day the 18th. How shall I do to blot and alter
them? I have made a shift to do it behind, but it is a great botch. I
dined with Lord Anglesea to-day, but did not go to the House of Commons
about the yarn; my head was not well enough. I know not what is the
matter; it has never been thus before: two days together giddy from
morning till night, but not with any violence or pain; and I totter
a little, but can make shift to walk. I doubt I must fall to my pills
again: I think of going into the country a little way. I tell you
what you must do henceforward: you must enclose your letter in a fair
half-sheet of paper, and direct the outside "To Erasmus Lewis, Esquire,
at my Lord Dartmouth's office at Whitehall": for I never go to the
Coffee-house, and they will grudge to take in my letters. I forgot to
tell you that your mother was to see me this morning, and brought me a
flask of sweet-water for a present, admirable for my head; but I shall
not smell to it. She is going to Sheen, with Lady Giffard: she would
fain send your papers over to you, or give them to me. Say what you
would have done, and it shall be done; because I love Stella, and she is
a good daughter, they say, and so is Dingley.

19. This morning General Webb was to give me a visit: he goes with
a crutch and stick, yet was forced to come up two pair of stairs. I
promised to dine with him, but afterwards sent my excuses, and dined
privately in my friend Lewis's lodgings at Whitehall, with whom I had
much business to talk of, relating to the public and myself. Little
Harrison the Tatler goes to-morrow to the secretaryship I got him at the
Hague, and Mr. St. John has made him a present of fifty guineas to bear
his charges. An't I a good friend? Why are not you a young fellow, that
I might prefer you? I had a letter from Bernage from Kinsale: he tells
me his commission for captain-lieutenant was ready for him at his
arrival: so there are two jackanapeses I have done with. My head is
something better this evening, though not well.

20. I was this morning with Mr. Secretary, whose packets were just come
in, and among them a letter from Lord Peterborow to me: he writes so
well, I have no mind to answer him, and so kind, that I must answer him.
The Emperor's(4) death must, I think, cause great alterations in Europe,
and, I believe, will hasten a peace. We reckon our King Charles will be
chosen Emperor, and the Duke of Savoy set up for Spain; but I believe
he will make