KENSINGTON, _July_ 17, 1712.
I AM 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 _Toland’s Invitation to Dismal_, _or Hue
and Cry after Dismal_, _or Ballad on Dunkirk_, _or Argument that Dunkirk
is not in our Hands_? 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, {449b} 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. I
find I am obliged to the Provost for keeping the Bishop {450a} 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
_Letter to Lord Treasurer_ 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 {450b} 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 {450c} with her little watery postscript. O Rold, dlunken srut!
{450d} 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 {450e}—and now I
must say something else. You hear Secretary St. John is made Viscount
Bullinbrook. {450f} I can hardly persuade him to take that title,
because the 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
_Chronicles_, 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 {451a} 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?
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,
{451b} _A Letter from the Pretender to a Whig Lord_. 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, {451c} 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 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.