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gathered together, except Madam Kilmanfegg's, to which I had the Honour to be invited, and the Grace to ftay away.

I was heartily tired, and pofted to Bushey Park: There we had an excellent Difcourfe of Quackery ; Dr. Shadwell was mention'd with Honour. Lady A. walk'd a whole Hour abroad without dying after it, at leaft in the Time I ftay'd, tho' fhe feem'd to be fainting, and had convulfive Motions feveral Times in her Head:

This Day I receiv'd a Letter with certain Advices where Women were to be met with at Oxford. I defy them and all their Works: I love no Meat but Ortolans, and no Women but you: Tho' indeed that's no proper Comparison, but for fat Dutcheffes; for to love you, is as if one fhould wish to eat Angels, or to drink Cherubim Broth.

I arriv'd in the Foreft by Tuesday Noon, and pass'd the reft of the Day in thofe Woods where I have fo often enjoy'd a Book and a Friend. I made a Hymn as I pafs'd thro', which ended with a Sigh that I will not tell you the Meaning of.

Your Doctor is gone the Way of all his Patients, and was hard put to it how to dispose of an Estate miferably unweildy, and fplendidly unufeful to him. Sir Samuel Garth fays, that for Radcliffe to leave a Library, was as if an Eunuch fhould found a Seraglio. Dr. Shadwell lately told a Lady he wonder'd how she could be alive after him; fhe made Anfwer she wonder'd at it for two Reasons, becaufe Dr. Radcliffe was dead and because Dr. Shadwell was living. I am, Dear Madam, Your, &c.

Further, as an Affurance that his Paffion (for now it admits of that Name) was not meerly fix'd on her

as a fine Woman, speaking of her Person, he takes Care to let her know, at the Conclufion of another of his Letters, that his Thoughts are turn'd quite another Way. There he says:

The Days of Beauty are as the Days of Greatness, and as long as your Eyes make their Sunshine, all the World are your Adorers: I am one of those unambitious People, who will love you forty Years hence, when your Eyes begin to twinkle in a Retirement, for your own Sake, and without the Vanity which every one now will take to be thought, Dear Madam,

Your most devoted, &c.

While he was at Oxford, where he was us'd with the utmost Civility, and courted from one College to another, he kept conftantly writing to Mrs. Blount, and she beginning to be fenfible of the Sincerity of his Profeffions, and to find a Pleasure in little other Company but his, occafion'd, when they were feparated, a great Intercourse of Letters, in which, we make no doubt, there were fine Defcriptions of the Characters of the People then most talk'd of; but as thofe Letters wrote to her, and hers to him, were all in her Hands, except a few that have escap'd long fince by Chance, we cannot promife whether ever they will be produc'd to the Publick, or whether it is poffible, for many of them, if not all, are deftroy'd; however, those few we have ferve, and are greatly useful in many Refpects, and in particular in clearing up that Part of Mr. Pope's Will, which relates to Mrs Blount; for it might have furpriz'd fome People, to have seen the Bulk of his Fortune, and all his valuable Moveables (except a few Books, and tokens of Friendship) left to that Lady, had they

not

not before known of the long Esteem, and loving Friendship fubfifting between them.

Before he left Oxford, he prepar'd her for his coming to Town, by a Letter which speaks of his Arrival there, and the Reception he met with, take it in his own Words:

could have more of that Melan

choly which once us'd to please me, than my laft Day's Journey; for after having pafs'd thro' my favourite Woods in the Foreft, with a thousand Reveries of past Pleasures, I rid over hanging Hills, whofe Tops were edg'd with Groves, and whofe Feet water'd with winding Rivers, liftening to the Falls of Cataracts below, and the murmuring of the Winds above: The gloomy Verdure of Stonor fucceeded to thefe; and then the Shades of the Evening oxertook me. "The Moon rofe in the cleareft Sky I ever faw, by whofe folemn Light I paced on flowly, without Company, or any Interruption, to the Range of my Thoughts. About a Mile before I reach'd Oxford, all the Bells toll'd in different Notes; the Clocks of every College anfwer'd one another, and founded forth (fome in deeper, fome in a fofter Tone) that it was eleven at Night. All this was no ill Preparation to the Life I have led fince, among thofe old Walls, memorable Galleries, Stone Portico's, ftudious Walks, and folitary Scenes of the University. I wanted nothing but a black Gown and a Salary, to be as meer a Book-Worm as any there. I conform'd myfelf to College Hours, was roll'd up in Books, lay in one of the most antient dusky Parts of the University, and was as dead to the World as any Hermit of the Defart. If any Thing was alive or awake in me, it was a little Vanity, fuch as even thofe good Men us❜d to entertain, when the Monks of their own D 3 Order

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Order extoll'd their Piety and Abstraction. For. I
found myself receiv'd with a Sort of Refpect, which
the idle Part of Mankind, the Learned, pay to their
own Species, who are as confiderable here, as the
Bufy, the Gay, and the Ambitious are in your
World..

Indeed I was treated in fuch a Manner, that I could not but fometimes afk myself in my Mind, what College I was Founder of, or what Library I had built? Methinks I do very ill to return to the World again, to leave the only Place where I make a Figure, and from feeing myfelf feated with Dignity in the moft confpicuous Shelves of a Library, put myself into the abject Pofture of lying at a Lady's Feet in St. James's Square.

I am,

Dear Madam, &c.

A Thousand Women, notwithstanding the Uns genteelness and Homelinefs, nay, almoft Ugliness of Mr. Pope's Perfon, would have thought themselves happy, in having fo much of his Company and Converfation; but very few, if any, could have been capable of being fo agreeable to him, as this Lady: She was of an inquifitive Temper, both as to Learnjug and Politicks; fhe had fomething of a Pleasure in thinking of publick Bufinefs, having been present at much political Difcourfe, with Company our Author us'd to keep, which could not be avoided, tho Politicks was far from being his darling Topick; She was particularly concern'd at the Fall of the late Earl of Oxford, for whom he had the greatest Respect and Veneration imaginable, and fuffer'd very much with him, when he had the great Weight of Affliction to bear, both from princely Power and popular Hatred, nothing comforted her but the dauntless

Conduct

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Conduct he fhew'd under it, tho' he then labour'd with the racking Pains of the Stone, one of which, a very confiderable one, he at that Time voided.

Mrs. Blount had always a very gallant Spirit, fhe would often wish to fee fuch Sights as Armies, Encampments, and Standards waving over her Brother's Grounds and Fields, and would talk of Battles and Bloodfhed as familiar as if he was no Ways afraid of them, which fome other Ladies us'd to call Barbarity, and wonder how he could talk, or even think of fuch cruel Things without Tears, and aking Heart; ab (fhe'd make Anfwer) it would be a glorious Sight; fo many fine Officers, fine Gentlemen, fine Soldiers, fine Colours, fine Horfes, 'twould be prodigious Pleasure to fee.

Our Author, in the Beginning of the Reign of the late King, knowing her Difpofition, gives her Notice to the Country where fhe was, of a Sight going to be, that must certainly please her. His Letter runs thus:

T

HOSE Eyes that care not how much Mischief is done, or how great Slaughter committed, fo they have but a fine Show; those very female Eyes will be infinitely delighted with the Camp which is fpeedily to be form'd in Hyde-Park. The Tents are carried thither this Morning, new Regiments, with new Cloaths and Furniture (far exceeding the late Cloth and Linnen defign'd by his Grace for the Soldiery.) The Sight of fo many gallant Fellows, with all the Pomp and Glare of War yet undeform'd by Battle, thofe Scenes which England has for many Years only beheld on Stages, may poffibly invite your Curiofity to this Place.

Mrs.

L

expects the Pretender at her Lodgings by Saturday fe'nnight. She has bought a Picture of

D 4

Madam

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