. George dead.(11)--Go, cry, Madam
Dingley; I have written to the Dean. Raymond will be rich, for he has
the building itch. I wish all he has got may put him out of debt. Poh, I
have fires like lightning; they cost me twelvepence a week, beside small
coal. I have got four new caps, madam, very fine and convenient, with
striped cambric, instead of muslin; so Patrick need not mend them, but
take the old ones. Stella snatched Dingley's word out of her pen; Presto
a cold? Why, all the world here is dead with them: I never had anything
like it in my life; 'tis not gone in five weeks. I hope Leigh is with
you before this, and has brought your box. How do you like the ivory
rasp? Stella is angry; but I'll have a finer thing for her. Is not
the apron as good? I'm sure I shall never be paid it; so all's well
again.--What? the quarrel with Sir John Walter?(12) Why, we had not one
word of quarrel; only he railed at me when I was gone: and Lord Keeper
and Treasurer teased me for a week. It was nuts to them; a serious
thing with a vengeance.--The Whigs may sell their estates then, or
hang themselves, as they are disposed; for a peace there will be.
Lord Treasurer told me that Connolly(13) was going to Hanover. Your
Provost(14) is a coxcomb. Stella is a good girl for not being angry
when I tell her of spelling; I see none wrong in this. God Almighty be
praised that your disorder lessens; it increases my hopes mightily that
they will go off. And have you been plagued with the fear of the plague?
never mind those reports; I have heard them five hundred times. Replevi?
Replevin, simpleton, 'tis Dingley I mean; but it is a hard word, and
so I'll excuse it. I stated Dingley's accounts in my last. I forgot
Catherine's sevenpenny dinner. I hope it was the beef-steaks; I'll call
and eat them in spring; but Goody Stoyte must give me coffee, or green
tea, for I drink no bohea. Well, ay, the pamphlet; but there are some
additions to the fourth edition; the fifth edition was of four thousand,
in a smaller print, sold for sixpence. Yes, I had the twenty-pound bill
from Parvisol: and what then? Pray now eat the Laracor apples; I beg you
not to keep them, but tell me what they are. You have had Tooke's bill
in my last. And so there now, your whole letter is answered. I tell you
what I do; I lay your letter before me, and take it in order, and answer
what is necessary; and so and so. Well, when I expected we were all
undone, I designed to retire for s