[Footnote 8:  To Stella Swift writes somewhat later (March 7th):  “Yes, I do read the ‘Examiners,’ and they are written very finely as you judge.  I do not think they are too severe on the Duke; they only tax him of avarice, and his avarice has ruined us.  You may count upon all things in them to be true.  The author has said, it is not Prior; but perhaps it may be Atterbury” (vol. ii., p. 133 of present edition). [T.S.]]

[Footnote 9:  Wet stockings. [FAULKNER.]]

[Footnote 10:  Clodius Albinus, the Roman general, died 197 A.D.  The reference here is to the Earl of Wharton (see No. 27, ante, p. 169). [T.S.]]

[Footnote 11:  T. Pomponius Atticus, the friend and correspondent of Cicero. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 12:  The Treaty of Gertruydenberg (see No. 14, ante, and note on p. 77; see also note on pp. 201-2 of vol. v. of present edition). [T.S.]]

[Footnote 13:  Orodes I. (Arsaces XIV.), King of Parthia, defeated Crassus, B.C. 53. [T.S.]]

NUMB. 29.[1]

FROM THURSDAY FEBRUARY 8, TO THURSDAY FEBRUARY 15, 1710-11.

Inultus ut tu riseris Cotyttia?[2]

An Answer to the “Letter to the Examiner."[3]

London, Feb. 15, 1710/11.

Sir,

Though I have wanted leisure to acknowledge the honour of a letter you were pleased to write to me about six months ago; yet I have been very careful in obeying some of your commands, and am going on as fast as I can with the rest.  I wish you had thought fit to have conveyed them to me by a more private hand, than that of the printing-house:  for though I was pleased with a pattern of style and spirit which I proposed to imitate, yet I was sorry the world should be a witness how far I fell short in both.

I am afraid you did not consider what an abundance of work you have cut out for me; neither am I at all comforted by the promise you are so kind to make, that when I have performed my task,[4] “D[olbe]n shall blush in his grave among the dead, W[alpo]le among the living, and even Vol[pon]e shall feel some remorse.”  How the gentleman in his grave may have kept his countenance, I cannot inform you, having no acquaintance at all with the sexton; but for the other two, I take leave to assure you, there have not yet appeared the least signs of blushing or remorse in either, though some very good opportunities have offered, if they had thought fit to accept them; so that with your permission, I had rather engage to continue this work till they are in their graves too, which I am sure will happen much sooner than the other.