LONDON, _Feb._ 23, 1711–12.
AFTER 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
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 {409a} I would have
writ, especially if I had let you into the particulars of affairs: but
enough of this. Nite, deelest logues.
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. {409b}
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?
Oh, pray, now I think of it, be so kind to step to my aunt, 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, {410a}
where my uncle Godwin is named with another coat of arms of three stags.
This is sad stuff to rite; so nite, MD.
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. {410b} 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 {410c} 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 {410d} is such an owl that, 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.
26. I was again busy with the Secretary. {411} 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.
27. I was again with the Secretary this morning; but we 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, {412a} 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.
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, {412b} 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, {412c} 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
Society, which I opposed to his face, but it was carried by all the rest
against me.
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 {413a}
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.
March 1. I went into the City to inquire after poor Stratford, {413b}
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 {413c}
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 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.
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 {414a} 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 {414b} 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 was a terrible accident. He was not at Court to-day. I
dined with Lord Masham. The Queen was not at church. Nite, MD.
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 {415a} 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 {415b} device. So I’ll go to bed. Nite, my two deelest logues.
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 {415c} he does not take care enough
about it, or rather cannot do all himself, and will not employ others:
which is his great fault, as I have often told you. ’Tis late. Nite,
MD.
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. {416a} 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: {416b} 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, {416c} and be p-xed to him. Nite, MD.
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 Danby, {417a} 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 {417b} is to be
President next week; and I will see whether it cannot be cheaper; or else
we will leave the house. . . . {417c} 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.
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 {417d}
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, {417e}
of Dublin, the banker, who is likely to come 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.
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.