s to give him a little ready money.
Having a small house in Jermyn Street for which he couldn't pay, and a
country house at Hampton on which he had borrowed money, nothing must
content Captain Dick but the taking, in 1712, a much finer, larger, and
grander house, in Bloomsbury Square; where his unhappy landlord got no
better satisfaction than his friend in St. James's, and where it is
recorded that Dick, giving a grand entertainment, had a half-dozen
queer-looking fellows in livery to wait upon his noble guests, and
confessed that his servants were bailiffs to a man. "I fared like a
distressed prince," the kindly prodigal writes, generously complimenting
Addison for his assistance in the _Tatler_,--"I fared like a distressed
prince, who calls in a powerful neighbour to his aid. I was undone by my
auxiliary; when I had once called him in, I could not subsist without
dependence on him." Poor, needy Prince of Bloomsbury! think of him in his
palace, with his allies from Chancery Lane ominously guarding him.

All sorts of stories are told indicative of his recklessness and his good
humour. One narrated by Dr. Hoadly is exceedingly characteristic; it shows
the life of the time: and our poor friend very weak, but very kind both in
and out of his cups.

"My father" (says Dr. John Hoadly, the bishop's son)--"when Bishop of
Bangor, was, by invitation, present at one of the Whig meetings, held at
the 'Trumpet', in Shire Lane, when Sir Richard, in his zeal, rather
exposed himself, having the double duty of the day upon him, as well to
celebrate the immortal memory of King William, it being the 4th of
November, as to drink his friend Addison up to conversation pitch, whose
phlegmatic constitution was hardly warmed for society by that time. Steele
was not fit for it. Two remarkable circumstances happened. John Sly, the
hatter of facetious memory, was in the house; and John, pretty mellow,
took it into his head to come into the company on his knees, with a
tankard of ale in his hand to drink off to the _immortal memory_, and to
return in the same manner. Steele, sitting next my father, whispered
him--'_Do laugh. It is humanity to laugh._' Sir Richard, in the evening,
being too much in the same condition, was put into a chair, and sent home.
Nothing would serve him but being carried to the Bishop of Bangor's, late
as it was. However, the chairmen carried him home, and got him upstairs,
when his great complaisance would wait on them dow