mata" from the noble family of the Earl of Downe; and there is probably as little truth in one circumstance as the other. From the most authentic information obtained at the heralds' office, it appears that the pedigree which he made out for himself was as much fabricated as Mr. Ireland's descent from SHAKESPEARE *. The account of his mother's family, of the Turners in Yorkshire, as it has not been contradicted, is prefumed to be true. Pope says, "Of gentle blood each parent came;" but if Mrs. Pope was of "gentle" blood, her education must have been very defective, at least it appears fo from her letter in this edition. Although the edu cation of females was then very inferior to what it is at present, yet it is difficult to imagine, that a lady of "very gentle blood" could be the writer of such an epistle as the following. To POPE from his Mother. "MY DEARE, "A letter from your fifter yuft now is come and gone, Mr. Mannock and Charles Racket, to take his leve of us, but being nothing in it doe not fend it. He will not faile to coll here on Friday morning, and take ceare to cearrie itt to Mr. Thomas Doncaster; he will dine wone day with Mrs. Dune, in Duckestreet: but the day will be unfirton, foe I think you VOL. I. *From Mr. Dallaway. a had had better fend itt to me. He will not faile to coll here, that is Mr. Mannock"- No man of liberal mind, however, would too rigidly examine a plain and unaffected letter from an affectionate parent. › So far is certain, that Pope's father acquired, whatever property he poffeffed, by trade: in the deed, by which his estate, when fold, was conveyed, he is intitled, "Alexander Pope, merchant, of Kenfington *. Pope had no brother; but a fister-in-law, as she is called in his will, was married to a Mr. Racket. He exprefsly fays, in a letter to Martha Blount, (who could not be deceived) that he had "no fifter." The perfon, therefore, whom he called his fifter-in-law, might have been his half-fifter by a former marriage. These things, though trifles in themselves, I have thought it right to mention, as they have been hitherto unnoticed. Pope, it is well known, was from his infancy fickly and infirm, and his childhood required tendernefs and indulgence. 4 I need not repeat, that he was taught to write by an aunt from printed letters. That he was placed under the care of Taverner, a Catholic priest, and from him was removed to the care of other priests; that * From a respectable inhabitant of Binfield, who affured me he had feen the deed. that from the village of Twiford near Winchester, he went to a school near Hyde-Park-corner, where fuch was his progrefs, that, befides writing a fatire on the mafter, he "did enact," with his fchool-fellows, in a play made by himself, from Ogilby's Homer; that the "Gardener," at his perfuafion, perfonated Ajax!! All these circumstances are amply recorded by Warburton and Ruffhead. Pope's father was attached to the unfortunate caufe of James the Second. He was a rigid Catholic; and foon after the revolution, and the birth of his fon, wifhed to hide his disappointment, at the turn of affairs, in the fhades of the country; confoling himself, like other great patriots, that as the world was not fuch as "it ought to be," it was best to leave it. With fuch feelings, and fuch ideas, the father purchased twenty acres of land at Binfield, in Windfor Foreft, and one of those fmall cottages, near to the way-fide, originally taken from the wafte, with a row of elms before the window, and the common. road in the front; fuch as is defcribed by Pope himself: "A little house, with trees a row, Here he employed his time, chiefly in the cultivation of his garden, "Plants cauliflowers, and boasts to rear, After the manner of Candide, thinking, "Le Monde né va pas comme il faut, mais il faut cultiver le jardin *: Some of the original elms are yet standing t. The fon, now about twelve years of age (1700), after an imperfect and defultory education, became a refident with his father in the Foreft: willing to retrieve the time he had loft, he began fedulously to read and study. His father, as far as he was able, fuperintended his first literary pursuits; but being used to active businefs, and, doubtlefs, fomewhat wearied in folitude, as his fon was much confined at home, he thought only of mere amusement, when he fet him a poetical task. The first subject that would naturally occur was relative to his own fituation; this fuggefted the verses on Solitude. His fon's poetical attempts ferved at once to amuse the leifure, and to flatter the vanity of a parent but we fhould not have had the name of Pope, as one of the greatest ornaments of the age, had not other circumftances concurred to nourish this early tafte. The feeds of poetry accidentally fown might have perished as they arofe, had they not, by a fingular concurrence of circumftances, received fupport from thofe who were enabled to confer fomething *Sir William Trumbull fays in a letter: "I wifh alfo I could "learn fome more fkill in gardning from your father, (to whome "with your good mother all our fervices are prefented, with thankes "for the hartichokes,) who has fet us a pattern that I am afraid "we fhall copie but in miniature." The house, fince that time, has been raised, and confiderable additions have been made to it. It is now an elegant manfion, in poffeffion of Neate efq. fomething more than praife. Let not this be thought derogatory from the fame of Pope. They who think fo, are ignorant of human nature. The youthful votary of the mufes is elated with his firft efforts, and looks round with throbbing folicitude for notice; none is excited: he tries again: no encouraging voice is heard. Perhaps he meets derifion, where, at least, a smile of favour was expected. Hence the disappointed enthusiast receives difguft at what he thinks an unfeeling age: his energies, as a fublime Poet "has expreffed it," are "rolled back on himself," and he becomes a folitary and diftempered vifionary through life. This is no uncommon picture; the wing of Milton might have afcended to its natural elevation, through all that oppofed its career; but, let it be remembered, Pope, from being tenderly brought up, was through life impatient of contradiction, fcarcely brooked a diffenting voice, and having been fostered by early patronage, lived afterwards in the funfhine of flattery. The fame difpofition that made him vain, would, in other circumftances, have caufed depreffion. Fortunately, the cafe was different. The reader will be aware that I allude to the refidence of the venerable Sir William Trumbull, in the adjoining hamlet, fcarcely two miles from the house of Pope's father. Being himself retired, in an honoured a 3 |