[39] Letter to King, Dec. 16th, 1716.
[40] Inquiry into the Behaviour of the Queen’s last Ministry.
[41] Autobiography, i. 407.
[42] Foster, p. 108.
[43] Oct. 20th, 1711. The last use I have observed of this word is in a letter of Carlyle’s, Nov. 7th, 1824. “Strange pilgarlic-looking figures.” Froude’s Life of Carlyle, i. 247.
[44] Lord Orrery instructs us to pronounce this name Vanummery.
[45] This simply repeats what he says in his first published letters about his flirtations at Leicester.
[46] The passage which contains this line was said by Orrery to cast an unmanly insinuation against Vanessa’s virtue. As the accusation has been repeated, it is perhaps right to say that one fact sufficiently disproves its possibility. The poem was intended for Vanessa alone; and would never have appeared had it not been published after her death by her own direction.
[47] Compare Pope’s Eloisa to Abelard which appeared in 1717. If Vanessa had read it, she might almost be suspected of borrowing; but her phrases seem to be too genuine to justify the hypothesis.
[48] Scott appropriately quotes Hotspur. The phrase is apparently a hint at Swift’s usual recipe of exercise.