Approach: But awful! Lo! the Aegerian Grot, 9 Where, nobly-pensive, ST. JOHN fate and thought; VARIATIONS. Where VER. II. Where British fighs from dying Wyndham stole,] In his MS. it was thus: To Wyndham's breast the patriot passions stole, which made the whole allude to a certain Anecdote of not much confequence to any but the parties concerned. VER. 8. eye the Mine] NOTES. " Aurum irrepertum, et fic melius fitum Cum terra celet." WARBURTON. HORAT. 1. 3. od. 3. VER. 9. Aegerian Grot, These are two charming lines; but are blemished by two bad rhymes, Grot to Thought; scarce excusable in so short a poem, in which every fyllable ought to be correct. It is remarkable that Juvenal having mentioned this celebrated cave, takes occafion to inveigh against artificial grotto-work, and adulterating the fimple beauties of nature, in lines uncommonly poetical: " In vallem Ægeriæ descendimus, et Speluncas Sat. iii. v. 17. Milton, in an exquifite Latin poem, addressed to Salfillus, vol. ii. p. 532. has beautifully feigned that Numa is still living in this dark grove and grotto, in the perpetual enjoyment of his Ægeria. WARTON, VER. IO. Where, nobly-penfive, ST. JOHN] Lord Bolingbroke's account of the conversations, and manner of Pope's friends paffing their time, in his Garden, is not uninterefting: "All I dare promise you is, that my thoughts, in what order soever they flow, shall be communicated to you, just as they pass through my mind, just as they used to be when we converfed together on these or any other fubject, when we fauntered alone, or, as we have often done, with good Arbuthnot, and the jocofe Dean of St. Patrick, among the multiplied scenes of your little Garden." Letter to Sir William Wyndham. Where British fighs from dying WYNDHAM stole, And the bright flame was shot through MARCH MONT'S Soul. Let fuch, fuch only, tread this facred Floor, Who dare to love their Country, and be poor. VER. II. dying Wyndham) I have, by favour of Mr. Coxe, an eloquent and affecting letter on the Death of Sir William Wyndham by Lord Bolingbroke, but it is too long to be inferted. The reader will find it in another place. Sir William Wyndham was a most upright and amiable man, and confcientioufly attached to the exiled House of James. Born of a Tory family; embued," says Mr. Coxe, " from his earlier years with notions of Divine right, he uniformly opposed the fucceffion of the House of Brunswick." By marriage, in the reign of Edward the Sixth, with the daughter of Sir John Sydenham of Orchard, the elder line of the ancient family of this name, from Wymondham in Norfolk, was fettled at Orchard, fince called Orchard Wyndham in Somerfetshire., Sir William was lineally defcended from this branch. He was born in the year 1686, and, upon the death of his Father, fucceeded to the title of Baronet. He married, in 1708, Lady Catherine Seymour, daughter of Charles Duke of Somerset, Pope's connection with him was probably owing to Lord Bolingbroke, through life his intimate friend, and with whom he kept up a conftant correfpondence, which was continued with his fon, afterwards Earl of Egremont, till the death of Lord Bolingbroke. Under Lord Oxford's administration he was made Mafter of the Buck-Hounds, was afterwards Secretary at War, and Chancellor of the Exchequer. For obvious reasons, he experienced agreat reverfe of fortune on the acceffion of George I. and was committed to the Tower in 1716. He was released under bail, and continued to be highly respected for his probity and abilities. He died in 1740. 66 TO MR. GAY, CONGRATULATING HIM ON FINISHING HIS HOUSE AH, friend! 'tis true this truth you lovers know In vain my structures rise, my gardens grow, Of hanging mountains, and of floping greens : What are the gay parterre, the chequer'd shade, THESE very beautiful lines I have introduced in this place, as the most proper, after Pope's Inscription on his Grotto. In Pope's works the eight last lines only have been published as a fragment, the others were suppressed in consequence of his subsequent quarrel with the Lady whose name appears in them. They appear evidently written from the heart. VOL. 11. BB Lady Lady Mary's account of them puts their authenticity out of doubt: " I fee sometimes Mr. Congreve, and very feldom Mr. Pope, who continues to embellish his house at Twickenham. He has made a fubterranean grotto, which he has furnished with looking. glaffes, and they tell me it has a good effect I fend you fome verfes, addressed to Mr. Gay, who wrote him a congratulatory Letter on bis finisking his house. I stifled these here, and I beg they may die the fame death at Paris, and never go farther thaн your closet." Dallaway's edition of Lady M. W. Montagu's Works, vol. iii. p. 108. TO MRS. M. B.* ON HER BIRTH-DAY. H be thou blest with all that Heav'n can fend, Not with those Toys the female world admire, With added years if Life bring nothing new, Let Joy or Eafe, let Affluence or Content, And the gay Confcience of a life well spent, NOTES. Calm * Martha Blount. VER. 10. 'Tis but the Fun'ral] Immediately after this line were these four following, in the original : "If there's no hope, with kind, tho' fainter ray, To gild the evening of our future day; If every page of life's long volume tell The same dull story, Mordaunt, thou didst well!" Colonel Mordaunt, who destroyed himself, though not under WARTON. the preffure of any ill or misfortune. |