-for the post of
Gentleman-Usher involved no duties save occasional attendance at Court,
and to this the poet had shown himself by no means averse. A total gift
of L350 a year for nothing really seems rather alluring to a man of
letters, and it is difficult to understand why Gay refused the offer,
unless it was, as the editors of the standard edition of Pope's
Correspondence suggest: "The affluent friends who recommended Gay to
reject the provisions were strangers to want, and with unconscious
selfishness they thought less of his necessities than of venturing their
spleen against the Court."

* * * * *

Swift, unable effectively to vent his anger on Caroline, chose to regard
Mrs. Howard as the cause of the mortification of his friend. Mrs.
Howard, however, not only had nothing to do with the offer of the place
of Gentleman-Usher to Gay, the patronage being directly in the Queen's
hands, but, as has been indicated, was unable to secure for him, or
anyone else, a place at Court of any description. Certainly she was in
blissful ignorance of having given offence, for as Gay wrote to the Dean
so late as February 15th, 1728: "Mrs. Howard frequently asks after you
and desires her compliments to you."

All the matters affected not a whit the relations between Mrs. Howard
and Gay; against her he had no ill-feeling, and their correspondence
continued on the same lines of intimacy as before.

THE HON. MRS. HOWARD TO JOHN GAY.

October, 1727.

"I hear you expect, and have a mind to have, a letter from me, and
though I have little to say, I find I don't care that you should be
either disappointed or displeased. Tell her Grace of Queensberry I don't
think she looked kindly upon me when I saw her last; she ought to have
looked and thought very kindly, for I am much more her humble servant
than those who tell her so every day. Don't let her cheat you in the
pencils; she designs to give you nothing but her old ones. I suppose she
always uses those worst who love her best, Mrs. Herbert excepted; but I
hear she has done handsomely by her. I cannot help doing the woman this
justice, that she can now and then distinguish merit.

"So much for her Grace; now for yourself, John. I desire you will mind
the main chance, and be in town in time enough to let the opera[21] have
play enough for its life, and for your pockets. Your head is your best
friend; it could clothe, lodge and wash you, but you neglec