elder Sir Philip was created Earl Manvers
in 1806.

21 Her eyes were weak.

22 The son of the Sir Robert Southwell to whom Temple had offered Swift
as a "servant" on his going as Secretary of State to Ireland in 1690.
Edward Southwell (1671-1730) succeeded his father as Secretary of
State for Ireland in 1702, and in 1708 was appointed Clerk to the Privy
Council of Great Britain. Southwell held various offices under George I.
and George II., and amassed a considerable fortune.

23 Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718), dramatist and poet laureate, and one of
the first editors of Shakespeare, was at this time under-secretary to
the Duke of Queensberry, Secretary of State for Scotland.

24 No. 238 contains Swift's "Description of a Shower in London."

25 This seems to be a vague allusion to the text, "Cast thy bread upon
the waters," etc.

26 Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723), the fashionable portrait-painter of
the period.

27 At the General election of 1710 the contest at Westminster excited
much interest. The number of constituents was large, and the franchise
low, all householders who paid scot and lot being voters. There were,
too, many houses of great Whig merchants, and a number of French
Protestants. But the High Church candidates, Cross and Medlicott,
were returned by large majorities, though the Whigs had chosen popular
candidates--General Stanhope, fresh from his successes in Spain, and Sir
Henry Dutton Colt, a Herefordshire gentleman.

28 Sir Andrew Fountaine (1676-1753), a distinguished antiquary, of an
old Norfolk family, was knighted by William III. in 1699, and inherited
his father's estate at Norfolk in 1706. He succeeded Sir Isaac Newton as
Warden of the Mint in 1727, and was Vice-Chamberlain to Queen Caroline.
He became acquainted with Swift in Ireland in 1707, when he went over as
Usher of the Black Rod in Lord Pembroke's Court.

29 See Letter 2, note 17. The Bishop was probably Dr. Moreton, Bishop of
Meath (see Journal, July 1, 1712).

30 The game of ombre--of Spanish origin--is described in Pope's Rape of
the Lock. See also the Compleat Gamester, 1721, and Notes and Queries,
April 8, 1871. The ace of spades, or Spadille, was always the first
trump; the ace of clubs (Basto) always the third. The second trump was
the worst card of the trump suit in its natural order, i.e. the seven in
red and the deuce in black suits, and was called Manille. If either of
the red suits was trumps, the ace of the suit was f