tter will come three
weeks after the last, so there is a week lost; but that is owing to my
being out of town; yet I think it is right, because it goes enclosed to
Mr. Reading:(3) and why should he know how often Presto writes to MD,
pray?--I sat this evening with Lady Betty Butler and Lady Ashburnham,
and then came home by eleven, and had a good cool walk; for we have
had no extreme hot weather this fortnight, but a great deal of rain at
times, and a body can live and breathe. I hope it will hold so. We had
peaches to-day.

22. I went late to-day to town, and dined with my friend Lewis. I saw
Will Congreve attending at the Treasury, by order, with his brethren,
the Commissioners of the Wine Licences. I had often mentioned him with
kindness to Lord Treasurer; and Congreve told me that, after they had
answered to what they were sent for, my lord called him privately, and
spoke to him with great kindness, promising his protection, etc. The
poor man said he had been used so ill of late years that he was quite
astonished at my lord's goodness, etc., and desired me to tell my lord
so; which I did this evening, and recommended him heartily. My lord
assured me he esteemed him very much, and would be always kind to him;
that what he said was to make Congreve easy, because he knew people
talked as if his lordship designed to turn everybody out, and
particularly Congreve: which indeed was true, for the poor man told me
he apprehended it. As I left my Lord Treasurer, I called on Congreve
(knowing where he dined), and told him what had passed between my lord
and me; so I have made a worthy man easy, and that is a good day's
work.(4) I am proposing to my lord to erect a society or academy for
correcting and settling our language, that we may not perpetually be
changing as we do. He enters mightily into it, so does the Dean of
Carlisle;(5) and I design to write a letter to Lord Treasurer with
the proposals of it, and publish it;(6) and so I told my lord, and he
approves it. Yesterday's(7) was a sad Examiner, and last week was very
indifferent, though some little scraps of the old spirit, as if he had
given some hints; but yesterday's is all trash. It is plain the hand is
changed.

23. I have not been in London to-day: for Dr. Gastrell(8) and I dined,
by invitation, with the Dean of Carlisle, my neighbour; so I know not
what they are doing in the world, a mere country gentleman. And are not
you ashamed both to go into the country ju