15 See Letter 14, note 14.

16 Probably a misprint for “Bertie.”  This Mr. Bertie may have been the Hon. James Bertie, second son of the first Earl of Abingdon, and M.P. for Middlesex.

17 Evelyn Pierrepont, fifth Earl of Kingston, was made Marquis of Dorchester in 1706.  He became Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull in 1715, and died in 1726.  Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was his daughter.

18 See Letter 12, note 22.

19 Sir Thomas Thynne, first Viscount Weymouth, who died in 1714, aged seventy-four, married Frances, daughter of Heneage Finch, second Earl of Winchelsea.

20 See Letter 7, note 31.

21 Swift is referring to St. John’s defence of Brydges (see Letter 21, note 14.)

22 “He does not mean smoking, which he never practised, but snuffing up cut-and-dry tobacco, which sometimes was just coloured with Spanish snuff; and this he used all his life, but would not own that he took snuff” (Deane Swift).

23 Beaumont (see Letter 1, note 2).

24 Sir Alexander Cairnes, M.P. for Monaghan, a banker, was created a baronet in 1706, and died in 1732.

25 See Letter 6, note 44 and Letter 17, note 4.

26 Isaac Manley (see Letter 3, note 3.)

27 Sir Thomas Frankland.

28 See Letter 5, note 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. (1687-174O), 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).