9 The third and last reference to Vanessa in the Journal.

10 “Pray God preserve her life, which is of great importance” (Swift to Archbishop King, Aug. 15, 1711).  St. John was at this moment very anxious to conciliate Mrs. Masham, as he felt that she was the only person capable of counteracting the intrigues of the Duchess of Somerset with the Queen.

11 Pontack, of Abchurch Lane, son of Arnaud de Pontac, President of the Parliament of Bordeaux, was proprietor of the most fashionable eating-house in London.  There the Royal Society met annually at dinner until 1746.  Several writers speak of the dinners at a guinea a head and upwards served at Pontack’s, and Swift comments on the price of the wine.

12 “His name was Read” (Scott).

13 Up to the end of 1709 the warrants for the payment of the works at Blenheim had been regularly issued by Godolphin and paid at the Treasury; over 200,000 pounds was expended in this manner.  But after the dismissal of the Whigs the Queen drew tight the purse-strings.  The 20,000 pounds mentioned by Swift was paid in 1711, but on June 1, 1712, Anne gave positive orders that nothing further should be allowed for Blenheim, though 12,000 pounds remained due to the contractors.

14 The piercing of the lines before Bouchain, which Villars had declared to be the non plus ultra of the Allies, one of the most striking proofs of Marlborough’s military genius.

15 See Letter 22, note 15.

16 A fashionable gaming-house in St. James’s Street.

17 See Letter 6, note 15.  The Grange, near Alresford, Hampshire, was Henley’s seat.  His wife (see Letter 12, note 24) was the daughter of Peregrine Bertie, son of Montagu Bertie, second Earl of Lindsey; and Earl Poulett (see Letter 20, note 7) married Bridget, an elder daughter of Bertie’s.

18 William Henry Hyde, Earl of Danby, grandson of the first Duke of Leeds (see Letter 8, note 22), and eldest son of Peregrine Osborne, Baron Osborne and Viscount Dunblane, who succeeded to the dukedom in 1712.  Owing to this young man’s death (at the age of twenty-one), his brother, Peregrine Hyde, Marquis of Caermarthen, who married Harley’s daughter Elizabeth, afterwards became third Duke of Leeds.

19 See Letter 8, note 2.

20 See Letter 3, note 7.

21 William Gregg was a clerk in Harley’s office when the latter was Secretary of State under the Whig Administration.  In 1707-8 he was in treasonable correspondence with M. de Chamillart, the French Secretary of State.  When he was detected he was tried for high treason, and hanged on April 28.  The Lords who examined Gregg did their utmost to establish Harley’s complicity, which Gregg, however, with his dying breath solemnly denied.

22 By Swift himself.  The title was, Some Remarks upon a Pamphlet entitled, A Letter to the Seven Lords of the Committee appointed to examine Gregg.

23 See Letter 13, note 10.  There is no copy in the British Museum.