forty-nine years of age. That the society and correspondence of Walsh were of essential service to Pope, not only by encouraging him to persevere in the studies to which he was devoted, but by suggesting to him many valuable observations, may sufficiently appear from the beautiful lines in which Pope has celebrated his memory, at the close of his Essay on Criticism:

"Such late was Walsh, the Muses' judge and friend,
Who justly knew to blame or to commend ;
To failings mild, but jealous for desert,
The clearest head, and the sincerest heart.
—This humble praise, lamented shade, receive,
This praise, at least, a grateful Muse may give;
The Muse whose early voice you taught to sing,
Prescribed her heights, and pruned her tender wing,
Her guide now lost, no more attempts to rise,
But in low murmurs short excursions tries."

The year 1706 appears to have been passed by Pope in leisure and tranquillity under his paternal roof at Binfield; but although this period affords but few memorials either of his occupations or correspondence, it is sufficiently apparent that he availed himself of this opportunity for extending his knowledge, improving his taste, and exercising his intellectual powers. Whenever," says he, "in my rambles through the poets, I met with a passage or story that pleased me more than ordinary, I used to endeavour to imitate it, or trans

21st July of that year, in which he says he expects to see him before the end of the month, and waits his commands to send a coach and horses for him to Worcester.

late it into English; and this was the cause of my Imitations, published so long after." These Imitations, so well known to his readers, some of which were written as early as fourteen, or fifteen years of age, exhibit a surprising specimen not only of the quickness of his apprehension and the susceptibility of his mind, but of his powers of expression, and of the readiness with which he could, as it were, think in the manner and style of other writers. The authors thus imitated were Chaucer, Spenser, Waller, Cowley, the Earl of Rochester, the Earl of Dorset, and Dr. Swift. Of these Dr. Warton conceives that "those of Waller and Cowley are the best;" but that "in his imitation of Rochester he discovers a fund of good sense and just observation on vice and folly, that are very remarkable in a person so extremely young as he was at the time of composing it.”

To nearly the same period of his life we may also refer his versification, or rather imitation of Chaucer's January and May, which he has himself informed us was done at sixteen or seventeen years of age; and this was followed shortly afterwards by the Wife of Bath's Prologue. These pieces are executed with a degree of freedom, ease, and spirit, and at the same time with a judgment and delicacy, which not only far exceed what might have been expected from so young a writer, but which leave nothing to be wished for in the mind of the reader. The humour of Chaucer is

transfused into the lines of Pope, almost without suffering any evaporation.

Dr. Johnson informs us, that "Pope having declared himself a poet, and thinking himself entitled to poetical conversation, began, at seventeen, to frequent Will's coffee-house, on the north side of Russell-street, in Covent Garden, where the wits of that time used to assemble, and where Dryden had, when he lived, been accustomed to preside." This, however, could only have been on Pope's occasional visits to London; although it is not improbable, that as he advanced in years and in reputation, these visits were more frequent. It was probably on one of these occasions that he formed an acquaintance with Mr. Henry Cromwell, a gentleman, who to a strong disposition towards gallantry and fashionable life, united some share of learning and a taste for polite literature. Of Cromwell, Johnson could only discover, "that he used to ride a hunting in a tye-wig;" to which important information the last editor of Pope has added a line from Gay, which characteristically describes him as

"Honest, hatless Cromwell, with red breeches,"

and remarks, "that he was an old beau, very ambitious of being thought a successful gallant and general favourite with the ladies-a man of singularity-a quaint compound of the beau and the pedant." He also observes, that "Pope early

caught the manners of his tutor, and something of his affectation, particularly in regard to the ladies, of whose acquaintance Cromwell was superlatively vain." If, however, we examine the correspondence which soon afterwards took place between Cromwell and Pope, we shall find, that although there are some occasional references to what may be called subjects of gallantry, and a few letters which ought to have been suppressed, from the consideration of their having been written confidentially, at so early a period of life, yet the general purport of the correspondence is literary discussion and criticism; and it cannot be denied that the letters contain many excellent remarks on a variety of subjects highly interesting to every reader of taste. It may also be observed, that Cromwell was the first of Pope's correspondents, to whom he could write on terms of freedom and equality; on which account his letters will be found to furnish some traits of his temper and character, and some account of his studies and occupations, not to be derived from any other quarter. That he was gratified by the society he met with in the metropolis, and that he now enlarged his knowledge of the world by participating in its society and amusements, is certain; yet it does not appear that this in any degree diminished his attachment to the country, or prevented his returning to his retirement at Binfield, with those feelings which are incident to a mind conscious of

its own resources.

In a letter to Mr. Cromwell, of the 18th March, 1708, he says: "I believe it was with me when I left the town, as it is with a great many men when they leave the world, whose loss itself they do not so much regret, as that of their friends whom they leave behind in it; for I do not know one thing for which I can envy London but for your continuing there.""If you have any curiosity to know how I live, or rather lose a life, Martial will inform you in one line:

Prandeo, poto, cano, ludo, lego, cœno, quiesco.

Every day with me is literally another yesterday, for it is exactly the same. It has the same business, which is poetry, and the same pleasure, which is idleness. A man might indeed pass his time much better, but I question if any man could pass it much easier."

Whilst Pope was engaged in his Imitations of the English Poets-an employment which, without the effort of original composition, accustomed him to every nicety and refinement of language, and every variety of expression, he still continued to study the principles of the art to which he had devoted himself; and by the perusal of Quintilian, who is said to have been "an old favourite author with him," and the aid of the critical works of Rapin and Bossu, prepared himself for the greater task which had for some time employed his thoughts, and which he now accomplished in such a manner as to establish his character for solidity of judg