while, and it happened in a right time, when I was too much +out of order to study. One is kept constantly out of humour +by a thousand unaccountable things in public proceedings; and +when I reason with some friends, we cannot conceive how affairs +can last as they are. God only knows, but it is a very +melancholy subject for those who have any near concern in +it. I am again endeavouring, as I was last year, to keep +people <a name="citation455a"></a><a href="#footnote455a" +class="citation">[455a]</a> from breaking to pieces upon a +hundred misunderstandings. One cannot withhold them from +drawing different ways, while the enemy is watching to destroy +both. See how my style is altered, by living and thinking +and talking among these people, instead of my canal and +river-walk and willows. I lose all my money here among the +ladies; <a name="citation455b"></a><a href="#footnote455b" +class="citation">[455b]</a> so that I never play when I can help +it, being sure to lose. I have lost five pounds the five +weeks I have been here. I hope Ppt is luckier at picquet +with the Dean and Mrs. Walls. The Dean never answered my +letter, though. I have clearly forgot whether I sent a bill +for ME in any of my last letters. I think I did; pray let +me know, and always give me timely notice. I wait here but +to see what they will do for me; and whenever preferments are +given from me, as hope saved, I will come over.</p> +<p>18. I have taken a vomit to-day, and hope I shall be +better. I have been very giddy since I writ what is before, +yet not as I used to be: more frequent, but not so violent. +Yesterday we were alarmed with the Queen’s being ill: she +had an aguish and feverish fit; and you never saw such +countenances as we all had, such dismal melancholy. Her +physicians from town were sent for, but towards night she grew +better; to-day she missed her fit, and was up: we are not now in +any fear; it will be at worst but an ague, and we hope even that +will not return. Lord Treasurer would not come here from +London, because it would make a noise if he came before his usual +time, which is Saturday, and he <a name="page456"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 456</span>goes away on Mondays. The +Whigs have lost a great support in the Earl of Godolphin. <a +name="citation456a"></a><a href="#footnote456a" +class="citation">[456a]</a> It is a good jest to hear the +Ministers talk of him now with humanity and pity, because he is +dead, and can do them no more hurt. Lady Orkney, <a +name="citation456b"></a><a href="#footnote456b" +class="citation">[456b]</a> the late King’s mistress (who +lives at a fine place, five miles from hence, called Cliffden <a +name="citation456c"></a><a href="#footnote456c" +class="citation">[456c]</a>), and I, are grown mighty +acquaintance. She is the wisest woman I ever saw; and Lord +Treasurer made great use of her advice in the late change of +affairs. I heard Lord Marlborough is growing ill of his +diabetes; which, if it be true, may soon carry him off; and then +the Ministry will be something more at ease. MD has been a +long time without writing to Pdfr, though they have not the same +cause: it is seven weeks since your last came to my hands, which +was N. 32, that you may not be mistaken. I hope Ppt has not +wanted her health. You were then drinking waters. The +doctor tells me I must go into a course of steel, though I have +not the spleen; for that they can never give me, though I have as +much provocation to it as any man alive. Bernage’s <a +name="citation456d"></a><a href="#footnote456d" +class="citation">[456d]</a> regiment is broke; but he is upon +half-pay. I have not seen him this long time; but I suppose +he is overrun with melancholy. My Lord Shrewsbury is +certainly designed to be Governor of Ireland; and I believe the +Duchess will please the people there mightily. The Irish +Whig leaders promise great things to themselves from his +government; but care shall be taken, if possible, to prevent +them. Mrs. Fenton <a name="citation456e"></a><a +href="#footnote456e" class="citation">[456e]</a> has writ to me +<a name="page457"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 457</span>that she +has been forced to leave Lady Giffard, and come to town, for a +rheumatism: that lady does not love to be troubled with sick +people. Mrs. Fenton writes to me as one dying, and desires +I would think of her son: I have not answered her letter. +She is retired <a name="citation457a"></a><a href="#footnote457a" +class="citation">[457a]</a> to Mrs. Povey’s. Is my +aunt alive yet? and do you ever see her? I suppose she has +forgot the loss of her son. Is Raymond’s new house +quite finished? and does he squander as he used to do? Has +he yet spent all his wife’s fortune? I hear there are +five or six people putting strongly in for my livings; God help +them! But if ever the Court should give me anything, I +would recommend Raymond to the Duke of Ormond; not for any +particular friendship to him, but because it would be proper for +the minister of Trim to have Laracor. You may keep the +gold-studded snuff-box now; for my brother Hill, Governor of +Dunkirk, has sent me the finest that ever you saw. <a +name="citation457b"></a><a href="#footnote457b" +class="citation">[457b]</a> It is allowed at Court that +none in England comes near it, though it did not cost above +twenty pounds. And the Duchess of Hamilton has made me +pockets for [it] like a woman’s, with a belt and buckle +(for, you know, I wear no waistcoat in summer), and there are +several divisions, and one on purpose for my box, oh ho!—We +have had most delightful weather this whole week; but illness and +vomiting have hindered me from sharing in a great part of +it. Lady Masham made the Queen send to Kensington for some +of her preserved ginger for me, which I take in the morning, and +hope it will do me good. Mrs. Brent <a +name="citation457c"></a><a href="#footnote457c" +class="citation">[457c]</a> sent me a letter by a young fellow, a +printer, desiring I would recommend him here, which you may tell +her I have done: but I cannot promise what will come of it, for +it is necessary they should be made free here <a +name="citation457d"></a><a href="#footnote457d" +class="citation">[457d]</a> before they can be employed. I +remember I put the boy prentice to Brent. I hope Parvisol +has set my tithes well this year: he has writ nothing to me about +it; pray talk to him of it when you see him, and let him give me +an account <a name="page458"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +458</span>how things are. I suppose the corn is now off the +ground. I hope he has sold that great ugly horse. Why +don’t you sell to him? He keeps me at charges for +horses that I never ride: yours is lame, and will never be good +for anything. The Queen will stay here about a month +longer, I suppose; but Lady Masham will go in ten days to lie in +at Kensington. Poor creature, she fell down in the court +here t’other day. She would needs walk across it upon +some displeasure with her chairmen, and was likely to be spoiled +so near her time; but we hope all is over for a black eye and a +sore side: though I shall not be at ease till she is brought to +bed. I find I can fill up a letter, some way or other, +without a journal. If I had not a spirit naturally +cheerful, I should be very much discontented at a thousand +things. Pray God preserve MD’s health, and +Pdfr’s, and that I may live far from the envy and +discontent that attends those who are thought to have more favour +at Courts than they really possess. Love Pdfr, who loves MD +above all things. Farewell, deelest, ten thousand times +deelest, MD MD MD, FW FW, ME ME ME ME. Lele, Lele, Lele, +Lele.</p> +<h3>LETTER LIII. <a name="citation458"></a><a href="#footnote458" +class="citation">[458]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Oct.</i> 9, 1712.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> left Windsor these ten days, +and am deep in pills with asafoetida, and a steel bitter drink; +and I find my head much better than it was. I was very much +discouraged; for I used to be ill for three or four days +together, ready to totter as I walked. I take eight pills a +day, and have taken, I believe, a hundred and fifty +already. The Queen, Lord Treasurer, Lady Masham, and I, +were all ill together, but are now all better; only Lady Masham +expects every day to lie in at Kensington. There was never +such a lump of lies spread about the town together as now. +I doubt not but <a name="page459"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +459</span>you will have them in Dublin before this comes to you, +and all without the least grounds of truth. I have been +mightily put backward in something I am writing by my illness, +but hope to fetch it up, so as to be ready when the Parliament +meets. Lord Treasurer has had an ugly fit of the +rheumatism, but is now near quite well. I was playing at +one-and-thirty with him and his family t’other night. +He gave us all twelvepence apiece to begin with: it put me in +mind of Sir William Temple. <a name="citation459a"></a><a +href="#footnote459a" class="citation">[459a]</a> I asked +both him and Lady Masham seriously whether the Queen were at all +inclined to a dropsy, and they positively assured me she was not: +so did her physician Arbuthnot, who always attends her. Yet +these devils have spread that she has holes in her legs, and runs +at her navel, and I know not what. Arbuthnot has sent me +from Windsor a pretty Discourse upon Lying, and I have ordered +the printer to come for it. It is a proposal for publishing +a curious piece, called <i>The Art of Political Lying</i>, in two +volumes, etc. And then there is an abstract of the first +volume, just like those pamphlets which they call <i>The Works of +the Learned</i>. <a name="citation459b"></a><a +href="#footnote459b" class="citation">[459b]</a> Pray get +it when it comes out. The Queen has a little of the gout in +one of her hands. I believe she will stay a month still at +Windsor. Lord Treasurer showed me the kindest letter from +her in the world, by which I picked out one secret, that there +will be soon made some Knights of the Garter. You know +another is fallen by Lord Godolphin’s death: he will be +buried in a day or two at Westminster Abbey. I saw Tom +Leigh <a name="citation459c"></a><a href="#footnote459c" +class="citation">[459c]</a> in town once. The Bishop of +Clogher has taken his lodging for the winter; they are all +well. I hear there are in town abundance of people from +Ireland; half a dozen bishops at least. The poor old Bishop of +London, <a name="citation459d"></a><a href="#footnote459d" +class="citation">[459d]</a> at past fourscore, fell down backward +going upstairs, and I think broke or cracked his skull; yet is <a +name="page460"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 460</span>now +recovering. The town is as empty as at midsummer; and if I +had not occasion for physic, I would be at Windsor still. +Did I tell you of Lord Rivers’s will? He has left +legacies to about twenty paltry old whores by name, and not a +farthing to any friend, dependent, or relation: he has left from +his only child, Lady Barrymore, <a name="citation460a"></a><a +href="#footnote460a" class="citation">[460a]</a> her +mother’s estate, and given the whole to his heir-male, a +popish priest, a second cousin, who is now Earl Rivers, and whom +he used in his life like a footman. After him it goes to +his chief wench and bastard. Lord Treasurer and Lord +Chamberlain are executors of this hopeful will. I loved the +man, and detest his memory. We hear nothing of peace yet: I +believe verily the Dutch are so wilful, because they are told the +Queen cannot live. I had poor MD’s letter, N. 3, <a +name="citation460b"></a><a href="#footnote460b" +class="citation">[460b]</a> at Windsor: but I could not answer it +then; poor Pdfr was vely kick <a name="citation460c"></a><a +href="#footnote460c" class="citation">[460c]</a> then: and, +besides, it was a very inconvenient place to send letters +from. Oo thought to come home the same day, and stayed a +month: that was a sign the place was agreeable. <a +name="citation460d"></a><a href="#footnote460d" +class="citation">[460d]</a> I should love such a sort of +jaunt. Is that lad Swanton <a name="citation460e"></a><a +href="#footnote460e" class="citation">[460e]</a> a little more +fixed than he used to be? I think you like the girl very +well. She has left off her grave airs, I suppose. I +am now told Lord Godolphin was buried last night.—O poo +Ppt! lay down oo head aden, fais I . . . ; I always reckon if oo +are ill I shall hear it, and therefore hen oo are silent I reckon +all is well. <a name="citation460f"></a><a href="#footnote460f" +class="citation">[460f]</a> I believe I ’scaped the +new fever <a name="citation460g"></a><a href="#footnote460g" +class="citation">[460g]</a> for the same reason that Ppt did, +because I am not well; but why should DD ’scape it, +pray? She is <a name="page461"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +461</span>melthigal, oo know, and ought to have the fever; but I +hope it is now too late, and she won’t have it at +all. Some physicians here talk very melancholy, and think +it foreruns the plague, which is actually at Hamburg. I +hoped Ppt would have done with her illness; but I think we both +have that faculty never to part with a disorder for ever; we are +very constant. I have had my giddiness twenty-three years +by fits. Will Mrs. Raymond never have done lying-in? +He intends to leave beggars enough; for I daresay he has +squandered away the best part of his fortune already, and is not +out of debt. I had a letter from him lately.</p> +<p>Oct. 11. Lord Treasurer sent for me yesterday and the +day before to sit with him, because he is not yet quite well +enough to go abroad; and I could not finish my letter. How +the deuce come I to be so exact in ME money? Just seventeen +shillings and eightpence more than due; I believe you cheat +me. If Hawkshaw does not pay the interest I will have the +principal; pray speak to Parvisol and have his advice what I +should do about it. Service to Mrs. Stoyte and Catherine +and Mrs. Walls. Ppt makes a petition with many +apologies. John Danvers, you know, is Lady Giffard’s +friend. The rest I never heard of. I tell you what, +as things are at present, I cannot possibly speak to Lord +Treasurer for anybody. I need tell you no more. +Something or nothing will be done in my own affairs: if the +former, I will be a solicitor for your sister; <a +name="citation461a"></a><a href="#footnote461a" +class="citation">[461a]</a> if the latter, I have done with +Courts for ever. Opportunities will often fall in my way, +if I am used well, and I will then make it my business. It +is my delight to do good offices for people who want and deserve, +and a tenfold delight to do it to a relation of Ppt, whose +affairs she has so at heart. <a name="citation461b"></a><a +href="#footnote461b" class="citation">[461b]</a> I have +taken down his name and his case (not <i>her</i> case), and +whenever a proper time comes, I will do all I can; zat’s +enough to say when I can do no more; and I beg oo pardon a +sousand <a name="page462"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +462</span>times, <a name="citation462a"></a><a +href="#footnote462a" class="citation">[462a]</a> that I cannot do +better. I hope the Dean of St. P[atrick’s] is well of +his fever: he has never writ to me: I am glad of it; pray +don’t desire him to write. I have dated your bill +late, because it must not commence, ung oomens, till the first of +November <a name="citation462b"></a><a href="#footnote462b" +class="citation">[462b]</a> next. O, fais, I must be ise; +<a name="citation462c"></a><a href="#footnote462c" +class="citation">[462c]</a> iss, fais, must I; else ME will cheat +Pdfr. Are you good housewives and readers? Are you +walkers? I know you are gamesters. Are you +drinkers? Are you— O Rold, I must go no +further, for fear of abusing fine radies. <a +name="citation462d"></a><a href="#footnote462d" +class="citation">[462d]</a> Parvisol has never sent me one +word how he set this year’s tithes. Pray ask whether +tithes set well or ill this year. The Bishop of Killaloe <a +name="citation462e"></a><a href="#footnote462e" +class="citation">[462e]</a> tells me wool bears a good rate in +Ireland: but how is corn? I dined yesterday with Lady +Orkney, and we sat alone from two till eleven at night.—You +have heard of her, I suppose. I have twenty letters upon my +hands, and am so lazy and so busy, I cannot answer them, and they +grow upon me for several months. Have I any apples at +Laracor? It is strange every year should blast them, when I +took so much care for shelter. Lord Bolingbroke has been +idle at his country-house this fortnight, which puts me backward +in a business I have. I am got into an ordinary room two +pair of stairs, and see nobody, if I can help it; yet some +puppies have found me out, and my man is not such an artist as +Patrick at denying me. Patrick has been soliciting to come +to me again, but in vain. The printer has been here with +some of the new whims printed, and has taken up my time. I +am just going out, and can only bid oo farewell. Farewell, +deelest ickle MD, MD MD MD FW FW FW FW ME ME ME ME. Lele +deel ME. Lele lele lele sollahs bose. <a +name="citation462f"></a><a href="#footnote462f" +class="citation">[462f]</a></p> +<h3><a name="page463"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +463</span>LETTER LIV. <a name="citation463a"></a><a +href="#footnote463a" class="citation">[463a]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Oct.</i> 28, 1712.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> been in physic this month, +and have been better these three weeks. I stop my physic, +by the doctor’s orders, till he sends me further +directions. DD grows politician, and longs to hear the +peace is proclaimed. I hope we shall have it soon, for the +Dutch are fully humbled; and Prior is just come over from France +for a few days; I suppose upon some important affair. I saw +him last night, but had no private talk with him. Stocks +rise upon his coming. As for my stay in England, it cannot +be long now, so tell my friends. The Parliament will not +meet till after Christmas, and by that time the work I am doing +will be over, and then nothing shall keep me. I am very +much discontented at Parvisol, about neglecting to sell my +horses, etc.</p> +<p>Lady Masham is not yet brought to bed; but we expect it +daily. I dined with her to-day. Lord Bolingbroke +returned about two months ago, and Prior about a week; and goes +back (Prior I mean) in a few days. Who told you of my +snuff-box and pocket? Did I? I had a letter to-day +from Dr. Coghill, <a name="citation463b"></a><a +href="#footnote463b" class="citation">[463b]</a> desiring me to +get Raphoe for Dean Sterne, and the deanery for myself. I +shall indeed, I have such obligations to Sterne. But +however, if I am asked who will make a good bishop, I shall name +him before anybody. Then comes another letter, desiring I +would recommend a Provost, <a name="citation463c"></a><a +href="#footnote463c" class="citation">[463c]</a> supposing that +Pratt (who has been here about a week) will certainly be +promoted; but I believe he will not. I presented Pratt to +Lord Treasurer, and truly young Molyneux <a +name="citation463d"></a><a href="#footnote463d" +class="citation">[463d]</a> would have had me present him too; +but I directly <a name="page464"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +464</span>answered him I would not, unless he had business with +him. He is the son of one Mr. Molyneux of Ireland. +His father wrote a book; <a name="citation464a"></a><a +href="#footnote464a" class="citation">[464a]</a> I suppose you +know it. Here is the Duke of Marlborough going out of +England (Lord knows why), which causes many speculations. +Some say he is conscious of guilt, and dare not stand it. +Others think he has a mind to fling an odium on the Government, +as who should say that one who has done such great services to +his country cannot live quietly in it, by reason of the malice of +his enemies. I have helped to patch up these people <a +name="citation464b"></a><a href="#footnote464b" +class="citation">[464b]</a> together once more. God knows +how long it may last. I was to-day at a trial between Lord +Lansdowne and Lord Carteret, two friends of mine. It was in +the Queen’s Bench, for about six thousand a year (or nine, +I think). I sat under Lord Chief-Justice Parker, and his +pen falling down I reached it up. He made me a low bow; and +I was going to whisper him that <i>I had done good for evil</i>; +<i>for he would have taken mine from me</i>. <a +name="citation464c"></a><a href="#footnote464c" +class="citation">[464c]</a> I told it Lord Treasurer and +Bolingbroke. Parker would not have known me, if several +lords on the bench, and in the court, bowing, had not turned +everybody’s eyes, and set them a whispering. I owe +the dog a spite, and will pay him in two months at furthest, if I +can. So much for that. But you must have chat, and I +must say every sorry thing that comes into my head. They +say the Queen will stay a month longer at Windsor. These +devils of Grub Street rogues, that write the <i>Flying Post</i> +and <i>Medley</i> in one paper, <a name="citation464d"></a><a +href="#footnote464d" class="citation">[464d]</a> will not be +quiet. They are always mauling Lord Treasurer, Lord +Bolingbroke, and me. We have the dog under prosecution, but +Bolingbroke is not active enough; but I hope to swinge him. +He is a Scotch rogue, one Ridpath. <a name="citation464e"></a><a +href="#footnote464e" class="citation">[464e]</a> They get +<a name="page465"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 465</span>out upon +bail, and write on. We take them again, and get fresh bail; +so it goes round. They say some learned Dutchman has wrote +a book, proving by civil law that we do them wrong by this peace; +but I shall show by plain reason that we have suffered the wrong, +and not they. I toil like a horse, and have hundreds of +letters still to read and squeeze a line out of each, or at least +the seeds of a line. Strafford goes back to Holland in a +day or two, and I hope our peace is very near. I have about +thirty pages more to write (that is, to be extracted), which will +be sixty in print. It is the most troublesome part of all, +and I cannot keep myself private, though I stole into a room up +two pair of stairs, when I came from Windsor; but my present man +has not yet learned his lesson of denying me discreetly.</p> +<p>30. The Duchess of Ormond found me out to-day, and made +me dine with her. Lady Masham is still expecting. She +has had a cruel cold. I could not finish my letter last +post for the soul of me. Lord Bolingbroke has had my papers +these six weeks, and done nothing to them. Is Tisdall yet +in the world? I propose writing controversies, to get a +name with posterity. The Duke of Ormond will not be over +these three or four days. I desire to make him join with me +in settling all right among our people. I have ordered the +Duchess to let me have an hour with the Duke at his first coming, +to give him a true state of persons and things. I believe +the Duke of Shrewsbury will hardly be declared your Governor yet; +at least, I think so now; but resolutions alter very often. +The Duke of Hamilton gave me a pound of snuff to-day, admirable +good. I wish DD had it, and Ppt too, if she likes it. +It cost me a quarter of an hour <a name="page466"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 466</span>of his politics, which I was forced +to hear. Lady Orkney <a name="citation466a"></a><a +href="#footnote466a" class="citation">[466a]</a> is making me a +writing-table of her own contrivance, and a bed nightgown. +She is perfectly kind, like a mother. I think the devil was +in it the other day, that I should talk to her of an ugly +squinting cousin of hers, and the poor lady herself, you know, +squints like a dragon. The other day we had a long +discourse with her about love; and she told us a saying of her +sister Fitz-Hardinge, <a name="citation466b"></a><a +href="#footnote466b" class="citation">[466b]</a> which I thought +excellent, that in men, desire begets love, and in women, love +begets desire. We have abundance of our old criers <a +name="citation466c"></a><a href="#footnote466c" +class="citation">[466c]</a> still hereabouts. I hear every +morning your women with the old satin and taffeta, etc., the +fellow with old coats, suits or cloaks. Our weather is +abominable of late. We have not two tolerable days in +twenty. I have lost money again at ombre, with Lord Orkney +and others; yet, after all, this year I have lost but +three-and-twenty shillings; so that, considering card money, I am +no loser.</p> +<p>Our Society hath not yet renewed their meetings. I hope +we shall continue to do some good this winter; and Lord Treasurer +promises the Academy for reforming our language shall soon go +forward. I must now go hunt those dry letter for +materials. You will see something very notable, I +hope. So much for that. God Almighty bless you.</p> +<h3>LETTER LV. <a name="citation466d"></a><a href="#footnote466d" +class="citation">[466d]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Nov.</i> 15, 1712.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Before</span> this comes to your hands, +you will have heard of the most terrible accident that hath +almost ever happened. This morning, at eight, my man +brought me word that the Duke of Hamilton had fought with Lord <a +name="page467"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 467</span>Mohun, <a +name="citation467a"></a><a href="#footnote467a" +class="citation">[467a]</a> and killed him, and was brought home +wounded. <a name="citation467b"></a><a href="#footnote467b" +class="citation">[467b]</a> I immediately sent him to the +Duke’s house, in St. James’s Square; but the porter +could hardly answer for tears, and a great rabble was about the +house. In short, they fought at seven this morning. +The dog Mohun was killed on the spot; and while <a +name="citation467c"></a><a href="#footnote467c" +class="citation">[467c]</a> the Duke was over him, Mohun, +shortening his sword, stabbed him in at the shoulder to the +heart. The Duke was helped toward the cake-house by the +Ring in Hyde Park (where they fought), and died on the grass, +before he could reach the house; and was brought home in his +coach by eight, while the poor Duchess <a +name="citation467d"></a><a href="#footnote467d" +class="citation">[467d]</a> was asleep. Maccartney, <a +name="citation467e"></a><a href="#footnote467e" +class="citation">[467e]</a> and one Hamilton, <a +name="citation467f"></a><a href="#footnote467f" +class="citation">[467f]</a> were the seconds, who fought +likewise, and are both fled. I am told that a footman of +Lord Mohun’s stabbed the Duke of Hamilton; and some say +Maccartney did so too. Mohun gave the affront, and yet sent +the challenge. I am infinitely concerned for the poor Duke, +who was a frank, honest, good-natured man. I loved him very +well, and I think he loved me better. He had <a +name="citation467g"></a><a href="#footnote467g" +class="citation">[467g]</a> the greatest mind in the world to +have me go with him to France, but durst not tell it me; and +those he did, said I could not be spared, <a +name="page468"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 468</span>which was +true. They have removed the poor Duchess to a lodging in +the neighbourhood, where I have been with her two hours, and am +just come away. I never saw so melancholy a scene; for +indeed all reasons for real grief belong to her; nor is it +possible for anybody to be a greater loser in all regards. +She has moved my very soul. The lodging was inconvenient, +and they would have removed her to another; but I would not +suffer it, because it had no room backward, and she must have +been tortured with the noise of the Grub Street screamers +mention[ing] her husband’s murder to her ears.</p> +<p>I believe you have heard the story of my escape, in opening +the bandbox sent to Lord Treasurer. <a name="citation468a"></a><a +href="#footnote468a" class="citation">[468a]</a> The prints +have told a thousand lies of it; but at last we gave them a true +account of it at length, printed in the evening; <a +name="citation468b"></a><a href="#footnote468b" +class="citation">[468b]</a> only I would not suffer them to name +me, having been so often named before, and teased to death with +questions. I wonder how I came to have so much presence of +mind, which is usually not my talent; but so it pleased God, and +I saved myself and him; for there was a bullet apiece. A +gentleman told me that if I had been killed, the Whigs would have +called it a judgment, because the barrels were of inkhorns, with +which I had done them so much mischief. There was a pure +Grub Street of it, full of lies and inconsistencies. <a +name="citation468c"></a><a href="#footnote468c" +class="citation">[468c]</a> I do not like these things at +all, and I wish myself more and more among my willows. <a +name="citation468d"></a><a href="#footnote468d" +class="citation">[468d]</a> <a name="page469"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 469</span>There is a devilish spirit among +people, and the Ministry must exert themselves, or sink. +Nite dee sollahs, I’ll go seep. <a +name="citation469a"></a><a href="#footnote469a" +class="citation">[469a]</a></p> +<p>16. I thought to have finished this yesterday; but was +too much disturbed. I sent a letter early this morning to +Lady Masham, to beg her to write some comforting words to the +poor Duchess. I dined to-[day] with Lady Masham at +Kensington, where she is expecting these two months to lie +in. She has promised me to get the Queen to write to the +Duchess kindly on this occasion; and to-morrow I will beg Lord +Treasurer to visit and comfort her. I have been with her +two hours again, and find her worse: her violences not so +frequent, but her melancholy more formal and settled. She +has abundance of wit and spirit; about thirty-three years old; +handsome and airy, and seldom spared anybody that gave her the +least provocation; by which she had many enemies and few +friends. Lady Orkney, her sister-in-law, is come to town on +this occasion, and has been to see her, and behaved herself with +great humanity. They have been always very ill together, +and the poor Duchess could not have patience when people told her +I went often to Lady Orkney’s. But I am resolved to +make them friends; for the Duchess is now no more the object of +envy, and must learn humility from the severest master, +Affliction. I design to make the Ministry put out a +proclamation (if it can be found proper) against that villain +Maccartney. What shall we do with these murderers? I +cannot end this letter to-night, and there is no occasion; for I +cannot send it till Tuesday, and the crowner’s inquest on +the Duke’s body is to be to-morrow, and I shall know +more. But what care oo for all this? Iss, poo MD im +sorry for poo Pdfr’s <a name="citation469b"></a><a +href="#footnote469b" class="citation">[469b]</a> friends; and +this is a very surprising event. ’Tis late, and +I’ll go to bed. This looks like journals. +Nite.</p> +<p>17. I was to-day at noon with the Duchess of Hamilton +again, after I had been with Lady Orkney, and charged her <a +name="page470"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 470</span>to be kind +to her sister in her affliction. The Duchess told me Lady +Orkney had been with her, and that she did not treat her as +gently as she ought. They hate one another, but I will try +to patch it up. I have been drawing up a paragraph for the +<i>Postboy</i>, to be out to-morrow, and as malicious as +possible, and very proper for Abel Roper, <a +name="citation470a"></a><a href="#footnote470a" +class="citation">[470a]</a> the printer of it. I dined at +Lord Treasurer’s at six in the evening, which is his usual +hour of returning from Windsor: he promises to visit the Duchess +to-morrow, and says he has a message to her from the Queen. +Thank God. I have stayed till past one with him. So +nite deelest MD. <a name="citation470b"></a><a +href="#footnote470b" class="citation">[470b]</a></p> +<p>18. The Committee of Council is to sit this afternoon +upon the affair of the Duke of Hamilton’s murder, and I +hope a proclamation will be out against Maccartney. I was +just now (’tis now noon) with the Duchess, to let her know +Lord Treasurer will see her. She is mightily out of +order. The jury have not yet brought in their verdict upon +the crowner’s inquest. We suspect Maccartney stabbed the +Duke while he was fighting. The Queen and Lord Treasurer +are in great concern at this event. I dine to-day again +with Lord Treasurer; but must send this to the post-office +before, because else I shall not have time; he usually keeping me +so late. Ben Tooke bid me write to DD to send her +certificate, for it is high time it should be sent, he +says. Pray make Parvisol write to me, and send me a general +account of my affairs; and let him know I shall be over in +spring, and that by all means he sells the horses. Prior +has kissed the Queen’s hand, and will return to France in a +few days, and Lord Strafford to Holland; and now the King of +Spain has renounced his pretensions to France, the peace must +follow very soon unavoidably. You must no more call Philip, +Duke of Anjou, for we now acknowledge him King of Spain. +Dr. Pratt tells me you are all mad in Ireland with your playhouse +frolics and prologues, and I know not what. The Bishop of +<a name="page471"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 471</span>Clogher +and family are well: they have heard from you, or you from them, +lately, I have forgot which: I dined there t’other day, but +the Bishop came not till after dinner; and our meat and drink was +very so so. Mr. Vedeau <a name="citation471a"></a><a +href="#footnote471a" class="citation">[471a]</a> was with me +yesterday, and inquired after you. He was a lieutenant, and +is now broke, and upon half-pay. He asked me nothing for +himself; but wanted an employment for a friend, who would give a +handsome pair of gloves. One Hales sent me up a letter +t’other day, which said you lodged in his house, and +therefore desired I would get him a civil employment. I +would not be within, and have directed my man to give him an +answer, that I never open letters brought me by the writers, +etc. I was complaining to a lady that I wanted to mend an +employment from forty to sixty pounds a year, in the Salt Office, +and thought it hard I could not do it. She told me one Mr. +Griffin <a name="citation471b"></a><a href="#footnote471b" +class="citation">[471b]</a> should do it. And afterward I +met Griffin at her lodgings; and he was, as I found, one I had +been acquainted with. I named Filby <a +name="citation471c"></a><a href="#footnote471c" +class="citation">[471c]</a> to him, and his abode somewhere near +Nantwich. He said frankly he had formerly examined the man, +and found he understood very little of his business; but if he +heard he mended, he would do what I desired. I will let it +rest a while, and then resume it; and if Ppt writes to Filby, she +may advise him to diligence, etc. I told Griffin positively +I would have it done, if the man mended. This is an account +of poo Ppt’s commission to her most humble servant +Pdfr. I have a world of writing to finish, and little time; +these toads of Ministers are so slow in their helps. This +makes me sometimes steal a week from the exactness I used to +write to MD. Farewell, dee logues, deelest MD MD MD, . . . +FW FW FW ME ME ME Lele.</p> +<p>Smoke the folding of my letters of late. <a +name="citation471d"></a><a href="#footnote471d" +class="citation">[471d]</a></p> +<h3><a name="page472"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +472</span>LETTER LVI. <a name="citation472a"></a><a +href="#footnote472a" class="citation">[472a]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Dec.</i> 12, 1712.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Here</span> is now a stlange ting; a +rettle flom MD unanswered: never was before. I am slower, +and MD is faster: but the last was owing to DD’s +certificate. Why could it not be sent before, pay +now? Is it so hard for DD to prove she is alive? I +protest solemnly I am not able to write to MD for other business, +but I will resume my journal method next time. I find it is +easier, though it contains nothing but where I dine, and the +occurrences of the day. I will write now but once in three +weeks till this business is off my hands, which must be in six, I +think, at farthest. O Ppt, I remember your reprimanding me for +meddling in other people’s affairs: I have enough of it +now, with a wanion. <a name="citation472b"></a><a +href="#footnote472b" class="citation">[472b]</a> Two women +have been here six times apiece; I never saw them yet. The +first I have despatched with a letter; the other I must see, and +tell her I can do nothing for her: she is wife of one Connor, <a +name="citation472c"></a><a href="#footnote472c" +class="citation">[472c]</a> an old college acquaintance, and +comes on a foolish errand, for some old pretensions, that will +succeed when I am Lord Treasurer. I am got [up] two pair of +stairs, in a private lodging, and have ordered all my friends not +to discover where I am; yet every morning two or three sots are +plaguing me, and my present servant has not yet his lesson +perfect of denying me. I have written a hundred and thirty +pages in folio, to be printed, and must write thirty more, which +will make a large book of four shillings. <a +name="citation472d"></a><a href="#footnote472d" +class="citation">[472d]</a> I wish I knew an opportunity of +sending you some snuff. I will watch who goes to Ireland, +and do it if possible. I had a letter from Parvisol, and +find he has set my livings very low. Colonel Hamilton, who +was second to the Duke of Hamilton, is tried to-day. I +suppose he is come <a name="page473"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +473</span>off, but have not heard. <a name="citation473a"></a><a +href="#footnote473a" class="citation">[473a]</a> I dined +with Lord Treasurer, but left him by nine, and visited some +people. Lady Betty, <a name="citation473b"></a><a +href="#footnote473b" class="citation">[473b]</a> his <a +name="citation473c"></a><a href="#footnote473c" +class="citation">[473c]</a> daughter, will be married on Monday +next (as I suppose) to the Marquis of Caermarthen. I did +not know your country place had been Portraine, till you told me +so in your last. Has Swanton taken it of Wallis? That +Wallis was a grave, wise coxcomb. God be thanked that Ppt +im better of her disoddles. <a name="citation473d"></a><a +href="#footnote473d" class="citation">[473d]</a> Pray God +keep her so. The pamphlet of <i>Political Lying</i> is +written by Dr. Arbuthnot, the author of <i>John Bull</i>; +’tis very pretty, but not so obvious to be +understood. Higgins, <a name="citation473e"></a><a +href="#footnote473e" class="citation">[473e]</a> first chaplain +to the Duke of Hamilton? Why, the Duke of Hamilton never +dreamt of a chaplain, nor I believe ever heard of Higgins. +You are glorious newsmongers in Ireland—Dean Francis, <a +name="citation473f"></a><a href="#footnote473f" +class="citation">[473f]</a> Sir R. Levinge, <a +name="citation473g"></a><a href="#footnote473g" +class="citation">[473g]</a> stuff stuff: and Pratt, more +stuff. We have lost our fine frost here; and Abel Roper +tells as you have had floods in Dublin; ho, brave <a +name="citation473h"></a><a href="#footnote473h" +class="citation">[473h]</a> you! Oh ho! Swanton seized +Portraine, now I understand oo. Ay, ay, now I see Portraune +at the top of your letter. I never minded it before. +Now to your second, N. 36. So, you read one of the Grub +Streets about the bandbox. <a name="citation473i"></a><a +href="#footnote473i" class="citation">[473i]</a> The Whig +papers have abused me about the bandbox. God help me, what +could I do? I fairly ventured my life. There is a +particular account of it in the <i>Postboy</i>, and Evening Post +of that day. Lord Treasurer has had the seal sent him that +sealed the box, and directions where to find the other pistol in +a tree in St. James’s Park, which Lord Bolingbroke’s +messenger found accordingly; but who sent the present is not yet +known. The Duke of Hamilton avoided the quarrel as much as +possible, according to the foppish rules of honour in +practice. What signified your writing angry to Filby? +I hope you said nothing of hearing <a name="page474"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 474</span>anything from me. Heigh! do oo +write by sandlelight! nauti, nauti, nauti dallar, a hundred +times, fol doing so. O, fais, DD, I’ll take care of +myself! The Queen is in town, and Lady Masham’s month +of lying-in is within two days of being out. I was at the +christening on Monday. I could not get the child named +Robin, after Lord Treasurer; it is Samuel, after the +father. My brother Ormond sent me some chocolate +to-day. I wish you had share of it: but they say ’tis +good for me, and I design to drink some in a morning. Our +Society meets next Thursday, now the Queen is in town; and Lord +Treasurer assures me that the Society for reforming the language +shall soon be established. I have given away ten shillings +to-day to servants; ’tan’t be help if one should cry +one’s eyes out. <a name="citation474"></a><a +href="#footnote474" class="citation">[474]</a> Hot a stir +is here about your company and visits! Charming company, no +doubt; now I keep no company at all, nor have I any desire to +keep any. I never go to a coffee-house nor a tavern, nor +have touched a card since I left Windsor. I make few +visits, nor go to levees; my only debauching is sitting late +where I dine, if I like the company. I have almost dropped +the Duchesses of Shrewsbury and Hamilton, and several +others. Lord Treasurer, the Duke of Ormond, and Lady Orkney +are all that I see very often. Oh yes, and Lady Masham and +Lord Bolingbroke, and one or two private friends. I make no +figure but at Court, where I affect to turn from a lord to the +meanest of my acquaintance, and I love to go there on Sundays to +see the world. But, to say the truth, I am growing weary of +it. I dislike a million of things in the course of public +affairs; and if I were to stay here much longer, I am sure I +should ruin myself with endeavouring to mend them. I am +every day invited into schemes of doing this, but I cannot find +any that will probably succeed. It is impossible to save +people against their own will; and I have been too much engaged +in patchwork already. Do you understand all this +stuff? No. Well zen, you are now returned to ombre +and the Dean, and Christmas; I wish oo a very merry one; and pray +don’t lose oo money, <a name="page475"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 475</span>nor play upon Watt Welch’s +game. Nite, sollahs, ’tis rate I’ll go to seep; +I don’t seep well, and therefore never dare to drink coffee +or tea after dinner: but I am very seepy in a molning. This +is the effect of time and years. Nite deelest MD.</p> +<p>18. Morn. I am so very seepy in the morning that +my man wakens me above ten times; and now I can tell oo no news +of this day. (Here is a restless dog, crying cabbages and +savoys, plagues me every morning about this time; he is now at +it. I wish his largest cabbage were sticking in his +throat.) I lodge over against the house in Little Rider +Street, where DD lodged. Don’t oo lememble, +maram? To-night I must see the Abbé Gaultier, <a +name="citation475a"></a><a href="#footnote475a" +class="citation">[475a]</a> to get some particulars for my +History. It was he who was first employed by France in the +overtures of peace, and I have not had time this month to see +him; he is but a puppy too. Lady Orkney has just sent to +invite me to dinner; she has not given me the bed-nightgown; <a +name="citation475b"></a><a href="#footnote475b" +class="citation">[475b]</a> besides, I am come very much off from +writing in bed, though I am doing it this minute; but I stay till +my fire is burnt up. My grate is very large; two bushels of +coals in a week: but I save it in lodgings. Lord Abercorn +is come to London, and will plague me, and I can do him no +service. The Duke of Shrewsbury goes in a day or two for +France, perhaps to-day. We shall have a peace very soon; +the Dutch are almost entirely agreed, and if they stop we shall +make it without them; that has been long resolved. One +Squire Jones, <a name="citation475c"></a><a href="#footnote475c" +class="citation">[475c]</a> a scoundrel in my parish, has writ to +me to desire I would engage Joe Beaumont to give him his interest +for Parliament-man for Trim: pray tell Joe this; and if he +designed to vote for him already, then he may tell Jones that I +received his letter, and that I writ to Joe to do it. If +Joe be engaged for any other, then he may do what he will: and +Parvisol may say he spoke to Joe, but Joe’s engaged, +etc. I received three pair of fine thread stockings from +Joe lately. Pray thank him when you see him, and that I say +they are very fine and good. (I never looked at <a +name="page476"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 476</span>them yet, +but that’s no matter.) This is a fine day. I am +ruined with coaches and chairs this twelvepenny weather. I +must see my brother Ormond at eleven, and then the Duchess of +Hamilton, with whom I doubt I am in disgrace, not having seen her +these ten days. I send this to-day, and must finish it now; +and perhaps some people may come and hinder me; for it im ten +o’clock (but not shaving-day), and I must be abroad at +eleven. Abbé Gaultier sends me word I can’t +see him to-night; pots cake him! I don’t value +anything but one letter he has of Petecum’s, <a +name="citation476a"></a><a href="#footnote476a" +class="citation">[476a]</a> showing the roguery of the +Dutch. Did not the <i>Conduct of the Allies</i> make you +great politicians? Fais, I believe you are not quite so +ignorant as I thought you. I am glad to hear oo walked so +much in the country. Does DD ever read to you, ung +ooman? O, fais! I shall find strange doings hen I tum ole! +<a name="citation476b"></a><a href="#footnote476b" +class="citation">[476b]</a> Here is somebody coming that I +must see that wants a little place; the son of cousin +Rooke’s eldest daughter, that died many years ago. +He’s here. Farewell, deelest MD MD MD ME ME ME FW FW +FW, Lele.</p> +<h3>LETTER LVII. <a name="citation476c"></a><a +href="#footnote476c" class="citation">[476c]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Dec.</i> 18, 1712.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Our</span> Society was to meet to-day; but +Lord Harley, who was President this week, could not attend, being +gone to Wimbledon with his new brother-in-law, the young Marquis +of Caermarthen, who married Lady Betty Harley on Monday last; and +Lord Treasurer is at Wimbledon too. However, half a dozen +of us met, and I propose our meetings should be once a fortnight; +for, between you and me, we do no good. It cost me nineteen +shillings to-day for my Club at dinner; I don’t like it, +fais. We have terrible snowy slobbery weather. Lord +Abercorn is come to town, and will see me, whether I will or +no. You know he has a pretence <a name="page477"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 477</span>to a dukedom in France, which the +Duke of Hamilton was soliciting for; but Abercorn resolves to +spoil their title, if they will not allow him a fourth part; and +I have advised the Duchess to compound with him, and have made +the Ministry of my opinion. Night, dee sollahs, MD, MD.</p> +<p>19. Ay mally zis is sumsing rike, <a +name="citation477a"></a><a href="#footnote477a" +class="citation">[477a]</a> for Pdfr to write journals +again! ’Tis as natural as mother’s milk, now I +am got into it. Lord Treasurer is returned from Wimbledon +(’tis not above eight miles off), and sent for me to dine +with him at five; but I had the grace to be abroad, and dined +with some others, with honest Ben Tooke, by invitation. The +Duchess of Ormond promised me her picture, and coming home +to-night, I found hers and the Duke’s both in my +chamber. Was not that a pretty civil surprise? Yes, +and they are in fine gilded frames, too. I am writing a +letter to thank her, which I will send to-morrow morning. +I’ll tell her she is such a prude that she will not let so +much as her picture be alone in a room with <i>a man</i>, unless +the Duke’s be with it; and so forth. <a +name="citation477b"></a><a href="#footnote477b" +class="citation">[477b]</a> We are full of snow, and +dabbling. Lady Masham has come abroad these three days, and +seen the Queen. I dined with her t’other day at her +sister Hill’s. I hope she will remove in a few days +to her new lodgings at St. James’s from Kensington. +Nite, dee logues MD.</p> +<p>20. I lodge [up] two pair of stairs, have but one room, +and deny myself to everybody almost, yet I cannot be quiet; and +all my mornings are lost with people, who will not take answers +below stairs; such as Dilly, and the Bishop, and Provost, +etc. Lady Orkney invited me to dinner to-day, which +hindered me from dining with Lord Treasurer. This is his +day that his chief friends in the Ministry dine with him. +However, I went there about six, and sat with them till past +nine, when they all went off; but he kept me back, <a +name="page478"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 478</span>and told me +the circumstances of Lady Betty’s match. The young +fellow has £60,000 ready money, three great houses +furnished, £7,000 a year at present, and about five more +after his father and mother die. I think Lady Betty’s +portion is not above £8,000. I remember either +Tisdall writ to me in somebody’s letter, or you did it for +him, that I should mention him on occasion to Lord Anglesea, with +whom, he said, he had some little acquaintance. Lord +Anglesea was with me to-night at Lord Treasurer’s; and then +I asked him about Tisdall, and described him. He said he +never saw him, but that he had sent him his book. <a +name="citation478a"></a><a href="#footnote478a" +class="citation">[478a]</a> See what it is to be a +puppy. Pray tell Mr. Walls that Lord Anglesea thanked me +for recommending Clements <a name="citation478b"></a><a +href="#footnote478b" class="citation">[478b]</a> to him; that he +says he is £20,000 the better for knowing Clements. +But pray don’t let Clements go and write a letter of +thanks, and tell my lord that he hears so and so, etc. Why, +’tis but like an Irish understanding to do so. Sad +weather; two shillings in coaches to-day, and yet I am +dirty. I am now going to read over something and correct +it. So, nite.</p> +<p>21. Puppies have got a new way of plaguing me. I +find letters directed for me at Lord Treasurer’s, sometimes +with enclosed ones to him, and sometimes with projects, and some +times with libels. I usually keep them three or four days +without opening. I was at Court to-day, as I always am on +Sundays, instead of a coffee-house, to see my acquaintance. +This day se’nnight, after I had been talking at Court with +Sir William Wyndham, the Spanish Ambassador <a +name="citation478c"></a><a href="#footnote478c" +class="citation">[478c]</a> came to him and said he heard that +was Dr. Swift, and desired him to tell me that his master, and +the King of France, and the Queen, were more obliged to me than +any man in Europe; so we bowed, and shook hands, etc. I +took it very well of him. I dined with Lord Treasurer, and +must again to-morrow, though I had rather not (as DD says); but +now the Queen is in town, he does not keep me so late. I +have not had time to see Fanny Manley since she came, but intend +it one of these <a name="page479"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +479</span>days. Her uncle, Jack Manley, <a +name="citation479a"></a><a href="#footnote479a" +class="citation">[479a]</a> I hear, cannot live a month, which +will be a great loss to her father in Ireland, for I believe he +is one of his chief supports. Our peace now will soon be +determined; for Lord Bolingbroke tells me this morning that four +provinces of Holland <a name="citation479b"></a><a +href="#footnote479b" class="citation">[479b]</a> have complied +with the Queen, and we expect the rest will do so +immediately. Nite MD.</p> +<p>22. Lord Keeper promised me yesterday the first +convenient living to poor Mr. Gery, <a name="citation479c"></a><a +href="#footnote479c" class="citation">[479c]</a> who is married, +and wants some addition to what he has. He is a very worthy +creature. I had a letter some weeks ago from Elwick, <a +name="citation479d"></a><a href="#footnote479d" +class="citation">[479d]</a> who married Betty Gery. It +seems the poor woman died some time last summer. Elwick +grows rich, and purchases lands. I dined with Lord +Treasurer to-day, who has engaged me to come again +to-morrow. I gave Lord Bolingbroke a poem of +Parnell’s. <a name="citation479e"></a><a +href="#footnote479e" class="citation">[479e]</a> I made +Parnell insert some compliments in it to his lordship. He +is extremely pleased with it, and read some parts of it to-day to +Lord Treasurer, who liked it as much. And indeed he outdoes +all our poets here a bar’s length. Lord Bolingbroke +has ordered me to bring him to dinner on Christmas Day, and I +made Lord Treasurer promise to see him; and it may one day do +Parnell a kindness. You know Parnell. I believe I +have told you of that poem. Nite, deel MD.</p> +<p>23. This morning I presented one Diaper, <a +name="citation479f"></a><a href="#footnote479f" +class="citation">[479f]</a> a poet, to Lord Bolingbroke, with a +new poem, which is a very good one; and I am to give him a sum of +money from my lord; and I have contrived to make a parson of him, +for he is half one already, being in deacon’s orders, and +serves a small cure in the country; but has a sword at his +a— here in town. ’Tis a poor little short +wretch, but will do best in a gown, and we will make Lord Keeper +give him a living. Lord Bolingbroke writ to Lord Treasurer +to excuse me to-day; so I dined with the former, and Monteleon, +the Spanish Ambassador, who made me many compliments. I +stayed till nine, <a name="page480"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +480</span>and now it is past ten, and my man has locked me up, +and I have just called to mind that I shall be in disgrace with +Tom Leigh. <a name="citation480a"></a><a href="#footnote480a" +class="citation">[480a]</a> That coxcomb had got into +acquaintance with one Eckershall, <a name="citation480b"></a><a +href="#footnote480b" class="citation">[480b]</a> Clerk of the +Kitchen to the Queen, who was civil to him at Windsor on my +account; for I had done some service to Eckershall. Leigh +teases me to pass an evening at his lodgings with +Eckershall. I put it off several times, but was forced at +last to promise I would come to-night; and it never was in my +head till I was locked up, and I have called and called, but my +man is gone to bed; so I will write an excuse to-morrow. I +detest that Tom Leigh, and am as formal to him as I can when I +happen to meet him in the Park. The rogue frets me, if he +knew it. He asked me why I did not wait on the Bishop of +Dromore. <a name="citation480c"></a><a href="#footnote480c" +class="citation">[480c]</a> I answered I had not the honour +to be acquainted with him, and would not presume, etc. He +takes me seriously, and says the Bishop is no proud man, +etc. He tells me of a judge in Ireland that has done ill +things. I ask why he is not out? Says he, “I +think the bishops, and you, and I, and the rest of the clergy, +should meet and consult about it.” I beg his pardon, +and say, “I cannot be serviceable that way.” He +answers, “Yes, everybody may help +something.”—Don’t you see how curiously he +contrives to vex me; for the dog knows that with half a word I +could do more than all of them together. But he only does +it from the pride and envy of his own heart, and not out of a +humorous design of teasing. He is one of those that would +rather a service should not be done, than done by a private man, +and of his own country. You take all this, don’t +you? Nite dee sollahs, I’ll go seep a dozey.</p> +<p>24. I dined to-day with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, +in order to look over some of my papers; but nothing was +done. I have been also mediating between the Hamilton +family and Lord Abercorn, to have them compound with him; and I +believe they will do it. Lord Selkirk, <a +name="citation480d"></a><a href="#footnote480d" +class="citation">[480d]</a> the late <a name="page481"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 481</span>Duke’s brother, is to be in +town, in order to go to France, to make the demands; and the +Ministry are of opinion they will get some satisfaction, and they +empowered me to advise the Hamilton side to agree with Abercorn, +who asks a fourth part, and will go to France and spoil all if +they won’t yield it. Nite sollahs.</p> +<p>25. All melly Titmasses—melly Titmasses—I +said it first—I wish it a souzand [times] zoth with halt <a +name="citation481a"></a><a href="#footnote481a" +class="citation">[481a]</a> and soul. <a +name="citation481b"></a><a href="#footnote481b" +class="citation">[481b]</a> I carried Parnell to dine at +Lord Bolingbroke’s, and he behaved himself very well; and +Lord Bolingbroke is mightily pleased with him. I was at St. +James’s Chapel by eight this morning; and church and +sacrament were done by ten. The Queen has the gout in her +hand, and did not come to church to-day; and I stayed so long in +my chamber that I missed going to Court. Did I tell you +that the Queen designs to have a Drawing-room and company every +day? Nite dee logues.</p> +<p>26. I was to wish the Duke of Ormond a happy Christmas, +and give half a crown to his porter. It will cost me a +dozen half-crowns among such fellows. I dined with Lord +Treasurer, who chid me for being absent three days. Mighty +kind, with a p—; less of civility, and more of his +interest! We hear Maccartney is gone over to Ireland. +Was it not comical for a gentleman to be set upon by highwaymen, +and to tell them he was Maccartney? Upon which they brought +him to a justice of peace, in hopes of the reward, <a +name="citation481c"></a><a href="#footnote481c" +class="citation">[481c]</a> and the rogues were sent to +gaol. Was it not great presence of mind? But maybe +you heard this already; for there was a Grub Street of it. +Lord Bolingbroke told me I must walk away to-day when dinner was +done, because Lord Treasurer, <a name="page482"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 482</span>and he, and another, were to enter +upon business; but I said it was as fit I should know their +business as anybody, for I was to justify [it]. <a +name="citation482"></a><a href="#footnote482" +class="citation">[482]</a> So the rest went, and I stayed, +and it was so important, I was like to sleep over it. I +left them at nine, and it is now twelve. Nite, MD.</p> +<p>27. I dined to-day with General Hill, Governor of +Dunkirk. Lady Masham and Mrs. Hill, his two sisters, were +of the company, and there have I been sitting this evening till +eleven, looking over others at play; for I have left off loving +play myself; and I think Ppt is now a great gamester. I +have a great cold on me, not quite at its height. I have +them seldom, and therefore ought to be patient. I met Mr. +Addison and Pastoral Philips on the Mall to-day, and took a turn +with them; but they both looked terrible dry and cold. A +curse of party! And do you know I have taken more pains to +recommend the Whig wits to the favour and mercy of the Ministers +than any other people. Steele I have kept in his +place. Congreve I have got to be used kindly, and +secured. Rowe I have recommended, and got a promise of a +place. Philips I could certainly have provided for, if he +had not run party mad, and made me withdraw my recommendation; +and I set Addison so right at first that he might have been +employed, and have partly secured him the place he has; yet I am +worse used by that faction than any man. Well, go to cards, +sollah Ppt, and dress the wine and olange, sollah MD, and +I’ll go seep. ’Tis rate. Nite MD.</p> +<p>28. My cold is so bad that I could not go to church +to-day, nor to Court; but I was engaged to Lord Orkney’s +with the Duke of Ormond, at dinner; and ventured, because I could +cough and spit there as I pleased. The Duke and Lord Arran +left us, and I have been sitting ever since with Lord and Lady +Orkney till past eleven: and my cold is worse, and makes me +giddy. I hope it is only my cold. Oh, says Ppt, +everybody is giddy with a cold; I hope it is no more; but +I’ll go to bed, for the fellow has bawled “Past +twelve.” Night, deels.</p> +<p><a name="page483"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +483</span>29. I got out early to-day, and escaped all my +duns. I went to see Lord Bolingbroke about some business, +and truly he was gone out too. I dined in the City upon the +broiled leg of a goose and a bit of brawn, with my printer. +Did I tell you that I forbear printing what I have in hand, till +the Court decides something about me? I will contract no +more enemies, at least I will not embitter worse those I have +already, till I have got under shelter; and the Ministers know my +resolution, so that you may be disappointed in seeing this thing +as soon as you expected. I hear Lord Treasurer is out of +order. My cold is very bad. Every[body] has +one. Nite two dee logues.</p> +<p>30. I suppose this will be full by Saturday; zen <a +name="citation483a"></a><a href="#footnote483a" +class="citation">[483a]</a> it sall go. Duke of Ormond, +Lord Arran, and I, dined privately to-day at an old +servant’s house of his. The Council made us part at +six. One Mrs. Ramsay dined with us; an old lady of about +fifty-five, that we are all very fond of. I called this +evening at Lord Treasurer’s, and sat with him two +hours. He has been cupped for a cold, and has been very +ill. He cannot dine with Parnell and me at Lord +Bolingbroke’s to-morrow, but says he will see Parnell some +other time. I hoise <a name="citation483b"></a><a +href="#footnote483b" class="citation">[483b]</a> up Parnell +partly to spite the envious Irish folks here, particularly Tom +Leigh. I saw the Bishop of Clogher’s family to-day; +Miss is mighty ill of a cold, coughs incessantly. <a +name="citation483c"></a><a href="#footnote483c" +class="citation">[483c]</a> Nite MD.</p> +<p>31. To-day Parnell and I dined with Lord Bolingbroke, to +correct Parnell’s poem. I made him show all the +places he disliked; and when Parnell has corrected it fully he +shall print it. I went this evening to sit with Lord +Treasurer. He is better, and will be out in a day or +two. I sat with him while the young folks went to supper; +and then went down, and there were the young folks merry +together, having turned Lady Oxford up to my lord, and I stayed +with them till twelve. There was the young couple, Lord and +Lady <a name="page484"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +484</span>Caermarthen, and Lord and Lady Dupplin, and Lord Harley +and I; and the old folks were together above. It looked +like what I have formerly done so often; stealing together from +the old folks, though indeed it was not from poor Lord Treasurer, +who is as young a fellow as any of us: but Lady Oxford is a silly +mere old woman. <a name="citation484a"></a><a +href="#footnote484a" class="citation">[484a]</a> My cold is +still so bad that I have not the least smelling. I am just +got home, and ’tis past twelve; and I’ll go to bed, +and settle my head, heavy as lead. Nite MD.</p> +<p>Jan. 1, 1712–13. A sousand melly new eels <a +name="citation484b"></a><a href="#footnote484b" +class="citation">[484b]</a> to deelest richar MD. Pray God +Almighty bless you, and send you ever happy! I forgot to +tell you that yesterday Lord Abercorn was here, teasing me about +his French duchy, and suspecting my partiality to the Hamilton +family in such a whimsical manner that Dr. Pratt, who was by, +thought he was mad. He was no sooner gone but Lord Orkney +sent to know whether he might come and sit with me half an hour +upon some business. I returned answer that I would wait on +him; which I did. We discoursed a while, and he left me +with Lady Orkney; and in came the Earl of Selkirk, whom I had +never seen before. He is another brother of the Duke of +Hamilton, and is going to France, by a power from his mother, the +old Duchess, <a name="citation484c"></a><a href="#footnote484c" +class="citation">[484c]</a> to negotiate their pretensions to the +duchy of Chatelherault. He teased me for two hours in spite +of my teeth, and held my hand when I offered to stir; would have +had me engage the Ministry to favour him against Lord Abercorn, +and to convince them that Lord Abercorn had no pretensions; and +desired I would also convince Lord Abercorn himself so; and +concluded he was sorry I was a greater friend to Abercorn than +Hamilton. <a name="page485"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +485</span>I had no patience, and used him with some +plainness. Am not I purely handled between a couple of +puppies? Ay, says Ppt, you must be meddling in other +folks’ affairs. I appeal to the Bishop of Clogher +whether Abercorn did not complain that I would not let him see me +last year, and that he swore he would take no denial from my +servant when he came again. The Ministers gave me leave to +tell the Hamilton family it was their opinion that they ought to +agree with Abercorn. Lord Anglesea was then by, and told +Abercorn; upon which he gravely tells me I was commissioned by +the Ministers, and ought to perform my commission, etc.—But +I’ll have done with them. I have warned Lord +Treasurer and Lord Bolingbroke to beware of Selkirk’s +teasing, —x on him! Yet Abercorn vexes me more. +The whelp owes to me all the kind receptions he has had from the +Ministry. I dined to-day at Lord Treasurer’s with the +young folks, and sat with Lord Treasurer till nine, and then was +forced to Lady Masham’s, and sat there till twelve, talking +of affairs, till I am out of humour, as everyone must that knows +them inwardly. A thousand things wrong, most of them easy +to mend; yet our schemes availing at best but little, and +sometimes nothing at all. One evil, which I twice patched +up with the hazard of all the credit I had, is now spread more +than ever. <a name="citation485a"></a><a href="#footnote485a" +class="citation">[485a]</a> But burn politics, and send me +from Courts and Ministers! Nite deelest richar MD.</p> +<p>2. I sauntered about this morning, and went with Dr. +Pratt to a picture auction, where I had like to be drawn in to +buy a picture that I was fond of, but, it seems, was good for +nothing. Pratt was there to buy some pictures for the +Bishop of Clogher, who resolves to lay out ten pounds to furnish +his house with curious pieces. We dined with the Bishop, I +being by chance disengaged. And this evening I sat with the +Bishop of Ossory, <a name="citation485b"></a><a +href="#footnote485b" class="citation">[485b]</a> who is laid up +with the gout. The French Ambassador, Duke d’Aumont, +<a name="citation485c"></a><a href="#footnote485c" +class="citation">[485c]</a> came to town to-night; <a +name="page486"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 486</span>and the +rabble conducted him home with shouts. I cannot smell yet, +though my cold begins to break. It continues cruel hard +frosty weather. Go and be melly, . . . sollahs. <a +name="citation486a"></a><a href="#footnote486a" +class="citation">[486a]</a></p> +<p>3. Lord Dupplin and I went with Lord and Lady Orkney +this morning at ten to Wimbledon, six miles off, to see Lord and +Lady Caermarthen. It is much the finest place about this +town. Did oo never see it? I was once there before, +about five years ago. You know Lady Caermarthen is Lord +Treasurer’s daughter, married about three weeks ago. +I hope the young fellow will be a good husband.—I must send +this away now. I came back just by nightfall, cruel cold +weather; I have no smell yet, but my cold something better. +Nite (?) sollahs; I’ll take my reeve. I forget how +MD’s accounts are. Pray let me know always timely +before MD wants; and pray give the bill on t’other side to +Mrs. Brent as usual. I believe I have not paid her this +great while. Go, play cards, and . . . rove Pdfr. +Nite richar MD . . . roves Pdfr. FW lele . . . MD MD MD MD +MD FW FW FW FW MD MD Lele . . . <a name="citation486b"></a><a +href="#footnote486b" class="citation">[486b]</a></p> +<p>The six odd shillings, tell Mrs. Brent, are for her new +year’s gift.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p>I <a name="citation486c"></a><a href="#footnote486c" +class="citation">[486c]</a> am just now told that poor dear Lady +Ashburnham, <a name="citation486d"></a><a href="#footnote486d" +class="citation">[486d]</a> the Duke of Ormond’s daughter, +died yesterday at her country house. The poor creature was +with child. She was my greatest favourite, and I am in +excessive concern for her loss. I hardly knew a more +valuable person on all accounts. You must have heard me +talk of her. I am afraid to see the Duke and Duchess. +She was naturally very healthy; I am afraid she has been thrown +away for want of <a name="page487"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +487</span>care. Pray condole with me. ’Tis +extremely moving. Her lord’s a puppy; and I shall +never think it worth my while to be troubled with him, now he has +lost all that was valuable in his possession; yet I think he used +her pretty well. I hate life when I think it exposed to +such accidents; and to see so many thousand wretches burdening +the earth, while such as her die, makes me think God did never +intend life for a blessing. Farewell.</p> +<h3>LETTER LVIII. <a name="citation487a"></a><a +href="#footnote487a" class="citation">[487a]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Jan.</i> 4, 1712–13.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">ended</span> my last with the melancholy +news of poor Lady Ashburnham’s death. The Bishop of +Clogher and Dr. Pratt made me dine with them to-day at Lord +Mountjoy’s, pursuant to an engagement, which I had +forgot. Lady Mountjoy told me that Maccartney was got safe +out of our clutches, for she had spoke with one who had a letter +from him from Holland. Others say the same thing. +’Tis hard such a dog should escape.—As I left Lord +Mountjoy’s I saw the Duke d’Aumont, the French +Ambassador, going from Lord Bolingbroke’s, where he dined, +to have a private audience of the Queen. I followed, and +went up to Court, where there was a great crowd. I was +talking with the Duke of Argyle by the fireside in the +bed-chamber, when the Ambassador came out from the Queen. +Argyle presented me to him, and Lord Bolingbroke and we talked +together a while. He is a fine gentleman, something like +the Duke of Ormond, and just such an expensive man. After +church to-day I showed the Bishop of Clogher, at Court, who was +who. Nite my two dee logues, and . . . <a +name="citation487b"></a><a href="#footnote487b" +class="citation">[487b]</a></p> +<p>5. Our frost is broke, but it is bloody cold. Lord +Treasurer is recovered, and went out this evening to the <a +name="page488"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +488</span>Queen. I dined with Lady Oxford, and then sat +with Lord Treasurer while he went out. He gave me a letter +from an unknown hand, relating to Dr. Brown, <a +name="citation488a"></a><a href="#footnote488a" +class="citation">[488a]</a> Bishop of Cork, recommending him to a +better bishopric, as a person who opposed Lord Wharton, and was +made a bishop on that account, celebrating him for a great +politician, etc.: in short, all directly contrary to his +character, which I made bold to explain. What dogs there +are in the world! I was to see the poor Duke and Duchess of +Ormond this morning. The Duke was in his public room, with +Mr. Southwell <a name="citation488b"></a><a href="#footnote488b" +class="citation">[488b]</a> and two more gentlemen. When +Southwell and I were alone with him, he talked something of Lord +Ashburnham, that he was afraid the Whigs would get him +again. He bore up as well as he could, but something +falling accidentally in discourse, the tears were just falling +out of his eyes, and I looked off to give him an opportunity +(which he took) of wiping them with his handkerchief. I +never saw anything so moving, nor such a mixture of greatness of +mind, and tenderness, and discretion. Nite MD.</p> +<p>6. Lord Bolingbroke and Parnell and I dined, by +invitation, with my friend Darteneuf, <a +name="citation488c"></a><a href="#footnote488c" +class="citation">[488c]</a> whom you have heard me talk of. +Lord Bolingbroke likes Parnell mightily; and it is pleasant to +see that one who hardly passed for anything in Ireland makes his +way here with a little friendly forwarding. It is scurvy +rainy weather, and I have hardly been abroad to-day, nor know +anything that passes.—Lord Treasurer is quite recovered, +and I hope will be careful to keep himself well. The +Duchess of Marlborough is leaving England to go to her Duke, and +makes presents of rings to several friends, they say worth two +hundred pounds apiece. I am sure she ought to give me one, +though the Duke pretended to think me his greatest enemy, and got +people to tell me so, and very mildly to let me know how gladly +he would have me softened toward him. I bid a lady of his +acquaintance and mine let him know that I had hindered many a +bitter <a name="page489"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +489</span>thing against him; not for his own sake, but because I +thought it looked base; and I desired everything should be left +him, except power. Nite MD.</p> +<p>7. I dined with Lord and Lady Masham to-day, and this +evening played at ombre with Mrs. Vanhom, merely for +amusement. The Ministers have got my papers, and will +neither read them nor give them to me; and I can hardly do +anything. Very warm slabby weather, but I made a shift to +get a walk; yet I lost half of it, by shaking off Lord Rochester, +<a name="citation489a"></a><a href="#footnote489a" +class="citation">[489a]</a> who is a good, civil, simple +man. The Bishop of Ossory will not be Bishop of Hereford, +<a name="citation489b"></a><a href="#footnote489b" +class="citation">[489b]</a> to the great grief of himself and his +wife. And hat is MD doing now, I wonder? Playing at +cards with the Dean and Mrs. Walls? I think it is not +certain yet that Maccartney is escaped. I am plagued with +bad authors, verse and prose, who send me their books and poems, +the vilest trash I ever saw; but I have given their names to my +man, never to let them see me. I have got new ink, and +’tis very white; and I don’t see that it turns black +at all. I’ll go to seep; ’tis past +twelve.—Nite, MD.</p> +<p>8. Oo must understand that I am in my geers, and have +got a chocolate-pot, a present from Mrs. Ashe of Clogher, and +some chocolate from my brother Ormond, and I treat folks +sometimes. I dined with Lord Treasurer at five +o’clock to-day, and was by while he and Lord Bolingbroke +were at business; for it is fit I should know all that passes +now, because, etc. The Duke of Ormond employed me to speak +to Lord Treasurer to-day about an affair, and I did so; and the +Duke had spoke himself two hours before, which vexed me, and I +will chide the Duke about it. I’ll tell you a good +thing; there is not one of the Ministry but what will employ me +as gravely to speak for them to Lord Treasurer as if I were their +brother or his; and I do it as gravely: though I know they do it +only because they will not make themselves <a +name="page490"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 490</span>uneasy, or +had rather I should be denied than they. I believe our +peace will not be finished these two months; for I think we must +have a return from Spain by a messenger, who will not go till +Sunday next. Lord Treasurer has invited me to dine with him +again to-morrow. Your Commissioner, Keatley, <a +name="citation490a"></a><a href="#footnote490a" +class="citation">[490a]</a> is to be there. Nite dee richar +MD. <a name="citation490b"></a><a href="#footnote490b" +class="citation">[490b]</a></p> +<p>9. Dr. Pratt drank chocolate with me this morning, and +then we walked. I was yesterday with him to see Lady Betty +Butler, grieving for her sister Ashburnham. The jade was in +bed in form, and she did so cant, she made me sick. I meet +Tom Leigh every day in the Park, to preserve his health. He +is as ruddy as a rose, and tells me his Bishop of Dromore <a +name="citation490c"></a><a href="#footnote490c" +class="citation">[490c]</a> recovers very much. That Bishop +has been very near dying. This day’s <i>Examiner</i> +talks of the play of “What is it like?” <a +name="citation490d"></a><a href="#footnote490d" +class="citation">[490d]</a> and you will think it to be mine, and +be bit; for I have no hand in these papers at all. I dined +with Lord Treasurer, and shall again to-morrow, which is his day +when all the Ministers dine with him. He calls it +whipping-day. It is always on Saturday, and we do indeed +usually rally him about his faults on that day. I was of +the original Club, when only poor Lord Rivers, Lord Keeper, and +Lord Bolingbroke came; but now Ormond, Anglesea, Lord Steward, <a +name="citation490e"></a><a href="#footnote490e" +class="citation">[490e]</a> Dartmouth, and other rabble intrude, +and I scold at it; but now they pretend as good a title as I; +and, indeed, many Saturdays I am not there. The company +being too many, I don’t love it. Nite MD.</p> +<p>10. At seven this evening, as we sat after dinner at +Lord Treasurer’s, a servant said Lord Peterborow was at the +door. Lord Treasurer and Lord Bolingbroke went out to meet +him, and brought him in. He was just returned from abroad, +<a name="page491"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 491</span>where he +has been above a year. Soon as he saw me, he left the Duke +of Ormond and other lords, and ran and kissed me before he spoke +to them; but chid me terribly for not writing to him, which I +never did this last time he was abroad, not knowing where he was; +and he changed places so often, it was impossible a letter should +overtake him. He left England with a bruise, by his coach +overturning, that made him spit blood, and was so ill, we +expected every post to hear of his death; but he outrode it or +outdrank it, or something, and is come home lustier than +ever. He is at least sixty, and has more spirits than any +young fellow I know in England. He has got the old Oxford +regiment of horse, and I believe will have a Garter. I love +the hang-dog dearly. Nite dee MD.</p> +<p>11. The Court was crammed to-day to see <a +name="citation491a"></a><a href="#footnote491a" +class="citation">[491a]</a> the French Ambassador; but he did not +come. Did I never tell you that I go to Court on Sundays as +to a coffee-house, to see acquaintance, whom I should otherwise +not see twice a year? The Provost <a +name="citation491b"></a><a href="#footnote491b" +class="citation">[491b]</a> and I dined with Ned Southwell, by +appointment, in order to settle your kingdom, if my scheme can be +followed; but I doubt our Ministry will be too tedious. You +must certainly have a new Parliament; but they would have that a +secret yet. Our Parliament here will be prorogued for three +weeks. Those puppies the Dutch will not yet come in, though +they pretend to submit to the Queen in everything; but they would +fain try first how our session begins, in hopes to embroil us in +the House of Lords: and if my advice had been taken, the session +should have begun, and we would have trusted the Parliament to +approve the steps already made toward the peace, and had an +Address perhaps from them to conclude without the Dutch, if they +would not agree.—Others are of my mind, but it is not +reckoned so safe, it seems; yet I doubt whether the peace will be +ready so soon as three weeks, but that is a secret. Nite +MD.</p> +<p>12. Pratt and I walked into the City to one +Bateman’s, <a name="citation491c"></a><a +href="#footnote491c" class="citation">[491c]</a> a <a +name="page492"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 492</span>famous +bookseller, for old books. There I laid out four pounds +like a fool, and we dined at a hedge ale-house, for two shillings +and twopence, like emperors. Let me see, I bought Plutarch, +two volumes, for thirty shillings, etc. Well, I’ll +tell you no more; oo don’t understand Greek. <a +name="citation492a"></a><a href="#footnote492a" +class="citation">[492a]</a> We have no news, and I have +nothing more to say to-day, and I can’t finish my +work. These Ministers will not find time to do what I would +have them. So nite, nown dee dallars.</p> +<p>13. I was to have dined to-day with Lord Keeper, but +would not, because that brute Sir John Walter <a +name="citation492b"></a><a href="#footnote492b" +class="citation">[492b]</a> was to be one of the company. +You may remember he railed at me last summer was twelvemonth at +Windsor, and has never begged my pardon, though he promised to do +it; and Lord Mansel, who was one of the company, would certainly +have set us together by the ears, out of pure roguish +mischief. So I dined with Lord Treasurer, where there was +none but Lord Bolingbroke. I stayed till eight, and then +went to Lady Orkney’s, who has been sick, and sat with her +till twelve, from whence you may consider it is late, +sollahs. The Parliament was prorogued to-day, as I told +you, for three weeks. Our weather is very bad and slobbery, +and I shall spoil my new hat (I have bought a new hat), or empty +my pockets. Does Hawkshaw pay the interest he owes? +Lord Abercorn plagues me to death. I have now not above six +people to provide for, and about as many to do good offices to; +and thrice as many that I will do nothing for; nor can I if I +would. Nite dee MD.</p> +<p>14. To-day I took the circle of morning visits. I +went to the Duchess of Ormond, and there was she, and Lady Betty, +and Lord Ashburnham together: this was the first time the mother +and daughter saw each other since Lady Ashburnham’s +death. They were both in tears, and I chid them for being +together, and made Lady Betty go to her own chamber; then sat a +while with the Duchess, and went after Lady Betty, and all was +well. There is something of farce in all these mournings, +let them be ever so serious. People will <a +name="page493"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 493</span>pretend to +grieve more than they really do, and that takes off from their +true grief. I then went to the Duchess of Hamilton, who +never grieved, but raged, and stormed, and railed. <a +name="citation493a"></a><a href="#footnote493a" +class="citation">[493a]</a> She is pretty quiet now, but +has a diabolical temper. Lord Keeper and his son, and their +two ladies, and I, dined to-day with Mr. Cæsar, <a +name="citation493b"></a><a href="#footnote493b" +class="citation">[493b]</a> Treasurer of the Navy, at his house +in the City, where he keeps his office. We happened to talk +of Brutus, and I said something in his praise, when it struck me +immediately that I had made a blunder in doing so; and, +therefore, I recollected myself, and said, “Mr. +Cæsar, I beg your pardon.” So we laughed, +etc. Nite, my own deelest richar logues, MD.</p> +<p>15. I forgot to tell you that last night I had a present +sent me (I found it, when I came home, in my chamber) of the +finest wild fowl I ever saw, with the vilest letter, and from the +vilest poet in the world, who sent it me as a bribe to get him an +employment. I knew not where the scoundrel lived, so I +could not send them back, and therefore I gave them away as +freely as I got them, and have ordered my man never to let up the +poet when he comes. The rogue should have kept the wings at +least for his muse. One of his fowls was a large capon +pheasant, as fat as a pullet. I ate share of it to-day with +a friend. We have now a Drawing-room every Wednesday, +Thursday, and Saturday at one o’clock. The Queen does +not come out; but all her Ministers, foreigners, and persons of +quality are at it. I was there to-day; and as Lord +Treasurer came towards me, I avoided him, and he hunted me thrice +about the room. I affect never to take notice of him at +church or Court. He knows it, for I have told him so; and +to-night, at Lord Masham’s, he gave an account of it to the +company; but my reasons are, that people seeing me speak to him +causes a great deal of teasing. I tell you what comes into +my head, that I never knew whether MD were Whigs or Tories, and I +<a name="page494"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 494</span>value +our conversation the more that it never turned on that +subject. I have a fancy that Ppt is a Tory, and a violent +one. I don’t know why; but methinks she looks like +one, and DD a sort of a Trimmer. Am I right? I gave +the Examiner a hint about this prorogation, and to praise the +Queen for her tenderness to the Dutch in giving them still more +time to submit. <a name="citation494a"></a><a +href="#footnote494a" class="citation">[494a]</a> It fitted +the occasions at present. Nite MD.</p> +<p>16. I was busy to-day at the Secretary’s office, +and stayed till past three. The Duke of Ormond and I were +to dine at Lord Orkney’s. The Duke was at the +Committee, so I thought all was safe. When I went there, +they had almost dined; for the Duke had sent to excuse himself, +which I never knew. I came home at seven, and began a +little whim, which just came into my head; and will make a +threepenny pamphlet. <a name="citation494b"></a><a +href="#footnote494b" class="citation">[494b]</a> It shall +be finished and out in a week; and if it succeeds, you shall know +what it is; otherwise, not. I cannot send this to-morrow, +and will put it off till next Saturday, because I have much +business. So my journals shall be short, and Ppt must have +patience. So nite, dee sollahs.</p> +<p>17. This rogue Parnell has not yet corrected his poem, +and I would fain have it out. I dined to-day with Lord +Treasurer, and his Saturday company, nine of us in all. +They went away at seven, and Lord Treasurer and I sat talking an +hour after. After dinner he was talking to the lords about +the speech the Queen must make when the Parliament meets. +He asked me how I would make it. I was going to be serious, +because it was seriously put; but I turned it to a jest. +And because they had been speaking of <a name="page495"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 495</span>the Duchess of Marlborough going to +Flanders after the Duke, I said the speech should begin thus: +“My Lords and Gentlemen, In order to my own quiet, and that +of my subjects, I have thought fit to send the Duchess of +Marlborough abroad after the Duke.” This took well, +and turned off the discourse. I must tell you I do not at +all like the present situation of affairs, and remember I tell +you so. Things must be on another foot, or we are all +undone. I hate this driving always to an inch. Nite +MD.</p> +<p>18. We had a mighty full Court to-day. Dilly was +with me at the French church, and edified mightily. The +Duke of Ormond and I dined at Lord Orkney’s; but I left +them at seven, and came home to my whim. I have made a +great progress. My large Treatise <a +name="citation495a"></a><a href="#footnote495a" +class="citation">[495a]</a> stands stock still. Some think +it too dangerous to publish, and would have me print only what +relates to the peace. I cannot tell what I shall +do.—The Bishop of Dromore is dying. They thought +yesterday he could not live two hours; yet he is still alive, but +is utterly past all hopes. Go to cards, sollahs, and +nite.</p> +<p>19. I was this morning to see the Duke and Duchess of +Ormond. The Duke d’Aumont came in while I was with +the Duke of Ormond, and we complimented each other like +dragons. A poor fellow called at the door where I lodge, +with a parcel of oranges for a present for me. I bid my man +know what his name was, and whence he came. He sent word +his name was Bun, and that I knew him very well. I bid my +man tell him I was busy, and he could not speak to me; and not to +let him leave his oranges. I know no more of it, but I am +sure I never heard the name, and I shall take no such presents +from strangers. Perhaps he might be only some beggar, who +wanted a little money. Perhaps it might be something +worse. Let them keep their poison for their rats. I +don’t love it. <a name="citation495b"></a><a +href="#footnote495b" class="citation">[495b]</a> That blot +is a blunder. Nite dee MD. . . .</p> +<p><a name="page496"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +496</span>20. A Committee of our Society dined to-day with +the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Our Society does not meet +now as usual, for which I am blamed: but till Lord Treasurer will +agree to give us money and employments to bestow, I am averse to +it; and he gives us nothing but promises. The Bishop of +Dromore is still alive, and that is all. We expect every +day he will die, and then Tom Leigh must go back, which is one +good thing to the town. I believe Pratt will drive at one +of these bishoprics. Our English bishopric <a +name="citation496a"></a><a href="#footnote496a" +class="citation">[496a]</a> is not yet disposed of. I +believe the peace will not be ready by the session. Nite +MD.</p> +<p>21. I was to-day with my printer, to give him a little +pamphlet I have written, but not politics. It will be out +by Monday. If it succeeds, I will tell you of it; +otherwise, not. We had a prodigious thaw to-day, as bad as +rain; yet I walked like a good boy all the way. The Bishop +of Dromore still draws breath, but cannot live two days +longer. My large book lies flat. Some people think a +great part of it ought not to be now printed. I believe I +told you so before. This letter shall not go till Saturday, +which makes up the three weeks exactly; and I allow MD six weeks, +which are now almost out; so oo must know I expect a rettle vely +soon, and that MD is vely werr; <a name="citation496b"></a><a +href="#footnote496b" class="citation">[496b]</a> and so nite, dee +MD.</p> +<p>22. This is one of our Court days, and I was +there. I told you there is a Drawing-room, Wednesday, +Thursday, and Saturday. The Hamiltons and Abercorns have +done teasing me. The latter, I hear, is actually going to +France. Lord Treasurer quarrelled with me at Court for +being four days without dining with him; so I dined there to-day, +and he has at last fallen in with my project (as he calls it) of +coining halfpence and farthings, with devices, like medals, in +honour of the Queen, every year changing the device. I wish +it may be done. Nite MD.</p> +<p>23. The Duke of Ormond and I appointed to dine with Ned +Southwell to-day, to talk of settling your affairs of Parliament +in Ireland, but there was a mixture of company, and the <a +name="page497"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 497</span>Duke of +Ormond was in haste, and nothing was done. If your +Parliament meets this summer, it must be a new one; but I find +some are of opinion there should be none at all these two +years. I will trouble myself no more about it. My +design was to serve the Duke of Ormond. Dr. Pratt and I sat +this evening with the Bishop of Clogher, and played at ombre for +threepences. That, I suppose, is but low with you. I +found, at coming home, a letter from MD, N. 37. I shall not +answer it zis bout, but will the next. I am sorry for poo +poo Ppt. Pray walk hen oo can. I have got a terrible +new cold before my old one was quite gone, and don’t know +how. Pay. . . . <a name="citation497a"></a><a +href="#footnote497a" class="citation">[497a]</a> I shall +have DD’s money soon from the Exchequer. The Bishop +of Dromore is dead now at last. Nite, dee MD.</p> +<p>24. I was at Court to-day, and it was comical to see +Lord Abercorn bowing to me, but not speaking, and Lord Selkirk +the same. <a name="citation497b"></a><a href="#footnote497b" +class="citation">[497b]</a> I dined with Lord Treasurer and +his Saturday Club, and sat with him two hours after the rest were +gone, and spoke freer to him of affairs than I am afraid others +do, who might do more good. All his friends repine, and +shrug their shoulders; but will not deal with him so freely as +they ought. It is an odd business; the Parliament just +going to sit, and no employments given. They say they will +give them in a few days. There is a new bishop made of +Hereford; <a name="citation497c"></a><a href="#footnote497c" +class="citation">[497c]</a> so Ossory <a +name="citation497d"></a><a href="#footnote497d" +class="citation">[497d]</a> is disappointed. I hinted so to +his friends two months ago, to make him leave off deluding +himself, and being indiscreet, as he was. I have just time +to send this, without giving to the bellman. Nite deelest +richar MD. . . . dee MD MD MD FW FW FW ME ME ME Lele Lele +Lele.</p> +<p>My second cold is better now. Lele lele lele lele.</p> +<h3><a name="page498"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +498</span>LETTER LIX. <a name="citation498a"></a><a +href="#footnote498a" class="citation">[498a]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Jan.</i> 25, 1712–1713.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">We</span> had such a terrible storm +to-day, that, going to Lord Bolingbroke’s, I saw a hundred +tiles fallen down; and one swinger fell about forty yards before +me, that would have killed a horse: so, after church and Court, I +walked through the Park, and took a chair to Lord +Treasurer’s. Next door to his house, a tin chimneytop +had fallen down, with a hundred bricks. It is grown calm +this evening. I wonder had you such a wind to-day? I +hate it as much as any hog does. Lord Treasurer has engaged +me to dine again with him to-morrow. He has those tricks +sometimes of inviting me from day to day, which I am forced to +break through. My little pamphlet <a +name="citation498b"></a><a href="#footnote498b" +class="citation">[498b]</a> is out: ’tis not +politics. If it takes, I say again you shall hear of +it. Nite dee logues.</p> +<p>26. This morning I felt a little touch of giddiness, +which has disordered and weakened me with its ugly remains all +this day. Pity Pdfr. After dinner at Lord +Treasurer’s, the French Ambassador, Duke d’Aumont, +sent Lord Treasurer word that his house was burnt down to the +ground. It took fire in the upper rooms, while he was at +dinner with Monteleon, the Spanish Ambassador, and other persons; +and soon after Lord Bolingbroke came to us with the same +story. We are full of speculations upon it, but I believe +it was the carelessness of his French rascally servants. +’Tis odd that this very day Lord Somers, Wharton, +Sunderland, Halifax, and the whole club of Whig lords, dined at +Pontack’s <a name="citation498c"></a><a +href="#footnote498c" class="citation">[498c]</a> in the City, as +I received private notice. They have some damned +design. I tell you another odd thing; I was observing it to +Lord Treasurer, that he was stabbed on the day King William died; +and the day I saved his life, by opening the bandbox, <a +name="citation498d"></a><a href="#footnote498d" +class="citation">[498d]</a> was King William’s +birthday. My friend Mr. Lewis has had a lie spread on him +by the mistake <a name="page499"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +499</span>of a man, who went to another of his name, to give him +thanks for passing his Privy Seal to come from France. <a +name="citation499a"></a><a href="#footnote499a" +class="citation">[499a]</a> That other Lewis spread about +that the man brought him thanks from Lord Perth and Lord Melfort +(two lords with the Pretender), for his great services, +etc. The Lords will examine that t’other Lewis +to-morrow in council; and I believe you will hear of it in the +prints, for I will make Abel Roper give a relation of it. +Pray tell me if it be necessary to write a little plainer; for I +looked over a bit of my last letter, and could hardly read +it. I’ll mend my hand, if oo please: but you are more +used to it nor I, as Mr. Raymond says. Nite MD.</p> +<p>27. I dined to-day with Lord Treasurer: this makes four +days together; and he has invited me again to-morrow, but I +absolutely refused him. I was this evening at a christening +with him of Lord Dupplin’s <a name="citation499b"></a><a +href="#footnote499b" class="citation">[499b]</a> daughter. +He went away at ten; but they kept me and some others till past +twelve; so you may be sure ’tis late, as they say. We +have now stronger suspicions that the Duke d’Aumont’s +house was set on fire by malice. I was to-day to see Lord +Keeper, who has quite lost his voice with a cold. There Dr. +Radcliffe told me that it was the Ambassador’s confectioner +set the house on fire by boiling sugar, and going down and +letting it boil over. Yet others still think differently; +so I know not what to judge. Nite my own deelest MD, rove +Pdfr.</p> +<p>28. I was to-day at Court, where the Spanish Ambassador +talked to me as if he did not suspect any design in burning +d’Aumont’s house: but Abbé Gaultier, Secretary +for France here, said quite otherwise; and that d’Aumont +had a letter the very same day to let him know his house should +be burnt, and they tell several other circumstances too tedious +to write. One is, that a fellow mending the tiles just when +the fire broke out, saw a pot with wildfire <a +name="citation499c"></a><a href="#footnote499c" +class="citation">[499c]</a> in the room. I <a +name="page500"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 500</span>dined with +Lord Orkney. Neither Lord Abercorn nor Selkirk will now +speak with me. I have disobliged both sides. Nite +dear MD.</p> +<p>29. Our Society met to-day, fourteen of us, and at a +tavern. We now resolve to meet but once a fortnight, and +have a Committee every other week of six or seven, to consult +about doing some good. I proposed another message to Lord +Treasurer by three principal members, to give a hundred guineas +to a certain person, and they are to urge it as well as they +can. We also raised sixty guineas upon our own Society; but +I made them do it by sessors, <a name="citation500a"></a><a +href="#footnote500a" class="citation">[500a]</a> and I was one of +them, and we fitted our tax to the several estates. The +Duke of Ormond pays ten guineas, and I the third part of a +guinea; at that rate, they may tax as often as they please. +Well, but I must answer oor rettle, ung oomens: not yet; +’tis rate now, and I can’t tind it. Nite +deelest MD.</p> +<p>30. I have drank Spa waters this two or three days; but +they do not pass, and make me very giddy. I an’t +well; faith, I’ll take them no more. I sauntered +after church with the Provost to-day to see a library to be sold, +and dined at five with Lord Orkney. We still think there +was malice in burning d’Aumont’s house. I hear +little Harrison <a name="citation500b"></a><a +href="#footnote500b" class="citation">[500b]</a> is come over; it +was he I sent to Utrecht. He is now Queen’s Secretary +to the Embassy, and has brought with him the Barrier Treaty, as +it is now corrected by us, and yielded to by the Dutch, which was +the greatest difficulty to retard the peace. I hope he will +bring over the peace a month hence, for we will send him back as +soon as possible. I long to see the little brat, my own +creature. His pay is in all a thousand pounds a year, and +they have never paid him a groat, though I have teased their +hearts out. He must be three or four hundred pounds in debt +at least, the brat! Let me go to bed, sollahs.—Nite +dee richar MD.</p> +<p>31. Harrison was with me this morning: we talked three +hours, and then I carried him to Court. When we went down +to the door of my lodging, I found a coach waited for <a +name="page501"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 501</span>him. +I chid him for it; but he whispered me it was impossible to do +otherwise; and in the coach he told me he had not one farthing in +his pocket to pay it; and therefore took the coach for the whole +day, and intended to borrow money somewhere or other. So +there was the Queen’s Minister entrusted in affairs of the +greatest importance, without a shilling in his pocket to pay a +coach! I paid him while he was with me seven guineas, in +part of a dozen of shirts he bought me in Holland. I +presented him to the Duke of Ormond, and several lords at Court; +and I contrived it so that Lord Treasurer came to me and asked (I +had Parnell by me) whether that was Dr. Parnell, and came up and +spoke to him with great kindness, and invited him to his +house. I value myself upon making the Ministry desire to be +acquainted with Parnell, and not Parnell with the Ministry. +His poem is almost fully corrected, and shall soon be out. +Here’s enough for to-day: only to tell you that I was in +the City with my printer to alter an <i>Examiner</i> about my +friend Lewis’s story, <a name="citation501"></a><a +href="#footnote501" class="citation">[501]</a> which will be told +with remarks. Nite MD.</p> +<p>Feb. 1. I could do nothing till to-day about the +<i>Examiner</i>, but the printer came this morning, and I +dictated to him what was fit to be said, and then Mr. Lewis came, +and corrected it as he would have it; so I was neither at church +nor Court. The Duke of Ormond and I dined at Lord +Orkney’s. I left them at seven, and sat with Sir +Andrew Fountaine, who has a very bad sore leg, for which he +designs to go to France. Fais, here’s a week gone, +and one side of this letter not finished. Oh, but I write +now but once in three weeks; iss, fais, this shall go +sooner. The Parliament is to sit on the third, but will +adjourn for three or four days; for the Queen is laid up with the +gout, and both Speakers out of order, though one of them, the +Lord Keeper, is almost well. I spoke to the Duke of Ormond +a good deal about Ireland. We do not altogether agree, nor +am I judge enough of Irish affairs; but I will speak to Lord +Treasurer <a name="page502"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +502</span>to-morrow, that we three may settle them some way or +other. Nite sollahs both, rove Pdfr.</p> +<p>2. I had a letter some days ago from Moll Gery; <a +name="citation502a"></a><a href="#footnote502a" +class="citation">[502a]</a> her name is now Wigmore, and her +husband has turned parson. She desires nothing but that I +would get Lord Keeper to give him a living; but I will send her +no answer, though she desires it much. She still makes +mantuas at Farnham. It rained all this day, and Dilly came +to me, and was coaching it into the City; so I went with him for +a shaking, because it would not cost me a farthing. There I +met my friend Stratford, <a name="citation502b"></a><a +href="#footnote502b" class="citation">[502b]</a> the merchant, +who is going abroad to gather up his debts, and be clear in the +world. He begged that I would dine with some merchant +friends of ours there, because it was the last time I should see +him: so I did, and thought to have seen Lord Treasurer in the +evening, but he happened to go out at five; so I visited some +friends, and came home. And now I have the greatest part of +your letter to answer; and yet I will not do it to-night, say +what oo please. The Parliament meets to-morrow, but will be +prorogued for a fortnight; which disappointment will, I believe, +vex abundance of them, though they are not Whigs; for they are +forced to be in town at expense for nothing: but we want an +answer from Spain, before we are sure of everything being right +for the peace; and God knows whether we can have that answer this +month. It is a most ticklish juncture of affairs; we are +always driving to an inch: I am weary of it. Nite MD.</p> +<p>3. The Parliament met, and was prorogued, as I said, and +I found some cloudy faces, and heard some grumbling. We +have got over all our difficulties with France, I think. +They have now settled all the articles of commerce between us and +them, wherein they were very much disposed to play the rogue if +we had not held them to [it]; and this business we wait from +Spain is to prevent some other rogueries of the French, who are +finding an evasion to trade to the Spanish West Indies; but I +hope we shall prevent it. I dined with <a +name="page503"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 503</span>Lord +Treasurer, and he was in good humour enough. I gave him +that part of my book in manuscript to read where his character +was, and drawn pretty freely. He was reading and correcting +it with his pencil, when the Bishop of St. David’s [<a +name="citation503a"></a><a href="#footnote503a" +class="citation">[503a]</a> (now removing to Hereford) came in +and interrupted us. I left him at eight, and sat till +twelve with the Provost and Bishop of Clogher at the +Provost’s. Nite MD.</p> +<p>4. I was to-day at Court, but kept out of Lord +Treasurer’s way, because I was engaged to the Duke of +Ormond, where I dined, and, I think, ate and drank too +much. I sat this evening with Lady Masham, and then with +Lord Masham and Lord Treasurer at Lord Masham’s. It +was last year, you may remember, my constant evening place. +I saw Lady Jersey <a name="citation503b"></a><a +href="#footnote503b" class="citation">[503b]</a> with Lady +Masham, who has been laying out for my acquaintance, and has +forced a promise for me to drink chocolate with her in a day or +two, which I know not whether I shall perform (I have just mended +my pen, you see), for I do not much like her character; but she +is very malicious, and therefore I think I must keep fair with +her. I cannot send this letter till Saturday next, I find; +so I will answer oors now. I see no different days of the +month; yet it is dated January 3: so it was long a coming. +I did not write to Dr. Coghill that I would have nothing in +Ireland, but that I was soliciting nothing anywhere, and that is +true. I have named Dr. Sterne to Lord Treasurer, Lord +Bolingbroke, and the Duke of Ormond, for a bishopric, and I did +it heartily. I know not what will come of it; but I tell +you as a great secret that I have made the Duke of Ormond promise +me to recommend nobody till he tells me, and this for some +reasons too long to mention. My head is still in no good +order. I am heartily sorry for poo Ppt, I’m +sure. Her head is good for . . . <a +name="citation503c"></a><a href="#footnote503c" +class="citation">[503c]</a> I’ll answer more +to-mollow. Nite, dearest MD; nite dee sollahs, MD. <a +name="citation503d"></a><a href="#footnote503d" +class="citation">[503d]</a></p> +<p>5. I must go on with oo letter. I dined to-day +with Sir Andrew Fountaine and the Provost, and I played at ombre +<a name="page504"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 504</span>with him +all the afternoon. I won, yet Sir Andrew is an admirable +player. Lord Pembroke <a name="citation504a"></a><a +href="#footnote504a" class="citation">[504a]</a> came in, and I +gave him three or four scurvy Dilly puns, that begin with an +IF. Well, but oor letter, well, ret me see.—No; I +believe I shall write no more this good while, nor publish what I +have done. Nauty (?) Ppt, oo are vely tempegant. I +did not suspect oo would tell Filby. <a +name="citation504b"></a><a href="#footnote504b" +class="citation">[504b]</a> Oo are so . . . <a +name="citation504c"></a><a href="#footnote504c" +class="citation">[504c]</a> Turns and +visitations—what are these? I’ll preach and +visit as much for Mr. Walls. Pray God mend poopt’s <a +name="citation504d"></a><a href="#footnote504d" +class="citation">[504d]</a> health; mine is but very +indifferent. I have left off Spa water; it makes my leg +swell. Nite deelest MD.</p> +<p>6. This is the Queen’s Birthday, and I never saw +it celebrated with so much luxury and fine clothes. I went +to Court to see them, and I dined with Lord Keeper, where the +ladies were fine to admiration. I passed the evening at +Mrs. Vanhomrigh’s, and came home pretty early, to answer oo +rettle again. Pray God keep the Queen. She was very +ill about ten days ago, and had the gout in her stomach. +When I came from Lord Keeper’s, I called at Lord +Treasurer’s, because I heard he was very fine, and that was +a new thing; and it was true, for his coat and waistcoat were +embroidered. I have seen the Provost often since, and never +spoke to him to speak to the Temples about Daniel Carr, nor will; +I don’t care to do it. I have writ lately to +Parvisol. Oo did well to let him make up his +accounts. All things grow dear in Ireland, but corn to the +parsons; for my livings are fallen much this year by +Parvisol’s account. Nite dee logues, MD.</p> +<p>7. [8] I was at Court to-day, but saw no Birthday +clothes; the great folks never wear them above once or +twice. I dined with Lord Orkney, and sat the evening with +Sir Andrew Fountaine, whose leg is in a very dubious +condition. Pray let me know when DD’s money is near +due: always let me know it beforehand. This, I believe, +will hardly go till Saturday; for I tell you what, being not very +well, I dare <a name="page505"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +505</span>not study much: so I let company come in a morning, and +the afternoon pass in dining and sitting somewhere. Lord +Treasurer is angry if I don’t dine with him every second +day, and I cannot part with him till late: he kept me last night +till near twelve. Our weather is constant rain above these +two months, which hinders walking, so that our spring is not like +yours. I have not seen Fanny Manley <a +name="citation505a"></a><a href="#footnote505a" +class="citation">[505a]</a> yet; I cannot find time. I am +in rebellion with all my acquaintance, but I will mend with my +health and the weather. Clogher make a figure! +Clogher make a —. Colds! why, we have been all dying +with colds; but now they are a little over, and my second is +almost off. I can do nothing for Swanton indeed. It +is a thing impossible, and wholly out of my way. If he +buys, he must buy. So now I have answered oo rettle; and +there’s an end of that now; and I’ll say no more, but +bid oo nite, dee MD.</p> +<p>8. [9] It was terrible rainy to-day from morning till +night. I intended to have dined with Lord Treasurer, but +went to see Sir Andrew Fountaine, and he kept me to dinner, which +saved coach-hire; and I stayed with him all the afternoon, and +lost thirteen shillings and sixpence at ombre. There was +management! and Lord Treasurer will chide; but I’ll dine +with him to-morrow. The Bishop of Clogher’s daughter +has been ill some days, <a name="citation505b"></a><a +href="#footnote505b" class="citation">[505b]</a> and it proves +the smallpox. She is very full; but it comes out well, and +they apprehend no danger. Lady Orkney has given me her +picture; a very fine original of Sir Godfrey Kneller’s; it +is now a mending. He has favoured her squint admirably; and +you know I love a cast in the eye. I was to see Lady +Worsley <a name="citation505c"></a><a href="#footnote505c" +class="citation">[505c]</a> to-day, who is just come to town; she +is full of rheumatic pains. All my acquaintance grow old +and sickly. She lodges in the very house in King Street, +between St. James’s Street and St. James’s Square, +where DD’s brother bought the sweetbread, when I lodged +there, and MD came to see me. Short sighs. <a +name="citation505d"></a><a href="#footnote505d" +class="citation">[505d]</a> Nite MD.</p> +<p><a name="page506"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 506</span>9. +[10] I thought to have dined with Lord Treasurer to-day, +but he dined abroad at Tom Harley’s; so I dined at Lord +Masham’s, and was winning all I had lost playing with Lady +Masham at crown picquet, when we went to pools, and I lost it +again. Lord Treasurer came in to us, and chid me for not +following him to Tom Harley’s. Miss Ashe is still the +same, and they think her not in danger; my man calls there daily +after I am gone out, and tells me at night. I was this +morning to see Lady Jersey, and we have made twenty parties about +dining together, and I shall hardly keep one of them. She +is reduced after all her greatness to seven servants, and a small +house, and no coach. <a name="citation506a"></a><a +href="#footnote506a" class="citation">[506a]</a> I like her +tolerably as yet. Nite MD.</p> +<p>10. [11] I made visits this morning to the Duke and +Duchess of Ormond, and Lady Betty, and the Duchess of +Hamilton. (When I was writing this near twelve +o’clock, the Duchess of Hamilton sent to have me dine with +her to-morrow. I am forced to give my answer through the +door, for my man has got the key, and is gone to bed; but I +cannot obey her, for our Society meets to-morrow.) I stole +away from Lord Treasurer by eight, and intended to have passed +the evening with Sir Thomas Clarges <a name="citation506b"></a><a +href="#footnote506b" class="citation">[506b]</a> and his lady; +but met them in another place, and have there sat till now. +My head has not been ill to-day. I was at Court, and made +Lord Mansel walk with me in the Park before we went to +dinner.—Yesterday and to-day have been fair, but yet it +rained all last night. I saw Sterne staring at Court +to-day. He <a name="page507"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +507</span>has been often to see me, he says: but my man has not +yet let him up. He is in deep mourning; I hope it is not +for his wife. <a name="citation507a"></a><a href="#footnote507a" +class="citation">[507a]</a> I did not ask him. Nite +MD.</p> +<p>12. <a name="citation507b"></a><a href="#footnote507b" +class="citation">[507b]</a> I have reckoned days wrong all +this while; for this is the twelfth. I do not know when I +lost it. I dined to-day with our Society, the greatest +dinner I have ever seen. It was at Jack Hill’s, the +Governor of Dunkirk. I gave an account of sixty guineas I +had collected, and am to give them away to two authors to-morrow; +and Lord Treasurer has promised us a hundred pounds to reward +some others. I found a letter on my table last night to +tell me that poor little Harrison, the Queen’s Secretary, +that came lately from Utrecht with the Barrier Treaty, was ill, +and desired to see me at night; but it was late, and I could not +go till to-day. I have often mentioned him in my letters, +you may remember. . . . I went in the morning, and found him +mighty ill, and got thirty guineas for him from Lord Bolingbroke, +and an order for a hundred pounds from the Treasury to be paid +him to-morrow; and I have got him removed to Knightsbridge for +air. He has a fever and inflammation on his lungs; but I +hope will do well. Nite.</p> +<p>13. I was to see a poor poet, one Mr. Diaper, <a +name="citation507c"></a><a href="#footnote507c" +class="citation">[507c]</a> in a nasty garret, very sick. I +gave him twenty guineas from Lord Bolingbroke, and disposed the +other sixty to two other authors, and desired a friend to receive +the hundred pounds for poor Harrison, and will carry it to him +to-morrow morning. I sent to see how he did, and he is +extremely ill; and I very much afflicted for him, for he is my +own creature, and in a very honourable post, and very worthy of +it. I dined in the City. I am in much concern for +this poor lad. His mother and sister attend him, and he +wants nothing. Nite poo dee MD.</p> +<p>14. I took Parnell this morning, and we walked to see <a +name="page508"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 508</span>poor +Harrison. I had the hundred pounds in my pocket. I +told Parnell I was afraid to knock at the door; my mind misgave +me. I knocked, and his man in tears told me his master was +dead an hour before. Think what grief this is to me! +I went to his mother, and have been ordering things for his +funeral with as little cost as possible, to-morrow at ten at +night. Lord Treasurer was much concerned when I told +him. I could not dine with Lord Treasurer, nor anywhere +else; but got a bit of meat toward evening. No loss ever +grieved me so much: poor creature! Pray God Almighty bless +poor MD. Adieu.</p> +<p>I send this away to-night, and am sorry it must go while I am +in so much grief.</p> +<h3>LETTER LX. <a name="citation508a"></a><a href="#footnote508a" +class="citation">[508a]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>Feb.</i> 15 [1712–13].</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">dined</span> to-day with Mr. Rowe <a +name="citation508b"></a><a href="#footnote508b" +class="citation">[508b]</a> and a projector, who has been teasing +me with twenty schemes to get grants; and I don’t like one +of them; and, besides, I was out of humour for the loss of poor +Harrison. At ten this night I was at his funeral, which I +ordered to be as private as possible. We had but one coach +with four of us; and when it was carrying us home after the +funeral, the braces broke; and we were forced to sit in it, and +have it held up, till my man went for chairs, <a +name="citation508c"></a><a href="#footnote508c" +class="citation">[508c]</a> at eleven at night in terrible +rain. I am come home very melancholy, and will go to +bed. Nite . . . MD. <a name="citation508d"></a><a +href="#footnote508d" class="citation">[508d]</a></p> +<p>16. I dined to-day with Lord Dupplin and some company to +divert me; but left them early, and have been reading a foolish +book for amusement. I shall never have courage again to +care for making anybody’s fortune. The Parliament +meets to-morrow, and will be prorogued another fortnight, at +which several of both parties were angry; but it cannot be <a +name="page509"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 509</span>helped, +though everything about the peace is past all danger. I +never saw such a continuance of rainy weather. We have not +had two fair days together these ten weeks. I have not +dined with Lord Treasurer these four days, nor can I till +Saturday; for I have several engagements till then, and he will +chide me to some purpose. I am perplexed with this hundred +pounds of poor Harrison’s, what to do with it. I +cannot pay his relations till they administer, for he is much in +debt; <a name="citation509a"></a><a href="#footnote509a" +class="citation">[509a]</a> but I will have the staff in my own +hands, and venture nothing. Nite poo dee MD.</p> +<p>17. Lady Jersey and I dined by appointment to-day with +Lord Bolingbroke. He is sending his brother <a +name="citation509b"></a><a href="#footnote509b" +class="citation">[509b]</a> to succeed Mr. <a +name="citation509c"></a><a href="#footnote509c" +class="citation">[509c]</a> Harrison. It is the prettiest +post in Europe for a young gentleman. I lose my money at +ombre sadly; I make a thousand blunders. I play but <a +name="citation509d"></a><a href="#footnote509d" +class="citation">[509d]</a> threepenny ombre; but it is what you +call running ombre. Lady Clarges, <a +name="citation509e"></a><a href="#footnote509e" +class="citation">[509e]</a> and a drab I hate, won a dozen +shillings of me last night. The Parliament was prorogued +to-day; and people grumble; and the good of it is the peace +cannot be finished by the time they meet, there are so many +fiddling things to do. Is Ppt an ombre lady yet? You +know all the tricks of it now, I suppose. I reckon you have +all your cards from France, for ours pay sixpence a pack taxes, +which goes deep to the box. I have given away all my Spa +water, and take some nasty steel drops, and my head has been +better this week past. I send every day to see how Miss +Ashe does: she is very full, they say, but in no danger. I +fear she will lose some of her beauty. The son lies out of +the house. I wish he had them too, while he is so +young.—Nite MD.</p> +<p><a name="page510"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +510</span>18. The Earl of Abingdon <a +name="citation510a"></a><a href="#footnote510a" +class="citation">[510a]</a> has been teasing me these three +months to dine with him; and this day was appointed about a week +ago, and I named my company; Lord Stawel, <a +name="citation510b"></a><a href="#footnote510b" +class="citation">[510b]</a> Colonel Disney, <a +name="citation510c"></a><a href="#footnote510c" +class="citation">[510c]</a> and Dr. Arbuthnot; but the two last +slipped out their necks, and left Stawell and me to dine +there. We did not dine till seven, because it is Ash +Wednesday. We had nothing but fish, which Lord Stawell +could not eat, and got a broiled leg of a turkey. Our wine +was poison; yet the puppy has twelve thousand pound a year. +His carps were raw, and his candles tallow. He <a +name="citation510d"></a><a href="#footnote510d" +class="citation">[510d]</a> shall not catch me in haste again, +and everybody has laughed at me for dining with him. I was +to-day to let Harrison’s mother know I could not pay till +she administers; which she will do. I believe she is an old +bawd, <a name="citation510e"></a><a href="#footnote510e" +class="citation">[510e]</a> and her daughter a —. +There were more Whigs to-day at Court than Tories. I +believe they think the peace must be made, and so come to please +the Queen. She is still lame with the gout. Nite +MD.</p> +<p>19. I was at Court to-day, to speak to Lord Bolingbroke +to look over Parnell’s poem since it is corrected; and +Parnell and I dined with him, and he has shown him three or four +more places to alter a little. Lady Bolingbroke came down +to us while we were at dinner, and Parnell stared at her as if +she were a goddess. I thought she was like Parnell’s +wife, and he thought so too. Parnell is much pleased with +Lord Bolingbroke’s favour to him, and I hope it may one day +turn to his advantage. His poem will be printed in a few +days. Our weather continues as fresh raining as if it had +not rained at all. I sat to-night at Lady Masham’s, +where Lord Treasurer came and scolded me for not dining with +him. I told him I could not till Saturday. I have +stayed there till past twelve. So nite dee sollahs, +nite.</p> +<p><a name="page511"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +511</span>20. Lady Jersey, Lady Catherine Hyde, <a +name="citation511a"></a><a href="#footnote511a" +class="citation">[511a]</a> the Spanish Ambassador, the Duke +d’Atree, <a name="citation511b"></a><a href="#footnote511b" +class="citation">[511b]</a> another Spaniard, and I, dined to-day +by appointment with Lord Bolingbroke; but they fell a drinking so +many Spanish healths in champagne that I stole away to the +ladies, and drank tea till eight; and then went and lost my money +at ombre with Sir Andrew Fountaine, who has a very bad leg. +Miss Ashe is past all danger; and her eye, which was lately bad +(I suppose one effect of her distemper), is now better. I +do not let the Bishop see me, nor shall this good while. +Good luck! when I came home, I warrant, I found a letter from MD, +No.38; and oo write so small nowadays, I hope oo poor eyes are +better. Well, this shall go to-morrow se’nnight, with +a bill for MD. I will speak to Mr. Griffin <a +name="citation511c"></a><a href="#footnote511c" +class="citation">[511c]</a> to-morrow about Ppt’s brother +Filby, and desire, whether he deserves or no, that his employment +may be mended; that is to say, if I can see Griffin; otherwise +not; and I’ll answer oo rettle hen I Pdfr think fit. +Nite MD.</p> +<p>21. Methinks I writ a little saucy last night. I +mean the last . . . <a name="citation511d"></a><a +href="#footnote511d" class="citation">[511d]</a> I saw Griffin at +Court. He says he knows nothing of a salt-work at Recton; +but that he will give Filby a better employment, and desires +Filby will write to him. If I knew how to write to Filby, I +would; but pray do you. Bid him make no mention of you; but +only let Mr. Griffin know that he has the honour to be +recommended by Dr. S—, etc.; that he will endeavour to +deserve, etc.; and if you dictated a whole letter for him, it +would be better; I hope he can write and spell well. +I’ll inquire for a direction to Griffin before I finish +this. I dined with Lord Treasurer and seven lords +to-day. You know Saturday is his great day, but I sat with +them alone till eight, and then came home, and have been writing +a letter to Mrs. Davis, at York. She took care to have a +letter delivered for me at Lord Treasurer’s; <a +name="page512"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 512</span>for I would +not own one she sent by post. She reproaches me for not +writing to her these four years; and I have honestly told her it +was my way never to write to those whom I am never likely to see, +unless I can serve them, which I cannot her, etc. Davis the +schoolmaster’s widow. Nite MD.</p> +<p>22. I dined to-day at Lord Orkney’s, with the Duke +of Ormond and Sir Thomas Hanmer. <a name="citation512"></a><a +href="#footnote512" class="citation">[512]</a> Have you +ever heard of the latter? He married the Duchess of Grafton +in his youth (she dined with us too). He is the most +considerable man in the House of Commons. He went last +spring to Flanders, with the Duke of Ormond; from thence to +France, and was going to Italy; but the Ministry sent for him, +and he has been come over about ten days. He is much out of +humour with things: he thinks the peace is kept off too long, and +is full of fears and doubts. It is thought he is designed +for Secretary of State, instead of Lord Dartmouth. We have +been acquainted these two years; and I intend, in a day or two, +to have an hour’s talk with him on affairs. I saw the +Bishop of Clogher at Court; Miss is recovering. I know not +how much she will be marked. The Queen is slowly mending of +her gout, and intends to be brought in a chair to Parliament when +it meets, which will be March 3; for I suppose they will prorogue +no more; yet the peace will not be signed then, and we apprehend +the Tories themselves will many of them be discontented. +Nite dee MD.</p> +<p>23. It was ill weather to-day, and I dined with Sir +Andrew Fountaine, and in the evening played at ombre with him and +the Provost, and won twenty-five shillings; so I have recovered +myself pretty well. Dilly has been dunning me to see Fanny +Manley; but I have not yet been able to do it. Miss Ashe is +now quite out of danger; and hope will not be <a +name="page513"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 513</span>much +marked. I cannot tell how to direct to Griffin; and think +he lives in Bury Street, near St. James’s Street, hard by +me; but I suppose your brother may direct to him to the Salt +Office, and, as I remember, he knows his Christian name, because +he sent it me in the list of the Commissioners. Nite dee +MD.</p> +<p>24. I walked this morning to Chelsea, to see Dr. +Atterbury, Dean of Christ Church. I had business with him +about entering Mr. Fitzmaurice, <a name="citation513a"></a><a +href="#footnote513a" class="citation">[513a]</a> my Lord +Kerry’s son, into his College; and Lady Kerry <a +name="citation513b"></a><a href="#footnote513b" +class="citation">[513b]</a> is a great favourite of mine. +Lord Harley, Lord Dupplin, young Bromley <a +name="citation513c"></a><a href="#footnote513c" +class="citation">[513c]</a> the Speaker’s son, and I, dined +with Dr. Stratford <a name="citation513d"></a><a +href="#footnote513d" class="citation">[513d]</a> and some other +clergymen; but I left them at seven to go to Lady Jersey, to see +Monteleon the Spanish Ambassador play at ombre. Lady Jersey +was abroad, and I chid the servants, and made a rattle; but since +I came home she sent me a message that I was mistaken, and that +the meeting is to be to-morrow. I have a worse memory than +when I left you, and every day forget appointments; but here my +memory was by chance too good. But I’ll go to-morrow; +for Lady Catherine Hyde and Lady Bolingbroke are to be there by +appointment, and I listed <a name="citation513e"></a><a +href="#footnote513e" class="citation">[513e]</a> up my periwig, +and all, to make a figure. Well, who can help it? Not +I, vow to . . . ! <a name="citation513f"></a><a +href="#footnote513f" class="citation">[513f]</a> Nite +MD.</p> +<p>25. Lord Treasurer met me last night at Lord +Masham’s, and thanked me for my company in a jeer, because +I had not dined with him in three days. He chides me if I +stay away but two days together. What will this come +to? Nothing. My grandmother used to say, “More +of your <a name="page514"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +514</span>lining, and less of your dining.” However, +I dined with him, and could hardly leave him at eight, to go to +Lady Jersey’s, where five or six foreign Ministers were, +and as many ladies. Monteleon played like the English, and +cried “gacco,” and knocked his knuckles for trump, +and played at small games like Ppt. Lady Jersey whispered +me to stay and sup with the ladies when the fellows were gone; +but they played till eleven, and I would not stay. I think +this letter must go on Saturday; that’s certain; and it is +not half full yet. Lady Catherine Hyde had a mighty mind I +should be acquainted with Lady Dalkeith, <a +name="citation514a"></a><a href="#footnote514a" +class="citation">[514a]</a> her sister, the Duke of +Monmouth’s eldest son’s widow, who was of the company +to-night; but I did not like her; she paints too much. Nite +MD.</p> +<p>26. This day our Society met at the Duke of +Ormond’s, but I had business that called me another way; so +I sent my excuses, and dined privately with a friend. +Besides, Sir Thomas Hanmer whispered me last night at Lady +Jersey’s that I must attend Lord Treasurer and Duke of +Ormond at supper at his house to-night; which I did at eleven, +and stayed till one, so oo may be sure ’tis late +enough. There was the Duchess of Grafton, and the Duke her +son; nine of us in all. The Duke of Ormond chid me for not +being at the Society to-day, and said sixteen were there. I +said I never knew sixteen people good company in my life; no, +fais, nor eight either. We have no news in this town at +all. I wonder why I don’t write you news. I +know less of what passes than anybody, because I go to <a +name="citation514b"></a><a href="#footnote514b" +class="citation">[514b]</a> no coffee-house, nor see any but +Ministers, and such people; and Ministers never talk politics in +conversation. The Whigs are forming great schemes against +the meeting of Parliament, which will be next Tuesday, I still +think, without fail; and we hope to hear <a +name="page515"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 515</span>by then +that the peace is ready to sign. The Queen’s gout +mends daily. Nite MD.</p> +<p>27. I passed a very insipid day, and dined privately +with a friend in the neighbourhood. Did I tell you that I +have a very fine picture of Lady Orkney, <a +name="citation515a"></a><a href="#footnote515a" +class="citation">[515a]</a> an original, by Sir Godfrey Kneller, +three-quarters length? I have it now at home, with a fine +frame. Lord Bolingbroke and Lady Masham have promised to +sit for me; but I despair of Lord Treasurer; only I hope he will +give me a copy, and then I shall have all the pictures of those I +really love here; just half a dozen; only I’ll make Lord +Keeper give me his print in a frame. This letter must go +to-morrow, because of sending ME a bill; else it should not till +next week, I assure oo. I have little to do now with my +pen; for my grand business stops till they are more pressing, and +till something or other happens; and I believe I shall return +with disgust to finish it, it is so very laborious. Sir +Thomas Hanmer has my papers now. And hat is MD doing +now? Oh, at ombre with the Dean always on Friday night, +with Mrs. Walls. Pray don’t play at small +games. I stood by, t’other night, while the Duke +d’Atree <a name="citation515b"></a><a href="#footnote515b" +class="citation">[515b]</a> lost six times with manilio, basto, +and three small trumps; and Lady Jersey won above twenty +pounds. Nite dee richar <a name="citation515c"></a><a +href="#footnote515c" class="citation">[515c]</a> MD.</p> +<p>28. I was at Court to-day, when the Abbé Gaultier +whispered me that a courier was just come with an account that +the French King had consented to all the Queen’s demands, +and his consent was carried to Utrecht, and the peace will be +signed in a few days. I suppose the general peace cannot be +so soon ready; but that is no matter. The news presently +ran about the Court. I saw the Queen carried out in her +chair, to take the air in the garden. I met Griffin at +Court, and he told me that orders were sent to examine Filby; +and, if he be fit, to make him (I think he called it) an +assistant; I don’t know what, Supervisor, I think; but it +is some employment a good deal better than his own. The +Parliament will have another <a name="page516"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 516</span>short prorogation, though it is not +known yet. I dined with Lord Treasurer and his Saturday +company, and left him at eight to put this in the post-office +time enough. And now I must bid oo farewell, deelest richar +Ppt. God bless oo ever, and rove Pdfr. Farewell MD MD +MD FW FW FW FW ME ME ME Lele Lele.</p> +<h3>LETTER LXI. <a name="citation516a"></a><a +href="#footnote516a" class="citation">[516a]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>March</i> 1, 1712–13.</p> +<p>’<span class="smcap">Tis</span> out of my head whether I +answered all your letter in my last yesterday or no. I +think I was in haste, and could not: but now I see I answered a +good deal of it; no, only about your brother, and ME’s +bill. I dined with Lady Orkney, and we talked politics till +eleven at night; and, as usual, found everything wrong, and put +ourselves out of humour. Yes, I have Lady Giffard’s +picture sent me by your mother. It is boxed up at a place +where my other things are. I have goods in two or three +places; and when I leave a lodging, I box up the books I get (for +I always get some), and come naked into a new lodging; and so +on. Talk not to me of deaneries; I know less of that than +ever by much. Nite MD.</p> +<p>2. I went to-day into the City to see Pat Rolt, <a +name="citation516b"></a><a href="#footnote516b" +class="citation">[516b]</a> who lodges with a City cousin, a +daughter of coz Cleve; (you are much the wiser). I had +never been at her house before. My he-coz Thompson the +butcher is dead, or dying. I dined with my printer, and +walked home, and went to sit with Lady Clarges. I found +four of them at whist; Lady Godolphin <a +name="citation516c"></a><a href="#footnote516c" +class="citation">[516c]</a> was one. I sat by her, and +talked of her cards, etc., but she would not give me one look, +nor say a word to me. She refused some time ago to be +acquainted with me. You know she is Lord +Marlborough’s eldest daughter. She is a fool for her +pains, and I’ll pull her down. What can I do <a +name="page517"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 517</span>for Dr. +Smith’s daughter’s husband? I have no personal +credit with any of the Commissioners. I’ll speak to +Keatley; <a name="citation517a"></a><a href="#footnote517a" +class="citation">[517a]</a> but I believe it will signify +nothing. In the Customs people must rise by degrees, and he +must at first take what is very low, if he be qualified for +that. Ppt mistakes me; I am not angry at your recommending +anyone to me, provided you will take my answer. Some things +are in my way, and then I serve those I can. But people +will not distinguish, but take things ill, when I have no power; +but Ppt is wiser. And employments in general are very hard +to be got. Nite MD.</p> +<p>3. I dined to-day with Lord Treasurer, who chid me for +my absence, which was only from Saturday last. The +Parliament was again prorogued for a week, and I suppose the +peace will be ready by then, and the Queen will be able to be +brought to the House, and make her speech. I saw Dr. +Griffith <a name="citation517b"></a><a href="#footnote517b" +class="citation">[517b]</a> two or three months ago, at a Latin +play at Westminster; but did not speak to him. I hope he +will not die; I should be sorry for Ppt’s sake; he is very +tender of her. I have long lost all my colds, and the +weather mends a little. I take some steel drops, and my +head is pretty well. I walk when I can, but am grown very +idle; and, not finishing my thing, I gamble <a +name="citation517c"></a><a href="#footnote517c" +class="citation">[517c]</a> abroad and play at ombre. I +shall be more careful in my physic than Mrs. Price: ’tis +not a farthing matter her death, I think; and so I say no more +to-night, but will read a dull book, and go sleep. Nite dee +MD.</p> +<p>4. Mr. Ford has been this half-year inviting me to dine +at his lodgings: so I did to-day, and brought the Provost and Dr. +Parnell with me, and my friend Lewis was there. Parnell +went away, and the other three played at ombre, and I looked on; +which I love, and would not play. Tisdall is a pretty +fellow, as you say; and when I come back to Ireland with nothing, +he will condole with me with abundance of secret pleasure. +I believe I told you what he wrote to me, that I have saved +England, and he Ireland; <a name="citation517d"></a><a +href="#footnote517d" class="citation">[517d]</a> but <a +name="page518"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 518</span>I can bear +that. I have learned to hear and see, and say +nothing. I was to see the Duchess of Hamilton to-day, and +met Blith <a name="citation518a"></a><a href="#footnote518a" +class="citation">[518a]</a> of Ireland just going out of her +house into his coach. I asked her how she came to receive +young fellows. It seems he had a ball in the Duke of +Hamilton’s house when the Duke died; and the Duchess got an +advertisement put in the <i>Postboy</i>, <a +name="citation518b"></a><a href="#footnote518b" +class="citation">[518b]</a> reflecting on the ball, because the +Marlborough daughters <a name="citation518c"></a><a +href="#footnote518c" class="citation">[518c]</a> were there; and +Blith came to beg the Duchess’s pardon, and clear +himself. He’s a sad dog. Nite poo dee deelest +MD.</p> +<p>5. Lady Masham has miscarried; but is well almost +again. I have many visits to-day. I met Blith at the +Duke of Ormond’s; and he begged me to carry him to the +Duchess of Hamilton, to beg her pardon again. I did on +purpose to see how the blunderbuss behaved himself; but I begged +the Duchess to use him mercifully, for she is the devil of a +teaser. The good of it is, she ought to beg his pardon, for +he meant no harm; yet she would not allow him to put in an +advertisement to clear himself from hers, though hers was all a +lie. He appealed to me, and I gravely gave it against +him. I was at Court to-day, and the foreign Ministers have +got a trick of employing me to speak for them to Lord Treasurer +and Lord Bolingbroke; which I do when the case is +reasonable. The College <a name="citation518d"></a><a +href="#footnote518d" class="citation">[518d]</a> need not fear; I +will not be their Governor. I dined with Sir Thomas Hanmer +and his Duchess. <a name="citation518e"></a><a +href="#footnote518e" class="citation">[518e]</a> The Duke +of Ormond was there, but we parted soon, and I went to visit Lord +Pembroke for the first time; but it was to see some curious +books. Lord Cholmondeley <a name="citation518f"></a><a +href="#footnote518f" class="citation">[518f]</a> came in; but I +would not talk to him, though he made many advances. I hate +the scoundrel for all he is your Griffith’s +friend.—Yes, yes, I am abused enough, if that be all. +Nite sollahs.</p> +<p><a name="page519"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +519</span>6. I was to-day at an auction of pictures with +Pratt, <a name="citation519a"></a><a href="#footnote519a" +class="citation">[519a]</a> and laid out two pound five shillings +for a picture of Titian, and if it were a Titian it would be +worth twice as many pounds. If I am cheated, I’ll +part with it to Lord Masham: if it be a bargain, I’ll keep +it to myself. That’s my conscience. But I made +Pratt buy several pictures for Lord Masham. Pratt is a +great virtuoso that way. I dined with Lord Treasurer, but +made him go to Court at eight. I always tease him to be +gone. I thought to have made Parnell dine with him, but he +was ill; his head is out of order like mine, but more constant, +poor boy!—I was at Lord Treasurer’s levee with the +Provost, to ask a book for the College.—I never go to his +levee, unless to present somebody. For all oor rallying, +saucy <a name="citation519b"></a><a href="#footnote519b" +class="citation">[519b]</a> Ppt, as hope saved, I expected they +would have decided about me long ago; and as hope saved, as soon +as ever things are given away and I not provided for, I will be +gone with the very first opportunity, and put up bag and +baggage. But people are slower than can be thought. +Nite MD.</p> +<p>7. Yes, I hope Leigh will soon be gone, a p— on +him! I met him once, and he talked gravely to me of not +seeing the Irish bishops here, and the Irish gentlemen; but I +believe my answers fretted him enough. I would not dine +with Lord Treasurer to-day, though it was Saturday (for he has +engaged me for to-morrow), but went and dined with Lord Masham, +and played at ombre, sixpenny running ombre, for three +hours. There were three voles <a name="citation519c"></a><a +href="#footnote519c" class="citation">[519c]</a> against me, and +I was once a great loser, but came off for three shillings and +sixpence. One may easily lose five guineas at it. +Lady Orkney is gone out of town to-day, and I could not see her +for laziness, but writ to her. She has left me some +physic. Fais, I never knew MD’s politics before, and +I think it pretty extraordinary, and a great compliment to you, +and I believe never three people conversed so much with so little +politics. I avoid all conversation with the other party; it +is not to be borne, and I am sorry for it. O yes, things +[are] very dear. <a name="page520"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 520</span>DD must come in at last with +DD’s two eggs a penny. There the proverb was well +applied. Parvisol has sent me a bill of fifty pounds, as I +ordered him, which, I hope, will serve me, and bring me +over. Pray God MD does not be delayed for it; but I have +had very little from him this long time. I was not at Court +to-day; a wonder! Nite sollahs . . . Pdfr.</p> +<p>8. Oo must know, I give chocolate almost every day to +two or three people that I suffer to come to see me in a +morning. My man begins to lie pretty well. ’Tis +nothing for people to be denied ten times. My man knows all +I will see, and denies me to everybody else. This is the +day of the Queen’s coming to the Crown, and the day Lord +Treasurer was stabbed by Guiscard. I was at Court, where +everybody had their Birthday clothes on, and I dined with Lord +Treasurer, who was very fine. He showed me some of the +Queen’s speech, which I corrected in several places, and +penned the vote of address of thanks for the speech; but I was of +opinion the House should not sit on Tuesday next, unless they +hear the peace is signed; that is, provided they are sure it will +be signed the week after, and so have one scolding for all. +Nite MD.</p> +<p>9. Lord Treasurer would have had me dine with him +to-day; he desired me last night, but I refused, because he would +not keep the day of his stabbing with all the Cabinet, as he +intended: so I dined with my friend Lewis; and the Provost and +Parnell, and Ford, was with us. I lost sixteen shillings at +ombre; I don’t like it, as etc. At night Lewis +brought us word that the Parliament does not sit to-morrow. +I hope they are sure of the peace by next week, and then they are +right in my opinion: otherwise I think they have done wrong, and +might have sat three weeks ago. People will grumble; but +Lord Treasurer cares not a rush. Lord Keeper is suddenly +taken ill of a quinsy, and some lords are commissioned, I think +Lord Trevor, <a name="citation520"></a><a href="#footnote520" +class="citation">[520]</a> to prorogue the Parliament <a +name="page521"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 521</span>in his +stead. You never saw a town so full of ferment and +expectation. Mr. Pope has published a fine poem, called +<i>Windsor Forest</i>. <a name="citation521a"></a><a +href="#footnote521a" class="citation">[521a]</a> Read +it. Nite.</p> +<p>10. I was early this morning to see Lord +Bolingbroke. I find he was of opinion the Parliament should +sit; and says they are not sure the peace will be signed next +week. The prorogation is to this day se’nnight. +I went to look on a library I am going to buy, if we can +agree. I have offered a hundred and twenty pounds, and will +give ten more. Lord Bolingbroke will lend me the +money. I was two hours poring on the books. I will +sell some of them, and keep the rest; but I doubt they +won’t take the money. I dined in the City, and sat an +hour in the evening with Lord Treasurer, who was in very good +humour; but reproached me for not dining with him yesterday and +to-day. What will all this come to? Lord Keeper had a +pretty good night, and is better. I was in pain for +him. How do oo do sollahs? . . . Nite MD. <a +name="citation521b"></a><a href="#footnote521b" +class="citation">[521b]</a></p> +<p>11. I was this morning to visit the Duke and Duchess of +Ormond, and the Duchess of Hamilton, and went with the Provost to +an auction of pictures, and laid out fourteen shillings. I +am in for it, if I had money; but I doubt I shall be undone; for +Sir Andrew Fountaine invited the Provost and me to dine with him, +and play at ombre, when I fairly lost fourteen shillings. +Fais, it won’t do; and I shall be out of conceit with play +this good while. I am come home; and it is late, and my +puppy let out my fire, and I am gone to bed and writing there, +and it is past twelve a good while. Went out four matadores +and a trump in black, and was bested. Vely bad, fais! Nite +my deelest logues MD.</p> +<p>12. I was at another auction of pictures to-day, and a +great auction it was. I made Lord Masham lay out forty <a +name="page522"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +522</span>pounds. There were pictures sold of twice as much +value apiece. Our Society met to-day at the Duke of +Beaufort’s: a prodigious fine dinner, which I hate; but we +did some business. Our printer was to attend us, as usual; +and the Chancellor of the Exchequer sent the author of the +<i>Examiner</i> <a name="citation522a"></a><a +href="#footnote522a" class="citation">[522a]</a> twenty +guineas. He is an ingenious fellow, but the most confounded +vain coxcomb in the world, so that I dare not let him see me, nor +am acquainted with him. I had much discourse with the Duke +of Ormond this morning, and am driving some points to secure us +all in case of accidents, etc. <a name="citation522b"></a><a +href="#footnote522b" class="citation">[522b]</a> I left the +Society at seven. I can’t drink now at all with any +pleasure. I love white Portugal wine better than claret, +champagne, or burgundy. I have a sad vulgar appetite. +I remember Ppt used to maunder, when I came from a great dinner, +and DD had but a bit of mutton. I cannot endure above one +dish; nor ever could since I was a boy, and loved stuffing. +It was a fine day, which is a rarity with us, I assure +[you]. Never fair two days together. Nite dee MD.</p> +<p>13. I had a rabble of Irish parsons this morning +drinking my chocolate. I cannot remember +appointments. I was to have supped last night with the +Swedish Envoy at his house, and some other company, but forgot +it; and he rallied me to-day at Lord Bolingbroke’s, who +excused me, saying, the Envoy ought not to be angry, because I +serve Lord Treasurer and him the same way. For that reason, +I very seldom promise to go anywhere. I dined with Lord +Treasurer, who chid me for being absent so long, as he always +does if I miss a day. I sat three hours this evening with +Lady Jersey; but the first two hours she was at ombre with some +company. I left Lord Treasurer at eight: I fancied he was a +little thoughtful, for he was playing with an orange by fits, +which, I told him, among common men looked like the spleen. +This letter shall not go to-morrow; no haste, ung oomens; <a +name="page523"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 523</span>nothing +that presses. I promised but once in three weeks, and I am +better than my word. I wish the peace may be ready, I mean +that we have notice it is signed, before Tuesday; otherwise the +grumbling will much increase. Nite logues.</p> +<p>14. It was a lovely day this, and I took the advantage +of walking a good deal in the Park, before I went to Court. +Colonel Disney, one of our Society, is ill of a fever, and, we +fear, in great danger. We all love him mightily, and he +would be a great loss. I doubt I shall not buy the library; +for a roguey bookseller has offered sixty pounds more than I +designed to give; so you see I meant to have a good +bargain. I dined with Lord Treasurer and his Saturday +company; but there were but seven at table. Lord +Peterborrow is ill, and spits blood, with a bruise he got before +he left England; but, I believe, an Italian lady he has brought +over is the cause that his illness returns. You know old +Lady Bellasis <a name="citation523a"></a><a href="#footnote523a" +class="citation">[523a]</a> is dead at last? She has left +Lord Berkeley of Stratton <a name="citation523b"></a><a +href="#footnote523b" class="citation">[523b]</a> one of her +executors, and it will be of great advantage to him; they say +above ten thousand pounds. I stayed with Lord Treasurer +upon business, after the company was gone; but I dare not tell +you upon what. My letters would be good memoirs, if I durst +venture to say a thousand things that pass; but I hear so much of +letters opening at your post-office that I am fearful, etc., and +so good-nite, sollahs, rove Pdfr, MD.</p> +<p>15. Lord Treasurer engaged me to dine with him again +to-day, and I had ready what he wanted; but he would not see it, +but put me off till to-morrow. The Queen goes to chapel +now. She is carried in an open chair, and will be well +enough to go to Parliament on Tuesday, if the Houses meet, which +is not yet certain; neither, indeed, can the <a +name="page524"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 524</span>Ministers +themselves tell; for it depends on winds and weather, and +circumstances of negotiation. However, we go on as if it +was certainly to meet; and I am to be at Lord Treasurer’s +to-morrow, upon that supposition, to settle some things relating +that way. Ppt <a name="citation524a"></a><a +href="#footnote524a" class="citation">[524a]</a> may understand +me. The doctors tell me that if poor Colonel Disney does +not get some sleep to-night, he must die. What care +you? Ah! but I do care. He is one of our Society; a +fellow of abundance of humour; an old battered rake, but very +honest, not an old man, but an old rake. It was he that +said of Jenny Kingdom, <a name="citation524b"></a><a +href="#footnote524b" class="citation">[524b]</a> the maid of +honour, who is a little old, that, since she could not get a +husband, the Queen should give her a brevet to act as a married +woman. You don’t understand this. They give +brevets to majors and captains to act as colonels in the +army. Brevets are commissions. Ask soldiers, dull +sollahs. Nite MD.</p> +<p>16. I was at Lord Treasurer’s before he came; and, +as he entered, he told me the Parliament was prorogued till +Thursday se’nnight. They have had some expresses, by +which they count that the peace may be signed by that time; at +least, that France, Holland, and we, will sign some articles, by +which we shall engage to sign the peace when it is ready: but +Spain has no Minister there; for Monteleon, who is to be their +Ambassador at Utrecht, is not yet gone from hence; and till he is +there, the Spaniards can sign no peace: and [of] one thing take +notice, that a general peace can hardly be finished these two +months, so as to be proclaimed here; for, after signing, it must +be ratified; that is, confirmed by the several princes at their +Courts, which to Spain will cost a month; for we must have notice +that it is ratified in all Courts before we can proclaim +it. So be not in too much haste. Nite MD.</p> +<p><a name="page525"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +525</span>17. The Irish folks were disappointed that the +Parliament did not meet to-day, because it was St. +Patrick’s Day; and the Mall was so full of crosses that I +thought all the world was Irish. Miss Ashe is almost quite +well, and I see the Bishop, but shall not yet go to his +house. I dined again with Lord Treasurer; but the +Parliament being prorogued, I must keep what I have till next +week: for I believe he will not see it till just the evening +before the session. He has engaged me to dine with him +again to-morrow, though I did all I could to put it off; but I +don’t care to disoblige him. Nite dee sollahs +’tis late. Nite MD.</p> +<p>18. I have now dined six days successively with Lord +Treasurer; but to-night I stole away while he was talking with +somebody else, and so am at liberty to-morrow. There was a +flying report of a general cessation of arms: everybody had it at +Court; but, I believe, there is nothing in it. I asked a +certain French Minister how things went. And he whispered +me in French, “Your Plenipotentiaries and ours play the +fool.” None of us, indeed, approve of the conduct of +either at this time; but Lord Treasurer was in full good-humour +for all that. He had invited a good many of his relations; +and, of a dozen at table, they were all of the Harley family but +myself. Disney is recovering, though you don’t care a +straw. Dilly murders us with his <i>if</i> puns. You +know them. . . . <a name="citation525a"></a><a +href="#footnote525a" class="citation">[525a]</a> Nite +MD.</p> +<p>19. The Bishop of Clogher has made an <i>if</i> pun that +he is mighty proud of, and designs to send it over to his brother +Tom. But Sir Andrew Fountaine has wrote to Tom Ashe last +post, and told him the pun, and desired him to send it over to +the Bishop as his own; and, if it succeeds, ’twill be a +pure bite. The Bishop will tell it us as a wonder that he +and his brother should jump so exactly. I’ll tell you +the pun:—If there was a hackney coach at Mr. Pooley’s +<a name="citation525b"></a><a href="#footnote525b" +class="citation">[525b]</a> door, what town in Egypt would it +be? Why, it would be Hecatompolis; <a +name="page526"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 526</span><i>Hack at +Tom Pooley’s</i>. “Sillly,” says +Ppt. I dined with a private friend to-day; for our Society, +I told you, meet but once a fortnight. I have not seen +Fanny Manley yet; I can’t help it. Lady Orkney is +come to town: why, she was at her country house; hat <a +name="citation526a"></a><a href="#footnote526a" +class="citation">[526a]</a> care you? Nite darling (?) dee +MD.</p> +<p>20. Dilly read me a letter to-day from Ppt. She +seems to have scratched her head when she writ it. +’Tis a sad thing to write to people without tact. +There you say, you hear I was going to Bath. No such thing; +I am pretty well, I thank God. The town is now sending me +to Savoy. <a name="citation526b"></a><a href="#footnote526b" +class="citation">[526b]</a> Forty people have given me joy +of it, yet there is not the least truth that I know in it. +I was at an auction of pictures, but bought none. I was so +glad of my liberty, that I would dine nowhere; but, the weather +being fine, I sauntered into the City, and ate a bit about five, +and then supped at Mr. Burke’s <a +name="citation526c"></a><a href="#footnote526c" +class="citation">[526c]</a> your Accountant-General, who had been +engaging me this month. The Bishop of Clogher was to have +been there, but was hindered by Lord Paget’s <a +name="citation526d"></a><a href="#footnote526d" +class="citation">[526d]</a> funeral. The Provost and I sat +till one o’clock; and, if that be not late, I don’t +know what is late. Parnell’s poem will be published +on Monday, and to-morrow I design he shall present it to Lord +Treasurer and Lord Bolingbroke at Court. The poor lad is +almost always out of order with his head. Burke’s +wife is his sister. She has a little of the pert Irish +way. Nite MD.</p> +<p>21. Morning. I will now finish my letter; for +company will come, and a stir, and a clutter; and I’ll keep +the letter in my pottick, <a name="citation526e"></a><a +href="#footnote526e" class="citation">[526e]</a> and give it into +the post myself. I must go to Court, and you know on +Saturdays I dine with Lord Treasurer, of course. Farewell, +deelest MD MD MD, FW FW FW, MD ME ME ME Lele sollahs. <a +name="citation526f"></a><a href="#footnote526f" +class="citation">[526f]</a></p> +<h3><a name="page527"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +527</span>LETTER LXII. <a name="citation527a"></a><a +href="#footnote527a" class="citation">[527a]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>March</i> 21, 1712–13.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">gave</span> your letter in this +night. I dined with Lord Treasurer to-day, and find he has +been at a meeting at Lord Halifax’s house, with four +principal Whigs; but he is resolved to begin a speech against +them when the Parliament sits; and I have begged that the +Ministers may have a meeting on purpose to settle that matter, +and let us be the attackers; and I believe it will come to +something, for the Whigs intend to attack the Ministers: and if, +instead of that, the Ministers attack the Whigs, it will be +better: and farther, I believe we shall attack them on those very +points they intend to attack us. The Parliament will be +again prorogued for a fortnight, because of Passion Week. I +forgot to tell you that Mr. Griffin has given Ppt’s brother +<a name="citation527b"></a><a href="#footnote527b" +class="citation">[527b]</a> a new employment, about ten pounds a +year better than his former; but more remote, and consequently +cheaper. I wish I could have done better, and hope oo will +take what can be done in good part, and that oo brother will not +dislike it.—Nite own dear . . . MD.</p> +<p>22. I dined to-day with Lord Steward. <a +name="citation527c"></a><a href="#footnote527c" +class="citation">[527c]</a> There Frank Annesley <a +name="citation527d"></a><a href="#footnote527d" +class="citation">[527d]</a> (a Parliament-man) told me he had +heard that I had wrote to my friends in Ireland to keep firm to +the Whig interest; for that Lord Treasurer would certainly +declare for it after the peace. Annesley said twenty people +had told him this. You must know this is what they +endeavour to report of Lord Treasurer, that he designs to declare +for the Whigs; and a Scotch fellow has wrote the same to +Scotland; and his meeting with those lords gives occasion to such +reports. Let me henceforth call Lord Treasurer Eltee, +because possibly my letters may be opened. Pray remember +Eltee. <a name="page528"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +528</span>You know the reason; L. T. and Eltee pronounced the +same way. Stay, ’tis five weeks since I had a letter +from MD. I allow you six. You see why I cannot come +over the beginning of April; whoever has to do with this Ministry +can fix no time: but as <a name="citation528a"></a><a +href="#footnote528a" class="citation">[528a]</a> hope saved, it +is not Pdfr’s fault. Pay don’t blame poo +Pdfr. Nite deelest logues MD. <a name="citation528b"></a><a +href="#footnote528b" class="citation">[528b]</a></p> +<p>23. I dined to-day at Sir Thomas Hanmer’s, by an +old appointment: there was the Duke of Ormond, and Lord and Lady +Orkney. I left them at six. Everybody is as sour as +vinegar. I endeavour to keep a firm friendship between the +Duke of Ormond and Eltee. (Oo know who Eltee is, or have oo +fordot already?) I have great designs, if I can compass +them; but delay is rooted in Eltee’s heart; yet the fault +is not altogether there, that things are no better. Here is +the cursedest libel in verse come out that ever was seen, called +<i>The Ambassadress</i>; <a name="citation528c"></a><a +href="#footnote528c" class="citation">[528c]</a> it is very dull, +too; it has been printed three or four different ways, and is +handed about, but not sold. It abuses the Queen +horribly. The <i>Examiner</i> has cleared me to-day of +being author of his paper, and done it with great civilities to +me. <a name="citation528d"></a><a href="#footnote528d" +class="citation">[528d]</a> I hope it will stop +people’s mouths; if not, they must go on and be hanged, I +care not. ’Tis terribly rainy weather, I’ll go +sleep. Nite deelest MD.</p> +<p>24. It rained all this day, and ruined me in +coach-hire. I went to Colonel Disney, who is past +danger. Then I visited Lord Keeper, who was at dinner; but +I would not dine with him, but drove to Lord Treasurer (Eltee I +mean), paid the coachman, and went in; but he dined abroad: so I +was forced to call the coachman again, and went to Lord +Bolingbroke’s. He dined abroad too; and at Lord +Dupplin’s I <a name="page529"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +529</span>alighted, and by good luck got a dinner there, and then +went to the Latin play at Westminster School, acted by the boys; +and Lord Treasurer (Eltee I mean again) honoured them with his +presence. Lady Masham’s eldest son, about two years +old, is ill, and I am afraid will not live: she is full of grief, +and I pity and am angry with her. Four shillings to-day in +coach-hire; fais, it won’t do. Our peace will +certainly be ready by Thursday fortnight; but our +Plenipotentiaries were to blame that it was not done +already. They thought their powers were not full enough to +sign the peace, unless every Prince was ready, which cannot yet +be; for Spain has no Minister yet at Utrecht; but now ours have +new orders. Nite MD.</p> +<p>25. Weather worse than ever; terrible rain all day, but +I was resolved I would spend no more money. I went to an +auction of pictures with Dr. Pratt, and there met the Duke of +Beaufort, who promised to come with me to Court, but did +not. So a coach I got, and went to Court, and did some +little business there, but was forced to go home; for oo must +understand I take a little physic over-night, which works me next +day. Lady Orkney is my physician. It is hiera picra, +<a name="citation529a"></a><a href="#footnote529a" +class="citation">[529a]</a> two spoonfuls, devilish stuff! +I thought to have dined with Eltee, but would not, merely to save +a shilling; but I dined privately with a friend, and played at +ombre, and won six shillings. Here are several people of +quality lately dead of the smallpox. I have not yet seen +Miss Ashe, but hear she is well. The Bishop of Clogher has +bought abundance of pictures, and Dr. Pratt has got him very good +pennyworths. <a name="citation529b"></a><a href="#footnote529b" +class="citation">[529b]</a> I can get no walks, the weather +is so bad. Is it so with oo, sollahs? . . . <a +name="citation529c"></a><a href="#footnote529c" +class="citation">[529c]</a></p> +<p>26. Though it was shaving-day, head and beard, yet I was +out early to see Lord Bolingbroke, and talk over affairs with +him; and then I went to the Duke of Ormond’s, and so to +Court, where the Ministers did not come, because the Parliament +was prorogued till this day fortnight. We had terrible <a +name="page530"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 530</span>rain and +hail to-day. Our Society met this day, but I left them +before seven, and went to Sir A[ndrew] F[ountaine], and played at +ombre with him and Sir Thomas Clarges, till ten, and then went to +Sir Thomas Hanmer. His wife, the Duchess of Grafton, left +us after a little while, and I stayed with him about an hour, +upon some affairs, etc. Lord Bolingbroke left us at the +Society before I went; for there is an express from Utrecht, but +I know not yet what it contains; only I know the Ministers expect +the peace will be signed in a week, which is a week before the +session. Nite, MD.</p> +<p>27. Parnell’s poem is mightily esteemed; but +poetry sells ill. I am plagued with that . . . <a +name="citation530a"></a><a href="#footnote530a" +class="citation">[530a]</a> poor Harrison’s mother; you +would laugh to see how cautious I am of paying her the £100 +I received for her son from the Treasury. I have asked +every creature I know whether I may do it safely, yet durst not +venture, till my Lord Keeper assured me there was no +danger. I have not paid her, but will in a day or two: +though I have a great mind to stay till Ppt sends me her opinion, +because Ppt is a great lawyer. I dined to-day with a +mixture of people at a Scotchman’s, who made the invitation +to Mr. Lewis and me, and has some design upon us, which we know +very well. I went afterwards to see a famous moving +picture, <a name="citation530b"></a><a href="#footnote530b" +class="citation">[530b]</a> and I never saw anything so +pretty. You see a sea ten miles wide, a town on +t’other end, and ships sailing in the sea, and discharging +their cannon. You see a great sky, with moon and stars, +etc. I’m a fool. Nite, dee MD.</p> +<p>28. I had a mighty levee to-day. I deny myself to +everybody, except about half a dozen, and they were all here, and +Mr. Addison was one, and I had chocolate twice, which I +don’t like. Our rainy weather continues. +Coach-hire goes deep. I dined with Eltee and his Saturday +company, as usual, and could not get away till nine. Lord +Peterborow was making long harangues, and Eltee kept me in +spite. <a name="page531"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +531</span>Then I went to see the Bishop of Ossory, who had +engaged me in the morning; he is going to Ireland. The +Bishop of Killaloe <a name="citation531a"></a><a +href="#footnote531a" class="citation">[531a]</a> and Tom Leigh +was with us. The latter had wholly changed his style, by +seeing how the bishops behaved themselves, and he seemed to think +me one of more importance than I really am. I put the ill +conduct of the bishops about the First-Fruits, with relation to +Eltee and me, strongly upon Killaloe, and showed how it had +hindered me from getting a better thing for them, called the +Crown rents, which the Queen had promised. He had nothing +to say, but was humble, and desired my interest in that and some +other things. This letter is half done in a week: I believe +oo will have it next. Nite MD.</p> +<p>29. I have been employed in endeavouring to save one of +your junior Fellows, <a name="citation531b"></a><a +href="#footnote531b" class="citation">[531b]</a> who came over +here for a dispensation from taking orders, and, in soliciting +it, has run out his time, and now his fellowship is void, if the +College pleases, unless the Queen suspends the execution, and +gives him time to take orders. I spoke to all the Ministers +yesterday about it; but they say the Queen is angry, and thought +it was a trick to deceive her; and she is positive, and so the +man must be ruined, for I cannot help him. I never saw him +in my life; but the case was so hard, I could not forbear +interposing. Your Government recommended him to the Duke of +Ormond, and he thought they would grant it; and by the time it +was refused, the fellowship by rigour is forfeited. I dined +with Dr. Arbuthnot (one of my brothers) at his lodgings in +Chelsea, and was there at chapel; and the altar put me in mind of +Tisdall’s outlandish would <a name="citation531c"></a><a +href="#footnote531c" class="citation">[531c]</a> at your hospital +for the soldiers. I was not at Court to-day, and I hear the +Queen was not at church. Perhaps the gout has seized her +again. Terrible rain all day. Have oo such +weather? Nite MD.</p> +<p>30. Morning. I was naming some time ago, to a +certain <a name="page532"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +532</span>person, another certain person, that was very +deserving, and poor and sickly; and t’other, that first +certain person, gave me a hundred pounds to give the other, which +I have not yet done. The person who is to have it never saw +the giver, nor expects one farthing, nor has the least knowledge +or imagination of it; so I believe it will be a very agreeable +surprise; for I think it is a handsome present enough. At +night I dined in the City, at Pontack’s, <a +name="citation532a"></a><a href="#footnote532a" +class="citation">[532a]</a> with Lord Dupplin, and some +others. We were treated by one Colonel Cleland, <a +name="citation532b"></a><a href="#footnote532b" +class="citation">[532b]</a> who has a mind to be Governor of +Barbados, and is laying these long traps for me and others, to +engage our interests for him. He is a true Scotchman. +I paid the hundred pounds this evening, and it was an agreeable +surprise to the receiver. We reckon the peace is now +signed, and that we shall have it in three days. I believe +it is pretty sure. Nite MD.</p> +<p>31. I thought to-day on Ppt when she told me she +suppose[d] I was acquainted with the steward, when I was giving +myself airs of being at some lord’s house. Sir Andrew +Fountaine invited the Bishop of Clogher and me, and some others, +to dine where he did; and he carried us to the Duke of +Kent’s, <a name="citation532c"></a><a href="#footnote532c" +class="citation">[532c]</a> who was gone out of town; but the +steward treated us nobly, and showed us the fine pictures, +etc. I have not yet seen Miss Ashe. I wait till she +has been abroad, <a name="page533"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +533</span>and taken the air. This evening Lady Masham, Dr. +Arbuthnot, and I, were contriving a lie for to-morrow, that Mr. +Noble, <a name="citation533a"></a><a href="#footnote533a" +class="citation">[533a]</a> who was hanged last Saturday, was +recovered by his friends, and then seized again by the sheriff, +and is now in a messenger’s hands at the Black Swan in +Holborn. We are all to send to our friends, to know whether +they have heard anything of it, and so we hope it will +spread. However, we shall do our endeavours; nothing shall +be wanting on our parts, and leave the rest to fortune. +Nite MD.</p> +<p>April 1. We had no success in our story, though I sent +my man to several houses, to inquire among the footmen, without +letting him into the secret; but I doubt my colleagues did not +contribute as they ought. Parnell and I dined with +Darteneuf <a name="citation533b"></a><a href="#footnote533b" +class="citation">[533b]</a> to-day. You have heard of +Darteneuf: I have told you of Darteneuf. After dinner we +all went to Lord Bolingbroke’s, who had desired me to dine +with him; but I would not, because I heard it was to look over a +dull poem of one parson Trapp <a name="citation533c"></a><a +href="#footnote533c" class="citation">[533c]</a> upon the +peace. The Swedish Envoy told me to-day at Court that he +was in great apprehensions about his master; <a +name="citation533d"></a><a href="#footnote533d" +class="citation">[533d]</a> and indeed we are afraid that prince +has <a name="citation533e"></a><a href="#footnote533e" +class="citation">[533e]</a> died among those Turkish dogs. +I prevailed on Lord Bolingbroke to invite Mr. Addison to dine +with him on Good Friday. I suppose we shall be mighty +mannerly. Addison is to have a play of his acted on Friday +in Easter Week: ’tis a tragedy, called <i>Cato</i>; I saw +it unfinished some years ago. <a name="citation533f"></a><a +href="#footnote533f" class="citation">[533f]</a> Did I tell +you that Steele has begun a new daily paper, called the +<i>Guardian</i>? <a name="citation533g"></a><a +href="#footnote533g" class="citation">[533g]</a> they say good +for nothing. I have not seen it. Nite dee MD.</p> +<p>2. I was this morning with Lord Bolingbroke, and he +tells <a name="page534"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 534</span>me +a Spanish courier is just come, with the news that the King of +Spain has agreed to everything that the Queen desires; and the +Duke d’Ossuna has left Paris in order to his journey to +Utrecht. I was prevailed on to come home with Trapp, and +read his poem and correct it; but it was good for nothing. +While I was thus employed, Sir Thomas Hanmer came up to my +chamber, and balked me of a journey he and I intended this week +to Lord Orkney’s at Cliffden; <a name="citation534a"></a><a +href="#footnote534a" class="citation">[534a]</a> but he is not +well, and his physician will not let him undertake such a +journey. I intended to dine with Lord Treasurer; but going +to see Colonel Disney, who lives with General Withers, <a +name="citation534b"></a><a href="#footnote534b" +class="citation">[534b]</a> I liked the General’s little +dinner so well, that I stayed and took share of it, and did not +go to Lord Treasurer till six, where I found Dr. Sacheverell, who +told us that the bookseller had given him £100 for his +sermon, <a name="citation534c"></a><a href="#footnote534c" +class="citation">[534c]</a> preached last Sunday, and intended to +print 30,000: I believe he will be confoundedly bit, and will +hardly sell above half. I have fires still, though April +has begun, against my old maxim; but the weather is wet and +cold. I never saw such a long run of ill weather in my +life. Nite dee logues MD.</p> +<p>3. I was at the Queen’s chapel to-day, but she was +not there. Mr. St. John, Lord Bolingbroke’s brother, +came this day at noon with an express from Utrecht, that the +peace is signed by all the Ministers there, but those of the +Emperor, who will likewise sign in a few days; so that now the +great work is in effect done, and I believe it will appear a most +excellent peace for Europe, particularly for England. +Addison and I, and some others, dined with Lord Bolingbroke, and +sat with him till twelve. We were very civil, but yet when +we grew warm, we talked in a friendly manner of party. +Addison raised his objections, and Lord Bolingbroke answered them +with great complaisance. Addison began Lord Somers’s +<a name="page535"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 535</span>health, +which went about; but I bid him not name Lord Wharton’s, +for I would not pledge it; and I told Lord Bolingbroke frankly +that Addison loved Lord Wharton as little as I did: so we +laughed, etc. Well, but you are glad of the peace, you Ppt +the Trimmer, are not you? As for DD I don’t doubt +her. Why, now, if I did not think Ppt had been a violent +Tory, and DD the greater Whig of the two! ’Tis +late. Nite MD.</p> +<p>4. This Passion Week, people are so demure, especially +this last day, that I told Dilly, who called here, that I would +dine with him, and so I did, faith; and had a small shoulder of +mutton of my own bespeaking. It rained all day. I +came home at seven, and have never stirred out, but have been +reading Sacheverell’s long dull sermon, which he sent +me. It is the first sermon since his suspension is expired; +but not a word in it upon the occasion, except two or three +remote hints. The Bishop of Clogher has been sadly bit by +Tom Ashe, who sent him a pun, which the Bishop had made, and +designed to send to him, but delayed it; and Lord Pembroke and I +made Sir Andrew Fountaine write it to Tom. I believe I told +you of it in my last; it succeeded right, and the Bishop was +wondering to Lord Pembroke how he and his brother could hit on +the same thing. I’ll go to bed soon, for I must be at +church by eight to-morrow, Easter Day. Nite dee MD.</p> +<p>5. Warburton <a name="citation535a"></a><a +href="#footnote535a" class="citation">[535a]</a> wrote to me two +letters about a living of one Foulkes, who is lately dead in the +county of Meath. My answer is, that before I received the +first letter, General Gorges <a name="citation535b"></a><a +href="#footnote535b" class="citation">[535b]</a> had recommended +a friend of his to the Duke of Ormond, which was the first time I +heard of its vacancy, and it was the Provost told me of it. +I believe verily that Foulkes was not dead when Gorges +recommended the other: <a name="page536"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 536</span>for Warburton’s last letter +said that Foulkes was dead the day before the date.—This +has prevented me from serving Warburton, as I would have done, if +I had received early notice enough. Pray say or write this +to Warburton, to justify me to him. I was at church at +eight this morning, and dressed and shaved after I came back, but +was too late at Court; and Lord Abingdon <a +name="citation536a"></a><a href="#footnote536a" +class="citation">[536a]</a> was like to have snapped me for +dinner, and I believe will fall out with me for refusing him; but +I hate dining with them, and I dined with a private friend, and +took two or three good walks; for it was a very fine day, the +first we have had a great while. Remember, was Easter Day a +fine day with you? I have sat with Lady Worsley till +now. Nite dee MD.</p> +<p>6. I was this morning at ten at the rehearsal of Mr. +Addison’s play, called Cato, which is to be acted on +Friday. There were not above half a score of us to see +it. We stood on the stage, and it was foolish enough to see +the actors prompted every moment, and the poet directing them; +and the drab that acts Cato’s daughter, <a +name="citation536b"></a><a href="#footnote536b" +class="citation">[536b]</a> out in the midst of a passionate +part, and then calling out, “What’s +next?” The Bishop of Clogher was there too; but he +stood privately in a gallery. I went to dine with Lord +Treasurer, but he was gone to Wimbledon, his daughter +Caermarthen’s <a name="citation536c"></a><a +href="#footnote536c" class="citation">[536c]</a> country seat, +seven miles off. So I went back, and dined privately with +Mr. Addison, whom I had left to go to Lord Treasurer. I +keep fires yet; I am very extravagant. I sat this evening +with Sir A. Fountaine, and we amused ourselves with making +<i>ifs</i> for Dilly. It is rainy weather again; nevle saw +ze rike. <a name="citation536d"></a><a href="#footnote536d" +class="citation">[536d]</a> This letter shall go to-morrow; +remember, ung oomens, it is seven weeks since oor last, and I +allow oo but five weeks; but oo have been galloping into the +country to Swanton’s. <a name="citation536e"></a><a +href="#footnote536e" class="citation">[536e]</a> O pray +tell Swanton I had his letter, but cannot contrive how to serve +him. If a Governor were to go over, I would recommend him +as far as lay in my power, but I can do no more: and you know all +employments in Ireland, at <a name="page537"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 537</span>least almost all, are engaged in +reversions. If I were on the spot, and had credit with a +Lord Lieutenant, I would very heartily recommend him; but +employments here are no more in my power than the monarchy +itself. Nite, dee MD.</p> +<p>7. Morning. I have had a visitor here, that has +taken up my time. I have not been abroad, oo may be sure; +so I can say nothing to-day, but that I rove MD bettle zan ever, +if possibbere. I will put this in the post-office; so I say +no more. I write by this post to the Dean, but it is not +above two lines; and one enclosed to you, but that enclosed to +you is not above three lines; and then one enclosed to the Dean, +which he must not have but upon condition of burning it +immediately after reading, and that before your eyes; for there +are some things in it I would not have liable to accident. +You shall only know in general that it is an account of what I +have done to serve him in his pretensions on these vacancies, +etc. But he must not know that you know so much. <a +name="citation537a"></a><a href="#footnote537a" +class="citation">[537a]</a> Does this perplex you? +Hat care I? But rove Pdfr, saucy Pdfr. Farewell, +deelest MD MD MD FW FW FW, . . . ME, MD Lele.</p> +<h3>LETTER LXIII. <a name="citation537b"></a><a +href="#footnote537b" class="citation">[537b]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>April</i> 7, 1713.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">fancy</span> I marked my last, which I +sent this day, wrong; only 61, and it ought to be 62. I +dined with Lord Treasurer, and though the business I had with him +is something against Thursday, when the Parliament is to meet, +and this is Tuesday, yet he put it off till to-morrow. I +dare not tell you what it is, lest this letter should miscarry or +be opened; but I never saw his fellow for delays. The +Parliament will now certainly sit, and everybody’s +expectations are ready to burst. At a Council to-night the +Lord Chief-Justice Parker, a Whig, spoke against the peace; so +did Lord <a name="page538"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +538</span>Chomley, <a name="citation538a"></a><a +href="#footnote538a" class="citation">[538a]</a> another Whig, +who is Treasurer of the Household. My Lord Keeper <a +name="citation538b"></a><a href="#footnote538b" +class="citation">[538b]</a> was this night made Lord +Chancellor. We hope there will soon be some removes. +Nite, dee sollahs; Late. Rove Pdfr. <a +name="citation538c"></a><a href="#footnote538c" +class="citation">[538c]</a></p> +<p>8. Lord Chomley (the right name is Cholmondeley) is this +day removed from his employment, for his last night’s +speech; and Sir Richard Temple, <a name="citation538d"></a><a +href="#footnote538d" class="citation">[538d]</a> +Lieutenant-General, the greatest Whig in the army, is turned out; +and Lieutenant-General Palmes <a name="citation538e"></a><a +href="#footnote538e" class="citation">[538e]</a> will be obliged +to sell his regiment. This is the first-fruits of a +friendship I have established between two great men. I +dined with Lord Treasurer, and did the business I had for him to +his satisfaction. I won’t tell MD what it was. . . . +<a name="citation538f"></a><a href="#footnote538f" +class="citation">[538f]</a> for zat. The Parliament sits +to-morrow for certain. Here is a letter printed in +Maccartney’s name, vindicating himself from the murder of +the Duke of Hamilton. I must give some hints to have it +answered; ’tis full of lies, and will give an opportunity +of exposing that party. To morrow will be a very important +day. All the world will be at Westminster. Lord +Treasurer is as easy as a lamb. They are mustering up the +proxies of the absent lords; but they are not in any fear of +wanting a majority, which death and accidents have increased this +year. Nite MD.</p> +<p>9. I was this morning with Lord Treasurer, to present to +him a young son <a name="citation538g"></a><a +href="#footnote538g" class="citation">[538g]</a> of the late Earl +of Jersey, at the desire of the widow. There I saw the mace +and great coach ready for Lord Treasurer, who was going to +Parliament. Our Society met to-day; but I expected the +Houses would sit longer than I cared to fast; so I dined with a +friend, and never inquired how matters went till eight this +evening, when I went to Lord Orkney’s, where I found Sir +Thomas Hanmer. The Queen delivered her speech very well, +but a little weaker <a name="page539"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 539</span>in her voice. The crowd was +vast. The order for the Address <a +name="citation539a"></a><a href="#footnote539a" +class="citation">[539a]</a> was moved, and opposed by Lord +Nottingham, Halifax, and Cowper. Lord Treasurer spoke with +great spirit and resolution; Lord Peterborow flirted <a +name="citation539b"></a><a href="#footnote539b" +class="citation">[539b]</a> against the Duke of Marlborough (who +is in Germany, you know), but it was in answer to one of +Halifax’s impertinences. The order for an Address +passed by a majority of thirty-three, and the Houses rose before +six. This is the account I heard at Lord +Orkney’s. The Bishop of Chester, <a +name="citation539c"></a><a href="#footnote539c" +class="citation">[539c]</a> a high Tory, was against the +Court. The Duchess of Marlborough sent for him some months +ago, to justify herself to him in relation to the Queen, and +showed him letters, and told him stories, which the weak man +believed, and was perverted. Nite MD.</p> +<p>10. I dined with a cousin in the City, and poor Pat Rolt +was there. I have got her rogue of a husband leave to come +to England from Port-Mahon. The Whigs are much down; but I +reckon they have some scheme in agitation. This +Parliament-time hinders our Court meetings on Wednesdays, +Thursdays, and Saturdays. I had a great deal of business +to-night, which gave me a temptation to be idle, and I lost a +dozen shillings at ombre, with Dr. Pratt and another. I +have been to see t’other day the Bishop of Clogher and +lady, but did not see Miss. It rains every day, and yet we +are all over dust. Lady Masham’s eldest boy is very +ill: I doubt he will not live, and she stays at Kensington to +nurse him, which vexes us all. She is so excessively fond, +it makes me mad. She should never leave the Queen, but +leave everything, to stick to what is so much the interest of the +public, as well as her own. This I tell her; but talk to +the winds. Nite MD.</p> +<p>11. I dined at Lord Treasurer’s, with his Saturday +company. We had ten at table, all lords but myself and the +Chancellor of the Exchequer. Argyle went off at six, and +was in very <a name="page540"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +540</span>indifferent humour as usual. Duke of Ormond and +Lord Bolingbroke were absent. I stayed till near ten. +Lord Treasurer showed us a small picture, enamelled work, and set +in gold, worth about twenty pounds; a picture, I mean, of the +Queen, which she gave to the Duchess of Marlborough, set in +diamonds. When the Duchess was leaving England, she took +off all the diamonds, and gave the picture to one Mrs. Higgins +(an old intriguing woman, whom everybody knows), bidding her make +the best of it she could. Lord Treasurer sent to Mrs. +Higgins for this picture, and gave her a hundred pounds for +it. Was ever such an ungrateful beast as that Duchess? or +did you ever hear such a story? I suppose the Whigs will +not believe it. Pray, try them. Takes off the +diamonds, and gives away the picture to an insignificant woman, +as a thing of no consequence: and gives it to her to sell, like a +piece of old-fashioned plate. Is she not a detestable +slut? Nite deelest MD.</p> +<p>12. I went to Court to-day, on purpose to present Mr. +Berkeley, <a name="citation540"></a><a href="#footnote540" +class="citation">[540]</a> one of your Fellows of Dublin College, +to Lord Berkeley of Stratton. That Mr. Berkeley is a very +ingenious man, and great philosopher, and I have mentioned him to +all the Ministers, and given them some of his writings; and I +will favour him as much as I can. This I think I am bound +to, in honour and conscience, to use all my little credit toward +helping forward men of worth in the world. The Queen was at +chapel to-day, and looks well. I dined at Lord +Orkney’s with the Duke of Ormond, Lord Arran, and Sir +Thomas Hanmer. Mr. St. John, Secretary at Utrecht, expects +every moment to return there with the ratification <a +name="page541"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 541</span>of the +peace. Did I tell you in my last of Addison’s play +called Cato, and that I was at the rehearsal of it? Nite +MD.</p> +<p>13. This morning my friend, Mr. Lewis, came to me, and +showed me an order for a warrant for the three vacant deaneries; +but none of them to me. This was what I always foresaw, and +received the notice of it better, I believe, than he +expected. I bid Mr. Lewis tell Lord Treasurer that I took +nothing ill of him but his not giving me timely notice, as he +promised to do, if he found the Queen would do nothing for +me. At noon, Lord Treasurer hearing I was in Mr. +Lewis’s office, came to me, and said many things too long +to repeat. I told him I had nothing to do but go to Ireland +immediately; for I could not, with any reputation, stay longer +here, unless I had something honourable immediately given to +me. We dined together at the Duke of Ormond’s. +He there told me he had stopped the warrants for the deans, that +what was done for me might be at the same time, and he hoped to +compass it to-night; but I believe him not. I told the Duke +of Ormond my intentions. He is content Sterne should be a +bishop, and I have St. Patrick’s; but I believe nothing +will come of it, for stay I will not; and so I believe for all oo +. . . <a name="citation541"></a><a href="#footnote541" +class="citation">[541]</a> oo may see me in Dublin before April +ends. I am less out of humour than you would imagine: and +if it were not that impertinent people will condole with me, as +they used to give me joy, I would value it less. But I will +avoid company, and muster up my baggage, and send them next +Monday by the carrier to Chester, and come and see my willows, +against the expectation of all the world.—Hat care I? +Nite deelest logues, MD.</p> +<p>14. I dined in the City to-day, and ordered a lodging to +be got ready for me against I came to pack up my things; for I +will leave this end of the town as soon as ever the warrants for +the deaneries are out, which are yet stopped. <a +name="page542"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 542</span>Lord +Treasurer told Mr. Lewis that it should be determined to-night: +and so he will for <a name="citation542a"></a><a +href="#footnote542a" class="citation">[542a]</a> a hundred +nights. So he said yesterday, but I value it not. My +daily journals shall be but short till I get into the City, and +then I will send away this, and follow it myself; and design to +walk it all the way to Chester, my man and I, by ten miles a +day. It will do my health a great deal of good. I +shall do it in fourteen days. Nite dee MD.</p> +<p>15. Lord Bolingbroke made me dine with him to-day; he <a +name="citation542b"></a><a href="#footnote542b" +class="citation">[542b]</a> was as good company as ever; and told +me the Queen would determine something for me to-night. The +dispute is, Windsor or St. Patrick’s. I told him I +would not stay for their disputes, and he thought I was in the +right. Lord Masham told me that Lady Masham is angry I have +not been to see her since this business, and desires I will come +to-morrow. Nite deelest MD.</p> +<p>16. I was this noon at Lady Masham’s, who was just +come from Kensington, where her eldest son is sick. She +said much to me of what she had talked to the Queen and Lord +Treasurer. The poor lady fell a shedding tears +openly. She could not bear to think of my having St. +Patrick’s, etc. I was never more moved than to see so +much friendship. I would not stay with her, but went and +dined with Dr. Arbuthnot, with Mr. Berkeley, one of your Fellows, +whom I have recommended to the Doctor, and to Lord Berkeley of +Stratton. Mr. Lewis tells me that the Duke of Ormond has +been to-day with the Queen; and she was content that Dr. Sterne +should be Bishop of Dromore, and I Dean of St. Patrick’s; +but then out came Lord Treasurer, and said he would not be +satisfied but that I must be Prebend[ary] of Windsor. Thus +he perplexes things. I expect neither; but I confess, as +much as I love England, I am so angry at this treatment that, if +I had my choice, I would rather have St. Patrick’s. +Lady Masham says she will speak to purpose to the Queen +to-morrow. Nite, . . . dee MD.</p> +<p>17. I went to dine at Lady Masham’s to-day, and +she was <a name="page543"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +543</span>taken ill of a sore throat, and aguish. She spoke +to the Queen last night, but had not much time. The Queen +says she will determine to-morrow with Lord Treasurer. The +warrants for the deaneries are still stopped, for fear I should +be gone. Do you think anything will be done? I +don’t care whether it is or no. In the meantime, I +prepare for my journey, and see no great people, nor will see +Lord Treasurer any more, if I go. Lord Treasurer told Mr. +Lewis it should be done to-night; so he said five nights +ago. Nite MD.</p> +<p>18. This morning Mr. Lewis sent me word that Lord +Treasurer told him the Queen would determine at noon. At +three Lord Treasurer sent to me to come to his lodgings at St. +James’s, and told me the Queen was at last resolved that +Dr. Sterne should be Bishop of Dromore, and I Dean of St. +Patrick’s; and that Sterne’s warrant should be drawn +immediately. You know the deanery is in the Duke of +Ormond’s gift; but this is concerted between the Queen, +Lord Treasurer, and the Duke of Ormond, to make room for +me. I do not know whether it will yet be done; some unlucky +accident may yet come. Neither can I feel joy at passing my +days in Ireland; and I confess I thought the Ministry would not +let me go; but perhaps they can’t help it. Nite +MD.</p> +<p>19. I forgot to tell you that Lord Treasurer forced me +to dine with him yesterday as usual, with his Saturday company; +which I did after frequent refusals. To-day I dined with a +private friend, and was not at Court. After dinner Mr. +Lewis sent me a note, that the Queen stayed till she knew whether +the Duke of Ormond approved of Sterne for Bishop. I went +this evening, and found the Duke of Ormond at the Cock-pit, and +told him, and desired he would go to the Queen, and approve of +Sterne. He made objections, desired I would name any other +deanery, for he did not like Sterne; that Sterne never went to +see him; that he was influenced by the Archbishop of Dublin, +etc.; so all now is broken again. I sent out for Lord +Treasurer, and told him <a name="page544"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 544</span>this. He says all will do +well; but I value not what he says. This suspense vexes me +worse than anything else. Nite MD.</p> +<p>20. I went to-day, by appointment, to the Cock-pit, to +talk with the Duke of Ormond. He repeated the same +proposals of any other deanery, etc. I desired he would put +me out of the case, and do as he pleased. Then, with great +kindness, he said he would consent; but would do it for no man +alive but me, etc. And he will speak to the Queen to-day or +to-morrow; so, perhaps, something will come of it. I +can’t tell. Nite dee dee logues, MD.</p> +<p>21. The Duke of Ormond has told the Queen he is +satisfied that Sterne should be Bishop, and she consents I shall +be Dean; and I suppose the warrants will be drawn in a day or +two. I dined at an ale-house with Parnell and Berkeley; for +I am not in humour to go among the Ministers, though Lord +Dartmouth invited me to dine with him to-day, and Lord Treasurer +was to be there. I said I would, if I were out of +suspense. Nite deelest MD.</p> +<p>22. The Queen says warrants shall be drawn, but she will +dispose of all in England and Ireland at once, to be teased no +more. This will delay it some time; and, while it is +delayed, I am not sure of the Queen, my enemies being busy. +I hate this suspense. Nite deelest MD. <a +name="citation544a"></a><a href="#footnote544a" +class="citation">[544a]</a></p> +<p>23. I dined yesterday with General Hamilton. <a +name="citation544b"></a><a href="#footnote544b" +class="citation">[544b]</a> I forgot to tell oo. I +write short journals now. I have eggs on the spit. +This night the Queen has signed all the warrants, among which +Sterne is Bishop of Dromore, and the Duke of Ormond is to send +over an order for making me Dean of St. Patrick’s. I +have no doubt of him at all. I think ’tis now +passed. And I suppose MD is malicious enough <a +name="page545"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 545</span>to be glad, +and rather have it than Wells. <a name="citation545a"></a><a +href="#footnote545a" class="citation">[545a]</a> But you +see what a condition I am in. I thought I was to pay but +six hundred pounds for the house; but the Bishop of Clogher says +eight hundred pounds; first-fruits one hundred and fifty pounds, +and so, with patent, a thousand pounds in all; so that I shall +not be the better for the deanery these three years. I hope +in some time they will be persuaded here to give me some money to +pay off these debts. I must finish the book I am writing, +<a name="citation545b"></a><a href="#footnote545b" +class="citation">[545b]</a> before I can go over; and they expect +I shall pass next winter here, and then I will dun them to give +me a sum of money. However, I hope to pass four or five +months with MD, and whatever comes on it. MD’s +allowance must be increased, and shall be too, fais . . . <a +name="citation545c"></a><a href="#footnote545c" +class="citation">[545c]</a> I received oor rettle No. 39 +to-night; just ten weeks since I had your last. I shall +write next post to Bishop Sterne. Never man had so many +enemies of Ireland <a name="citation545d"></a><a +href="#footnote545d" class="citation">[545d]</a> as he. I +carried it with the strongest hand possible. If he does not +use me well and gently in what dealings I shall have with him, he +will be the most ungrateful of mankind. The Archbishop of +York, <a name="citation545e"></a><a href="#footnote545e" +class="citation">[545e]</a> my mortal enemy, has sent, by a third +hand, that he would be glad to see me. Shall I see him, or +not? I hope to be over in a month, and that MD, with their +raillery, will be mistaken, that I shall make it three +years. I will answer oo rettle soon; but no more +journals. I shall be very busy. Short letters from +hence forward. I shall not part with Laracor. That is +all I have to live on, except the deanery be worth more than four +hundred pounds a year. Is it? If it be, the overplus +shall be divided between MD and FW beside usual allowance of MD. +. . . <a name="citation545f"></a><a href="#footnote545f" +class="citation">[545f]</a> Pray write to me a +good-humoured letter immediately, let it be ever so short. +This affair was carried with great difficulty, which vexes +me. But they say here <a name="page546"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 546</span>’tis much to my reputation +that I have made a bishop, in spite of all the world, to get the +best deanery in Ireland. Nite dee sollahs.</p> +<p>24. I forgot to tell you I had Sterne’s letter +yesterday, in answer to mine. Oo performed oor commission +well, dood dallars both. <a name="citation546a"></a><a +href="#footnote546a" class="citation">[546a]</a> I made +mistakes the three last days, and am forced to alter the number. +<a name="citation546b"></a><a href="#footnote546b" +class="citation">[546b]</a> I dined in the City to-day with +my printer, and came home early, and am going to [be] busy with +my work. I will send this to-morrow, and I suppose the +warrants will go then. I wrote to Dr. Coghill, to take care +of passing my patent; and to Parvisol, to attend him with money, +if he has any, or to borrow some where he can. Nite MD.</p> +<p>25. Morning. I know not whether my warrant be yet +ready from the Duke of Ormond. I suppose it will by +to-night. I am going abroad, and will keep this unsealed, +till I know whether all be finished. Mollow, <a +name="citation546c"></a><a href="#footnote546c" +class="citation">[546c]</a> sollahs.</p> +<p>I had this letter all day in my pocket, waiting till I heard +the warrants were gone over. Mr. Lewis sent to +Southwell’s clerk at ten; and he said the Bishop of +Killaloe <a name="citation546d"></a><a href="#footnote546d" +class="citation">[546d]</a> had desired they should be stopped +till next post. He sent again, that the Bishop of +Killaloe’s business had nothing to do with ours. Then +I went myself, but it was past eleven, and asked the +reason. Killaloe is removed to Raphoe, and he has a mind to +have an order for the rents of Raphoe, that have fallen due since +the vacancy, and he would have all stop till he has gotten +that. A pretty request! But the clerk, at Mr. +Lewis’s message, sent the warrants for Sterne and me; but +then it was too late to send this, which frets me heartily, that +MD should not have intelligence first from Pdfr. I think to +take a hundred pounds a year out of the deanery, and divide it +between MD and Pr, <a name="citation546e"></a><a +href="#footnote546e" class="citation">[546e]</a> and so be one +year longer <a name="page547"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +547</span>in paying the debt; but we’ll talk of zis hen I +come over. So nite dear sollahs. Lele. <a +name="citation547a"></a><a href="#footnote547a" +class="citation">[547a]</a></p> +<p>26. I was at Court to-day, and a thousand people gave me +joy; so I ran out. I dined with Lady Orkney. +Yesterday I dined with Lord Treasurer and his Saturday people as +usual; and was so bedeaned! The Archbishop of York says he +will never more speak against me. Pray see that Parvisol +stirs about getting my patent. I have given Tooke +DD’s note to prove she is alive. I’ll answer oo +rettle. . . . Nite.</p> +<p>27. Nothing new to-day. I dined with Tom Harley, +etc. I’ll seal up this to-night. Pray write +soon. . . . MD MD MD FW FW FW ME ME ME Lele, lele.</p> +<h3>LETTER LXIV. <a name="citation547b"></a><a +href="#footnote547b" class="citation">[547b]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">London</span>, +<i>May</i> 16 [1713].</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">had</span> yours, No. 40, +yesterday. Your new Bishop acts very ungratefully. I +cannot say so bad of it as he deserved. I begged at the +same post his warrant and mine went over, that he would leave +those livings to my disposal. I shall write this post to +him to let him know how ill I take it. I have letters to +tell me that I ought to think of employing some body to set the +tithes of the deanery. I know not what to do at this +distance. I cannot be in Ireland under a month. I +will write two orders; one to Parvisol, and t’other to +Parvisol, and a blank for whatever fellow it is whom the last +Dean employed; and I would desire you to advise with friends +which to make use of: and if the latter, let the fellow’s +name be inserted, and both act by commission. If the +former, then speak to Parvisol, and know whether he can undertake +it. I doubt it is hardly to be done by a perfect stranger +alone, as Parvisol is. He may perhaps venture at all, to +keep up his interest with me; but that is needless, for I am +willing to do him any good, that will do me no harm. <a +name="page548"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 548</span>Pray advise +with Walls and Raymond, and a little with Bishop Sterne for +form. Tell Raymond I cannot succeed for him to get that +living of Moimed. It is represented here as a great +sinecure. Several chaplains have solicited for it; and it +has vexed me so, that, if I live, I will make it my business to +serve him better in something else. I am heartily sorry for +his illness, and that of the other two. If it be not +necessary to let the tithes till a month hence, you may keep the +two papers, and advise well in the meantime; and whenever it is +absolutely necessary, then give that paper which you are most +advised to. I thank Mr. Walls for his letter. Tell +him that must serve for an answer, with my service to him and +her. I shall buy Bishop Sterne’s hair as soon as his +household goods. I shall be ruined, or at least sadly +cramped, unless the Queen will give me a thousand pounds. I +am sure she owes me a great deal more. Lord Treasurer +rallies me upon it, and I believe intends it; but, quando? +I am advised to hasten over as soon as possible, and so I will, +and hope to set out the beginning of June. Take no lodging +for me. What? at your old tricks again? I can lie +somewhere after I land, and I care not where, nor how. I +will buy your eggs and bacon, DD . . . <a +name="citation548a"></a><a href="#footnote548a" +class="citation">[548a]</a> your caps and Bible; and pray think +immediately, and give me some commissions, and I will perform +them as far as oo poo Pdfr can. <a name="citation548b"></a><a +href="#footnote548b" class="citation">[548b]</a> The letter +I sent before this was to have gone a post before; but an +accident hindered it; and, I assure oo, I wam very akkree <a +name="citation548c"></a><a href="#footnote548c" +class="citation">[548c]</a> MD did not write to Dean Pdfr, and I +think oo might have had a Dean under your girdle for the +superscription. I have just finished my Treatise, <a +name="citation548d"></a><a href="#footnote548d" +class="citation">[548d]</a> and must be ten days correcting +it. Farewell, deelest MD, MD, MD, FW, FW, FW, ME, ME, ME, +Lele.</p> +<p>You’ll seal the two papers after my name.</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right"><a +name="page549"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +549</span>“<span class="smcap">London</span>, <i>May</i> +16, 1713.</p> +<p>“I appoint Mr. Isaiah Parvisol and Mr. . . . to set and +let the tithes of the Deanery of St. Patrick’s for this +present year. In witness whereof, I hereunto set my hand +and seal, the day and year above written.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">[<span class="smcap">Jonat. +Swift</span>.” <a name="citation549a"></a><a +href="#footnote549a" class="citation">[549a]</a>]</p> +</blockquote> + +<div class="gapshortline"> </div> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“<span +class="smcap">London</span>, <i>May</i> 16, 1713.</p> +<p>“I do hereby appoint Mr. Isaiah Parvisol my proctor, to +set and let the tithes of the Deanery of St. +Patrick’s. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my +hand and seal, the day and year above written.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Jonat. +Swift</span>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<h3>LETTER LXV. <a name="citation549b"></a><a +href="#footnote549b" class="citation">[549b]</a></h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Chester</span>, +<i>June</i> 6, 1713.</p> +<p>I <span class="smcap">am</span> come here after six +days. I set out on Monday last, and got here to-day about +eleven in the morning. A noble rider, fais! and all the +ships and people went off yesterday with a rare wind. This +was told me, to my comfort, upon my arrival. Having not +used riding these three years, made me terrible weary; yet I +resolve on Monday to set out for Holyhead, as weary as I +am. ’Tis good for my health, mam. When I came +here, I found MD’s letter of the 26th of May sent down to +me. Had you writ a post sooner I might have brought some +pins: but you were lazy, and would not write your orders +immediately, as I desired you. I will come when God +pleases; perhaps I may be with you in a week. I will be +three days going to Holyhead; I cannot ride faster, say hat oo +will. I am upon Stay-behind’s mare. I have the +whole inn to myself. I would fain ’scape this +Holyhead journey; but I have no prospect of ships, and it will be +almost necessary I should be in Dublin before the 25th instant, +to take the oaths; <a name="citation549c"></a><a +href="#footnote549c" class="citation">[549c]</a> otherwise I must +wait to a <a name="page550"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +550</span>quarter sessions. I will lodge as I can; +therefore take no lodgings for me, to pay in my absence. +The poor Dean can’t afford it. I spoke again to the +Duke of Ormond about Moimed for Raymond, and hope he may yet have +it, for I laid it strongly to the Duke, and gave him the Bishop +of Meath’s memorial. I am sorry for Raymond’s +fistula; tell him so. I will speak to Lord Treasurer about +Mrs. South <a name="citation550a"></a><a href="#footnote550a" +class="citation">[550a]</a> to-morrow. Odso! I forgot; I +thought I had been in London. Mrs. Tisdall <a +name="citation550b"></a><a href="#footnote550b" +class="citation">[550b]</a> is very big, ready to lie down. +Her husband is a puppy. Do his feet stink still? The +letters to Ireland go at so uncertain an hour, that I am forced +to conclude. Farewell, MD, MD MD FW FW FW ME ME ME ME.</p> +<p class="poetry">Lele lele<br /> +lele logues and<br /> +Ladies bose fair<br /> +and slender.</p> +<p>[<i>On flyleaf</i>.]</p> +<p>I mightily approve Ppt’s project of hanging the blind +parson. When I read that passage upon Chester walls, as I +was coming into town, and just received your letter, I said +aloud—Agreeable B—tch.</p> +<h2>FOOTNOTES.</h2> +<p><a name="footnote0a"></a><a href="#citation0a" +class="footnote">[0a]</a> <i>Notes and Queries</i>, Sixth +Series, x. 287.</p> +<p><a name="footnote0b"></a><a href="#citation0b" +class="footnote">[0b]</a> See letter from Swift to John +Temple, February 1737. She was then “quite sunk with +years and unwieldliness.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote0c"></a><a href="#citation0c" +class="footnote">[0c]</a> <i>Athenæum</i>, Aug. 8, +1891.</p> +<p><a name="footnote0d"></a><a href="#citation0d" +class="footnote">[0d]</a> <i>Journal</i>, May 4, 1711.</p> +<p><a name="footnote0e"></a><a href="#citation0e" +class="footnote">[0e]</a> Craik’s <i>Life of +Swift</i>, 269.</p> +<p><a name="footnote0f"></a><a href="#citation0f" +class="footnote">[0f]</a> <i>Unpublished Letters of Dean +Swift</i>, pp. 189–96.</p> +<p><a name="footnote0g"></a><a href="#citation0g" +class="footnote">[0g]</a> In 1730 he wrote, “Those +who have been married may form juster ideas of that estate than I +can pretend to do” (Dr. Birkbeck Hill’s +<i>Unpublished Letters of Dean Swift</i>, p. 237).</p> +<p><a name="footnote0h"></a><a href="#citation0h" +class="footnote">[0h]</a> Scott added a new incident which +has become incorporated in the popular conception of +Swift’s story. Delany is said to have met Swift +rushing out of Archbishop King’s study, with a countenance +of distraction, immediately after the wedding. King, who +was in tears, said, “You have just met the most unhappy man +on earth; but on the subject of his wretchedness you must never +ask a question.” Will it be believed that +Scott—who rejects Delany’s inference from this +alleged incident—had no better authority for it than +“a friend of his (Delany’s) relict”?</p> +<p><a name="footnote0i"></a><a href="#citation0i" +class="footnote">[0i]</a> This incident, for which there is +probably some foundation of fact—we cannot say how +much—has been greatly expanded by Mrs. Woods in her novel +<i>Esther Vanhomrigh</i>. Unfortunately most of her readers +cannot, of course, judge exactly how far her story is a work of +imagination.</p> +<p><a name="footnote0j"></a><a href="#citation0j" +class="footnote">[0j]</a> In October Swift explained that +he had been in the country “partly to see a lady of my old +acquaintance, who was extremely ill” (<i>Unpublished +Letters of Dean Swift</i>, p. 198).</p> +<p><a name="footnote0k"></a><a href="#citation0k" +class="footnote">[0k]</a> There is a story that shortly +before her death Swift begged Stella to allow herself to be +publicly announced as his wife, but that she replied that it was +then too late. The versions given by Delany and Theophilus +Swift differ considerably, while Sheridan alters the whole thing +by representing Swift as brutally refusing to comply with +Stella’s last wishes.</p> +<p><a name="footnote0l"></a><a href="#citation0l" +class="footnote">[0l]</a> There has also been the absurd +suggestion that the impediment was Swift’s knowledge that +both he and Stella were the illegitimate children of Sir William +Temple—a theory which is absolutely disproved by known +facts.</p> +<p><a name="footnote0m"></a><a href="#citation0m" +class="footnote">[0m]</a> It is curious to note the +intimate knowledge of some of Swift’s peculiarities which +was possessed by the hostile writer of a pamphlet called <i>A Hue +and Cry after Dr. S—t</i>, published in 1714. That +piece consists, for the most part, of extracts from a supposed +Diary by Swift, and contains such passages as these: +“<i>Friday</i>. Go to the Club . . . Am +treated. Expenses one shilling.” +“<i>Saturday</i>. Bid my servant get all things ready +for a journey to the country: mend my breeches; hire a +washerwoman, making her allow for old shirts, socks, dabbs and +markees, which she bought of me . . . Six coaches of +quality, and nine hacks, this day called at my +lodgings.” “<i>Thursday</i>. The Earl +looked queerly: left him in a huff. Bid him send for me +when he was fit for company. . . . Spent ten +shillings.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote0n"></a><a href="#citation0n" +class="footnote">[0n]</a> The “little language” +is marked chiefly by such changes of letters (e.g., l for r, or r +for l) as a child makes when learning to speak. The +combinations of letters in which Swift indulges are not so easy +of interpretation. For himself he uses Pdfr, and sometimes +Podefar or FR (perhaps Poor dear foolish rogue). Stella is +Ppt (Poor pretty thing). MD (my dears) usually stands for +both Stella and Mrs. Dingley, but sometimes for Stella +alone. Mrs. Dingley is indicated by ME (Madam Elderly), D, +or DD (Dear Dingley). The letters FW may mean Farewell, or +Foolish Wenches. Lele seems sometimes to be There, there, +and sometimes Truly.</p> +<p><a name="footnote1a"></a><a href="#citation1a" +class="footnote">[1a]</a> Addressed “To Mrs. Dingley, +at Mr. Curry’s house over against the Ram in Capel Street, +Dublin, Ireland,” and endorsed by Esther Johnson, +“Sept. 9. Received.” Afterwards Swift added, +“MD received this Sept. 9,” and “Letters to +Ireland from Sept.1710, begun soon after the change of +Ministry. Nothing in this.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote1b"></a><a href="#citation1b" +class="footnote">[1b]</a> Beaumont is the “grey old +fellow, poet Joe,” of Swift’s verses “On the +little house by the Churchyard at Castlenock.” Joseph +Beaumont, a linen-merchant, is described as “a venerable, +handsome, grey-headed man, of quick and various natural +abilities, but not improved by learning.” His +inventions and mathematical speculations, relating to the +longitude and other things, brought on mental troubles, which +were intensified by bankruptcy, about 1718. He was +afterwards removed from Dublin to his home at Trim, where he +rallied; but in a few years his madness returned, and he +committed suicide.</p> +<p><a name="footnote1c"></a><a href="#citation1c" +class="footnote">[1c]</a> Vicar of Trim, and formerly a +Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. In various places in his +correspondence Swift criticises the failings of Dr. Anthony +Raymond, who was, says Scott, “a particular +friend.” His unreliability in money matters, the +improvidence of his large family, his peculiarities in grammar, +his pride in his good manners, all these points are noticed in +the journal and elsewhere. But when Dr. Raymond returned to +Ireland after a visit to London, Swift felt a little melancholy, +and regretted that he had not seen more of him. In July +1713 Raymond was presented to the Crown living of Moyenet.</p> +<p><a name="footnote2a"></a><a href="#citation2a" +class="footnote">[2a]</a> A small township on the estuary +of the Dee, between twelve and thirteen miles north-west of +Chester. In the early part of the eighteenth century +Parkgate was a rival of Holyhead as a station for the Dublin +packets, which started, on the Irish side, from off Kingsend.</p> +<p><a name="footnote2b"></a><a href="#citation2b" +class="footnote">[2b]</a> Dr. St. George Ashe, afterwards +Bishop of Derry, who had been Swift’s tutor at Trinity +College, Dublin. He died in 1718. It is this lifelong +friend who is said to have married Swift and Esther Johnson in +1716.</p> +<p><a name="footnote2c"></a><a href="#citation2c" +class="footnote">[2c]</a> The Commission to solicit for the +remission of the First-Fruits and twentieth parts, payable to the +Crown by the Irish clergy, was signed by the Archbishops of +Armagh, Dublin, and Cashel, and the Bishops of Kildare, Meath, +and Killala.</p> +<p><a name="footnote2d"></a><a href="#citation2d" +class="footnote">[2d]</a> Dr. William Lloyd was appointed +Bishop of Killala in 1690. He had previously been Dean of +Achonry.</p> +<p><a name="footnote2e"></a><a href="#citation2e" +class="footnote">[2e]</a> Dr. John Hough +(1651–1743). In 1687 he had been elected President of +Magdalen College, Oxford, in place of the nominee of James <span +class="GutSmall">II</span>. Hough was Bishop of Oxford, +Lichfield, and Worcester successively, and declined the primacy +in 1715.</p> +<p><a name="footnote2f"></a><a href="#citation2f" +class="footnote">[2f]</a> Steele was at this time +Gazetteer. The Cockpit, in Whitehall, looked upon St. +James’s Palace, and was used for various Government +purposes.</p> +<p><a name="footnote2g"></a><a href="#citation2g" +class="footnote">[2g]</a> This coffee-house, the resort of +the Whig politicians, was kept by a man named Elliot. It is +often alluded to in the <i>Tatler</i> and <i>Spectator</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote2h"></a><a href="#citation2h" +class="footnote">[2h]</a> William Stewart, second Viscount +Mountjoy, a friend and correspondent of Swift’s in +Ireland. He was the son of one of William’s generals, +and was himself a Lieutenant-General and Master-General of the +Ordnance; he died in 1728.</p> +<p><a name="footnote2i"></a><a href="#citation2i" +class="footnote">[2i]</a> Catherine, daughter of Maurice +Keating, of Narraghmore, Kildare, and wife of Garret Wesley, of +Dangan, M.P. for Meath. She died in 1745. On the death of +Garret Wesley without issue in 1728, the property passed to a +cousin, Richard Colley, who was afterwards created Baron +Mornington, and was grandfather to the Duke of Wellington.</p> +<p><a name="footnote3a"></a><a href="#citation3a" +class="footnote">[3a]</a> The landlady of Esther Johnson +and Mrs. Dingley.</p> +<p><a name="footnote3b"></a><a href="#citation3b" +class="footnote">[3b]</a> Swift’s housekeeper at +Laracor. Elsewhere Swift speaks of his “old Presbyterian +housekeeper,” “who has been my Walpole above thirty +years, whenever I lived in this kingdom.” “Joe +Beaumont is my oracle for public affairs in the country, and an +old Presbyterian woman in town.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote3c"></a><a href="#citation3c" +class="footnote">[3c]</a> Isaiah Parvisol, Swift’s +tithe-agent and steward at Laracor, was an Irishman of French +extraction, who died in 1718 (Birkbeck’s <i>Unpublished +Letters of Dean Swift</i>, 1899, p.85).</p> +<p><a name="footnote4a"></a><a href="#citation4a" +class="footnote">[4a]</a> In some MS. Accounts of +Swift’s, in the Forster Collection at South Kensington +there is the following entry:—“Set out for England +Aug. 31st on Thursday, 10 at night; landed at Parkgate Friday 1st +at noon. Sept. 1, 1710, came to London. Thursday at +noon, Sept. 7th, with Lord Mountjoy, etc. Mem.: Lord +Mountjoy bore my expenses from Chester to London.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote4b"></a><a href="#citation4b" +class="footnote">[4b]</a> In a letter to Archbishop King of +the same date Swift says he was “equally caressed by both +parties; by one as a sort of bough for drowning men to lay hold +of, and by the other as one discontented with the late men in +power.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote4c"></a><a href="#citation4c" +class="footnote">[4c]</a> The Earl of Godolphin, who was +severely satirised by Swift in his <i>Sid Hamet’s Rod</i>, +1710. He had been ordered to break his staff as Treasurer +on August 8. Swift told Archbishop King that Godolphin was +“altogether short, dry, and morose.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote4d"></a><a href="#citation4d" +class="footnote">[4d]</a> Martha, widow of Sir Thomas +Giffard, Bart., of County Kildare, the favourite sister of Sir +William Temple, had been described by Swift in early pindaric +verses as “wise and great.” Afterwards he was +to call her “an old beast” (<i>Journal</i>, Nov. 11, +1710). Their quarrel arose, towards the close of 1709, out +of a difference with regard to the publication of Sir William +Temple’s Works. On the appearance of vol. v. Lady +Giffard charged Swift with publishing portions of the writings +from an unfaithful copy in lieu of the originals in his +possession, and in particular with printing laudatory notices of +Godolphin and Sunderland which Temple intended to omit, and with +omitting an unfavourable remark on Sunderland which Temple +intended to print. Swift replied that the corrections were +all made by Temple himself.</p> +<p><a name="footnote4e"></a><a href="#citation4e" +class="footnote">[4e]</a> Lord Wharton’s second wife, +Lucy, daughter of Lord Lisburn. She died in 1716, a few +months after her husband. See Lady M. W. Montagu’s +<i>Letters</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote4f"></a><a href="#citation4f" +class="footnote">[4f]</a> Mrs. Bridget Johnson, who +married, as her second husband, Ralph Mose or Moss, of Farnham, +an agent for Sir William Temple’s estate, was waiting-woman +or companion to Lady Giffard. In her will (1722) Lady +Giffard left Mrs. Moss £20, “with my silver cup and +cover.” Mrs. Moss died in 1745, when letters of +administration were granted to a creditor of the deceased.</p> +<p><a name="footnote4g"></a><a href="#citation4g" +class="footnote">[4g]</a> Dr. William King +(1650–1729), a Whig and High Churchman, had more than one +difference with Swift during the twenty years following +Swift’s first visit to London in connection with the +First-Fruits question.</p> +<p><a name="footnote4h"></a><a href="#citation4h" +class="footnote">[4h]</a> Swift’s benefice, in the +diocese of Meath, two miles from Trim.</p> +<p><a name="footnote5a"></a><a href="#citation5a" +class="footnote">[5a]</a> Steele, who had been issuing the +<i>Tatler</i> thrice weekly since April 1709. He lost the +Gazetteership in October.</p> +<p><a name="footnote5b"></a><a href="#citation5b" +class="footnote">[5b]</a> James, second Duke of Ormond +(1665–1745) was appointed Lord Lieutenant on the 26th of +October. In the following year he became Captain-General +and Commander-in-Chief. He was impeached of high treason +and attainted in 1715; and he died in exile.</p> +<p><a name="footnote5c"></a><a href="#citation5c" +class="footnote">[5c]</a> “Presto,” substituted +by the original editor for “Pdfr,” was suggested by a +passage in the <i>Journal</i> for Aug. 2, 1711, where Swift says +that the Duchess of Shrewsbury “could not say my name in +English, but said Dr. Presto, which is Italian for +Swift.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote5d"></a><a href="#citation5d" +class="footnote">[5d]</a> Charles Jervas, the popular +portrait-painter, has left two portraits of Swift, one of which +is in the National Portrait Gallery, and the other in the +Bodleian Library.</p> +<p><a name="footnote5e"></a><a href="#citation5e" +class="footnote">[5e]</a> Sir William Temple’s +nephew, and son of Sir John Temple (died 1704), Solicitor and +Attorney-General, and Speaker of the Irish House of +Commons. “Jack” Temple acquired the estate of +Moor Park, Surrey, by his marriage with Elizabeth, granddaughter +of Sir William Temple, and elder daughter of John Temple, who +committed suicide in 1689. As late as 1706 Swift received +an invitation to visit Moor Park.</p> +<p><a name="footnote5f"></a><a href="#citation5f" +class="footnote">[5f]</a> Dr. Benjamin Pratt, Provost of +Trinity College, Dublin, was appointed Dean of Down in +1717. Swift calls him “a person of wit and +learning,” and “a gentleman of good birth and +fortune, . . . very much esteemed among us” (<i>Short +Character of Thomas</i>, <i>Earl of Wharton</i>). On his +death in 1721 Swift wrote, “He was one of the oldest +acquaintance I had, and the last that I expected to die. He +has left a young widow, in very good circumstances. He had +schemes of long life. . . . What a ridiculous thing is +man!” (<i>Unpublished Letters of Dean Swift</i>, +1899, p. 106).</p> +<p><a name="footnote6a"></a><a href="#citation6a" +class="footnote">[6a]</a> A Westmeath landlord, whom Swift +met from time to time in London. The Leighs were well +acquainted with Esther Johnson.</p> +<p><a name="footnote6b"></a><a href="#citation6b" +class="footnote">[6b]</a> Dr. Enoch Sterne, appointed Dean +of St. Patrick’s, Dublin, in 1704. Swift was his +successor in the deanery on Dr. Sterne’s appointment as +Bishop of Dromore in 1713. In 1717 Sterne was translated to +the bishopric of Clogher. He spent much money on the +cathedrals, etc., with which he was connected.</p> +<p><a name="footnote6c"></a><a href="#citation6c" +class="footnote">[6c]</a> Archdeacon Walls was rector of +Castle Knock, near Trim. Esther Johnson was a frequent +visitor at his house in Queen Street, Dublin.</p> +<p><a name="footnote6d"></a><a href="#citation6d" +class="footnote">[6d]</a> William Frankland, Comptroller of +the Inland Office at the Post Office, was the second son of the +Postmaster-General, Sir Thomas Frankland, Bart. Luttrell +(vi. 333) records that in 1708 he was made Treasurer of the Stamp +Office, or, according to Chamberlayne’s <i>Mag. Brit. +Notitia</i> for 1710, Receiver-General.</p> +<p><a name="footnote6e"></a><a href="#citation6e" +class="footnote">[6e]</a> Thomas Wharton, Earl and +afterwards Marquis of Wharton, had been one of Swift’s +fellow-travellers from Dublin. Lord Lieutenant of Ireland +under the Whig Government, from 1708 to 1710, Wharton was the +most thorough-going party man that had yet appeared in English +politics; and his political enemies did not fail to make the most +of his well-known immorality. In his Notes to Macky’s +<i>Characters</i> Swift described Wharton as “the most +universal villain that ever I knew.” On his death in +1715 he was succeeded by his profligate son, Philip, who was +created Duke of Wharton in 1718.</p> +<p><a name="footnote6f"></a><a href="#citation6f" +class="footnote">[6f]</a> This money was a premium the +Government had promised Beaumont for his Mathematical Sleying +Tables, calculated for the improvement of the linen +manufacture.</p> +<p><a name="footnote6g"></a><a href="#citation6g" +class="footnote">[6g]</a> The bellman was both town-crier +and night-watchman.</p> +<p><a name="footnote7a"></a><a href="#citation7a" +class="footnote">[7a]</a> Dr. William Cockburn +(1669–1739), Swift’s physician, of a good Scottish +family, was educated at Leyden. He invented an electuary +for the cure of fluxes, and in 1730, in <i>The Danger of +Improving Physick</i>, satirised the academical physicians who +envied him the fortune he had made by his secret remedy. He +was described in 1729 as “an old very rich +quack.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote7b"></a><a href="#citation7b" +class="footnote">[7b]</a> Sir Matthew Dudley, Bart., an old +Whig friend, was M.P. for Huntingdonshire, and Commissioner of +the Customs from 1706 to 1712, and again under George I., until +his death in 1721.</p> +<p><a name="footnote7c"></a><a href="#citation7c" +class="footnote">[7c]</a> Isaac Manley, who was appointed +Postmaster-General in Ireland in 1703 (Luttrell, v. 333). +He had previously been Comptroller of the English Letter Office, +a post in which he was succeeded by William Frankland, son of Sir +Thomas Frankland. Dunton calls Manley “loyal and +acute.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote7d"></a><a href="#citation7d" +class="footnote">[7d]</a> Sir Thomas Frankland was joint +Postmaster-General from 1691 to 1715. He succeeded to the +baronetcy on the death of his father, Sir William Frankland, in +1697, and he died in 1726. Macky describes Sir Thomas as +“of a sweet and easy disposition, zealous for the +Constitution, yet not forward, and indulgent to his +dependants.” On this Swift comments, “This is a +fair character.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote7e"></a><a href="#citation7e" +class="footnote">[7e]</a> Theophilus Butler, elected M.P. +for Cavan, in the Irish Parliament, in 1703, and for Belturbet +(as “the Right Hon. Theophilus Butler”) in +1713. On May 3, 1710, Luttrell wrote (<i>Brief Relation of +State Affairs</i>, vi. 577), “’Tis said the Earl of +Montrath, Lord Viscount Mountjoy . . . and Mr. Butler will be +made Privy Councillors of the Kingdom of Ireland.” +Butler—a contemporary of Swift’s at Trinity College, +Dublin—was created Baron of Newtown-Butler in 1715, and his +brother, who succeeded him in 1723, was made Viscount +Lanesborough. Butler’s wife was Emilia, eldest +daughter and co-heir of James Stopford, of Tara, County +Meath.</p> +<p><a name="footnote8a"></a><a href="#citation8a" +class="footnote">[8a]</a> No. 193 of the <i>Tatler</i>, for +July 4, 1710, contained a letter from Downes the +Prompter—not by Steele himself—in ridicule of Harley +and his proposed Ministry.</p> +<p><a name="footnote8b"></a><a href="#citation8b" +class="footnote">[8b]</a> Charles Robartes, second Earl of +Radnor, who died in 1723. In the <i>Journal</i> for Dec. +30, 1711, Swift calls him “a scoundrel.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote8c"></a><a href="#citation8c" +class="footnote">[8c]</a> Benjamin Tooke, Swift’s +bookseller or publisher, lived at the Middle Temple Gate. +Dunton wrote of him, “He is truly honest, a man of refined +sense, and is unblemished in his reputation.” Tooke died in +1723.</p> +<p><a name="footnote8d"></a><a href="#citation8d" +class="footnote">[8d]</a> Swift’s servant, of whose +misdeeds he makes frequent complaints in the <i>Journal</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote9a"></a><a href="#citation9a" +class="footnote">[9a]</a> Deputy Vice-Treasurer of +Ireland. In one place Swift calls him Captain Pratt; and in +all probability he is the John Pratt who, as we learn from +Dalton’s <i>English Army Lists</i>, was appointed captain +in General Erle’s regiment of foot in 1699, and was out of +the regiment by 1706. In 1702 he obtained the Queen’s +leave to be absent from the regiment when it was sent to the West +Indies. Pratt seems to have been introduced to Swift by +Addison.</p> +<p><a name="footnote9b"></a><a href="#citation9b" +class="footnote">[9b]</a> Charles Ford, of Wood Park, near +Dublin, was a great lover of the opera and a friend of the Tory +wits. He was appointed Gazetteer in 1712. Gay calls +him “joyous Ford,” and he was given to +over-indulgence in conviviality. See Swift’s poem on +Stella at Wood Park.</p> +<p><a name="footnote9c"></a><a href="#citation9c" +class="footnote">[9c]</a> Lord Somers, to whom Swift had +dedicated <i>The Tale of a Tub</i>, with high praise of his +public and private virtues. In later years Swift said that +Somers “possessed all excellent qualifications except +virtue.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote9d"></a><a href="#citation9d" +class="footnote">[9d]</a> At the foundation school of the +Ormonds at Kilkenny (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page10">10</a></span>, note 6.)</p> +<p><a name="footnote9e"></a><a href="#citation9e" +class="footnote">[9e]</a> A Whig haberdasher.</p> +<p><a name="footnote9f"></a><a href="#citation9f" +class="footnote">[9f]</a> Benjamin Hoadley, the Whig +divine, had been engaged in controversy with Sacheverell, +Blackall, and Atterbury. After the accession of George I. +he became Bishop of Bangor, Hereford, Salisbury, and Winchester +in success.</p> +<p><a name="footnote9g"></a><a href="#citation9g" +class="footnote">[9g]</a> Dr. Henry Sacheverell, whose +impeachment and trial had led to the fall of the Whig +Government.</p> +<p><a name="footnote10a"></a><a href="#citation10a" +class="footnote">[10a]</a> Sir Berkeley Lucy, Bart., +F.R.S., married Katherine, daughter of Charles Cotton, of +Beresford, Staffordshire, Isaac Walton’s friend. Lady +Lucy died in 1740, leaving an only surviving daughter, Mary, who +married the youngest son of the Earl of Northampton, and had two +sons, who became successively seventh and eighth Earls of +Northampton. Forster and others assumed that “Lady +Lucy” was a Lady Lucy Stanhope, though they were not able +to identify her. It was reserved for Mr. Ryland to clear up +this difficulty. As he points out, Lady Lucy’s elder +sister, Olive, married George Stanhope, Dean of Canterbury, and +left a daughter Mary,—Swift’s “Moll +Stanhope,”—a beauty and a madcap, who married, in +1712, William Burnet, son of Bishop Burnet, and died in +1714. Mary, another sister of Lady Lucy’s, married +Augustine Armstrong, of Great Ormond Street, and is the Mrs. +Armstrong mentioned by Swift on Feb. 3, 1711, as a pretender to +wit, without taste. Sir Berkeley Lucy’s mother was a +daughter of the first Earl of Berkeley, and it was probably +through the Berkeleys that Swift came to know the Lucys.</p> +<p><a name="footnote10b"></a><a href="#citation10b" +class="footnote">[10b]</a> Ann Long was sister to Sir James +Long, and niece to Colonel Strangeways. Once a beauty and +toast of the Kit-Cat Club, she fell into narrow circumstances +through imprudence and the unkindness of her friends, and retired +under the name of Mrs. Smythe to Lynn, in Norfolk, where she died +in 1711 (see <i>Journal</i>, December 25, 1711). Swift +said, “She was the most beautiful person of the age she +lived in; of great honour and virtue, infinite sweetness and +generosity of temper, and true good sense” (Forster’s +<i>Swift</i>, 229). In a letter of December 1711, Swift +wrote that she “had every valuable quality of body and mind +that could make a lady loved and esteemed.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote10c"></a><a href="#citation10c" +class="footnote">[10c]</a> Said, I know not on what +authority, to be Swift’s friend, Mrs. Barton. But +Mrs. Barton is often mentioned by Swift as living in London in +1710–11.</p> +<p><a name="footnote10d"></a><a href="#citation10d" +class="footnote">[10d]</a> One of Swift’s cousins, +who was separated from her husband, a man of bad character, +living abroad. Her second husband, Lancelot, a servant of +Lord Sussex, lived in New Bond Street, and there Swift lodged in +1727.</p> +<p><a name="footnote10e"></a><a href="#citation10e" +class="footnote">[10e]</a> £100,000.</p> +<p><a name="footnote10f"></a><a href="#citation10f" +class="footnote">[10f]</a> Francis Stratford’s name +appears in the Dublin University Register for 1686 immediately +before Swift’s. Budgell is believed to have referred +to the friendship of Swift and Stratford in the <i>Spectator</i>, +No. 353, where he describes two schoolfellows, and says that the +man of genius was buried in a country parsonage of £160 a +year, while his friend, with the bare abilities of a common +scrivener, had gained an estate of above £100,000.</p> +<p><a name="footnote10g"></a><a href="#citation10g" +class="footnote">[10g]</a> William Cowper, afterwards Lord +Cowper.</p> +<p><a name="footnote11a"></a><a href="#citation11a" +class="footnote">[11a]</a> Sir Simon Harcourt, afterwards +Viscount Harcourt, had been counsel for Sacheverell. On +Sept. 19, 1710, he was appointed Attorney-General, and on October +19 Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. In April 1713 he became +Lord Chancellor.</p> +<p><a name="footnote11b"></a><a href="#citation11b" +class="footnote">[11b]</a> This may be some relative of Dr. +John Freind (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page65">65</a></span>), or, more probably, as Sir Henry +Craik suggests, a misprint for Colonel Frowde, Addison’s +friend (see <i>Journal</i>, Nov. 4, 1710). No officer named +Freind or Friend is mentioned in Dalton’s <i>English Army +Lists</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote11c"></a><a href="#citation11c" +class="footnote">[11c]</a> See the <i>Tatler</i>, Nos. 124, +203. There are various allusions in the “Wentworth +Papers” to this, the first State Lottery of 1710; and two +bluecoat boys drawing out the tickets, and showing their hands to +the crowd, as Swift describes them, are shown in a reproduction +of a picture in a contemporary pamphlet given in Ashton’s +<i>Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne</i>, i. 115.</p> +<p><a name="footnote11d"></a><a href="#citation11d" +class="footnote">[11d]</a> A few weeks later Swift wrote, +“I took a fancy of resolving to grow mad for it, but now it +is off.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote11e"></a><a href="#citation11e" +class="footnote">[11e]</a> Sir John Holland, Bart., was a +leading manager for the Commons in the impeachment of +Sacheverell. He succeeded Sir Thomas Felton in the +Comptrollership in March 1710.</p> +<p><a name="footnote12a"></a><a href="#citation12a" +class="footnote">[12a]</a> Dryden Leach. (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page51">51</a></span>.)</p> +<p><a name="footnote12b"></a><a href="#citation12b" +class="footnote">[12b]</a> William Pate, “<i>bel +esprit</i> and woollen-draper,” as Swift called him, lived +opposite the Royal Exchange. He was Sheriff of London in +1734, and died in 1746. Arbuthnot, previous to +matriculating at Oxford, lodged with Pate, who gave him a letter +of introduction to Dr. Charlett, Master of University College; +and Pate is supposed to have been the woollen-draper, +“remarkable for his learning and good-nature,” who is +mentioned by Steele in the <i>Guardian</i>, No. 141.</p> +<p><a name="footnote12c"></a><a href="#citation12c" +class="footnote">[12c]</a> James Brydges, son of Lord +Chandos of Sudeley, was appointed Paymaster-General of Forces +Abroad in 1707. He succeeded his father as Baron Chandos in +1714, and was created Duke of Chandos in 1729. The +“princely Chandos” and his house at Canons suggested +to Pope the Timon’s villa of the “Epistle to Lord +Burlington.” The Duke died in 1744.</p> +<p><a name="footnote12d"></a><a href="#citation12d" +class="footnote">[12d]</a> Charles Talbot, created Duke of +Shrewsbury in 1694, was held in great esteem by William <span +class="GutSmall">III</span>., and was Lord Chamberlain under +Anne. In 1713 he became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and +held various offices under George I., until his death in +1718. “Before he was o. age,” says Macaulay, +“he was allowed to be one of the finest gentlemen and +finest scholars of his time.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote13a"></a><a href="#citation13a" +class="footnote">[13a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page230">230</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote13b"></a><a href="#citation13b" +class="footnote">[13b]</a> William Cavendish, second Duke +of Devonshire (1673–1729), who was Lord Steward from 1707 +to 1710 and from 1714 to 1716. Afterwards he was Lord +President of the Council. Swift’s comment on +Macky’s character of this Whig nobleman was, “A very +poor understanding.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote13c"></a><a href="#citation13c" +class="footnote">[13c]</a> John Annesley, fourth Earl of +Anglesea, a young nobleman of great promise, had only recently +been appointed joint Vice-Treasurer, Receiver-General, and +Paymaster of the Forces in Ireland, and sworn of the Privy +Council.</p> +<p><a name="footnote14a"></a><a href="#citation14a" +class="footnote">[14a]</a> Nichols, followed by subsequent +editors, suggested that “Durham” was a mistake for +“St. David’s,” because Dr. George Bull, Bishop +of St. David’s, died in 1710. But Dr. Bull died on +Feb. 17, 1710, though his successor, Dr. Philip Bisse, was not +appointed until November; and Swift was merely repeating a false +report of the death of Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham, which was +current on the day on which he wrote. Luttrell says, on +Sept. 19, “The Lord Crewe . . . died lately”; but on +the 23rd he adds, “The Bishop of Durham is not dead as +reported” (<i>Brief Relation</i>, vi. 630, 633).</p> +<p><a name="footnote14b"></a><a href="#citation14b" +class="footnote">[14b]</a> Lady Elizabeth +(“Betty”) Butler, who died unmarried in 1750.</p> +<p><a name="footnote14c"></a><a href="#citation14c" +class="footnote">[14c]</a> Swift wrote in 1734, “Once +every year I issued out an edict, commanding that all ladies of +wit, sense, merit, and quality, who had an ambition to be +acquainted with me, should make the first advances at their +peril: which edict, you may believe, was universally +obeyed.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote14d"></a><a href="#citation14d" +class="footnote">[14d]</a> Charles, second Earl of Berkeley +(1649–1710), married Elizabeth, daughter of Baptist Noel, +Viscount Campden. The Earl died on Sept. 24, 1710, and his +widow in 1719. Swift, it will be remembered, had been +chaplain to Lord Berkeley in Ireland in 1699.</p> +<p><a name="footnote14e"></a><a href="#citation14e" +class="footnote">[14e]</a> Lady Betty and Lady Mary Butler. +(see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page44">44</a></span>.)</p> +<p><a name="footnote14f"></a><a href="#citation14f" +class="footnote">[14f]</a> Henry Boyle, Chancellor of the +Exchequer from 1702 to 1708, was Secretary of State from 1708 to +1710, when he was succeeded by St. John. In 1714 he was +created Baron Carleton, and he was Lord President from 1721 until +his death in 1725.</p> +<p><a name="footnote15a"></a><a href="#citation15a" +class="footnote">[15a]</a> On Sept. 29 Swift wrote that his +rooms consisted of the first floor, a dining-room and +bed-chamber, at eight shillings a week. On his last visit +to England, in 1726, he lodged “next door to the Royal +Chair” in Bury Street. Steele lived in the same +street from 1707 to 1712; and Mrs. Vanhomrigh was Swift’s +next-door neighbour.</p> +<p><a name="footnote15b"></a><a href="#citation15b" +class="footnote">[15b]</a> In Exchange Alley. Cf. +<i>Spectator</i>, No. 454: “I went afterwards to +Robin’s, and saw people who had dined with me at the +fivepenny ordinary just before, give bills for the value of large +estates.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote16a"></a><a href="#citation16a" +class="footnote">[16a]</a> John Molesworth, Commissioner of +the Stamp Office, was sent as Envoy to Tuscany in 1710, and was +afterwards Minister at Florence, Venice, Geneva, and Turin. +He became second Viscount Molesworth in 1725, and died in +1731.</p> +<p><a name="footnote16b"></a><a href="#citation16b" +class="footnote">[16b]</a> Misson says, “Every two +hours you may write to any part of the city or suburbs: he that +receives it pays a penny, and you give nothing when you put it +into the Post; but when you write into the country both he that +writes and he that receives pay each a penny.” The +Penny Post system had been taken over by the Government, but was +worked separately from the general Post.</p> +<p><a name="footnote17a"></a><a href="#citation17a" +class="footnote">[17a]</a> The Countess of Berkeley’s +second daughter, who married, in 1706, Sir John Germaine, Bart. +(1650–1718), a soldier of fortune. Lady Betty +Germaine is said to have written a satire on Pope (Nichols’ +<i>Literary Anecdotes</i>, ii. 11), and was a constant +correspondent of Swift’s. She was always a Whig, and +shortly before her death in 1769 she made a present of £100 +to John Wilkes, then in prison in the Tower. Writing of +Lady Betty Butler and Lady Betty Germaine, Swift says elsewhere, +“I saw two Lady Bettys this afternoon; the beauty of one, +the good breeding and nature of the other, and the wit of either, +would have made a fine woman.” Germaine obtained the +estate at Drayton through his first wife, Lady Mary +Mordaunt—Lord Peterborough’s sister—who had +been divorced by her first husband, the Duke of Norfolk. +Lady Betty was thirty years younger than her husband, and after +Sir John’s death she remained a widow for over fifty +years.</p> +<p><a name="footnote17b"></a><a href="#citation17b" +class="footnote">[17b]</a> The letter in No. 280 of the +<i>Tatler</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote17c"></a><a href="#citation17c" +class="footnote">[17c]</a> Discover, find out. +Cf. Shakespeare’s <i>All’s Well that Ends +Well</i>, iii. 6: “He was first smoked by the old Lord +Lafeu.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote17d"></a><a href="#citation17d" +class="footnote">[17d]</a> A village near Dublin.</p> +<p><a name="footnote17e"></a><a href="#citation17e" +class="footnote">[17e]</a> Excellent.</p> +<p><a name="footnote18a"></a><a href="#citation18a" +class="footnote">[18a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page3">3</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote18b"></a><a href="#citation18b" +class="footnote">[18b]</a> John Molesworth, and, probably, +his brother Richard, afterwards third Viscount Molesworth, who +had saved the Duke of Marlborough’s life at the battle of +Ramillies, and had been appointed, in 1710, colonel of a regiment +of foot.</p> +<p><a name="footnote18c"></a><a href="#citation18c" +class="footnote">[18c]</a> Presumably at Charles +Ford’s.</p> +<p><a name="footnote18d"></a><a href="#citation18d" +class="footnote">[18d]</a> <i>The Virtues of Sid Hamet the +Magician’s Rod</i>, published as a single folio sheet, was +a satire on Godolphin.</p> +<p><a name="footnote19a"></a><a href="#citation19a" +class="footnote">[19a]</a> Apparently Marcus Antonius +Morgan, steward to the Bishop of Kildare (Craik). Swift +wrote to the Duke of Montagu on Aug. 12, 1713 (<i>Buccleuch +MSS.</i>, 1899, i. 359). “Mr. Morgan of Kingstrope is a +friend, and was, I am informed, put out of the Commission of +justice for being so.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote19b"></a><a href="#citation19b" +class="footnote">[19b]</a> Dr. Raymond is called +Morgan’s “father” because he warmly supported +Morgan’s interests.</p> +<p><a name="footnote19c"></a><a href="#citation19c" +class="footnote">[19c]</a> The Rev. Thomas Warburton, +Swift’s curate at Laracor, whom Swift described to the +Archbishop as “a gentleman of very good learning and sense, +who has behaved himself altogether unblamably.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote19d"></a><a href="#citation19d" +class="footnote">[19d]</a> The tobacco was to be used as +snuff. About this time ladies much affected the use of +snuff, and Steele, in No. 344 of the <i>Spectator</i>, speaks of +Flavilla pulling out her box, “which is indeed full of good +Brazil,” in the middle of the sermon. People often +made their own snuff out of roll tobacco, by means of +rasps. On Nov. 3, 1711, Swift speaks of sending “a +fine snuff rasp of ivory, given me by Mrs. St. John for Dingley, +and a large roll of tobacco.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote20a"></a><a href="#citation20a" +class="footnote">[20a]</a> Katherine Barton, second +daughter of Robert Barton, of Brigstock, Northamptonshire, and +niece of Sir Isaac Newton. She was a favourite among the +toasts of the Kit-Cat Club, and Lord Halifax, who left her a +fortune, was an intimate friend. In 1717 she married John +Conduitt, afterwards Master of the Mint.</p> +<p><a name="footnote20b"></a><a href="#citation20b" +class="footnote">[20b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page17">17</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote20c"></a><a href="#citation20c" +class="footnote">[20c]</a> William Connolly, appointed a +Commissioner of the Revenue in 1709, was afterwards Speaker of +the Irish House of Commons. He died in 1729. Francis +Robarts, appointed a Commissioner of the Revenue in 1692, was +made a Teller of the Exchequer in England in 1704, and quitted +that office, in September 1710, on his reappointment, in +Connolly’s place, as Revenue Commissioner in Ireland. +In 1714 Robarts was removed, and Connolly again appointed +Commissioner.</p> +<p><a name="footnote20d"></a><a href="#citation20d" +class="footnote">[20d]</a> Enoch Sterne, Collector of +Wicklow and Clerk to the Irish House of Lords. Writing to +Dr. Sterne on Sept. 26, Swift said, “I saw Collector +Sterne, who desired me to present his service to you, and to tell +you he would be glad to hear from you, but not about +business.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote20e"></a><a href="#citation20e" +class="footnote">[20e]</a> In his <i>Character of Mrs. +Johnson</i> Swift says, “She was never known to cry out, or +discover any fear, in a coach.” The passage in the text is +obscure. Apparently Esther Johnson had boasted of saving +money by walking, instead of riding, like a coward.</p> +<p><a name="footnote21a"></a><a href="#citation21a" +class="footnote">[21a]</a> John Radcliffe +(1650–1714), the well-known physician and wit, was often +denounced as a clever empiric. Early in 1711 he treated +Swift for his dizziness. By his will, Radcliffe left most +of his property to the University of Oxford.</p> +<p><a name="footnote21b"></a><a href="#citation21b" +class="footnote">[21b]</a> Charles Barnard, +Sergeant-Surgeon to the Queen, and Master of the Barber +Surgeons’ Company. His large and valuable library, to +which Swift afterwards refers, fetched great prices. +Luttrell records Barnard’s death in his diary for Oct. 12, +1710.</p> +<p><a name="footnote21c"></a><a href="#citation21c" +class="footnote">[21c]</a> Robert Harley, afterwards Earl +of Oxford, had been appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in +August 1710. In May 1711 he was raised to the peerage and +made Lord High Treasurer; and he is constantly referred to in the +<i>Journal</i> as “Lord Treasurer.” He was +impeached in 1715, but was acquitted to 1717; he died in +1724.</p> +<p><a name="footnote22a"></a><a href="#citation22a" +class="footnote">[22a]</a> The Right Hon. Thomas Bligh, +M.P., of Rathmore, County Meath, died on Aug. 28, 1710. His +son, mentioned later in the <i>Journal</i>, became Earl of +Darnley.</p> +<p><a name="footnote22b"></a><a href="#citation22b" +class="footnote">[22b]</a> Penalty.</p> +<p><a name="footnote23a"></a><a href="#citation23a" +class="footnote">[23a]</a> Erasmus Lewis, Under Secretary +of State under Lord Dartmouth, was a great friend of Swift, Pope, +and Arbuthnot. He had previously been one of Harley’s +secretaries, and in his <i>Horace Imitated</i>, <i>Book I. Ep. +vii</i>., Swift describes him as “a cunning shaver, and +very much in Harley’s favour.” Arbuthnot says +that under George I. Lewis kept company with the greatest, and +was “principal governor” in many families. +Lewis was a witness to Arbuthnot’s will. Pope and +Esther Vanhomrigh both left him money to buy rings. Lewis +died in 1754, aged eighty-three.</p> +<p><a name="footnote23b"></a><a href="#citation23b" +class="footnote">[23b]</a> Charles Darteneuf, or +Dartiquenave, was a celebrated epicure, who is said to have been +a son of Charles <span class="GutSmall">II</span>. Lord +Lyttleton, in his <i>Dialogues of the Dead</i>, recalling +Pope’s allusions to him, selects him to represent modern +<i>bon vivants</i> in the dialogue between Darteneuf and +Apicius. See <i>Tatler</i> 252. Darteneuf was +Paymaster of the Royal Works and a member of the Kit-Cat +Club. He died in 1737.</p> +<p><a name="footnote23c"></a><a href="#citation23c" +class="footnote">[23c]</a> No. 230.</p> +<p><a name="footnote23d"></a><a href="#citation23d" +class="footnote">[23d]</a> Good, excellent.</p> +<p><a name="footnote23e"></a><a href="#citation23e" +class="footnote">[23e]</a> Captain George Delaval, +appointed Envoy Extraordinary to the King of Portugal in Oct. +1710, was with Lord Peterborough in Spain in 1706. In May +1707 he went to Lisbon with despatches for the Courts of Spain +and Portugal, from whence he was to proceed as Envoy to the +Emperor of Morocco, with rich presents (Luttrell, vi. 52, 174, +192).</p> +<p><a name="footnote23f"></a><a href="#citation23f" +class="footnote">[23f]</a> Charles Montagu, Earl of +Halifax, as Ranger of Bushey Park and Hampton Court, held many +offices under William <span class="GutSmall">III</span>., and was +First Lord of the Treasury under George I., until his death in +1715. He was great as financier and as debater, and he was +a liberal patron of literature.</p> +<p><a name="footnote24a"></a><a href="#citation24a" +class="footnote">[24a]</a> John Manley, M.P. for Bossiney, +was made Surveyor-General on Sept. 30, 1710, and died in +1714. In 1706 he fought a duel with another Cornish member +(Luttrell, vi. 11, 535, 635). He seems to be the cousin +whom Mrs. De la Riviere Manley accuses of having drawn her into a +false marriage. For Isaac Manley and Sir Thomas Frankland, +see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page7">7</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote24b"></a><a href="#citation24b" +class="footnote">[24b]</a> The Earl of Godolphin (see p. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page18">18</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote24c"></a><a href="#citation24c" +class="footnote">[24c]</a> Sir John Stanley, Bart., of +Northend, Commissioner of Customs, whom Swift knew through his +intimate friends the Pendarves. His wife, Anne, daughter of +Bernard Granville, and niece of John, Earl of Bath, was aunt to +Mary Granville, afterwards Mrs. Delany, who lived with the +Stanleys at their house in Whitehall.</p> +<p><a name="footnote24d"></a><a href="#citation24d" +class="footnote">[24d]</a> Henry, Viscount Hyde, eldest son +of Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, succeeded his father in the +earldom in 1711, and afterwards became Earl of Clarendon. +His wife, Jane, younger daughter of Sir William Leveson +Gower,—who married a daughter of John Granville, Earl of +Bath,—was a beauty, and the mother of two +beauties—Jane, afterwards Countess of Essex (see +<i>Journal</i>, Jan. 29, 1712), and Catherine, afterwards +Countess of Queensberry. Lady Hyde was complimented by +Prior, Pope, and her kinsman, Lord Lansdowne, and is said to have +been more handsome than either of her daughters. She died +in 1725; her husband in 1753. Lord Hyde became joint +Vice-Treasurer for Ireland in 1710; hence his interest with +respect to Pratt’s appointment.</p> +<p><a name="footnote24e"></a><a href="#citation24e" +class="footnote">[24e]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page9">9</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote24f"></a><a href="#citation24f" +class="footnote">[24f]</a> Sir Paul Methuen +(1672–1757), son of John Methuen, diplomatist and Lord +Chancellor of Ireland. Methuen was Envoy and Ambassador to +Portugal from 1697 to 1708, and was M.P. for Devizes from 1708 to +1710, and a Lord of the Admiralty. Under George I. he was +Ambassador to Spain, and held other offices. Gay speaks of +“Methuen of sincerest mind, as Arthur grave, as soft as +womankind,” and Steele dedicated to him the seventh volume +of the <i>Spectator</i>. In his Notes on Macky’s +<i>Characters</i>, Swift calls him “a profligate rogue . . +. without abilities of any kind.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote24g"></a><a href="#citation24g" +class="footnote">[24g]</a> Sir James Montagu was +Attorney-General from 1708 to Sept. 1710, when he resigned, and +was succeeded by Sir Simon Harcourt. Under George I. +Montagu was raised to the Bench, and a few months before his +death in 1723 became Chief Baron of the Exchequer.</p> +<p><a name="footnote25a"></a><a href="#citation25a" +class="footnote">[25a]</a> The turnpike system had spread +rapidly since the Restoration, and had already effected an +important reform in the English roads. Turnpike roads were +as yet unknown in Ireland.</p> +<p><a name="footnote25b"></a><a href="#citation25b" +class="footnote">[25b]</a> Ann Johnson, who afterwards +married a baker named Filby.</p> +<p><a name="footnote25c"></a><a href="#citation25c" +class="footnote">[25c]</a> An infusion of which the main +ingredient was cowslip or palsy-wort.</p> +<p><a name="footnote25d"></a><a href="#citation25d" +class="footnote">[25d]</a> William Legge, first Earl of +Dartmouth (1672–1750), was St. John’s fellow +Secretary of State. Lord Dartmouth seems to have been a +plain, unpretending man, whose ignorance of French helped to +throw important matters into St. John’s hands.</p> +<p><a name="footnote25e"></a><a href="#citation25e" +class="footnote">[25e]</a> Richard Dyot was tried at the +Old Bailey, on Jan. 13, 1710–11, for counterfeiting stamps, +and was acquitted, the crime being found not felony, but only +breach of trust. Two days afterwards a bill of indictment +was found against him for high misdemeanour.</p> +<p><a name="footnote26a"></a><a href="#citation26a" +class="footnote">[26a]</a> Sir Philip Meadows +(1626–1718) was knighted in 1658, and was Ambassador to +Sweden under Cromwell. His son Philip (died 1757) was +knighted in 1700, and was sent on a special mission to the +Emperor in 1707. A great-grandson of the elder Sir Philip +was created Earl Manvers in 1806.</p> +<p><a name="footnote26b"></a><a href="#citation26b" +class="footnote">[26b]</a> Her eyes were weak.</p> +<p><a name="footnote26c"></a><a href="#citation26c" +class="footnote">[26c]</a> The son of the Sir Robert +Southwell to whom Temple had offered Swift as a +“servant” on his going as Secretary of State to +Ireland in 1690. Edward Southwell (1671–1730) +succeeded his father as Secretary of State for Ireland in 1702, +and in 1708 was appointed Clerk to the Privy Council of Great +Britain. Southwell held various offices under George <span +class="GutSmall">I</span>. and George <span +class="GutSmall">II</span>., and amassed a considerable +fortune.</p> +<p><a name="footnote27a"></a><a href="#citation27a" +class="footnote">[27a]</a> Nicholas Rowe (1674–1718), +dramatist and poet laureate, and one of the first editors of +Shakespeare, was at this time under-secretary to the Duke of +Queensberry, Secretary of State for Scotland.</p> +<p><a name="footnote27b"></a><a href="#citation27b" +class="footnote">[27b]</a> No. 238 contains Swift’s +“Description of a Shower in London.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote27c"></a><a href="#citation27c" +class="footnote">[27c]</a> This seems to be a vague +allusion to the text, “Cast thy bread upon the +waters,” etc.</p> +<p><a name="footnote27d"></a><a href="#citation27d" +class="footnote">[27d]</a> Sir Godfrey Kneller +(1646–1723), the fashionable portrait-painter of the +period.</p> +<p><a name="footnote28a"></a><a href="#citation28a" +class="footnote">[28a]</a> At the General election of 1710 +the contest at Westminster excited much interest. The +number of constituents was large, and the franchise low, all +householders who paid scot and lot being voters. There +were, too, many houses of great Whig merchants, and a number of +French Protestants. But the High Church candidates, Cross +and Medlicott, were returned by large majorities, though the +Whigs had chosen popular candidates—General Stanhope, fresh +from his successes in Spain, and Sir Henry Dutton Colt, a +Herefordshire gentleman.</p> +<p><a name="footnote28b"></a><a href="#citation28b" +class="footnote">[28b]</a> Sir Andrew Fountaine +(1676–1753), a distinguished antiquary, of an old Norfolk +family, was knighted by William <span +class="GutSmall">III</span>. in 1699, and inherited his +father’s estate at Norfolk in 1706. He succeeded Sir +Isaac Newton as Warden of the Mint in 1727, and was +Vice-Chamberlain to Queen Caroline. He became acquainted +with Swift in Ireland in 1707, when he went over as Usher of the +Black Rod in Lord Pembroke’s Court.</p> +<p><a name="footnote28c"></a><a href="#citation28c" +class="footnote">[28c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page6">6</a></span>. The +Bishop was probably Dr. Moreton, Bishop of Meath (see +<i>Journal</i>, July 1, 1712).</p> +<p><a name="footnote28d"></a><a href="#citation28d" +class="footnote">[28d]</a> The game of ombre—of +Spanish origin—is described in Pope’s <i>Rape of the +Lock</i>. See also the <i>Compleat Gamester</i>, 1721, and +<i>Notes and Queries</i>, April 8, 1871. The ace of spades, +or Spadille, was always the first trump; the ace of clubs (Basto) +always the third. The second trump was the worst card of +the trump suit in its natural order, <i>i.e.</i> the seven in red +and the deuce in black suits, and was called Manille. If +either of the red suits was trumps, the ace of the suit was +fourth trump (Punto). Spadille, Manille, and Basto were +“matadores,” or murderers, as they never gave +suit.</p> +<p><a name="footnote28e"></a><a href="#citation28e" +class="footnote">[28e]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page12">12</a></span></p> +<p><a name="footnote29a"></a><a href="#citation29a" +class="footnote">[29a]</a> In the <i>Spectator</i>, No. +337, there is a complaint from “one of the top China women +about town,” of the trouble given by ladies who turn over +all the goods in a shop without buying anything. Sometimes +they cheapened tea, at others examined screens or tea-dishes.</p> +<p><a name="footnote29b"></a><a href="#citation29b" +class="footnote">[29b]</a> The Right Hon. John Grubham +Howe, M.P. for Gloucestershire, an extreme Tory, had recently +been appointed Paymaster of the Forces. He is mentioned +satirically as a patriot in sec. 9 of <i>The Tale of a +Tub</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote30a"></a><a href="#citation30a" +class="footnote">[30a]</a> George Henry Hay, Viscount +Dupplin, eldest son of the sixth Earl of Kinnoull, was made a +Teller of the Exchequer in August, and a peer of Great Britain in +December 1711, with the title of Baron Hay. He married, in +1709, Abigail, Harley’s younger daughter, and he succeeded +his father in the earldom of Kinnoull in 1719.</p> +<p><a name="footnote30b"></a><a href="#citation30b" +class="footnote">[30b]</a> Edward Harley, afterwards Lord +Harley, who succeeded his father as Earl of Oxford in 1724. +He married Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holles, daughter of the Duke +of Newcastle, but died without male issue in 1741. His +interest in literature caused him to form the collection known as +the Harleian Miscellany.</p> +<p><a name="footnote30c"></a><a href="#citation30c" +class="footnote">[30c]</a> William Penn (1644–1718), +the celebrated founder of Pennsylvania. Swift says that he +“spoke very agreeably, and with much spirit.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote30d"></a><a href="#citation30d" +class="footnote">[30d]</a> This “Memorial to Mr. +Harley about the First-Fruits” is dated Oct. 7, 1710.</p> +<p><a name="footnote30e"></a><a href="#citation30e" +class="footnote">[30e]</a> Henry St. John, created Viscount +Bolingbroke in July 1712. In the quarrel between Oxford and +Bolingbroke in 1714, Swift’s sympathies were with +Oxford.</p> +<p><a name="footnote31a"></a><a href="#citation31a" +class="footnote">[31a]</a> <i>I.e.</i>, it is decreed by +fate. So Tillotson says, “These things are fatal and +necessary.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote31b"></a><a href="#citation31b" +class="footnote">[31b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page8">8</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote31c"></a><a href="#citation31c" +class="footnote">[31c]</a> Obscure. Hooker speaks of +a “blind or secret corner.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote31d"></a><a href="#citation31d" +class="footnote">[31d]</a> Ale served in a gill +measure.</p> +<p><a name="footnote31e"></a><a href="#citation31e" +class="footnote">[31e]</a> Scott suggests that the allusion +is to <i>The Tale of a Tub</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote31f"></a><a href="#citation31f" +class="footnote">[31f]</a> An extravagant compliment.</p> +<p><a name="footnote32a"></a><a href="#citation32a" +class="footnote">[32a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page62">62</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote32b"></a><a href="#citation32b" +class="footnote">[32b]</a> L’Estrange speaks of +“trencher-flies and spungers.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote32c"></a><a href="#citation32c" +class="footnote">[32c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page2">2</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote32d"></a><a href="#citation32d" +class="footnote">[32d]</a> Samuel Garth, physician and +member of the Kit-Cat Club, was knighted in 1714. He is +best known by his satirical poem, <i>The Dispensary</i>, +1699.</p> +<p><a name="footnote32e"></a><a href="#citation32e" +class="footnote">[32e]</a> Gay speaks of “Wondering +Main, so fat, with laughing eyes” (<i>Mr. Pope’s +Welcome from Greece</i>, st. xvii.).</p> +<p><a name="footnote32f"></a><a href="#citation32f" +class="footnote">[32f]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page24">24</a></span>, note 3.</p> +<p><a name="footnote33a"></a><a href="#citation33a" +class="footnote">[33a]</a> See the letter of Oct. 10, 1710, +to Archbishop King.</p> +<p><a name="footnote33b"></a><a href="#citation33b" +class="footnote">[33b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page6">6</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote33c"></a><a href="#citation33c" +class="footnote">[33c]</a> “Seventy-three lines in +folio upon one page, and in a very small hand.” (Deane +Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote34a"></a><a href="#citation34a" +class="footnote">[34a]</a> <i>I.e.</i>, Lord +Lieutenant.</p> +<p><a name="footnote34b"></a><a href="#citation34b" +class="footnote">[34b]</a> <i>Tatler</i>, No. 238.</p> +<p><a name="footnote34c"></a><a href="#citation34c" +class="footnote">[34c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page2">2</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote34d"></a><a href="#citation34d" +class="footnote">[34d]</a> Charles Coote, fourth Earl of +Mountrath, and M.P. for Knaresborough. He died unmarried in +1715.</p> +<p><a name="footnote34e"></a><a href="#citation34e" +class="footnote">[34e]</a> Henry Coote, Lord +Mountrath’s brother. He succeeded to the earldom in +1715, but died unmarried in 1720.</p> +<p><a name="footnote35a"></a><a href="#citation35a" +class="footnote">[35a]</a> The Devil Tavern was the +meeting-place of Ben Jonson’s Apollo Club. The house +was pulled down in 1787.</p> +<p><a name="footnote35b"></a><a href="#citation35b" +class="footnote">[35b]</a> Addison was re-elected M.P. for +Malmesbury in Oct. 1710, and he kept that seat until his death in +1719.</p> +<p><a name="footnote35c"></a><a href="#citation35c" +class="footnote">[35c]</a> Captain Charles Lavallee, who +served in the Cadiz Expedition of 1702, and was appointed a +captain in Colonel Hans Hamilton’s Regiment of Foot in 1706 +(Luttrell, v. 175, vi. 640; Dalton’s <i>English Army +Lists</i>, iv. 126).</p> +<p><a name="footnote35d"></a><a href="#citation35d" +class="footnote">[35d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page25">25</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote36a"></a><a href="#citation36a" +class="footnote">[36a]</a> The <i>Tatler</i>, No. 230, +<i>Sid Hamet’s Rod</i>, and the ballad (now lost) on the +Westminster Election.</p> +<p><a name="footnote36b"></a><a href="#citation36b" +class="footnote">[36b]</a> The Earl of Galway +(1648–1720), who lost the battle of Almanza to the Duke of +Berwick in 1707. Originally the Marquis de Ruvigny, a +French refugee, he had been made Viscount Galway and Earl of +Galway successively by William <span +class="GutSmall">III</span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote36c"></a><a href="#citation36c" +class="footnote">[36c]</a> William Harrison, the son of a +doctor at St. Cross, Winchester, had been recommended to Swift by +Addison, who obtained for him the post of governor to the Duke of +Queensberry’s son. In Jan. 1711 Harrison began the +issue of a continuation of Steele’s <i>Tatler</i> with +Swift’s assistance, but without success. In May 1711, +St. John gave Harrison the appointment of secretary to Lord Raby, +Ambassador Extraordinary at the Hague, and in Jan. 1713 Harrison +brought the Barrier Treaty to England. He died in the +following month, at the age of twenty-seven, and Lady Strafford +says that “his brother poets buried him, as Mr. Addison, +Mr. Philips, and Dr. Swift.” Tickell calls him +“that much loved youth,” and Swift felt his death +keenly. Harrison’s best poem is <i>Woodstock +Park</i>, 1706.</p> +<p><a name="footnote37a"></a><a href="#citation37a" +class="footnote">[37a]</a> The last volume of +Tonson’s <i>Miscellany</i>, 1708.</p> +<p><a name="footnote37b"></a><a href="#citation37b" +class="footnote">[37b]</a> James Douglas, second Duke of +Queensberry and Duke of Dover (1662–1711), was appointed +joint Keeper of the Privy Seal in 1708, and third Secretary of +State in 1709. Harrison must have been +“governor” either to the third son, Charles, Marquis +of Beverley (born 1698), who succeeded to the dukedom in 1711, or +to the fourth son, George, born in 1701.</p> +<p><a name="footnote37c"></a><a href="#citation37c" +class="footnote">[37c]</a> Anthony Henley, son of Sir +Robert Henley, M.P. for Andover, was a favourite with the wits in +London. He was a strong Whig, and occasionally contributed +to the <i>Tatler</i> and Maynwaring’s <i>Medley</i>. +Garth dedicated <i>The Dispensary</i> to him. Swift records +Henley’s death from apoplexy in August 1711.</p> +<p><a name="footnote37d"></a><a href="#citation37d" +class="footnote">[37d]</a> Sir William Ashurst, Sir Gilbert +Heathcote, and Mr. John Ward were replaced by Sir Richard Hoare, +Sir George Newland, and Mr. John Cass at the election for the +City in 1710. Scott was wrong in saying that the Whigs lost +also the fourth seat, for Sir William Withers had been member for +the City since 1707.</p> +<p><a name="footnote37e"></a><a href="#citation37e" +class="footnote">[37e]</a> Sir Richard Onslow, Bart., was +chosen Speaker of the House of Commons in 1708. Under +George I. he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and was elevated to +the peerage as Baron Onslow in 1716. He died in the +following year.</p> +<p><a name="footnote38a"></a><a href="#citation38a" +class="footnote">[38a]</a> “The upper part of the +letter was a little besmeared with some such stuff; the mark is +still on it” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote38b"></a><a href="#citation38b" +class="footnote">[38b]</a> John Bolton, D.D., appointed a +prebendary of St. Patrick’s in 1691, became Dean of Derry +in 1699. He died in 1724. Like Swift, Bolton was +chaplain to Lord Berkeley, the Lord Lieutenant, and, according to +Swift, he obtained the deanery of Derry through Swift having +declined to give a bribe of £1000 to Lord Berkeley’s +secretary. But Lord Orrery says that the Bishop of Derry +objected to Swift, fearing that he would be constantly flying +backwards and forwards between Ireland and England.</p> +<p><a name="footnote38c"></a><a href="#citation38c" +class="footnote">[38c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page6">6</a></span>, note 2.</p> +<p><a name="footnote39a"></a><a href="#citation39a" +class="footnote">[39a]</a> “That is, to the next +page; for he is now within three lines of the bottom of the +first” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote39b"></a><a href="#citation39b" +class="footnote">[39b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page20">20</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote39c"></a><a href="#citation39c" +class="footnote">[39c]</a> Joshua Dawson, secretary to the +Lords Justices. He built a fine house in Dawson Street, +Dublin, and provided largely for his relatives by the aid of the +official patronage in his hands.</p> +<p><a name="footnote39d"></a><a href="#citation39d" +class="footnote">[39d]</a> He had been dead three weeks +(see pp. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page25">25</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote39e"></a><a href="#citation39e" +class="footnote">[39e]</a> In <i>The Importance of the +Guardian Considered</i>, Swift says that Steele, “to avoid +being discarded, thought fit to resign his place of +Gazetteer.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote40a"></a><a href="#citation40a" +class="footnote">[40a]</a> As Swift never used the name +“Stella” in the <i>Journal</i>, this fragment of his +“little language” must have been altered by Deane +Swift, the first editor. Forster makes the excellent +suggestion that the correct reading is “sluttikins,” +a word used in the <i>Journal</i> on Nov. 28, 1710. Swift +often calls his correspondents “sluts.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote40b"></a><a href="#citation40b" +class="footnote">[40b]</a> Godolphin, who was satirised in +<i>Sid Hamel’s Rod</i> (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page4">4</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote40c"></a><a href="#citation40c" +class="footnote">[40c]</a> No. 230.</p> +<p><a name="footnote40d"></a><a href="#citation40d" +class="footnote">[40d]</a> “This appears to be an +interjection of surprise at the length of his journal” +(Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote41a"></a><a href="#citation41a" +class="footnote">[41a]</a> Matthew Prior, poet and +diplomatist, had been deprived of his Commissionership of Trade +by the Whigs, but was rewarded for his Tory principles in 1711 by +a Commissionership of Customs.</p> +<p><a name="footnote41b"></a><a href="#citation41b" +class="footnote">[41b]</a> “The twentieth parts are +12d. in the £1 paid annually out of all ecclesiastical +benefices as they were valued at the Reformation. They +amount to about £500 per annum; but are of little or no +value to the Queen after the offices and other charges are paid, +though of much trouble and vexation to the clergy” +(Swift’s “Memorial to Mr. Harley”).</p> +<p><a name="footnote41c"></a><a href="#citation41c" +class="footnote">[41c]</a> Charles Mordaunt, the brilliant +but erratic Earl of Peterborough, had been engaged for two years, +after the unsatisfactory inquiry into his conduct in Spain by the +House of Lords in 1708, in preparing an account of the money he +had received and expended. The change of Government brought +him relief from his troubles; in November he was made +Captain-General of Marines, and in December he was nominated +Ambassador Extraordinary to Vienna.</p> +<p><a name="footnote41d"></a><a href="#citation41d" +class="footnote">[41d]</a> Tapped, nudged.</p> +<p><a name="footnote41e"></a><a href="#citation41e" +class="footnote">[41e]</a> <i>I.e.</i>, told only to +you.</p> +<p><a name="footnote41f"></a><a href="#citation41f" +class="footnote">[41f]</a> Sir Hew Dalrymple +(1652–1737), Lord President of the Court of Session, and +son of the first Viscount Stair.</p> +<p><a name="footnote41g"></a><a href="#citation41g" +class="footnote">[41g]</a> Robert Benson, a moderate Tory, +was made a Lord of the Treasury in August 1710, and Chancellor of +the Exchequer in the following June, and was raised to the +peerage as Baron Bingley in 1713. He died in 1731.</p> +<p><a name="footnote42a"></a><a href="#citation42a" +class="footnote">[42a]</a> The Smyrna Coffee-house was on +the north side of Pall Mall, opposite Marlborough House. In +the <i>Tatler</i> (Nos. 10, 78) Steele laughed at the +“cluster of wise heads” to be found every evening at +the Smyrna; and Goldsmith says that Beau Nash would wait a whole +day at a window at the Smyrna, in order to receive a bow from the +Prince or the Duchess of Marlborough, and would then look round +upon the company for admiration and respect.</p> +<p><a name="footnote42b"></a><a href="#citation42b" +class="footnote">[42b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page19">19</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote42c"></a><a href="#citation42c" +class="footnote">[42c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page25">25</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote42d"></a><a href="#citation42d" +class="footnote">[42d]</a> An Irish doctor, with whom Swift +invested money.</p> +<p><a name="footnote43a"></a><a href="#citation43a" +class="footnote">[43a]</a> Enoch Sterne, Collector of +Wicklow and Clerk to the House of Lords in Ireland.</p> +<p><a name="footnote43b"></a><a href="#citation43b" +class="footnote">[43b]</a> Claret.</p> +<p><a name="footnote43c"></a><a href="#citation43c" +class="footnote">[43c]</a> Colonel Ambrose Edgworth, a +famous dandy, who is supposed to have been referred to by Steele +in No. 246 of the <i>Tatler</i>. Edgworth was the son of +Sir John Edgworth, who was made Colonel of a Regiment of Foot in +1689 (Dalton, iii, 59). Ambrose Edgworth was a Captain in +the same regiment, but father and son were shortly afterwards +turned out of the regiment for dishonest conduct in connection +with the soldiers’ clothing. Ambrose was, however, +reappointed a Captain in General Eric’s Regiment of Foot in +1691. He served in Spain as Major in Brigadier +Gorge’s regiment; was taken prisoner in 1706; and was +appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of Colonel Thomas Allen’s +Regiment of Foot in 1707.</p> +<p><a name="footnote43d"></a><a href="#citation43d" +class="footnote">[43d]</a> This volume of <i>Miscellanies +in Prose and Verse</i> was published by Morphew in 1711.</p> +<p><a name="footnote43e"></a><a href="#citation43e" +class="footnote">[43e]</a> Dr. Thomas Lindsay, afterwards +Bishop of Raphoe.</p> +<p><a name="footnote44a"></a><a href="#citation44a" +class="footnote">[44a]</a> The first mention of the +Vanhomrighs in the <i>Journal</i>. Swift had made their +acquaintance when he was in London in 1708.</p> +<p><a name="footnote44b"></a><a href="#citation44b" +class="footnote">[44b]</a> Lady Elizabeth and Lady Mary +(see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page40">40</a></span> +and below).</p> +<p><a name="footnote44c"></a><a href="#citation44c" +class="footnote">[44c]</a> John, third Lord Ashburnham, and +afterwards Earl of Ashburnham (1687–1737), married, on Oct. +21, 1710, Lady Mary Butler, younger daughter of the Duke of +Ormond. She died on Jan. 2, 1712–3, in her +twenty-third year. She was Swift’s “greatest +favourite,” and he was much moved at her death.</p> +<p><a name="footnote45a"></a><a href="#citation45a" +class="footnote">[45a]</a> Edward Wortley Montagu, grandson +of the first Earl of Sandwich, and M.P. for Huntingdon. He +was a great friend of Addison’s, and the second volume of +the <i>Tatler</i> was dedicated to him. In 1712 he married +the famous Lady Mary Pierrepont, eldest daughter of the Duke of +Kingston, and under George I. he became Ambassador Extraordinary +to the Porte. He died in 1761, aged eighty.</p> +<p><a name="footnote45b"></a><a href="#citation45b" +class="footnote">[45b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page28">28</a></span>. No +copy of these verses is known.</p> +<p><a name="footnote45c"></a><a href="#citation45c" +class="footnote">[45c]</a> Henry Alexander, fifth Earl of +Stirling, who died without issue in 1739. His sister, Lady +Judith Alexander, married Sir William Trumbull, Pope’s +friend.</p> +<p><a name="footnote46"></a><a href="#citation46" +class="footnote">[46]</a> “These words, +notwithstanding their great obscurity at present, were very clear +and intelligible to Mrs. Johnson: they referred to conversations, +which passed between her and Dr. Tisdall seven or eight years +before; when the Doctor, who was not only a learned and faithful +divine, but a zealous Church-Tory, frequently entertained her +with Convocation disputes. This gentleman, in the year +1704, paid his addresses to Mrs. Johnson” (Deane +Swift). The Rev. William Tisdall was made D.D. in +1707. Swift never forgave Tisdall’s proposal to marry +Esther Johnson in 1704, and often gave expression to his contempt +for him. In 1706 Tisdall married, and was appointed Vicar +of Kerry and Ruavon; in 1712 he became Vicar of Belfast. He +published several controversial pieces, directed against +Presbyterians and other Dissenters.</p> +<p><a name="footnote47a"></a><a href="#citation47a" +class="footnote">[47a]</a> No. 193 of the <i>Tatler</i>, +for July 4, 1710, contained a letter from Downes the Prompter in +ridicule of Harley’s newly formed Ministry. This +letter, the authorship of which Steele disavowed, was probably by +Anthony Henley.</p> +<p><a name="footnote48a"></a><a href="#citation48a" +class="footnote">[48a]</a> William Berkeley, fourth Baron +Berkeley of Stratton, was sworn of the Privy Council in September +1710, and was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of +Lancaster. He married Frances, youngest daughter of Sir +John Temple, of East Sheen, Surrey, and died in 1740.</p> +<p><a name="footnote48b"></a><a href="#citation48b" +class="footnote">[48b]</a> Probably the widow of Sir +William Temple’s son, John Temple (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page5">5</a></span>). She was +Mary Duplessis, daughter of Duplessis Rambouillet, a +Huguenot.</p> +<p><a name="footnote48c"></a><a href="#citation48c" +class="footnote">[48c]</a> The Rev. James Sartre, who +married Addison’s sister Dorothy, was Prebendary and +Archdeacon of Westminster. He had formerly been French +pastor at Montpelier. After his death in 1713 his widow +married a Mr. Combe, and lived until 1750.</p> +<p><a name="footnote48d"></a><a href="#citation48d" +class="footnote">[48d]</a> William Congreve’s last +play was produced in 1700. In 1710, when he was forty, he +published a collected edition of his works. Swift and +Congreve had been schoolfellows at Kilkenny, and they had both +been pupils of St. George Ashe—afterwards Bishop of +Clogher—at Trinity College, Dublin. On +Congreve’s death, in 1729, Swift wrote, “I loved him +from my youth.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote49a"></a><a href="#citation49a" +class="footnote">[49a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page19">19</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote49b"></a><a href="#citation49b" +class="footnote">[49b]</a> Dean Sterne.</p> +<p><a name="footnote49c"></a><a href="#citation49c" +class="footnote">[49c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page38">38</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote49d"></a><a href="#citation49d" +class="footnote">[49d]</a> When he became Dean he withheld +from Swift the living of St. Nicholas Without, promised in +gratitude for the aid rendered by Swift in his election.</p> +<p><a name="footnote49e"></a><a href="#citation49e" +class="footnote">[49e]</a> Crowe was a Commissioner for +Appeals from the Revenue Commissioners for a short time in 1706, +and was Recorder of Blessington, Co. Wicklow. In his +<i>Short Character of Thomas</i>, <i>Earl of Wharton</i>, 1710, +Swift speaks of Whartons “barbarous injustice to . . . poor +Will Crowe.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote50a"></a><a href="#citation50a" +class="footnote">[50a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page9">9</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote50b"></a><a href="#citation50b" +class="footnote">[50b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page13">13</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote50c"></a><a href="#citation50c" +class="footnote">[50c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page3">3</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote50d"></a><a href="#citation50d" +class="footnote">[50d]</a> Richard Tighe, M.P. for +Belturbet, was a Whig, much disliked by Swift. He became a +Privy Councillor under George I.</p> +<p><a name="footnote51a"></a><a href="#citation51a" +class="footnote">[51a]</a> Dryden Leach, of the Old Bailey, +formerly an actor, was son of Francis Leach. Swift +recommended Harrison to employ Leach in printing the continuation +of the <i>Tatler</i>; but Harrison discarded him. (See +<i>Journal</i>, Jan. 16, 1710–11, and Timperley’s +<i>Literary Anecdotes</i>, 600, 631).</p> +<p><a name="footnote51b"></a><a href="#citation51b" +class="footnote">[51b]</a> The <i>Postman</i>, which +appeared three days in the week, written by M. Fonvive, a French +Protestant, whom Dunton calls “the glory and mirror of news +writers, a very grave, learned, orthodox man.” +Fonvive had a universal system of intelligence, at home and +abroad, and “as his news is early and good, so his style is +excellent.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote51c"></a><a href="#citation51c" +class="footnote">[51c]</a> Sir William Temple left Esther +Johnson the lease of some property in Ireland.</p> +<p><a name="footnote52a"></a><a href="#citation52a" +class="footnote">[52a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page27">27</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote52b"></a><a href="#citation52b" +class="footnote">[52b]</a> An out-of-the-way or obscure +house. So Pepys (<i>Diary</i>, Oct. 15, 1661) “To St. +Paul’s Churchyard to a blind place where Mr. Goldsborough +was to meet me.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote52c"></a><a href="#citation52c" +class="footnote">[52c]</a> Sir Richard Temple, Bart., of +Stowe, a Lieutenant-General who saw much service in Flanders, was +dismissed in 1713 owing to his Whig views, but on the accession +of George I. was raised to the peerage, and was created Viscount +Cobham in 1718. He died in 1749. Congreve wrote in +praise of him, and he was the “brave Cobham” of +Pope’s first <i>Moral Essay</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote52d"></a><a href="#citation52d" +class="footnote">[52d]</a> Richard Estcourt, the actor, +died in August 1712, when his abilities on the stage and as a +talker were celebrated by Steele to No. 468 of the +<i>Spectator</i>. See also <i>Tatler</i>, Aug. 6, 1709, and +<i>Spectator</i>, May 5, 1712. Estcourt was +“providore” of the Beef-Steak Club, and a few months +before his death opened the Bumper Tavern in James Street, Covent +Garden.</p> +<p><a name="footnote52e"></a><a href="#citation52e" +class="footnote">[52e]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page32">32</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote52f"></a><a href="#citation52f" +class="footnote">[52f]</a> Poor, mean. Elsewhere +Swift speaks of “the corrector of a hedge press in Little +Britain,” and “a little hedge vicar.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote52g"></a><a href="#citation52g" +class="footnote">[52g]</a> Thomas Herbert, eighth Earl of +Pembroke, was Lord Lieutenant from April 1707 to December +1708. A nobleman of taste and learning, he was, like Swift, +very fond of punning, and they had been great friends in +Ireland.</p> +<p><a name="footnote53a"></a><a href="#citation53a" +class="footnote">[53a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page9">9</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote53b"></a><a href="#citation53b" +class="footnote">[53b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page10">10</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote53c"></a><a href="#citation53c" +class="footnote">[53c]</a> A small town and fortress in +what is now the Pas de Calais.</p> +<p><a name="footnote53d"></a><a href="#citation53d" +class="footnote">[53d]</a> Richard Stewart, third son of +the first Lord Mountjoy (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page2">2</a></span>), was M.P. at various times for +Castlebar, Strabane, and County Tyrone. He died in +1728.</p> +<p><a name="footnote54a"></a><a href="#citation54a" +class="footnote">[54a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page7">7</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote54b"></a><a href="#citation54b" +class="footnote">[54b]</a> Swift, Esther Johnson, and Mrs. +Dingley seem to have begun their financial year on the 1st of +November. Swift refers to “MD’s +allowance” in the <i>Journal</i> for April 23, 1713.</p> +<p><a name="footnote55a"></a><a href="#citation55a" +class="footnote">[55a]</a> Samuel Dopping, an Irish friend +of Stella’s, who was probably related to Anthony Dopping, +Bishop of Meath (died 1697), and to his son Anthony (died 1743), +who became Bishop of Ossory.</p> +<p><a name="footnote55b"></a><a href="#citation55b" +class="footnote">[55b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page6">6</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote55c"></a><a href="#citation55c" +class="footnote">[55c]</a> The wife of Alderman Stoyte, +afterwards Lord Mayor of Dublin. Mrs. Stoyte and her sister +Catherine; the Walls; Isaac Manley and his wife; Dean Sterne, +Esther Johnson and Mrs. Dingley, and Swift, were the principal +members of a card club which met at each other’s houses for +a number of years.</p> +<p><a name="footnote55d"></a><a href="#citation55d" +class="footnote">[55d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page2">2</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote56a"></a><a href="#citation56a" +class="footnote">[56a]</a> “This cypher stands for +Presto, Stella, and Dingley; as much as to say, it looks like us +three quite retired from all the rest of the world” (Deane +Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote56b"></a><a href="#citation56b" +class="footnote">[56b]</a> Steele’s “dear +Prue,” Mary Scurlock, whom he married as his second wife in +1707, was a lady of property and a “cried-up +beauty.” She was somewhat of a prude, and did not +hesitate to complain to her husband, in and out of season, of his +extravagance and other weaknesses. The other lady to whom +Swift alludes is probably the Duchess of Marlborough.</p> +<p><a name="footnote56c"></a><a href="#citation56c" +class="footnote">[56c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page46">46</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote56d"></a><a href="#citation56d" +class="footnote">[56d]</a> Remembers: an Irish +expression.</p> +<p><a name="footnote57a"></a><a href="#citation57a" +class="footnote">[57a]</a> This new Commission, signed by +Narcissus Marsh, Archbishop of Armagh, and William King, was +dated Oct. 24, 1710. In this document Swift was begged to +take the full management of the business of the First-Fruits into +his hands, the Bishops of Ossory and Killala—who were to +have joined with him in the negotiations—having left London +before Swift arrived. But before this commission was +despatched the Queen had granted the First-Fruits and Twentieth +Parts to the Irish clergy.</p> +<p><a name="footnote57b"></a><a href="#citation57b" +class="footnote">[57b]</a> Lady Mountjoy, wife of the +second Viscount Mountjoy (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page2">2</a></span>), was Anne, youngest daughter of +Murrough Boyle, first Viscount Blessington, by his second wife, +Anne, daughter of Charles Coote, second Earl of Mountrath. +After Lord Mountjoy’s death she married John Farquharson, +and she died in 1741.</p> +<p><a name="footnote58a"></a><a href="#citation58a" +class="footnote">[58a]</a> Forster suggests that Swift +wrote “Frond” or “Frowde” and there is +every reason to believe that this was the case. No Colonel +Proud appears in Dalton’s <i>Army Lists</i>. A +Colonel William Frowde, apparently third son of Sir Philip +Frowde, Knight, by his third wife, Margaret, daughter of Sir John +Ashburnham, was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in Colonel +Farrington’s (see <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page59">59</a></span>) Regiment of Foot in 1694. He +resigned his commission on his appointment to the First Life +Guards in 1702, and he was in this latter regiment in 1704. +In November and December 1711 Swift wrote of Philip Frowde the +elder (Colonel William Frowde’s brother) as “an old +fool,” in monetary difficulties. It is probable that +Swift’s Colonel Proud (? Frowde) was not Colonel William +Frowde, but his nephew, Philip Frowde, junior, who was +Addison’s friend at Oxford, and the author of two tragedies +and various poems. Nothing seems known of Philip +Frowde’s connection with the army, but he is certainly +called “Colonel” by Swift, Addison, and Pope (see +Forster’s <i>Swift</i>, 159; Addison’s <i>Works</i>, +v. 324; Pope’s <i>Works</i>, v. 177, vi. 227). Swift +wrote to Ambrose Philips in 1705, “Col. Frond is just as he +was, very friendly and <i>grand rêveur et +distrait</i>. He has brought his poems almost to +perfection.” It will be observed that when Swift met +Colonel “Proud” he was in company with Addison, as +was also the case when he was with Colonel “Freind” +(p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page11">11</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote58b"></a><a href="#citation58b" +class="footnote">[58b]</a> Charles Davenant, LL.D., +educated at Balliol College, Oxford, was the eldest son of Sir +William Davenant, author of <i>Gondibert</i>. In Parliament +he attacked Ministerial abuses with great bitterness until, in +1703, he was made secretary to the Commissioners appointed to +treat for a union with Scotland. To this post was added, in +1705, an Inspector-Generalship of Exports and Imports, which he +retained until his death in 1714. <i>Tom Double</i>, a +satire on his change of front after obtaining his place, was +published in 1704. In a Note on Macky’s character of +Davenant, Swift says, “He ruined his estate, which put him +under a necessity to comply with the times.” +Davenant’s <i>True Picture of a Modern Whig</i>, <i>in Two +Parts</i>, appeared in 1701–2; in 1707 he published <i>The +True Picture of a Modern Whig revived</i>, <i>set forth in a +third dialogue between Whiglove and Double</i>, which seems to be +the piece mentioned in the text, though Swift speaks of the +pamphlet as “lately put out.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote58c"></a><a href="#citation58c" +class="footnote">[58c]</a> Hugh Chamberlen, the younger +(1664–1728), was a Fellow of the College of Physicians and +Censor in 1707, 1717, and 1721. Atterbury and the Duchess +of Buckingham and Normanby were among his fashionable +patients. His father, Hugh Chamberlen, M.D., was the author +of the Land Bank Scheme of 1693–94.</p> +<p><a name="footnote58d"></a><a href="#citation58d" +class="footnote">[58d]</a> Sir John Holland (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page11">11</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote59a"></a><a href="#citation59a" +class="footnote">[59a]</a> Swift may mean either rambling +or gambolling.</p> +<p><a name="footnote59b"></a><a href="#citation59b" +class="footnote">[59b]</a> Thomas Farrington was appointed +Colonel of the newly raised 29th Regiment of Foot in 1702. +He was a subscriber for a copy of the <i>Tatler</i> on royal +paper (Aitken, <i>Life of Steele</i>, i. 329, 330).</p> +<p><a name="footnote59c"></a><a href="#citation59c" +class="footnote">[59c]</a> In <i>The History of +Vanbrugh’s House</i>, Swift described everyone as hunting +for it up and down the river banks, and unable to find it, until +at length they—</p> +<blockquote><p>“— in the rubbish spy<br /> +A thing resembling a goose pie.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Sir John Vanbrugh was more successful as a dramatist than as +an architect, though his work at Blenheim and elsewhere has many +merits.</p> +<p><a name="footnote59d"></a><a href="#citation59d" +class="footnote">[59d]</a> For the successes of the last +campaign.</p> +<p><a name="footnote60a"></a><a href="#citation60a" +class="footnote">[60a]</a> John Sheffield, third Earl of +Mulgrave, was created Duke of Buckingham and Normanby in 1703, +and died in 1721. On Queen Anne’s accession he became +Lord Privy Seal, and on the return of the Tories to power in 1710 +he was Lord Steward, and afterward (June 1710) Lord President of +the Council. The Duke was a poet, as well as a soldier and +statesman, his best known work being the <i>Essay on +Poetry</i>. He was Dryden’s patron, and Pope prepared +a collected edition of his works.</p> +<p><a name="footnote60b"></a><a href="#citation60b" +class="footnote">[60b]</a> Laurence Hyde, created Earl of +Rochester in 1682, died in 1711. He was the Hushai of +Dryden’s <i>Absalom and Achitophel</i>, “the friend +of David in distress.” In 1684 he was made Lord +President of the Council, and on the accession of James <span +class="GutSmall">II</span>., Lord Treasurer; he was, however, +dismissed in 1687. Under William <span +class="GutSmall">III</span>. Rochester was Lord Lieutenant of +Ireland, an office he resigned in 1703; and in September 1710 he +again became Lord President. His imperious temper always +stood in the way of popularity or real success.</p> +<p><a name="footnote60c"></a><a href="#citation60c" +class="footnote">[60c]</a> Sir Thomas Osborne, Charles +<span class="GutSmall">II</span>.’s famous Minister, was +elevated to the peerage in 1673, and afterwards was made +successively Earl of Danby, Marquis of Caermarthen, and Duke of +Leeds. On Nov. 29, 1710, a few days after this reference to +him, the Duke was granted a pension of £3500 a year out of +the Post Office revenues. He died in July 1712, aged +eighty-one, and soon afterwards his grandson married Lord +Oxford’s daughter.</p> +<p><a name="footnote60d"></a><a href="#citation60d" +class="footnote">[60d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page12">12</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote60e"></a><a href="#citation60e" +class="footnote">[60e]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page48">48</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote60f"></a><a href="#citation60f" +class="footnote">[60f]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page11">11</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote60g"></a><a href="#citation60g" +class="footnote">[60g]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page52">52</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote60h"></a><a href="#citation60h" +class="footnote">[60h]</a> This is, of course, a joke; +Swift was never introduced at Court.</p> +<p><a name="footnote60i"></a><a href="#citation60i" +class="footnote">[60i]</a> Captain Delaval (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page23">23</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote60j"></a><a href="#citation60j" +class="footnote">[60j]</a> Admiral Sir Charles Wager +(1666–1743) served in the West Indies from 1707 to 1709, +and gained great wealth from the prizes he took. Under +George I. he was Comptroller of the Navy, and in 1733 he became +First Lord of the Admiralty, a post which he held until 1742.</p> +<p><a name="footnote60k"></a><a href="#citation60k" +class="footnote">[60k]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page52">52</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote60l"></a><a href="#citation60l" +class="footnote">[60l]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page24">24</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote60m"></a><a href="#citation60m" +class="footnote">[60m]</a> Isaac Bickerstaff’s +“valentine” sent him a nightcap, finely wrought by a +maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth (<i>Tatler</i>, No. 141). +The “nightcap” was a periwig with a short tie and +small round head, and embroidered nightcaps were worn chiefly by +members of the graver professions.</p> +<p><a name="footnote61a"></a><a href="#citation61a" +class="footnote">[61a]</a> <i>Tatler</i>, No. 237.</p> +<p><a name="footnote61b"></a><a href="#citation61b" +class="footnote">[61b]</a> <i>Tatler</i>, No. 230.</p> +<p><a name="footnote62a"></a><a href="#citation62a" +class="footnote">[62a]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page32">32</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page68">68</a></span>.</p> +<p class="poetry"><a name="footnote62b"></a><a +href="#citation62b" class="footnote">[62b]</a> +“Returning home at night, you’ll find the sink<br /> +Strike your offended sense with double stink.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right" class="poetry">(Description of a +City Shower, ll. 5, 6.)</p> +<p><a name="footnote62c"></a><a href="#citation62c" +class="footnote">[62c]</a> Christ Church Cathedral, +Dublin.</p> +<p><a name="footnote63a"></a><a href="#citation63a" +class="footnote">[63a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page1">1</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote63b"></a><a href="#citation63b" +class="footnote">[63b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page55">55</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote64a"></a><a href="#citation64a" +class="footnote">[64a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page34">34</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote64b"></a><a href="#citation64b" +class="footnote">[64b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page2">2</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote65"></a><a href="#citation65" +class="footnote">[65]</a> The bellman’s +accents. Cf. Pepys’ <i>Diary</i>, Jan. 16, +1659–60: “I staid up till the bellman came by with +his bell just under my window as I was writing of this very line, +and cried, ‘Past one of the clock, and a cold, frosty, +windy morning.’”</p> +<p><a name="footnote66a"></a><a href="#citation66a" +class="footnote">[66a]</a> John Freind, M.D. +(1675–1728), was a younger brother of the Robert Freind, of +Westminster School, mentioned elsewhere in the +<i>Journal</i>. Educated under Dr. Busby at Westminster, he +was in 1694 elected a student of Christ Church, where he made the +acquaintance of Atterbury, and supported Boyle against Bentley in +the dispute as to the authorship of the letters of +Phalaris. In 1705 he attended the Earl of Peterborough to +Spain, and in the following year wrote a defence of that +commander (<i>Account of the Earl of Peterborough’s Conduct +in Spain</i>). A steady Tory, he took a share in the +defence of Dr. Sacheverell; and in 1723, when M.P. for +Launceston, he fell under the suspicion of the Government, and +was sent to the Tower. On the accession of George <span +class="GutSmall">II</span>., however, he came into favour with +the Court, and died Physician to the Queen.</p> +<p><a name="footnote66b"></a><a href="#citation66b" +class="footnote">[66b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page59">59</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote66c"></a><a href="#citation66c" +class="footnote">[66c]</a> St. John was thirty-two in +October 1710. He had been Secretary at War six years +before, resigning with Harley in 1707. Swift repeats this +comparison elsewhere. Temple was forty-six when he refused +a Secretaryship of State in 1674.</p> +<p><a name="footnote66d"></a><a href="#citation66d" +class="footnote">[66d]</a> Sir Henry St. John seems to have +continued a gay man to the end of his life. In his youth he +was tried and convicted for the murder of Sir William Estcourt in +a duel (Scott). In 1716, after his son had been attainted, +he was made Viscount St. John. He died in 1742, aged +ninety.</p> +<p><a name="footnote67a"></a><a href="#citation67a" +class="footnote">[67a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page4">4</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote67b"></a><a href="#citation67b" +class="footnote">[67b]</a> “Swift delighted to let +his pen run into such rhymes as these, which he generally passes +off as old proverbs” (Scott). Many of the charming +scraps of “Old Ballads” and “Old Plays” +at the head of Scott’s own chapters are in reality the +result of his own imagination.</p> +<p><a name="footnote67c"></a><a href="#citation67c" +class="footnote">[67c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page10">10</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote67d"></a><a href="#citation67d" +class="footnote">[67d]</a> Sir Richard Levinge, Bart., had +been Solicitor-General for Ireland from 1704 to 1709, and was +Attorney-General from 1711 to 1714. Afterwards he was +Speaker of the Irish House of Commons and Chief-Justice of the +Common Pleas in Ireland.</p> +<p><a name="footnote68a"></a><a href="#citation68a" +class="footnote">[68a]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page32">32</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page62">62</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote68b"></a><a href="#citation68b" +class="footnote">[68b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page6">6</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote68c"></a><a href="#citation68c" +class="footnote">[68c]</a> Thomas Belasyse, second Viscount +Fauconberg, or Falconbridge (died 1700), a nobleman of hereditary +loyalty, married, in 1657, the Protector’s youngest +daughter, Mary Cromwell, who is represented as a lady of high +talent and spirit. She died on March 14, 1712. Burnet +describes her as “a wise and worthy woman,” who would +have had a better prospect of maintaining her father’s post +than either of her brothers.</p> +<p><a name="footnote69a"></a><a href="#citation69a" +class="footnote">[69a]</a> Richard Freeman, Chief Baron, +was Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1707 until his death in +November 1710.</p> +<p><a name="footnote69b"></a><a href="#citation69b" +class="footnote">[69b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page49">49</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote69c"></a><a href="#citation69c" +class="footnote">[69c]</a> Sir Richard Cox, Bart. +(1650–1733), was Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1703 to +1707. In 1711 he was appointed Chief-Justice of the +Queen’s Bench, but he was removed from office on the death +of Queen Anne. His zealous Protestantism sometimes caused +his views to be warped, but he was honest and +well-principled.</p> +<p><a name="footnote69d"></a><a href="#citation69d" +class="footnote">[69d]</a> Sir Thomas Hanmer, Bart. +(1676–1746), succeeded Bromley as Speaker in 1714. In +February 1713 Swift said, “He is the most considerable man +in the House of Commons.” His edition of Shakespeare +was published by the University of Oxford in 1743–44. +Pope called it “pompous,” and sneered at +Hanmer’s “superior air” (<i>Dunciad</i>, iv. +105).</p> +<p><a name="footnote70"></a><a href="#citation70" +class="footnote">[70]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page24">24</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote72a"></a><a href="#citation72a" +class="footnote">[72a]</a> Elliot was keeper of the St. +James’s Coffee-house (see <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page2">2</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote72b"></a><a href="#citation72b" +class="footnote">[72b]</a> Forster suggested that the true +reading is “writhing.” If so, it is not +necessary to suppose that Lady Giffard was the cause of it. +Perhaps it is the word “tiger” that is corrupt.</p> +<p><a name="footnote72c"></a><a href="#citation72c" +class="footnote">[72c]</a> The Hon. Charles Boyle +(1676–1731), of the Boyle and Bentley controversy, +succeeded to the peerage as Lord Orrery in 1703. When he +settled in London he became the centre of a Christ Church set, a +strong adherent of Harley’s party, and a member of +Swift’s “club.” His son John, fifth Earl +of Orrery, published <i>Remarks on the Life and Writings of +Jonathan Swift</i> in 1751.</p> +<p><a name="footnote73a"></a><a href="#citation73a" +class="footnote">[73a]</a> William Domville, a landed +proprietor in County Dublin, whom Swift called “perfectly +as fine a gentleman as I know.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote73b"></a><a href="#citation73b" +class="footnote">[73b]</a> On May 16, 1711, Swift wrote, +“There will be an old to do.” The word is found +in Elizabethan writers in the sense of “more than +enough.” Cf. <i>Macbeth</i>, ii. 3: “If a man +were porter of hell gate, he should have old turning the +key.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote73c"></a><a href="#citation73c" +class="footnote">[73c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page9">9</a></span>. Clements +was related to Pratt, the Deputy Vice-Treasurer, and was probably +the Robert Clements who became Deputy Vice-Treasurer, and whose +grandson Robert was created Earl of Leitrim in 1795.</p> +<p><a name="footnote73d"></a><a href="#citation73d" +class="footnote">[73d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page24">24</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote74a"></a><a href="#citation74a" +class="footnote">[74a]</a> Swift’s sister Jane, who +had married a currier in Bride Street, named Joseph Fenton, a +match to which Swift strongly objected. Deane Swift says +that Swift never saw his sister again after the marriage; he had +offered her £500 if she would show a “proper +disdain” of Fenton. On her husband’s dying +bankrupt, however, Swift paid her an annuity until 1738, when she +died in the same lodging with Esther Johnson’s mother, Mrs. +Bridget Mose, at Farnham (Forster’s <i>Swift</i>, pp. +118–19).</p> +<p><a name="footnote74b"></a><a href="#citation74b" +class="footnote">[74b]</a> Welbore Ellis, appointed Bishop +of Kildare in 1705. He was translated to Meath in 1731, and +died three years later.</p> +<p><a name="footnote74c"></a><a href="#citation74c" +class="footnote">[74c]</a> The expression of the Archbishop +is, “I am not to conceal from you that some expressed a +little jealously, that you would not be acceptable to the present +courtiers; intimating that you were under the reputation of being +a favourite of the late party in power” (King to Swift, +Nov. 2, 1710).</p> +<p><a name="footnote75"></a><a href="#citation75" +class="footnote">[75]</a> This indignant letter is dated +Nov. 23, 1710. It produced an apologetic reply from the +Archbishop (Nov. 30, 1710), who represented that the letter to +Southwell was a snare laid in his way, since if he declined +signing it, it might have been interpreted into disrespect to the +Duke of Ormond. Of the bishops King said, “You cannot +do yourself a greater service than to bring this to a good issue, +to their shame and conviction.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote76a"></a><a href="#citation76a" +class="footnote">[76a]</a> William Bromley (died 1732) was +M.P. for the University of Oxford. A good debater and a +strong High Churchman, he was Secretary of State from August 1713 +until the Queen’s death in the following year.</p> +<p><a name="footnote76b"></a><a href="#citation76b" +class="footnote">[76b]</a> Colonel, afterwards +Major-General, John Hill (died 1735) was younger brother of Mrs. +Masham, the Queen’s favourite, and a poor relation of the +Duchess of Marlborough. He was wounded at Mons in 1709, and +in 1711 was sent on an unsuccessful expedition to attack the +French settlements in North America. In 1713 he was +appointed to command the troops at Dunkirk.</p> +<p><a name="footnote76c"></a><a href="#citation76c" +class="footnote">[76c]</a> “The footmen in attendance +at the Houses of Parliament used at this time to form themselves +into a deliberative body, and usually debated the same points +with their masters. It was jocularly said that several +questions were lost by the Court party in the menial House of +Lords which were carried triumphantly in the real assembly; which +was at length explained by a discovery that the Scottish peers +whose votes were sometimes decisive of a question had but few +representatives in the convocation of lacqueys. The sable +attendant mentioned by Swift, being an appendage of the brother +of Mrs. Masham, the reigning favourite, had a title to the chair, +the Court and Tory interest being exerted in his favour” +(Scott). Steele alludes to the “Footmen’s +Parliament” in No. 88 of the <i>Spectator</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote77a"></a><a href="#citation77a" +class="footnote">[77a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page1">1</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote77b"></a><a href="#citation77b" +class="footnote">[77b]</a> A Court of Equity abolished in +the reign of Charles I. It met in the <i>Camera Alba</i>, +or Whitehall, and the room appears to have retained the name of +the old Court.</p> +<p><a name="footnote78a"></a><a href="#citation78a" +class="footnote">[78a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page24">24</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote78b"></a><a href="#citation78b" +class="footnote">[78b]</a> Swift’s first contribution +to the <i>Examiner</i> (No. 13) is dated Nov. 2, 1710.</p> +<p><a name="footnote78c"></a><a href="#citation78c" +class="footnote">[78c]</a> Seduced, induced. Dryden +(<i>Spanish Friar</i>) has “To debauch a king to break his +laws.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote80a"></a><a href="#citation80a" +class="footnote">[80a]</a> Freeman (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page69">69</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote80b"></a><a href="#citation80b" +class="footnote">[80b]</a> “To make this +intelligible, it is necessary to observe, that the words +‘<i>this fortnight</i>’, in the preceding sentence, +were first written in what he calls their little language, and +afterwards scratched out and written plain. It must be +confessed this little language, which passed current between +Swift and Stella, has occasioned infinite trouble in the revisal +of these papers” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote80c"></a><a href="#citation80c" +class="footnote">[80c]</a> Trim. An attack upon the +liberties of this corporation is among the political offences of +Wharton’s Lieutenancy of Ireland set forth in Swift’s +<i>Short Character of the Earl of Wharton</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote80d"></a><a href="#citation80d" +class="footnote">[80d]</a> Apologies.</p> +<p><a name="footnote80e"></a><a href="#citation80e" +class="footnote">[80e]</a> “A Description of the +Morning,” in No. 9 of the <i>Tatler</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote81a"></a><a href="#citation81a" +class="footnote">[81a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page38">38</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote81b"></a><a href="#citation81b" +class="footnote">[81b]</a> William Palliser (died +1726).</p> +<p><a name="footnote81c"></a><a href="#citation81c" +class="footnote">[81c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page20">20</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote81d"></a><a href="#citation81d" +class="footnote">[81d]</a> “Here he writ with his +eyes shut; and the writing is somewhat crooked, although as well +in other respects as if his eyes had been open” (Deane +Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote81e"></a><a href="#citation81e" +class="footnote">[81e]</a> <i>Tatler</i>, No. 249; cf. p. +93. During this visit to London Swift contributed to only +three <i>Tatlers</i>, viz. Nos. 230, 238, and 258.</p> +<p><a name="footnote81f"></a><a href="#citation81f" +class="footnote">[81f]</a> St. Andrew’s Day.</p> +<p><a name="footnote82a"></a><a href="#citation82a" +class="footnote">[82a]</a> No. 241.</p> +<p><a name="footnote82b"></a><a href="#citation82b" +class="footnote">[82b]</a> <i>Tatler</i>, No. 258.</p> +<p><a name="footnote84a"></a><a href="#citation84a" +class="footnote">[84a]</a> Lieutenant-General Philip Bragg, +Colonel of the 28th Regiment of Foot, and M.P. for Armagh, died +in 1759.</p> +<p><a name="footnote84b"></a><a href="#citation84b" +class="footnote">[84b]</a> James Cecil, fifth Earl of +Salisbury, who died in 1728.</p> +<p><a name="footnote84c"></a><a href="#citation84c" +class="footnote">[84c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page5">5</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote84d"></a><a href="#citation84d" +class="footnote">[84d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page60">60</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote84e"></a><a href="#citation84e" +class="footnote">[84e]</a> Kneller seems never to have +painted Swift’s portrait.</p> +<p><a name="footnote85a"></a><a href="#citation85a" +class="footnote">[85a]</a> On Nov. 25 and 28.</p> +<p><a name="footnote85b"></a><a href="#citation85b" +class="footnote">[85b]</a> Arthur Annesley, M.P. for +Cambridge University, had recently become fifth Earl of Anglesea, +on the death of his brother (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page13">13</a></span>). Under George I. he was Joint +Treasurer of Ireland, and Treasurer at War.</p> +<p><a name="footnote85c"></a><a href="#citation85c" +class="footnote">[85c]</a> <i>A Short Character of the Earl +of Wharton</i>, by Swift himself, though the authorship was not +suspected at the time. “Archbishop King,” says +Scott, “would have hardly otherwise ventured to mention it +to Swift in his letter of Jan. 9, 1710, as ‘a wound given +in the dark.’” Elsewhere, however, in a note, +Swift hints that Archbishop King was really aware of the +authorship of the pamphlet.</p> +<p><a name="footnote86a"></a><a href="#citation86a" +class="footnote">[86a]</a> A false report: see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page88">88</a></span> below.</p> +<p><a name="footnote86b"></a><a href="#citation86b" +class="footnote">[86b]</a> None of these Commissioners of +Revenue lost their places at this time. Samuel Ogle was +Commissioner from 1699 to 1714; John South from 1696 until his +death in 1711; and Sir William St. Quintin, Bart., from 1706 to +1713. Stephen Ludlow succeeded South in September 1711.</p> +<p><a name="footnote86c"></a><a href="#citation86c" +class="footnote">[86c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page53">53</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote86d"></a><a href="#citation86d" +class="footnote">[86d]</a> James Hamilton, sixth Earl of +Abercorn (1656–1734), a Scotch peer who had strongly +supported the Union of 1706.</p> +<p><a name="footnote87a"></a><a href="#citation87a" +class="footnote">[87a]</a> L’Estrange speaks of +“insipid twittle twattles.” Johnson calls this +“a vile word.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote87b"></a><a href="#citation87b" +class="footnote">[87b]</a> A cousin of Swift’s; +probably a son of William Swift.</p> +<p><a name="footnote87c"></a><a href="#citation87c" +class="footnote">[87c]</a> Nicholas Sankey (died 1722) +succeeded Lord Lovelace as Colonel of a Regiment of Foot in +Ireland in 1689. He became Brigadier-General in 1704, +Major-General 1707, and Lieutenant-General 1710. He served +in Spain, and was taken prisoner at the battle of the Caya in +1709.</p> +<p><a name="footnote88a"></a><a href="#citation88a" +class="footnote">[88a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page88">88</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote88b"></a><a href="#citation88b" +class="footnote">[88b]</a> The Earl of Abercorn (see p. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page86">86</a></span>) +married, in 1686, Elizabeth, only child of Sir Robert Reading, +Bart., of Dublin, by Jane, Dowager Countess of Mountrath. +Lady Abercorn survived her husband twenty years, dying in 1754, +aged eighty-six.</p> +<p><a name="footnote88c"></a><a href="#citation88c" +class="footnote">[88c]</a> Charles Lennox, first Duke of +Richmond and Gordon (1672–1723), was the illegitimate son +of Charles <span class="GutSmall">II</span>. by Madame de +Querouaille.</p> +<p><a name="footnote88d"></a><a href="#citation88d" +class="footnote">[88d]</a> Sir Robert Raymond, afterwards +Lord Raymond (1673–1733), M.P. for Bishop’s Castle, +Shropshire, was appointed Solicitor-General in May 1710, and was +knighted in October. He was removed from office on the +accession of George I., but was made Attorney-General in 1720, +and in 1724 became a judge of the King’s Bench. In +the following year he was made Lord Chief-Justice, and was +distinguished both for his learning and his impartiality.</p> +<p><a name="footnote88e"></a><a href="#citation88e" +class="footnote">[88e]</a> Lynn-Regis.</p> +<p><a name="footnote88f"></a><a href="#citation88f" +class="footnote">[88f]</a> Richard Savage, fourth Earl +Rivers, the father of Richard Savage, the poet. Under the +Whigs Lord Rivers was Envoy to Hanover; and after his conversion +by Harley, he was Constable of the Tower under the Tories. +He died in 1712.</p> +<p><a name="footnote89a"></a><a href="#citation89a" +class="footnote">[89a]</a> Chancellor of the Exchequer in +Ireland from 1695 until his death in 1717.</p> +<p><a name="footnote89b"></a><a href="#citation89b" +class="footnote">[89b]</a> Lord Shelburne’s clever +sister, Anne, only daughter of Sir William Petty, and wife of +Thomas Fitzmaurice, Lord of Kerry, afterwards created first Earl +of Kerry.</p> +<p><a name="footnote89c"></a><a href="#citation89c" +class="footnote">[89c]</a> Mrs. Pratt, an Irish friend of +Lady Kerry, lodged at Lord Shelburne’s during her visit to +London. The reference to Clements (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page73">73</a></span>), +Pratt’s relative, in the <i>Journal</i> for April 14, 1711, +makes it clear that Mrs. Pratt was the wife of the Deputy +Vice-Treasurer of Ireland, to whom Swift often alludes (see p. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page9">9</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote89d"></a><a href="#citation89d" +class="footnote">[89d]</a> Lieutenant-General Thomas +Meredith, Major-General Maccartney, and Brigadier Philip +Honeywood. They alleged that their offence only amounted to +drinking a health to the Duke of Marlborough, and confusion to +his enemies. But the Government said that an example must +be made, because various officers had dropped dangerous +expressions about standing by their General, Marlborough, who was +believed to be aiming at being made Captain General for +life. For Maccartney see the <i>Journal</i> for Nov. 15, +1712, seq. Meredith, who was appointed Adjutant-General of +the Forces in 1701, was made a Lieutenant-General in 1708. +He saw much service under William <span +class="GutSmall">III</span>., and Marlborough, and was elected +M.P. for Midhurst in 1709. He died in 1719 (Dalton’s +<i>Army Lists</i>, iii. 181). Honeywood entered the army in +1694; was at Namur; and was made a Brigadier-General before +1711. After the accession of George I. he became Colonel of +a Regiment of Dragoons, and commanded a division at +Dettingen. At his death in 1752 he was acting as Governor +of Portsmouth, with the rank of General (Dalton, iv. 30).</p> +<p><a name="footnote90a"></a><a href="#citation90a" +class="footnote">[90a]</a> Or “malkin”; a +counterfeit, or scarecrow.</p> +<p><a name="footnote90b"></a><a href="#citation90b" +class="footnote">[90b]</a> William Cadogan, +Lieutenant-General and afterwards Earl Cadogan (1675–1726), +a great friend of Marlborough, was Envoy to the United Provinces +and Spanish Flanders. Cadogan retained the post of +Lieutenant to the Tower until 1715.</p> +<p><a name="footnote90c"></a><a href="#citation90c" +class="footnote">[90c]</a> Earl Cadogan’s father, +Henry Cadogan, barrister, married Bridget, daughter of Sir +Hardresse Waller, and sister of Elizabeth, Baroness Shelburne in +her own right.</p> +<p><a name="footnote90d"></a><a href="#citation90d" +class="footnote">[90d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page28">28</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote90e"></a><a href="#citation90e" +class="footnote">[90e]</a> Cadogan married Margaretta, +daughter of William Munter, Counsellor of the Court of +Holland.</p> +<p><a name="footnote91a"></a><a href="#citation91a" +class="footnote">[91a]</a> Presumably the eldest son, +William, who succeeded his father as second Earl of Kerry in +1741, and died in 1747. He was at Eton and Christ Church, +Oxford, and was afterwards a Colonel in the Coldstream +Guards.</p> +<p><a name="footnote91b"></a><a href="#citation91b" +class="footnote">[91b]</a> Henry Petty, third Lord +Shelburne, who became Earl of Shelburne in 1719. His son +predeceased him, without issue, and on Lord Shelburne’s +death, in 1751, his honours became extinct. His daughter +Anne also died without issue.</p> +<p><a name="footnote91c"></a><a href="#citation91c" +class="footnote">[91c]</a> The menagerie, which had been +one of the sights of London, was removed from the Tower in +1834. In his account of the Tory Fox Hunter in No. 47 of +the <i>Freeholder</i>, Addison says, “Our first visit was +to the lions.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote91d"></a><a href="#citation91d" +class="footnote">[91d]</a> Bethlehem Hospital, for +lunatics, in Moorfields, was a popular “sight” in the +eighteenth century. Cf. the <i>Tatler</i>, No. 30: +“On Tuesday last I took three lads, who are under my +guardianship, a rambling, in a hackney coach, to show them the +town: as the lions, the tombs, Bedlam.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote91e"></a><a href="#citation91e" +class="footnote">[91e]</a> The Royal Society met at Gresham +College from 1660 to 1710. The professors of the College +lectured on divinity, civil law, astronomy, music, geometry, +rhetoric, and physic.</p> +<p><a name="footnote91f"></a><a href="#citation91f" +class="footnote">[91f]</a> The most important of the +puppet-shows was Powell’s, in the Little Piazza, Covent +Garden, which is frequently mentioned in the <i>Tatler</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote91g"></a><a href="#citation91g" +class="footnote">[91g]</a> The precise nature this +negligent costume is not known, but it is always decried by +popular writers of the time.</p> +<p><a name="footnote91h"></a><a href="#citation91h" +class="footnote">[91h]</a> Retched. Bacon has +“Patients must not keck at them at the first.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote92a"></a><a href="#citation92a" +class="footnote">[92a]</a> Swift was born on November +30.</p> +<p><a name="footnote92b"></a><a href="#citation92b" +class="footnote">[92b]</a> Mrs. De la Riviere Manley, +daughter of Sir Roger Manley, and cousin of John Manley, M.P., +and Isaac Manley (see pp. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page24">24</a></span>), wrote poems and plays, but is best +known for her <i>Secret Memoirs and Manners of Several Persons of +Quality</i>, <i>of both sexes</i>. <i>From the New +Atalantis</i>, 1709, a book abounding in scandalous references to +her contemporaries. She was arrested in October, but was +discharged in Feb. 1710. In May 1710 she brought out a +continuation of the <i>New Atalantis</i>, called <i>Memoirs of +Europe towards the Close of the Eighth Century</i>. In June +1711 she became editress of the Tory <i>Examiner</i>, and wrote +political pamphlets with Swift’s assistance. +Afterwards she lived with Alderman Barber, the printer, at whose +office she died in 1724. In her will she mentioned her +“much honoured friend, the Dean of St. Patrick, Dr. +Swift.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote92c"></a><a href="#citation92c" +class="footnote">[92c]</a> “He seems to have written +these words in a whim; for the sake of what follows” (Deane +Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote93a"></a><a href="#citation93a" +class="footnote">[93a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page62">62</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote93b"></a><a href="#citation93b" +class="footnote">[93b]</a> No. 249 (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page81">81</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote94a"></a><a href="#citation94a" +class="footnote">[94a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote94b"></a><a href="#citation94b" +class="footnote">[94b]</a> In a letter to the Rev. Dr. +Tisdall, of Dec. 16, 1703, Swift said: “I’ll teach +you a way to outwit Mrs. Johnson: it is a new-fashioned way of +being witty, and they call it a <i>bite</i>. You must ask a +bantering question, or tell some damned lie in a serious manner, +and then she will answer or speak as if you were in earnest; and +then cry you, ‘Madam, there’s a +<i>bite</i>!’ I would not have you undervalue this, +for it is the constant amusement in Court, and everywhere else +among the great people.” See, too, the <i>Tatler</i>, +No. 12, and <i>Spectator</i>, Nos. 47, 504: “In a word, a +Biter is one who thinks you a fool, because you do not think him +a knave.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote94c"></a><a href="#citation94c" +class="footnote">[94c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page66">66</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote95a"></a><a href="#citation95a" +class="footnote">[95a]</a> “As I hope to be +saved;” a favourite phrase in the <i>Journal</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote95b"></a><a href="#citation95b" +class="footnote">[95b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page48">48</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote95c"></a><a href="#citation95c" +class="footnote">[95c]</a> This statement receives some +confirmation from a pamphlet published in September 1710, called +<i>A Condoling Letter to the Tatler</i>: <i>On Account of the +Misfortunes of Isaac Bickerstaf Esq.</i>, <i>a Prisoner in the +— on Suspicion of Debt</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote95d"></a><a href="#citation95d" +class="footnote">[95d]</a> Dr. Lambert, chaplain to Lord +Wharton, was censured in Convocation for being the author of a +libellous letter.</p> +<p><a name="footnote95e"></a><a href="#citation95e" +class="footnote">[95e]</a> Probably the same person as Dr. +Griffith, spoken of in the <i>Journal</i> for March 3, +1713,—when he was ill,—as having been “very +tender of” Stella.</p> +<p><a name="footnote96a"></a><a href="#citation96a" +class="footnote">[96a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page74">74</a></span>, note 1.</p> +<p><a name="footnote96b"></a><a href="#citation96b" +class="footnote">[96b]</a> Vexed, offended. Elsewhere +Swift wrote, “I am apt to grate the ears of more than I +could wish.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote96c"></a><a href="#citation96c" +class="footnote">[96c]</a> Ambrose Philips, whose Pastorals +had been published in the same volume of Tonson’s +<i>Miscellany</i> as Pope’s. Two years later Swift +wrote, “I should certainly have provided for him had he not +run party mad.” In 1712 his play, <i>The Distrest +Mother</i>, received flattering notice in the <i>Spectator</i>, +and in 1713, to Pope’s annoyance, Philips’ Pastorals +were praised in the <i>Guardian</i>. His pretty poems to +children led Henry Carey to nickname him “Namby +Pamby.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote97a"></a><a href="#citation97a" +class="footnote">[97a]</a> An equestrian statue of William +<span class="GutSmall">III</span>., in College Green, +Dublin. It was common, in the days of party, for students +of the University of Dublin to play tricks with this statue.</p> +<p><a name="footnote97b"></a><a href="#citation97b" +class="footnote">[97b]</a> Lieutenant-General Richard +Ingoldsby (died 1712) was Commander of the Forces in Ireland, and +one of the Lords Justices in the absence of the Lord +Lieutenant.</p> +<p><a name="footnote97c"></a><a href="#citation97c" +class="footnote">[97c]</a> This seems to have been a +mistake; cf. <i>Journal</i> for July 13, 1711, Alan Brodrick, +afterwards Viscount Midleton, a Whig politician and lawyer, was +made Chief Justice of the Queen’s Bench in Ireland in 1709, +but was removed from office in June 1711, when Sir Richard Cox +succeeded him. On the accession of George I. he was +appointed Lord Chancellor for Ireland. Afterwards he +declined to accept the dedication to him of Swift’s +<i>Drapiers Letters</i>, and supported the prosecution of the +author. He died in 1728.</p> +<p><a name="footnote97d"></a><a href="#citation97d" +class="footnote">[97d]</a> Robert Doyne was appointed Chief +Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland in 1695, and Chief Justice of +the Common Pleas in 1703. This appointment was revoked on +the accession of George I.</p> +<p><a name="footnote97e"></a><a href="#citation97e" +class="footnote">[97e]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page69">69</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote97f"></a><a href="#citation97f" +class="footnote">[97f]</a> Of the University of Dublin.</p> +<p><a name="footnote98a"></a><a href="#citation98a" +class="footnote">[98a]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page6">6</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page7">7</a></span>. Sir +Thomas Frankland’s eldest son, Thomas, who afterwards +succeeded to the baronetcy, acquired a fortune with his first +wife, Dinah, daughter of Francis Topham, of Agelthorpe, +Yorkshire. He died in 1747.</p> +<p><a name="footnote98b"></a><a href="#citation98b" +class="footnote">[98b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page60">60</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote98c"></a><a href="#citation98c" +class="footnote">[98c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page20">20</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote99a"></a><a href="#citation99a" +class="footnote">[99a]</a> Mary, daughter of Sir John +Williams, Bart., and widow of Charles Petty, second Lord +Shelburne, who died in 1696. She had married, as her second +husband, Major-General Conyngham, and, as her third husband, +Colonel Dallway.</p> +<p><a name="footnote99b"></a><a href="#citation99b" +class="footnote">[99b]</a> Dr. John Vesey became Bishop of +Limerick in 1672, and Archbishop of Tuam in 1678. He died +in 1716.</p> +<p><a name="footnote100a"></a><a href="#citation100a" +class="footnote">[100a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page14">14</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote100b"></a><a href="#citation100b" +class="footnote">[100b]</a> Sex.</p> +<p><a name="footnote100c"></a><a href="#citation100c" +class="footnote">[100c]</a> Toby Caulfeild, third son of +the fifth Lord Charlemont. In 1689 he was Colonel to the +Earl of Drogheda’s Regiment of Foot, and about 1705 he +succeeded to the command of Lord Skerrin’s Regiment of +Foot. After serving in Spain his regiment was reduced, +having lost most of its men (Luttrell, vi. 158).</p> +<p><a name="footnote101a"></a><a href="#citation101a" +class="footnote">[101a]</a> John Campbell, second Duke of +Argyle (1680–1743), was installed a Knight of the Garter in +December 1710, after he had successfully opposed a vote of thanks +to Marlborough, with whom he had quarrelled. It was of this +nobleman that Pope wrote—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Argyle, the State’s whole thunder +born to wield,<br /> +And shake alike the senate and the field.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In a note to Macky’s <i>Memoirs</i>, Swift describes the +Duke as an “ambitious, covetous, cunning Scot, who had no +principle but his own interests and greatness.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote101b"></a><a href="#citation101b" +class="footnote">[101b]</a> Harley’s second wife, +Sarah, daughter of Simon Middleton, of Edmonton, and sister of +Sir Hugh Middleton, Bart. She died, without issue, in +1737.</p> +<p><a name="footnote101c"></a><a href="#citation101c" +class="footnote">[101c]</a> Elizabeth Harley, then +unmarried, the daughter of Harley’s first wife, Elizabeth, +daughter of Thomas Foley, of Whitley Court, Worcestershire. +She subsequently married the Marquis of Caermarthen, afterwards +Duke of Leeds.</p> +<p><a name="footnote101d"></a><a href="#citation101d" +class="footnote">[101d]</a> Harcourt (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page11">11</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote102"></a><a href="#citation102" +class="footnote">[102]</a> William Stawel, the third baron, +who succeeded to the title in 1692, was half-brother to the +second Baron Stawel. The brother here referred to was +Edward, who succeeded to the title as fourth baron in 1742.</p> +<p><a name="footnote104a"></a><a href="#citation104a" +class="footnote">[104a]</a> Charles Finch, third Earl of +Winchelsea, son of Lord Maidstone, and grandson of Heneage, +second Earl of Winchelsea. On his death in 1712 Swift spoke +of him as “a worthy honest gentleman, and particular friend +of mine.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote104b"></a><a href="#citation104b" +class="footnote">[104b]</a> Vedeau was a shopkeeper, who +abandoned his trade for the army (<i>Journal</i>, March 28, April +4, 1711). Swift calls him “a lieutenant, who is now +broke, and upon half pay” (<i>Journal</i>, Nov. 18, +1712).</p> +<p><a name="footnote104c"></a><a href="#citation104c" +class="footnote">[104c]</a> Sir Edmund Bacon, Bart. (died +1721), of Herringflat, Suffolk, succeeded his father in the +baronetcy in 1686.</p> +<p><a name="footnote104d"></a><a href="#citation104d" +class="footnote">[104d]</a> The reverse at Brihuega.</p> +<p><a name="footnote104e"></a><a href="#citation104e" +class="footnote">[104e]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page57">57</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote106a"></a><a href="#citation106a" +class="footnote">[106a]</a> John Barber, a printer, became +Lord Mayor of London in 1732, and died in 1741. Mrs. Manley +was his mistress, and died at his printing office. Swift +speaks of Barber as his “very good and old +friend.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote106b"></a><a href="#citation106b" +class="footnote">[106b]</a> Bernage was an officer serving +under Colonel Fielding. In August 1710 a difficulty arose +through Arbuthnot trying to get his brother George made Captain +over Bernage’s head; but ultimately Arbuthnot waived the +business, because he would not wrong a friend of +Swift’s.</p> +<p><a name="footnote106c"></a><a href="#citation106c" +class="footnote">[106c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page99">99</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote107a"></a><a href="#citation107a" +class="footnote">[107a]</a> George Smalridge +(1663–1719), the High Church divine and popular preacher, +was made Dean of Carlisle in 1711, and Bishop of Bristol in +1714. Steele spoke of him in the <i>Tatler</i> (Nos. 73, +114) as “abounding in that sort of virtue and knowledge +which makes religion beautiful.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote107b"></a><a href="#citation107b" +class="footnote">[107b]</a> St. Albans Street, Pall Mall, +was removed in 1815 to make way for Waterloo Place. It was +named after Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans.</p> +<p><a name="footnote109"></a><a href="#citation109" +class="footnote">[109]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page100">100</a></span></p> +<p><a name="footnote112a"></a><a href="#citation112a" +class="footnote">[112a]</a> Algernon Seymour, Earl of +Hertford (1684–1750), only son of Charles Seymour, Duke of +Somerset. Lord Hertford succeeded to the dukedom in +1748. From 1708 to 1722 he was M.P. for Northumberland, and +from 1708 to 1713 he took an active part in the war in +Flanders.</p> +<p><a name="footnote112b"></a><a href="#citation112b" +class="footnote">[112b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page17">17</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote112c"></a><a href="#citation112c" +class="footnote">[112c]</a> <i>A Short Character of the +Earl of Wharton</i> (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page85">85</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote112d"></a><a href="#citation112d" +class="footnote">[112d]</a> See <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page69">69</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote113"></a><a href="#citation113" +class="footnote">[113]</a> Henry Herbert, the last Baron +Herbert of Cherbury, succeeded to the peerage in 1709, and soon +afterwards married a sister of the Earl of Portsmouth. A +ruined man, he committed suicide in 1738.</p> +<p><a name="footnote114"></a><a href="#citation114" +class="footnote">[114]</a> Nos. 257, 260.</p> +<p><a name="footnote115a"></a><a href="#citation115a" +class="footnote">[115a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page26">26</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote115b"></a><a href="#citation115b" +class="footnote">[115b]</a> “<i>After</i> is +interlined” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote115c"></a><a href="#citation115c" +class="footnote">[115c]</a> With this account may be +compared what Pope says, as recorded in Spence’s +<i>Anecdotes</i>, p. 223: “Lord Peterborough could dictate +letters to nine amanuenses together, as I was assured by a +gentleman who saw him do it when Ambassador at Turin. He +walked round the room, and told each of them in his turn what he +was to write. One perhaps was a letter to the emperor, +another to an old friend, a third to a mistress, a fourth to a +statesman, and so on: yet he carried so many and so different +connections in his head, all at the same time.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote116a"></a><a href="#citation116a" +class="footnote">[116a]</a> Francis Atterbury, Dean of +Carlisle, had taken an active part in the defence of Dr. +Sacheverell. After a long period of suspense he received +the appointment of Dean of Christ Church, and in 1713 he was made +Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster. Atterbury was +on intimate terms with Swift, Pope, and other writers on the Tory +side, and Addison—at whose funeral the Bishop +officiated—described him as “one of the greatest +geniuses of his age.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote116b"></a><a href="#citation116b" +class="footnote">[116b]</a> John Carteret, second Baron +Carteret, afterwards to be well known as a statesman, succeeded +to the peerage in 1695, and became Earl Granville and Viscount +Carteret on the death of his brother in 1744. He died in +1763. In October 1710, when twenty years of age, he had +married Frances, only daughter of Sir Robert Worsley, Bart., of +Appuldurcombe, Isle of Wight.</p> +<p><a name="footnote117a"></a><a href="#citation117a" +class="footnote">[117a]</a> Dillon Ashe, D.D., Vicar of +Finglas, and brother of the Bishop of Clogher. In 1704 he +was made Archdeacon of Clogher, and in 1706 Chancellor of +Armagh. He seems to have been too fond of drink.</p> +<p><a name="footnote117b"></a><a href="#citation117b" +class="footnote">[117b]</a> Henley (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page37">37</a></span>) married +Mary, daughter of Peregrine Bertie, the second son of Montagu, +Earl of Lindsey, and with her obtained a fortune of +£30,000. After Henley’s death his widow married +her relative, Henry Bertie, third son of James, Earl of +Abingdon.</p> +<p><a name="footnote117c"></a><a href="#citation117c" +class="footnote">[117c]</a> Hebrews v. 6.</p> +<p><a name="footnote118a"></a><a href="#citation118a" +class="footnote">[118a]</a> Probably Mrs. Manley and John +Barber (see pp. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page92">92</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page106">106</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote118b"></a><a href="#citation118b" +class="footnote">[118b]</a> Sir Andrew Fountaine’s +(see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page28">28</a></span>) father, Andrew Fountaine, M.P., +married Sarah, daughter of Sir Thomas Chicheley, Master of the +Ordnance. Sir Andrew’s sister, Elizabeth, married +Colonel Edward Clent. The “scoundrel brother,” +Brig, died in 1746, aged sixty-four (Blomefield’s +<i>Norfolk</i>, vi. 233–36).</p> +<p><a name="footnote118c"></a><a href="#citation118c" +class="footnote">[118c]</a> Dame Overdo, the +justice’s wife in Ben Jonson’s <i>Bartholomew +Fair</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote119a"></a><a href="#citation119a" +class="footnote">[119a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page7">7</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote119b"></a><a href="#citation119b" +class="footnote">[119b]</a> Atterbury, who had recently +been elected Prolocutor to the Lower House of Convocation.</p> +<p><a name="footnote120a"></a><a href="#citation120a" +class="footnote">[120a]</a> Dr. Sterne, Dean of St. +Patrick’s, was not married.</p> +<p><a name="footnote120b"></a><a href="#citation120b" +class="footnote">[120b]</a> January 6 was +Twelfth-night.</p> +<p><a name="footnote120c"></a><a href="#citation120c" +class="footnote">[120c]</a> Garraway’s Coffee-house, +in Change Alley, was founded by Thomas Garway, the first +coffee-man who sold and retailed tea. A room upstairs was +used for sales of wine “by the candle.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote120d"></a><a href="#citation120d" +class="footnote">[120d]</a> Sir Constantine Phipps, who had +taken an active part in Sacheverell’s defence. +Phipps’ interference in elections in the Tory interest made +him very unpopular in Dublin, and he was recalled on the death of +Queen Anne.</p> +<p><a name="footnote120e"></a><a href="#citation120e" +class="footnote">[120e]</a> Joseph Trapp, one of the seven +poets alluded to in the distich:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Alma novem genuit celebres Rhedycina +poetas,<br /> +Bubb, Stubb, Grubb, Crabb, Trapp, Young, Carey, Tickell, +Evans.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Trapp wrote a tragedy in 1704, and in 1708 was chosen the +first Professor of Poetry at Oxford. In 1710 he published +pamphlets on behalf of Sacheverell, and in 1712 Swift secured for +him the post of chaplain to Bolingbroke. During his latter +years he held several good livings. Elsewhere Swift calls +him a “coxcomb.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote120f"></a><a href="#citation120f" +class="footnote">[120f]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page50">50</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote121"></a><a href="#citation121" +class="footnote">[121]</a> The extreme Tories, who +afterwards formed the October Club.</p> +<p><a name="footnote122"></a><a href="#citation122" +class="footnote">[122]</a> Crowd. A Jacobean writer +speaks of “the lurry of lawyers,” and “a lurry +and rabble of poor friars.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote123a"></a><a href="#citation123a" +class="footnote">[123a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page24">24</a></span>, note 3.</p> +<p><a name="footnote123b"></a><a href="#citation123b" +class="footnote">[123b]</a> St. John’s first wife was +Frances, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Henry Winchcombe, Bart., +of Berkshire, and in her right St. John enjoyed the estates of +Bucklebury, which on her death in 1718 passed to her +sister. In April 1711 Swift said that “poor Mrs. St. +John” was growing a great favourite of his; she was going +to Bath owing to ill-health, and begged him to take care of her +husband. She “said she had none to trust but me, and +the poor creature’s tears came fresh in her +eyes.” Though the marriage was, naturally enough, +unhappy, she did not leave St. John’s house until 1713, and +she returned to him when he fell from power. There are +letters from her to Swift as late as 1716, not only doing her +best to defend his honour, but speaking of him with +tenderness.</p> +<p><a name="footnote123c"></a><a href="#citation123c" +class="footnote">[123c]</a> “Battoon” means (1) +a truncheon; (2) a staff of office. Luttrell, in 1704, +speaks of “a battoon set with diamonds sent him from the +French king.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote124a"></a><a href="#citation124a" +class="footnote">[124a]</a> Edward Harley, second son of +Sir Edward Harley, was M.P. for Leominster and Recorder of the +same town. In 1702 he was appointed Auditor of the Imposts, +a post which he held until his death in 1735. His wife, +Sarah, daughter of Thomas Foley, was a sister of Robert +Harley’s wife, and his eldest son eventually became third +Earl of Oxford. Harley published several books on biblical +subjects.</p> +<p><a name="footnote124b"></a><a href="#citation124b" +class="footnote">[124b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page36">36</a></span>. The +last number of Steele’s <i>Tatler</i> appeared on Jan. 2, +1711; Harrison’s paper reached to fifty-two numbers.</p> +<p><a name="footnote124c"></a><a href="#citation124c" +class="footnote">[124c]</a> Dryden Leach (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page51">51</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote125a"></a><a href="#citation125a" +class="footnote">[125a]</a> Cf. Letter 7, October 28th.</p> +<p><a name="footnote125b"></a><a href="#citation125b" +class="footnote">[125b]</a> Published by John Baker and +John Morphew. See Aitken’s <i>Life of Steele</i>, i. +299–301.</p> +<p><a name="footnote125c"></a><a href="#citation125c" +class="footnote">[125c]</a> In No. 224 of the +<i>Tatler</i>, Addison, speaking of polemical advertisements, +says: “The inventors of Strops for Razors have written +against one another this way for several years, and that with +great bitterness.” See also <i>Spectator</i>, Nos. +428, 509, and the <i>Postman</i> for March 23, 1703: “The +so much famed strops for setting razors, etc., are only to be had +at Jacob’s Coffee-house. . . . Beware of +counterfeits, for such are abroad.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote126a"></a><a href="#citation126a" +class="footnote">[126a]</a> Sir John Holland (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page11">11</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote126b"></a><a href="#citation126b" +class="footnote">[126b]</a> Addison speaks of a fine flaxen +long wig costing thirty guineas (<i>Guardian</i>, No. 97), and +Duumvir’s fair wig, which Phillis threw into the fire, cost +forty guineas (<i>Tatler</i>, No. 54)</p> +<p><a name="footnote127a"></a><a href="#citation127a" +class="footnote">[127a]</a> Swift’s mother, Abigail +Erick, was of a Leicestershire family, and after her +husband’s death she spent much of her time with her friends +near her old home. Mr. Worrall, vicar of St. +Patrick’s, with whom Swift was on terms of intimacy in +1728–29, was evidently a relative of the Worralls where +Mrs. Swift had lodged, and we may reasonably suppose that he owed +the living to Swift’s interest in the family.</p> +<p><a name="footnote127b"></a><a href="#citation127b" +class="footnote">[127b]</a> The title of a humorous poem by +Lydgate. A “lickpenny” is a greedy or grasping +person.</p> +<p><a name="footnote128a"></a><a href="#citation128a" +class="footnote">[128a]</a> Small wooden blocks used for +lighting fires. See Swift (“Description of the +Morning”),</p> +<blockquote><p>“The small-coal man was heard with cadence +deep,<br /> +Till drowned in shriller notes of chimney-sweep;”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>and Gay (<i>Trivia</i>, ii. 35),</p> +<blockquote><p>“When small-coal murmurs in the hoarser +throat,<br /> +From smutty dangers guard thy threatened coat.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="footnote128b"></a><a href="#citation128b" +class="footnote">[128b]</a> The Tory Ministers.</p> +<p><a name="footnote129a"></a><a href="#citation129a" +class="footnote">[129a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page51">51</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote129b"></a><a href="#citation129b" +class="footnote">[129b]</a> Thomas Southerne’s play +of <i>Oroonoko</i>, based on Mrs. Aphra Behn’s novel of the +same name, was first acted in 1696.</p> +<p><a name="footnote129c"></a><a href="#citation129c" +class="footnote">[129c]</a> “Mrs.” Cross +created the part of Mrs. Clerimont in Steele’s <i>Tender +Husband</i> in 1705.</p> +<p><a name="footnote130a"></a><a href="#citation130a" +class="footnote">[130a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page106">106</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote130b"></a><a href="#citation130b" +class="footnote">[130b]</a> George Granville, afterwards +Lord Lansdowne, was M.P. for Cornwall, and Secretary at +War. In December 1711 he was raised to the peerage, and in +1712 was appointed Comptroller of the Household. He died in +1735, when the title became extinct. Granville wrote plays +and poems, and was a patron of both Dryden and Pope. Pope +called him “Granville the polite.” His <i>Works +in Verse and Prose</i> appeared in 1732.</p> +<p><a name="footnote131a"></a><a href="#citation131a" +class="footnote">[131a]</a> Samuel Masham, son of Sir +Francis Masham, Bart., had been a page to the Queen while +Princess of Denmark, and an equerry and gentleman of the +bed-chamber to Prince George. He married Abigail Hill (see +p. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page149">149</a></span>), +daughter of Francis Hill, a Turkey merchant, and sister of +General John Hill, and through that lady’s influence with +the Queen he was raised to the peerage as Baron Masham, in +January 1712. Under George I. he was Remembrancer of the +Exchequer. He died in 1758.</p> +<p><a name="footnote131b"></a><a href="#citation131b" +class="footnote">[131b]</a> A roughly printed pamphlet, +<i>The Honourable Descent</i>, <i>Life</i>, <i>and True Character +of the</i> . . . <i>Earl of Wharton</i>, appeared early in 1711, +in reply to Swift’s <i>Short Character</i>; but that can +hardly be the pamphlet referred to here, because it is directed +against libellers and backbiters, and cannot be described as +“pretty civil.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote131c"></a><a href="#citation131c" +class="footnote">[131c]</a> “In that word (the seven +last words of the sentence huddled into one) there were some +puzzling characters” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote132"></a><a href="#citation132" +class="footnote">[132]</a> Sir Robert Worsley, Bart., +married, in 1690, Frances, only daughter of the first Viscount +Weymouth. Their daughter Frances married Lord Carteret (see +p. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page116">116</a></span>) +in 1710. In a letter to Colonel Hunter in March 1709 Swift +spoke of Lady (then Mrs.) Worsley as one of the principal +beauties in town. See, too, Swift’s letter to her of +April 19, 1730: “My Lady Carteret has been the best queen +we have known in Ireland these many years; yet is she mortally +hated by all the young girls, because (and it is your fault) she +is handsomer than all of them together.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote133a"></a><a href="#citation133a" +class="footnote">[133a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page7">7</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote133b"></a><a href="#citation133b" +class="footnote">[133b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page25">25</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote133c"></a><a href="#citation133c" +class="footnote">[133c]</a> William Stratford, son of +Nicholas Stratford, Bishop of Chester, was Archdeacon of Richmond +and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, until his death in 1729.</p> +<p><a name="footnote133d"></a><a href="#citation133d" +class="footnote">[133d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page10">10</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote134a"></a><a href="#citation134a" +class="footnote">[134a]</a> James, third Earl of Berkeley +(1680–1736), whom Swift calls a “young rake” +(see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page151">151</a></span>). The young Countess of +Berkeley was only sixteen on her marriage. In 1714 she was +appointed a lady of the bed-chamber to Caroline, Princess of +Wales, and she died of smallpox in 1717, aged twenty-two. +The Earl was an Admiral, and saw much service between 1701 and +1710; under George I. he was First Lord of the Admiralty.</p> +<p><a name="footnote134b"></a><a href="#citation134b" +class="footnote">[134b]</a> Edward Wettenhall was Bishop of +Kilmore from 1699 to 1713.</p> +<p><a name="footnote134c"></a><a href="#citation134c" +class="footnote">[134c]</a> In the Dedication to <i>The +Tale of a Tub</i> Swift had addressed Somers in very different +terms: “There is no virtue, either in public or private +life, which some circumstances of your own have not often +produced upon the stage of the world.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote136"></a><a href="#citation136" +class="footnote">[136]</a> Their lodgings, opposite to St. +Mary’s Church in Stafford Street, Dublin.</p> +<p><a name="footnote138a"></a><a href="#citation138a" +class="footnote">[138a]</a> The Stamp Act was not passed +until June 1712: see the <i>Journal</i> for Aug. 7, 1712.</p> +<p><a name="footnote138b"></a><a href="#citation138b" +class="footnote">[138b]</a> Both in St. James’s +Park. The Canal was formed by Charles <span +class="GutSmall">II</span>. from several small ponds, and +Rosamond’s Pond was a sheet of water in the south-west +corner of the Park, “long consecrated,” as Warburton +said, “to disastrous love and elegiac poetry.” +It is often mentioned as a place of assignation in Restoration +plays. Evelyn (<i>Diary</i>, Dec. 1, 1662) describes the +“scheets” used on the Canal.</p> +<p><a name="footnote139a"></a><a href="#citation139a" +class="footnote">[139a]</a> Mrs. Beaumont.</p> +<p><a name="footnote139b"></a><a href="#citation139b" +class="footnote">[139b]</a> The first direct mention of +Hester Vanhomrigh. She is referred to only in two other +places in the <i>Journal</i> (Feb. 14, 1710–11, and Aug. +14, 1711).</p> +<p><a name="footnote139c"></a><a href="#citation139c" +class="footnote">[139c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page10">10</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote139d"></a><a href="#citation139d" +class="footnote">[139d]</a> No. 27, by Swift himself.</p> +<p><a name="footnote140a"></a><a href="#citation140a" +class="footnote">[140a]</a> No. 7 of Harrison’s +series.</p> +<p><a name="footnote140b"></a><a href="#citation140b" +class="footnote">[140b]</a> The printers of the original +<i>Tatler</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote141"></a><a href="#citation141" +class="footnote">[141]</a> Harley had forwarded to Swift a +banknote for £50 (see <i>Journal</i>, March 7, +1710–11).</p> +<p><a name="footnote143"></a><a href="#citation143" +class="footnote">[143]</a> At Moor Park.</p> +<p><a name="footnote144a"></a><a href="#citation144a" +class="footnote">[144a]</a> Scott says that Swift here +alludes to some unidentified pamphlet of which he was the real or +supposed author.</p> +<p><a name="footnote144b"></a><a href="#citation144b" +class="footnote">[144b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page89">89</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote144c"></a><a href="#citation144c" +class="footnote">[144c]</a> The <i>Examiner</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote145a"></a><a href="#citation145a" +class="footnote">[145a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page43">43</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote145b"></a><a href="#citation145b" +class="footnote">[145b]</a> Mistaken.</p> +<p><a name="footnote145c"></a><a href="#citation145c" +class="footnote">[145c]</a> Mrs. De Caudres, “over +against St. Mary’s Church, near Capel Street,” where +Stella now lodged.</p> +<p><a name="footnote146a"></a><a href="#citation146a" +class="footnote">[146a]</a> “A crease in the +sheet” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote146b"></a><a href="#citation146b" +class="footnote">[146b]</a> “In the original it was, +<i>good mallows</i>, <i>little sollahs</i>. But in these +words, and many others, he writes constantly <i>ll</i> for +<i>rr</i>” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote147a"></a><a href="#citation147a" +class="footnote">[147a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page21">21</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote147b"></a><a href="#citation147b" +class="footnote">[147b]</a> “Those letters which are +in italics in the original are of a monstrous size, which +occasioned his calling himself a loggerhead” (Deane +Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote147c"></a><a href="#citation147c" +class="footnote">[147c]</a> <i>I.e.</i>, to ask +whether.</p> +<p><a name="footnote148a"></a><a href="#citation148a" +class="footnote">[148a]</a> Harcourt.</p> +<p><a name="footnote148b"></a><a href="#citation148b" +class="footnote">[148b]</a> “A shilling passes for +thirteenpence in Ireland” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote148c"></a><a href="#citation148c" +class="footnote">[148c]</a> Robert Cope, a gentleman of +learning with whom Swift corresponded.</p> +<p><a name="footnote148d"></a><a href="#citation148d" +class="footnote">[148d]</a> Archdeacon Morris is not +mentioned in Cotton’s <i>Fasti Ecclesiæ +Hiberniæ</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote149a"></a><a href="#citation149a" +class="footnote">[149a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page131">131</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote149b"></a><a href="#citation149b" +class="footnote">[149b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page76">76</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote149c"></a><a href="#citation149c" +class="footnote">[149c]</a> Abigail Hill, afterwards Lady +Masham, had been introduced into the Queens service as +bed-chamber woman by the Duchess of Marlborough. Her High +Church and Tory views recommended her to Queen Anne, and in 1707 +she was privately married to Mr. Samuel Masham, a gentleman in +the service of Prince George (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page131">131</a></span>). The Duchess of Marlborough +discovered that Mrs. Masham’s cousin, Harley, was using her +influence to further his own interests with the Queen; and in +spite of her violence the Duchess found herself gradually +supplanted. From 1710 Mrs. Masham’s only rival in the +royal favour was the Duchess of Somerset. Afterwards she +quarrelled with Harley and joined the Bolingbroke faction.</p> +<p><a name="footnote149d"></a><a href="#citation149d" +class="footnote">[149d]</a> See <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page20">20</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote150a"></a><a href="#citation150a" +class="footnote">[150a]</a> No. 14 of Harrison’s +series.</p> +<p><a name="footnote150b"></a><a href="#citation150b" +class="footnote">[150b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page139">139</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote150c"></a><a href="#citation150c" +class="footnote">[150c]</a> Richard Duke, a minor poet and +friend of Dryden’s, entered the Church about 1685. In +July 1710 he was presented by the Bishop of Winchester to the +living of Witney, Oxfordshire, which was worth £700 a +year.</p> +<p><a name="footnote150d"></a><a href="#citation150d" +class="footnote">[150d]</a> Sir Jonathan Trelawney, one of +the seven bishops committed to the Tower in 1688, was translated +to Winchester in 1707, when he appointed Duke to be his +chaplain.</p> +<p><a name="footnote151a"></a><a href="#citation151a" +class="footnote">[151a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page17">17</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote151b"></a><a href="#citation151b" +class="footnote">[151b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page14">14</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote151c"></a><a href="#citation151c" +class="footnote">[151c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page134">134</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote151d"></a><a href="#citation151d" +class="footnote">[151d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page52">52</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote152a"></a><a href="#citation152a" +class="footnote">[152a]</a> Cf. p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page155">155</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote152b"></a><a href="#citation152b" +class="footnote">[152b]</a> Esther Johnson lodged opposite +St. Mary’s in Dublin.</p> +<p><a name="footnote152c"></a><a href="#citation152c" +class="footnote">[152c]</a> This famous Tory club began +with the meeting together of a few extreme Tories at the Bell in +Westminster. The password to the +Club—“October”—was one easy of +remembrance to a country gentleman who loved his ale.</p> +<p><a name="footnote153"></a><a href="#citation153" +class="footnote">[153]</a> “Duke” Disney, +“not an old man, but an old rake,” died in +1731. Gay calls him “facetious Disney,” and +Swift says that all the members of the Club “love him +mightily.” Lady M. W. Montagu speaks of his</p> +<blockquote><p>“Broad plump face, pert eyes, and ruddy +skin,<br /> +Which showed the stupid joke which lurked within.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Disney was a French Huguenot refugee, and his real name was +Desaulnais. He commanded an Irish regiment, and took part +in General Hill’s expedition to Canada in 1711 +(Kingsford’s <i>Canada</i>, ii. 465). By his will +(<i>Wentworth Papers</i>, 109) he “left nothing to his poor +relations, but very handsome to his bottle companions.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote154"></a><a href="#citation154" +class="footnote">[154]</a> There were several Colonel +Fieldings in the first half of the eighteenth century, and it is +not clear which is the one referred to by Swift. Possibly +he was the Edmund Fielding—grandson of the first Earl of +Denbigh—who died a Lieutenant-General in 1741, at the age +of sixty-three, but is best known as the father of Henry +Fielding, the novelist.</p> +<p><a name="footnote155"></a><a href="#citation155" +class="footnote">[155]</a> Cf. p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page152">152</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote156a"></a><a href="#citation156a" +class="footnote">[156a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page14">14</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote156b"></a><a href="#citation156b" +class="footnote">[156b]</a> “It is a measured mile +round the outer wall; and far beyond any the finest square in +London” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote156c"></a><a href="#citation156c" +class="footnote">[156c]</a> “The common fare for a +set-down in Dublin” (<i>ib.</i>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote156d"></a><a href="#citation156d" +class="footnote">[156d]</a> “Mrs. Stoyte lived at +Donnybrook, the road to which from Stephen’s Green ran into +the country about a mile from the south-east corner” +(<i>ib.</i>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote156e"></a><a href="#citation156e" +class="footnote">[156e]</a> “Those words in italics +are written in a very large hand, and so is the word large” +(<i>ib.</i>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote157"></a><a href="#citation157" +class="footnote">[157]</a> Deane Swift alters +“lele” to “there,” but in a note states +how he here altered Swift’s “cypher way of +writing.” No doubt “lele” and other +favourite words occurred frequently in the MS., as they do in the +later letters.</p> +<p><a name="footnote158a"></a><a href="#citation158a" +class="footnote">[158a]</a> Sir Thomas Mansel, Bart., +Comptroller of the Household to Queen Anne, and a Lord of the +Treasury, was raised to the peerage in December 1711 as Baron +Mansel of Margam. He died in 1723.</p> +<p><a name="footnote158b"></a><a href="#citation158b" +class="footnote">[158b]</a> Lady Betty Butler and Lady +Betty Germaine (see pp. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page17">17</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote159"></a><a href="#citation159" +class="footnote">[159]</a> James Eckershall, “second +clerk of the Queen’s Privy Kitchen.” +Chamberlayne (<i>Magnæ Britanniæ Notitia</i>, 1710, +p. 536) says that his wages were £11, 8s. 1½d., and +board-wages £138, 11s. 10½d., making £150 in +all. Afterwards Eckershall was gentleman usher to Queen +Anne; he died at Drayton in 1753, aged seventy-four. Pope +was in correspondence with him in 1720 on the subject of +contemplated speculations in South Sea and other stocks.</p> +<p><a name="footnote160a"></a><a href="#citation160a" +class="footnote">[160a]</a> In October 1710 (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page43">43</a></span>) Swift wrote +as if he knew about the preparation of these +<i>Miscellanies</i>. The volume was published by Morphew +instead of Tooke, and it is frequently referred to in the +<i>Journal</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote160b"></a><a href="#citation160b" +class="footnote">[160b]</a> In 1685 the Duke of Ormond (see +p. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page5">5</a></span>) +married, as his second wife, Lady Mary Somerset, eldest surviving +daughter of Henry, first Duke of Beaufort.</p> +<p><a name="footnote160c"></a><a href="#citation160c" +class="footnote">[160c]</a> Arthur Moore, M.P., was a +Commissioner of Trade and Plantations from 1710 until his death +in 1730. Gay calls him “grave,” and Pope +(“Prologue to the Satires,” 23) says that Moore +blamed him for the way in which his “giddy son,” +James Moore Smythe, neglected the law.</p> +<p><a name="footnote161a"></a><a href="#citation161a" +class="footnote">[161a]</a> James, Lord Paisley, who +succeeded his father (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page86">86</a></span>) as seventh Earl of Abercorn in +1734, married, in 1711, Anne, eldest daughter of Colonel John +Plumer, of Blakesware, Herts.</p> +<p><a name="footnote161b"></a><a href="#citation161b" +class="footnote">[161b]</a> Harley’s ill-health was +partly due to his drinking habits.</p> +<p><a name="footnote161c"></a><a href="#citation161c" +class="footnote">[161c]</a> Crowd or confusion.</p> +<p><a name="footnote162"></a><a href="#citation162" +class="footnote">[162]</a> The first wife of Charles +Seymour, sixth Duke of Somerset, was Lady Elizabeth Percy, only +daughter of Joscelyn, eleventh Earl of Northumberland, and +heiress of the house of Percy. She married the Duke, her +third husband, at the age of eighteen.</p> +<p><a name="footnote163a"></a><a href="#citation163a" +class="footnote">[163a]</a> John Richardson, D.D., rector +of Armagh, Cavan, and afterwards chaplain to the Duke of +Ormond. In 1711 he published a <i>Proposal for the +Conversion of the Popish Natives of Ireland to the Established +Religion</i>, and in 1712 a <i>Short History of the Attempts to +Convert the Popish Natives of Ireland</i>. In 1709 the +Lower House of Convocation in Ireland had passed resolutions for +printing the Bible and liturgy in Irish, providing Irish +preachers, etc. In 1711 Thomas Parnell, the poet, headed a +deputation to the Queen on the subject, when an address was +presented; but nothing came of the proposals, owing to fears that +the English interest in Ireland might be injured. In 1731 +Richardson was given the small deanery of Kilmacluagh.</p> +<p><a name="footnote163b"></a><a href="#citation163b" +class="footnote">[163b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page159">159</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote163c"></a><a href="#citation163c" +class="footnote">[163c]</a> Harley.</p> +<p><a name="footnote163d"></a><a href="#citation163d" +class="footnote">[163d]</a> “Bank bill for fifty +pound,” taking the alternate letters (see pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page141">141</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page150">150</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote164a"></a><a href="#citation164a" +class="footnote">[164a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page25">25</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote164b"></a><a href="#citation164b" +class="footnote">[164b]</a> See Nos. 27 and 29, by Swift +himself.</p> +<p><a name="footnote164c"></a><a href="#citation164c" +class="footnote">[164c]</a> “Print cannot do justice +to whims of this kind, as they depend wholly upon the awkward +shape of the letters” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote165a"></a><a href="#citation165a" +class="footnote">[165a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page54">54</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote165b"></a><a href="#citation165b" +class="footnote">[165b]</a> “Here is just one +specimen given of his way of writing to Stella in these +journals. The reader, I hope, will excuse my omitting it in +all other places where it occurs. The meaning of this +pretty language is: ‘And you must cry There, and Here, and +Here again. Must you imitate Presto, pray? Yes, and +so you shall. And so there’s for your letter. +Good-morrow’” (Deane Swift). What Swift really +wrote was probably as follows: “Oo must cly Lele and Lele +and Lele aden. Must oo mimitate Pdfr, pay? Iss, and +so oo sall. And so lele’s fol oo rettle. +Dood-mallow.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote166a"></a><a href="#citation166a" +class="footnote">[166a]</a> Lady Catherine Morice (died +1716) was the eldest daughter of Thomas Herbert, Earl of +Pembroke, and wife of Sir Nicholas Morice, Bart., M.P. for +Newport.</p> +<p><a name="footnote166b"></a><a href="#citation166b" +class="footnote">[166b]</a> Perhaps Henry Arundell, who +succeeded his father as fifth Baron Arundell of Wardour in 1712, +and died in 1726.</p> +<p><a name="footnote166c"></a><a href="#citation166c" +class="footnote">[166c]</a> Antoine, Abbé de Bourlie +and Marquis de Guiscard, was a cadet of a distinguished family of +the south of France. He joined the Church, but having been +driven from France in consequence of his licentious excesses, he +came to England, after many adventures in Europe, with a +recommendation from the Duke of Savoy. Godolphin gave him +the command of a regiment of refugees, and employed him in +projects for effecting a landing in France. These schemes +proving abortive, Guiscard’s regiment was disbanded, and he +was discharged with a pension of £500 a year. Soon +after the Tories came to power Guiscard came to the conclusion +that there was no hope of employment for him, and little chance +of receiving his pension; and he began a treacherous +correspondence with the French. When this was detected he +was brought before the Privy Council, and finding that everything +was known, and wishing a better death than hanging, he stabbed +Harley in the breast. Mrs. Manley, under Swift’s +directions, wrote a <i>Narrative of Guiscard’s +Examination</i>, and the incident greatly added to the security +of Harley’s position, and to the strength of the +Government.</p> +<p><a name="footnote166d"></a><a href="#citation166d" +class="footnote">[166d]</a> Harley’s surgeon, Mr. +Green.</p> +<p><a name="footnote167a"></a><a href="#citation167a" +class="footnote">[167a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page73">73</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote167b"></a><a href="#citation167b" +class="footnote">[167b]</a> Mrs. Walls’ baby (see p. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page185">185</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote168a"></a><a href="#citation168a" +class="footnote">[168a]</a> The phrase had its origin in +the sharp practices in the horse and cattle markets. +Writing to Arbuthnot in 1727, Swift said that Gay “had made +a pretty good bargain (that is a Smithfield) for a little place +in the Custom House.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote168b"></a><a href="#citation168b" +class="footnote">[168b]</a> “There.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote169a"></a><a href="#citation169a" +class="footnote">[169a]</a> See Swift’s paper in the +<i>Examiner</i>, No. 32, and Mrs. Manley’s pamphlet, +already mentioned.</p> +<p><a name="footnote169b"></a><a href="#citation169b" +class="footnote">[169b]</a> Presumably Mrs. Johnson’s +palsy-water (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page25">25</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote170a"></a><a href="#citation170a" +class="footnote">[170a]</a> Thomas Wentworth, Baron Raby +(1672–1739), was created Viscount Wentworth and Earl of +Strafford in June 1711. Lord Raby was Envoy and Ambassador +at Berlin for some years, and was appointed Ambassador at the +Hague in March 1711. In November he was nominated as joint +Plenipotentiary with the Bishop of Bristol to negotiate the terms +of peace. He objected to Prior as a colleague; Swift says +he was “as proud as hell.” In 1715 it was +proposed to impeach Strafford, but the proceedings were +dropped. In his later years he was, according to Lord +Hervey, a loquacious and illiterate, but constant, speaker in the +House of Lords.</p> +<p><a name="footnote170b"></a><a href="#citation170b" +class="footnote">[170b]</a> A beauty, to whom Swift +addressed verses in 1708. During the frost of January 1709 +Swift wrote: “Mrs. Floyd looked out with both her eyes, and +we had one day’s thaw; but she drew in her head, and it now +freezes as hard as ever.” She was a great friend of +Lady Betty Germaine’s.</p> +<p><a name="footnote170c"></a><a href="#citation170c" +class="footnote">[170c]</a> Swift never had the +smallpox.</p> +<p><a name="footnote170d"></a><a href="#citation170d" +class="footnote">[170d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page116">116</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote171a"></a><a href="#citation171a" +class="footnote">[171a]</a> Heart.</p> +<p><a name="footnote171b"></a><a href="#citation171b" +class="footnote">[171b]</a> The first number of the +<i>Spectator</i> appeared on March 1, 1711.</p> +<p><a name="footnote172a"></a><a href="#citation172a" +class="footnote">[172a]</a> In one of his poems Swift +speaks of Stella “sossing in an easy-chair.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote172b"></a><a href="#citation172b" +class="footnote">[172b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page21">21</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote173a"></a><a href="#citation173a" +class="footnote">[173a]</a> “It is reasonable to +suppose that Swift’s acquaintance with Arbuthnot commenced +just about this time; for in the original letter Swift misspells +his name, and writes it Arthbuthnet, in a clear large hand, that +MD might not mistake any of the letters” (Deane +Swift). Dr. John Arbuthnot had been made Physician in +Ordinary to the Queen; he was one of Swift’s dearest +friends.</p> +<p><a name="footnote173b"></a><a href="#citation173b" +class="footnote">[173b]</a> Clobery Bromley, M.P. for +Coventry, son of William Bromley, M.P. (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page70">70</a></span>), died on +March 20, 1711, and Boyer (<i>Political State</i>, i. 255) says +that the House, “out of respect to the father, and to give +him time, both to perform the funeral rites and to indulge his +just affliction,” adjourned until the 26th.</p> +<p><a name="footnote174a"></a><a href="#citation174a" +class="footnote">[174a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page23">23</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote174b"></a><a href="#citation174b" +class="footnote">[174b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page163">163</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote175a"></a><a href="#citation175a" +class="footnote">[175a]</a> Sir John Perceval, Bart. (died +1748), was created Baron Perceval 1715, Viscount Perceval 1722, +and Earl of Egmont 1733, all in the Irish peerage. He +married, in 1710, Catherine, eldest daughter of Sir Philip Parker +A’Morley, Bart., of Erwarton, Suffolk; and his son (born +Feb. 27, 1710–11) was made Baron Perceval and Holland, in +the English peerage, in 1762.</p> +<p><a name="footnote175b"></a><a href="#citation175b" +class="footnote">[175b]</a> This report was false. +The Old Pretender did not marry until 1718, when he was united to +the Princess Clementina Maria, daughter of Prince James +Sobieski.</p> +<p><a name="footnote176a"></a><a href="#citation176a" +class="footnote">[176a]</a> John Hartstonge, D.D. (died +1717), was Bishop of Ossory from 1693 to 1714, when he was +translated to Derry.</p> +<p><a name="footnote176b"></a><a href="#citation176b" +class="footnote">[176b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page145">145</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote176c"></a><a href="#citation176c" +class="footnote">[176c]</a> Thomas Proby was +Chirurgeon-General in Ireland from 1699 until his death in +1761. In his <i>Short Character of Thomas</i>, <i>Earl of +Wharton</i>, Swift speaks of him as “a person universally +esteemed,” who had been badly treated by Lord +Wharton. In 1724 Proby’s son, a captain in the army, +was accused of popery, and Swift wrote to Lord Carteret that the +charge was generally believed to be false: “The father is +the most universally beloved of any man I ever knew in his +station. . . . You cannot do any personal thing more +acceptable to the people of Ireland than in inclining towards +lenity to Mr. Proby and his family.” Proby was +probably a near relative of Sir Thomas Proby, Bart., M.P., of +Elton, Hunts, at whose death in 1689 the baronetcy expired. +Mrs. Proby seems to have been a Miss Spencer.</p> +<p><a name="footnote176d"></a><a href="#citation176d" +class="footnote">[176d]</a> Meliora, daughter of Thomas +Coningsby, Baron of Clanbrassil and Earl of Coningsby, and wife +of Sir Thomas Southwell, afterwards Baron Southwell, one of the +Commissioners of Revenue in Ireland, and a member of the Irish +Privy Council. Lady Southwell died in 1736.</p> +<p><a name="footnote176e"></a><a href="#citation176e" +class="footnote">[176e]</a> Lady Betty Rochfort was the +daughter of Henry Moore, third Earl of Drogheda. Her +husband, George Rochfort, M.P. for Westmeath, was son of Robert +Rochfort, an Irish judge, and brother of Robert Rochford, M.P., +to whose wife Swift addressed his <i>Advice to a very Young Lady +on her Marriage</i>. Lady Betty’s son Robert was +created Earl of Belvedere in 1757.</p> +<p><a name="footnote177"></a><a href="#citation177" +class="footnote">[177]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page166">166</a></span>. Mr. +Bussiere, of Suffolk Street, had been called in directly after +the outrage, but Radcliffe would not consult him.</p> +<p><a name="footnote178a"></a><a href="#citation178a" +class="footnote">[178a]</a> The letter from Dr. King dated +March 17, 1711, commenting on Guiscard’s attack upon +Harley.</p> +<p><a name="footnote178b"></a><a href="#citation178b" +class="footnote">[178b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page147">147</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote178c"></a><a href="#citation178c" +class="footnote">[178c]</a> The word “trangram” +or “tangram” ordinarily means a toy or gimcrack, or +trumpery article. Cf. Wycherley (<i>Plain Dealer</i>, iii. +1), “But go, thou trangram, and carry back those trangrams +which thou hast stolen or purloined.” Apparently +“trangum” here means a tally.</p> +<p><a name="footnote178d"></a><a href="#citation178d" +class="footnote">[178d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page104">104</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote179a"></a><a href="#citation179a" +class="footnote">[179a]</a> Swift means Godolphin, the late +Lord Treasurer.</p> +<p><a name="footnote179b"></a><a href="#citation179b" +class="footnote">[179b]</a> Sir John Holland (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page11">11</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote179c"></a><a href="#citation179c" +class="footnote">[179c]</a> “It caused a violent daub +on the paper, which still continues much discoloured in the +original” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote180a"></a><a href="#citation180a" +class="footnote">[180a]</a> “He forgot here to say, +‘At night.’ See what goes before” (Deane +Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote180b"></a><a href="#citation180b" +class="footnote">[180b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page158">158</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote180c"></a><a href="#citation180c" +class="footnote">[180c]</a> Irishman. +“Teague” was a term of contempt for an Irishman.</p> +<p><a name="footnote180d"></a><a href="#citation180d" +class="footnote">[180d]</a> <i>To Mr. Harley</i>, +<i>wounded by Guiscard</i>. In this piece Prior said, +“Britain with tears shall bathe thy glorious wound,” +a wound which could not have been inflicted by any but a stranger +to our land.</p> +<p><a name="footnote181a"></a><a href="#citation181a" +class="footnote">[181a]</a> Sir Thomas Mansel married +Martha, daughter and heiress of Francis Millington, a London +merchant.</p> +<p><a name="footnote181b"></a><a href="#citation181b" +class="footnote">[181b]</a> Slatterning, consuming +carelessly.</p> +<p><a name="footnote181c"></a><a href="#citation181c" +class="footnote">[181c]</a> “The candle grease +mentioned before, which soaked through, deformed this part of the +paper on the second page” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote182a"></a><a href="#citation182a" +class="footnote">[182a]</a> Harcourt.</p> +<p><a name="footnote182b"></a><a href="#citation182b" +class="footnote">[182b]</a> William Rollinson, formerly a +wine merchant, settled afterwards in Oxfordshire, where he died +at a great age. He was a friend of Pope, Bolingbroke, and +Gay.</p> +<p><a name="footnote184"></a><a href="#citation184" +class="footnote">[184]</a> In relation to the banknote (see +p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page163">163</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote185a"></a><a href="#citation185a" +class="footnote">[185a]</a> “Swift was, at this time, +their great support and champion” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote185b"></a><a href="#citation185b" +class="footnote">[185b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page134">134</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote185c"></a><a href="#citation185c" +class="footnote">[185c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page167">167</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote185d"></a><a href="#citation185d" +class="footnote">[185d]</a> “Stella, with all her wit +and good sense, spelled very ill; and Dr. Swift insisted greatly +upon women spelling well” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote185e"></a><a href="#citation185e" +class="footnote">[185e]</a> “The slope of the letters +in the words <i>this way</i>, <i>this way</i>, is to the left +hand, but the slope of the words <i>that way</i>, <i>that +way</i>, is to the right hand” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote186a"></a><a href="#citation186a" +class="footnote">[186a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page167">167</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote186b"></a><a href="#citation186b" +class="footnote">[186b]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page24">24</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page85">85</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote186c"></a><a href="#citation186c" +class="footnote">[186c]</a> By the Act 9 Anne, cap. 23, the +number of hackney coaches was increased to 800, and it was +provided that they were to go a mile and a half for one shilling, +two miles for one shilling and sixpence, and so on.</p> +<p><a name="footnote187"></a><a href="#citation187" +class="footnote">[187]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page95">95</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote188a"></a><a href="#citation188a" +class="footnote">[188a]</a> In a letter to Swift, of March +17, 1711, King said that it might have been thought that +Guiscard’s attack would have convinced the world that +Harley was not in the French interest; but it did not have that +effect with all, for some whispered the case of Fenius Rufus and +Scevinus in the 15th book of Tacitus: “Accensis indicibus +ad prodendum Fenium Rufum, quem eundem conscium et inquisitorem +non tolerabant.” Next month Swift told King that it +was reported that the Archbishop had applied this passage in a +speech made to his clergy, and explained at some length the steps +he had taken to prevent the story being published in the +<i>Postboy</i>. King thanked Swift for this action, +explaining that he had been arguing on Harley’s behalf when +someone instanced the story of Rufus.</p> +<p><a name="footnote188b"></a><a href="#citation188b" +class="footnote">[188b]</a> A Tory paper, published thrice +weekly by Abel Roper.</p> +<p><a name="footnote189"></a><a href="#citation189" +class="footnote">[189]</a> Sir Charles Duncombe, banker, +died on April 9, 1711. The first wife of the Duke of Argyle +(see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page101">101</a></span>) was Duncombe’s niece, Mary +Browne, daughter of Ursula Duncombe and Thomas Browne, of St. +Margaret’s, Westminster. Duncombe was elected Lord +Mayor in 1700, and was the richest commoner in England.</p> +<p><a name="footnote190a"></a><a href="#citation190a" +class="footnote">[190a]</a> The Rev. Dillon Ashe (see p. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page117">117</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote190b"></a><a href="#citation190b" +class="footnote">[190b]</a> John, fourth Baron Poulett, was +created Earl Poulett in 1706, after serving as one of the +Commissioners for the Treaty of Union with Scotland. From +August 1710 to May 1711 he was First Lord of the Treasury, and +from June 1711 to August 1714 he was Lord Steward of the +Household.</p> +<p><a name="footnote190c"></a><a href="#citation190c" +class="footnote">[190c]</a> Lost or stupid person.</p> +<p><a name="footnote191a"></a><a href="#citation191a" +class="footnote">[191a]</a> Sir William Read, a quack who +advertised largely in the <i>Tatler</i> and other papers. +He was satirised in No. 547 of the <i>Spectator</i>. In +1705 he was knighted for his services in curing many seamen and +soldiers of blindness gratis, and he was appointed Oculist in +Ordinary to the Queen. Read died in 1715, but his business +was continued by his widow.</p> +<p><a name="footnote191b"></a><a href="#citation191b" +class="footnote">[191b]</a> General John Webb was not on +good terms with Marlborough. He was a Tory, and had gained +distinction in the war at Wynendale (1708), though the +Duke’s secretary gave the credit, in the despatch, to +Cadogan. There is a well-known account of Webb in +Thackeray’s <i>Esmond</i>. He was severely wounded at +Malplaquet in 1709, and in 1710 was given the governorship of the +Isle of Wight. He died in 1724.</p> +<p><a name="footnote191c"></a><a href="#citation191c" +class="footnote">[191c]</a> Henry Campion, M.P. for Penryn, +is mentioned in the <i>Political State</i> for February 1712 as +one of the leading men of the October Club. Campion seems +to have been Member, not for Penryn, but for Bossiney.</p> +<p><a name="footnote192a"></a><a href="#citation192a" +class="footnote">[192a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page12">12</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote192b"></a><a href="#citation192b" +class="footnote">[192b]</a> Sir George Beaumont, Bart., +M.P. for Leicester, and an acquaintance of Swift’s mother, +was made a Commissioner of the Privy Seal in 1712, and one of the +Lords of the Admiralty in 1714. He died in 1737.</p> +<p><a name="footnote192c"></a><a href="#citation192c" +class="footnote">[192c]</a> Heneage Finch, afterwards +second Earl of Aylesford, was the son of Heneage Finch, the chief +counsel for the seven bishops, who was created Baron Guernsey in +1703, and Earl of Aylesford in 1714.</p> +<p><a name="footnote192d"></a><a href="#citation192d" +class="footnote">[192d]</a> James, Lord Compton, afterwards +fifth Earl of Northampton, was the eldest son of George, the +fourth Earl. He was summoned to the House of Lords in +December 1711, and died in 1754.</p> +<p><a name="footnote193"></a><a href="#citation193" +class="footnote">[193]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page89">89</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote194"></a><a href="#citation194" +class="footnote">[194]</a> In 1670 Temple thanked the Grand +Duke of Tuscany for “an entire vintage of the finest wines +of Italy” (Temple’s <i>Works</i>, 1814, ii. +155–56).</p> +<p><a name="footnote195a"></a><a href="#citation195a" +class="footnote">[195a]</a> Mrs. Manley (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page166">166</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote195b"></a><a href="#citation195b" +class="footnote">[195b]</a> Charles Cæsar, M.P. for +Hertford, was appointed Treasurer of the Navy in June 1711, in +the room of Robert Walpole.</p> +<p><a name="footnote196"></a><a href="#citation196" +class="footnote">[196]</a> Joseph I. His successor +was his brother Charles, the King of Spain recognised by +England.</p> +<p><a name="footnote197"></a><a href="#citation197" +class="footnote">[197]</a> Simon Harcourt, M.P. for +Wallingford. He married Elizabeth, sister of Sir John +Evelyn, Bart., and died in 1720, aged thirty-five, before his +father. He was secretary to the society of +“Brothers,” wrote verses, and was a friend of the +poets. His son Simon was created Earl Harcourt in 1749, and +was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.</p> +<p><a name="footnote199a"></a><a href="#citation199a" +class="footnote">[199a]</a> Doiley, a seventeenth-century +linen-draper,—probably “Thomas Doyley, at the Nun, in +Henrietta Street, Covent Garden,”—invented stuffs +which “might at once be cheap and genteel” +(<i>Spectator</i>, No. 283).</p> +<p><a name="footnote199b"></a><a href="#citation199b" +class="footnote">[199b]</a> A special envoy. The +Resident from Venice in 1710 was Signor Bianchi.</p> +<p><a name="footnote199c"></a><a href="#citation199c" +class="footnote">[199c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page160">160</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote199d"></a><a href="#citation199d" +class="footnote">[199d]</a> Nanfan Coote, second Earl of +Bellamont, who died in 1708, married, in 1705, Lucia Anna, +daughter of Henry de Nassau, Lord of Auverquerque, and sister of +Henry, first Earl of Grantham. She died in 1744.</p> +<p><a name="footnote200a"></a><a href="#citation200a" +class="footnote">[200a]</a> “Farnese” (Deane +Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote200b"></a><a href="#citation200b" +class="footnote">[200b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page188">188</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote200c"></a><a href="#citation200c" +class="footnote">[200c]</a> Swift’s changes of +residence during the period covered by the <i>Journal</i> were +numerous. On Sept. 20, 1710, he moved from Pall Mall to +Bury Street, “where I suppose I shall continue while in +London.” But on Dec. 28 he went to new lodgings in +St. Albans Street, Haymarket. On April 26, 1711, he moved +to Chelsea, and from there to Suffolk Street, to be near the +Vanhomrighs. He next moved to St. Martins Street, Leicester +Fields; and a month later to Panton Street, Haymarket. In +1712 he lodged for a time at Kensington Gravel Pits.</p> +<p><a name="footnote201a"></a><a href="#citation201a" +class="footnote">[201a]</a> At raffling for books.</p> +<p><a name="footnote201b"></a><a href="#citation201b" +class="footnote">[201b]</a> James Brydges, +Paymaster-General, and afterwards Duke of Chandos (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page12">12</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote202a"></a><a href="#citation202a" +class="footnote">[202a]</a> Thomas Foley, M.P. for +Worcestershire, was created Baron Foley in December 1711, and +died in 1733.</p> +<p><a name="footnote202b"></a><a href="#citation202b" +class="footnote">[202b]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page198">198</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page200">200</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote202c"></a><a href="#citation202c" +class="footnote">[202c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page176">176</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote202d"></a><a href="#citation202d" +class="footnote">[202d]</a> Charles Dering, second son of +Sir Edward Dering, Bart., M.P. for Kent, was Auditor of the +Exchequer in Ireland, and M.P. for Carlingford.</p> +<p><a name="footnote202e"></a><a href="#citation202e" +class="footnote">[202e]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page97">97</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote203a"></a><a href="#citation203a" +class="footnote">[203a]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page43">43</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page160">160</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote203b"></a><a href="#citation203b" +class="footnote">[203b]</a> A Whig paper, for the most part +by Mainwaring and Oldmixon, in opposition to the +<i>Examiner</i>. It appeared weekly from October 1710 to +August 1711.</p> +<p><a name="footnote203c"></a><a href="#citation203c" +class="footnote">[203c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page166">166</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote203d"></a><a href="#citation203d" +class="footnote">[203d]</a> See <i>Spectator</i>, No. 50, +by Addison.</p> +<p><a name="footnote203e"></a><a href="#citation203e" +class="footnote">[203e]</a> In all probability a mistake +for “Wesley” (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page2">2</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote205a"></a><a href="#citation205a" +class="footnote">[205a]</a> Lord Paisley (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page161">161</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote205b"></a><a href="#citation205b" +class="footnote">[205b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page88">88</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote206a"></a><a href="#citation206a" +class="footnote">[206a]</a> Sir Hovenden Walker. The +“man midwife” was Sir Chamberlen Walker, his younger +brother. The “secret expedition” against Quebec +conveyed upwards of 5000 soldiers, under the command of General +John Hill (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page76">76</a></span>), but owing to the want of due +preparations and the severe weather encountered, the fleet was +compelled to return to England without accomplishing +anything.</p> +<p><a name="footnote206b"></a><a href="#citation206b" +class="footnote">[206b]</a> Robert Freind, elder brother of +John Freind, M.D. (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page66">66</a></span>), became headmaster of Westminster +School in 1711, and held the appointment until 1733. He was +Rector of Witney, and afterwards Canon of Windsor, Prebendary of +Westminster, and Canon of Christ Church. He died in 1751, +aged eighty-four.</p> +<p><a name="footnote206c"></a><a href="#citation206c" +class="footnote">[206c]</a> Christopher Musgrave was Clerk +of the Ordnance.</p> +<p><a name="footnote207a"></a><a href="#citation207a" +class="footnote">[207a]</a> Atterbury’s wife, +Katherine Osborn, has been described as “the inspiration of +his youth and the solace of his riper years.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote207b"></a><a href="#citation207b" +class="footnote">[207b]</a> The original Chelsea Bun House, +in Jew’s Row, was pulled down in 1839. Sir R. +Philips, writing in 1817, said, “Those buns have afforded a +competency, and even wealth, to four generations of the same +family; and it is singular that their delicate flavour, +lightness, and richness have never been successfully +imitated.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote208a"></a><a href="#citation208a" +class="footnote">[208a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page60">60</a></span>. King +wrote to Swift (May 15, 1711), “The death of the Earl of +Rochester is a great blow to all good men, and even his enemies +cannot but do justice to his character. What influence it +will have on public affairs God only knows.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote208b"></a><a href="#citation208b" +class="footnote">[208b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page89">89</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote210a"></a><a href="#citation210a" +class="footnote">[210a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page160">160</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote210b"></a><a href="#citation210b" +class="footnote">[210b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page170">170</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote210c"></a><a href="#citation210c" +class="footnote">[210c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page192">192</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote211a"></a><a href="#citation211a" +class="footnote">[211a]</a> Swift’s curate at +Laracor.</p> +<p><a name="footnote211b"></a><a href="#citation211b" +class="footnote">[211b]</a> Queen Anne was the last +sovereign who exercised the supposed royal gift of healing by +touch. Dr. Johnson was touched by her, but without +effect.</p> +<p><a name="footnote212a"></a><a href="#citation212a" +class="footnote">[212a]</a> Richard Thornhill was tried at +the Old Bailey on May 18, 1711, for the murder of Sir Cholmley +Dering, M.P. for Kent, and found guilty of manslaughter only; but +he was shortly afterwards assassinated (see <i>Journal</i> for +Aug. 21, 1711; <i>Spectator</i>, No. 84). The quarrel began +on April 27, when they fell to blows, and Thornhill being knocked +down, had some teeth struck out by Sir C. Dering stamping on +him. The spectators then interfered, and Dering expressed +himself as ready to beg pardon; but Thornhill not thinking this +was sufficient satisfaction, gave Dering the lie, and on May 9 +sent him a challenge.</p> +<p><a name="footnote212b"></a><a href="#citation212b" +class="footnote">[212b]</a> Tothill Fields, Westminster, +was a favourite place for duels in the seventeenth century.</p> +<p><a name="footnote212c"></a><a href="#citation212c" +class="footnote">[212c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page124">124</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote213"></a><a href="#citation213" +class="footnote">[213]</a> Benjamin Burton, a Dublin +banker, and brother-in-law of Swift’s friend Stratford (see +p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page10">10</a></span>). Swift says he hated this +“rogue.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote214"></a><a href="#citation214" +class="footnote">[214]</a> The day on which the Club +met. See letter from Swift to St. John, May 11, 1711.</p> +<p><a name="footnote215a"></a><a href="#citation215a" +class="footnote">[215a]</a> Henry Barry, fourth Lord Barry +of Santry (1680–1734), was an Irish Privy Councillor, and +Governor of Derry. In 1702 he married Bridget, daughter of +Sir Thomas Domville, Bart., and in an undated letter (about 1735) +to Lady Santry Swift spoke of his esteem for her, “although +I had hardly the least acquaintance with your lord, nor was at +all desirous to cultivate it, because I did not at all approve of +his conduct.” Lord Santry’s only son and heir, +who was born in 1710, was condemned to death for the murder of a +footman in 1739, when the barony became extinct by +forfeiture. See B. W. Adams’s <i>History of +Santry</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote215b"></a><a href="#citation215b" +class="footnote">[215b]</a> Probably Captain Cammock, of +the <i>Speedwell</i>, of 28 guns and 125 men (Luttrell, vi. 331), +who met on July 13, 1708, off Scotland, two French privateers, +one of 16, the other of 18 guns, and fought them several +hours. The first privateer got off, much shattered; the +other was brought into Carrickfergus.</p> +<p><a name="footnote215c"></a><a href="#citation215c" +class="footnote">[215c]</a> See <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page50">50</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote215d"></a><a href="#citation215d" +class="footnote">[215d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page120">120</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote216a"></a><a href="#citation216a" +class="footnote">[216a]</a> This valuable pamphlet is +signed “J.G.,” and is believed to be by John Gay.</p> +<p><a name="footnote216b"></a><a href="#citation216b" +class="footnote">[216b]</a> Edmund Curll’s collection +of Swift’s <i>Miscellanies</i>, published in 1711, was an +expansion of a pamphlet of 1710, <i>A Meditation upon a +Broomstick</i>, <i>and somewhat beside</i>, <i>of the same +Author’s</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote217a"></a><a href="#citation217a" +class="footnote">[217a]</a> “In this passage DD +signifies both Dingley and Stella” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote217b"></a><a href="#citation217b" +class="footnote">[217b]</a> Sir Henry Craik’s +reading. The old editions have, “It would do: DD goes +as well as Presto,” which is obviously corrupt.</p> +<p><a name="footnote217c"></a><a href="#citation217c" +class="footnote">[217c]</a> Cf. <i>Journal</i>, June 17, +1712.</p> +<p><a name="footnote217d"></a><a href="#citation217d" +class="footnote">[217d]</a> Cf. “old doings” +(see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page73">73</a></span>.)</p> +<p><a name="footnote217e"></a><a href="#citation217e" +class="footnote">[217e]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page163">163</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote217f"></a><a href="#citation217f" +class="footnote">[217f]</a> Rymer’s +<i>Fœdera</i>, in three volumes, which Swift obtained for +Trinity College, Dublin.</p> +<p><a name="footnote217g"></a><a href="#citation217g" +class="footnote">[217g]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page43">43</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page145">145</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote218a"></a><a href="#citation218a" +class="footnote">[218a]</a> Stephen Colledge, “the +Protestant joiner,” was hanged in 1681. He had +published attacks on the Roman Catholics, and had advocated +resistance to Charles <span class="GutSmall">II</span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote218b"></a><a href="#citation218b" +class="footnote">[218b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page14">14</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote218c"></a><a href="#citation218c" +class="footnote">[218c]</a> Mitford Crowe was appointed +Governor of Barbados in 1706, and before his departure for that +island went to Spain, “to settle the accounts of our army +there, of which he is paymaster” (Luttrell, vi. 104). +In 1710 charges of bribery brought against him by merchants were +inquired into by the Privy Council, but he seems to have cleared +himself, for in June 1711 Swift speaks of him as Governor of +Jamaica. He died in 1719.</p> +<p><a name="footnote219"></a><a href="#citation219" +class="footnote">[219]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page60">60</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote220a"></a><a href="#citation220a" +class="footnote">[220a]</a> Swift’s uncle Adam +“lived and died in Ireland,” and left no son. +Another daughter of his became Mrs. Whiteway.</p> +<p><a name="footnote220b"></a><a href="#citation220b" +class="footnote">[220b]</a> William Lowndes, M.P., +secretary to the Treasury, whom Walpole called “as able and +honest a servant as ever the Crown had.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote220c"></a><a href="#citation220c" +class="footnote">[220c]</a> The Lord Treasurer’s +staff: since the dismissal of Godolphin, the Treasurership had +been held in commission.</p> +<p><a name="footnote221"></a><a href="#citation221" +class="footnote">[221]</a> “As I hope to be +saved.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote222"></a><a href="#citation222" +class="footnote">[222]</a> Stella’s maid.</p> +<p><a name="footnote223"></a><a href="#citation223" +class="footnote">[223]</a> See letter from King to Swift, +May 15, 1711. Alderman Constantine, a High Churchman, +indignant at being passed over by a junior in the contest for the +mayoralty, brought the matter before the Council Board, and +produced an old by-law by which aldermen, according to their +ancientry, were required to keep their mayoralty. King took +the side of the city, but the majority was for the by-law, and +disapproved of the election; whereupon the citizens repealed the +by-law and re-elected the same alderman as before.</p> +<p><a name="footnote224"></a><a href="#citation224" +class="footnote">[224]</a> The Lord Treasurer’s +staff.</p> +<p><a name="footnote225a"></a><a href="#citation225a" +class="footnote">[225a]</a> Swift’s “little +parson cousin,” the resident chaplain at Moor Park. +He pretended to have had some part in <i>The Tale of a Tub</i>, +and Swift always professed great contempt for him. Thomas +Swift was son of an Oxford uncle of Swift’s, of the same +name, and was at school and college with Swift. He became +Rector of Puttenham, Surrey, and died in 1752, aged +eighty-seven.</p> +<p><a name="footnote225b"></a><a href="#citation225b" +class="footnote">[225b]</a> The Duke of Ormond’s +daughter, Lady Mary Butler (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page44">44</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote225c"></a><a href="#citation225c" +class="footnote">[225c]</a> Thomas Harley, the Lord +Treasurer’s cousin, was secretary to the Treasury.</p> +<p><a name="footnote226a"></a><a href="#citation226a" +class="footnote">[226a]</a> Lord Oxford’s daughter +Elizabeth married, in 1712, the Marquis of Caermarthen.</p> +<p><a name="footnote226b"></a><a href="#citation226b" +class="footnote">[226b]</a> Henry Tenison, M.P. for County +Louth, was one of the Commissioners of the Revenue in Ireland +from 1704 until his death in 1709 (Luttrell, v. 381, vi. +523). Probably he was related to Dr. Tenison, Bishop of +Meath, who died in 1705.</p> +<p><a name="footnote227a"></a><a href="#citation227a" +class="footnote">[227a]</a> Anne Finch (died 1720), +daughter of Sir William Kingsmill, and wife of Heneage Finch, who +became fourth Earl of Winchelsea in 1712. Lady Winchelsea +published a volume of poems in 1713, and was a friend of Pope and +Rowe. Wordsworth recognised the advance in the growth of +attention to “external nature” shown in her +writings.</p> +<p><a name="footnote227b"></a><a href="#citation227b" +class="footnote">[227b]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page223">223</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page297">297</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote227c"></a><a href="#citation227c" +class="footnote">[227c]</a> This was a mistake. +Charles Hickman, D.D., Bishop of Derry, died in November +1713.</p> +<p><a name="footnote227d"></a><a href="#citation227d" +class="footnote">[227d]</a> “These words in italics +are written in a large round hand” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote229a"></a><a href="#citation229a" +class="footnote">[229a]</a> “This entry is interlined +in the original” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote229b"></a><a href="#citation229b" +class="footnote">[229b]</a> Colonel James Graham +(1649–1730) held various offices under James <span +class="GutSmall">II</span>., and was granted a lease of a lodge +in Bagshot Park. Like his brother, Viscount Preston, he was +suspected of treasonable practices in 1691, and he was arrested +in 1692 and 1696. Under Queen Anne and George I., Colonel +Graham was M.P. for Appleby and Westmorland.</p> +<p><a name="footnote229c"></a><a href="#citation229c" +class="footnote">[229c]</a> Mr. Leslie Stephen has pointed +out that this is the name of an inn (now the Jolly Farmer) near +Frimley, on the hill between Bagshot and Farnborough. This +inn is still called the Golden Farmer on the Ordnance map.</p> +<p><a name="footnote229d"></a><a href="#citation229d" +class="footnote">[229d]</a> “Soley” is probably +a misreading for “sollah,” a form often used by Swift +for “sirrah,” and “figgarkick” may be +“pilgarlick” (a poor creature) in Swift’s +“little language” (cf. 20th Oct. 1711).</p> +<p><a name="footnote230a"></a><a href="#citation230a" +class="footnote">[230a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page134">134</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote230b"></a><a href="#citation230b" +class="footnote">[230b]</a> Probably a misprint for +“Bertie.” This Mr. Bertie may have been the +Hon. James Bertie, second son of the first Earl of Abingdon, and +M.P. for Middlesex.</p> +<p><a name="footnote230c"></a><a href="#citation230c" +class="footnote">[230c]</a> Evelyn Pierrepont, fifth Earl +of Kingston, was made Marquis of Dorchester in 1706. He +became Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull in 1715, and died in +1726. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was his daughter.</p> +<p><a name="footnote231a"></a><a href="#citation231a" +class="footnote">[231a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page116">116</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote231b"></a><a href="#citation231b" +class="footnote">[231b]</a> Sir Thomas Thynne, first +Viscount Weymouth, who died in 1714, aged seventy-four, married +Frances, daughter of Heneage Finch, second Earl of +Winchelsea.</p> +<p><a name="footnote231c"></a><a href="#citation231c" +class="footnote">[231c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page52">52</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote232a"></a><a href="#citation232a" +class="footnote">[232a]</a> Swift is referring to St. +John’s defence of Brydges (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page201">201</a></span>.)</p> +<p><a name="footnote232b"></a><a href="#citation232b" +class="footnote">[232b]</a> “He does not mean +smoking, which he never practised, but snuffing up cut-and-dry +tobacco, which sometimes was just coloured with Spanish snuff; +and this he used all his life, but would not own that he took +snuff” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote232c"></a><a href="#citation232c" +class="footnote">[232c]</a> Beaumont (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page1">1</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote232d"></a><a href="#citation232d" +class="footnote">[232d]</a> Sir Alexander Cairnes, M.P. for +Monaghan, a banker, was created a baronet in 1706, and died in +1732.</p> +<p><a name="footnote233a"></a><a href="#citation233a" +class="footnote">[233a]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page43">43</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page160">160</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote233b"></a><a href="#citation233b" +class="footnote">[233b]</a> Isaac Manley (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page7">7</a></span>.)</p> +<p><a name="footnote233c"></a><a href="#citation233c" +class="footnote">[233c]</a> Sir Thomas Frankland.</p> +<p><a name="footnote233d"></a><a href="#citation233d" +class="footnote">[233d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page24">24</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote234a"></a><a href="#citation234a" +class="footnote">[234a]</a> Hockley-in-the-Hole, +Clerkenwell, a place of public diversion, was famous for its bear +and bull baitings.</p> +<p><a name="footnote234b"></a><a href="#citation234b" +class="footnote">[234b]</a> Sir William Seymour, second son +of Sir Edward Seymour, Bart., of Berry Pomeroy, retired from the +army in 1717, and died in 1728 (Dalton’s <i>Army +Lists</i>). He was wounded at Landen and Vigo, and saw much +service between his appointment as a Captain of Fusiliers in 1686 +and his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant-General in 1707.</p> +<p><a name="footnote234c"></a><a href="#citation234c" +class="footnote">[234c]</a> No. 45.</p> +<p><a name="footnote235a"></a><a href="#citation235a" +class="footnote">[235a]</a> “And now I conceive the +main design I had in writing these papers is fully +executed. A great majority of the nation is at length +thoroughly convinced that the Queen proceeded with the highest +wisdom, in changing her Ministry and Parliament” +(<i>Examiner</i>, No. 45).</p> +<p><a name="footnote235b"></a><a href="#citation235b" +class="footnote">[235b]</a> Edward Harley (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page124">124</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote235c"></a><a href="#citation235c" +class="footnote">[235c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page225">225</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote235d"></a><a href="#citation235d" +class="footnote">[235d]</a> Tom Ashe was an elder brother +of the Bishop of Clogher. He had an estate of more than +£1000 a year in County Meath, and Nichols describes him as +of droll appearance, thick and short in person: “a +facetious, pleasant companion, but the most eternal unwearied +punster that ever lived.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote235e"></a><a href="#citation235e" +class="footnote">[235e]</a> “Even Joseph Beaumont, +the son, was at this time an old man, whose grey locks were +venerable; yet his father lived until about 1719” (Deane +Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote236"></a><a href="#citation236" +class="footnote">[236]</a> Sir William Wyndham, Bart. +(1687–1740), was M.P. for Somerset. He was a close +partisan of Bolingbroke’s, and in 1713 introduced the +Schism Bill, which drove Oxford from office. Wyndham became +Chancellor of the Exchequer, and was afterwards a leading +opponent of Walpole. His wife, Lady Catherine Seymour (died +1713), was the second daughter of Charles, Duke of Somerset (see +p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page270">270</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote237a"></a><a href="#citation237a" +class="footnote">[237a]</a> Swift was afterwards President +of this Club, which is better known as “the +Society.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote237b"></a><a href="#citation237b" +class="footnote">[237b]</a> Perhaps Daniel Reading, M.P. +for Newcastle, Co. Dublin.</p> +<p><a name="footnote238a"></a><a href="#citation238a" +class="footnote">[238a]</a> Afterwards Congreve formed a +friendship with the Whigs; or, as Swift put it,</p> +<blockquote><p>“Took proper principles to thrive,<br /> +And so might every dunce alive.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="footnote238b"></a><a href="#citation238b" +class="footnote">[238b]</a> Atterbury.</p> +<p><a name="footnote238c"></a><a href="#citation238c" +class="footnote">[238c]</a> This pamphlet, published in +February 1712, was called <i>A Proposal for Correcting</i>, +<i>Improving</i>, <i>and Ascertaining the English Tongue</i>, +<i>in a Letter to the</i> . . . <i>Lord High Treasurer</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote238d"></a><a href="#citation238d" +class="footnote">[238d]</a> No. 47</p> +<p><a name="footnote238e"></a><a href="#citation238e" +class="footnote">[238e]</a> Francis Gastrell, Canon of +Christ Church, was made Bishop of Chester in 1713. His +valuable <i>Notitia Cestriensis</i> was published in +1845–50.</p> +<p><a name="footnote239"></a><a href="#citation239" +class="footnote">[239]</a> Near Fulham.</p> +<p><a name="footnote240a"></a><a href="#citation240a" +class="footnote">[240a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page116">116</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote240b"></a><a href="#citation240b" +class="footnote">[240b]</a> The daughters of Meinhardt +Schomberg, Duke of Leinster, in Ireland, and third Duke of +Schomberg. Lady Mary married Count Dagenfeldt, and Lady +Frederica married, first, the Earl of Holderness, and, secondly, +Earl Fitz Walter.</p> +<p><a name="footnote241"></a><a href="#citation241" +class="footnote">[241]</a> Thomas Harley.</p> +<p><a name="footnote242"></a><a href="#citation242" +class="footnote">[242]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page176">176</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote245a"></a><a href="#citation245a" +class="footnote">[245a]</a> The widow of Sir John Lyndon, +who was appointed a justice of the Court of King’s Bench in +Ireland in 1682, and died in 1699.</p> +<p><a name="footnote245b"></a><a href="#citation245b" +class="footnote">[245b]</a> “Marmaduke Coghill, +LL.D., was judge of the Prerogative Court in Ireland. About +this time he courted a lady, and was soon to have been married to +her; but unfortunately a cause was brought to trial before him, +wherein a man was sued for beating his wife. When the +matter was agitated, the Doctor gave his opinion, ‘That +although a man had no right to beat his wife unmercifully, yet +that, with such a little cane or switch as he then held in his +hand, a husband was at liberty, and was invested with a power, to +give his wife moderate correction’; which opinion +determined the lady against having the Doctor. He died an +old man and a bachelor” (Deane Swift). See also +Lascelles, <i>Liber Muner. Hibern.</i>, part ii. p. 80.</p> +<p><a name="footnote246"></a><a href="#citation246" +class="footnote">[246]</a> This was a common exclamation of +the time, but the spelling varies in different writers. It +seems to be a corruption of “God so,” or “God +ho,” but there may have been a confusion with +“cat-so,” derived from the Italian +“cazzo.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote247a"></a><a href="#citation247a" +class="footnote">[247a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page92">92</a></span>. Mrs. +Manley was now editing the <i>Examiner</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote247b"></a><a href="#citation247b" +class="footnote">[247b]</a> Sir Henry Belasyse was sent to +Spain as Commissioner to inquire into the state of the English +forces in that country. The son of Sir Richard Belasyse, +Knight of Ludworth, Durham, Sir Henry finished a chequered career +in 1717, when he was buried in Westminster Abbey (Dalton’s +<i>Army Lists</i>, ii. 228). In his earlier years he served +under the United Provinces, and after the accession of William +was made a Brigadier-General in the English army, and in 1694, +Lieutenant-General. In 1702 he was second in command of the +expedition to Cadiz, but he was dismissed the service in +consequence of the looting of Port St. Mary. Subsequently +he was elected M.P. for Durham, and in 1713 was appointed +Governor of Berwick.</p> +<p><a name="footnote248"></a><a href="#citation248" +class="footnote">[248]</a> Atterbury.</p> +<p><a name="footnote249a"></a><a href="#citation249a" +class="footnote">[249a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page10">10</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote249b"></a><a href="#citation249b" +class="footnote">[249b]</a> Sir John Powell, a Judge of the +Queen’s Bench, died in 1713, aged sixty-eight. He was +a kindly as well as able judge.</p> +<p><a name="footnote250a"></a><a href="#citation250a" +class="footnote">[250a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page235">235</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote250b"></a><a href="#citation250b" +class="footnote">[250b]</a> This Tisdall has been described +as a Dublin merchant; but in all probability he was Richard +Tisdall, Registrar of the Irish Court of Chancery, and M.P. for +Dundalk (1707–1713) and County Louth +(1713–1727). He married Marian, daughter of Richard +Boyle, M.P., and died in 1742. Richard Tisdall was a +relative of Stella’s suitor, the Rev. William Tisdall, and +years afterwards Swift took an interest in his son Philip, who +became a Secretary of State and Leader of the Irish House of +Commons.</p> +<p><a name="footnote251"></a><a href="#citation251" +class="footnote">[251]</a> “In Ireland there are not +public paths from place to place, as in England” (Deane +Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote252a"></a><a href="#citation252a" +class="footnote">[252a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page226">226</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote252b"></a><a href="#citation252b" +class="footnote">[252b]</a> Probably a son of John Manley, +M.P. (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page24">24</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote253a"></a><a href="#citation253a" +class="footnote">[253a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page97">97</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote253b"></a><a href="#citation253b" +class="footnote">[253b]</a> Dr. George Stanhope, who was +Vicar of Lewisham as well as of Deptford. He was a popular +preacher and a translator of Thomas à Kempis and other +religious writers.</p> +<p><a name="footnote253c"></a><a href="#citation253c" +class="footnote">[253c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page10">10</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote254"></a><a href="#citation254" +class="footnote">[254]</a> A favourite word with Swift, +when he wished to indicate anything obscure or humble.</p> +<p><a name="footnote255a"></a><a href="#citation255a" +class="footnote">[255a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page163">163</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote255b"></a><a href="#citation255b" +class="footnote">[255b]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page234">234</a></span>–5.</p> +<p><a name="footnote255c"></a><a href="#citation255c" +class="footnote">[255c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page166">166</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote256a"></a><a href="#citation256a" +class="footnote">[256a]</a> Thomas Mills (1671–1740) +was made Bishop of Waterford and Lismore in 1708. A man of +learning and a liberal contributor to the cost of church +restorations, he is charged by Archbishop King with giving all +the valuable livings in his gift to his non-resident +relatives.</p> +<p><a name="footnote256b"></a><a href="#citation256b" +class="footnote">[256b]</a> Tooke was appointed printer of +the <i>London Gazette</i> in 1711 (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page8">8</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote256c"></a><a href="#citation256c" +class="footnote">[256c]</a> See <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page24">24</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote256d"></a><a href="#citation256d" +class="footnote">[256d]</a> Lady Jane Hyde, the elder +daughter of Henry Hyde, Earl of Rochester (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page24">24</a></span>), married +William Capel, third Earl of Essex. Her daughter +Charlotte’s husband, the son of the Earl of Jersey, was +created Earl of Clarendon in 1776. Lady Jane’s +younger sister, Catherine, who became the famous Duchess of +Queensberry, Gay’s patroness, is represented by Prior, in +<i>The Female Phaeton</i>, as jealous, when a young girl, of her +sister, “Lady Jenny,” who went to balls, and +“brought home hearts by dozens.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote257a"></a><a href="#citation257a" +class="footnote">[257a]</a> See <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page257">257</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote257b"></a><a href="#citation257b" +class="footnote">[257b]</a> John Holles, Duke of Newcastle, +had held the Privy Seal from 1705, and was regarded by the +Ministers as a possible plenipotentiary in the event of their +negotiations for a peace being successful. He married Lady +Margaret Cavendish, daughter and co-heiress of Henry Cavendish, +second Duke of Newcastle, and was one of the richest nobles in +England. His death, on July 15, 1711, was the result of a +fall while stag-hunting. The Duke’s only daughter +married, in 1713, Edward, Lord Harley, the Earl of Oxford’s +son.</p> +<p><a name="footnote258a"></a><a href="#citation258a" +class="footnote">[258a]</a> Alexander Forbes, fourth Lord +Forbes, who was afterwards attainted for his share in the +Rebellion of 1745.</p> +<p><a name="footnote258b"></a><a href="#citation258b" +class="footnote">[258b]</a> Obscure (cf. p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page52">52</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote260a"></a><a href="#citation260a" +class="footnote">[260a]</a> Jacob Tonson the elder, who +died in 1736, outlived his nephew, Jacob Tonson the younger, by a +few months. The elder Tonson, the secretary of the Kit-Cat +Club, published many of Dryden’s works, and the firm +continued to be the chief publishers of the time during the +greater part of the eighteenth century.</p> +<p><a name="footnote260b"></a><a href="#citation260b" +class="footnote">[260b]</a> John Barber.</p> +<p><a name="footnote260c"></a><a href="#citation260c" +class="footnote">[260c]</a> By his will Swift left to Deane +Swift his “large silver standish, consisting of a large +silver plate, an ink-pot, and a sand-box.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote261a"></a><a href="#citation261a" +class="footnote">[261a]</a> <i>I.e.</i>, we are only three +hours in getting there.</p> +<p><a name="footnote261b"></a><a href="#citation261b" +class="footnote">[261b]</a> Cf. p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page141">141</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote262a"></a><a href="#citation262a" +class="footnote">[262a]</a> The <i>Examiner</i> was revived +in December 1711, under Oldisworth’s editorship, and was +continued by him until 1714.</p> +<p><a name="footnote262b"></a><a href="#citation262b" +class="footnote">[262b]</a> James Douglas, fourth Duke of +Hamilton, was created Duke of Brandon in the English peerage in +September 1711, and was killed by Lord Mohun in a duel in +1712. Swift calls him “a worthy good-natured person, +very generous, but of a middle understanding.” He +married, in 1698, as his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter and +heiress of Digby, Lord Gerard, a lady to whom Swift often refers +in the <i>Journal</i>. She outlived the Duke thirty-two +years.</p> +<p><a name="footnote262c"></a><a href="#citation262c" +class="footnote">[262c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page260">260</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote263"></a><a href="#citation263" +class="footnote">[263]</a> William Fitzmaurice (see p. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page263">263</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote264a"></a><a href="#citation264a" +class="footnote">[264a]</a> The Duke of Shrewsbury (see p. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page12">12</a></span>) +married an Italian lady, Adelhida, daughter of the Marquis of +Paliotti, of Bologna, descended maternally from Robert Dudley, +Earl of Leicester, Queen Elizabeth’s favourite. Lady +Cowper (<i>Diary</i>, pp. 8, 9) says that the Duchess “had +a wonderful art of entertaining and diverting people, though she +would sometimes exceed the bounds of decency; . . . but then, +with all her prate and noise, she was the most cunning, designing +woman alive, obliging to people in prosperity, and a great +party-woman.” As regards the name +“Presto,” see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page5">5</a></span> note 3.</p> +<p><a name="footnote264b"></a><a href="#citation264b" +class="footnote">[264b]</a> Probably a cousin.</p> +<p><a name="footnote264c"></a><a href="#citation264c" +class="footnote">[264c]</a> Presumptuous: claiming +much.</p> +<p><a name="footnote265"></a><a href="#citation265" +class="footnote">[265]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page123">123</a></span>. John +Winchcombe, a weaver of Newbury, marched with a hundred of his +workmen, at his own expenses, against the Scots in 1513.</p> +<p><a name="footnote266a"></a><a href="#citation266a" +class="footnote">[266a]</a> Thomas Coke, M.P., of +Derbyshire, was appointed a Teller of the Exchequer in 1704, and +Vice-Chamberlain to the Queen in 1706. In 1706 he +married—as his second wife—Mrs. Hale, one of the +maids of honour (Luttrell, v. 411, 423; vi. 113, 462; Lady +Cowper’s <i>Diary</i>, 15, 16), a lady whose +“piercing” beauty it was, apparently, that Steele +described under the name of Chloe, in No. 4 of the +<i>Tatler</i>. Jervas painted her as a country girl, +“with a liveliness that shows she is conscious, but not +affected, of her perfections.” Coke was the Sir Plume +of Pope’s <i>Rape of the Lock</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote266b"></a><a href="#citation266b" +class="footnote">[266b]</a> The committee of management of +the Royal household.</p> +<p><a name="footnote266c"></a><a href="#citation266c" +class="footnote">[266c]</a> Francesca Margherita de +l’Epine, the famous singer, and principal rival of Mrs. +Tofts, came to England in 1692, and constantly sang in opera +until her retirement in 1718, when she married Dr. Pepusch. +She died in 1746. Her sister, Maria Gallia, also a singer, +did not attain the same popularity.</p> +<p><a name="footnote266d"></a><a href="#citation266d" +class="footnote">[266d]</a> Charles Scarborow and Sir +William Foster were the Clerks of the Board of Green Cloth.</p> +<p><a name="footnote267a"></a><a href="#citation267a" +class="footnote">[267a]</a> See note on Thomas Coke, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page266">266</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote267b"></a><a href="#citation267b" +class="footnote">[267b]</a> The Earl of Sunderland’s +second wife, Lady Anne Churchill, who died in 1716, aged +twenty-eight. She was the favourite daughter of the Duke of +Marlborough, and was called “the little Whig.” +Verses were written in honour of her beauty and talent by Charles +Montagu, Earl of Halifax, Dr. Watts and others, and her portrait +was painted by Lely and Kneller.</p> +<p><a name="footnote267c"></a><a href="#citation267c" +class="footnote">[267c]</a> Mary, daughter of Sir William +Forester, of Dothill, Shropshire. In 1700, at the age of +thirteen, she had been secretly married to her cousin, George +Downing, a lad of fifteen. Three years later, Downing, on +his return from abroad, refused to acknowledge his wife, and in +1715 both parties petitioned the House of Lords for leave to +bring in a Bill declaring the marriage to be void; but leave was +refused (Lords’ <i>Journals</i>, xx. 41, 45). Downing +had become Sir George Downing, Bart., in 1711, and had been +elected M.P. for Dunwich; he died without issue in 1749, and was +the founder of Downing College, Cambridge.</p> +<p><a name="footnote268a"></a><a href="#citation268a" +class="footnote">[268a]</a> In a discussion upon what would +be the result if beards became the fashion, Budgell +(<i>Spectator</i>, No. 331) says, “Besides, we are not +certain that the ladies would not come into the mode, when they +take the air on horseback. They already appear in hats and +feathers, coats and periwigs.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote268b"></a><a href="#citation268b" +class="footnote">[268b]</a> Horse-racing was much +encouraged by Charles <span class="GutSmall">II</span>., who, as +Strutt tells us, appointed races to be made in Datchet Mead, when +he was residing at Windsor. By Queen Anne’s time +horse-racing was becoming a regular institution: see +<i>Spectator</i>, No. 173.</p> +<p><a name="footnote269a"></a><a href="#citation269a" +class="footnote">[269a]</a> John Montagu, second Duke of +Montagu, married Lady Mary Churchill, youngest daughter of the +Duke of Marlborough.</p> +<p><a name="footnote269b"></a><a href="#citation269b" +class="footnote">[269b]</a> Of Clogher.</p> +<p><a name="footnote269c"></a><a href="#citation269c" +class="footnote">[269c]</a> John Adams, Prebendary of +Canterbury and Canon of Windsor. He was made Provost of +King’s College, Cambridge, in 1712, and died in 1720.</p> +<p><a name="footnote269d"></a><a href="#citation269d" +class="footnote">[269d]</a> The Hon. and Rev. George +Verney, Canon of Windsor (died 1728), became fourth Lord +Willoughby de Broke on the death of his father (Sir Richard +Verney, the third Baron), in July 1711. Lord Willoughby +became Dean of Windsor in 1713.</p> +<p><a name="footnote269e"></a><a href="#citation269e" +class="footnote">[269e]</a> Thomas Hare, Under Secretary of +State in Bolingbroke’s office.</p> +<p><a name="footnote269f"></a><a href="#citation269f" +class="footnote">[269f]</a> Richard Sutton was the second +son of Robert Sutton, the nephew of the Robert Sutton who was +created Viscount Lexington by Charles I. Sutton served +under William <span class="GutSmall">III</span>. and Marlborough +in Flanders, and was made a Brigadier-General in 1710, in which +year also he was elected M.P. for Newark. In 1711 he was +appointed Governor of Hull, and he died, a Lieutenant-General, in +1737 (Dalton’s <i>Army Lists</i>, iii. 153)</p> +<p><a name="footnote270a"></a><a href="#citation270a" +class="footnote">[270a]</a> Charles Seymour, sixth Duke of +Somerset (1662–1748), known as “the proud Duke of +Somerset.” Through the influence which his +wife—afterwards Mistress of the Robes (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page162">162</a></span>)—had +obtained over the Queen, he bore no small part in bringing about +the changes of 1710. His intrigues during this period were, +however, mainly actuated by jealousy of Marlborough, and he had +really no sympathies with the Tories. His intrigues with +the Whigs caused the utmost alarm to St. John and to Swift.</p> +<p><a name="footnote270b"></a><a href="#citation270b" +class="footnote">[270b]</a> The third and last reference to +Vanessa in the <i>Journal</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote271a"></a><a href="#citation271a" +class="footnote">[271a]</a> “Pray God preserve her +life, which is of great importance” (Swift to Archbishop +King, Aug. 15, 1711). St. John was at this moment very +anxious to conciliate Mrs. Masham, as he felt that she was the +only person capable of counteracting the intrigues of the Duchess +of Somerset with the Queen.</p> +<p><a name="footnote271b"></a><a href="#citation271b" +class="footnote">[271b]</a> Pontack, of Abchurch Lane, son +of Arnaud de Pontac, President of the Parliament of Bordeaux, was +proprietor of the most fashionable eating-house in London. +There the Royal Society met annually at dinner until 1746. +Several writers speak of the dinners at a guinea a head and +upwards served at Pontack’s, and Swift comments on the +price of the wine.</p> +<p><a name="footnote272a"></a><a href="#citation272a" +class="footnote">[272a]</a> “His name was Read” +(Scott).</p> +<p><a name="footnote272b"></a><a href="#citation272b" +class="footnote">[272b]</a> Up to the end of 1709 the +warrants for the payment of the works at Blenheim had been +regularly issued by Godolphin and paid at the Treasury; over +£200,000 was expended in this manner. But after the +dismissal of the Whigs the Queen drew tight the +purse-strings. The £20,000 mentioned by Swift was +paid in 1711, but on June 1, 1712, Anne gave positive orders that +nothing further should be allowed for Blenheim, though +£12,000 remained due to the contractors.</p> +<p><a name="footnote273a"></a><a href="#citation273a" +class="footnote">[273a]</a> The piercing of the lines +before Bouchain, which Villars had declared to be the <i>non plus +ultra</i> of the Allies, one of the most striking proofs of +Marlborough’s military genius.</p> +<p><a name="footnote273b"></a><a href="#citation273b" +class="footnote">[273b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page212">212</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote274a"></a><a href="#citation274a" +class="footnote">[274a]</a> A fashionable gaming-house in +St. James’s Street.</p> +<p><a name="footnote274b"></a><a href="#citation274b" +class="footnote">[274b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page37">37</a></span>. The +Grange, near Alresford, Hampshire, was Henley’s seat. +His wife (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page117">117</a></span>) was the daughter of Peregrine +Bertie, son of Montagu Bertie, second Earl of Lindsey; and Earl +Poulett (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page190">190</a></span>) married Bridget, an elder +daughter of Bertie’s.</p> +<p><a name="footnote274c"></a><a href="#citation274c" +class="footnote">[274c]</a> William Henry Hyde, Earl of +Danby, grandson of the first Duke of Leeds (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page60">60</a></span>), and eldest +son of Peregrine Osborne, Baron Osborne and Viscount Dunblane, +who succeeded to the dukedom in 1712. Owing to this young +man’s death (at the age of twenty-one), his brother, +Peregrine Hyde, Marquis of Caermarthen, who married +Harley’s daughter Elizabeth, afterwards became third Duke +of Leeds.</p> +<p><a name="footnote275a"></a><a href="#citation275a" +class="footnote">[275a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page54">54</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote275b"></a><a href="#citation275b" +class="footnote">[275b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page8">8</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote276a"></a><a href="#citation276a" +class="footnote">[276a]</a> William Gregg was a clerk in +Harley’s office when the latter was Secretary of State +under the Whig Administration. In 1707–8 he was in +treasonable correspondence with M. de Chamillart, the French +Secretary of State. When he was detected he was tried for +high treason, and hanged on April 28. The Lords who +examined Gregg did their utmost to establish Harley’s +complicity, which Gregg, however, with his dying breath solemnly +denied.</p> +<p><a name="footnote276b"></a><a href="#citation276b" +class="footnote">[276b]</a> By Swift himself. The +title was, <i>Some Remarks upon a Pamphlet entitled</i>, <i>A +Letter to the Seven Lords of the Committee appointed to examine +Gregg</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote276c"></a><a href="#citation276c" +class="footnote">[276c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page120">120</a></span>. +There is no copy in the British Museum.</p> +<p><a name="footnote277a"></a><a href="#citation277a" +class="footnote">[277a]</a> Thomas Parnell, the poet, +married, in 1706, Anne, daughter of Thomas Minchin, of +Tipperary. In 1711 Parnell was thirty-two years of age, and +was Archdeacon of Clogher and Vicar of Clontibret. Swift +took much trouble to obtain for Parnell the friendship of +Bolingbroke and other persons of note, and Parnell became a +member of the Scriblerus Club. In 1716 he was made Vicar of +Finglas, and after his death in 1718 Pope prepared an edition of +his poems. The fits of depression to which Parnell was +liable became more marked after his wife’s death, and he +seems to have to some extent given way to drink. His +sincerity and charm of manner made him welcome with men of both +parties.</p> +<p><a name="footnote277b"></a><a href="#citation277b" +class="footnote">[277b]</a> Dr. Henry Compton had been +Bishop of London since 1675. He was dangerously ill early +in 1711, but he lived until 1713, when he was eighty-one.</p> +<p><a name="footnote278"></a><a href="#citation278" +class="footnote">[278]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page250">250</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote279a"></a><a href="#citation279a" +class="footnote">[279a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page50">50</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote279b"></a><a href="#citation279b" +class="footnote">[279b]</a> L’Estrange speaks of +“a whiffling fop” and Swift says, “Every +whiffler in a laced coat, who frequents the chocolate-house, +shall talk of the Constitution.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote279c"></a><a href="#citation279c" +class="footnote">[279c]</a> Prior’s first visit to +France with a view to the secret negotiations with that country +which the Ministers were now bent on carrying through, had been +made in July, when he and Gaultier reached Calais in a +fishing-boat and proceeded to Fontainbleau under assumed +names. He returned to England in August, but was recognised +at Dover, whence the news spread all over London, to the great +annoyance of the Ministers. The officer who recognised +Prior was John Macky, reputed author of those <i>Characters</i> +upon which Swift wrote comments. Formerly a secret service +agent under William <span class="GutSmall">III</span>., Macky had +been given the direction of the Ostend mail packets by +Marlborough, to whom he communicated the news of Prior’s +journey. Bolingbroke threatened to hang Macky, and he was +thrown into prison; but the accession of George I. again brought +him favour and employment.</p> +<p><a name="footnote280"></a><a href="#citation280" +class="footnote">[280]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page106">106</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote281a"></a><a href="#citation281a" +class="footnote">[281a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page7">7</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote281b"></a><a href="#citation281b" +class="footnote">[281b]</a> See <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page34">34</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote281c"></a><a href="#citation281c" +class="footnote">[281c]</a> Edward Villiers +(1656–1711), created Viscount Villiers in 1691, was made +Earl of Jersey in 1697. Under William <span +class="GutSmall">III</span>. he was Lord Chamberlain and +Secretary of State, but he was dismissed from office in +1704. When he died he had been nominated as a +plenipotentiary at the Congress of Utrecht, and was about to +receive the appointment of Lord Privy Seal. Lord Jersey +married, in 1681, when she was eighteen, Barbara, daughter of +William Chiffinch, closet-keeper to Charles <span +class="GutSmall">II</span>.; she died in 1735.</p> +<p><a name="footnote282"></a><a href="#citation282" +class="footnote">[282]</a> Lord Paisley was the Earl of +Abercorn’s eldest surviving son (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page161">161</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote283a"></a><a href="#citation283a" +class="footnote">[283a]</a> The Hon. John Hamilton, the +Earl’s second surviving son, died in 1714.</p> +<p><a name="footnote283b"></a><a href="#citation283b" +class="footnote">[283b]</a> Dr. John Robinson +(1650–1723) had gone out as chaplain to the Embassy at the +Court of Sweden in 1682, and had returned in 1708 with the double +reputation of being a thorough Churchman and a sound +diplomatist. He was soon made Dean of Windsor, and +afterwards Bishop of Bristol. He was now introduced to the +Council Board, and it was made known to those in the confidence +of Ministers that he would be one of the English +plenipotentiaries at the coming Peace Congress. In 1713 Dr. +Robinson was made Bishop of London.</p> +<p><a name="footnote283c"></a><a href="#citation283c" +class="footnote">[283c]</a> To the Irish bishops: see +above.</p> +<p><a name="footnote284a"></a><a href="#citation284a" +class="footnote">[284a]</a> John Erskine, Earl of Mar +(1675–1732), who was attainted for his part in the +Rebellion of 1715. His first wife, Lady Margaret Hay, was a +daughter of Lord Kinnoull.</p> +<p><a name="footnote284b"></a><a href="#citation284b" +class="footnote">[284b]</a> Thomas Hay, sixth Earl of +Kinnoull (died 1719), a Commissioner for the Treaty of Union +between England and Scotland, and one of the Scotch +representative peers in the first Parliament of Great +Britain. His son and heir, Viscount Dupplin, afterwards +Baron Hay (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page30">30</a></span>), who married Harley’s +daughter Abigail, is often mentioned in the <i>Journal</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote284c"></a><a href="#citation284c" +class="footnote">[284c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page7">7</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote284d"></a><a href="#citation284d" +class="footnote">[284d]</a> The title of the pamphlet was, +<i>A New Journey to Paris</i>, <i>together with some Secret +Transactions between the French King and an English +Gentleman</i>. <i>By the Sieur du Baudrier. +Translated from the French</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote285a"></a><a href="#citation285a" +class="footnote">[285a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page97">97</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote285b"></a><a href="#citation285b" +class="footnote">[285b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page269">269</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote286"></a><a href="#citation286" +class="footnote">[286]</a> The Earl of Strafford (see p. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page170">170</a></span>) +married, on Sept. 6, 1711, Anne, only daughter and heiress of Sir +Henry Johnson, of Bradenham, Buckinghamshire, a wealthy +shipbuilder. Many of Lady Strafford’s letters to her +husband are given in the <i>Wentworth Papers</i>, 1883.</p> +<p><a name="footnote287a"></a><a href="#citation287a" +class="footnote">[287a]</a> Samuel Pratt, who was also +Clerk of the Closet.</p> +<p><a name="footnote287b"></a><a href="#citation287b" +class="footnote">[287b]</a> Alice Hill, woman of the +bed-chamber to the Queen, died in 1762.</p> +<p><a name="footnote288a"></a><a href="#citation288a" +class="footnote">[288a]</a> Enniscorthy, the name of a town +in the county of Wexford.</p> +<p><a name="footnote288b"></a><a href="#citation288b" +class="footnote">[288b]</a> Scrambling.</p> +<p><a name="footnote288c"></a><a href="#citation288c" +class="footnote">[288c]</a> “These words in italics +are written in strange, misshapen letters, inclining to the right +hand, in imitation of Stella’s writing” (Deane +Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote288d"></a><a href="#citation288d" +class="footnote">[288d]</a> Senior Fellow of Trinity +College, Dublin.</p> +<p><a name="footnote289a"></a><a href="#citation289a" +class="footnote">[289a]</a> John Pooley, appointed Bishop +of Raphoe in 1702.</p> +<p><a name="footnote289b"></a><a href="#citation289b" +class="footnote">[289b]</a> “These words in italics +are miserably scrawled, in imitation of Stella’s +hand” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote290a"></a><a href="#citation290a" +class="footnote">[290a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page54">54</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote290b"></a><a href="#citation290b" +class="footnote">[290b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page236">236</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote291a"></a><a href="#citation291a" +class="footnote">[291a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page74">74</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote291b"></a><a href="#citation291b" +class="footnote">[291b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page284">284</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote293a"></a><a href="#citation293a" +class="footnote">[293a]</a> Cf. the entry on the 11th (p. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page291">291</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote293b"></a><a href="#citation293b" +class="footnote">[293b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page34">34</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote294a"></a><a href="#citation294a" +class="footnote">[294a]</a> William, Lord Villiers, second +Earl of Jersey (died 1721), a strong Jacobite, had been M.P. for +Kent before his father’s death. He married, in 1704, +Judith, only daughter of a City merchant, Frederick Herne, son of +Sir Nathaniel Herne, Alderman; she died in 1735. Lord +Jersey, one of “the prettiest young peers in +England,” was a companion of Bolingbroke, and stories in +the <i>Wentworth Papers</i> (pp. 149, 230, 395, 445), show that +he had a bad reputation.</p> +<p><a name="footnote294b"></a><a href="#citation294b" +class="footnote">[294b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page269">269</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote295a"></a><a href="#citation295a" +class="footnote">[295a]</a> The name of Arbuthnot’s +wife is not known: she died in 1730.</p> +<p><a name="footnote295b"></a><a href="#citation295b" +class="footnote">[295b]</a> James Lovet, one of the +“Yeomen Porters” at Court.</p> +<p><a name="footnote296a"></a><a href="#citation296a" +class="footnote">[296a]</a> Richard Jones, Earl of +Ranelagh, who died without male issue in January 1712. +Writing to Archbishop King on Jan. 8, Swift said, “Lord +Ranelagh died on Sunday morning; he was very poor and needy, and +could hardly support himself for want of a pension which used to +be paid him.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote296b"></a><a href="#citation296b" +class="footnote">[296b]</a> Arabella Churchill, maid of +honour to the Duchess of York, and mistress of James <span +class="GutSmall">II</span>., afterwards married Colonel Charles +Godfrey, Clerk Comptroller of the Green Cloth and Master of the +Jewel Office. Her second son by James <span +class="GutSmall">II</span>. was created Duke of Albemarle.</p> +<p><a name="footnote297a"></a><a href="#citation297a" +class="footnote">[297a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page269">269</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote297b"></a><a href="#citation297b" +class="footnote">[297b]</a> The Lord Mayor and Sheriffs of +Dublin, elected in August 1711, “not being approved of by +the Government, the City was obliged to proceed to another +election, which occasioned a great ferment among the vulgar +sort” (Boyer, <i>Political State</i>, 1711, p. 500). +After two other persons had been elected and disapproved of, +Alderman Gore was elected Lord Mayor, and approved (<i>ib.</i> +pp. 612–17).</p> +<p><a name="footnote297c"></a><a href="#citation297c" +class="footnote">[297c]</a> “These words in italics +are written enormously large” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote297d"></a><a href="#citation297d" +class="footnote">[297d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page14">14</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote298"></a><a href="#citation298" +class="footnote">[298]</a> Henry Lowman, First Clerk of the +Kitchen.</p> +<p><a name="footnote299"></a><a href="#citation299" +class="footnote">[299]</a> “The Doctor was always a +bad reckoner, either of money or anything else; and this is one +of his rapid computations. For, as Stella was seven days in +journey, although Dr. Swift says only six, she might well have +spent four days at Inish-Corthy, and two nights at Mrs. +Proby’s mother’s, the distance from Wexford to Dublin +being but two easy days’ journey” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote300"></a><a href="#citation300" +class="footnote">[300]</a> Mrs. Fenton.</p> +<p><a name="footnote301"></a><a href="#citation301" +class="footnote">[301]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page86">86</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote302a"></a><a href="#citation302a" +class="footnote">[302a]</a> Charles Paulet, second Duke of +Bolton, was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1717, and +died in 1722. In a note on Macky’s character of the +Duke, Swift calls him “a great booby”; and Lady +Cowper (<i>Diary</i>, p. 154) says that he was generally to be +seen with his tongue lolling out of his mouth.</p> +<p><a name="footnote302b"></a><a href="#citation302b" +class="footnote">[302b]</a> Stella’s maid.</p> +<p><a name="footnote303a"></a><a href="#citation303a" +class="footnote">[303a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page106">106</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote303b"></a><a href="#citation303b" +class="footnote">[303b]</a> Colonel Fielding (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page154">154</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote304a"></a><a href="#citation304a" +class="footnote">[304a]</a> The envoys were Ménager +and the Abbé du Bois; the priest was the Abbé +Gaultier.</p> +<p><a name="footnote304b"></a><a href="#citation304b" +class="footnote">[304b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page170">170</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote304c"></a><a href="#citation304c" +class="footnote">[304c]</a> Sir Theophilus Oglethorpe, +General, who died in 1702, married Eleanor, daughter of Richard +Wall, of Rogane, Tipperary. She died in 1732, and Swift +described her as so “cunning a devil that she had great +influence as a reconciler of the differences at +Court.” One of her sons was General James Oglethorpe, +the philanthropist, and friend of Dr. Johnson.</p> +<p><a name="footnote305a"></a><a href="#citation305a" +class="footnote">[305a]</a> “Worrit,” trouble, +tease.</p> +<p><a name="footnote305b"></a><a href="#citation305b" +class="footnote">[305b]</a> Sir John Walter, Bart. (died +1722), was M.P. for the city of Oxford. He and Charles +Godfrey (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page296">296</a></span>) were the Clerks Comptrollers of +the Green Cloth.</p> +<p><a name="footnote306"></a><a href="#citation306" +class="footnote">[306]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page306">306</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote307a"></a><a href="#citation307a" +class="footnote">[307a]</a> No doubt one of the daughters +of Mervyn Tuchet, fourth Earl of Castlehaven, who died in +1686.</p> +<p><a name="footnote307b"></a><a href="#citation307b" +class="footnote">[307b]</a> Henrietta Maria, daughter of +Charles Scarborow (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page266">266</a></span>). She married, in 1712, Sir +Robert Jenkinson, Bart., M.P. for Oxfordshire, who died without +issue in 1717. See <i>Wentworth Papers</i>, 244.</p> +<p><a name="footnote307c"></a><a href="#citation307c" +class="footnote">[307c]</a> In July 1712 a Commission +passed empowering Conyers Darcy and George Fielding (an equerry +to the Queen) to execute the office of Master of the Horse.</p> +<p><a name="footnote307d"></a><a href="#citation307d" +class="footnote">[307d]</a> At Killibride, about four miles +from Trim.</p> +<p><a name="footnote308a"></a><a href="#citation308a" +class="footnote">[308a]</a> Swift’s +“mistress,” Lady Hyde (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page24">24</a></span>), whose +husband had become Earl of Rochester in May 1711. She was +forty-one in 1711.</p> +<p><a name="footnote308b"></a><a href="#citation308b" +class="footnote">[308b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page296">296</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote309a"></a><a href="#citation309a" +class="footnote">[309a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page287">287</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote309b"></a><a href="#citation309b" +class="footnote">[309b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page206">206</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote310a"></a><a href="#citation310a" +class="footnote">[310a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page262">262</a></span>, note +2.</p> +<p><a name="footnote310b"></a><a href="#citation310b" +class="footnote">[310b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page250">250</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote311a"></a><a href="#citation311a" +class="footnote">[311a]</a> “This happens to be the +only single line written upon the margin of any of his +journals. By some accident there was a margin about as +broad as the back of a razor, and therefore he made this use of +it” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote311b"></a><a href="#citation311b" +class="footnote">[311b]</a> Lieutenant-Colonel Barton, of +Colonel Kane’s regiment.</p> +<p><a name="footnote312a"></a><a href="#citation312a" +class="footnote">[312a]</a> A nickname for the High Church +party.</p> +<p><a name="footnote312b"></a><a href="#citation312b" +class="footnote">[312b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page284">284</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote312c"></a><a href="#citation312c" +class="footnote">[312c]</a> “From this pleasantry of +my Lord Oxford, the appellative Martinus Scriblerus took its +rise” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote312d"></a><a href="#citation312d" +class="footnote">[312d]</a> Cf. the <i>Imitation of the +Sixth Satire of the Second Book of Horace</i>, 1714, where Swift +says that, during their drives together, Harley would</p> + +<blockquote><p> “gravely +try to read the lines<br /> +Writ underneath the country signs.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="footnote313a"></a><a href="#citation313a" +class="footnote">[313a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page218">218</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote313b"></a><a href="#citation313b" +class="footnote">[313b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page170">170</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote313c"></a><a href="#citation313c" +class="footnote">[313c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page218">218</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote314a"></a><a href="#citation314a" +class="footnote">[314a]</a> Lord Pembroke (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page52">52</a></span>) married, in +1708, as his second wife, Barbara, Dowager Baroness Arundell of +Trerice, formerly widow of Sir Richard Mauleverer, and daughter +of Sir Thomas Slingsby. She died in 1722.</p> +<p><a name="footnote314b"></a><a href="#citation314b" +class="footnote">[314b]</a> Caleb Coatesworth, who died in +1741, leaving a large fortune.</p> +<p><a name="footnote314c"></a><a href="#citation314c" +class="footnote">[314c]</a> Abel Boyer, Whig journalist and +historian, attacked Swift in his pamphlet, <i>An Account of the +State and Progress of the Present Negotiations for +Peace</i>. Boyer says that he was released from custody by +Harley; and in the <i>Political State</i> for 1711 (p. 646) he +speaks of Swift as “a shameless and most contemptible +ecclesiastical turncoat, whose tongue is as <i>swift</i> to +revile as his mind is <i>swift</i> to change.” The +<i>Postboy</i> said that Boyer would “be prosecuted with +the utmost severity of the law” for this attack.</p> +<p><a name="footnote315a"></a><a href="#citation315a" +class="footnote">[315a]</a> The “Edgar.” +Four hundred men were killed.</p> +<p><a name="footnote315b"></a><a href="#citation315b" +class="footnote">[315b]</a> William Bretton, or Britton, +was made Lieutenant-Colonel in 1702, Colonel of a new Regiment of +Foot 1705, Brigadier-General 1710, and Colonel of the +King’s Own Borderers in April 1711 (Dalton, <i>Army +Lists</i>, iii. 238). In December 1711 he was appointed +Envoy Extraordinary to the King of Prussia (<i>Postboy</i>, Jan. +1, 1712), and he died in December 1714 or January 1715.</p> +<p><a name="footnote317a"></a><a href="#citation317a" +class="footnote">[317a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page229">229</a></span>, note +4.</p> +<p><a name="footnote317b"></a><a href="#citation317b" +class="footnote">[317b]</a> It is not clear which of +several Lady Gores is here referred to. It may be (1) the +wife of Sir William Gore, Bart., of Manor Gore, and Custos +Rotulorum, County Leitrim, who married Hannah, eldest daughter +and co-heir of James Hamilton, Esq., son of Sir Frederick +Hamilton, and niece of Gustavus Hamilton, created Viscount +Boyne. She died 1733. Or (2) the wife of Sir Ralph +Gore, Bart. (died 1732), M.P. for County Donegal, and afterwards +Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. He married Miss +Colville, daughter of Sir Robert Colville, of Newtown, Leitrim, +and, as his second wife, Elizabeth, only daughter of Dr. Ashe, +Bishop of Clogher. Or (3) the wife of Sir Arthur Gore, +Bart. (died 1727), of Newtown Gore, Mayo, who married Eleanor, +daughter of Sir George St. George, Bart., of Carrick, Leitrim, +and was ancestor of the Earls of Arran.</p> +<p><a name="footnote318"></a><a href="#citation318" +class="footnote">[318]</a> “Modern usage has +sanctioned Stella’s spelling” (Scott). +Swift’s spelling was “wast.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote320"></a><a href="#citation320" +class="footnote">[320]</a> Mrs. Manley.</p> +<p><a name="footnote321a"></a><a href="#citation321a" +class="footnote">[321a]</a> Swift’s own lines, +“Mrs. Frances Harris’s Petition.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote321b"></a><a href="#citation321b" +class="footnote">[321b]</a> Thomas Coote was a justice of +the Court of Queen’s Bench, in Ireland, from 1692 until his +removal in 1715.</p> +<p><a name="footnote321c"></a><a href="#citation321c" +class="footnote">[321c]</a> Probably a relative of Robert +Echlin, Dean of Tuam, who was killed by some of his own servants +in April 1712, at the age of seventy-three. His son John +became Prebendary and Vicar-General of Tuam, and died in 1764, +aged eighty-three. In August 1731 Bolingbroke sent Swift a +letter by the hands of “Mr. Echlin,” who would, he +said, tell Swift of the general state of things in England.</p> +<p><a name="footnote321d"></a><a href="#citation321d" +class="footnote">[321d]</a> “This column of words, as +they are corrected, is in Stella’s hand” (Deane +Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote323a"></a><a href="#citation323a" +class="footnote">[323a]</a> Swift’s verses, +“The Description of a Salamander,” are a scurrilous +attack on John, Lord Cutts (died 1707), who was famous for his +bravery. Joanna Cutts, the sister who complained of +Swift’s abuse, died unmarried.</p> +<p><a name="footnote323b"></a><a href="#citation323b" +class="footnote">[323b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page323">323</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote323c"></a><a href="#citation323c" +class="footnote">[323c]</a> Fourteen printers or publishers +were arrested, under warrants signed by St. John, for publishing +pamphlets directed against the Government. They appeared at +the Court of Queens Bench on Oct. 23, and were continued on their +own recognisances till the end of the term.</p> +<p><a name="footnote324a"></a><a href="#citation324a" +class="footnote">[324a]</a> Robert Benson (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page41">41</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote324b"></a><a href="#citation324b" +class="footnote">[324b]</a> “The South Sea +Whim,” printed in Scott’s <i>Swift</i>, ii. 398.</p> +<p><a name="footnote324c"></a><a href="#citation324c" +class="footnote">[324c]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page200">200</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page205">205</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page340">340</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote325a"></a><a href="#citation325a" +class="footnote">[325a]</a> Count Gallas was dismissed with +a message that he might depart from the kingdom when he thought +fit. He published the preliminaries of peace in the +<i>Daily Courant</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote325b"></a><a href="#citation325b" +class="footnote">[325b]</a> William, second Viscount +Hatton, who died without issue in 1760. His half-sister +Anne married Daniel Finch, second Earl of Nottingham, and Lord +Hatton was therefore uncle to his fellow-guest, Mr. Finch.</p> +<p><a name="footnote326a"></a><a href="#citation326a" +class="footnote">[326a]</a> Crinkle or contract. Gay +writes: “Showers soon drench the camblet’s cockled +grain.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote326b"></a><a href="#citation326b" +class="footnote">[326b]</a> The Countess of Jersey (see p. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page294">294</a></span>), +like her husband, was a friend of Bolingbroke’s. Lady +Strafford speaks of her having lately (November 1711) “been +in pickle for her sins,” at which she was not +surprised. Before the Earl succeeded to the title, Lady +Wentworth wrote to her son: “It’s said Lord Villors +Lady was worth fower scoar thoussand pd; you might have got her, +as wel as Lord Villors. . . . He [Lord Jersey] has not don +well by his son, the young lady is not yoused well as I hear +amongst them, which in my openion is not well.” +<i>Wentworth Papers</i> (pp. 214, 234).</p> +<p><a name="footnote329a"></a><a href="#citation329a" +class="footnote">[329a]</a> Cf. p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page66">66</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote329b"></a><a href="#citation329b" +class="footnote">[329b]</a> Charles Crow, appointed Bishop +of Cloyne in 1702.</p> +<p><a name="footnote330a"></a><a href="#citation330a" +class="footnote">[330a]</a> Swift.</p> +<p><a name="footnote330b"></a><a href="#citation330b" +class="footnote">[330b]</a> Mrs. Manley.</p> +<p><a name="footnote330c"></a><a href="#citation330c" +class="footnote">[330c]</a> The titles of these pamphlets +are as follows:—(1) <i>A True Narrative of . . . the +Examination of the Marquis de Guiscard</i>; (2) <i>Some Remarks +upon a Pamphlet entitled</i>, <i>A Letter to the Seven Lords</i>; +(3) <i>A New Journey to Paris</i>; (4) <i>The Duke of +Marlborough’s Vindication</i>; (5) <i>A Learned Comment on +Dr. Hare’s Sermon</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote331"></a><a href="#citation331" +class="footnote">[331]</a> See the pun on p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page329">329</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote332a"></a><a href="#citation332a" +class="footnote">[332a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page10">10</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote332b"></a><a href="#citation332b" +class="footnote">[332b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page97">97</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote333a"></a><a href="#citation333a" +class="footnote">[333a]</a> Pratt (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page5">5</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote333b"></a><a href="#citation333b" +class="footnote">[333b]</a> Stella and Dingley.</p> +<p><a name="footnote333c"></a><a href="#citation333c" +class="footnote">[333c]</a> <i>Noah’s Dove</i>, <i>an +Exhortation to Peace</i>, <i>set forth in a Sermon preached on +the Seventh of November</i>, 1710, <i>a Thanksgiving Day</i>, +<i>by Thomas Swift</i>, <i>A.M.</i>, <i>formerly Chaplain to Sir +William Temple</i>, <i>now Rector of Puttenham in +Surrey</i>. Thomas Swift was Swift’s “little +parson cousin” (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page225">225</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote333d"></a><a href="#citation333d" +class="footnote">[333d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page36">36</a></span>. The +book referred to is, apparently, <i>An Impartial Enquiry into the +Management of the War in Spain</i>, post-dated 1712.</p> +<p><a name="footnote334a"></a><a href="#citation334a" +class="footnote">[334a]</a> Lord Harley (afterwards second +Earl of Oxford) (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page30">30</a></span>) married, on Oct. 31, 1713, Lady +Henrietta Cavendish Holles, only daughter of John Holles, last +Duke of Newcastle of that family (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page257">257</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote334b"></a><a href="#citation334b" +class="footnote">[334b]</a> Bolingbroke afterwards said +that the great aim (at length accomplished) of Harley’s +administration was to marry his son to this young lady. +Swift wrote a poetical address to Lord Harley on his +marriage.</p> +<p><a name="footnote334c"></a><a href="#citation334c" +class="footnote">[334c]</a> Thomas Pelham, first Baron +Pelham, married, as his second wife, Lady Grace Holles, daughter +of the Earl of Clare and sister of the Duke of Newcastle. +Their eldest son, Thomas, who succeeded to the barony in 1712, +was afterwards created Earl of Clare and Duke of Newcastle,</p> +<p><a name="footnote335a"></a><a href="#citation335a" +class="footnote">[335a]</a> Francis Higgins, Rector of +Baldruddery, called “the Sacheverell of Ireland,” was +an extreme High Churchman, who had been charged with sedition on +account of sermons preached in London in 1707. In 1711 he +was again prosecuted as “a disloyal subject and disturber +of the public peace.” At that time he was Prebendary +of Christ Church, Dublin; in 1725 he was made Archdeacon of +Cashel.</p> +<p><a name="footnote335b"></a><a href="#citation335b" +class="footnote">[335b]</a> Swift’s pamphlet, <i>The +Conduct of the Allies</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote335c"></a><a href="#citation335c" +class="footnote">[335c]</a> Lord Oxford’s daughter +Abigail married, in 1709, Viscount Dupplin, afterwards seventh +Earl of Kinnoull (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page30">30</a></span>). She died in 1750, and her +husband in 1758, when the eldest son, Thomas, became Earl. +The second son, Robert, was made Archbishop of York in 1761.</p> +<p><a name="footnote335d"></a><a href="#citation335d" +class="footnote">[335d]</a> Kensington Gravel Pits was then +a famous health resort.</p> +<p><a name="footnote336a"></a><a href="#citation336a" +class="footnote">[336a]</a> Draggled. Pope has, +“A puppy, daggled through the town.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote336b"></a><a href="#citation336b" +class="footnote">[336b]</a> Writing of Peperharrow, Manning +and Bray state (<i>Surrey</i>, ii. 32, 47) that Oxenford Grange +was conveyed to Philip Froud (died 1736) in 1700, and was sold by +him in 1713 to Alan Broderick, afterwards Viscount +Midleton. This Froud (Swift’s “old +Frowde”) had been Deputy Postmaster-General; he was son of +Sir Philip Frowde, who was knighted in 1665 (Le Neve’s +<i>Knights</i>, Harleian Society, p. 190), and his son Philip was +Addison’s friend (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page58">58</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote336c"></a><a href="#citation336c" +class="footnote">[336c]</a> Probably the Charles Child, +Esq., of Farnham, whose death is recorded in the +<i>Gentleman’s Magazine</i> for 1754.</p> +<p><a name="footnote337"></a><a href="#citation337" +class="footnote">[337]</a> Grace Spencer was probably Mrs. +Proby’s sister (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page176">176</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page202">202</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote338a"></a><a href="#citation338a" +class="footnote">[338a]</a> Cf. Shakespeare, <i>As You Like +It</i>, v. 3: “Shall we clap into ’t roundly, without +hawking or spitting, which are the only prologues to a bad +voice?”</p> +<p><a name="footnote338b"></a><a href="#citation338b" +class="footnote">[338b]</a> In the “Verses on his own +Death,” 1731, Swift says</p> +<blockquote><p>“When daily howd’y’s come of +course,<br /> +And servants answer, ‘Worse and worse!’”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Cf. Steele (<i>Tatler</i>, No. 109), “After so many +howdies, you proceed to visit or not, as you like the run of each +other’s reputation or fortune,” and +(<i>Spectator</i>, No. 143), “the howd’ye servants of +our women.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote341a"></a><a href="#citation341a" +class="footnote">[341a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page304">304</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote341b"></a><a href="#citation341b" +class="footnote">[341b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page132">132</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote341c"></a><a href="#citation341c" +class="footnote">[341c]</a> The Tories alleged that the +Duke of Marlborough, the Duke of Montagu, Steele, etc., were to +take part in the procession (cf. <i>Spectator</i>, No. +269). Swift admits that the images seized were worth less +than £40, and not £1000, as he had said, and that the +Devil was not like Harley; yet he employed someone to write a +lying pamphlet, <i>A True Relation of the Several Facts and +Circumstances of the Intended Riot and Tumult</i>, etc.</p> +<p><a name="footnote343a"></a><a href="#citation343a" +class="footnote">[343a]</a> A brother of Jemmy Leigh (see +p. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page6">6</a></span>), and +one of Stella’s card-playing acquaintances.</p> +<p><a name="footnote343b"></a><a href="#citation343b" +class="footnote">[343b]</a> Of <i>The Conduct of the +Allies</i> (see pp. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page335">335</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page345">345</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote344a"></a><a href="#citation344a" +class="footnote">[344a]</a> Sir Thomas Hanmer (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page69">69</a></span>) married, in +1698, Isabella, widow of the first Duke of Grafton, and only +daughter and heiress of Henry, Earl of Arlington. She died +in 1723.</p> +<p><a name="footnote344b"></a><a href="#citation344b" +class="footnote">[344b]</a> James, Duke of Hamilton (see p. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page262">262</a></span>), +married, in 1698, as his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter and +sole heir of Digby, Lord Gerard. She died in 1744.</p> +<p><a name="footnote345a"></a><a href="#citation345a" +class="footnote">[345a]</a> <i>The Conduct of the +Allies</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote345b"></a><a href="#citation345b" +class="footnote">[345b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page238">238</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote346a"></a><a href="#citation346a" +class="footnote">[346a]</a> Sir Matthew Dudley (see p. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page7">7</a></span>) married +Lady Mary O’Bryen, youngest daughter of Henry, Earl of +Thomond.</p> +<p><a name="footnote346b"></a><a href="#citation346b" +class="footnote">[346b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page305">305</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote346c"></a><a href="#citation346c" +class="footnote">[346c]</a> Sir John St. Leger (died 1743) +was M.P. for Doneraile and a Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland +from 1714 to 1741. His elder brother, Arthur, was created +Viscount Doneraile in 1703.</p> +<p><a name="footnote346d"></a><a href="#citation346d" +class="footnote">[346d]</a> <i>Relation of the Facts and +Circumstances of the Intended Riot on Queen Elizabeth’s +Birthday</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote346e"></a><a href="#citation346e" +class="footnote">[346e]</a> <i>The Conduct of the +Allies</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote346f"></a><a href="#citation346f" +class="footnote">[346f]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page73">73</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote347a"></a><a href="#citation347a" +class="footnote">[347a]</a> The first motto was +“Partem tibi Gallia nostri eripuit,” etc. +(Horace, 2 Od. 17–24).</p> +<p><a name="footnote347b"></a><a href="#citation347b" +class="footnote">[347b]</a> See Plautus’s +<i>Amphitrus</i>, or Dryden’s <i>Amphitryon</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote347c"></a><a href="#citation347c" +class="footnote">[347c]</a> It is not known whether or no +this was Dr. William Savage, Master of Emmanuel College, +Cambridge. No copy of the sermon—if it was +printed—has been found. See Courtenay’s +<i>Memoirs of Sir William Temple</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote347d"></a><a href="#citation347d" +class="footnote">[347d]</a> Of <i>The Conduct of the +Allies</i>, a pamphlet which had a very wide circulation. +See a paper by Edward Solly in the <i>Antiquarian Magazine</i>, +March 1885.</p> +<p><a name="footnote348a"></a><a href="#citation348a" +class="footnote">[348a]</a> Allen Bathurst, M.P. +(1684–1775), created Baron Bathurst in December 1711, and +Earl Bathurst in 1772. His second and eldest surviving son +was appointed Lord Chancellor in the year preceding the +father’s death. Writing to her son in January 1711 +(<i>Wentworth Papers</i>, 173), Lady Wentworth said of Bathurst, +“He is, next to you, the finest gentleman and the best +young man I know; I love him dearly.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote348b"></a><a href="#citation348b" +class="footnote">[348b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page72">72</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote348c"></a><a href="#citation348c" +class="footnote">[348c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page153">153</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote348d"></a><a href="#citation348d" +class="footnote">[348d]</a> Swift is alluding to the +quarrel between Lord Santry (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page215">215</a></span>) and Francis Higgins (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page335">335</a></span>), which led +to Higgins’s prosecution. The matter is described at +length in Boyer’s <i>Political State</i>, 1711, pp. 617 +seq.</p> +<p><a name="footnote348e"></a><a href="#citation348e" +class="footnote">[348e]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page176">176</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote349a"></a><a href="#citation349a" +class="footnote">[349a]</a> No doubt the same as Colonel +Newburgh (see <i>Journal</i>, March 5, 1711–12).</p> +<p><a name="footnote349b"></a><a href="#citation349b" +class="footnote">[349b]</a> Beaumont (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page1">1</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page250">250</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote349c"></a><a href="#citation349c" +class="footnote">[349c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page301">301</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote350"></a><a href="#citation350" +class="footnote">[350]</a> Cf. p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page144">144</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote351a"></a><a href="#citation351a" +class="footnote">[351a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page341">341</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote351b"></a><a href="#citation351b" +class="footnote">[351b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page336">336</a></span>. +Debtors could not be arrested on Sunday.</p> +<p><a name="footnote352a"></a><a href="#citation352a" +class="footnote">[352a]</a> Sir George Pretyman, Bart., +dissipated the fortune of the family. The title became +dormant in 1749.</p> +<p><a name="footnote352b"></a><a href="#citation352b" +class="footnote">[352b]</a> See the Introduction.</p> +<p><a name="footnote352c"></a><a href="#citation352c" +class="footnote">[352c]</a> For the Whites of Farnham, see +Manning and Bray’s <i>Surrey</i>, iii. 177.</p> +<p><a name="footnote352d"></a><a href="#citation352d" +class="footnote">[352d]</a> <i>The Conduct of the +Allies</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote352e"></a><a href="#citation352e" +class="footnote">[352e]</a> The Percevals were among +Swift’s principal friends in the neighbourhood of +Laracor. In a letter to John Temple in 1706 +(Forster’s <i>Life of Swift</i>, 182) Swift alludes to +Perceval; in spite of different views in politics, “I +always loved him,” says Swift, “very well as a man of +very good understanding and humour.” Perceval was +related to Sir John Perceval, afterwards Earl of Egmont (see p. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page175">175</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote353a"></a><a href="#citation353a" +class="footnote">[353a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page2">2</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote353b"></a><a href="#citation353b" +class="footnote">[353b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page58">58</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote354a"></a><a href="#citation354a" +class="footnote">[354a]</a> The <i>Examiner</i> was resumed +on Dec. 6, 1711, under Oldisworth’s editorship, and was +continued by him until July 1714.</p> +<p><a name="footnote354b"></a><a href="#citation354b" +class="footnote">[354b]</a> Daniel Finch, second Earl of +Nottingham, a staunch Tory, had quarrelled with the Government +and the Court. On Dec. 7, 1711, he carried, by six votes, +an amendment to the Address, to the effect that no peace would be +acceptable which left Spain in the possession of the House of +Bourbon. Harley’s counter-stroke was the creation of +twelve new peers. The Whigs rewarded Nottingham by +withdrawing their opposition to the Occasional Conformity +Bill:</p> +<p><a name="footnote354c"></a><a href="#citation354c" +class="footnote">[354c]</a> This “Song” +begins:</p> +<blockquote><p>“An orator dismal of Nottinghamshire,<br /> +Who had forty years let out his conscience for hire.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="footnote355"></a><a href="#citation355" +class="footnote">[355]</a> <i>The Conduct of the +Allies</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote356"></a><a href="#citation356" +class="footnote">[356]</a> Robert Bertie, Lord Willoughby +de Eresby, and fourth Earl of Lindsey, was created Marquis of +Lindsay in 1706, and Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven in 1715. +He died in 1723.</p> +<p><a name="footnote357a"></a><a href="#citation357a" +class="footnote">[357a]</a> Lady Sunderland (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page267">267</a></span>) and Lady +Rialton, ladies of the bed-chamber to the Queen.</p> +<p><a name="footnote357b"></a><a href="#citation357b" +class="footnote">[357b]</a> Hugh Cholmondeley (died 1724), +the second Viscount, was created Viscount Malpas and Earl of +Cholmondeley in 1706, and in 1708 was appointed Treasurer of Her +Majesty’s Household, an office which he held until 1713, in +spite of his Whig sympathies. “Good for nothing, so +far as ever I knew,” Swift wrote of him.</p> +<p><a name="footnote357c"></a><a href="#citation357c" +class="footnote">[357c]</a> Prov. xxv. 3.</p> +<p><a name="footnote360a"></a><a href="#citation360a" +class="footnote">[360a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page304">304</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote360b"></a><a href="#citation360b" +class="footnote">[360b]</a> Thomas Parker, afterwards +created Earl of Macclesfield, was appointed Lord Chief-Justice in +March 1710. In September 1711 he declined Harley’s +offer of the Lord Chancellorship, a post which he accepted under +a Whig Government in the next reign.</p> +<p><a name="footnote361"></a><a href="#citation361" +class="footnote">[361]</a> The Bill against Occasional +Conformity.</p> +<p><a name="footnote362"></a><a href="#citation362" +class="footnote">[362]</a> The proposed visit to London of +Prince Eugene of Savoy, the renowned General, and friend of +Marlborough, was viewed by the Government with considerable +alarm.</p> +<p><a name="footnote363"></a><a href="#citation363" +class="footnote">[363]</a> Swift’s “An +excellent new Song; being the intended Speech of a famous orator +against Peace,” a ballad “two degrees above Grub +Street” (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page354">354</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote364a"></a><a href="#citation364a" +class="footnote">[364a]</a> Robert Walpole was then M.P. +for King’s Lynn, and Leader of the Opposition in the House +of Commons. He had been Secretary at War from February 1708 +to September 1710, and the Commissioners of Public Accounts +having reported, on Dec. 21, 1711, that he had been guilty of +venality and corruption, he was expelled from the House of +Commons, and taken to the Tower.</p> +<p><a name="footnote364b"></a><a href="#citation364b" +class="footnote">[364b]</a> William King, D.C.L., author of +the <i>Journey to London in 1698</i>, <i>Dialogues of the +Dead</i>, <i>The Art of Cookery</i>, and other amusing works, +was, at the end of the month, appointed Gazetteer, in succession +to Steele, on Swift’s recommendation. Writing earlier +in the year, Gay said that King deserved better than to +“languish out the small remainder of his life in the Fleet +Prison.” The duties of Gazetteer were too much for +his easy-going nature and failing health, and he resigned the +post in July 1712. He died in the following December.</p> +<p><a name="footnote364c"></a><a href="#citation364c" +class="footnote">[364c]</a> At the bottom of St. +James’s Street, on the west side.</p> +<p><a name="footnote365"></a><a href="#citation365" +class="footnote">[365]</a> The Rev. John Shower, pastor of +the Presbyterian Congregation at Curriers’ Hall, London +Wall.</p> +<p><a name="footnote366a"></a><a href="#citation366a" +class="footnote">[366a]</a> <i>The Windsor Prophecy</i>, in +which the Duchess of Somerset (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page162">162</a></span>) is +attacked as “Carrots from Northumberland.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote366b"></a><a href="#citation366b" +class="footnote">[366b]</a> <i>Merlin’s Prophecy</i>, +1709, written in pseudo-mediæval English.</p> +<p><a name="footnote366c"></a><a href="#citation366c" +class="footnote">[366c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page10">10</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote367a"></a><a href="#citation367a" +class="footnote">[367a]</a> Dorothy, daughter of Sir Edward +Leach, of Shipley, Derbyshire.</p> +<p><a name="footnote367b"></a><a href="#citation367b" +class="footnote">[367b]</a> Sir James Long, Bart. (died +1729), was at this time M.P. for Chippenham.</p> +<p><a name="footnote367c"></a><a href="#citation367c" +class="footnote">[367c]</a> The number containing this +paragraph is not in the British Museum.</p> +<p><a name="footnote368a"></a><a href="#citation368a" +class="footnote">[368a]</a> Joseph Beaumont (see pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page1">1</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page250">250</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page349">349</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote368b"></a><a href="#citation368b" +class="footnote">[368b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page19">19</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote368c"></a><a href="#citation368c" +class="footnote">[368c]</a> Apparently a misprint for +“whether.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote369a"></a><a href="#citation369a" +class="footnote">[369a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page321">321</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote369b"></a><a href="#citation369b" +class="footnote">[369b]</a> James Compton, afterwards fifth +Earl of Northampton (died 1754), was summoned to the House of +Lords as Baron Compton in December 1711. Charles Bruce, who +succeeded his father as third Earl of Aylesbury in 1741, was +created Lord Bruce, of Whorlton, at the same time.</p> +<p><a name="footnote370"></a><a href="#citation370" +class="footnote">[370]</a> James, Lord Compton, eldest son +of the Earl of Northampton; Charles, Lord Bruce, eldest son of +the Earl of Aylesbury; Henry Paget, son of Lord Paget; George +Hay, Viscount Dupplin, the son-in-law of the Lord Treasurer, +created Baron Hay; Viscount Windsor, created Baron Montjoy; Sir +Thomas Mansel, Baron Mansel; Sir Thomas Willoughby, Baron +Middleton; Sir Thomas Trevor, Baron Trevor; George Granville, +Baron Lansdowne; Samuel Masham, Baron Masham; Thomas Foley, Baron +Foley; and Allen Bathurst, Baron Bathurst.</p> +<p><a name="footnote371a"></a><a href="#citation371a" +class="footnote">[371a]</a> Juliana, widow of the second +Earl of Burlington, and daughter of the Hon. Henry Noel, was +Mistress of the Robes to Queen Anne. She died in 1750, aged +seventy-eight.</p> +<p><a name="footnote371b"></a><a href="#citation371b" +class="footnote">[371b]</a> Thomas Windsor, Viscount +Windsor (died 1738), an Irish peer, who had served under William +<span class="GutSmall">III</span>. in Flanders, was created Baron +Montjoy, of the Isle of Wight, in December 1711. He married +Charlotte, widow of John, Baron Jeffries, of Wem, and daughter of +Philip Herbert, Earl of Pembroke.</p> +<p><a name="footnote372a"></a><a href="#citation372a" +class="footnote">[372a]</a> The Hon. Russell Robartes, +brother of Lord Radnor (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page8">8</a></span>), was Teller of the Exchequer, and +M.P. for Bodmin. His son became third Earl of Radnor in +1723.</p> +<p><a name="footnote372b"></a><a href="#citation372b" +class="footnote">[372b]</a> Gay (<i>Trivia</i>, ii. 92) +speaks of “the slabby pavement.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote373"></a><a href="#citation373" +class="footnote">[373]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page158">158</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote374a"></a><a href="#citation374a" +class="footnote">[374a]</a> George Granville (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page130">130</a></span>), now Baron +Lansdowne, married Lady Mary Thynne, widow of Thomas Thynne, and +daughter of Edward, Earl of Jersey (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page281">281</a></span>). In +October 1710 Lady Wentworth wrote to her son, “Pray, my +dear, why will you let Lady Mary Thynne go? She is young, +rich, and not unhandsome, some say she is pretty; and a virtuous +lady, and of the nobility, and why will you not try to get +her?” (<i>Wentworth Papers</i>, 149).</p> +<p><a name="footnote374b"></a><a href="#citation374b" +class="footnote">[374b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page225">225</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote375"></a><a href="#citation375" +class="footnote">[375]</a> Harness.</p> +<p><a name="footnote377a"></a><a href="#citation377a" +class="footnote">[377a]</a> On his birthday Swift read the +third chapter of Job.</p> +<p><a name="footnote377b"></a><a href="#citation377b" +class="footnote">[377b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page329">329</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote377c"></a><a href="#citation377c" +class="footnote">[377c]</a> Sir George St. George of +Dunmore, Co. Galway, M.P. for Co. Leitrim from 1661 to 1692, and +afterwards for Co. Galway, died in December 1711.</p> +<p><a name="footnote378a"></a><a href="#citation378a" +class="footnote">[378a]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page305">305</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page346">346</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote378b"></a><a href="#citation378b" +class="footnote">[378b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page20">20</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote378c"></a><a href="#citation378c" +class="footnote">[378c]</a> Dr. Pratt (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page5">5</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote378d"></a><a href="#citation378d" +class="footnote">[378d]</a> <i>King Henry VIII.</i>, act +iv. sc. 2; “An old man broken with the storms,” +etc.</p> +<p><a name="footnote379"></a><a href="#citation379" +class="footnote">[379]</a> “These words in the +manuscript imitate Stella’s writing, and are sloped the +wrong way” (Deane Swift),</p> +<p><a name="footnote380a"></a><a href="#citation380a" +class="footnote">[380a]</a> Archibald Douglas, third +Marquis of Douglas, was created Duke of Douglas in 1703. He +died, without issue, in 1761.</p> +<p><a name="footnote380b"></a><a href="#citation380b" +class="footnote">[380b]</a> Arbuthnot and Freind.</p> +<p><a name="footnote381"></a><a href="#citation381" +class="footnote">[381]</a> Sir Stephen Evance, goldsmith, +was knighted in 1690.</p> +<p><a name="footnote382"></a><a href="#citation382" +class="footnote">[382]</a> Because of the refusal of the +House of Lords to allow the Duke of Hamilton (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page262">262</a></span>), a +Scottish peer who had been raised to the peerage of Great Britain +as Duke of Brandon, to sit under that title. The Scottish +peers discontinued their attendance at the House until the +resolution was partially amended; and the Duke of Hamilton always +sat as a representative Scottish peer.</p> +<p><a name="footnote383"></a><a href="#citation383" +class="footnote">[383]</a> Sir William Robinson +(1655–1736), created a baronet in 1689, was M.P. for York +from 1697 to 1722. His descendants include the late Earl De +Grey and the Marquis of Ripon.</p> +<p><a name="footnote384"></a><a href="#citation384" +class="footnote">[384]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page152">152</a></span>. The +full title was, <i>Some Advice humbly offered to the Members of +the October Club</i>, <i>in a Letter from a Person of +Honour</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote385a"></a><a href="#citation385a" +class="footnote">[385a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page377">377</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote385b"></a><a href="#citation385b" +class="footnote">[385b]</a> “It is the last of the +page, and written close to the edge of the paper” (Deane +Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote385c"></a><a href="#citation385c" +class="footnote">[385c]</a> Henry Somerset, second Duke of +Beaufort. In September 1711 the Duke—who was then +only twenty-seven—married, as his third wife, Mary, +youngest daughter of the Duke of Leeds. In the following +January Lady Strafford wrote, “The Duke and Duchess of +Beaufort are the fondest of one another in the world; I fear +’tis too hot to hold. . . . I own I fancy people may +love one another as well without making so great a +rout” (<i>Wentworth Papers</i>, 256). The Duke +died in 1714, at the age of thirty.</p> +<p><a name="footnote386a"></a><a href="#citation386a" +class="footnote">[386a]</a> “Upon the 10th and 17th +of this month the <i>Examiner</i> was very severe upon the Duke +of Marlborough, and in consequence of this report pursued him +with greater virulence in the following course of his +papers” (Deane Swift).</p> +<p><a name="footnote386b"></a><a href="#citation386b" +class="footnote">[386b]</a> A term of execration. +Scott (<i>Kenilworth</i>) has, “A pize on it.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote387a"></a><a href="#citation387a" +class="footnote">[387a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page89">89</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote387b"></a><a href="#citation387b" +class="footnote">[387b]</a> In a letter to Swift of Jan. +31, 1712, Sacheverell, after expressing his indebtedness to St. +John and Harley, said, “For yourself, good Doctor, who was +the first spring to move it, I can never sufficiently acknowledge +the obligation,” and in a postscript he hinted that a place +in the Custom House which he heard was vacant might suit his +brother.</p> +<p><a name="footnote387c"></a><a href="#citation387c" +class="footnote">[387c]</a> Thomas Yalden, D.D., +(1671–1736), Addison’s college friend, succeeded +Atterbury as preacher of Bridewell Hospital in 1713. In +1723 he was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the +Atterbury plot.</p> +<p><a name="footnote387d"></a><a href="#citation387d" +class="footnote">[387d]</a> Tablets.</p> +<p><a name="footnote388a"></a><a href="#citation388a" +class="footnote">[388a]</a> Sir Solomon de Medina, a Jew, +was knighted in 1700.</p> +<p><a name="footnote388b"></a><a href="#citation388b" +class="footnote">[388b]</a> Davenant had been said to be +the writer of papers which Swift contributed to the +<i>Examiner</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote389a"></a><a href="#citation389a" +class="footnote">[389a]</a> Henry Withers, a friend of +“Duke” Disney (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page153">153</a></span>), was appointed Lieutenant-General +in 1707, and Major-General in 1712. On his death in 1729 he +was buried in Westminster Abbey.</p> +<p><a name="footnote389b"></a><a href="#citation389b" +class="footnote">[389b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page360">360</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote390"></a><a href="#citation390" +class="footnote">[390]</a> Dyer’s <i>News Letter</i>, +the favourite reading of Sir Roger de Coverley (<i>Spectator</i>, +No. 127), was the work of John Dyer, a Jacobite journalist. +In the <i>Tatler</i> (No. 18) Addison says that Dyer was +“justly looked upon by all the fox-hunters in the nation as +the greatest statesman our country has produced.” +Lord Chief-Justice Holt referred to the <i>News Letter</i> as +“a little scandalous paper of a scandalous author” +(Howell’s <i>State Trials</i>, xiv. 1150).</p> +<p><a name="footnote391"></a><a href="#citation391" +class="footnote">[391]</a> Dr. John Sharp, made Archbishop +of York in 1691, was called by Swift “the harmless tool of +others’ hate.” Swift believed that Sharp, owing +to his dislike of <i>The Tale of a Tub</i>, assisted in +preventing the bishopric of Hereford being offered to him. +Sharp was an excellent preacher, with a taste for both poetry and +science.</p> +<p><a name="footnote392a"></a><a href="#citation392a" +class="footnote">[392a]</a> An edition of the Countess +d’Aulnoy’s <i>Les Contes des Fées</i> appeared +in 1710, in four volumes.</p> +<p><a name="footnote392b"></a><a href="#citation392b" +class="footnote">[392b]</a> Francis Godolphin, Viscount +Rialton, the eldest son of Sidney, Earl of Godolphin, succeeded +his father as second Earl on Sept. 15, 1712. He held 3 +various offices, including that of Lord Privy Seal +(1735–1740), and died in 1766, aged eighty-eight. He +married, in 1698, Lady Henrietta Churchill, who afterwards was +Duchess of Marlborough in her own right. She died in +1733.</p> +<p><a name="footnote392c"></a><a href="#citation392c" +class="footnote">[392c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page256">256</a></span>. +Ladies of the bed-chamber received £1000 a year.</p> +<p><a name="footnote392d"></a><a href="#citation392d" +class="footnote">[392d]</a> William O’Brien, third +Earl of Inchiquin, succeeded his father in 1691, and died in +1719.</p> +<p><a name="footnote393a"></a><a href="#citation393a" +class="footnote">[393a]</a> Lady Catherine Hyde was an +unmarried daughter of Laurence Hyde, first Earl of Rochester (see +p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page60">60</a></span>). Notwithstanding +Swift’s express statement that the lady to whom he here +refers was the late Earl’s daughter, and the allusion to +her sister, Lady Dalkeith, in Letter 60, note 26, she has been +confused by previous editors with her niece, Lady Catherine Hyde +(see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page256">256</a></span>), daughter of the second Earl, and +afterwards Duchess of Queensberry. That lady, not long +afterwards to be celebrated by Prior, was a child under twelve +when Swift wrote.</p> +<p><a name="footnote393b"></a><a href="#citation393b" +class="footnote">[393b]</a> Sir John Trevor +(1637–1717), formerly Speaker of the House of Commons.</p> +<p><a name="footnote393c"></a><a href="#citation393c" +class="footnote">[393c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page97">97</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote393d"></a><a href="#citation393d" +class="footnote">[393d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page335">335</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote393e"></a><a href="#citation393e" +class="footnote">[393e]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page215">215</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote393f"></a><a href="#citation393f" +class="footnote">[393f]</a> Charles Trimnel, made Bishop of +Norwich in 1708, and Bishop of Winchester in 1721, was strongly +opposed to High Church doctrines.</p> +<p><a name="footnote394a"></a><a href="#citation394a" +class="footnote">[394a]</a> Jibe or jest.</p> +<p><a name="footnote394b"></a><a href="#citation394b" +class="footnote">[394b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page206">206</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote394c"></a><a href="#citation394c" +class="footnote">[394c]</a> The treaty concluded with +Holland in 1711.</p> +<p><a name="footnote395a"></a><a href="#citation395a" +class="footnote">[395a]</a> Feb. 2 is the Purification of +the Virgin Mary.</p> +<p><a name="footnote395b"></a><a href="#citation395b" +class="footnote">[395b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page284">284</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote396"></a><a href="#citation396" +class="footnote">[396]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page99">99</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote397a"></a><a href="#citation397a" +class="footnote">[397a]</a> Lady Mary Butler (see pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page14">14</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page44">44</a></span>), daughter of +the Duke of Ormond, who married, in 1710, John, third Lord +Ashburnham, afterwards Earl of Ashburnham.</p> +<p><a name="footnote397b"></a><a href="#citation397b" +class="footnote">[397b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page4">4</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote397c"></a><a href="#citation397c" +class="footnote">[397c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page357">357</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote397d"></a><a href="#citation397d" +class="footnote">[397d]</a> Scroop Egerton, fifth Earl and +first Duke of Bridgewater, married, in 1703, Lady Elizabeth +Churchill, third daughter of the Duke of Marlborough. She +died in 1714, aged twenty-six.</p> +<p><a name="footnote397e"></a><a href="#citation397e" +class="footnote">[397e]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page294">294</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote398a"></a><a href="#citation398a" +class="footnote">[398a]</a> Heart.</p> +<p><a name="footnote398b"></a><a href="#citation398b" +class="footnote">[398b]</a> Edward Fowler, D.D., appointed +Bishop of Gloucester in 1691, died in 1714.</p> +<p><a name="footnote399a"></a><a href="#citation399a" +class="footnote">[399a]</a> Isaac Manley (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page7">7</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote399b"></a><a href="#citation399b" +class="footnote">[399b]</a> This letter, the first of the +series published by Hawkesworth, of which we have the originals +(see Preface), was addressed “To Mrs. Johnson at her +Lodgings over against St. Mary’s Church, near Capell +Street, Dublin, Ireland”; and was endorsed by her +“Recd. Mar. 1st.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote400a"></a><a href="#citation400a" +class="footnote">[400a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page85">85</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote400b"></a><a href="#citation400b" +class="footnote">[400b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page116">116</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote400c"></a><a href="#citation400c" +class="footnote">[400c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page215">215</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote400d"></a><a href="#citation400d" +class="footnote">[400d]</a> Charles Ross, son of the +eleventh Baron Ross, was Colonel of the Royal Irish Dragoons from +1695 to 1705. He was a Lieutenant-General under the Duke of +Ormond in Flanders, and died in 1732 (Dalton, ii. 212, iii. +34).</p> +<p><a name="footnote400e"></a><a href="#citation400e" +class="footnote">[400e]</a> Charles Paulet, Marquis of +Winchester, succeeded his father (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page302">302</a></span>) as third +Duke of Bolton in 1722. He married, as his second wife, +Lavinia Fenton, the actress who took the part of Polly Peacham in +Gay’s <i>Beggars Opera</i> in 1728, and he died in +1754.</p> +<p><a name="footnote401a"></a><a href="#citation401a" +class="footnote">[401a]</a> John Blith, or Bligh, son of +the Right Hon. Thomas Bligh, M.P. of Rathmore, Co. Meath (see p. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page22">22</a></span>). +In August 1713 he married Lady Theodosia Hyde, daughter of +Edward, third Earl of Clarendon. Lord Berkeley of Stratton +wrote, “Lady Theodosia Hyde . . . is married to an Irish +Mr. Blythe, of a good estate, who will soon have enough of her, +if I can give any guess” (<i>Wentworth Papers</i>, +353). In 1715 Bligh was made Baron Clifton, of Rathmore, +and Earl of Darnley in 1725. He died in 1728.</p> +<p><a name="footnote401b"></a><a href="#citation401b" +class="footnote">[401b]</a> Obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote401c"></a><a href="#citation401c" +class="footnote">[401c]</a> Word obliterated; probably +“found.” Forster reads “oors, dee +MD.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote401d"></a><a href="#citation401d" +class="footnote">[401d]</a> Words obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote401e"></a><a href="#citation401e" +class="footnote">[401e]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page86">86</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page301">301</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote401f"></a><a href="#citation401f" +class="footnote">[401f]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page73">73</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page192">192</a></span>–3.</p> +<p><a name="footnote402a"></a><a href="#citation402a" +class="footnote">[402a]</a> Words obliterated. +Forster reads “fourth. Euge, euge, euge.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote402b"></a><a href="#citation402b" +class="footnote">[402b]</a> Words obliterated; one +illegible.</p> +<p><a name="footnote402c"></a><a href="#citation402c" +class="footnote">[402c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page5">5</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote402d"></a><a href="#citation402d" +class="footnote">[402d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page2">2</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote402e"></a><a href="#citation402e" +class="footnote">[402e]</a> Service.</p> +<p><a name="footnote402f"></a><a href="#citation402f" +class="footnote">[402f]</a> “Aplon”—if +this is the right word—means, of course, apron—the +apron referred to on p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page389">389</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote402g"></a><a href="#citation402g" +class="footnote">[402g]</a> Words obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote403a"></a><a href="#citation403a" +class="footnote">[403a]</a> As the son of a +“brother” of the Club.</p> +<p><a name="footnote403b"></a><a href="#citation403b" +class="footnote">[403b]</a> The Archbishop, Dr. King.</p> +<p><a name="footnote403c"></a><a href="#citation403c" +class="footnote">[403c]</a> See Tacitus, <i>Annals</i>, +book ii. Cn. Calpurnius Piso, who was said to have poisoned +Germanicus, was found with his throat cut.</p> +<p><a name="footnote403d"></a><a href="#citation403d" +class="footnote">[403d]</a> This satire on Marlborough +concludes—</p> +<blockquote><p>“And Midas now neglected stands,<br /> +With asses’ ears and dirty hands.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="footnote404a"></a><a href="#citation404a" +class="footnote">[404a]</a> Dr. Robinson, Bishop of +Bristol.</p> +<p><a name="footnote404b"></a><a href="#citation404b" +class="footnote">[404b]</a> <i>Some Remarks on the Barrier +Treaty</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote405a"></a><a href="#citation405a" +class="footnote">[405a]</a> Several words are +obliterated. Forster reads “MD MD, for we must always +write to MD MD MD, awake or asleep;” but the passage is +illegible.</p> +<p><a name="footnote405b"></a><a href="#citation405b" +class="footnote">[405b]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page95">95</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page517">517</a></span>–8.</p> +<p><a name="footnote405c"></a><a href="#citation405c" +class="footnote">[405c]</a> A long erasure. Forster +reads “Go to bed. Help pdfr. Rove pdfr. +MD MD. Nite darling rogues.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote405d"></a><a href="#citation405d" +class="footnote">[405d]</a> Word obliterated. Forster +reads “saucy.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote405e"></a><a href="#citation405e" +class="footnote">[405e]</a> Letter from.</p> +<p><a name="footnote406a"></a><a href="#citation406a" +class="footnote">[406a]</a> Words partially +obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote406b"></a><a href="#citation406b" +class="footnote">[406b]</a> Swift wrote by mistake, +“On Europe Britain’s safety lies”; the slip was +pointed out by Hawkesworth. All the verse is written in the +MSS. as prose.</p> +<p><a name="footnote406c"></a><a href="#citation406c" +class="footnote">[406c]</a> “Them” (MS.).</p> +<p><a name="footnote406d"></a><a href="#citation406d" +class="footnote">[406d]</a> See Wyons <i>Queen Anne</i>, +ii. 366–7.</p> +<p><a name="footnote407a"></a><a href="#citation407a" +class="footnote">[407a]</a> <i>A Proposal for +Correcting</i>, <i>Improving</i>, <i>and Ascertaining the English +Tongue</i>, <i>in a Letter to the Most Honourable Robert</i>, +<i>Earl of Oxford</i>, 1712.</p> +<p><a name="footnote407b"></a><a href="#citation407b" +class="footnote">[407b]</a> “Help him to draw up the +representation” (omitting every other letter).</p> +<p><a name="footnote407c"></a><a href="#citation407c" +class="footnote">[407c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page217">217</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote407d"></a><a href="#citation407d" +class="footnote">[407d]</a> Robert Benson.</p> +<p><a name="footnote408a"></a><a href="#citation408a" +class="footnote">[408a]</a> <i>The Story of the St. Albans +Ghost</i>, 1712.</p> +<p><a name="footnote408b"></a><a href="#citation408b" +class="footnote">[408b]</a> “Usually” +(MS.).</p> +<p><a name="footnote408c"></a><a href="#citation408c" +class="footnote">[408c]</a> These words are partially +obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote408d"></a><a href="#citation408d" +class="footnote">[408d]</a> This sentence is +obliterated. Forster reads, “Farewell, mine deelest +rife deelest char Ppt, MD MD MD Ppt, FW, Lele MD, ME ME ME ME +aden FW MD Lazy ones Lele Lele all a Lele.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote408e"></a><a href="#citation408e" +class="footnote">[408e]</a> Endorsed by Stella “Recd. +Mar. 19.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote409a"></a><a href="#citation409a" +class="footnote">[409a]</a> “Would” (MS.).</p> +<p><a name="footnote409b"></a><a href="#citation409b" +class="footnote">[409b]</a> Conversation.</p> +<p><a name="footnote410a"></a><a href="#citation410a" +class="footnote">[410a]</a> John Guillim’s <i>Display +of Heraldrie</i> appeared first in 1610. The edition to +which Swift refers was probably that of 1679, which is wrongly +described as the “fifth edition,” instead of the +seventh.</p> +<p><a name="footnote410b"></a><a href="#citation410b" +class="footnote">[410b]</a> “One of the horses here +mentioned may have been the celebrated Godolphin Arabian from +whom descends all the blue blood of the racecourse, and who was +the grandfather of Eclipse” (Larwood’s <i>Story of +the London Parks</i>, 99).</p> +<p><a name="footnote410c"></a><a href="#citation410c" +class="footnote">[410c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page352">352</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote410d"></a><a href="#citation410d" +class="footnote">[410d]</a> Dorothea, daughter of James +Stopford, of New Hall, County Meath, and sister of Lady +Newtown-Butler, was the second wife of Edward, fourth Earl of +Meath, who died without issue in 1707. She afterwards +married General Richard Gorges (see <i>Journal</i>, April 5, +1713), of Kilbrue, County Meath, and Swift wrote an epitaph on +them—“Doll and Dickey.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote411"></a><a href="#citation411" +class="footnote">[411]</a> Here follow some obliterated +words.</p> +<p><a name="footnote412a"></a><a href="#citation412a" +class="footnote">[412a]</a> Barber (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page106">106</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote412b"></a><a href="#citation412b" +class="footnote">[412b]</a> “The editors supposed +Zinkerman (which they printed in capitals) to mean some +outlandish or foreign distinction; but it is the little language +for ‘gentleman’” (Forster).</p> +<p><a name="footnote412c"></a><a href="#citation412c" +class="footnote">[412c]</a> The Hon. Charles Butler, second +son of Thomas, Earl of Ossory, eldest son of James, Duke of +Ormond, was elevated to the peerage of Ireland in 1693 as Earl of +Arran, and was also created a peer of England, as Baron +Butler. He held various offices under William <span +class="GutSmall">III</span>. and Queen Anne, and died without +issue in 1759.</p> +<p><a name="footnote413a"></a><a href="#citation413a" +class="footnote">[413a]</a> “They” (MS.).</p> +<p><a name="footnote413b"></a><a href="#citation413b" +class="footnote">[413b]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page10">10</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page381">381</a></span>–2.</p> +<p><a name="footnote413c"></a><a href="#citation413c" +class="footnote">[413c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page89">89</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote414a"></a><a href="#citation414a" +class="footnote">[414a]</a> Sir William Wyndham, Bart., of +Orchard Wyndham, married Lady Catherine Seymour, daughter of the +sixth Duke of Somerset (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page236">236</a></span>). Their eldest son, Charles, +succeeded his uncle, the Duke of Somerset, as Earl of Egremont; +and the second son, Percy, was afterwards created Earl of +Thomond. The Wyndhams’ house was in Albemarle Street; +the loss was over £20,000; but they were “much more +concerned for their servants than for all the other losses” +(<i>Wentworth Papers</i>, 274). The Duke of Ormond +“worked as hard as any of the ordinary men, and gave many +guineas about to encourage the men to work hard.” The +Queen gave the Wyndhams temporary lodgings in “St. +James’s house.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote414b"></a><a href="#citation414b" +class="footnote">[414b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page12">12</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote415a"></a><a href="#citation415a" +class="footnote">[415a]</a> What.</p> +<p><a name="footnote415b"></a><a href="#citation415b" +class="footnote">[415b]</a> Devil’s.</p> +<p><a name="footnote415c"></a><a href="#citation415c" +class="footnote">[415c]</a> “To” (MS.).</p> +<p><a name="footnote416a"></a><a href="#citation416a" +class="footnote">[416a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page349">349</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote416b"></a><a href="#citation416b" +class="footnote">[416b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page406">406</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote416c"></a><a href="#citation416c" +class="footnote">[416c]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page113">113</a></span>–4.</p> +<p><a name="footnote417a"></a><a href="#citation417a" +class="footnote">[417a]</a> Peregrine Hyde Osborne, Earl of +Danby, afterwards Marquis of Caermarthen and third Duke of Leeds +(see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page473">473</a></span>). His sister Mary was +married to the Duke of Beaufort (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page385">385</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote417b"></a><a href="#citation417b" +class="footnote">[417b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page72">72</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote417c"></a><a href="#citation417c" +class="footnote">[417c]</a> Several undecipherable +words. Forster reads, “Pidy Pdfr, deelest +Sollahs.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote417d"></a><a href="#citation417d" +class="footnote">[417d]</a> “K” (MS.). It +should, of course, be “Queen’s.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote417e"></a><a href="#citation417e" +class="footnote">[417e]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page213">213</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote418a"></a><a href="#citation418a" +class="footnote">[418a]</a> Addressed “To Mrs. +Johnson, at her lodgings over against St. Mary’s Church, +near Capel Street, Dublin, Ireland.” Endorsed +“Mar. 30.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote418b"></a><a href="#citation418b" +class="footnote">[418b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page66">66</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote419a"></a><a href="#citation419a" +class="footnote">[419a]</a> The Mohocks succeeded the +Scowrers of William <span class="GutSmall">III.</span>’s +reign. Gay (<i>Trivia</i>, iii. 325) says—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Who has not heard the Scowrers’ +midnight fame?<br /> +Who has not trembled at the Mohocks’ name?”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Lady Wentworth (<i>Wentworth Papers</i>, 277) says: +“They put an old woman into a hogshead, and rolled her down +a hill; they cut off some noses, others’ hands, and several +barbarous tricks, without any provocation. They are said to +be young gentlemen; they never take any money from +any.” See also the <i>Spectator</i>, Nos. 324, 332, +and 347 (where Budgell alludes to “the late panic +fear”), and Defoe’s <i>Review</i> for March 15, +1712. Swift was in considerable alarm about the Mohocks +throughout March, and said that they were all Whigs. The +reports that numbers of persons, including men of figure, had +joined together to commit assaults in the streets, made many fear +to leave their houses at night. A proclamation was issued +for the suppressing of riots and the discovery of those guilty of +the late outrages; but it seems probable that the disorders were +not more frequent than might be expected from time to time in a +great city.</p> +<p><a name="footnote419b"></a><a href="#citation419b" +class="footnote">[419b]</a> Henry Davenant, son of Charles +Davenant (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page58">58</a></span>), was Resident at Frankfort. +Macky described him as “very giddy-headed, with some +wit,” to which Swift added, “He is not worth +mentioning.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote419c"></a><a href="#citation419c" +class="footnote">[419c]</a> Thomas Burnet, youngest son of +Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, was at this time a young man +about town of no good reputation. Afterwards he turned his +attention to the law, and was appointed a judge of the Court of +Common Pleas in 1741. He was knighted in 1745, and died in +1753.</p> +<p><a name="footnote420a"></a><a href="#citation420a" +class="footnote">[420a]</a> By Arbuthnot, written to +recommend the peace proposals of the Government. The full +title was, <i>Law is a Bottomless Pit</i>. <i>Exemplified +in the case of the Lord Strutt</i>, <i>John Bull</i>, <i>Nicholas +Frog</i>, <i>and Lewis Baboon</i>; <i>who spent all they had in a +Law Suit</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote420b"></a><a href="#citation420b" +class="footnote">[420b]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page238">238</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page407">407</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote420c"></a><a href="#citation420c" +class="footnote">[420c]</a> Our little language.</p> +<p><a name="footnote421a"></a><a href="#citation421a" +class="footnote">[421a]</a> Forster reads, “two +deelest nauty nown MD.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote421b"></a><a href="#citation421b" +class="footnote">[421b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page36">36</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote422a"></a><a href="#citation422a" +class="footnote">[422a]</a> William Diaper, son of Joseph +Diaper of Bridgewater, was sent to Balliol College, Oxford, in +1699, at the age of fourteen. He entered the Church, and +was curate at Brent, Somerset; but he died in 1717, aged +twenty-nine.</p> +<p><a name="footnote422b"></a><a href="#citation422b" +class="footnote">[422b]</a> The <i>Examiner</i> (vol. ii. +No. 15) complained of general bribery and oppression on the part +of officials and underlings in the public service, especially in +matters connected with the army; but the writer said that the +head (Lord Lansdowne) was just and liberal in his nature, and +easy in his fortune, and a man of honour and virtue.</p> +<p><a name="footnote422c"></a><a href="#citation422c" +class="footnote">[422c]</a> Sealed documents given to show +that a merchant’s goods are entered.</p> +<p><a name="footnote422d"></a><a href="#citation422d" +class="footnote">[422d]</a> Thomas Lawrence, First +Physician to Queen Anne, and Physician-General to the Army, died +in 1714 (<i>Gentleman’s Magazine</i>, 1815, ii. 17). +His daughter Elizabeth was second wife to Lord Mohun.</p> +<p><a name="footnote423a"></a><a href="#citation423a" +class="footnote">[423a]</a> See <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page163">163</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote423b"></a><a href="#citation423b" +class="footnote">[423b]</a> See <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page245">245</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote423c"></a><a href="#citation423c" +class="footnote">[423c]</a> No officer named Newcomb +appears in Dalton’s <i>Army Lists</i>; but the allusion to +General Ross, further on in Letter 43, adds to the probability +that Swift was referring to one of the sons of Sir Thomas +Newcomen, Bart., who was killed at the siege of +Enniskillen. Beverley Newcomen (Dalton, iii. 52, iv. 60), +who was probably Swift’s acquaintance, was described in a +petition of 1706 as a Lieutenant who had served at Killiecrankie, +and had been in Major-General Ross’s regiment ever since +1695.</p> +<p><a name="footnote423d"></a><a href="#citation423d" +class="footnote">[423d]</a> Atterbury.</p> +<p><a name="footnote424a"></a><a href="#citation424a" +class="footnote">[424a]</a> Evidently a familiar quotation +at the time. Forster reads, incorrectly, “But the +more I lite MD.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote424b"></a><a href="#citation424b" +class="footnote">[424b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page400">400</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote424c"></a><a href="#citation424c" +class="footnote">[424c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page104">104</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote424d"></a><a href="#citation424d" +class="footnote">[424d]</a> In 1681, Elizabeth, only +daughter and heiress of John Ayres, of the City of London, then +aged about twenty, became the fourth and last wife of Heneage +Finch, Earl of Winchelsea, who died in 1689. She lived +until 1745.</p> +<p><a name="footnote424e"></a><a href="#citation424e" +class="footnote">[424e]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page218">218</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote424f"></a><a href="#citation424f" +class="footnote">[424f]</a> Enoch Sterne (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page20">20</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote424g"></a><a href="#citation424g" +class="footnote">[424g]</a> Lieut.-Col. Robert Sterne was +in Col. Frederick Hamilton’s Regiment in 1695.</p> +<p><a name="footnote425a"></a><a href="#citation425a" +class="footnote">[425a]</a> Letter.</p> +<p><a name="footnote425b"></a><a href="#citation425b" +class="footnote">[425b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page120">120</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote425c"></a><a href="#citation425c" +class="footnote">[425c]</a> The title was, <i>John Bull in +his Senses</i>: <i>being the Second Part of Law is a Bottomless +Pit</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote425d"></a><a href="#citation425d" +class="footnote">[425d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page352">352</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote425e"></a><a href="#citation425e" +class="footnote">[425e]</a> Cf. note 9 above. Forster +reads “nautyas,” when the words would mean “as +naughty as nine,” apparently.</p> +<p><a name="footnote426a"></a><a href="#citation426a" +class="footnote">[426a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page424">424</a></span>, note +1.</p> +<p><a name="footnote426b"></a><a href="#citation426b" +class="footnote">[426b]</a> In 1549, James, second Earl of +Arran, was made Duke of Chatelherault by Henry <span +class="GutSmall">II</span>. of France. His eldest son died +without issue; the <i>second</i>, John, became first Marquis of +Hamilton, and was great-grandfather of Lady Anne Hamilton +(Duchess of Hamilton), mother of the Duke of Swift’s +<i>Journal</i>. The Earl of Abercorn, on the other hand, +was descended from Claud, <i>third</i> son of the Earl of Arran, +but in the male line; and his claim was therefore the stronger, +according to the French law of inheritance.</p> +<p><a name="footnote426c"></a><a href="#citation426c" +class="footnote">[426c]</a> Madams.</p> +<p><a name="footnote427a"></a><a href="#citation427a" +class="footnote">[427a]</a> This word is doubtful. +Forster reads “cobbled.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote427b"></a><a href="#citation427b" +class="footnote">[427b]</a> A mistake, apparently, for +“writing.” The letter was begun on March 8.</p> +<p><a name="footnote427c"></a><a href="#citation427c" +class="footnote">[427c]</a> Silly jade.</p> +<p><a name="footnote427d"></a><a href="#citation427d" +class="footnote">[427d]</a> O Lord, what a clutter.</p> +<p><a name="footnote427e"></a><a href="#citation427e" +class="footnote">[427e]</a> On the death of Dr. William +Graham, Dean of Wells, it was reported that Swift was to be his +successor. Dr. Brailsford, however, received the +appointment.</p> +<p><a name="footnote427f"></a><a href="#citation427f" +class="footnote">[427f]</a> Abel Roper (1665–1726), a +Tory journalist, published, thrice weekly, the <i>Postboy</i>, to +which Swift sometimes sent paragraphs. Boyer (<i>Political +State</i>, 1711, p. 678) said that Roper was only the tool of a +party; “there are men of figure and distinction behind the +curtain, who furnish him with such scandalous reflections as they +think proper to cast upon their antagonists.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote427g"></a><a href="#citation427g" +class="footnote">[427g]</a> Joe Beaumont.</p> +<p><a name="footnote428a"></a><a href="#citation428a" +class="footnote">[428a]</a> Beg your pardon, Madams, +I’m glad you like your apron (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page402">402</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote428b"></a><a href="#citation428b" +class="footnote">[428b]</a> This word was smudged by +Swift.</p> +<p><a name="footnote429a"></a><a href="#citation429a" +class="footnote">[429a]</a> I cannot find Somers in +contemporary lists of officials. Cf. pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page159">159</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page298">298</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote429b"></a><a href="#citation429b" +class="footnote">[429b]</a> Obliterated and doubtful.</p> +<p><a name="footnote429c"></a><a href="#citation429c" +class="footnote">[429c]</a> Words obliterated and +illegible. Forster reads, conjecturally, “Pray send +Pdfr the ME account that I may have time to write to +Parvisol.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote429d"></a><a href="#citation429d" +class="footnote">[429d]</a> Addressed to “Mrs. +Dingley,” etc. Endorsed “Apr. 14.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote430a"></a><a href="#citation430a" +class="footnote">[430a]</a> “Is” (MS.).</p> +<p><a name="footnote430b"></a><a href="#citation430b" +class="footnote">[430b]</a> The words after +“yet” are partially obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote431a"></a><a href="#citation431a" +class="footnote">[431a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page53">53</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote431b"></a><a href="#citation431b" +class="footnote">[431b]</a> John Cecil, sixth Earl of +Exeter (died 1721).</p> +<p><a name="footnote432a"></a><a href="#citation432a" +class="footnote">[432a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page206">206</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote432b"></a><a href="#citation432b" +class="footnote">[432b]</a> Arbuthnot.</p> +<p><a name="footnote433a"></a><a href="#citation433a" +class="footnote">[433a]</a> A resort of the Tories.</p> +<p><a name="footnote433b"></a><a href="#citation433b" +class="footnote">[433b]</a> Deane Swift, a son of +Swift’s uncle Godwin, was a merchant in Lisbon.</p> +<p><a name="footnote433c"></a><a href="#citation433c" +class="footnote">[433c]</a> Winces. Lyly says, +“Rubbe there no more, least I winch.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote433d"></a><a href="#citation433d" +class="footnote">[433d]</a> Probably William Whiston, who +was deprived of the Lucasian professorship at Cambridge in 1710 +for his heterodox views. Parliament having offered a reward +for the discovery of means of finding the longitude, Whiston made +several attempts (1714 and 1721).</p> +<p><a name="footnote434a"></a><a href="#citation434a" +class="footnote">[434a]</a> Word obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote434b"></a><a href="#citation434b" +class="footnote">[434b]</a> Distilled water prepared with +rosemary flowers. In Fielding’s <i>Joseph +Andrews</i>, a lady gives up to a highway robber, in her fright, +a silver bottle which, the ruffian said, contained some of the +best brandy he had ever tasted; this she “afterwards +assured the company was a mistake of her maid, for that she had +ordered her to fill the bottle with Hungary water.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote435a"></a><a href="#citation435a" +class="footnote">[435a]</a> As I hope to be saved.</p> +<p><a name="footnote435b"></a><a href="#citation435b" +class="footnote">[435b]</a> Added on the fourth page, as +the letter was folded.</p> +<p><a name="footnote436a"></a><a href="#citation436a" +class="footnote">[436a]</a> Addressed to “Mrs. +Johnson,” etc. Endorsed “May 1st.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote436b"></a><a href="#citation436b" +class="footnote">[436b]</a> A kind of clover, used for +soothing purposes.</p> +<p><a name="footnote437a"></a><a href="#citation437a" +class="footnote">[437a]</a> Addressed to “Mrs. +Dingley,” etc. Endorsed “May 15.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote437b"></a><a href="#citation437b" +class="footnote">[437b]</a> Madam Ayris.</p> +<p><a name="footnote437c"></a><a href="#citation437c" +class="footnote">[437c]</a> Simpleton.</p> +<p><a name="footnote437d"></a><a href="#citation437d" +class="footnote">[437d]</a> Robert Benson (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page41">41</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote437e"></a><a href="#citation437e" +class="footnote">[437e]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page407">407</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page420">420</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote438a"></a><a href="#citation438a" +class="footnote">[438a]</a> The title was, <i>An Appendix +to John Bull still in his Senses</i>: <i>or</i>, <i>Law is a +Bottomless Pit</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote438b"></a><a href="#citation438b" +class="footnote">[438b]</a> Arbuthnot.</p> +<p><a name="footnote438c"></a><a href="#citation438c" +class="footnote">[438c]</a> Enquiries by servants.</p> +<p><a name="footnote438d"></a><a href="#citation438d" +class="footnote">[438d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page160">160</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote438e"></a><a href="#citation438e" +class="footnote">[438e]</a> Sick.</p> +<p><a name="footnote439a"></a><a href="#citation439a" +class="footnote">[439a]</a> Afterwards Rector of Letcombe, +Berks. It was to his house that Swift repaired a few weeks +before the Queen’s death. On June 8, 1714, he wrote, +“I am at a clergyman’s house, whom I love very well, +but he is such a melancholy, thoughtful man, partly from nature, +and partly by a solitary life, that I shall soon catch the spleen +from him. His wife has been this month twenty miles off at +her father’s, and will not return these ten days, and +perhaps the house will be worse when she comes.” +Swift spells the name “Geree”; later on in the +<i>Journal</i> he mentions two of Mr. Gery’s sisters, Betty +(Mrs. Elwick) and Moll (Mrs. Wigmore); probably he made the +acquaintance of the family when he was living with the Temples at +Moor Park (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page502">502</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote439b"></a><a href="#citation439b" +class="footnote">[439b]</a> Because she is a good girl in +other things.</p> +<p><a name="footnote439c"></a><a href="#citation439c" +class="footnote">[439c]</a> Addressed to “Mrs. +Dingley,” etc. Endorsed “June 5.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote439d"></a><a href="#citation439d" +class="footnote">[439d]</a> Sice, the number six at +dice.</p> +<p><a name="footnote440a"></a><a href="#citation440a" +class="footnote">[440a]</a> At Laracor Swift had “a +canal and river-walk and willows.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote440b"></a><a href="#citation440b" +class="footnote">[440b]</a> Splenetic fellow.</p> +<p><a name="footnote440c"></a><a href="#citation440c" +class="footnote">[440c]</a> One of them was by Oldmixon: +<i>Reflections on Dr. Swift’s Letter to the Earl of +Oxford</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote440d"></a><a href="#citation440d" +class="footnote">[440d]</a> Beg your pardon.</p> +<p><a name="footnote440e"></a><a href="#citation440e" +class="footnote">[440e]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page239">239</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote440f"></a><a href="#citation440f" +class="footnote">[440f]</a> On May 28, Lord Halifax moved +an Address to the Queen that the instructions given to the Duke +of Ormond might be laid before the House, and that further orders +might be issued to him to act offensively, in concert with the +Allies. Wharton and Nottingham supported the motion, but it +was negatived by 68 votes against 40. A similar motion in +the House of Commons was defeated by 203 against 73.</p> +<p><a name="footnote440g"></a><a href="#citation440g" +class="footnote">[440g]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page335">335</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote441a"></a><a href="#citation441a" +class="footnote">[441a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page217">217</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote441b"></a><a href="#citation441b" +class="footnote">[441b]</a> <i>Some Reasons to prove that +no Person is obliged by his Principles</i>, <i>as a Whig</i>, +<i>to oppose Her Majesty</i>: <i>in a Letter to a Whig +Lord</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote441c"></a><a href="#citation441c" +class="footnote">[441c]</a> Several words obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote441d"></a><a href="#citation441d" +class="footnote">[441d]</a> Several words obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote441e"></a><a href="#citation441e" +class="footnote">[441e]</a> The bellman.</p> +<p><a name="footnote442a"></a><a href="#citation442a" +class="footnote">[442a]</a> This present writing.</p> +<p><a name="footnote442b"></a><a href="#citation442b" +class="footnote">[442b]</a> Please.</p> +<p><a name="footnote442c"></a><a href="#citation442c" +class="footnote">[442c]</a> Addressed to “Mrs. +Rebecca Dingley,” etc. Endorsed “June +23d.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote443a"></a><a href="#citation443a" +class="footnote">[443a]</a> Mr. Ryland reads +“second.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote443b"></a><a href="#citation443b" +class="footnote">[443b]</a> As I hope to be saved.</p> +<p><a name="footnote444a"></a><a href="#citation444a" +class="footnote">[444a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page295">295</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote444b"></a><a href="#citation444b" +class="footnote">[444b]</a> Glad at heart.</p> +<p><a name="footnote445a"></a><a href="#citation445a" +class="footnote">[445a]</a> The threepenny pamphlet +mentioned on p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page441">441</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote445b"></a><a href="#citation445b" +class="footnote">[445b]</a> <i>I.e.</i>, for.</p> +<p><a name="footnote445c"></a><a href="#citation445c" +class="footnote">[445c]</a> Addressed to “Mrs. +Dingley.” Endorsed “July 8.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote445d"></a><a href="#citation445d" +class="footnote">[445d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page277">277</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote446a"></a><a href="#citation446a" +class="footnote">[446a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page76">76</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote446b"></a><a href="#citation446b" +class="footnote">[446b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page9">9</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote446c"></a><a href="#citation446c" +class="footnote">[446c]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page295">295</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page444">444</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote446d"></a><a href="#citation446d" +class="footnote">[446d]</a> Dr. William Lloyd—one of +the Seven Bishops of 1688—was eighty-four years of age at +this time; he died five years later. He was a strong +antipapist, and a great student of the Apocalypse, besides being +a hard-working bishop. A curious letter from him to Lord +Oxford about a coming war of religion is given in the Welbeck +Papers (Hist. MSS. Comm.) v. 128.</p> +<p><a name="footnote447a"></a><a href="#citation447a" +class="footnote">[447a]</a> <i>Toland’s Invitation to +Dismal to dine with the Calf’s Head Club</i>. The +Earl of Nottingham (Dismal) had deserted the Tories, and +Swift’s imitation of Horace (Epist. I. v.) is an invitation +from Toland to dine with “his trusty friends” in +celebration of the execution of Charles I. The Calf’s +Head Club was in the habit of toasting “confusion to the +race of kings.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote447b"></a><a href="#citation447b" +class="footnote">[447b]</a> Bolingbroke.</p> +<p><a name="footnote447c"></a><a href="#citation447c" +class="footnote">[447c]</a> George Fitzroy, Duke of +Northumberland (died 1716), a natural son of Charles <span +class="GutSmall">II</span>., was also Viscount Falmouth and Baron +of Pontefract. See <i>Notes and Queries</i>, viii. i. +135.</p> +<p><a name="footnote447d"></a><a href="#citation447d" +class="footnote">[447d]</a> Enoch Sterne.</p> +<p><a name="footnote448a"></a><a href="#citation448a" +class="footnote">[448a]</a> Templeoag (p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page443">443</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote448b"></a><a href="#citation448b" +class="footnote">[448b]</a> Swift probably was only +repeating an inaccurate rumour, for there is no evidence that +Steele was arrested. His gambling scheme was withdrawn +directly an information was laid under the new Act of Parliament +against gambling (Aitken’s <i>Life of Steele</i>, i. +347).</p> +<p><a name="footnote448c"></a><a href="#citation448c" +class="footnote">[448c]</a> Dr. William Moreton +(1641–1715), Swift’s diocesan, was translated from +the see of Kildare to that of Meath in 1705.</p> +<p><a name="footnote448d"></a><a href="#citation448d" +class="footnote">[448d]</a> Words obliterated. +Forster reads conjecturally, “when ME wants me to +send. She ought to have it,” etc.</p> +<p><a name="footnote449a"></a><a href="#citation449a" +class="footnote">[449a]</a> Addressed to “Mrs. +Dingley,” etc. Endorsed “July 23.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote449b"></a><a href="#citation449b" +class="footnote">[449b]</a> “N. 33” seems a +mistake. Letter No. 32 was received after Swift had left +Kensington and gone to Windsor; see pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page452">452</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page456">456</a></span> +(Ryland).</p> +<p><a name="footnote450a"></a><a href="#citation450a" +class="footnote">[450a]</a> Dr. Moreton (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page448">448</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote450b"></a><a href="#citation450b" +class="footnote">[450b]</a> Memoranda.</p> +<p><a name="footnote450c"></a><a href="#citation450c" +class="footnote">[450c]</a> Again.</p> +<p><a name="footnote450d"></a><a href="#citation450d" +class="footnote">[450d]</a> O Lord, drunken slut.</p> +<p><a name="footnote450e"></a><a href="#citation450e" +class="footnote">[450e]</a> There’s for you now, and +there’s for your letter, and every kind of thing.</p> +<p><a name="footnote450f"></a><a href="#citation450f" +class="footnote">[450f]</a> Bolingbroke.</p> +<p><a name="footnote451a"></a><a href="#citation451a" +class="footnote">[451a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page120">120</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote451b"></a><a href="#citation451b" +class="footnote">[451b]</a> Grub Street pamphlet. The +title was, <i>A Supposed Letter from the Pretender to another +Whig Lord</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote451c"></a><a href="#citation451c" +class="footnote">[451c]</a> Arnold Joost Van Keppel, +created Earl of Albemarle in 1697. He died in 1718. +The action referred to was at Denain, where the Dutch were +defeated by Villars.</p> +<p><a name="footnote452a"></a><a href="#citation452a" +class="footnote">[452a]</a> Addressed to “Mrs. +Dingley,” etc. Endorsed “Aug. 14.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote452b"></a><a href="#citation452b" +class="footnote">[452b]</a> Perhaps this was influenza.</p> +<p><a name="footnote453a"></a><a href="#citation453a" +class="footnote">[453a]</a> By the Stamp Act passed on June +10, 1712—which was repealed in 1859—a duty of one +halfpenny was levied on all pamphlets and newspapers contained in +half a sheet or less, and a duty of one penny on those of more +than half but not exceeding a whole sheet. Swift opposed +the idea in January 1711 (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page138">138</a></span>), and Defoe argued against the +Bill in the <i>Review</i> for April 26, 1712, and following +numbers. Addison, in the <i>Spectator</i>, No. 445, spoke +of the mortality among authors resulting from the Stamp Act as +“the fall of the leaf.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote453b"></a><a href="#citation453b" +class="footnote">[453b]</a> The title is, <i>Lewis Baboon +turned honest</i>, <i>and John Bull politician</i>. +<i>Being the Fourth Part of Law is a Bottomless Pit</i>. +This pamphlet—really the fifth of the series—appeared +on July 31, 1712.</p> +<p><a name="footnote453c"></a><a href="#citation453c" +class="footnote">[453c]</a> Poor Laracor.</p> +<p><a name="footnote454a"></a><a href="#citation454a" +class="footnote">[454a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page104">104</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote454b"></a><a href="#citation454b" +class="footnote">[454b]</a> On the death of the third Earl +in 1712, the title of Earl of Winchelsea passed to his uncle, +Heneage Finch, who had married Anne, daughter of Sir William +Kingsmill (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page227">227</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote454c"></a><a href="#citation454c" +class="footnote">[454c]</a> Addressed to “Mrs. +Dingley,” etc. Endorsed “Oct. 1st. At +Portraune” [Portraine].</p> +<p><a name="footnote455a"></a><a href="#citation455a" +class="footnote">[455a]</a> Oxford and Bolingbroke.</p> +<p><a name="footnote455b"></a><a href="#citation455b" +class="footnote">[455b]</a> Including Hester +Vanhomrigh.</p> +<p><a name="footnote456a"></a><a href="#citation456a" +class="footnote">[456a]</a> He died on Sept. 15, 1712.</p> +<p><a name="footnote456b"></a><a href="#citation456b" +class="footnote">[456b]</a> Elizabeth Villiers, eldest +daughter of Sir Edward Villiers, Knight Marischal of England, and +sister of the first Earl of Jersey. In 1695 she married +Lord George Hamilton (son of Lord William Douglas, afterwards +Duke of Hamilton), who was raised to the peerage of Scotland in +1696 as Earl of Orkney. William <span +class="GutSmall">III</span>. gave her an Irish estate worth +£26,000 a year. Swift’s opinion of her wisdom +is confirmed by Lord Lansdowne, who speaks, in his <i>Progress of +Poetry</i>, of</p> +<blockquote><p>“Villiers, for wisdom and deep judgment +famed,<br /> +Of a high race, victorious beauty brings<br /> +To grace our Courts, and captivate our Kings.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The “beauty” seems a poetic licence; Swift says +the lady squinted “like a dragon.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote456c"></a><a href="#citation456c" +class="footnote">[456c]</a> Cliefden.</p> +<p><a name="footnote456d"></a><a href="#citation456d" +class="footnote">[456d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page106">106</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote456e"></a><a href="#citation456e" +class="footnote">[456e]</a> Swift’s sister (see p. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page74">74</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote457a"></a><a href="#citation457a" +class="footnote">[457a]</a> Forster reads +“returned.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote457b"></a><a href="#citation457b" +class="footnote">[457b]</a> See Swift’s letter to +General Hill of Aug. 12, 1712</p> +<p><a name="footnote457c"></a><a href="#citation457c" +class="footnote">[457c]</a> Swift’s housekeeper at +Laracor.</p> +<p><a name="footnote457d"></a><a href="#citation457d" +class="footnote">[457d]</a> <i>I.e.</i>, be made freemen of +the City.</p> +<p><a name="footnote458"></a><a href="#citation458" +class="footnote">[458]</a> Addressed to “Mrs. +Dingley,” etc. Endorsed “Octr. 18. At +Portraune.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote459a"></a><a href="#citation459a" +class="footnote">[459a]</a> “Sometimes, when better +company was not to be had, he [Swift] was honoured by being +invited to play at cards with his patron; and on such occasions +Sir William was so generous as to give his antagonist a little +silver to begin with” (Macaulay, <i>History of England</i>, +chap. xix.).</p> +<p><a name="footnote459b"></a><a href="#citation459b" +class="footnote">[459b]</a> <i>The History of the Works of +the Learned</i>, a quarto periodical, was published from 1699 to +1711.</p> +<p><a name="footnote459c"></a><a href="#citation459c" +class="footnote">[459c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page343">343</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote459d"></a><a href="#citation459d" +class="footnote">[459d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page277">277</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote460a"></a><a href="#citation460a" +class="footnote">[460a]</a> Lady Elizabeth Savage, daughter +of Richard, fourth Earl Rivers (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page88">88</a></span>), was the +second wife of James Barry, fourth Earl of Barrymore. Of +Earl Rivers’ illegitimate children, one, Bessy, married (1) +Frederick Nassau, third Earl of Rochford, and (2) a clergyman +named Carter; while another, Richard Savage, was the poet. +Earl Rivers’ successor, John Savage, the fifth Earl, was a +Roman Catholic priest, the grandson of John, first Earl +Rivers. On his death in 1728 the title became extinct.</p> +<p><a name="footnote460b"></a><a href="#citation460b" +class="footnote">[460b]</a> No. 32.</p> +<p><a name="footnote460c"></a><a href="#citation460c" +class="footnote">[460c]</a> Very sick.</p> +<p><a name="footnote460d"></a><a href="#citation460d" +class="footnote">[460d]</a> From “but I” to +“agreeable” is partially obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote460e"></a><a href="#citation460e" +class="footnote">[460e]</a> Mrs. Swanton was the eldest +daughter of Willoughby Swift, and therefore Swift’s second +cousin. In her will Esther Johnson left to Swift “a +bond of thirty pounds, due to me by Dr. Russell, in trust for the +use of Mrs. Honoria Swanton.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote460f"></a><a href="#citation460f" +class="footnote">[460f]</a> This sentence is partially +obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote460g"></a><a href="#citation460g" +class="footnote">[460g]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page452">452</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote461a"></a><a href="#citation461a" +class="footnote">[461a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page25">25</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote461b"></a><a href="#citation461b" +class="footnote">[461b]</a> The latter half of this +sentence is partially obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote462a"></a><a href="#citation462a" +class="footnote">[462a]</a> Partly obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote462b"></a><a href="#citation462b" +class="footnote">[462b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page54">54</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote462c"></a><a href="#citation462c" +class="footnote">[462c]</a> Wise.</p> +<p><a name="footnote462d"></a><a href="#citation462d" +class="footnote">[462d]</a> Partly obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote462e"></a><a href="#citation462e" +class="footnote">[462e]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page43">43</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote462f"></a><a href="#citation462f" +class="footnote">[462f]</a> This sentence is almost +obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote463a"></a><a href="#citation463a" +class="footnote">[463a]</a> The MS. of this letter has not +been preserved.</p> +<p><a name="footnote463b"></a><a href="#citation463b" +class="footnote">[463b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page245">245</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote463c"></a><a href="#citation463c" +class="footnote">[463c]</a> Swift’s friend, Dr. Pratt +(see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page5">5</a></span>), +was then Provost of Trinity College, Dublin.</p> +<p><a name="footnote463d"></a><a href="#citation463d" +class="footnote">[463d]</a> Samuel Molyneux, then aged +twenty-three, was the son of William Molyneux (1656–1698), +M.P. for Dublin University, a writer on philosophical and +scientific subjects, and the friend of Locke. Samuel +Molyneux took his M.A. degree in Dublin in 1710, and in 1712 +visited England. He was befriended by the Duke of +Marlborough at Antwerp, and in 1714 was sent by the Duke on a +mission to the Court of Hanover. He held office under +George I., but devoted most of his attention to astronomical +research, until his death in 1728.</p> +<p><a name="footnote464a"></a><a href="#citation464a" +class="footnote">[464a]</a> Probably <i>The Case of +Ireland’s being bound by Acts of Parliament in England +stated</i> (1698).</p> +<p><a name="footnote464b"></a><a href="#citation464b" +class="footnote">[464b]</a> Oxford and Bolingbroke.</p> +<p><a name="footnote464c"></a><a href="#citation464c" +class="footnote">[464c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page360">360</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote464d"></a><a href="#citation464d" +class="footnote">[464d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page453">453</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote464e"></a><a href="#citation464e" +class="footnote">[464e]</a> George Ridpath (died 1726), a +Whig journalist, of whom Pope (<i>Dunciad</i>, i. 208) +wrote—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">“To Dulness +Ridpath is as dear as Mist.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>He edited the <i>Flying Post</i> for some years, and also +wrote for the <i>Medley</i> in 1712. In September William +Hurt and Ridpath were arrested for libellous and seditious +articles, but were released on bail. On October 23 they +appeared before the Court of Queen’s Bench, and were +continued on their recognizances. In February 1713 Ridpath +was tried and, in spite of an able defence by leading Whig +lawyers, was convicted. Sentence was postponed, and when +Ridpath failed to appear, as ordered, in April, his recognizances +were escheated, and a reward offered for his discovery; but he +had fled to Scotland, and from thence to Holland.</p> +<p><a name="footnote466a"></a><a href="#citation466a" +class="footnote">[466a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page456">456</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote466b"></a><a href="#citation466b" +class="footnote">[466b]</a> Lady Orkney’s sister, +Barbara Villiers, who married John Berkeley, fourth Viscount +Fitz-Hardinge, had been governess to the Duke of Gloucester, +Queen Anne’s son. She died in 1708, in her +fifty-second year; and on her husband’s death four years +later the peerage became extinct.</p> +<p><a name="footnote466c"></a><a href="#citation466c" +class="footnote">[466c]</a> For the street criers, see the +<i>Spectator</i>, No. 251.</p> +<p><a name="footnote466d"></a><a href="#citation466d" +class="footnote">[466d]</a> Addressed to “Mrs. +Dingley.” Endorsed “Nov. 26, just come from +Portraine”; and “The band-box plot—D: +Hamilton’s murther.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote467a"></a><a href="#citation467a" +class="footnote">[467a]</a> Charles Mohun, fifth Baron +Mohun, had been twice arraigned of murder, but acquitted; and +during his short but turbulent life he had taken part in many +duels. Even Burnet could say nothing in his favour.</p> +<p><a name="footnote467b"></a><a href="#citation467b" +class="footnote">[467b]</a> This duel between the Duke of +Hamilton (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page262">262</a></span>) and Lord Mohun, who had married +nieces of Lord Macclesfield, had its origin in a protracted +dispute about some property. The challenge came from Lord +Mohun, and the combatants fought like “enraged +lions.” Tory writers suggested that the duel was a +Whig conspiracy to get rid of the Duke of Hamilton +(<i>Examiner</i>, Nov. 20, 1712). The whole subject is +discussed from the Whig point of view in Boyer’s +<i>Political State</i> for 1712, pp. 297–326.</p> +<p><a name="footnote467c"></a><a href="#citation467c" +class="footnote">[467c]</a> “Will” (MS.).</p> +<p><a name="footnote467d"></a><a href="#citation467d" +class="footnote">[467d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page262">262</a></span>, note +2.</p> +<p><a name="footnote467e"></a><a href="#citation467e" +class="footnote">[467e]</a> George Maccartney (see pp. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page89">89</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page387">387</a></span>) fought at +Almanza, Malplaquet, and Douay. After the duel, Maccartney +escaped to Holland, but on the accession of George I. he returned +to England, and was tried for murder (June 1716), when Colonel +Hamilton gave evidence against him. Hamilton’s +evidence was discredited, and he found it necessary to sell his +commission and leave the country. Maccartney was found +guilty as an accessory, and “burnt” in the +hand. Within a month he was given an appointment in the +army; and promoted to be Lieutenant-General. He died in +1730.</p> +<p><a name="footnote467f"></a><a href="#citation467f" +class="footnote">[467f]</a> Colonel John Hamilton, of the +Scots Guards. He surrendered himself, and was tried at the +Old Bailey on Dec. 12, 1712, when he was found guilty of +manslaughter, on two indictments; and on the following day he was +“burnt” in the hand. Hamilton died in October +1716, soon after Maccartney’s trial, from a sudden vomiting +of blood.</p> +<p><a name="footnote467g"></a><a href="#citation467g" +class="footnote">[467g]</a> “That” (MS.).</p> +<p><a name="footnote468a"></a><a href="#citation468a" +class="footnote">[468a]</a> The story (as told in the Tory +<i>Postboy</i> of Nov. 11 to 13) was that on Nov. 4 a bandbox was +sent to the Earl of Oxford by post. When he began to open it he +saw a pistol, whereupon a gentleman present [Swift] asked for the +box, and opening it, by the window, found powder, nails, etc., so +arranged that, if opened in the ordinary way, the whole would +have been fired, and two barrels discharged different ways. +No doubt a box so packed was received, but whether anything +serious was intended, or whether it was a hoax, cannot be said +with any certainty. The Earl of Oxford is said to have met +allusions to the subject with a smile, and Swift seems to have +been annoyed at the reports which were put into circulation.</p> +<p><a name="footnote468b"></a><a href="#citation468b" +class="footnote">[468b]</a> “We have received a more +particular account relating to the box sent to the Lord +Treasurer, as mentioned in our last, which is as follows,” +etc. (<i>Evening News</i>, Nov. 11 to 13, 1712).</p> +<p><a name="footnote468c"></a><a href="#citation468c" +class="footnote">[468c]</a> Either <i>A Letter to the +People</i>, <i>to be left for them at the Booksellers</i>, +<i>with a word or two of the Bandbox Plot</i> (by T. Burnet), +1712, or <i>An Account of the Duel</i> . . ., <i>with Previous +Reflections on Sham Plots</i> (by A. Boyer), 1712. +Swift’s connection with the Bandbox Plot was ridiculed in +the <i>Flying Post</i> for Nov. 20 to 22.</p> +<p><a name="footnote468d"></a><a href="#citation468d" +class="footnote">[468d]</a> Cf. p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page154">154</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote469a"></a><a href="#citation469a" +class="footnote">[469a]</a> This sentence is partially +obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote469b"></a><a href="#citation469b" +class="footnote">[469b]</a> Part of this sentence has been +obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote470a"></a><a href="#citation470a" +class="footnote">[470a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page427">427</a></span>. I +have not been able to find a copy of the paper containing +Swift’s paragraph.</p> +<p><a name="footnote470b"></a><a href="#citation470b" +class="footnote">[470b]</a> This sentence is partially +obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote471a"></a><a href="#citation471a" +class="footnote">[471a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page104">104</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote471b"></a><a href="#citation471b" +class="footnote">[471b]</a> Apparently Humphrey Griffith, +who was one of the Commissioners of Salt; but Swift gives the +name as “Griffin” throughout.</p> +<p><a name="footnote471c"></a><a href="#citation471c" +class="footnote">[471c]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page25">25</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page461">461</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote471d"></a><a href="#citation471d" +class="footnote">[471d]</a> For these shorter letters Swift +folded the folio sheet before writing.</p> +<p><a name="footnote472a"></a><a href="#citation472a" +class="footnote">[472a]</a> Addressed to “Mrs. +Dingley,” etc. Endorsed “Decr. 18.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote472b"></a><a href="#citation472b" +class="footnote">[472b]</a> Vengeance.</p> +<p><a name="footnote472c"></a><a href="#citation472c" +class="footnote">[472c]</a> Charles Connor, scholar of +Trinity College, Dublin, who took his B.A. degree in the same +year as Swift (1686), and his M.A. degree in 1691.</p> +<p><a name="footnote472d"></a><a href="#citation472d" +class="footnote">[472d]</a> <i>The History of the Peace of +Utrecht</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote473a"></a><a href="#citation473a" +class="footnote">[473a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page467">467</a></span>, note +6.</p> +<p><a name="footnote473b"></a><a href="#citation473b" +class="footnote">[473b]</a> Lord Oxford’s daughter +Elizabeth married, on Dec. 16, 1712, Peregrine Hyde, Marquis of +Caermarthen, afterwards third Duke of Leeds (see pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page226">226</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page417">417</a></span>). She +died on Nov. 20, 1713, a few days after the birth of a son. +Swift called her “a friend I extremely loved.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote473c"></a><a href="#citation473c" +class="footnote">[473c]</a> “Is” (MS.).</p> +<p><a name="footnote473d"></a><a href="#citation473d" +class="footnote">[473d]</a> Disorders.</p> +<p><a name="footnote473e"></a><a href="#citation473e" +class="footnote">[473e]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page335">335</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote473f"></a><a href="#citation473f" +class="footnote">[473f]</a> John Francis, Rector of St. +Mary’s, Dublin, was made Dean of Leighlin in 1705.</p> +<p><a name="footnote473g"></a><a href="#citation473g" +class="footnote">[473g]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page67">67</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote473h"></a><a href="#citation473h" +class="footnote">[473h]</a> Possibly +“have.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote473i"></a><a href="#citation473i" +class="footnote">[473i]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page468">468</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote474"></a><a href="#citation474" +class="footnote">[474]</a> This clause is omitted by Mr. +Ryland.</p> +<p><a name="footnote475a"></a><a href="#citation475a" +class="footnote">[475a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page304">304</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote475b"></a><a href="#citation475b" +class="footnote">[475b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page466">466</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote475c"></a><a href="#citation475c" +class="footnote">[475c]</a> Thomas Jones, Esq., was M.P. +for Trim in the Parliament of 1713–4.</p> +<p><a name="footnote476a"></a><a href="#citation476a" +class="footnote">[476a]</a> A Dutch agent employed in the +negotiations with Lewis <span class="GutSmall">XIV</span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote476b"></a><a href="#citation476b" +class="footnote">[476b]</a> When I come home.</p> +<p><a name="footnote476c"></a><a href="#citation476c" +class="footnote">[476c]</a> Addressed to “Mrs. +Dingley,” etc. Endorsed “Jan. 13.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote477a"></a><a href="#citation477a" +class="footnote">[477a]</a> “Ay, marry, this is +something like.” The earlier editions give, +“How agreeable it is in a morning.” The words +in the MS. are partially obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote477b"></a><a href="#citation477b" +class="footnote">[477b]</a> In this letter (Dec. 20, 1712) +Swift paid many compliments to the Duchess of Ormond (see p. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page160">160</a></span>): +“All the accomplishments of your mind and person are so +deeply printed in the heart, and represent you so lively to my +imagination, that I should take it for a high affront if you +believed it in the power of colours to refresh my +memory.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote478a"></a><a href="#citation478a" +class="footnote">[478a]</a> Tisdall’s <i>Conduct of +the Dissenters in Ireland</i> (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page517">517</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote478b"></a><a href="#citation478b" +class="footnote">[478b]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page73">73</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page192">192</a></span>–3.</p> +<p><a name="footnote478c"></a><a href="#citation478c" +class="footnote">[478c]</a> Monteleon.</p> +<p><a name="footnote479a"></a><a href="#citation479a" +class="footnote">[479a]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page7">7</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page24">24</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote479b"></a><a href="#citation479b" +class="footnote">[479b]</a> Utrecht, North and South +Holland, and West Frieseland.</p> +<p><a name="footnote479c"></a><a href="#citation479c" +class="footnote">[479c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page439">439</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote479d"></a><a href="#citation479d" +class="footnote">[479d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page439">439</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote479e"></a><a href="#citation479e" +class="footnote">[479e]</a> <i>On Queen Anne’s +Peace</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote479f"></a><a href="#citation479f" +class="footnote">[479f]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page422">422</a></span>. The +poem was <i>Dryades</i>, <i>or the Nymph’s +Prophecy</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote480a"></a><a href="#citation480a" +class="footnote">[480a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page343">343</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote480b"></a><a href="#citation480b" +class="footnote">[480b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page159">159</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote480c"></a><a href="#citation480c" +class="footnote">[480c]</a> Dr. Tobias Pullen +(1648–1713) was made Bishop of Dromore in 1695.</p> +<p><a name="footnote480d"></a><a href="#citation480d" +class="footnote">[480d]</a> Lord Charles Douglas, Earl of +Selkirk, died unmarried in 1739. When his father, William, +first Earl of Selkirk, married Anne, Duchess of Hamilton, the +Duchess obtained for her husband, in 1660, the title of Duke of +Hamilton, for life. James <span class="GutSmall">II</span>. +conferred the Earldom of Selkirk on his Grace’s second and +younger sons, primogenitively; and the second son having died +without issue, the third, Charles, became Earl. The fifth +son, George, was created Earl of Orkney (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page456">456</a></span>). The +difference between Lord Selkirk and the Earl of Abercorn (see p. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page86">86</a></span>) to +which Swift alludes was in connection with the claim to the +Dukedom of Chatelherault (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page426">426</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote481a"></a><a href="#citation481a" +class="footnote">[481a]</a> Heart.</p> +<p><a name="footnote481b"></a><a href="#citation481b" +class="footnote">[481b]</a> This sentence is almost +illegible.</p> +<p><a name="footnote481c"></a><a href="#citation481c" +class="footnote">[481c]</a> A reward of £500 was +offered by the Crown for Maccartney’s apprehension, and +£200 by the Duchess of Hamilton.</p> +<p><a name="footnote482"></a><a href="#citation482" +class="footnote">[482]</a> In the proposed <i>History of +the Peace of Utrecht</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote483a"></a><a href="#citation483a" +class="footnote">[483a]</a> Mr. Ryland’s +reading. Forster has “Iss.” These words +are obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote483b"></a><a href="#citation483b" +class="footnote">[483b]</a> Hoist. Cf. “Hoised +up the mainsail” (Acts xxvii. 40).</p> +<p><a name="footnote483c"></a><a href="#citation483c" +class="footnote">[483c]</a> It was afterwards found that +Miss Ashe was suffering from smallpox.</p> +<p><a name="footnote484a"></a><a href="#citation484a" +class="footnote">[484a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page101">101</a></span>. We +are told in the <i>Wentworth Papers</i>, p. 268, that the Duchess +of Shrewsbury remarked to Lady Oxford, “Madam, I and my +Lord are so weary of talking politics; what are you and your +Lord?” whereupon Lady Oxford sighed and said she knew no +Lord but the Lord Jehovah. The Duchess rejoined, “Oh, +dear! Madam, who is that? I believe ’tis one of the +new titles, for I never heard of him before.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote484b"></a><a href="#citation484b" +class="footnote">[484b]</a> A thousand merry new +years. The words are much obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote484c"></a><a href="#citation484c" +class="footnote">[484c]</a> Lady Anne Hamilton, daughter of +James, first Duke of Hamilton, became Duchess on the death of her +uncle William, the second Duke, at the battle of Worcester.</p> +<p><a name="footnote485a"></a><a href="#citation485a" +class="footnote">[485a]</a> The quarrel between Oxford and +Bolingbroke.</p> +<p><a name="footnote485b"></a><a href="#citation485b" +class="footnote">[485b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page276">276</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote485c"></a><a href="#citation485c" +class="footnote">[485c]</a> Burnet (<i>History</i>, iv. +382) says that the Duc d’Aumont was “a goodnatured +and generous man, of profuse expense, throwing handfuls of money +often out of his coach as he went about the streets. He was +not thought a man of business, and seemed to employ himself +chiefly in maintaining the dignity of his character and making +himself acceptable to the nation.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote486a"></a><a href="#citation486a" +class="footnote">[486a]</a> Partially obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote486b"></a><a href="#citation486b" +class="footnote">[486b]</a> For the most part +illegible. Forster reads, “Go, play cards, and be +melly, deelest logues, and rove Pdfr. Nite richar MD, FW oo +roves Pdfr. FW lele lele ME ME MD MD MD MD MD MD. MD +FW FW FW ME ME FW FW FW FW FW ME ME ME.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote486c"></a><a href="#citation486c" +class="footnote">[486c]</a> On the third page of the +paper.</p> +<p><a name="footnote486d"></a><a href="#citation486d" +class="footnote">[486d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page44">44</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote487a"></a><a href="#citation487a" +class="footnote">[487a]</a> To “Mrs. Dingley,” +etc. Endorsed “Feb. 4.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote487b"></a><a href="#citation487b" +class="footnote">[487b]</a> This sentence is scribbled +over. Forster reads the last word as +“lastalls,” <i>i.e.</i> rascals, but it seems rather +to be “ledles.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote488a"></a><a href="#citation488a" +class="footnote">[488a]</a> Dr. Peter Brown was appointed +Bishop of Cork in 1709.</p> +<p><a name="footnote488b"></a><a href="#citation488b" +class="footnote">[488b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page26">26</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote488c"></a><a href="#citation488c" +class="footnote">[488c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page23">23</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote489a"></a><a href="#citation489a" +class="footnote">[489a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page24">24</a></span>, note 4.</p> +<p><a name="footnote489b"></a><a href="#citation489b" +class="footnote">[489b]</a> Dr. H. Humphreys, Bishop of +Hereford, died on Nov. 20, 1712. His successor was Dr. +Philip Bisse (1667–1721), Bishop of St. David’s (see +p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page14">14</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote490a"></a><a href="#citation490a" +class="footnote">[490a]</a> Thomas Keightley, a +Commissioner of the Great Seal in Ireland.</p> +<p><a name="footnote490b"></a><a href="#citation490b" +class="footnote">[490b]</a> Nearly obliterated. Mr. +Ryland reads, “deelest MD.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote490c"></a><a href="#citation490c" +class="footnote">[490c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page480">480</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote490d"></a><a href="#citation490d" +class="footnote">[490d]</a> In the <i>Examiner</i> for Jan. +5 to 9, 1712[–13], there is an account of the game of +Similitudes. One person thinks of a subject, and the +others, not knowing what it is, name similitudes, and when the +subject is proclaimed, must make good the comparisons. On +the occasion described, the subject chosen was Faction. The +prize was given to a Dutchman, who argued that Faction was like +butter, because too much fire spoiled its consistency.</p> +<p><a name="footnote490e"></a><a href="#citation490e" +class="footnote">[490e]</a> Earl Poulett (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page190">190</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote491a"></a><a href="#citation491a" +class="footnote">[491a]</a> “Say” (MS.).</p> +<p><a name="footnote491b"></a><a href="#citation491b" +class="footnote">[491b]</a> Dr. Pratt.</p> +<p><a name="footnote491c"></a><a href="#citation491c" +class="footnote">[491c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page120">120</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote492a"></a><a href="#citation492a" +class="footnote">[492a]</a> This sentence is partially +obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote492b"></a><a href="#citation492b" +class="footnote">[492b]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page305">305</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page308">308</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote493a"></a><a href="#citation493a" +class="footnote">[493a]</a> Cf. the account of +Beatrix’s feelings on the death of the Duke in +<i>Esmond</i>, book iii. chaps. 6 and 7.</p> +<p><a name="footnote493b"></a><a href="#citation493b" +class="footnote">[493b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page195">195</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote494a"></a><a href="#citation494a" +class="footnote">[494a]</a> “Her Majesty is all +goodness and tenderness to her people and her Allies. She +has now prorogued the best Parliament that ever assembled in her +reign and respited her own glory, and the wishes, prayers, and +wants of her people, only to give some of her Allies an +opportunity to think of the returns they owe her, and try if +there be such a thing as gratitude, justice, or humanity in +Europe. The conduct of Her Majesty is without +parallel. Never was so great a condescension made to the +unreasonable clamours of an insolent faction now dwindled to the +most contemptible circumstances.”—<i>Examiner</i>, +Jan. 12–16, 1712[–13].</p> +<p><a name="footnote494b"></a><a href="#citation494b" +class="footnote">[494b]</a> <i>Mr. Collins’s +Discourse of Freethinking</i>, <i>put into plain English by way +of Abstract</i>, <i>for the use of the Poor</i>, an ironical +pamphlet on Arthur Collins’s <i>Discourse of +Freethinking</i>, 1713.</p> +<p><a name="footnote495a"></a><a href="#citation495a" +class="footnote">[495a]</a> <i>The History of the Peace of +Utrecht</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote495b"></a><a href="#citation495b" +class="footnote">[495b]</a> A line here has been +erased. Forster imagined that he read, “Nite dear MD, +drowsy drowsy dear.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote496a"></a><a href="#citation496a" +class="footnote">[496a]</a> Hereford.</p> +<p><a name="footnote496b"></a><a href="#citation496b" +class="footnote">[496b]</a> Very well.</p> +<p><a name="footnote497a"></a><a href="#citation497a" +class="footnote">[497a]</a> Sentence obliterated. +Forster professes to read, “Pay can oo walk +oftener—oftener still?”</p> +<p><a name="footnote497b"></a><a href="#citation497b" +class="footnote">[497b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page480">480</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote497c"></a><a href="#citation497c" +class="footnote">[497c]</a> Dr. Bisse, translated from St. +David’s.</p> +<p><a name="footnote497d"></a><a href="#citation497d" +class="footnote">[497d]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page176">176</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page489">489</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote498a"></a><a href="#citation498a" +class="footnote">[498a]</a> To “Mrs. Dingley,” +etc. Endorsed “Febr. 26.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote498b"></a><a href="#citation498b" +class="footnote">[498b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page494">494</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote498c"></a><a href="#citation498c" +class="footnote">[498c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page271">271</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote498d"></a><a href="#citation498d" +class="footnote">[498d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page468">468</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote499a"></a><a href="#citation499a" +class="footnote">[499a]</a> A result of confusion between +Erasmus Lewis and Henry Lewis, a Hamburg merchant. See +Swift’s paper in the <i>Examiner</i> of Jan. 30 to Feb. 2, +reprinted in his <i>Works</i> under the title, “A Complete +Refutation of the Falsehoods alleged against Erasmus Lewis, +Esq.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote499b"></a><a href="#citation499b" +class="footnote">[499b]</a> Lord Dupplin (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span>) had been +created Baron Hay in December 1711.</p> +<p><a name="footnote499c"></a><a href="#citation499c" +class="footnote">[499c]</a> A composition of inflammable +materials.</p> +<p><a name="footnote500a"></a><a href="#citation500a" +class="footnote">[500a]</a> Assessors.</p> +<p><a name="footnote500b"></a><a href="#citation500b" +class="footnote">[500b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page36">36</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote501"></a><a href="#citation501" +class="footnote">[501]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page499">499</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote502a"></a><a href="#citation502a" +class="footnote">[502a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page439">439</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote502b"></a><a href="#citation502b" +class="footnote">[502b]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page10">10</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page381">381</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page413">413</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote503a"></a><a href="#citation503a" +class="footnote">[503a]</a> Dr. Bisse.</p> +<p><a name="footnote503b"></a><a href="#citation503b" +class="footnote">[503b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page326">326</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote503c"></a><a href="#citation503c" +class="footnote">[503c]</a> Forster reads, +“something.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote503d"></a><a href="#citation503d" +class="footnote">[503d]</a> Hardly legible.</p> +<p><a name="footnote504a"></a><a href="#citation504a" +class="footnote">[504a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page52">52</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote504b"></a><a href="#citation504b" +class="footnote">[504b]</a> Stella’s brother-in-law +(See pp. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page471">471</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page473">473</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote504c"></a><a href="#citation504c" +class="footnote">[504c]</a> Forster guesses, “Oo are +so ’recise; not to oor health.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote504d"></a><a href="#citation504d" +class="footnote">[504d]</a> For “poo +Ppt’s.” Mr. Ryland reads, +“people’s.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote505a"></a><a href="#citation505a" +class="footnote">[505a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page478">478</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote505b"></a><a href="#citation505b" +class="footnote">[505b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page483">483</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote505c"></a><a href="#citation505c" +class="footnote">[505c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page132">132</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote505d"></a><a href="#citation505d" +class="footnote">[505d]</a> Obliterated; Forster’s +reading.</p> +<p><a name="footnote506a"></a><a href="#citation506a" +class="footnote">[506a]</a> Writing in October 1713, Lord +Berkeley of Stratton told Lord Strafford of “a fine prank +of the widow Lady Jersey” (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page281">281</a></span>). +“It is well known her lord died much in debt, and she, +after taking upon her the administration, sold everything and +made what money she could, and is run away into France without +paying a farthing of the debts, with only one servant and unknown +to all her friends, and hath taken her youngest son, as +’tis supposed to make herself a merit in breeding him a +papist. My Lord Bolingbroke sent after her, but too late, +and they say the Queen hath writ a letter with her own hand to +the King of France to send back the boy” (<i>Wentworth +Papers</i>, p. 357). See also p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page538">538</a></span> +below. I am not sure whether in the present passage Swift +is referring to the widow or the younger Lady Jersey (see p. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page326">326</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote506b"></a><a href="#citation506b" +class="footnote">[506b]</a> Sir Thomas Clarges, Bart. (died +1759), M.P. for Lostwithiel, married Barbara, youngest daughter +of John Berkeley, fourth Viscount Fitz-Hardinge, and of Barbara +Villiers (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page466">466</a></span>), daughter of Sir Edward +Villiers.</p> +<p><a name="footnote507a"></a><a href="#citation507a" +class="footnote">[507a]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page428">428</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page447">447</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote507b"></a><a href="#citation507b" +class="footnote">[507b]</a> Altered from “11” +in the MS. It is not certain where the error in the dates +began; but the entry of the 6th must be correctly dated, because +the Feb. 6 was the Queen’s Birthday.</p> +<p><a name="footnote507c"></a><a href="#citation507c" +class="footnote">[507c]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page422">422</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page479">479</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote508a"></a><a href="#citation508a" +class="footnote">[508a]</a> Addressed to “Mrs. +Dingley,” etc. Endorsed “Mar. 7.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote508b"></a><a href="#citation508b" +class="footnote">[508b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page27">27</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote508c"></a><a href="#citation508c" +class="footnote">[508c]</a> Sedan chairs were then +comparatively novel (see Gay’s <i>Trivia</i>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote508d"></a><a href="#citation508d" +class="footnote">[508d]</a> Some words obliterated. +Forster reads, “Nite MD, My own deelest MD.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote509a"></a><a href="#citation509a" +class="footnote">[509a]</a> Peter Wentworth wrote to Lord +Strafford, on Feb. 17, 1713, “Poor Mr. Harrison is very +much lamented; he died last Saturday. Dr. Swift told me +that he had told him . . . he owed about £300, and the +Queen owed him £500, and that if you or some of your people +could send an account of his debts, that I might give it to him, +he would undertake to solicit Lord Treasurer and get this +£500, and give the remainder to his mother and +sister” (<i>Wentworth Papers</i>, 320).</p> +<p><a name="footnote509b"></a><a href="#citation509b" +class="footnote">[509b]</a> George St. John (eldest son of +Sir Harry St. John by his second marriage) was Secretary to the +English Plenipotentiaries at Utrecht. He died at Venice in +1716 (Lady Cowper’s <i>Diary</i>, 65).</p> +<p><a name="footnote509c"></a><a href="#citation509c" +class="footnote">[509c]</a> Forster wrongly reads, +“poor.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote509d"></a><a href="#citation509d" +class="footnote">[509d]</a> “Putt” (MS.).</p> +<p><a name="footnote509e"></a><a href="#citation509e" +class="footnote">[509e]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page506">506</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote510a"></a><a href="#citation510a" +class="footnote">[510a]</a> Montagu Bertie, second Earl of +Abingdon (died 1743), was a strong Tory.</p> +<p><a name="footnote510b"></a><a href="#citation510b" +class="footnote">[510b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page102">102</a></span>. +These friends were together again on an expedition to Bath in +1715, when Jervas wrote to Pope (Aug. 12, 1715) that Arbuthnot, +Disney, and he were to meet at Hyde Park Corner, proceed to Mr. +Hill’s at Egham, meet Pope next day, and then go to Lord +Stawell’s to lodge the night. Lord Stawell’s +seat, Aldermaston, was seventeen miles from Binfield.</p> +<p><a name="footnote510c"></a><a href="#citation510c" +class="footnote">[510c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page153">153</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote510d"></a><a href="#citation510d" +class="footnote">[510d]</a> “I” (MS.).</p> +<p><a name="footnote510e"></a><a href="#citation510e" +class="footnote">[510e]</a> Obliterated. Forster +reads, “devil,” and Mr. Ryland, +“bitch.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote511a"></a><a href="#citation511a" +class="footnote">[511a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page393">393</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote511b"></a><a href="#citation511b" +class="footnote">[511b]</a> Victor Marie, duc +d’Estrées, Marshal of France (died 1727).</p> +<p><a name="footnote511c"></a><a href="#citation511c" +class="footnote">[511c]</a> See <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page471">471</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote511d"></a><a href="#citation511d" +class="footnote">[511d]</a> Several words are +obliterated. Forster reads, “the last word, God +’give me”; but “’give me” is +certainly wrong.</p> +<p><a name="footnote512"></a><a href="#citation512" +class="footnote">[512]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page69">69</a></span>. Sir +Thomas Hanmer married, in 1698, at the age of twenty-two, +Isabella, Dowager Duchess of Grafton, daughter of Henry, Earl of +Arlington, and Countess of Arlington in her own right. +Hanmer was not made Secretary of State, but he succeeded Bromley +as Speaker of the House of Commons.</p> +<p><a name="footnote513a"></a><a href="#citation513a" +class="footnote">[513a]</a> William Fitzmaurice (see pp. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page91">91</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page263">263</a></span>) entered +Christ Church, Oxford, matriculating on March 10, 1712–13, +at the age of eighteen.</p> +<p><a name="footnote513b"></a><a href="#citation513b" +class="footnote">[513b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page89">89</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote513c"></a><a href="#citation513c" +class="footnote">[513c]</a> William Bromley, second son of +Bromley the Speaker (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page76">76</a></span>), was a boy of fourteen at this +time. In 1727 he was elected M.P. for Warwick, and he died +in 1737, shortly after being elected Member for Oxford +University.</p> +<p><a name="footnote513d"></a><a href="#citation513d" +class="footnote">[513d]</a> See <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page133">133</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote513e"></a><a href="#citation513e" +class="footnote">[513e]</a> Sometimes “list” +means to border or edge; at others, to sew together, so as to +make a variegated display, or to form a border. Probably it +here means the curling of the bottom of the wig.</p> +<p><a name="footnote513f"></a><a href="#citation513f" +class="footnote">[513f]</a> The last eight words have been +much obliterated, and the reading is doubtful.</p> +<p><a name="footnote514a"></a><a href="#citation514a" +class="footnote">[514a]</a> Lady Henrietta Hyde, second +daughter of Laurence Hyde, first Earl of Rochester (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page60">60</a></span>), married +James Scott, Earl of Dalkeith, son of the Duke of Monmouth. +Lord Dalkeith died in 1705, leaving a son, who succeeded his +grandmother (Monmouth’s widow) as second Duke of +Buccleuch. Lady Catherine Hyde (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page293">293</a></span>) was a +younger sister of Lady Dalkeith.</p> +<p><a name="footnote514b"></a><a href="#citation514b" +class="footnote">[514b]</a> Swift first wrote “I +frequent.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote515a"></a><a href="#citation515a" +class="footnote">[515a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page456">456</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote515b"></a><a href="#citation515b" +class="footnote">[515b]</a> D’Estrées.</p> +<p><a name="footnote515c"></a><a href="#citation515c" +class="footnote">[515c]</a> Little (almost illegible).</p> +<p><a name="footnote516a"></a><a href="#citation516a" +class="footnote">[516a]</a> Addressed to “Mrs. +Dingley,” etc. Endorsed “Mar. 27.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote516b"></a><a href="#citation516b" +class="footnote">[516b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page10">10</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote516c"></a><a href="#citation516c" +class="footnote">[516c]</a> Formerly Lady Rialton (see p. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page392">392</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote517a"></a><a href="#citation517a" +class="footnote">[517a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page490">490</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote517b"></a><a href="#citation517b" +class="footnote">[517b]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page95">95</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page405">405</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote517c"></a><a href="#citation517c" +class="footnote">[517c]</a> Pun on +“gambol.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote517d"></a><a href="#citation517d" +class="footnote">[517d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page478">478</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote518a"></a><a href="#citation518a" +class="footnote">[518a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page401">401</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote518b"></a><a href="#citation518b" +class="footnote">[518b]</a> “Upon Tuesday last, the +house where His Grace the late Duke of Hamilton and Brandon lived +was hired for that day, where there was a fine ball and +entertainment; and it is reported in town, that a great lady, +lately gone to travel, left one hundred guineas, with orders that +it should be spent in that manner, and in that house” +(<i>Postboy</i>, Feb. 26–28, 1712–13). The +“great lady” was, presumably, the Duchess of +Marlborough.</p> +<p><a name="footnote518c"></a><a href="#citation518c" +class="footnote">[518c]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page357">357</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page397">397</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote518d"></a><a href="#citation518d" +class="footnote">[518d]</a> Trinity College, Dublin.</p> +<p><a name="footnote518e"></a><a href="#citation518e" +class="footnote">[518e]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page512">512</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote518f"></a><a href="#citation518f" +class="footnote">[518f]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page357">357</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote519a"></a><a href="#citation519a" +class="footnote">[519a]</a> Dr. Pratt, Provost of Trinity +College.</p> +<p><a name="footnote519b"></a><a href="#citation519b" +class="footnote">[519b]</a> Obliterated, and doubtful.</p> +<p><a name="footnote519c"></a><a href="#citation519c" +class="footnote">[519c]</a> A deal at cards, that draws the +whole tricks.</p> +<p><a name="footnote520"></a><a href="#citation520" +class="footnote">[520]</a> Previous editors have misread +“Trevor” as “Treasurer.” Thomas Trevor, +Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas, was created Baron Trevor, of +Bromham, in January 1712. By commission of March 9, 1713, +he occupied the woolsack during the illness of the Lord Keeper, +Harcourt.</p> +<p><a name="footnote521a"></a><a href="#citation521a" +class="footnote">[521a]</a> This is the only reference to +Pope in the <i>Journal</i>. In his <i>Windsor Forest</i> +the young poet assisted the Tories by his reference to the peace +of Utrecht, then awaiting ratification.</p> +<p><a name="footnote521b"></a><a href="#citation521b" +class="footnote">[521b]</a> Several words have been +obliterated. Forster reads, “Rove Pdfr, poo Pdfr, +Nite MD MD MD,” but this is more than the space would +contain.</p> +<p><a name="footnote522a"></a><a href="#citation522a" +class="footnote">[522a]</a> William Oldisworth +(1680–1734), a Tory journalist and pamphleteer, who +published various works, including a translation of the +<i>Iliad</i>. He died in a debtors’ prison.</p> +<p><a name="footnote522b"></a><a href="#citation522b" +class="footnote">[522b]</a> Some words obliterated. +The reading is Forster’s, and seems to be correct.</p> +<p><a name="footnote523a"></a><a href="#citation523a" +class="footnote">[523a]</a> Susan Armine, elder daughter of +Sir William Armine, Bart., of Osgodby, Lincolnshire, was created +a life peeress in 1674, as Baroness Belasyse of Osgodby. +She died March 6, 1713. Her first husband was the +Honourable Sir Henry Belasyse, son and heir of John, Baron +Belasyse, of Worlaby; and her second, Mr. Fortney, of +Chequers.</p> +<p><a name="footnote523b"></a><a href="#citation523b" +class="footnote">[523b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page48">48</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote524a"></a><a href="#citation524a" +class="footnote">[524a]</a> A word before “Ppt” +is illegible. Forster’s reading, “yes,” +does not seem right.</p> +<p><a name="footnote524b"></a><a href="#citation524b" +class="footnote">[524b]</a> In November 1711 it was +reported that Miss Kingdom was privately married to Lord Conway +(<i>Wentworth Papers</i>, 207), but this was not the case. +Lord Conway was a widower in 1713, but he married an Irish lady +named Bowden.</p> +<p><a name="footnote525a"></a><a href="#citation525a" +class="footnote">[525a]</a> Forster reads, “Nite, my +own dee sollahs. Pdfr roves MD”; but the last three +words, at least, do not seem to be in the MS.</p> +<p><a name="footnote525b"></a><a href="#citation525b" +class="footnote">[525b]</a> Probably the Bishop of +Raphoe’s son (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page289">289</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote526a"></a><a href="#citation526a" +class="footnote">[526a]</a> What.</p> +<p><a name="footnote526b"></a><a href="#citation526b" +class="footnote">[526b]</a> As Master of the Savoy.</p> +<p><a name="footnote526c"></a><a href="#citation526c" +class="footnote">[526c]</a> William Burgh was Comptroller +and Accountant-General for Ireland from 1694 to 1717, when his +patent was revoked. He was succeeded by Eustace +Budgell.</p> +<p><a name="footnote526d"></a><a href="#citation526d" +class="footnote">[526d]</a> William Paget, sixth Lord +Paget, died in March 1713, aged seventy-six. He spent a +great part of his life as Ambassador at Vienna and +Constantinople.</p> +<p><a name="footnote526e"></a><a href="#citation526e" +class="footnote">[526e]</a> Pocket.</p> +<p><a name="footnote526f"></a><a href="#citation526f" +class="footnote">[526f]</a> Forster reads, “Lele lele +logues”; Mr. Ryland, “Lele lele . . . ”</p> +<p><a name="footnote527a"></a><a href="#citation527a" +class="footnote">[527a]</a> Addressed to “Mrs. +Dingley,” etc. Endorsed “Apr. 13.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote527b"></a><a href="#citation527b" +class="footnote">[527b]</a> Esther Johnson’s +brother-in-law, Filby (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page471">471</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote527c"></a><a href="#citation527c" +class="footnote">[527c]</a> Earl Poulett (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page190">190</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote527d"></a><a href="#citation527d" +class="footnote">[527d]</a> Francis Annesley, M.P. for +Westbury. His colleague in the representation of that +borough was Henry Bertie (third son of James, Earl of Abingdon), +who married Earl Poulett’s sister-in-law, Anthony +Henley’s widow (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page117">117</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote528a"></a><a href="#citation528a" +class="footnote">[528a]</a> “Has” (MS.).</p> +<p><a name="footnote528b"></a><a href="#citation528b" +class="footnote">[528b]</a> A dozen words are erased. +The reading is Forster’s, and appears to be correct.</p> +<p><a name="footnote528c"></a><a href="#citation528c" +class="footnote">[528c]</a> <i>The British +Ambassadress’s Speech to the French King</i>. The +printer was sent to the pillory and fined.</p> +<p><a name="footnote528d"></a><a href="#citation528d" +class="footnote">[528d]</a> The <i>Examiner</i> (vol. iii. +No. 35) said that Swift—“a gentleman of the first +character for learning, good sense, wit, and more virtues than +even they can set off and illustrate”—was not the +author of that periodical. “Out of pure regard to +justice, I strip myself of all the honour that lucky untruth did +this paper.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote529a"></a><a href="#citation529a" +class="footnote">[529a]</a> A purgative electuary.</p> +<p><a name="footnote529b"></a><a href="#citation529b" +class="footnote">[529b]</a> Bargains.</p> +<p><a name="footnote529c"></a><a href="#citation529c" +class="footnote">[529c]</a> Three or four words +illegible. Forster reads, “Nite, nite, own +MD.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote530a"></a><a href="#citation530a" +class="footnote">[530a]</a> Forster reads, +“devil’s brood”; probably the second word is +“bawd:” Cf. p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page510">510</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote530b"></a><a href="#citation530b" +class="footnote">[530b]</a> Several “moving +pictures,” mostly brought from Germany, were on view in +London at about this time. See <i>Tatler</i>, No. 129, and +Gay’s <i>Fables</i>, No. 6.</p> +<p><a name="footnote531a"></a><a href="#citation531a" +class="footnote">[531a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page43">43</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote531b"></a><a href="#citation531b" +class="footnote">[531b]</a> “Mr. Charles Grattan, +afterwards master of a free school at Enniskillen” +(Scott).</p> +<p><a name="footnote531c"></a><a href="#citation531c" +class="footnote">[531c]</a> So given in the MS. +Forster suggests that it is a mistake for “wood.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote532a"></a><a href="#citation532a" +class="footnote">[532a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page271">271</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote532b"></a><a href="#citation532b" +class="footnote">[532b]</a> It is probable that this is +Pope’s friend, William Cleland, who died in 1741, aged +sixty-seven. William Cleland served in Spain under Lord +Rivers, but was not a Colonel, though he seems to have been a +Major. Afterwards he was a Commissioner of Customs in +Scotland and a Commissioner of the Land Tax in England. +Colonel Cleland cannot, as Scott suggested (Swift’s +<i>Works</i>, iii. 142, xviii. 137–39, xix. 8), have been +the son of the Colonel William Cleland, Covenanter and poet, who +died in 1689, at the age of twenty-eight. William Cleland +allowed his name to be appended to a letter of Pope’s +prefixed to the <i>Dunciad</i>, and Pope afterwards described him +as “a person of universal learning, and an enlarged +conversation; no man had a warmer heart for his friends, or a +sincerer attachment to the constitution of his +country.” Swift, referring to this letter, wrote to +Pope, “Pray tell me whether your Colonel (<i>sic</i>) +Cleland be a tall Scots gentleman, walking perpetually in the +Mall, and fastening upon everybody he meets, as he has often done +upon me?” (Pope’s <i>Works</i>, iv. 48, vii. +214).</p> +<p><a name="footnote532c"></a><a href="#citation532c" +class="footnote">[532c]</a> Henry Grey, Lord Lucas (died +1741), who became twelfth Earl of Kent in 1702, was made Duke of +Kent in 1710. He held various offices under George I. and +George <span class="GutSmall">II</span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote533a"></a><a href="#citation533a" +class="footnote">[533a]</a> Forster found, among the MSS. +at Narford, the “lie” thus prepared for All +Fools’ Day. Richard Noble, an attorney, ran away with +a lady who was the wife of John Sayer and daughter of Admiral +Nevill; and he killed Sayer on the discovery of the +intrigue. The incident was made use of by Hogarth in the +fifth scene of “Marriage a la Mode.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote533b"></a><a href="#citation533b" +class="footnote">[533b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page23">23</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote533c"></a><a href="#citation533c" +class="footnote">[533c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page100">100</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote533d"></a><a href="#citation533d" +class="footnote">[533d]</a> Charles <span +class="GutSmall">XII</span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote533e"></a><a href="#citation533e" +class="footnote">[533e]</a> “Is” (MS.).</p> +<p><a name="footnote533f"></a><a href="#citation533f" +class="footnote">[533f]</a> Cibber says that he saw four +acts of <i>Cato</i> in 1703; the fifth act, according to Steele, +was written in less than a week. The famous first +performance was on April 14, 1713.</p> +<p><a name="footnote533g"></a><a href="#citation533g" +class="footnote">[533g]</a> The first number of the +<i>Guardian</i> appeared on March 12, and the paper was published +daily until Oct. 1, 1713. Pope, Addison, and Berkeley were +among the contributors.</p> +<p><a name="footnote534a"></a><a href="#citation534a" +class="footnote">[534a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page456">456</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote534b"></a><a href="#citation534b" +class="footnote">[534b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page389">389</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote534c"></a><a href="#citation534c" +class="footnote">[534c]</a> The first preached after the +period of his suspension by the House of Lords. It was +delivered at St. Saviour’s, Southwark, before his +installation at St. Andrew’s, and was published with the +title, <i>The Christian’s Triumph</i>, <i>or the Duty of +praying for our Enemies</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote535a"></a><a href="#citation535a" +class="footnote">[535a]</a> Swift’s curate at +Laracor.</p> +<p><a name="footnote535b"></a><a href="#citation535b" +class="footnote">[535b]</a> Richard Gorges (died 1728) was +eldest son and heir of Dr. Robert Gorges, of Kilbrue, County +Meath, by Jane, daughter of Sir Arthur Loftus, and sister of +Adam, Viscount Lisburne. He was appointed Adjutant-General +of the Forces in Ireland 1697, Colonel of a new Regiment of Foot +1703, Major-General of the Forces 1707, and Lieutenant-General +1710 (Dalton’s <i>Army Lists</i>, iii. 75).</p> +<p><a name="footnote536a"></a><a href="#citation536a" +class="footnote">[536a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page510">510</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote536b"></a><a href="#citation536b" +class="footnote">[536b]</a> Mrs. Oldfield.</p> +<p><a name="footnote536c"></a><a href="#citation536c" +class="footnote">[536c]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page473">473</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote536d"></a><a href="#citation536d" +class="footnote">[536d]</a> Never saw the like.</p> +<p><a name="footnote536e"></a><a href="#citation536e" +class="footnote">[536e]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page460">460</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote537a"></a><a href="#citation537a" +class="footnote">[537a]</a> The remainder has been +partially obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote537b"></a><a href="#citation537b" +class="footnote">[537b]</a> Addressed to “Mrs. +Dingley,” etc. Endorsed “May 4.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote538a"></a><a href="#citation538a" +class="footnote">[538a]</a> Lord Cholmondeley (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page357">357</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote538b"></a><a href="#citation538b" +class="footnote">[538b]</a> Harcourt.</p> +<p><a name="footnote538c"></a><a href="#citation538c" +class="footnote">[538c]</a> Forster’s reading; the +last two words are doubtful.</p> +<p><a name="footnote538d"></a><a href="#citation538d" +class="footnote">[538d]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page52">52</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote538e"></a><a href="#citation538e" +class="footnote">[538e]</a> Francis Palmes, who was wounded +at Blenheim, was made a Lieutenant-General in 1709. In 1707 +he was elected M.P. for West Loo; in 1708 he was sent as Envoy +Extraordinary to the Duke of Savoy, and in 1710 to Vienna.</p> +<p><a name="footnote538f"></a><a href="#citation538f" +class="footnote">[538f]</a> Apparently “so +heed.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote538g"></a><a href="#citation538g" +class="footnote">[538g]</a> Henry Villiers (died 1743), +second son of the first Earl of Jersey and of Barbara, daughter +of William Chiffinch (see p. <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page281">281</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote539a"></a><a href="#citation539a" +class="footnote">[539a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page520">520</a></span>. The +Speech and Address are in the Commons’ Journals, xvii. 278, +280. For the draft Address, in Swift’s handwriting, +see the Portland Papers (1899), v. 276.</p> +<p><a name="footnote539b"></a><a href="#citation539b" +class="footnote">[539b]</a> Scoffed, jeered.</p> +<p><a name="footnote539c"></a><a href="#citation539c" +class="footnote">[539c]</a> Dr. Gastrell (see p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page238">238</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote540"></a><a href="#citation540" +class="footnote">[540]</a> George Berkeley, afterwards +Bishop of Cloyne, but then a young man of twenty-eight, came to +London in January 1713. He was already known by his <i>New +Theory of Vision</i> and <i>Treatise on the Principles of Human +Knowledge</i>, and he brought with him his <i>Three Dialogues +between Hylas and Philonous</i>. Steele was among the first +to welcome him, and he soon made the acquaintance of Addison, +Pope, and Swift. On March 27, Berkeley wrote to Sir John +Perceval of the breach between Swift and the Whigs: “Dr. +Swift’s wit is admired by both of them [Addison and +Steele], and indeed by his greatest enemies, and . . . I +think him one of the best-matured and agreeable men in the +world.” In November 1713 Swift procured for Berkeley +the chaplaincy and secretaryship to Lord Peterborough, the new +Envoy to Sicily.</p> +<p><a name="footnote541"></a><a href="#citation541" +class="footnote">[541]</a> Forster reads, “all oo +sawcy Ppt can say oo may see me”; but the words are +illegible.</p> +<p><a name="footnote542a"></a><a href="#citation542a" +class="footnote">[542a]</a> Possibly “see,” +written in mistake for “say.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote542b"></a><a href="#citation542b" +class="footnote">[542b]</a> “J” (MS.).</p> +<p><a name="footnote544a"></a><a href="#citation544a" +class="footnote">[544a]</a> Obliterated. Forster +imagined that he read, “Nite dee logues. Poo +Mr.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote544b"></a><a href="#citation544b" +class="footnote">[544b]</a> There were two General +Hamiltons at this time; probably Swift’s acquaintance was +Gustavus Hamilton (1639–1723), who was created Viscount +Boyne in 1717. Hamilton distinguished himself at the battle +of the Boyne and the capture of Athlone, and was made +Brigadier-General in 1696, and Major General in 1703. He +took part in the siege of Vigo, and was made a member of the +Privy Council in 1710.</p> +<p><a name="footnote545a"></a><a href="#citation545a" +class="footnote">[545a]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page427">427</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote545b"></a><a href="#citation545b" +class="footnote">[545b]</a> <i>The History of the Peace of +Utrecht</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote545c"></a><a href="#citation545c" +class="footnote">[545c]</a> This is Forster’s +reading, and appears to be correct. The last word, which he +gives as “iss truly,” is illegible.</p> +<p><a name="footnote545d"></a><a href="#citation545d" +class="footnote">[545d]</a> Belonging to Ireland.</p> +<p><a name="footnote545e"></a><a href="#citation545e" +class="footnote">[545e]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page391">391</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote545f"></a><a href="#citation545f" +class="footnote">[545f]</a> Another excellent reading of +Forster’s. I cannot decipher the last word, which he +gives as “dee rogues.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote546a"></a><a href="#citation546a" +class="footnote">[546a]</a> Sentence obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote546b"></a><a href="#citation546b" +class="footnote">[546b]</a> The number at the beginning of +each entry in the <i>Journal</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote546c"></a><a href="#citation546c" +class="footnote">[546c]</a> Mr. Ryland’s +reading. Forster has “morning, dee.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote546d"></a><a href="#citation546d" +class="footnote">[546d]</a> Dr. Thomas Lindsay (see p. +<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page43">43</a></span>).</p> +<p><a name="footnote546e"></a><a href="#citation546e" +class="footnote">[546e]</a> I think the “MD” is +right, though Forster gives “M.” The +“Pr” is probably an abbreviation of +“Pdfr.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote547a"></a><a href="#citation547a" +class="footnote">[547a]</a> The last three lines have been +obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote547b"></a><a href="#citation547b" +class="footnote">[547b]</a> Addressed to “Mrs. +Dingley,” etc. Endorsed “May 22.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote548a"></a><a href="#citation548a" +class="footnote">[548a]</a> Illegible. Forster reads, +“and dee deelest Ppt.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote548b"></a><a href="#citation548b" +class="footnote">[548b]</a> The last few words have been +partially obliterated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote548c"></a><a href="#citation548c" +class="footnote">[548c]</a> Am very angry. The last +word is scribbled over.</p> +<p><a name="footnote548d"></a><a href="#citation548d" +class="footnote">[548d]</a> <i>The History of the Peace of +Utrecht</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote549a"></a><a href="#citation549a" +class="footnote">[549a]</a> The signature has been cut +off.</p> +<p><a name="footnote549b"></a><a href="#citation549b" +class="footnote">[549b]</a> Addressed to “Mrs. +Dingley,” etc. Endorsed “Chester +Letter.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote549c"></a><a href="#citation549c" +class="footnote">[549c]</a> “Others” (MS.).</p> +<p><a name="footnote550a"></a><a href="#citation550a" +class="footnote">[550a]</a> See pp. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page86">86</a></span>, <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page301">301</a></span>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote550b"></a><a href="#citation550b" +class="footnote">[550b]</a> See p. <span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page46">46</a></span>.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JOURNAL TO STELLA***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 4208-h.htm or 4208-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/2/0/4208 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive +specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this +eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook +for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, +performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given +away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks +not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the +trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. + +START: FULL LICENSE + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the +person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph +1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the +Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when +you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country outside the United States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work +on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: + + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and + most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no + restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it + under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this + eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the + United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you + are located before using this ebook. + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format +other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain +Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +provided that + +* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation." + +* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm + works. + +* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + +* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The +Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm +trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at +www.gutenberg.org + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the +mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its +volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous +locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt +Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to +date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and +official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +For additional contact information: + + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular +state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search +facility: www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +</pre></body> +</html> |