LONDON, _Nov._ 17, 1711.
I PUT 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 {341a} and Lady Worsley; {341b} 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. {341c} 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.
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
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 _Spectators_? 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.
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.
20. I have been so teased with Whiggish discourse by 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. {343a} 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.
21. I was this morning busy with my printer: I gave him the fifth sheet,
{343b} 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 month and three days from the last,
which is just five weeks: you see it comes just when I begin to grumble.
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, {344a} 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 {344b} 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 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.
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.
24. I have finished my pamphlet {345a} 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; {345b} but first I must put an
end to a ballad; and go you to your cards, sirrahs, this is card season.
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 to Act of Parliament. I
dined with Lady Mary Dudley; {346a} 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 {346b} 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.
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, {346c} 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
{346d} to give an account of the whole design. My large pamphlet {346e}
will be published to-morrow; copies are sent to the great men this night.
Domville {346f} 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.
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 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. {347a} I must send you the pamphlet, if I can.
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, {347b} 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 {347c} 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.
29. New lodgings. My printer came this morning to tell me he must
immediately print a second edition, {347d} and Lord Treasurer made one or
two small additions: they must work day and night to have it out on
Saturday; they sold a thousand in two days. Our Society met to-day; nine
of us were present: we dined at our brother Bathurst’s. {348a} We made
several regulations, and have chosen three new members, Lord Orrery,
{348b} Jack Hill, who is Mrs. Masham’s brother, he that lately miscarried
in the expedition to Quebec, and one Colonel Disney. {348c}—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.
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. {348d} 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 {348e} 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 _at
least_, and not _at lest_. Pox on your Newbury! {349a} 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 {349b} 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
{349c} 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.
It goes to-morrow,
To nobody’s sorrow.
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 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.
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 {350} says.
Pray let us have no more _bussiness_, but _busyness_: 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, _bussiness_, _busyness_,
_business_, _bisyness_, _bisness_, _bysness_; 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; _business_, _busyness_, _bisyness_.—I
have perplexed myself, and can’t do it. Prithee ask Walls. _Business_,
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 _s_ 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.
The fifteen images that I saw were not worth forty 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. {351a} I fear Prior will
not be one of the plenipotentiaries.
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.