The Journal to Stella

JOE {1b} will give you an account of me till I got into the boat; after which the rogues made a new bargain, and forced me to give them two crowns, and talked as if we should no...

I GOT here last Thursday, {4a} after five days’ travelling, weary the first, almost dead the second, tolerable the third, and well enough the rest; and am now glad of the fatigu...

AFTER seeing the Duke of Ormond, dining with Dr. Cockburn, {7a} passing some part of the afternoon with Sir Matthew Dudley {7b} and Will Frankland, the rest at St. James’s Coffe...

HERE must I begin another letter, on a whole sheet, for fear saucy little MD should be angry, and think _much_ that the paper is too _little_. I had your letter this night, as t...

HAN’T I brought myself into a fine _præmunire_, {22b} to begin writing letters in whole sheets? and now I dare not leave it off. I cannot tell whether you like these journal let...

SO, as I told you just now in the letter I sent half an hour ago, I dined with Mr. Harley to-day, who presented me to the Attorney-General, Sir Simon Harcourt, with much complim...

FAITH, I am undone! this paper is larger than the other, and yet I am condemned to a sheet; but, since it is MD, I did not value though I were condemned to a pair. I told you in...

SO, now I have sent my seventh to your fourth, young women; and now I will tell you what I would not in my last, that this morning, sitting in my bed, I had a fit of giddiness:...

I DINED to-day, by invitation, with the Secretary of State, Mr. St. John. Mr. Harley came in to us before dinner, and made me his excuses for not dining with us, because he was...

I WILL tell you something that’s plaguy silly: I had forgot to say on the 23d in my last, where I dined; and because I had done it constantly, I thought it was a great omission,...

he knows not what to write or say; and I have since written twice to him, both times with a vengeance. {85a} Well, go to bed, sirrahs, and so will I. But have you lost to-day? T...

SO, young women, I have just sent my tenth to the post-office, and, as I told you, have received your seventh (faith, I am afraid I mistook, and said your sixth, and then we sha...

I HAVE sent my 11th to-night as usual, and begin the dozenth, and I told you I dined with Stratford at Lord Mountjoy’s, and I will tell you no more at present, guess for why; be...

I WAS going into the City (where I dined) and put my 12th, with my own fair hands, into the post-office as I came back, which was not till nine this night. I dined with people t...

O FAITH, young women, I have sent my letter N. 13 without one crumb of an answer to any of MD’s, there’s for you now; and yet Presto ben’t angry, faith, not a bit, only he will...

I AM to send you my fourteenth to-morrow; but my head, having some little disorders, confounds all my journals. I was early this morning with Mr. Secretary St. John about some b...

I HAVE just despatched my fifteenth to the post; I tell you how things will be, after I have got a letter from MD. I am in furious haste to finish mine, for fear of having two o...

NOW, young women, I gave in my sixteenth this evening. I dined with Ford (it was his Opera-day) as usual; it is very convenient to me to do so, for coming home early after a wal...

PRETTY little MD must expect little from me till Mr. Harley is out of danger. We hope he is so now; but I am subject to fear for my friends. He has a head full of the whole busi...

IT was a little cross in Presto not to send to-day to the Coffee-house to see whether there was a letter from MD before I sent away mine; but, faith, I did it on purpose, becaus...

I PUT my nineteenth in the post-office just now myself, as I came out of the City, where I dined. This rain ruins me in coach-hire; I walked away sixpennyworth, and came within...

REMEMBER, sirrahs, that there are but nine days between the dates of my two former letters. I sent away my twentieth this moment, and now am writing on like a fish, as if nothin...

AT night. I say at night, because I finished my twenty-first this morning here, and put it into the post-office my own self, like a good boy. I think I am a little before you no...

I SENT you my twenty-second this afternoon in town. I dined with Mr. Harley and the old Club, Lord Rivers, Lord Keeper, and Mr. Secretary. They rallied me last week, and said I...

MORNING. Once in my life the number of my letters and of the day of the month is the same; that’s lucky, boys; that’s a sign that things will meet, and that we shall make a figu...

I HAVE been all this time at Wycombe, between Oxford and London, with Lord Shelburne, who has the squire’s house at the town’s end, and an estate there in a delicious country. L...

SEE what large paper I am forced to take, to write to MD; Patrick has brought me none clipped; but, faith, the next shall be smaller. I dined to-day, as I told you, with Dilly a...

I HAVE just sent my 26th, and have nothing to say, because I have other letters to write (pshaw, I began too high); but I must lay the beginning like a nest-egg: to-morrow I wil...

I SENT away my twenty-seventh this morning in an express to London, and directed to Mr. Reading: this shall go to your lodgings, where I reckon you will be returned before it re...

I HAVE got a pretty small gilt sheet of paper, to write to MD. I have this moment sent my 28th by Patrick, who tells me he has put it in the post-office; ’tis directed to your l...

I MADE the coachman stop, and put in my twenty-ninth at the post-office at two o’clock to-day, as I was going to Lord Treasurer, with whom I dined, and came here by a quarter-pa...

I DINED in the City to-day, and at my return I put my 30th into the post-office; and when I got home I found for me one of the noblest letters I ever read: it was from —, three...

I WAS forced to lie down at twelve to-day, and mend my night’s sleep: I slept till after two, and then sent for a bit of mutton and pot of ale from the next cook’s shop, and had...

I DINED with Lord Dupplin as I told you I would, and put my thirty-second into the post-office my own self; and I believe there has not been one moment since we parted wherein a...

MY thirty-third lies now before me just finished, and I am going to seal and send it, so let me know whether you would have me add anything: I gave you my journal of this day; a...

I PUT my last this evening in the post-office. I dined with Dr. Cockburn. This being Queen Elizabeth’s birthday, we have the D— and all to do among us. I just heard of the stir...

MY last was put in this evening. I intended to dine with Mr. Masham to-day, and called at White’s chocolate house to see if he was there. Lord Wharton saw me at the door, and I...

I PUT in my letter this evening myself. I was to-day inquiring at the Secretary’s office of Mr. Lewis how things went: I there met Prior, who told me he gave all for gone, etc.,...

I PUT my letter in this evening, after coming from dinner at Ned Southwell’s, where I drank very good Irish wine, and we are in great joy at this happy turn of affairs. The Quee...

WHEN I sealed up my letter this morning, I looked upon myself to be not worth a groat in the world. Last night, after Mr. Ford and I left Domville, Ford desired me to go with hi...

I HAVE no gilt paper left of this size, so you must be content with plain. Our Society dined together to-day, for it was put off, as I told you, upon Lord Marlborough’s business...

WHEN my letter is gone, and I have none of yours to answer, my conscience is so clear, and my shoulder so light, and I go on with such courage to prate upon nothing to deerichar...

AFTER having disposed my last letter in the post-office, I am now to begin this with telling MD that I dined with the Secretary to-day, who is much out of order with a cold, and...

I CARRIED my forty-second letter in my pocket till evening, and then put it in the general post.—I went in the morning to see Lord Treasurer, who had taken physic, and was drink...

UGLY, nasty weather. I was in the City to-day with Mrs. Wesley and Mrs. Perceval, to get money from a banker for Mrs. Wesley, who goes to Bath on Thursday. I left them there, an...

I HAD your twenty-eighth two or three days ago. I can hardly answer it now. Since my last I have been extremely ill. ’Tis this day just a month since I felt a small pain on the...

I HAVE not yet ease or humour enough to go on in my journal method, though I have left my chamber these ten days. My pain continues still in my shoulder and collar: I keep flann...

I CANNOT yet arrive to my journal letters, my pains continuing still, though with less violence; but I don’t love to write journals while I am in pain; and above all, not journa...

I HAVE been so tosticated about since my last, that I could not go on in my journal manner, though my shoulder is a great deal better; however, I feel constant pain in it, but I...

I NEVER was in a worse station for writing letters than this, especially for writing to MD, since I left off my journals. For I go to town early; and when I come home at night,...

I AM weary of living in this place, and glad to leave it soon. The Queen goes on Tuesday to Windsor, and I shall follow in three or four days after. I can do nothing here, going...

I HAD your N. 32 at Windsor: I just read it, and immediately sealed it up again, and shall read it no more this twelvemonth at least. The reason of my resentment at it is, becau...

I NEVER was so long without writing to MD as now, since I left them, nor ever will again while I am able to write. I have expected from one week to another that something would...

I HAVE left Windsor these ten days, and am deep in pills with asafoetida, and a steel bitter drink; and I find my head much better than it was. I was very much discouraged; for...

I HAVE been in physic this month, and have been better these three weeks. I stop my physic, by the doctor’s orders, till he sends me further directions. DD grows politician, and...

BEFORE this comes to your hands, you will have heard of the most terrible accident that hath almost ever happened. This morning, at eight, my man brought me word that the Duke o...

HERE is now a stlange ting; a rettle flom MD unanswered: never was before. I am slower, and MD is faster: but the last was owing to DD’s certificate. Why could it not be sent be...

OUR Society was to meet to-day; but Lord Harley, who was President this week, could not attend, being gone to Wimbledon with his new brother-in-law, the young Marquis of Caermar...

I ENDED my last with the melancholy news of poor Lady Ashburnham’s death. The Bishop of Clogher and Dr. Pratt made me dine with them to-day at Lord Mountjoy’s, pursuant to an en...

WE had such a terrible storm to-day, that, going to Lord Bolingbroke’s, I saw a hundred tiles fallen down; and one swinger fell about forty yards before me, that would have kill...

I DINED to-day with Mr. Rowe {508b} and a projector, who has been teasing me with twenty schemes to get grants; and I don’t like one of them; and, besides, I was out of humour f...

’TIS out of my head whether I answered all your letter in my last yesterday or no. I think I was in haste, and could not: but now I see I answered a good deal of it; no, only ab...

I GAVE your letter in this night. I dined with Lord Treasurer to-day, and find he has been at a meeting at Lord Halifax’s house, with four principal Whigs; but he is resolved to...

I FANCY I marked my last, which I sent this day, wrong; only 61, and it ought to be 62. I dined with Lord Treasurer, and though the business I had with him is something against...

I HAD yours, No. 40, yesterday. Your new Bishop acts very ungratefully. I cannot say so bad of it as he deserved. I begged at the same post his warrant and mine went over, that...

I AM come here after six days. I set out on Monday last, and got here to-day about eleven in the morning. A noble rider, fais! and all the ships and people went off yesterday wi...