To the end he vacillated in the same way.

"In that charming paper in _The Tatler_, in which he records his father's death, his mother's griefs, his own most solemn and tender emotions, he says he is interrupted by the arrival of a hamper of wine, 'the same as is to be sold at Garraway's next week;' upon the receipt of which he sends for three friends, and they fall to instantly, drinking two bottles apiece, with great benefit to themselves, and not separating till two o'clock in the morning." He had two wives, whom he loved dearly and treated badly.

He hired grand houses, and bought fine horses for which he could never pay.

He was often religious, but more often drunk.

As a man of letters, other men of letters who followed him, such as Thackeray, could not be very proud of him.