carry'd to the Grave by fix of the pooreft Men of the Parish, to each of whom I order a Suit of grey coarfe Cloth, as Mourning. If I happen to die at any inconvenient Diftance, let the fame be done in any other Parish, and the Infcription be added on the Monument at Twickenham. I hereby make and appoint my particular Friends, Allen Lord Bathurst, Hugh Earl of Marchmont, the Honourable William Murray, his Majesty's Solicitor General, and George Arbuthnot, of the Court of Exchequer, Efq; the Survivors or Survivor of them, Executors of this my laft Will and Teftament. 1 But all the Manuscript and unprinted Papers which I fhall leave at my Decease, I defire may be deliver'd to my noble Friend, Henry St. John, Lord Bolingbroke, to whose fole Care and Judgment I commit them, either to be prefery'd or deftroy'd; or, in Cafe he shall not survive me, to the abovesaid Earl of Marchmont. Thefe, who in the Courfe of my Life have done me all other good Offices, will not refuse me this laft after my Death: I leave them therefore this Trouble, as a Mark of my Trust and Friendship; only defiring them each to accept of fome fmall Memorial of me: That my Lord Bolingbroke will add to his Library all the Volumes of my Works and Tranflations of Homer, bound in red Morocco, and the Eleven Volumes of those of Erafmus: That my Lord Marchmont will take the large Paper Edition of Thuanus by Buckley, or that Portrait of Lord Bolingbroke by Richardfon; which he shall prefer: That my Lord Bathurst will find a Place for the three Statues of the Hercules of Furnese, the Venus of Medicis, and the Apollo in Chiaro obfcuro, done by Kneller: That Mr. Murray will accept of the Marble Head of Homer by Bernini, and of Sir Ifaac Newton by Guelfi; and that Mr. Arbuthnot will take the the Watch I commonly wore, which the King of Sardinia gave to the late Earl of Peterborow, and he to me on his Death-Bed, together with one of the Pictures of Lord Bolingbroke. Item, I defire Mr. Lyttelton to accept of the Bufts of Spencer, Shakespear, Milton, and Dryden, in Marble, which his Royal Mafter the Prince was pleas'd to give me. I give and devife my Library of printed Books to Ralph Allen, of Widcombe, Efq; and to the Reverend Mr. William Warburton, or to the Survivor of them; when thofe belonging to Lord Bolingbroke are taken out, and when Mrs. Martha Blount has chofen Threefcore out of the Number. I alfo give and bequeath to the faid Mr. Warburton the Property of all fuch of my Works already printed, as he hath written, or fhall write Commentaries or Notes upon, and which I have not otherwise difpofed of, or alienated; and all the Profits which fhall arife after my Death from fuch Additions, as he fhall publish without future Alterations. Item, In café Ralph Allen, Efq; abovesaid, fhall furvive me, I order my Executors to pay him the Sum of One hundred and fifty Pounds; being to the beft of my Calculation, the Account of what I have received from him; partly for my own, and partly for charitable Ufes. If he refufe to take this himfelf, I defire him to employ it in a Way I am perfwaded he will not dislike, to the Benefit of the Bath-Hofpital. I give and devife to my Sifter-in-law, Mrs. Magdalen Racket, the Sum of Three hundred Pounds; and to her Sons, Henry and Robert Racket, One hundred Pounds each. I alfo releafe, and give to her all my Right and Intereft in and upon a Bond of Five hundred Pounds due to me from her Son Michael. I alfo give her the Family Pictures of my Father, C c Mother VOL. II. Mother and Aunts, and the Diamond Ring my Mother wore, and her Golden Watch. I give to Erafmus Lewis, Gilbert Weft, Sir Clement Cotterell, William Rollinfon, Nathaniel Hook, Efqrs. and to Mrs. Anne Arbuthnot, each the Sum of Five Pounds, to be laid out in a Ring, or any Memorial of me; and to my Servant John Searle, who has faithfully and ably ferv'd me many Years, I give, and devise the Sum of One hundred Pounds over and above a Year's Wages to himself and his Wife; and to the Poor of the Parish of Twickenham, Twenty Pounds to be divided amongst them by the faid John Searle ; and it is my Will, if the faid John Searle, die before me, that the fame Sum of One hundred Pounds go to his Wife or Children. Item, I give, and devife to Mrs. Martha Blount, younger Daughter of Mrs. Martha Blount, late of Welbeck-Street, Cavendish-Square, the Sum of One thoufand Pounds immediately on my Deceafe; and all the Furniture of my Grotto, Urns in my Garden, Household Goods, Chattels, Plate, or whatever is not otherwife difpofed of in this my Will, I give and devife to the faid Mrs. Martha Blount, out of a fincere Regard, and long Friendship for her: And it is my Will, that my abovefaid Executors, the Survivors or Survivor of them, fhall take an Account of all my Eftates, Money, or Bonds, &c. and after paying my Debts and Legacies, fhall place out all my Refidue upon Government, or other Securities, according to their best Judgments, and pay the Produce thereof, half-yearly, to the faid Mrs. Martha Blount, during her natural Life: And after her Deceafe, I give the Sum of One thousand Pounds to Mrs. Magdalen Racket, and her Sons Robert, Henry, and John, to be divided equally among them, or to the Survivors or Survivor of them; and after the the Deceafe of the faid Mrs. Martha Blount, I give the Sum of Two hundred Pounds to the abovefaid Gilbert Weft; two hundred to Mr. George Arbuthnot; two hundred to his Sifter, Mrs. Anne Arbuthnot; and One hundred to my Servant, John Searle, to which foever of thefe fhall be then living: And all the Refidue and Remainder to be confidered as undifpofed of, and go to my next of Kin. This is my last Will and Teftament, written with my own Hand, and fealed with my Seal, this Twelfth Day of December, in the Year of our Lord, One thoufand, feven hundred and forty-three. ALEX. POPE. The Affairs of his Eftate being thus fettled, he never gave himself further Thoughts about them, but with a fingular Calmnefs of Mind, bore the increafing Pains of his Diftemper, and follow'd the Advice he himself had before given, in all States and under all Doubts or Difficulties whatever to fubmit, not that it is to be wonder'd at fo much in him, whofe whole Life was one continued Suffering, and whofe particular Study had been to make himself as eafy as poffible under all the Difpenfations of Providence. Thus he continued for fome Time; at length the Symptoms of his Disorder began to change, tho' his Senfes remain'd with him to the laft, and on the 30th of May, in the Year of our Lord, 1744, he died at Twickenham, and is buried in the Parish Church. there, with his Father and Mother, according to the Direction of his Will. It is obfervable, that the Legacies are very inconfiderable which Mr. Pope has left from Mrs. Blount, which he acknowledges to be her's in Right, out of a fincere Regard and long Friendfhip for her, and not till after her Death thinks he has a Right to difCc 2 pofe B What he died of Mr. Pope's Letter concerning his Manner of Life 153 Mr. Pope's Letter after his Recovery from a Fit of Illnefs 156 Mr. Pope's Letter defcribing his Grotto 190 Blount, Mrs. Mr. Pope writes her an Epiftle in Verse at 17 Years of Age 17 Mr. Pope writes a Letter to her in Verfe with the Works of Voiture 30 ibid She leaves the Town Brenner el- Mr. Pope grows uneafy at her Abfence fhop of Cloyne, correíponds from Italy with Mr. Pope 257 Invites him thither She left the Town unwilling- in Verfe 33 She returns to London ibid 200 Mr. |