him. He was manly, and frank, and generous; but these characteristics
could scarcely protect him from the terrors of the tip-staff, and the
sequels of "t'other bottle." Indeed, he very honestly and unfeignedly
confesses to the lapses of his youth in the _Journey from this World to
the Next_, adding that he pretended "to very little Virtue more than
general Philanthropy and private Friendship." It is therefore but
reasonable to infer that his daily life must have been more than usually
characterised by the vicissitudes of the eighteenth-century prodigal,--
alternations from the "Rose" to a Clare-Market ordinary, from gold-lace
to fustian, from champagne to "British Burgundy." In a rhymed petition
to Walpole, dated 1730, he makes pleasant mirth of what no doubt was
sometimes sober truth--his debts, his duns, and his dinnerless
condition. He (the verses tell us)

"--from his Garret can look down
On the whole Street of _Arlington_." [Footnote: Where Sir Robert lived]

Again--

"The Family that dines the latest
Is in our Street esteem'd the greatest;
But latest Hours must surely fall
Before him who ne'er dines at all;"

and

"This too doth in my Favour speak,
Your Levee is but twice a Week;
From mine I can exclude but one Day,
My Door is quiet on a _Sunday_."