Letters from Hampstead[67] say, there is a coxcomb arrived there, of a kind which is utterly new. The fellow has courage, which he takes himself to be obliged to give proofs of every hour he lives. He is ever fighting with the men, and contradicting the women. A lady who sent him to me, superscribed him with this description out of Suckling:
"I am a man of war and might,
And know thus much, that I can fight,
Whether I am in the wrong or right,
Devoutly.
"No woman under heaven I fear,
New oaths I can exactly swear;
And forty healths my brains will bear,
Most stoutly."
FOOTNOTES:
[65] A plum is £100,000.
[66] Sir Francis Child, according to the annotator mentioned in a note to No. 4. Sir Francis Child, the founder of the banking-house, was elected Lord Mayor in 1698, and was afterwards M.P. for the City and for Devizes. He died in 1713.
[67] Hampstead was quite a health resort, with chalybeate springs. The following advertisement appeared in No. 201: "A consort of music will be performed in the Great Room at Hampstead, this present Saturday, the 22nd inst., at the desire of the gentlemen and ladies living in and near Hampstead, by the best masters. Several of the opera songs, by a girl of nine years, a scholar of Mr. Tenoe's, who never performed in public, but once at York Buildings, with very good success. To begin exactly at five, for the conveniency of gentlemen's returning. Tickets to be had only at the Wells, at 2s. 6d. each. For the benefit of Mr. Tenoe."