Glad to hear of Smith's accession of fortune. Hears that [Thomas] Marsham is ill again with evident signs of dropsy. Comments on the "frightful" accounts of persecution of Protestants by Roman Catholics in south of France, the Duke and Duchess of Angoulême and Duke of Berri are "bigots of the first order".

In a postscript, upside down at top of recto of first folio, says that [Aylmer Bourke] Lambert has just returned from Whiteknights, [Reading, Berkshire], and by his account "nothing can equal the extravagance & folly of that poor Marquis" [George Spencer-Churchill, Marquess of Blandford, later 5th Duke of Marlborough].