owing to the embarrassed state of his affairs that, after a residence of about four years at Chantelon, he was compelled to pay a visit to England. His object was to dispose of his farm at Dawley, which he eventually sold for twenty-six thousand pounds. During the six months that he remained in England, he principally resided with Pope, at Twickenham, enjoying the society of Marchmont, Wyndham, and other friends. Probably it was at this time, that Pope composed those beautiful lines "On his grotto at Twickenham,” which have conferred an undying interest on his favourite cave :—

"Approach, but awful! lo! the Egerian grot,

Where, nobly pensive, St. John sat and thought;
Where British sighs from dying Wyndham stole,

And the bright flame was shot through Marchmont's soul.
Let such, such only, tread this sacred floor,

Who dare to love their country, and be poor."

Again, the poet exclaims in one of his Imitations of Horace :

"There, my retreat the best companions grace,
Chiefs out of war, and statesmen out of place.
There St. John mingles with my friendly bowl,
The feast of reason and the flow of soul."

In one of his letters to Swift, Pope, (who probably received the following account from Bolingbroke's own lips,) gives an interesting description of the philosopher's mode of living in France. "Lord Bolingbroke's plan of life is now a very agreeable one; in the finest country of France,

divided between study and exercise,- for he still reads or writes five or six hours a day, and hunts generally twice a week. He has the whole forest of Fontainebleau at his command, with the King's stables and dogs. His lady's son-in-law being governor of that place, she resides most part of the year with my Lord at a large house they have hired, and the rest with her daughter, who is abbess of a royal convent in the neighbourhood. I never saw him in stronger health, or in better humour with his friends, or more indifferent or dispassionate as to his enemies." Among the letters from Bolingbroke to Wyndham, preserved with the Egremont papers at Petworth, the greater number are said to contain directions for sending him out pointers to Fontainebleau, and to be principally occupied with allusions to the sports of the field. Bolingbroke had never been indifferent to the pleasures of the country. Swift, in recording a visit which he paid him in 1711, observes," Mr. Secretary was a perfect countrygentleman at Buckleberry: he smoked tobacco with one or two neighbours; he inquired after the wheat in such a field; he went to visit his hounds, and knew all their names: he and his lady saw me to my chamber just in the country fashion.'

From the period that Walpole was driven from power, Bolingbroke ceased to distinguish himself as a party writer, and thus, after a contention of nearly half a century, terminated the

* Journal to Stella, August 4, 1711.

great struggle between these celebrated men. Though Bolingbroke no longer bore a prominent part in the politics of the day, his ambitious spirit was certainly far from being at rest, and, even at the age of seventy, we find him entertaining a scheme of future greatness, by courting the favour of Frederick, Prince of Wales. "The court he paid the Prince," says Horace Walpole, " was to a degree of adoration. One day that he dined with Lord Egmont, the Prince came in as they were drinking coffee, and bade them not mind him. Lord Egmont, who knew that to obey was respect, gave Lord Bolingbroke a dish; but he, who thought that to disobey from respect, was more respectful, (and who, perhaps, knew, that though the Prince seemed to encourage familiarity, he never forgave it,) started up, and cried,— Good God! my Lord, what are you doing? Do you consider who is present?"" The first interview between the Prince and Lord Bolingbroke had been a secret one. Lord Bolingbroke happened to be first to arrive at the place of rendezvous, and was engaged in glancing over the leaves of a book, when the Prince suddenly entered the apartment. In his hurry to show the respect due to royalty, Bolingbroke's foot slipped, and, had not the Prince held out his hand to support him, he would have fallen to the ground. "My Lord," was the Prince's happy observation;-“ [ trust this may be an omen of my succeeding in raising your fortunes."

I

On the death of his father, in 1742, Bolingbroke, having become possessed of the family estates, hastened to take up his residence at the ancient seat of the St. Johns at Battersea. Here, with the exception of two short visits to the continent, he spent the remainder of his eventful life. Henceforward, as far as professions and appearances can be trusted, we find him in reality wedded to a life of seclusion, and conscientiously acting up to, and benefiting by, those precepts of philosophy, the consolations of which he had hitherto only professed to feel.

More real afflictions than a mere exclusion from political power, were gathering fast round the declining statesman, and it required all his boasted fortitude to sustain him against their attacks. His health had latterly become sadly shattered ; he suffered the most excruciating agonies from repeated attacks of rheumatism; and in addition to these bodily infirmities, he had the misfortune to see the friends of his youth,-those gifted minds with whom he had mingled in social intercourse for so many years,-hurried off, one by one, to the grave. Pope, Swift, Prior, Gay, Atterbury, and Wyndham were no more, and the once-envied Bolingbroke found himself sick and almost alone amidst a strange generation; bewailing, in his solitude, the loss of old friends, without the power or, perhaps, the inclination of acquiring new. Nevertheless, the solitude of Battersea was a splendid one; his society was as much courted in the decline of life as it had been

at its outset, and the few whom he admitted to the circle of his acquaintance, comprised the most distinguished individuals of the age.

Among those with whom, at the close of life, Lord Bolingbroke formed an intimacy, was the celebrated Philip Dormer, Earl of Chesterfield, from whose pen we possess more than one interesting notice of the illustrious recluse. The latter writes to his son in the month of November, 1749: -"Lord Bolingbroke joins to the deepest erudition the most elegant politeness and good breeding that ever any courtier or man of the world was adorned with. Pope very justly calls him the-all-accomplished St. John,' with regard to his knowledge and his manners. He had, it is true, his faults, which proceeded from unbounded ambition, and impetuous passions; but they have now subsided by age and experience; and I can wish you nothing better than to be what he is now, without being what he has been formerly." Again Lord Chesterfield writes to his son on the 12th of December following:-"Lord Bolingbroke has both a tongue and a pen to persuade; his manner of speaking in private conversation is full as elegant as his writings; whatever subject he either speaks or writes upon, he adorns it with the most splendid eloquence; not a studied or laboured eloquence, but such a flowing happiness of diction, which (from care, perhaps, at first) is become so habitual to him, that even his most familiar conversations, if taken down in writing, would bear the press, without the least