Parce meum, quisquis tanges cava marmora, somnum Nymph of the grot, these sacred springs I keep, You will think I have been very poetical in this description, but it is pretty near the truth. I wish 4 The simplicity of this ancient inscription is indeed eminently beautiful ; so also is the following imitation of it by a late writer* of true taste, and lover of the ancients : SUB IMAGINE PANIS RUDI LAPIDE. Quin si fraude malâ quid hinc reportes, Our author wrote the following lines on a grotto adorned with shellwork, at Crux-Easton, Hants, which ought to be preserved: Here shunning idleness at once and praise, But fate dispos'd them in this humble sort, And hid in deserts what would charm a court.-Warton. 5 I shall here insert two letters to Sir Hans Sloane, on the ornaments of this grotto: SIR, To Sir HANS SLOANE. Warton. Twickenham, March 30, 1742. I AM extremely obliged to you for your intended kindness of furnishing my grotto with that surprising natural curiosity, which indeed I have ardently sought some time. But I would much rather part with every thing of this sort, which I have collected, than deprive your most copious collection of one thing that may be wanting to it. If you can spare it, I shall be doubly pleased, in having it, and in owing it to you. The further favour you offer me, of a review of your curiosities, deserves my acknowledgment. Could I hope that among the minerals and fossils which I have gathered, there was any thing you could like, *Thomas Warton. These were the Misses Lisles, sisters of the well-known Dr. Lisle, who was Chaplain to the Factory at Smyrna; author of several humorous pieces in verse. He is buried in Dibdin church, near Southampton. The family estate is now in possession of Lord Malmesbury.-Bowles. you were here to bear testimony how little it owes to art, either the place itself, or the image I give of it. I am, &c. LETTER XV. TO MR. BLOUNT. Sept. 13, 1725. I SHOULD be ashamed to own the receipt of a very kind letter from you, two whole months from the date of this; if I were not more ashamed to tell a lie, or to make an excuse, which is worse than a lie; for, being built upon some probable circumstance, it makes use of a degree of truth to falsify with, and is a lie guarded o. it would be esteemed an obligation (if you have time as the season improves) to look upon them and command any. I shall take the first favourable opportunity to inquire when it may be least inconvenient to wait on you, which will be a true satisfaction to, Sir, Your most obliged, and most humble Servant, To Sir HANS SLOANE. A. POPE. SIR, Twickenham, May 22, 1742. I HAVE many true thanks to pay you, for the two joints of the giant's causeway, which I found yesterday at my return to Twitnam, perfectly safe and entire. They will be a great ornament to my grotto, which consists wholly of natural productions, owing nothing to the chisel or polish; and which it would be much my ambition to entice you one day to look upon. I will first wait on you at Chelsea, and embrace with great pleasure the satisfaction you can better than any man afford me, of so extensive a view of Nature, in her most curious works. I am, with all respect, Sir, Your most obliged, and most humble Servant, A. POPE. 6 Pope was not always so particular, as I have a letter before me, to Blount's sister, with these remarkable words: "If you have seen a late advertisement, you will know that I have not told a lie, which we both abominate, but equivocated, pretty genteelly." Pope's definition of a "Lie guarded," cannot fail to recal the Clown's humorous description in " As you like it :" ["Jaques, Your letter has been in my pocket in constant wearing, till that, and the pocket, and the suit are worn out, by which means I have read it forty times, and I find by so doing that I have not enough considered and reflected upon many others you have obliged me with; for true friendship, as they say of good writing, will bear reviewing a thousand times, and still discover new beauties. I have had a fever, a short one, but a violent: I am now well; so it shall take up no more of this paper. I begin now to expect you in town to make the winter come more tolerable to us both. The summer is a kind of heaven, when we wander in a paradisiacal scene among groves and gardens; but at this season, we are, like our poor first parents, turned out of that agreeable though solitary life, and forced to look about for more people to help to bear our labours, to get into warmer houses, and live together in cities. I hope you are long since perfectly restored, and risen from your gout, happy in the delights of a contented family, smiling at storms, laughing at greatness, merry over a Christmas-fire, and exercising all the functions of an old Patriarch in charity and hospitality. I will not tell Mrs. B *** what I think she is doing; for I conclude it is her opinion, that he only ought to know it for whom it is done; and she will allow herself 66 Jaques. But for the seventh cause; how did you find the quarrel upon the seventh cause ? "Clown. Upon a lie seven times removed (bear your body more seeming, Audrey), as thus, Sir: I did dislike the cut of a certain courtier's beard; he sent me word, if I said his beard was not cut well, he was in the mind it was: this is called the retort courteous. If I sent him word again, it was not well cut, he would send me word, he cut it to please himself: this is called the quip modest. If again, it was not well cut, he disabled my judgment: this is called the reply churlish. If again, it was not well cut, he would answer, I speak not true: this is called reproof valiant. If again, it was not well cut, he would say, I lied: this is called the counter-check quarrelsome; and so the lie circumstantial and lie direct." -Bowles. to be far enough advanced above a fine lady, not to desire to shine before men. Your daughters perhaps may have some other thoughts, which even their mother must excuse them for, because she is a mother. I will not, however, suppose those thoughts get the better of their devotions, but rather excite them and assist the warmth of them; while their prayer may be, that they may rise up and breed as irreproachable a young family as their parents have done. In a word, I fancy you all well, easy, and happy, just as I wish you; and next to that, I wish you all with me. Next to God, is a good man: next in dignity, and next in value'. Minuisti eum paulo minus ab angelis. If therefore I wish well to the good and the deserving, and desire they only should be my companions and correspondents, I must very soon and very much think of you. I want your company and your example. Pray make haste to town, so as not again to leave us: discharge the load of earth that lies on you, like one of the mountains under which, the poets say, the giants (the men of the earth) are whelmed: leave earth to the sons of the earth, your conversation is in heaven. Which that it may be accomplished in us all, is the prayer of him who maketh this short sermon; value (to you) three-pence. Adieu. 7 So, in verse, he has : An honest Man's the noblest work of God.”—Bowles. Mr. Blount died in London the following year, 1726.-Pope. Blount died of the small-pox; and was attended, during his illness, with the greatest affection and sorrow, by the lady whose name is so often mentioned in these volumes. Soon after his death, Pope was much more explicit than he had ever been before, respecting the nature of his feelings towards Miss Martha.-Bowles. By "the lady whose name is so often mentioned in these volumes," 316 LETTERS TO AND FROM EDWARD BLOUNT, ESQ. Mr. Bowles means Martha Blount; who attended her brother through the illness which terminated in his death, although she had not herself had the disease. The assertion of Mr. Bowles that after the death of Mr. Blount, "Pope was much more explicit than he had ever been before, respecting the nature of his feelings towards Miss Martha," is only an additional proof of his earnestness to avail himself of every opportunity of attributing that attachment to an improper motive. |