At home all day and busy. Dame Martin and her daughter Ann dined with us on the remains of Sunday’s dinner. They stayed and drank tea with us. In the afternoon posted some London accounts, and in the evening read some old magazines wherein I find the charges of a brief in the year 1740 was 513.6.4; to wit,
| Lord Chancellor’s fiat and signing | 38.10.0 |
| The patent | 25.18.2 |
| The printing | 20.5.0 |
| The stamping 9871 copies | 13.10.0 |
| The laying and collecting these at 10d each, within the bills mortality at 10d each | 415.3.2 |
But now the charges of the fiat, patent, printer and register for stamping amounts only to 1½d per parish, and the undertaker has only 6d per parish for laying and collecting; then the charge will be 298.3.8¾
| To 9871 copies at 1¼d each | 51.8.2¾ |
| To laying and collecting these at 6d Each | 246.15.6 |