, and get their corrections, that I am weary as a dog. I dined
to-day with the printer, and was there all the afternoon; and it plagues
me, and there's an end, and what would you have? Lady Dupplin, Lord
Treasurer's daughter,(12) is brought to bed of a son. Lord Treasurer
has had an ugly return of his gravel. 'Tis good for us to live in gravel
pits,(13) but not for gravel pits to live in us; a man in this case
should leave no stone unturned. Lord Treasurer's sickness, the Queen's
gout, the forwarding the peace, occasion putting off the Parliament a
fortnight longer. My head has had no ill returns. I had good walking
to-day in the City, and take all opportunities of it on purpose for my
health; but I can't walk in the Park, because that is only for walking's
sake, and loses time, so I mix it with business. I wish MD walked half
as much as Presto. If I was with you, I'd make you walk; I would walk
behind or before you, and you should have masks on, and be tucked up
like anything; and Stella is naturally a stout walker, and carries
herself firm; methinks I see her strut, and step clever over a kennel;
and Dingley would do well enough if her petticoats were pinned up; but
she is so embroiled, and so fearful, and then Stella scolds, and Dingley
stumbles, and is so daggled.(14) Have you got the whalebone petticoats
among you yet? I hate them; a woman here may hide a moderate gallant
under them. Pshaw, what's all this I'm saying? Methinks I am talking to
MD face to face.

11. Did I tell you that old Frowde,(15) the old fool, is selling his
estate at Pepperhara, and is skulking about the town nobody knows where?
and who do you think manages all this for him, but that rogue Child,(16)
the double squire of Farnham? I have put Mrs. Masham, the Queen's
favourite, upon buying it, but that is yet a great secret; and I have
employed Lady Oglethorpe to inquire about it. I was with Lady Oglethorpe
to-day, who is come to town for a week or two, and to-morrow I will see
to hunt out the old fool: he is utterly ruined, and at this present
in some blind alley with some dirty wench. He has two sons that must
starve, and he never gives them a farthing. If Mrs. Masham buys the
land, I will desire her to get the Queen to give some pension to the
old fool, to keep him from absolutely starving. What do you meddle with
other people's affairs for? says Stella. Oh, but Mr. Masham and his wife
are very urgent with me, since I first put them in the head