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ftopped the corrector's pay too, upon "this proof that he had made ufe of "Creech instead of the original."

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Pray tell me next how you deal with the critics. Sir (faid he) nothing more eafy. I can filence the most formidable of them: the rich ones with "a fheet a-piece of the blotted manufcript, which colts me nothing; they'll go about with it to their ac"quaintance, and fay they had it from the author, who fubmitted to their "correction: this has given fome of "them fuch an air, that in time they "come to be confulted with, and dedi"cated to, as the top critics of the "town. As for the poor critics, I'll give you one inftance of my management, by which you may guefs at the • rest. A lean man, that looked like "a very good fcholar, came to me "t'other day; he turned over your Ho"mer, fhock his head, fhrugged up his "shoulders, and pifhed at every line of "it: One would wonder (fays he) at the ftrange prefumption of fome "men; Homer is no fuch eafy tafk, that every tripling, every verifier "He was going on, when my wife ❝ called to dinner: Sir, faid I, will you please to eat a piece of beef with "me? Mr. Lintot (faid he) I am "forry you should be at the expence of

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this great book; I am really con"cerned on your account-Sir, I am "much obliged to you: if you can dine "upon a piece of beef, together with a "flice of pudding-Mr. Lintot, I do not fay but Mr. Pope, if he would "condescend to advife with men of learning-Sir, the pudding is upon "the table, if you pleafe to go in My "critic complies, he comes to a taste of your poetry, and tells me, in the fame breath, that your book is commendable, and the pudding excel

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Thefe, my lord, are a few traits by which you may difcern the genius of Mr. Lintot; which I have chofen for the fubject of a letter. I dropt him as foon as I got to Oxford, and paid a visit to my lord Carleton at Middleton.

The converfations I enjoy here are not to be prejudiced by my pen, and the pleafures from them only to be equalled when I meet your lordship. I hope in a few days to caft myself from your horfe, at your feet. Pope

§ 43. Defcription of a Country Seat.

To the Duke of Buckingham, In anfwer to a Letter in which he in clofed the defcription of Buckingham houfe, written by him to the D. of Sh.

Pliny was one of thofe few authors who had a warm house over his head, nay, two houfes; as appears by two of his epiftles. I believe, if any of his contemporary authors durft have informed the public where they lodged, we fhould have found the garrets of Rome as well inhabited as those of Fleet- ftreet; but 'tis dangerous to let creditors into fuch a fecret; therefore we may prefume that then, as well as now-a-days, nobody knew where they lived but their book fellers.

It seems, that when Virgil came to Rome, he had no lodging at all; he first introduced himself to Auguftus by an epigram, beginning Nocte pluit tota-an obfervation which probably he had not made, unless he had lain all night in the ftreet.

Where Juvenal lived, we cannot affirm; but in one of his fatires he complains of the exceffive price of lodgings; neither do I believe he would have talked fo feelingly of Codrus's bed, if there had been room for a bedfellow in it.

I believe, with all the oftentation of Pliny, he would have been glad to have changed both his houfes for grace's one; which is a country-houfe in the fummer, and a town-house in the winter, and must be owned to be the propereft habitation for a wife man,

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who fees all the world change every feafon without ever changing himself.

I have been reading the defcription of Pliny's houfe, with an eye to yours; but finding they will bear no comparifon, will try if it can be matched by the large country-feat I inhabit at prefent, and fee what figure it may make by the help of a florid defcription.

You must expect nothing regular in my defcription, any more than in the houfe; the whole vaft edifice is fo difjointed, and the feveral parts of it fo detached one from the other, and yet fo joining again, one cannot tell how, that, in one of my poetical fits, I imagined it had been a village in Amphion's time; where the cottages, having taken a country dance together, had been all out, and flood ftone-ftill with amazement ever fince.

You must excufe me, if I fay nothing of the front; indeed I don't know which it is. A franger would be grievoufly disappointed, who endea. voured to get into the houfe the right way. One would reafonably expect, after the entry through the porch, to be let into the hall: alas, nothing lefs! you find yourfelf in the houfe of office. From the parlour you think to ftep into the drawing-room; but, upon opening the iron-nailed door, you are convinced, by a flight of birds about your ears, and a cloud of duft in your eyes, that it is the pigeon-houfe. If you come into the chapel, you find its altars, like thofe of the ancients, continually fmoaking; but it is with the steams of the adjoining kitchen.

The great hall within is high and fpacious, flanked on one fide with a very long table, a true image of ancient hofpitality: the walls are all over ornamented with monftrous horns of animals, about twenty broken pikes, ten or a dozen blunderbuffes, and a rufty match-lock mufquet or two, which we were informed had ferved in the civil wars. Here is one vaft arched window, beautifully darkened with divers 'fcutcheons of painted glafs; one fhining pane in particular bears date 1286, which alone preferves the memory of a knight, whofe iron armour is long fince perifhed with rud, and $

whofe alabafter nofe is mouldered from his monument. The face of dame Eleanor, in another piece, owes more to that fingle pane than to all the glaffes fhe ever confulted in her life. After this, who can fay that glafs is frail, when it is not half fo frail as human beauty, or glory! and yet I can't but figh to think that the most authentic record of fo ancient a family fhould lie at the mercy of every infant who flings a ftone. In former days there have dined in this hall gartered knights, and courtly dames, attended by ushers, fewers, and fenefchals; and yet it was but laft night, that an owl flew hither, and miftook it for a barn.

This hall lets you (up and down) over a very high threshold into the great parlour. Its contents are a brokenbelly'd virginal, a couple of crippled velvet chairs, with two or three mildew'd pictures of mouldy ancestors, who look as difmally as if they came fresh from hell, with all their brimstone about them: thefe are carefully fet at the farther corner; for the windows being every where broken, make it so conve nient a place to dry poppies and muftard-feed, that the room is appropri ated to that use.

Next this parlour, as I faid before, lies the pigeon-house; by the fide of which runs an entry, which lets you on one hand and t'other into a bed-chamber, a buttery, and a small hole called the chaplain's ftudy: then follow a brewhoufe, a little green and gilt parlour, and the great ftairs, under which is the dairy a little farther, on the right, the fervants hall; and by the fide of it, up fix fteps, the old lady's closet for her private devotions; which has a lattice into the hall, intended (as we imagine) that at the fame time as the pray'd fhe might have an eye on the men and maids. There are upon the ground-floor, in all, twenty-fix apartments; among which I must not forget a chamber which has in it a large antiquity of timber, that feems to have been either a bedftead, or a cyderprefs.

The kitchen is built in form of a rotunda, being one vaft vault to the top of the houfe; where one aperture ferves

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to let out the fmoke, and let in the light. By the blackness of the walls, the circular fires, vaft cauldrons, yawning mouths of ovens and furnaces, you would think it either the forge of Vulcan, the cave of Polypheme, or the temple of Moloch. The horror of this place has made .ch an impreflion on the country people, that they believe the witches keep their Sabbath here, and that once a year the devil treats them with infernal venifon, a roasted tiger ftuffed with ten-penny nails.

Above ftairs we have a number of rooms; you never pafs out of one into another, but by the afcent or defcent of two or three stairs. Our best room is very long and low, of the exact proportion of a bandbox. In most of these rooms there are hangings of the finest work in the world, that is to say, those which Arachne fpins from her own bowels. Were it not for this only furniture, the whole would be a miferable fcene of naked walls, flaw'd ceilings, broken windows, and rufty locks. The roof is fo decayed, that after a favour able fhower we may expect a crop of mushrooms between the chinks of our floors. All the doors are as little and low as thofe to the cabins of packetboats. These rooms have, for many years, had no other inhabitants than certain rats, whofe very age renders them worthy of this feat, for the very rats of this venerable houfe are grey: fince these have not yet quitted it, we hope at least that this ancient manfion may not fall during the fmall remnant thefe poor animals have to live, who are now too infirm to remove to another. There is yet a fmall fubfiftence left them in the few remaining books of the library.

We had never feen half what I had defcribed, but for a ftarch'd grey-headed fteward, who is as much an antiquity as any in this place, and looks like an old family picture walked out of its frame. He entertained us as we paffed from room to room with feveral relations of the family; but his obfervations were particularly curious when we came to the cellar: he informed us where ftood the triple rows of butts of fack, and where were ranged the bot

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tles of tent, for toafts in a morning; he pointed to the stands that fupported the iron-hoop'd hogfheads of ftrong beer; then stepping to a corner, he lugged out the tattered fragments of an unframed picture: framed picture: "This (fays he, with "tears) was poor Sir Thomas! once "mafter of all this drink. He had "two fons, poor young mafters! who "never arrived to the age of his beer; they both fell ill in this very room, " and never went out on their own "legs." He could not pafs by a heap of broken bottles without taking up a piece to fhew us the arms of the family upon it. He then led us up the tower by dark winding ftone steps, which landed us into feveral little rooms one above another. One of these was nailed up, and our guide whispered to us as a fecret the occafion of it: it seems the courfe of this noble blood was a little interrupted about two centuries ago, by a freak of the lady Frances, who was here taken in the fact with a neighbouring prior, ever fince which the room has been nailed up, and branded with the name of the Adultery-Chamber. The ghost of lady Frances is fuppofed to walk there, and fome prying maids of the family report that they have seen a lady in a fardingale through the keyhole but this matter is hufht up, and the fervants are forbid to talk of it.

I mult needs have tired you by this long defcription: but what engaged me in it, was a generous principle to preferve the memory of that, which itself muft foon fall into duft, nay, perhaps part of it, before this letter reaches your hands.

Indeed we owe this old house the fame kind of gratitude that we do to an old friend, who harbours us in his declining condition, nay even in his last extremities. How fit is this retreat for uninterrupted ftudy, where no one that paffes by can dream there is an inhabitant, and even thofe who would dine with us dare not stay under our roof! Any one that fees it, will own I could not have chofen a more likely place to converfe with the dead in. I had been mad indeed if I had left your grace for any one but Homer. But when I re. turn to the living, I shall have the sense

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to endeavour to converfe with the beft of them, and shall therefore, as foon as poffible, tell you in perfon how much I am, &c. Pope.

§ 44. Apology for his religious Tenets. My Lord,

I am truly obliged by your kind condolence on my father's death, and the defire you exprefs that I fhould improve this incident to my advantage. I know your lordship's friendship to me is fo extenfive, that you include in that with both my fpiritual and my temporal advantage; and it is what I owe to that friendship, to open my mind unreferv. edly to you on this head. It is true I have loft a parent, for whom no gains I could make would be any equivalent. But that was not my only tie; I thank God another still remains (and long 'may it remain) of the fame tender nature; Genitrix eft mihi-and excufe me if I fay with Euryalus,

Nequeam lachrymas perferre parentis. A rigid divine may call it a carnal tie, but fure it is a virtuous one: at least I am more certain that it is a duty of na ture to preserve a good parent's life and happiness, than I am of any speculative point whatever.

Ignaram hujus quodcunque pericli

Hanc ego, nunc, linquam?

For fhe, my lord, would think this feparation more grievous than any other; and I, for my part, know as little as poor Euryalus did, of the fuccefs of fuch an adventure (for an adventure it is, and no fmall one, in fpite of the moft pofitive divinity). Whether the change would be to my fpiritual advantage, God only knows; this I know, that I mean as well in the religion I now profefs, as I can poffibly ever do in another. Can a man who thinks fo, juftify a change, even if he thought both equally good? To fuch an one, the part of joining with any one body of Chriftians might perhaps be easy, but I think it would not be fo, to renounce the other,

Your lordship has formerly advifed me to read the beft controverfies between the churches. Shall I tell you a

fecret? I did fo at fourteen years old, (for I loved reading, and my father had no other books); there was a collection of all that had been written on both fides in the reign of king James the fecond: I warmed my head with them; and the confequence was, that I found myfelf a papift and a proteftant by turns, according to the last book I read. I am afraid moft feekers are in the fame cafe, and when they stop, they are not fo properly converted, as outwitted. You fee how little glory you would gain by my converfion. And, after all, I verily believe your lordship and I are both of the fame religion, if we were thoroughly understood by one another; and that all honeft and reafonable Chriftians would be fo, if they did but talk enough together every day; and had nothing to do together, but to ferve God, and live in peace with their neighbour.

As to the temporal fide of the queftion, I can have no difpute with you; it is certain, all the beneficial circumftances of life, and all the fhining ones, lie on the part you would invite. me to. But if I could bring myself to fancy, what I think you do but fancy, that I have any talents for active life, I want health for it; and befides it is a real truth, I have lefs inclination (if poffible) than ability. Contemplative life is not only my fcene, but it is my habit too. I begun my life, where most people end theirs, with a difrelish of all that the world calls ambition: I don't know why 'tis called fo, for to me it always feemed to be rather stooping than climbing. I'll tell you my politic and religious fentiments in a few words. In my politics, I think no further than how to preferve the peace of my life, in any government under which I live; nor in my religion, than to preferve the peace of my confcience, in any church with which I communicate. I hope all churches and all governments are fo far of God, as they are rightly underflood, and rightly administered: and where they are, or may be wrong, I leave it to God alone to mend or reform them; which, whenever he does, it must be by greater inftruments than I am. I am not a papift, for I renounce the temporal invafions of the papal

power,

power, and deteft their arrogated authority over princes and ftates. I am a catholic in the ftricteft fenfe of the word. If I was born under an abfolute prince, I would be a quiet fubject: but I thank God I was not. I have a due fenfe of the excellence of the British conftitution. In a word, the things I have always wifhed to fee, are not a Roman catholic, or a French catholic, or a Spanish catholic, but a true catholic: and not a king of Whigs, or a king of Tories, but a king of England. Which God of his mercy grant his prefent majefty may be, and all future majefties. You fee, my lord, I end like a preacher: this is fermo ad clerum, not ad populum. Believe me, with infinite obligation and fincere thanks, ever

Your, &c.

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There was another reafon why I was filent as to that paper-I took it for a lady's (on the printer's word in the title-page) and thought it too prefuming, as well as indecent, to contend with one of that sex in altercation: for I never was fo mean a creature as to commit my anger against a lady to paper, though but in a private letter. But foon after, her denial of it was brought to me by a noble perfon of real honour and truth. Your lordship indeed faid you had it from a lady, and the lady faid it was your lordship's; fome thought the beautiful by-blow had two fathers, or (if one of them will hardly be allowed a man) two mothers; indeed I think both fexes had a fhare in it, but which was uppermoft, I know not: I pretend not to determine the exact method of this witty fornication: and, if I call it yours, my lord, 'tis only becaufe, whoever got it, you brought it forth.

Here, my lord, allow me to obferve the different proceeding of the ignoble poet, and his noble enemies. What he has written of Fanny, Adonis, Sap. pho, or who you will, he owned, he publifhed, he fet his name to: what they have published of him, they have denied to have written; and what they have written of him, they have denied

to have published. One of thefe was the cafe in the past libel, and the other in the prefent; for, though the parent has owned it to a few choice friends, it is fuch as he has been obliged to deny, in the most particular terms, to the great person whofe opinion concerned him most.

Yet, my lord, this epiftle was a piece' not written in hafte, or in a paffion, but many months after all pretended provocation; when you was at full leifure at Hampton-Court, and I the object fingled, like a deer out of feafon, for fo ill-timed, and ill-placed a diverfion. It was a deliberate work, directed to a reverend perfon, of the most ferious and facred character, with whom you are known to cultivate a ftrict correfpondence, and to whom it will not be doubted, but you open your fecret fentiments, and deliver your real judgment of men and things. This, I fay, my lord, with fubmiffion, could not but awaken all my reflection and attention. Your lordship's opinion of me as a poet, I cannot help; it is yours, my lord, and that were enough to mortify a poor man; but it is not yours alone, you must be content to fhare it with the gentlemen of the Dunciad, and (it may be) with many more innocent and ingenious gentlemen. If your lordship deftroys my poetical character, they will claim their part in the glory; but, give me leave to fay, if my moral character be ruined, it must be wholly the work of your lordship; and will be hard even for you to do, unless I myself co-operate.

How can you talk (my most worthy lord) of all Pope's works as fo many libels, affirm, that he has no invention but in defamation, and charge him with felling another man's labours printed with his own name? Fye, my lord, you forget yourfelf. He printed not his name before a line of the perfon's you mention; that perfon himself has told you and all the world, in the book itfelf, what part he had in it, as may be feen at the conclufion of his notes to the Odyffey. I can only fuppofe your lordfhip (not having at that time forgot your Greek) deipifed to look upon the tranflation; and ever fince entertained too mean an opinion of the tranflator

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