8.

29 Hockley-in-the-Hole, Clerkenwell, a place of public diversion, was
famous for its bear and bull baitings.

30 Sir William Seymour, second son of Sir Edward Seymour, Bart., of
Berry Pomeroy, retired from the army in 1717, and died in 1728 (Dalton's
Army Lists). He was wounded at Landen and Vigo, and saw much service
between his appointment as a Captain of Fusiliers in 1686 and his
promotion to the rank of Lieutenant-General in 1707.

31 No. 45.

32 "And now I conceive the main design I had in writing these papers is
fully executed. A great majority of the nation is at length thoroughly
convinced that the Queen proceeded with the highest wisdom, in changing
her Ministry and Parliament" (Examiner, No. 45).

33 Edward Harley (see Letter 13, note 17).

34 See Letter 24, note 2.

35 Tom Ashe was an elder brother of the Bishop of Clogher. He had an
estate of more than 1000 pounds a year in County Meath, and Nichols
describes him as of droll appearance, thick and short in person: "a
facetious, pleasant companion, but the most eternal unwearied punster
that ever lived."

36 "Even Joseph Beaumont, the son, was at this time an old man, whose
grey locks were venerable; yet his father lived until about 1719" (Deane
Swift).

Letter 25.

1 Sir William Wyndham, Bart. (1687-1740), was M.P. for Somerset. He was
a close partisan of Bolingbroke's, and in 1713 introduced the Schism
Bill, which drove Oxford from office. Wyndham became Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and was afterwards a leading opponent of Walpole. His wife,
Lady Catherine Seymour (died 1713), was the second daughter of Charles,
Duke of Somerset (see Letter 28, note 8).

2 Swift was afterwards President of this Club, which is better known as
"the Society."

3 Perhaps Daniel Reading, M.P. for Newcastle, Co. Dublin.

4 Afterwards Congreve formed a friendship with the Whigs; or, as Swift
put it, "Took proper principles to thrive,
And so might every dunce alive."

5 Atterbury.

6 This pamphlet, published in February 1712, was called "A Proposal for
Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue, in a Letter
to the... Lord High Treasurer."

7 No. 47

8 Francis Gastrell, Canon of Christ Church, was made Bishop of Chester
in 1713. His valuable Notitia Cestriensis was published in 1845-50.

9 Near Fulham.

10 See Letter 12, note 21.

11 The daughters of Meinhardt Schomberg, Duke of Leinster, in Ireland,
and third Duke of Schom