If this does not mean the late Revival of an ancient Order of Knighthood, I never will unriddle Mystery
more: To prove which, we need but cross over to the next Page, where he tells us, “Sir John had always a Squire, who followed him, bearing a huge Pair of Spectacles to saddle his Honour’s Nose.” [Diss. Page 7.]
After this, he very severely runs upon those would-be Statesmen, who put themselves in Competition with his Favourite, Sir ****, with whom he became exceeding intimate, and almost inseperable, all the Time he was in England.
The Story of the Kit Cat Club, Dick Estcourt, and Jacob Tonson, is a mere Digression; and nothing more to the Purpose, than that we may imagine it came uppermost. He returns to his Subject in his [9th Page].
“Now it was Sir John’s Method, every Sunday Morning, to give the Courtiers a Breakfast; which Breakfast was every Man his Dumpling, and Cup of Wine: For you must know, he was Yeoman of the
Wine-Cellar at the same Time.”
The Breakfast is Sir *** Levee, the Yeomanship of the Wine-Cellar, is the ***.
The Author of the Dissertation, is a very bad Chronologist; for at [Page 10.] we are obliged to go back to the former Reign, where we shall find the lubberly Abbots (i. e.) the High Church Priests, misrepresenting Sir John’s Actions, and never let the Q—— alone, till poor Sir John was discarded.
“This was a great Eye-sore, and Heart-burning to some lubberly Abbots, who lounged about the Court; they took it in great Dudgeon they were not invited, and stuck so close to his Skirts, that they never rested till they outed him. They told the King, who was naturally very hasty, that Sir John, made-away with his Wine, and feasted his Paramours at his Expence; and not only so, but they were
forming a Design against his Life, which they in Conscience ought to discover: That Sir John was not only an Heretic, but an Heathen; nay, worse, they fear’d he was a Witch, and that he had bewitch’d his Majesty into that unaccountable Fondness for a Pudding-Maker. They assured the King, that on a Sunday Morning, instead of being at Mattins, he and his Trigrimates got together hum jum, all snug, and perform’d many hellish and diabolical Ceremonies. In short, they made the King believe that the Moon was made of Green-Cheese: And to shew how the Innocent may be bely’d, and the best Intentions misrepresented, they told the King, That he and his Associates offered Sacrifices to Ceres: When, alas, it was only the Dumplings they eat.