may goe off together. I would promise your Lordship the first that falls, if I was not engag'd to the gentleman I mentioned. There is alsoe one in Hertfordshire that I have promis'd, but after that I am free, and your Lordship may command me, for I will never promise any other. If one of a hundred pounds a year would content Mr. Ayerst, perhaps I might be able to serve him sooner, till a better falls. How- ever he may depend upon what I can doe, after that gentle- man is provided for, and I shall be impatient to have it in my power to doe a thing you soe much desire. I am intirely of your mind about Benson. Every year that house receives some great blow,* that I am perswaded (setting aside my being a member of it), it is the interest of the publick to have its dignity kept up. Your servants at Twitnam told me they expected you in a fortnight, but by your saying nothing of it, I conclude it is a mistake.
[Peter Wentworth.]
London, August 7, 17 13. Dear Brother,
My son and I give you a great many thanks for the pleasure you have given us of seeing the Installation. There was a vast concourse of people, the Isle of the Church was never so full. There was three tables for the knights in the Guard-chamber, which was very well serv'd, tho' the room was so crowded that they cou'd [not] come very orderly to set on the removes, but the ladies' table was perfectly well serv'd, and the removes were set on in the greatest order imaginable. Sir Jacob Banks perform'd his part very well, and demanded of the Herald that your titles shou'd be read when it came to his turn to drink the Queen's health for you ; but they said that cou'd not be you not being present, with which he wou'd not have been sattisfied, but it happen'd that my Lord Treasurer, not being very well after he came out of the church, was not at the dinner, so his titles was not read.
- Robert Benson was raised to the upper house as Lord Bingley on
July 21, 17 1 3. See note on p. 85, unit'.
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