EXPLANATION OF PLAN.

1. The Grass Plat before the House next the Thames.

2. The House.

3. The Under-ground Passage.

4. The Road from Hampton Court to London.
5. The Shell Temple.

6. The Large Mount.
7. The Stoves.

8. The Vineyard.

9. The Obelisk in Memory of his Mother.

10. Two Small Mounts.

11. The Bowling Green. 12. The Grove.

13. The Orangery.

14. The Garden House.

15. Kitchen Garden.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE MATERIALS WHICH COMPOSE THE GROTTO. Over the Entrance from the Garden :

"Secretum iter et fallentis semita vitæ."-HOR.

1. At the entrance of the Grotto next the Garden, are various sorts of stones, thrown promiscuously together, in imitation of an Old Ruin; some full of holes, others like honeycombs, which came from RALPH ALLEN's, Esq., at Widcombe, near Bath. Several fine fossil and snake stones, with petrified wood and moss in various shapes, from the petrifying spring at Nasborough [Knaresborough], in Yorkshire, by the Rev. Dr. KEY. Fine verd antique from Egypt, with several sorts of Italian sparry marble of divers colours. Amethysts; several clumps of different forms, with some fine pieces of white spar, from her Grace the Duchess of CLEVELAND, at Raby castle, in Westmoreland. Some fine pieces of German spar, intermixed with yellow mundic, with moss and some English pebbles. In the centre is a fine spring.

2. Flints, moss of many sorts, many pieces of Plymouth marble of different colours, from Mr. COOPER of that place. Several pieces of well-chosen things from the Glass-house. Several fine flakes of gold clift from Mr. CAMBRIDGE, with several fine pieces of White Spar, from the Duchess of CLEVELAND.

3. Many small dice of mundic and tin ore. Two sorts of yellowflaky copper; one showing, by the different strata of metal, that different masses of copper will, though concreted at different times, unite close into one globe or lump. Several groups of Cornish diamonds incrusted, semi-pellucid, and shot round a globe of yellow

copper. Many thick incrustations of shot-spar of a yellowish cast, sprinkled with small cubes of mundic, lead ore, kallan, or wild iron. Many fine pieces of yellow mundic, several small Cornish diamonds, tinged with a blackish water, and others with a green water. Several large groups of Cornish diamonds, very transparent, from the Rev. Dr. WILLIAM BORLASE, of Ludgvan, in Cornwall. Many fine large pieces of red spar, out of Colonel Stapleton's lead mine, from GEORGE LYTTELTON, Esq. Fine petrifactions from Gilbert West, Esq., at West Wickham, in Kent. Fine incrustrations from Mr. ALLEN'S quarries and several pieces of sparry marble, of different colours, from Plymouth; with many large Cornish diamonds, and other petrifactions which form two fine rocks, with water distilling from them.

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4. Fine sparry marble, from Lord Edgecombe's quarry, with different sorts of moss. Several fine pieces of the eruption from Mount Vesuvius, and a fine piece of marble from the Grotto of Egeria, near Rome; from the Rev. Mr. SPENCE. With several fine petrifactions and Plymouth marble, from Mr. COOPER. Gold clift from Mr. CAMDRIDGE, Gloucestershire; and several fine brain-stones from Mr. MILLER, of Chelsea.

5. Many fine pieces of sparry marble, of divers colours, and between each course of marble many kinds of ores-such as tin ore, copper ore, lead ore, soapy rock, kallan, and wild lead intermixed; with large clumps of Cornish diamonds, and several small ores of different degrees of transparency. The several sorts of figured stones are rich white spars, interlaced with black cockle, or spars shot into prisms of different degrees of waters. Some very particular sorts of fossils, of different sizes and colours; copper ore of a fine purple colour; several fine pieces of granated white mundic, intermixed with plain spar in a copper bed. Several thin crusts or films of bright spar, formed on a surface before shot into protuberances; a lump of yellow copper that has a very singular crust of spar, some grains of mundic interspersed of different colours—some yellow, some purple, and others of a deep blue, inclining to black; all from the Rev. Dr. WILLIAM BORLASE. Several fine Bristol stones of different colours, some of a dark brown, others of a yellow cast, &c., from Mrs. BROXHOLME; and several fine incrustations from Mr. ALLEN.

6. Several large pieces of fine crystal, intermixed with yellow mundic. A fine piece of spar, interwoven like many oyster shells, and intermixed with white mundic. A fine piece of spar, with a mixture of copper interwoven like a fine lace. Several pieces

of crystal with a brown incrustation, and a mixture of mundic from the Hartz mines, in Germany. A fine piece of gold ore from the

Peruvian mines. Silver ore from the mines of Mexico. Several pieces of silver ore from Old Spain. Some large pieces of gold clift from Mr. CAMBRIDGE, in Gloucestershire. Lead ore, copper ore, white spar, petrified wood, Brazil pebbles, Egyptian pebbles, and blood stones, from Mr. BRINSDEN. Some large clumps of amethyst, and several pieces of white spar, from the Duchess of CLEVELAND. Some fine pieces of red spar, several fine icicles, and several sorts of fossils from GEORGE LYTTELTON, Esq. Many pieces of coral and petrified moss, and many other curious stones from the island of St. Christopher, in the West Indies; with several humming-birds and their nests, from ANTONY BROWN, Esq., of Abbs Court, in Surrey. Plymouth marble of different colours, one fine Cornish diamond from the PRINCE'S Mine, in Cornwall. Near a hundred-weight from the Rev. Dr. ASKEW. Several fine pieces of yellow mundic. Some purple copper stained by mineral water. Two stones from the Giant's Causeway, in Ireland, from Sir HANS SLOANE. Some pieces of petrified wood, with coral and petrified moss round a basin of water. 7. Different kinds of Italian marble. Many fine Kerry stones of different waters, with several fine fossils from Ireland, from the Earl of Orrery. Many flakes of white spar and mother-amethyst from the Duchess of CLEVELAND. The roof of small stones, incrusted over, out of the river Thames. Some square dice of mundic. Several pieces of silver ore from Old Spain; with several sorts of moss.

8. Different sorts of sparry marble from Italy. Several large stones interwoven like honeycombs; and others like old broken pillars. Many large pieces of Plymouth marble, German spar, and spar from Norway, by Mr. AFTERLONEY. The roof of purple spar, and some yellow spar; and several fine square dice of mundic from Mr. ORD's mine in Yorkshire. And round a piece of water are fixed different plants, such as maiden-hair, hart's tongue, fern, and several other plants; intermixed with many petrifactions, and some uncommon Cornish diamonds, from Lord GODOLPHIN's great copper works, in Ludgvan.

9. Some very natural rock work, compiled of flints and cinders from the glass-houses, furnaces, &c.; with some grains of mundic artfully mixed with white spar.

10. A fine and very uncommon petrifaction from Okey Hole, in Somersetshire, from Mr. BRUCE.

[Curll, in 1735, said,-" He (Pope) has been annually improving the gardens to the amount of £5000, as Mr. Serle, his gardener, assured us. He has lived with Mr. Pope above eleven years; and, in the hortulan dialect, told us that there were not ten sticks in the ground when his master took the house."]

FAMILY OF MR. EDWARD BLOUNT, POPE'S FRIEND.

MR. EDWARD BLOUNT (who has hitherto been strangely confounded with Mr. Michael Blount of Maple-Durham, the brother of Teresa and Martha Blount) was of the Sodington branch of the illustrious family now represented by Sir Edward Blount, Bart. Sir Walter Blount, the zealous royalist in the time of Charles I., and the second Baronet of the family, after his release from the Tower, seems to have gone down to Blagdon-House, parish of Paignton, Devonshire, on a visit to his eldest son, George, afterwards Sir George Blount, who had married Mary, sole daughter and heiress of Sir William Kirkham of Blagdon, Knight. Here, in all probability, Sir Walter ended his days, for he was buried in Paignton church, 29th August, 1654. Sir George Blount had various children ;

1. Sir Walter Kirkham Blount, who died without issue at Ghent, in Flanders, May 12, 1717.

2. George (who died in 1732, aged 80) married first to Mary, d. of Henry Earl of Thomond, by whom he had no issue. Secondly, to Constantia, d. of Sir George Cary of Tor Abbey, Devonshire, by whom he had three sons and five daughters. Two of the sons died in infancy; the third, Edward, succeeded his uncle, Sir Walter Kirkham Blount, as fourth Baronet. Of his five daughters, 1, Constantia, m. Sir John Smyth, of Acton Burnell, in Salop. 2, Mary, m. Mr. Edward Dickenson of Wrightington in Lancashire; 3, 4, 5, Anne, Elizabeth and Catherine, all died at Cambray unmarried.

3. William Blount. ["Here lyeth the Body of William Blount, Esq., Third Sonne of Sir George Blount of Soddington, Baronet, who dyed in the 21 yeare of his age on y° 9th of May, 1671."-Inscription on flat stone in the Chancel of Binfield Church.]

4. EDWARD BLOUNT, the friend and correspondent of Pope. On the death of Sir George in 1667, the Devonshire property, acquired by his marriage with the heiress of Kirkham, was settled on his fourth son, Edward, who about the year 1700 married Ann, daughter of Sir John Guise of Rentcombe, Gloucestershire. Pope dates one of his letters to Mr. Blount from Rentcombe :

"Rentcombe in Gloucestershire, Oct. 3, 1721. "Your kind letter has overtaken me here; for I have been in and about this country ever since your departure. I am well pleased to date this from a place so well known to Mrs. Blount, where I write as if I were dictated to by her ancestors, whose faces are all upon me.