410 
He also sent from Pall Mall— 
1 lb. gunpowder tea... — 13 — 
2 lbs. green tea aa i —- — 
2 lbs. Turkey coffee... — 10 — 
2 lbs. plain chocolate ... — I0 — 
During this time recorded he was living and living well very 
much on his popularity. He knew howto make politics pay. As 
time passed there was some decline in his popularity, the position 
became tiresome, there was too much of him. Dr. Johnson said— 
Jack has a variety of talk—Jack is a scholar and Jack has the 
manners of a gentleman ; if we did not hear so much said of 
Jack we should think more highly of his conversation. Yet he 
continued his expenditure, so that in 1778-9 his monetary position 
was “truly melancholy.” He himself wrote he was “steeped in 
poverty to the very lips.” It was then a fortunate day for him 
when he managed with his usual success to be elected Chamberlain 
of the city, a very lucrative post which saved him all future 
anxiety and perhaps helped to wean him somewhat from his visits 
to Bath. Going down at different times in the different years, a 
different company is seen as met with, but his politics and 
character must have kept him from some houses. The guests 
named at the various dinners would seem to have been those who 
impressed or pleased him at the time, there were often more, as in 
one case where sixteen were present and but few noted. Again it 
may be so judged from the often final &c. to the entry. 
During one of these visits he made the acquaintance of a Mrs. 
Arnold, but the exact date is not clear. The only notice in the 
diary is on 30th April, 1783, when he “dined at the lodgings 
with Mrs. Arnold” He took a house for her at Kensington 
Gore and she bore him a daughter and with these two he 
now spent much time. Wilkes was no gambler, but besides 
this game of intrigue, at which he was famous, and the story so 
briefly told in the diary, there was much time to be filled up and 
occupied. Of the joys of Bath there were the balls, “gayest 
