[iii]   line 11. Patriots: the self-awarded designation of the major group of Walpole's opponents.

[iv] P. 3, line 6. Parliament devoted considerable time to fixing turnpike tolls.

[v]    Fleury: André Hercule de (1653-1743). Created a cardinal in 1726, he was chief adviser to Louis XV of France from that date till his death, and therefore a person of great interest to England. His guiding principle was to keep France at peace with the rest of Europe.

[vi] P. 4, lines 2-3. "Tory" originally meant an Irish outlaw, and "Whig" a Scottish rebel. For other theories of the origin of "Whig" that were current in 1729, see OED.

[vii]   line 12. Repetition Day: a day on which schoolboys recite memorized lessons.

[viii] P. 5, lines 7. The human face in Bramston's frontispiece has been said to resemble Heidegger, but it does not seem to match his reputation for extreme ugliness. See TE, 5, 92, 290, 443-44.

[ix] All Mr. Heydegger's Letters come directed to him from abroad, A Monsieur, Monsieur Heydegger, Surintendant des Plaisirs d' Angleterre.

[x] P. 6, lines 3-4. Ridpath: George Ridpath (d. 1726), Whig journalist. Abel Roper (1665-1726), publisher of the Tory Post Boy.

[xi] P. 7, line 10. Pinkethman: William Pinkethman (or Penkethman) (d. 1725), a comic actor said to have once eaten three chickens in two seconds. See TE, 4, 220, 377.

[xii]   line 12. Maypole: This remarkable barometer of intellectual history was razed by the Puritan parliament in 1644. A new one, 134 feet tall, was set up at the Restoration; it, or a successor, had decayed to a height of twenty feet in 1717 when Sir Isaac Newton acquired it and presented it to James Pound to use as a telescope mount.

[xiii] P. 8, line 2. Newer Square: Cavendish Square, according to Horace Walpole's annotation.

[xiv]   line 6. The bridge at Putney Ferry was completed in 1729.

[xv] P. 9, lines 4-5. Thomas Tickell's poetical Epistle from a Lady in England to a Gentleman at Avignon went through five editions in 1717.

[xvi]   lines 6-7. "Caleb D'Anvers" was the pseudonym under which appeared The Craftsman, the opposition journal directed by Bolingbroke and Pultney. Bramston's expression of ignorance must be ironic.

[xvii] P. 10, lines 1-2. Arthur Onslow, who became Speaker in 1728, insisted that all members bow to the Speaker's Chair when entering or leaving the House (Thomas, p. 356).

[xviii]   line 12. The "Kentish Petition" was presented to the Tory-controlled Parliament on 8 May 1701 by five gentlemen of Kent. It urged Parliament to grant speedily to King William the subsidies that would enable him to pursue his European wars against Louis XIV. Parliament did not consider its words soft; it voted the petition seditious, scandalous, and insolent, and arrested the five gentlemen, who thereupon became popular heroes, at least among the Whigs. See Defoe's History of the Kentish Petition (1701) and Ellis, pp. 53-56, 65-66.

[xix] P. 11, lines 3-8. Pultney: William Pultney (1684-1764), later Earl of Bath. The leader of the "Patriot" opposition to Walpole in the House of Commons. Hervey reluctantly concedes that his abilities were outstanding (pp. 790-91).

[xx] P. 12, line 4. the Rod: that is,