12 See Letter 16, note 20.

13 “I” (Ms.).

14 Obliterated.  Forster reads, “devil,” and Mr. Ryland, “bitch.”

15 See Letter 40, note 6.

16 Victor Marie, duc d’Estrees, Marshal of France (died 1727).

17 See Letter 55, note 18.

18 Several words are obliterated.  Forster reads, “the last word, God ’give me”; but “’give me” is certainly wrong.

19 See Letter 9, note 13.  Sir Thomas Hanmer married, in 1698, at the age of twenty-two, Isabella, Dowager Duchess of Grafton, daughter of Henry, Earl of Arlington, and Countess of Arlington in her own right.  Hanmer was not made Secretary of State, but he succeeded Bromley as Speaker of the House of Commons.

20 William Fitzmaurice (see Letter 11, note 19 and Letter 27, note 11) entered Christ Church, Oxford, matriculating on March 10, 1712-13, at the age of eighteen.

21 See Letter 11, note 11.

22 William Bromley, second son of Bromley the Speaker (see Letter 10, note 1), was a boy of fourteen at this time.  In 1727 he was elected M.P. for Warwick, and he died in 1737, shortly after being elected Member for Oxford University.

23 See Letter 14, note 12.

24 Sometimes “list” means to border or edge; at others, to sew together, so as to make a variegated display, or to form a border.  Probably it here means the curling of the bottom of the wig.

25 The last eight words have been much obliterated, and the reading is doubtful.

26 Lady Henrietta Hyde, second daughter of Laurence Hyde, first Earl of Rochester (see Letter 8, note 22), married James Scott, Earl of Dalkeith, son of the Duke of Monmouth.  Lord Dalkeith died in 1705, leaving a son, who succeeded his grandmother (Monmouth’s widow) as second Duke of Buccleuch.  Lady Catherine Hyde (see Letter 40, note 6) was a younger sister of Lady Dalkeith.

27 Swift first wrote “I frequent.”

28 See Letter 52, note 5.

29 D’Estrees.

30 Little (almost illegible).

Letter 61.

1 Addressed to “Mrs. Dingley,” etc.  Endorsed “Mar. 27.”

2 See Letter 3, note 20.

3 Formerly Lady Rialton (see Letter 40, note 3).

4 See Letter 58, note 8.

5 See Letter 11, note 39 and Letter 41, note 27.

6 Pun on “gambol.”

7 See Letter 57, note 4.

8 See Letter 41, note 7.

9 “Upon Tuesday last, the house where His Grace the late Duke of Hamilton and Brandon lived was hired for that day, where there was a fine ball and entertainment; and it is reported in town, that a great lady, lately gone to travel, left one hundred guineas, with orders that it should be spent in that manner, and in that house” (Postboy, Feb. 26-28, 1712-13).  The “great lady” was, presumably, the Duchess of Marlborough.

10 See Letter 36, note 14 and Letter 40, note 21.