d Snigger, and say that the Dukedom of
Lancaster would not be found extinct if the Right Heir chose to come
Forward. Since that poor young Lord of the Lakes was attainted for his
part in the Troubles of the 'Fifteen, and lost his head on Tower Hill
(his vast Estates going to Greenwich Hospital), I am given to understand
that every man in Cumberland or Westmoreland whose name happens to be
Ratcliffe (I knew the late Mr. Charles Ratcliffe, that Suffered with a
Red Feather in his Hat, very well), must give himself out to be titular
Earl of Derwentwater, and Importune the Government to reverse the
Attainder, and restore him the Lands of which the Greenwich
Commissioners have gotten such a tight Hold; and as for Grandchildren of
the by-blows of King Charles II., good lack! to hear them talk of the
"Merry Monarch," and to see them draw up their Eyebrows into the Stuart
Frown, one would think that every Player-Woman at the King's or the
Duke's House had been as favoured in her time as Madam Eleanour Gwyn.

Thus do I no more believe that Mr. Bartholomew Pinchin was cousin to
Lady Betty Heeltap, or in any manner connected with the family of my
Lord Poddle (and he was only one of the Revolution Peers, that got his
coronet for Ratting at the right moment to King William III.), than that
he was the Great Mogul's Grandmother. His gentlemanly extraction was
with him all a Vain Pretence and silly outward show. It did no very
great Harm, however. When the French adventurer Poirier asked King
Augustus the Strong to make him a Count, what said his Majesty of Warsaw
and Luneville? "That I cannot do," quoth he; "but there is nothing under
the sun to prevent thee from calling thyself a Count, if the humour so
please thee." And Count Poirier, by Self-Creation, he straightway
became, and as Count Poirier was knouted to Death at Moscow for Forging
of Rubles Assignats. Pinchin was palpably a Plebeian; but it suited him
to be called and to call himself an Esquire; and who should gainsay
him? At the Three Archduchesses at Ostend, indeed, they had an exceeding
sensible Plan regarding Titles and Precedence for Strangers, which was
found to answer admirably well. He who took the Grand Suite, looking
upon the courtyard, was always held to be an English Lord. The tenant of
the floor above him was duly esteemed by the Drawers and Chamberlains to
be a Count of the Holy Roman Empire; a quiet gentleman, who would pay a
Louis a day for his charges, but was