But, I fancy, it is not writing, but thinking, that is so bad with the waters; and then you might write without any manner of prejudice if you write like our brother poets of these days." Pope wrote to him on November 8th: "...

That Duchess [of Hamilton],[19] Lord Warwick, Lord Stanhope, Mrs.Bellenden, Mrs.Lepell, and I cannot tell who else, had your letters ...

I would send my services to Mr.Pulteney, but that he is out at Court, and make some compliment to Mrs.Pulteney, if she was not a Whig."[20] From this letter it is evident that Gay was becoming well known in fashionable circles, and it is also clear that he had friends in the Court circle.

"Gay is well at Court, and more than ever in the way of being served than ever....

Gay dines daily with the Maids of Honour," Pope had written to Martha Blount in December, 1716; and Gay, who would rather have had a place in the Household with nothing to do and no responsibility than anything else in the world, was not the man to refrain from endeavouring to improve the occasion.