W

ON CERTAIN LADIES.

to the shades go down,

THEN other fair ones
Still Chloe, Flavia, Delia, stay in town:
Those ghosts of beauty wandering here reside,
And haunt the places where their honour died.

ENGRAVED ON THE COLLAR OF A DOG WHICH I GAVE TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNEES.

[Frederick, Prince of Wales, father of George III.]

I AM his Highness' dog at Kew;

Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?

[This is taken from Sir William Temple's Heads designed for an Essay on Conversation. "Mr. Grantam's fool's reply to a great man that asked whose fool he was, 'I am Mr. Grantam's fool-pray tell me whose fool are you?""

VERBATIM FROM BOILEAU.

Un jour, dit un Auteur, &c.

ONCE, says an author-where I need not say

Two travellers found an oyster in their way;
Both fierce, both hungry, the dispute grew strong,
While, scale in hand, Dame Justice pass'd along.
Before her each with clamour pleads the laws,
Explain'd the matter, and would win the cause.

Dame Justice, weighing long the doubtful right,
Takes, opens, swallows it, before their sight.
The cause of strife removed so rarely well,
"There,-take," says Justice, "take ye each a shell;
We thrive at Westminster on fools like you:
'Twas a fat oyster-live in peace-Adieu."

BISHOP HOUGH.

A BISHOP, by his neighbours hated,

Has cause to wish himself translated;
But why should HOUGH desire translation,
Loved and esteemed by all the nation?
Yet if it be the old man's case,
I'll lay my life I know the place:
'Tis where God sent some that adore him,
And whither Enoch went before him.

[Dr. John Hough was made Bishop of Oxford in 1690; Bishop of Lich. field and Coventry in 1699, and Bishop of Worcester in 1717. He died in 1743, at the great age of ninety-three. Pope's compliments to this prelate are creditable to his liberality, for Hough made a courageous and memorable stand against the bigotry and tyranny of James II.]

EPIGRAM.

Ford Lecking Acquainters

MY Lord complains that Pope, stark mad with gardens,

Has cut three trees, the value of three farthings.

"But he's my neighbour;" cries the peer polite:
"And if he visit me, I'll waive the right."
What! on compulsion, and against my will,
A lord's acquaintance? Let him file his bill!

[Pope had cut three walnut-trees, which hindered the view from his garden. Warton says the peer alluded to was Lord Radnor. The Countess of Hertford, in her Correspondence with the Countess of Pomfret (2nd edit. 1806), says the trees belonged to Lady Ferrers, "whom he makes a lord."

[The Countess of Hertford sends the following to the Countess of Pomfret, in their Correspondence between the years 1738 and 1741, observing, "The severity of the weather has occasioned greater sums of money to be given in charity than was heard of before. Mr. Pope has written two stanzas on the occasion."]

YES! 'tis the time (I cried) impose the chain,

Destined and due to wretches self-enslaved;

But when I saw such charity remain,

I half could wish this people should be saved.

Faith lost, and Hope, our Charity begins;
And 'tis a wise design in pitying Heaven,
If this can cover multitude of sins,
To take the only way to be forgiven.

1

ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA.

POPE'S INTERVIEW WITH DRYDEN. Vol. I. p. 17. --Pope, in his conversations with Spence, does not mention where he saw Dryden. According to Warburton, the boy-poet prevailed upon a friend to accompany him to town, and introduce him to Will's Coffee-house. Mr. Roscoe conjectured that the friend alluded to was Sir Charles Wogan, who, in a letter to Swift, says, "I had the honour of bringing Mr. Pope from our retreat in the Forest of Windsor to dress à la mode and introduce at Will's Coffee-house." The supposition of a boy of twelve dressing à la mode, and frequenting a coffee-house, appears preposterous. Sir Charles Wogan must refer to a later period. Pope may have been taken to Will's for the purpose of obtaining a sight of Dryden, but it is as likely that he stole away from his school at Hyde Park Corner, to watch Dryden in GerardStreet, near his own door, or have seen him in the theatre, or at Tonson's shop. Pope told Spence where Dryden lived-" in Gerard Street, and he used most commonly to write in the ground-room next the street." The house is now No. 43. Mr. Singer, the editor of Spence's Anecdotes, observes that Will's Coffee-house " continued to be the resort of the wits at least till 1710; and that probably Addison established his servant Button in a new coffee-house (in Russell Street, Covent Garden), about 1712, and his fame, after the production of Cato, drew many of the Whigs thither." In one of the letters of James Moore Smythe to Teresa Blount (Maple-Durham MSS.), the writer speaks of the wits as "removed from Will's over the way," before August 13, 1713.

RAG SMITH. Vol. I. p. 22. The person designated "Rag Smith," who saw Pope in his fourteenth year, and predicted that he would either be a madman or a great poet, must have been Edmund Smith the poet, the friend of Addison. From his carelessness as to dress, and his odd appearance, Smith was familiarly known as "Captain Rag." Pope nowhere mentions his early acquaintance, (who died in, 1710, before the prediction was fulfilled,) but he was indebted