Lady Betty desires me to thank you for your letter, and would be glad, since the provost is graciously pleased to stay her majesty's time, to know where it is he designs to stay.

Honest Townshend and I have the satisfaction to drink your health as often as we do drink together. Whether you approve of your being toasted with the Bishop of London, and such people, I cannot tell; but at present we have disposed you in the first list of rank tories.

A servant is just now come from the Duchess of Ormond, and gives such an account of the Duke of Beaufort, that it is thought he cannot possibly

recover.

FROM MR GAY.*

London, June 8, 1714.

SIR,

SINCE you went out of the town, my Lord Clarendon was appointed envoy-extraordinary to Hanover in the room of Lord Paget; and by making use of those friends, which I entirely owe to you, he has accepted me for his secretary. This day, by appointment, I met his lordship at Mr Secretary Bromley's office; † he then ordered me to be ready by Saturday. I am quite off from the Duchess of Monmouth. Mr Lewis was very ready to serve

*Endorsed "The Dean sent Gay abroad."-N.

+ Bromley was joint secretary with Bolingbroke.-H. Mr Gay had been secretary, or domestic steward, to the duchess, widow of the Duke of Monmouth, who was beheaded in the first year of King James 11.--B.

me upon this occasion, as were Dr Arbuthnot and Mr Ford. I am every day attending my lord-treasurer for his bounty, in order to set me out; which he has promised me upon the following petition, which I sent him by Dr Arbuthnot:

The epigrammatical Petition of John Gay.
I'm no more to converse with the swains,
But go where fine people resort:
One can live without money on plains,
But never without it at court.

If, when with the swains I did gambol,
I array'd me in silver and blue: *
When abroad, and in courts I shall ramble,

Pray, my lord, how much money will do?

We had the honour of the treasurer's company last Saturday, when we sat upon Scriblerus. † Pope is in town, and has brought with him the first book of Homer.

I am this evening to be at Mr Lewis's with the Provost, Mr Ford, Parnell, and Pope. It is thought my Lord Clarendon will make but a short stay at Hanover. If it was possible, that any recommendation could be procured to make me more

* Gay's finery was the subject of ridicule both to himself and his friends. In the preface to his pastorals he describes his equipment for court:

I sold my sheep and lambkins too,

For silver loops and garment blue.

And Pope, in his humorous letter to the Dean, describes Gay as an unhappy youth, who has miserably lavished away all that silver he should have reserved for his soul's health, in buttons and loops for his coat.

+ Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus.

Of Dublin college, Dr Benjamin Pratt...-H.

distinguished than ordinary, during my stay at that court, I should think myself very happy, if you could contrive any method to prosecute it; for I am told, that their civilities very rarely descend so low as to the secretary. I have all the reason in the world to acknowledge this as wholly owing to you. And the many favours I have received from you purely out of your love for doing good, assures me you will not forget me in my absence. As for myself, whether I am at home or abroad, gratitude will always put me in mind of the man, to whom I owe so many benefits. I am your most obliged humble servant,

J. GAY.

TO MISS VANHOMRIGH.

UPPER LETCOMBE, NEAR WANTAGE, BERKS,

June 8, 1714.

I HAVE not much news to tell you from hence, nor have I had one line from any body since I left London, of which I am very glad: but to say the truth, I believe I shall not stay here so long as I intended; I am at a clergyman's house,* whom I love very well but he is such a melancholy thoughtful man, partly from nature, and partly by a solitary life, that I shall soon catch the spleen from him. Out of ease and complaisance, I desire

;

* The Rev. Mr Gery, at Letcombe, Berkshire.

him not to alter any of his methods for me; so we dine exactly between twelve and one. At eight we have some bread and butter, and a glass of ale; and at ten he goes to bed. Wine is a stranger, except a little I sent him; of which, one evening in two, we have a pint between us. His wife has been this month twenty miles off, at her father's, and will not return these ten days. I never saw her; and perhaps the house will be worse when she comes. I read all day, or walk; and do not speak so many words as I have now writ, in three days: so that, in short, I have a mind to steal to Ireland; unless I find myself take more to this way of living, so different, in every circumstance, from what I left. This is the first syllable I have writ to any body since you saw me. I shall be glad to hear from you, not as you are a Londoner, but as a friend; for I care not threepence for news, nor have heard one syllable since I came here. The Pretender, or Duke of Cambridge, may both be landed, and I never the wiser; but if this place were ten times worse, nothing shall make me return to town, while things are in the situation I left them. I give a guinea a-week for my board, and can eat any thing.

JON. SWIFT.

who asked me where you were gone? I told his lordship you were in Berkshire. He answered, "It is very well; I suppose I shall soon hear from him,' My Lord Bolingbroke was very merry with me upon your journey, and hoped the world would be the better for your retirement, and that I should soon be the midwife.* The schism bill was read the second time yesterday, and committed for to-morrow, without a division. Every body is in the greatest consternation at your retirement, and wonders at the cause. I tell them, it is for your health's sake. Mr Gay is made secretary to my Lord Clarendon, and is well pleased with his promotion. The queen is so well, that the Sicilian ambassador has his audience to-night. She can walk, thank God, and is well recovered.

con

sent, I will appoint the happy day; as does, Sir, your most obedient humble servant, TYRANT. †

I forgot to tell you that I saw Mr Harley, who told me he would instantly send for the horse from

* Swift having in vain endeavoured to bring about a reconciliation between the Lords Oxford and Bolingbroke, retired about this time to the house of his friend, the Rev. Mr Gery, at Letcombe, Berks; where he wrote "Free Thoughts on the Present State of Affairs; which, through the medium of his friend Ford, he put to the press of Mr John Barber. The printer, pleased with his pamphlet, but not knowing by whom it was written, communicated it to Lord Bolingbroke, who made in it some alterations not relished by the Dean, and which retarded the progress at the press so long, that in the interim the queen died, and the pamphlet was at the time suppressed.

+ Most persons who have had to do with the press, can assign good reasons for distinguishing its directors by the tremendous epithet assumed by Barber.