lady in waiting allways tells who comes to know how she
dos One of your tickets is a blank, the othere is not
yet come up. I have four blanks and two 20/. and two to com up ; if I have the 12,000/. 'tis at your service, as my self is and every thing elce is I have. I hear the Queen will not concent to have the Duke and Duchess of Somerset remov'd. I hear there is a most scandalouse Lampoon com out against the Duchess of Somerset, but I have not seen it, for I am very cautious who I inquire for things of that nature of, and perticalarly of her, because the whole famely is so civill to me
[Peter Wentworth.]
London, January I, 1712. Dear Brother,
There was some truth as well as some falsewood in in what I writ you last post. I have it from very good hands that there has been a letter of demission to the Duke of Sommerset, but it has been recalled, and tho' 'tis not certainly known by me whether 'tis yet sent, I begin to believe it certainly will be. The Dutchess of Sommerset has been every day with the Queen ever since the report of her hus- band's being out. This day being New Year's Day the lords and ladies, &c., has been to wish her Majesty many happy new years, and I thank God the Queen was so well as to come out to receive the complyments of her good subjects. She took pains to be civill to the Dutchess of Sommerset, she spoke to her two or three times and I had the pleasure to see her very gracious to my Lady Strafford, who she spoke to twice. If the Dutchess must out, she will leave the Court with a very good grace, for every body is pleased with her good breeding and civility ; and I believe if her Duke had thought her what all the rest of the world thinks, capable of advising him, matters wou'd not be as they are. Their case
is the reverse of the Duke and Dutchess of M , in the
eye of the world 'tis she has been the ruin of him, and he the ruin of her (sic). Last night the Duke of M received a
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