The terrors of the journey to Widcombe loomed ever larger in the eyes of the poet as the time for his departure drew near, and under one pretext or another he kept putting off the evil day. On October 14 he had quite decided to drive down in his little "chair," which would be useful to him at Widcombe, and help to secure his crazy person from cold in the garden and rockery.

"You'll see many of my friends at this time," he says, "who join with me in valuing you-Mr. Lyttelton, Lord Cornbury, Lord Bathurst, etc. If I have no hopes of finding the last of these gentlemen at his own house at Cirencester (as I fancy he will be little there while others are at Bath, and the Parliament so nigh), I must be content to see him in London, and as soon as I have just looked at them, before they grow too busy and too warm for me (who am only a bystander and no partisan, but only a well-wisher to my country, whoever prove its friends), I shall leave the place where I can do no good, and the people to whom I can do none, and fly to you, and think of posterity. . . .”

"1

On November 4 Pope was still at Twickenham, but, hearing that Allen had been ill, he wrote, in his impulsive fashion, that he would make arrangements to come at once if his friend desired his company.

"Your chariot shall meet me when you will at

Pope says: "My Grotto is now finished (I wish you could have seen it now) though still I could improve, had I more fine stone. It has cost infinitely more time and pains than I could have conceived; so true it is that 'every little thing to be done well requires a great deal.'”

1 From the unpublished MS.

Newbury or Hungerford, and I will get thither in a day and a half. On Wednesday sennight I believe I may have the opportunity of a coach so as to be at Bath by Friday night.. If I can

get Mr. Hooke or Vandiest,1 if he were well enough, I will come. If not, I'll take any other means to be there in less than a week more. . . . I will be with you by the 25th at farthest, at all events. . . My hearty thanks for your good offices to Mrs. Arbuthnot, who is the most honest of women. Mrs. Allen know they will not be the worse for each other's company; though a great wit said, 'No two women were ever acquainted without being so.'" "

Let

This sounded like a definite arrangement, and Allen, simple man, took the poet at his word, and wrote that he would send his chariot to Newbury on the day appointed. Pope had wished it to appear that he was ready, at all hazards, to fly to his sick friend's bedside, but he had not expected his offer to be taken literally. On November 11 he writes, in great perturbation :

"I sent a letter by the Bath fly (as they call it) in hope it might reach you on Tuesday night, to prevent sending your chariot to Newbury, but fear it could not, and therefore have writ by this first post to Newbury to Mrs. Cary, to let your servants know I could not be there possibly, and to return home. Nothing can afflict me more. But sure my letter was express, that I could not come unless

1 Van Diest, an artist employed by Allen. Probably a son of the Dutch painter, Adrian van Diest, who died in England in 1704.

From the unpublished MS.

I coula procure somebody to go in Lord Chesterfield's coach."

He had been unable, he continues, to find a companion, and moreover had business of importance that would detain him another fortnight in town.

"But I would have left had you been ill, and in any respect wanted or wished my coming. I thought I expressed that particularly, and that unless you were so, I would take a longer time, and be then met by your chariot. . . .

"No words can tell the vexation this gives me. I am quite ashamed to put my friends to this trouble about me. I am really grown too infirm to be fit to undertake anything, or to be worth anything when I am with them. I think I'll take my chance, and get to you as I can, and when I can. For to write again, and appoint another time for you to renew all this trouble, I cannot answer to myself. It is certain, if Joseph did not attend, to ride with me in the chariot, I could not bear it. And to take my own John away for a week would destroy all my pine-apples for a whole season. Would to God I were like any other thing they call a man, and I could find my way to those I wish so much and so often to pass my life with. . . .'

"1

It was the beginning of December before a start was made, but Pope had discovered that his favourite, George Arbuthnot, was going to Bath at that time, and thought him worth waiting for, because "such company will render every jolt less sensible to me. Indeed, Mr. Cheselden told me plainly that a coach would be a hearse to me if I went in one alone. . ..

1 From the unpublished MS.

My sincere services to Mrs. Allen, Lady Peterborough, and Mrs. Arbuthnot. Why are there any other women? I hope certain others will be gone by next month.”

Having solemnly vowed that he would never again ask for the chariot to meet him at Newbury, it is interesting to note that he writes on December 2, to explain that he has no means of getting beyond Newbury except in Allen's chariot! But he will infallibly be there, with Mr. Arbuthnot, on the 13th at dinner-time, if alive and able to stir.

CHAPTER LVII

1741

Correspondence with Swift-Offer of an Honorary Degree-Journeys and Improvements -Visit to Prior Park

TH

'HE second volume of "Mr. Pope's Prose Works," which contained the Correspondence with Swift and also the Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus (printed for the first time complete), was published in London in the early part of this year. Curl cheerfully pirated the Dublin edition of the book, remarking in his Preface:

"It is well known that the Dublin edition of these letters is lawful prize here; and whatever we print is the same there. The safe hand to whom Dean Swift delivered them conveyed them safely to us, so that all the pretences of sending a young peer to go in search of them, or the attempts of an old woman to suppress them, was arrant trifling."

Pope, however, filed a bill against Curll, and obtained an injunction. Swift is said to have disclaimed the publication, and to have been extremely angry at the whole proceeding, but it is probable that by this time he was quite unable to understand the details of this complex affair. On March 22 18

VOL. II

637