4.  I dined to-day at Kensington, with Addison, Steele, etc., came home, and writ a short letter to the Archbishop of Dublin, to let him know the Queen has granted the thing, etc.  I writ in the Coffee-house, for I stayed at Kensington till nine, and am plaguy weary; for Colonel Proud[13] was very ill company, and I will never be of a party with him again; and I drank punch, and that and ill company has made me hot.

5.  I was with Mr. Harley from dinner to seven this night, and went to the Coffee-house, where Dr. Davenant[14] would fain have had me gone and drink a bottle of wine at his house hard by, with Dr. Chamberlen,[15] but the puppy used so many words, that I was afraid of his company; and though we promised to come at eight, I sent a messenger to him, that Chamberlen was going to a patient, and therefore we would put it off till another time:  so he, and the Comptroller,[16] and I, were prevailed on by Sir Matthew Dudley to go to his house, where I stayed till twelve, and left them.  Davenant has been teasing me to look over some of his writings that he is going to publish; but the rogue is so fond of his own productions, that I hear he will not part with a syllable; and he has lately put out a foolish pamphlet, called The Third Part of Tom Double; to make his court to the Tories, whom he had left.

6.  I was to-day gambling[17] in the City to see Patty Rolt, who is going to Kingston, where she lodges; but, to say the truth, I had a mind for a walk to exercise myself, and happened to be disengaged:  for dinners are ten times more plentiful with me here than ever, or than in Dublin.  I won’t answer your letter yet, because I am busy.  I hope to send this before I have another from MD:  it would be a sad thing to answer two letters together, as MD does from Presto.  But when the two sides are full, away the letter shall go, that is certain, like it or not like it; and that will be about three days hence, for the answering-night will be a long one.

7.  I dined to-day at Sir Richard Temple’s, with Congreve, Vanbrugh, Lieutenant-General Farrington,[18] etc.  Vanbrugh, I believe I told you, had a long quarrel with me about those verses on his house;[19] but we were very civil and cold.  Lady Marlborough used to tease him with them, which had made him angry, though he be a good-natured fellow.  It was a Thanksgiving-day,[20] and I was at Court, where the Queen passed us by with all Tories about her; not one Whig:  Buckingham,[21] Rochester,[22] Leeds,[23] Shrewsbury, Berkeley of Stratton, Lord Keeper Harcourt, Mr. Harley, Lord Pembroke, etc.; and I have seen her without one Tory.  The Queen made me a curtsey, and said, in a sort of familiar way to Presto, “How does MD?” I considered she was a Queen, and so excused her.[24] I do not miss the Whigs at Court; but have as many acquaintance there as formerly.