earthen vessel, provided it is close stopped, I allow to be a good succedaneum. As to the boiling chickens in a wooden bowl, I shall be quite ashamed to consult Mrs. Howard upon your account, who thinks herself entirely neglected by you, in not writing to her, as you promised; however, let her take it as she will, to serve a friend, I will venture to ask it of her. The prince and his family come to settle in town to morrow. That Mr. Pulteney expected an answer to his letter, and would be extremely pleased to hear from you, is very certain; for I have heard him talk of it with expectation for above a fortnight.

I have of late been very much out of order with a slight fever, which I am not yet quite free from. It was occasioned by a cold, which my attendance at the Guildhall improved. I have not a friend who has got any thing under my administration, but the duchess of Queensberry, who has had a benefit of a thousand pounds. Your mentioning Mr. Rollinson so kindly, will, I know, give him much pleasure; for he always talks of you with great regard, and the strongest terms of friendship. He has been of late ill of a fever, but is recovered so as to go abroad and take the air.

If the engravers keep their word with me, I shall be able to publish my fables soon after Christmas. The doctor's book is entirely printed off, and will be very soon published. I believe you will expect that I should give you some account how I have spent my time since you left me. I have attended my distressed friend at Twickenham, and been his

A great friend of lord Bolingbroke, Dr. Swift, and Mr. Pope. He married the widow of John, earl of Winchelsea.

+ Arbuthnot's Tables of ancient Coins, &c.

amanuensis,

amanuensis, which you know is no idle charge. I have read about half Virgil, and half Spenser's Fairy Queen. I still despise court preferments, so that I lose no time upon attendance on great men ; and still can find amusement enough without quadrille, which here is the universal employment of life.

I thought you would be glad to hear from me, so that I determined not to stir out of my lodgings till I had answered your letter: and I think I shall very probably hear more of the matter which I mention in the first paragraph of this letter as soon as I go abroad; for I expect it every day. We have no news as yet of Mr. Stopford*: Mr. Rollinson told me he shall know of his arrival, and will send me word. Lord Bolingbroke has been to make a visit to sir William Wyndham. I hear he is returned, but I have not seen him. If I had been in a better state of health, and Mrs. Howard were not to come to town to morrow, I would have gone to Mr. Pope's to day, to have dined with him there on Monday.

You ask me how to address to lord B

when you are disposed to write to him. If you mean lord Burlington, he is not yet returned from France, but is expected every day. If you mean lord Bathurst, he is in Gloucestershire, and makes but a very short stay; so that if you direct to one of them in St. James's Square, or to the other at Burlington-house in Piccadilly, your letter will find

Dr. James Stopford, fellow of Trinity college, Dublin; and advanced to the bishoprick of Cloyne, in February, 1753. † Afterward countess of Suffolk, from whom Gay at this time had expectations.

them.

them. I will make your compliments to lord Chesterfield and Mr. Pulteney; and I beg you, in return, to make mine to Mr. Ford. Next week I shall have a new coat and new buttons, for the birthday, though I do not know but a turn coat might have been more for my advantage. Yours most sincerely and affectionately.

P. S. I hear that lord Bolingbroke will be in town, at his own house in Pall mall, next week.

As we cannot enjoy any good things without your partaking of it, accept of the following receipt for stewing veal:

"Take a knuckle of veal;
You may buy it, or steal.

In a few pieces cut it:
In a stewing pan put it.
Salt, pepper, and mace
Must season this knuckle;
Then what's join'd to a place,
With other herbs muckle;
That, which kill'd king Will:
And what never stands still.

Some sprigs of that bed§

Where children are bred,

Which much you will mend, if

Both spinnage and endive,

And lettuce, and beet,

With marygold meet.

• " Vulgo,salary."

+ "Supposed sorrel."

"This is by Dr. Bentley thought to be time, or thyme."

"Parsley. Vide Chamberlayne,"

Put

Put no water at all;
For it maketh things small,
Which, lest it should happen,
A close cover clap on.

Put this pot of Wood's metal*
In a hot boiling kettle,

And there let it be

(Mark the doctrine I teach)
About-let me see,-

Thrice as long as you preach† :
So skimming the fat off,
Say grace with your hat off.
O, then! with what rapture
Will it fill dean and chapter!"

FROM DR. ARBUTHNOT.

LONDON, NOV. 8, 1726.

I TAKE it mighty kindly, that a man of your high post, dear sir, was pleased to write me so long a letter. I look upon the captain Tom of a great nation to be a much greater man than the governor of it.

I am sorry your commission about your singer has not been executed sooner. It is not Nanny's fault, who has spoke several times to Dr. Pepusch about it, and writ three or four letters, and received for an

"Of this composition see the works of the copper-farthing

"dean."

"Which we suppose to be near two hours."

swer,

swer, that he would write for the young fellow; but still, nothing is done. I will endeavour to get his name and direction, and write to him myself.

Your books shall be sent as directed: they have been printed above a month; but I cannot get my subscribers' names *. I will make over all my profits to you for the property of Gulliver's Travels; which, I believe, will have as great a run as John Bunyan. Gulliver is a happy man, that at his age, can write such a merry work.

I made my lord archbishop's compliments to her royal highness, who returns his grace her thanks; at the same time, Mrs. Howard read your letter to herself. The princess immediately seized on your plaid for her own use, and has ordered the young princesses to be clad in the same. When I had the honour to see her, she was reading Gulliver, and was just come to the passage of the hobbling prince; which she laughed at. I tell you freely, the part of the projectors is the least brilliant. Lewis grumbles a little at it, and says, he wants the key to it, and is daily refining. I suppose he will be able to publish like Barnevelt in time. I gave your ser

To a work, in 4to. entitled, "Tables of ancient Coins, "Weights, and Measures, explained and exemplified in several "Dissertations."

+ Probably archbishop King of Dublin.

The dean sent a present of some silk plaids from Ireland, for the princess of Wales, and the young princesses.

This refers to a pamphlet, entitled, "A Key to the Lock : "or a Treatise proving beyond all Contradiction the dangerous "Tendency of a late Poem, entitled, The Rape of the Lock, "to Government and Religion. By Esdras Barnevelt, apothe “cary.”

VOL. XII.

P

vice