Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 15.djvu/334

LETTER LIII.

London, Oct. 9, 1712^[1].

I HAVE left Windsor these ten days, and am deep in pills with asafœtida, and a steel bitter drink; and I find my head much better than it was. I was very much discouraged; for I used to be ill for three or four days together, ready to totter as I walked. I take eight pills a day, and have taken, I believe, a hundred and fifty already. The queen, lord treasurer, lady Masham, and I, were all ill together, but are now all better; only lady Masham expects every day to lie in at Kensington. There never was such a lump of lies spread about the town together as now. I doubt not but you will have them in Dublin before this comes to you, and all without the least ground of truth. I have been mightily put back in something I am writing by my illness, but hope to fetch it up, so as to be ready when the parliament meets. Lord treasurer has had an ugly fit of the rheumatism, but is now near quite well. I was playing at one and thirty with him and his family the other night. He gave us all twelvepence apiece to begin with: it put me in mind of sir William Temple^[2]. I asked both him and lady Masham seriously, whether the queen were at all inclined to a dropsy? And they positively

1. Endorsed, "Received Oct. 18, at Portraine."
2. Sir William treated Swift with so little liberality, after encouraging him to hope he would provide for him, that it was like giving him a shilling to begin the world with.

assured