"Then surely sickness, contributing no less than old age to the shaking down this scaffolding of the body, may discover the inward structure more plainly. Sickness is a sort of early old age: it teaches us a diffidence in our earthly state, and inspires us with the thoughts of a future, better than a thousand volumes of philosophers and divines. It gives so warning a concussion to those props of Our vanity, our strength, and youth, that we think of fortifying ourselves within, when there is so little dependence upon our outworks. Youth at the very best is but a betrayer of human life in a gentler and smoother manner than age: 'tis like a stream that nourishes a plant upon a bank, and causes it to flourish and blossom to the sight, but at the same time is undermining it at the root in secret. My youth has dealt more fairly and openly with me; it has afforded several prospects of my danger, and given me an advantage not very common to young men, that the attractions of the world have not dazzled me very much; and I begin, where most people end, with a full conviction of the emptiness of all sorts of ambition, and the unsatisfactory nature of all human pleasures. When a smart fit of sickness tells me this scurvy tenement of my body will fall in a little time, I am e'en as unconcerned as was that honest Hibernian, who being in bed in the great storm some years ago, and told the house would tumble over his head, made answer, 'What care I for the house? I am only a lodger.' I fancy 'tis the best time to die when one is in the best humour; and so excessively weak as I now am, I may say with conscience, that I am not at all uneasy at the thought, that many men, whom I never had any esteem for, are likely to enjoy this world after me. When I reflect what an inconsiderable little atom every single man is, with respect to the whole creation, methinks 'tis a shame to be concerned at the removal of such a trivial animal as I am. The morning after my exit, the sun will rise as bright as ever, the flowers smell as sweet, the plants spring as green, the world will proceed in its old course, people will laugh as heartily, and marry as fast, as they were used to do. The memory of man (as it is elegantly expressed in the Book of Wisdom) passeth away as the remembrance of a guest that tarrieth but one day. There are reasons enough, in the fourth chapter of the same book, to make any young man contented with the prospect of death. For honourable age is not that which standeth in length of time, or is measured by number of years. But wisdom is the grey hair to men, and an unspotted life is old He was taken away speedily, lest wickedness should alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul,' &c.

age.

We may conceive this letter read to the family circle at Binfield before it was despatched, and the joy and exultation with which the elder Pope would listen to the pious strain

of sentiment it breathes, and to the choice and elegant language in which it is expressed. But, after all, we suspect it was a mere literary exercise, to which Steele's name was not attached until long afterwards; had he received it, he would have put it in the Spectator.

The success of Tonson's volumes of Miscellanies induced a brother bibliopole, Bernard Lintot, to venture on a work of the same description. He engaged the services of Pope, and in 1712 appeared his collection of Miscellaneous Poems and Translations, to which Pope contributed the first sketch of his Rape of the Lock, translations from Statius and Ovid, and some smaller original pieces.7 In the same volume were published Chaucer's Characters; or, the Introduction to the Canterbury Tales, by Mr. Thomas Betterton. This famous tragedian had died two years before, and Pope, who knew and esteemed him, is said to have written these Characters himself, and published them in Betterton's name for the benefit of the deceased actor's family. The Rape of the Lock is the most important of the Pope contributions, though it was but a fragment or skeleton of what the poem was afterwards to become. The Miscellany was noticed by Addison in the Spectator. He had read over, he said, with great pleasure, "the late Miscellany published by Mr. Pope, in which there are many excellent compositions of that ingenious_gentleman." In the same essay, Addison praised a poem of Tickell's on the Prospect of Peace, and recommended the Pastorals of Philips. Of the latter, he observed: "One would have thought it impossible for this kind of poetry to have subsisted without fauns and satyrs, wood nymphs and water nymphs, with all the tribe of rural deities; but we see he has given a new life and a more natural beauty to this way of writing, by substituting, in the place of these antiquated fables, the superstitious mythology which prevails among the shepherds of our country." To Pope was awarded "faint praise" the merest adumbration, while Tickell and Ambrose Philips received cordial and hearty commendation. Nay, the critic's eulogy on Philips's Pastorals is an oblique satire on

This Miscellany was reprinted in 1714, Pope's name being displayed conspicuously on the title-page, and all the pieces from his pen enumerated. Hence it has been called "Pope's Miscellany." He had probably acted as editor.

THE BLOUNTS OF MAPLEDURHAM.

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Pope's, for Pope used the classic mythology to illustrate his poem.

One piece in this Miscellany, entitled, "To a Young Lady, with the Works of Voiture," is connected with an interesting portion of the poet's personal history.

-We have seen the keen relish with which Pope entered into society and courted the correspondence of the town wits and coffee-house critics. In the country, however, he was not destitute of other attractions than his books and verses. The circumstance of his being a Roman Catholic, though publicly disadvantageous, had this private compensation, that it introduced him more readily into the company of opulent families of that creed, who clung all the more closely together in consequence of their proscription by the State, and who were proud to hail as one of their body a young poet of pre-eminent excellence and promise. With the Carylls of Sussex he had already established a close intimacy; and among the Catholic families at that time resident in Berks and Oxfordshire, were Englefield of Whiteknights, Tattershall of Finchampstead, Perkins of Ufton, Sir George Brown of Keddington, Stonor of Stonor Park, Fermor of Tusmore, Blount of Mapledurham, &c.

The families of Le Blount were of great antiquity, and could trace their descent from two brothers who accompanied William the Norman to England. Sir John Blount, in the reign of Edward III., was married to Isolda Mountjoy, and from this union is descended the family of Blount of Sodington, conspicuous in history, partly as Lords Mountjoy (Charles Blount, the favourite of Queen Elizabeth, will occur to the recollection of most readers), and now represented by Sir Edward Blount. Sir John Blount had a son who married Sancha de Ayala, of the house of Castile, and from him descended the Blounts of Oxfordshire. Sir Walter Blount of history and of Shakspeare, who fell at the battle of Shrewsbury, was of this family. In the following century, Sir Michael Blount, Lieutenant of the Tower, purchased the manor of Mapledurham, on the Oxfordshire side of the Thames, near Reading, and erected the large and venerable mansion which still remains in the possession of his descendants. It was subjected to an assault during the civil war (when it was courageously defended in aid of the royal cause by Sir

In the time of Pope's youth this ancient and distinguished royalist family was represented by Mr. Lister Blount, who had one son, Michael, his successor, and two daughters, Teresa and Martha Blount-names which will for ever be associated with that of Pope, as Stella and Vanessa are with the name and history of Swift. Happily the Pope connexion was less painfully interesting and less tragical in its results than that of Swift; but in both cases a mystery was preserved which still baffles investigation. Swift, cold and stern, had no sympathy with "killing eyes or bleeding hearts."

"His conduct might have made him styled

A father, and the nymph his child."

TERESA AND MARTHA BLOUNT.

65

But he proved a stepfather-crushing the hopes he had excited the only hopes that blossomed in that desert of existence and ultimately breaking the hearts of the very beings whom he loved most on earth. Pope was more susceptible; there was passion enough in his intercourse with the sisters-especially with the eldest, Teresa-but his affections were finally and irrevocably centred in Martha.8 His acquaintance with the ladies gradually proceeded to intimacy, then a warmer feeling and some extravagant gallantry succeeded, after which friendship again took its place, and, in the case of Martha, being founded, as he said, on "unalterable principles," it was never dissolved. Even in this first poetical offering to Teresa, published in 1712, the lines have nothing of an amatory character. The poet commemorates the power, not of love raised on beauty, but of good nature, which alone, he says,

Still makes new conquests, and maintains the past."

And he transmitted the volume containing this epistle to Teresa's sister, Martha, with the following letter:

"May ye 25, 1712.

MADAM,-At last I do myself the honour to send you the Rape of the Lock, which has been so long coming out, that the lady's

s Teresa (who was baptised Teresa-Maria) was born at Paris, October 15, 1688. Martha was born June 15, 1690. They were partly educated at a ladies' school at Hammersmith, and were afterwards placed at an establishment in Paris in the Rue Boulanger. By the will of Lister Blount, the father, dated May 15, 1710 (he died 25th June of the same year), it was directed that if his son Michael should die without issue, Martha was to inherit Mapledurham, and her eldest sister Teresa, being born an alien, was to have a sum of 12,000l. The French education of the young ladies imparted a certain polish and vivacity to their manners, and Teresa is described as a person of remarkable talents.

Pope's letters-at least such as remain-are preserved at Mapledurham, bound up with others addressed to the young ladies; and there is also an interesting pedigree of the family, drawn up by the Rev. C. Lefebvre. These MSS. were made use of by Sir Alexander Croke in his Genealogical History of the Croke Family (originally Le Blount), a work printed but not published. Michael Blount, the brother of Teresa and Martha, married, in 1715, Mary-Agnes, daughter and co-heir of Sir J. Tichborne, of Tichborne, Hants, by whom he had a numerous family; the present proprietor of Mapledurham, Michael-Henry-Mary Blount, being his great grandson. To this gentleman the present edition of Pope is largely indebted.

F