SPECTATOR 269.
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19. Gray's Inn Walks are said to have been planted by Bacon. They are situated on the north side of Holborn, and were the regular promenade of people of fashion in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, for the air blew straight over from Hampstead, unimpeded by the houses which have since sprung up.
22. Eugene, Prince of Savoy, had arrived in London three days before the date of this paper. He had been Marlborough's colleague in the War of the Spanish Succession, and he had come over in order to attempt to repair the overthrow of Marlborough and to prevent the Tory government from concluding peace with France on ruinous and disgraceful terms.
27. Eugenio was regularly employed by Prince Eugene as his signature, in recognition of his Italian family.
28. Scanderbeg was the great Albanian prince and commander of the fifteenth century, who freed his country from the dominion of Turkey.
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15. made. Preached, delivered.
16. Dr. Barrow, v. p. 15, 1. 12.
18. thirty merks. Twenty pounds. A merk or mark was worth 13s 4d. It was not a coin, but only a convenient name, as guinea is now.
21. fob. A small pocket, usually intended to hold a watch.
22. tobacco-stopper. A small plug for pressing down the tobacco in the bowl of the pipe.
28. Tom Touchy. v. Spectator 122.
31. Moll White. v. Spectator 117.
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8. hogs-puddings. Large sausage-shaped bags stuffed with minced pork.
18. for twelve days, that is, till Twelfth Night, January 6, which puts an end to the Christmas festivities.
22. smutting. A trick, the victim of which is made unconsciously to blacken his own face. Cf. Goldsmith:
The swain mistrustless of his smutted face
While secret laughter tittered round the place.
27. the late act of Parliament for securing the Church of England. The Act of Occasional Uniformity, 1710, attempted to exclude Dissenters from political power and office by strengthening the Test Act of 1673. Dissenters who had once taken the sacrament in order to qualify for civil, military, or magisterial office, were prohibited under very severe penalties from appearing afterwards in sectarian places of worship.
28. securing. Making safe. Cf. Shakespeare, Tempest, II. i. 310, 'We stood here securing your repose.'
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6. the Pope's procession was a Whig demonstration performed annually on November 17, the anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth, to relieve the feelings of the Anti-Papal party. This year a particularly riotous procession had been prepared, but it was prevented by the seizure of all the images and accessories by the police in the middle of the preceding night.
17. Baker's Chronicle. Sir Richard Baker, who died in 1645, was the author of A Chronicle of the Kings of England. The observations which Sir Roger applied to Prince Eugene had not, of course, been written with regard to him.
23. Squire's. v. Appendix I.
25. waited on. Attended. Cf. Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona, III. ii. 96:
We'll wait upon your grace till after supper.
30. the Supplement was 'an alternative edition of The Postboy, by Jacob Abellius, a postscriptorian, otherwise Boyer.' (Fox Bourne.)