walked four miles; wish MD would do
so, lazy sluttikins.

2. It has rained all day with a continuendo, and I went in a chair to
dine with Mrs. Van; always there in a very rainy day. But I made a shift
to come back afoot. I live a very retired life, pay very few visits, and
keep but very little company; I read no newspapers. I am sorry I sent
you the Examiner, for the printer is going to print them in a small
volume: it seems the author is too proud to have them printed by
subscription, though his friends offered, they say, to make it worth
five hundred pounds to him. The Spectators are likewise printing in a
larger and a smaller volume, so I believe they are going to leave
them off, and indeed people grow weary of them, though they are often
prettily written. We have had no news for me to send you now towards
the end of my letter. The Queen has the gout a little: I hoped the Lord
Treasurer would have had it too, but Radcliffe told me yesterday it was
the rheumatism in his knee and foot; however, he mends, and I hope will
be abroad in a short time. I am told they design giving away several
employments before the Parliament sits, which will be the thirteenth
instant. I either do not like, or not understand this policy; and if
Lord Treasurer does not mend soon, they must give them just before the
session. But he is the greatest procrastinator in the world.

3. A fine day this, and I walked a pretty deal. I stuffed the
Secretary's pockets with papers, which he must read and settle at
Hampton Court, where he went to-day, and stays some time. They have no
lodgings for me there, so I can't go, for the town is small, chargeable,
and inconvenient. Lord Treasurer had a very ill night last night, with
much pain in his knee and foot, but is easier to-day.--And so I went to
visit Prior about some business, and so he was not within, and so Sir
Andrew Fountaine made me dine to-day again with Mrs. Van, and I came
home soon, remembering this must go to-night, and that I had a letter of
MD's to answer. O Lord, where is it? let me see; so, so, here it is. You
grudge writing so soon. Pox on that bill! the woman would have me manage
that money for her. I do not know what to do with it now I have it: I am
like the unprofitable steward in the Gospel: I laid it up in a napkin;
there thou hast what is thine own, etc. Well, well, I know of your new
Mayor. (I'll tell you a pun: a fishmonger owed a man two crowns; so he
sent him a piece of bad l