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of the College of Physicians, in Warwick Lane, Newgate Street, in return for which, a statue of the Knight, along with another of the King, was erected in the College Court. Sir John died in 1699, and his executors claimed of the College £7000, the sum which Sir John had advanced, with interest, it appearing to be charged as a debt in the books of the deceased. A compromise was made by the executors accepting of £2000, as payment in full of all demands. The "faculty of Warwick Lane," as Garth called his brethren, were enraged at this shabby transaction, and obliterated the name of Sir John inscribed on the pedestal of his statue. The City Knight, however, has received a more enduring monument from the hand of Pope, though there is great exaggeration in the sketch. The poet alludes to the "only daughter" of Sir John. Some accounts represent him as having had two daughters-Elizabeth, his heir, married to the Earl of Radnor, and another to Sir William Portman, Bart. It is said that no less than £7,666 was expended on the funeral of this famous miser.

"Honours by the heralds duly paid

In mode and form, e'en to a very scruple;

Oh cruel irony! these come too late,

And only mock whom they were meant to honour.”

EPISTLE IV.

TO

RICHARD BOYLE, EARL OF BURLINGTON.

ARGUMENT.

OF THE USE OF RICHES.

The vanity of expense in people of wealth and quality. The abuse of the word taste, ver. 13. That the first principle and foundation in this, as in everything else, is good sense, ver. 39. The chief proof of it is to follow Nature, even in works of mere luxury and elegance. Instanced in architecture and gardening, where all must be adapted to the genius and use of the place, and the beauties not forced into it, but resulting from it, ver. 47. How men are disappointed in their most expensive undertakings, for want of this true foundation, without which nothing can please long, if at all; and the best examples and rules will be but perverted into something burdensome or ridiculous, ver. 65, &c. to 98. A description of the false taste of magnificence; the first grand error of which is to imagine that greatness consists in the size and dimensions, instead of the proportion and harmony of the whole, ver. 99; and the second, either in joining together parts incoherent, or too minutely resembling, or in the repetition of the same too frequently, ver. 105, &c. A word or two of false taste in books, in music, in painting, even in preaching and prayer, and lastly in entertainments, ver. 133, &c. Yet Providence is justified in giving wealth to be squandered in this manner, since it is dispersed to the poor and laborious part of mankind, ver. 169 [recurring to what is laid down in the Essay on Man, Epist. II., and in the epistle preceding, ver. 159, &c.] What are the proper objects of magnificence, and a proper field for the expense of great men, ver. 177, &c. ; and finally, the great and public works which become a prince, ver. 191 to the end.

'TIS
TIS strange, the miser should his cares employ
To gain those riches he can ne'er enjoy :

Is it less strange, the prodigal should waste

His wealth, to purchase what he ne'er can taste?
Not for himself he sees, or hears, or eats;
Artists must choose his pictures, music, meats:

5

He buys for Topham 1 drawings and designs,
For Pembroke statues, dirty gods, and coins; 2
Rare monkish manuscripts for Hearne alone,
And books for Mead, and butterflies for Sloane.3
Think we all these are for himself? no more
Than his fine wife, alas! or finer whore.

For what has Virro painted, built, and planted?
Only to show how many tastes he wanted.
What brought Sir Visto's ill-got wealth to waste?
Some demon whisper'd, "Visto! have a taste."
Heaven visits with a taste the wealthy fool,
And needs no rod but Ripley with a rule.4

1 A gentleman famous for a judicious collection of drawings.

10

15

2 [Thomas, eighth Earl of Pembroke, collected the statues and medals at Wilton, the magnificent seat of the family. His successor, Earl Henry, added materially to the decoration of the mansion. Dr. Mead's books, alluded to by the poet, consisted of about 10,000 volumes, which, with his valuable collection of medals and paintings, were sold by auction after his death in 1754. Sir Hans Sloane's collection was fortunately preserved. He bequeathed his books, medals, objects of natural history, and manuscripts to the public, on condition that the sum of £20,000 should be paid to his executors, being not a fifth of their value. The terms were agreed to; the manuscripts of the Earl of Oxford (called the Harleian library) were added to the Sloane Museum, and thus the great British Museum was commenced. Sir Hans died in 1752.]

8 Two eminent physicians; the one had an excellent library, the other the finest collection in Europe of natural curiosities; both men of great learning and humanity.

[Originally "rarities for Sloane." In the Comedian, or Philosophical Inquirer, 1732, edited by Cooke, the translator of Hesiod, in a letter addressed to Pope, commenting on the unmeaning generality of the term "rarities," it is asked, "Are not some drawings, some statues, some coins, all monkish manuscripts, and some books, rarities? Could'st thou not find a trisyllable to express some parts of nature for a collection of which that learned and worthy physician is eminent? Fy, fy! correct and write

Rare monkish manuscripts for Hearne alone,

And books for Mead, and butterflies for Sloane.'"

The correction was evidently an improvement, and Pope, therefore, wisely accepted the benefit.-Communication by Mr. Crossley, in Notes and Queries, June 4, 1853.]

4 This man was a carpenter, employed by a first minister, who raised him to an architect, without any genius in the art: and after some wretched proofs of his insufficiency in public buildings, made him Comptroller of the Board of Works. [Ripley was the architect of Houghton, the splendid residence of

See! sportive Fate, to punish awkward pride,
Bids Bubo build,5 and sends him such a guide :
A standing sermon, at each year's expense,
That never coxcomb reach'd magnificence!

You show us, Rome was glorious, not profuse,6
And pompous buildings once were things of use.
Yet shall (my lord) your just, your noble rules
Fill half the land with imitating fools;

Who random drawings from your sheets shall take,
And of one beauty many blunders make;

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Load some vain church with old theatric state,

Turn acts of triumph to a garden-gate;

30

Reverse your ornaments, and hang them all

On some patch'd dog-hole eked with ends of wall;

Then clap four slices of pilaster on 't,

That, laced with bits of rustic, makes a front.

Shall call the winds through long arcades to roar,

35

Proud to catch cold at a Venetian door;
Conscious they act a true Palladian part,
And, if they starve, they starve by rules of art.
Oft have you hinted to your brother peer
A certain truth, which many buy too dear:
Something there is more needful than expense,
And something previous even to taste-'tis sense :
Good sense, which only is the gift of Heaven,
And, though no science, fairly worth the seven :
A light, which in yourself you must perceive;
Jones and Le Nôtre have it not to give.7

40

45

Sir R. Walpole, in Norfolk, and of Woolterton, the house of the elder Horace Walpole, which his nephew praises highly. He also designed the front of the Admiralty. He owed the commencement of his success in life to the fact of his marrying a servant of Sir R. Walpole's. He died in 1758.]

5 [Bubo, Bubb Dodington, Lord Melcombe. See Notes.]

6 The Earl of Burlington was then publishing the Designs of Inigo Jones, and the Antiquities of Rome by Palladio.

After ver. 22, in the MS.

"Must bishops, lawyers, statesmen, have the skill

To build, to plant, judge paintings, what you will?
Then why not Kent as well our treaties draw,
Bridgman explain the gospel, Gibbs the law?"

7 Inigo Jones, the celebrated architect; and M. Le Nôtre, the designer of the best gardens in France. [Le Nôtre is said to have been engaged by Charles II. to aid in laying out and improving St. James's Park, London. All

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To build, to plant, whatever you intend,
To rear the column, or the arch to bend,
To swell the terrace, or to sink the grot,
In all, let Nature never be forgot,
But treat the goddess like a modest fair,
Nor over-dress, nor leave her wholly bare;
Let not each beauty everywhere be spied,
Where half the skill is decently to hide.
He gains all points, who pleasingly confounds,
Surprises, varies, and conceals the bounds.

Consult the genius of the place in all:

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That tells the waters or to rise or fall;

Or helps the ambitious hill the heavens to scale,

Or scoops in circling theatres the vale;

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Calls in the country, catches opening glades,

Joins willing woods, and varies shades from shades;

Now breaks, or now directs, the intending lines;
Paints as you plant, and, as you work, designs.
Still follow sense, of every art the soul,
Parts answering parts shall slide into a whole,

65

the royal parks and gardens attached to the French palaces were placed under Le Nôtre, by Louis XIV., who invested him with the honours of nobility. He died at Paris, in 1700. Inigo Jones-of whose architectural genius it would be idle to speak so long as the Banqueting House at Whitehall remainswas born about 1572; died 1652.]

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