tertained for her was rather derived from chance," &c. "He was firft enamoured of another Lady, who was more cruel to the Royal Lover than Mrs. Howard. This Lady was the beautiful and lively Mary Bellenden," &c. “The Prince having communicated his paffion for Mifs Bellenden to Mrs. Howard, and being rejected, became enamoured of his confidante."

Coxe's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 14. VER. 1. I know the thing] Equal in elegance to any compli ment that Waller has paid to Sacchariffa, especially the laft ftanza, and the answer to Envy. The Lady addreft was Mrs. Howard, of Marble-hill, bed-chamber woman to Queen Caroline, and afterwards Countefs of Suffolk, WARTON.

ON HIS GROTTO AT TWICKENHAM.

COMPOSED OF

MARBLES, SPARS, GEMS, ORES, AND MINERALS.

THOU
HOU who fhalt stop, where Thames' translucent

wave

Shines a broad Mirror through the fhadowy Cave;
Where ling'ring drops from min'ral Roofs diftil,
And pointed Crystals break the sparkling Rill,
Unpolish'd Gems no ray on Pride bestow,
And latent Metals innocently glow:
Approach. Great NATURE ftudiously behold!
And eye the Mine without a wifh for Gold.

VARIATIONS.

After VER. 6. in the MS.

5

Approach:

You fee that Ifland's wealth, where, only free,
Earth to her entrails feels not Tyranny.

i. e. Britain is the only place in the globe which feels not tyranny
even to its very
entrails.
WARBURTON.

NOTES.

On his Grotto] The improving and finishing his Grot was the favourite amufement of his declining years; and the beauty of his poetic genius, in the difpofition and ornaments of this romantic recefs, appears to as much advantage as in his beft contrived Poems. WARBURTON.

There is much truth in Warburton's obfervation, although it may not convey the fenfe he intended. Pope's Garden certainly refembled his polished and embellished strain, but of neither are romantic" beauty or "great nature" the characteristics.

66

Approach: But awful! Lo! the Aegerian Grot, 9 Where, nobly-penfive, ST. JOHN fate and thought; Where

VARIATIONS.

VER. II. Where British fighs from dying Wyndham flole,] In his MS. it was thus:

To Wyndham's breaft the patriot paffions ftole,

which made the whole allude to a certain Anecdote of not much confequence to any but the parties concerned. WARBURTON.

VER. 8. eye the Mine]

NOTES.

"Aurum irrepertum, et fic melius fitum

Cum terra celet."

HORAT. 1. 3. od. 3. VER. 9. Aegerian Grot.] Thefe are two charming lines; but are blemished by two bad rhymes, Grot to Thought; fcarce excufable in fo fhort 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 defcendimus, et Speluncas
Diffimiles veris; quanto præftantius effet

Numen aquæ, viridi fi margine clauderit undas
Herba, nec ingenuum violarent marmora tophum.”

Sat. iii. v. 17.

Milton, in an exquifite Latin poem, addreffed to Salillus, vol. ii. p. 532. has beautifully feigned that Numa is ftill living in this dark grove and grotto, in the perpetual enjoyment of his Egeria.

WARTON.

VER. 10. Where, nobly penfive, Sr. JOHN] Lord Boling. broke's account of the converfations, 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 foever they flow, fhall be communicated to you, just as they pafs through my mind, juft as they used to be when we converfed together on thefe 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 fcenes of your little Garden." Letter to Sir William Wyndham.

Where British fighs from dying WYNDHAM stole, And the bright flame was fhot through MARCHMONT'S Soul.

Let fuch, fuch only, tread this facred Floor,
Who dare to love their Country, and be poor.

VER. 11. 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 in ferted. The reader will find it in another place.

Sir William Wyndham was a most upright and amiable man, and confcientiously attached to the exiled House of James. Born of a Tory family; "embued," fays Mr. Coxe, "from his earlier years with notions of Divine right, he uniformly oppofed 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 Somerfetfhire. 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 correspondence, 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 reverse 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.

From a Picture by Richardson, in the Marques of Buckingham's Collection at Stowe ?

Published by Cadell & Davies, Strand, and the other Proprietors, May 1.1807.