had better fend itt to me. He will not faile to coll here, that is Mr. Mannock" No man of liberal mind, however, would too rigidly examine a plain and unaffected letter from an affectionate parent. So far is certain, that Pope's father acquired, whatever property he poffeffed, by trade: in the deed, by which his estate, when fold, was conveyed, he is intitled, "Alexander Pope, merchant, of Kenfington *. Pope had no brother; but a fifter-in-law, as fhe is called in his will, was married to a Mr. Racket. He exprefsly fays, in a letter to Martha Blount, (who could not be deceived) that he had "no fifter." The person, therefore, whom he called his fifter-in-law, might have been his half-fifter by a former marriage. These things, though trifles in themselves, I have thought it right to mention, as they have been hitherto unnoticed. + Pope, it is well known, was from his infancy fickly and infirm, and his childhood required tendernefs and indulgence. I need not repeat, that he was taught to write by an aunt from printed letters. That he was placed under the care of Taverner, a Catholic priest, and from him was removed to the care of other priests; that * From a refpectable inhabitant of Binfield, who affured me he had feen the deed. that from the village of Twiford near Winchester, he went to a school near Hyde-Park-corner, where fuch was his progrefs, that, befides writing a fatire on the mafter, he did enact," with his fchool-fellows, in a play made by himself, from Ogilby's Homer; that the Gardener," at his perfuafion, perfonated Ajax!! All these circumftances are amply recorded by Warburton and Ruffhead. Pope's father was attached to the unfortunate caufe of James the Second. He was a rigid Catholic; and foon after the revolution, and the birth of his fon, wifhed to hide his disappointment, at the turn of affairs, in the fhades of the country; confoling himself, like other great patriots, that as the world was not such as "it ought to be," it was best to leave it. With fuch feelings, and fuch ideas, the father purchased twenty acres of land at Binfield, in Windfor Foreft, and one of thofe fmall cottages, near to the way-fide, originally taken from the wafte, with a row of elms before the window, and the common road in the front; fuch as is defcribed by Pope himself: "A little house, with trees a row, Here he employed his time, chiefly in the cultivation of his garden, "Plants cauliflowers, and boasts to rear, After the manner of Candide, thinking, "Le Monde 66 ne va pas comme il faut, mais il faut cultiver le "jardin *." Some of the original elms are yet standing t The fon, now about twelve years of age (1700), after an imperfect and defultory education, became a refident with his father in the Foreft: willing to retrieve the time he had loft, he began feduloufly to read and study. His father, as far as he was able, fuperintended his first literary pursuits; but being used to active bufiness, and, doubtlefs, fomewhat wearied in folitude, as his fon was much confined at home, he thought only of mere amusement, when he fet him a poetical task. The firft fubject that would naturally occur was relative to his own fituation; this fuggested the verses on Solitude. His fon's poetical attempts ferved at once to amuse the leisure, and to flatter the vanity of a parent but we fhould not have had the name of Pope, as one of the greatest ornaments of the age, had not other circumftances concurred to nourish this early taste. The feeds of poetry accidentally fown might have perished as they arose, had they not, by a fingular concurrence of circumftances, received fupport from those who were enabled to confer fomething * Sir William Trumbull favs in a letter: "I wish alfo I could "learn some more fkill in gardning from your father, (to whome "with your good mother all our services are prefented, with thankes "for the hartichokes,) who has fet us a pattern that I am afraid "we fhall copie but in miniature." + The houfe, fince that time, has been raised, and confiderable additions have been made to it. It is now an elegant manfion, in poffeffion of Neate efq. fomething more than praise. Let not this be thought derogatory from the fame of Pope. They who think fo, are ignorant of human nature. The youthful votary of the mufes is elated with his firft efforts, and looks round with throbbing folicitude for notice; none is excited: he tries again: no encouraging voice is heard. Perhaps he meets derifion, where, at least, a smile of favour was expected. Hence the difappointed enthusiast receives difguft at what he thinks an unfeeling age: his energies, as a fublime Poet "has expreffed it," are "rolled back on himself," and he becomes a folitary and diftempered vifionary through life. This is no uncommon picture; the wing of Milton might have afcended to its natural elevation, through all that oppofed its career; but, let it be remembered, Pope, from being tenderly brought up, was through life impatient of contradiction, fcarcely brooked a diffenting voice, and having been fostered by early patronage, lived afterwards in the sunshine of flattery." The fame difpofition that made him vain, would, in other circumstances, have caufed depreffion. Fortunately, the cafe was different. The reader will be aware that I allude to the refidence of the venerable Sir William Trumbull, in the adjoining hamlet, fcarcely two miles from the house of Pope's father. Being himself retired, in an honoured a 3 honoured old age, from the toil of business, and feeking amufements more quiet and fuited to his declining years, than his ftag-hounds and the fociety of his country neighbours afforded; a fimilarity, in fome respect, of circumftances, might have tended to render the elder Pope and himself agreeable to each other. Their stations of life were different, but they had both "left the croud," and experienced the truth of the fentiment of La Bruyere, thus expreffed by the tender Cowper, "How sweet, how paffing sweet is folitude! Sir William, who had been in high political employment during the reign of King William, with cultivated manners, benevolent difpofition, good fense, mixed with love of literature, exhibited, at the close of life, in the fhades of his native forest, that fair example to Society, a country gentleman of education and knowledge of the world, difpenfing hofpitality, and cheering with kindness, intelligence, and liberality, the parish in which he was born, and where his bones were finally to be laid. To the honour of such a man, let it be recorded, that his name is yet remembered with veneration by many of the inhabitants of the adjacent parishes. They point to the church where his remains repofe, and feem to feel a kind |