FROM DR. ARBUTHNOT.
I THOUGHT it necessary to speak to lady Masham about that affair, because I believe it will be necessary to give her majesty the same notion of it, which the memorial does[1], and not that you are asking a little scandalous salary for a sinecure. Lewis despairs of it, and thinks it quite over since a certain affair. I will not think so. I gave your letter, with the enclosed memorial, cavalièrement, to lord Bolingbroke. He read it, and seemed concerned at some part of it, expressing himself thus: "That it would be among the eternal scandals of the government to suffer a man of your character, that had so well deserved of them, to have the least uneasy thought about those matters." As to the fifty pounds, he was ready to pay it; and if he had had it about him, would have given it me. The dragon was all the while walking with the duke of Shrewsbury. So my lord Bolingbroke told me, "I would immediately stir in this matter, but I know not how I stand with some folks;" for the duke of Shrewsbury has taken himself to the dragon in appearance. "I know how I stand with that man, (pointing to the dragon) but as to the other, I cannot tell; however, I will claim his promise:" and so he took the memorial.
- ↑ A memorial to the queen, humbly desiring her majesty to appoint him historiographer.
