14 See Letter 33, note 10.
15 Forster reads, "something."
16 Hardly legible.
17 See Letter 7, note 31.
18 Stella"s brother-in-law (See Letter 53, note 13, Letter 5, note 16 and Letter 55, Nov. 18, 1712).
19 Forster guesses, "Oo are so "recise; not to oor health."
20 For "poo Ppt"s." Mr. Ryland reads, "people"s."
21 See Letter 57, 21 Dec. 1712.
22 See Letter 57, note 23.
23 See Letter 14, note 9.
24 Obliterated; Forster"s reading.
25 Writing in October 1713, Lord Berkeley of Stratton told Lord Strafford of "a fine prank of the widow Lady Jersey" (see Letter 29, note 3). "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" (Wentworth Papers, p. 357). See also Letter 63, note 8. I am not sure whether in the present pa.s.sage Swift is referring to the widow or the younger Lady Jersey (see Letter 33, note 10).
26 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 Letter 54, note 11), daughter of Sir Edward Villiers.
27 See Letter 43, Mar. 21, 1711-12 and Letter 49, Jul. 1, 1712.
28 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.
29 See Letter 43, note 11 and Letter 57, note 12.
Letter 60.
1 Addressed to "Mrs. Dingley," etc. Endorsed "Mar. 7."
2 See Letter 5, note 23.
3 Sedan chairs were then comparatively novel (see Gay"s Trivia).
4 Some words obliterated. Forster reads, "Nite MD, My own deelest MD."
5 Peter Wentworth wrote to Lord Strafford, on Feb. 17, 1713, "Poor Mr.
Harrison is very much lamented; he died last Sat.u.r.day. Dr. Swift told me that he had told him... he owed about 300 pounds, and the Queen owed him 500 pounds, 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 pounds, and give the remainder to his mother and sister" (Wentworth Papers, 320).
6 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 Diary, 65).
7 Forster wrongly reads, "poor."
8 "Putt" (MS.).
9 See Letter 59, note 26.
10 Montagu Bertie, second Earl of Abingdon (died 1743), was a strong Tory.
11 See Letter 11, note 61. 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.
12 See Letter 16, note 20.
13 "I" (MS.).
14 Obliterated. Forster reads, "devil," and Mr. Ryland, "b.i.t.c.h."
15 See Letter 40, note 6.
16 Victor Marie, duc d"Estrees, Marshal of France (died 1727).
17 See Letter 55, note 18.
18 Several words are obliterated. Forster reads, "the last word, G.o.d "give me"; but ""give me" is certainly wrong.
19 See Letter 9, note 13. Sir Thomas Hanmer married, in 1698, at the age of twenty-two, Isabella, Dowager d.u.c.h.ess 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.
20 William Fitzmaurice (see Letter 11, note 19 and Letter 27, note 11) entered Christ Church, Oxford, matriculating on March 10, 1712-13, at the age of eighteen.
21 See Letter 11, note 11.
22 William Bromley, second son of Bromley the Speaker (see Letter 10, note 1), 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.
23 See Letter 14, note 12.
24 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.
25 The last eight words have been much obliterated, and the reading is doubtful.
26 Lady Henrietta Hyde, second daughter of Laurence Hyde, first Earl of Rochester (see Letter 8, note 22), 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 Letter 40, note 6) was a younger sister of Lady Dalkeith.
27 Swift first wrote "I frequent."
28 See Letter 52, note 5.
29 D"Estrees.
30 Little (almost illegible).