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anecdote must be set Spence's statement:

It was very observable that Miss Blount's coming in gave a new turn of spirits, or a temporary strength, to the dying man.

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Pope seems to have held a kind of levee every day, almost up to the last. On May 27, only three days before his death, he insisted on being brought to the table where his friends were dining. His appearance was such that all thought he was dying, and Mrs. Anne Arbuthnot involuntarily exclaimed, Lord, have mercy upon us! this is quite an Egyptian feast."

When it was seen that death was very near, Hooke asked if he should not send for a priest, in order that the poet might die fortified by the rites of the Church, as his parents had done. Pope replied: "I do not suppose that it is essential, but it will look right: I heartily thank you for putting me in mind of it." Such was the fervour of the poet's devotion, says Warton, that he found strength to throw himself out of bed that he might receive the Last Sacrament kneeling. from him penetrated to the last degree with the state of mind in which he had found his penitent, resigned and wrapped up in the love of God and

man.

The priest came out

Pope died on May 30, aged fifty-six years and nine days. On June 1 Mallet wrote the following brief account of the end to Lord Orrery.

"On Monday last I took my everlasting farewell of him. He was enough himself to know me, to inquire after Mrs. Mallet's health, and anxiously to hasten his servant in getting ready my dinner,

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because I came late. The same social kindness, the same friendly concern for those he had loved, even in the minutest instances, that had distinguished his heart through life, were uppermost in his thoughts to the last. He died on Wednesday, about the middle of the night, without a pang or convulsion, unperceived of those that watched him, who imagined he was only in a sounder sleep than

usual."

Pope had left directions that he should be buried in Twickenham Church, near his parents' monument. He was buried on June 5, and a stone in the middle aisle, marked "P," showed the spot. He ordered that after the words "filius fecit" on his parents' monument should be added only "et sibi; Qui obiit anno 17[44] ætatis [56]." Seventeen years later, Warburton, then Bishop of Gloucester, put up a monument to Pope on the north wall, with a medallion portrait, and the following tasteless inscription:

ALEXANDRO POPE

M. H.

GULIELMUS EPISCOPUS GLOCESTRIENSIS

AMICITIÆ CAUSÂ, FAC CUR.

MDCCLXI.

Poeta loquitur,

For one who would not be buried in Westminster Abbey

Heroes and kings, your distance keep!

In peace let one poor poet sleep,
Who never followed folks like you:
Let Horace blush, and Virgil too.

CHAPTER LXII

The Will-Discoveries by the ExecutorsPersonal Characteristics

PORE

OPE appointed Lord Bathurst, Lord Marchmont, Mr. Murray, and George Arbuthnot the executors of his will. He left his He left his manuscripts to Lord Bolingbroke, and the property in his printed works to Warburton. To Martha Blount he left £1,000 and all the furniture of his garden, his household goods and plate. She was also to have the interest of his residuary estate, which amounted to less than £2,000. The year before his death Pope had bought for Martha the lease of a house in Berkeley Row for £350, and this house she inhabited for the remainder of her life.

To his half-sister, Mrs. Rackett, Pope left only £300, but she and her family were to benefit from his estate to the extent of £1,000 after Miss Blount's death. To Ralph Allen the executors were ordered to pay £150, this sum being, to the best of the testator's calculations, the amount he had received from Allen, partly for his own and partly for charitable use.1 To his old servant, John Searle, he left only £100 and a year's wages. There was also a long string of legacies-pictures, books, and

1 This legacy, which was thought to show an unfriendly spirit towards Allen, is said to have been dictated by Martha Blount,

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