4 William King, D.C.L., author of the Journey to London in 1698, Dialogues of the Dead, The Art of Cookery, 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.
5 At the bottom of St. James"s Street, on the west side.
6 The Rev. John Shower, pastor of the Presbyterian Congregation at Curriers" Hall, London Wall.
7 The Windsor Prophecy, in which the d.u.c.h.ess of Somerset (see Letter 17, note 10) is attacked as "Carrots from Northumberland."
8 Merlin"s Prophecy, 1709, written in pseudo-mediaeval English.
9 See Letter 3, note 18.
10 Dorothy, daughter of Sir Edward Leach, of Shipley, Derbyshire.
11 Sir James Long, Bart. (died 1729), was at this time M.P. for Chippenham.
12 The number containing this paragraph is not in the British Museum.
13 Joseph Beaumont (see Letter 1, note 2, Letter 26, Jul. 6, 1711 and Letter 35, note 26)
14 See Letter 4, note 13.
15 Apparently a misprint for "whether."
16 See Letter 32, note 19.
17 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.
18 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.
LETTER 38.
1 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.
2 Thomas Windsor, Viscount Windsor (died 1738), an Irish peer, who had served under William III. 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.
3 The Hon. Russell Robartes, brother of Lord Radnor (see Letter 3, note 7), was Teller of the Exchequer, and M.P. for Bodmin. His son became third Earl of Radnor in 1723.
4 Gay (Trivia, ii. 92) speaks of "the slabby pavement."
5 See Letter 17, note 1.
6 George Granville (see Letter 14, note 5), now Baron Lansdowne, married Lady Mary Thynne, widow of Thomas Thynne, and daughter of Edward, Earl of Jersey (see Letter 29, note 3). 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 n.o.bility, and why will you not try to get her?"
(Wentworth papers, 149).
7 See Letter 24, note 4.
8 Harness.
9 On his birthday Swift read the third chapter of Job.
10 See Letter 33, note 12.
11 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.
12 See Letter 35, note 11 and Letter 31, note 10.
13 See Letter 4, note 16.
14 Dr. Pratt (see Letter 2, note 14).
15 King Henry VIII., act iv. sc. 2; "An old man broken with the storms,"
etc.
16 "These words in the ma.n.u.script imitate Stella"s writing, and are sloped the wrong way" (Deane Swift),
17 Archibald Douglas, third Marquis of Douglas, was created Duke of Douglas in 1703. He died, without issue, in 1761.
18 Arbuthnot and Freind.
LETTER 39.
1 Sir Stephen Evance, goldsmith, was knighted in 1690.
2 Because of the refusal of the House of Lords to allow the Duke of Hamilton (see Letter 27, note 9), a Scottish peer who had been raised to the peerage of Great Britain as Duke of Brandon, to sit under that t.i.tle. 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.
3 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.
4 See Letter 16, note 19. The full t.i.tle was, Some Advice humbly offered to the Members of the October Club, in a Letter from a Person of Honour.
5 See Letter 38, note 11.
6 "It is the last of the page, and written close to the edge of the paper" (Deane Swift).
7 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 d.u.c.h.ess 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"
(Wentworth Papers, 256). The Duke died in 1714, at the age of thirty.
8 "Upon the 10th and 17th of this month the Examiner 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).
9 A term of execration. Scott (Kenilworth) has, "A pize on it."
10 See Letter 11, note 13.