thousand into the Charitable Corporation for better interest; which sum having lost, he took it so much to heart, that he kept his chamber ever after. It is thought he would not have outlived it, but that he was heir to another considerable estate, which he daily expected, and that by this course of life he saved both clothes and other expences."-Pope.

84. Wharton. "A Nobleman of great qualities, but as unfortunate in the application of them, as if they had been vices and follies. See his Character in the first Epistle."-Pope. 85. Hopkins. "A Citizen, whose rapacity obtained him the name of Vulture Hopkins. He lived worthless, but died worth three hundred thousand pounds, which he would give to no person living, but left it so as not to be inherited till after the second generation. His counsel representing to him how many years it must be, before this could take effect, and that his money could only lie at interest all that time, he expressed great joy thereat, and said, 'They would then be as long in spending, as he had been in getting it.' But the Chancery afterwards set aside the will, and gave it to the heir at law." -Pope.

86. Japhet. "Japhet Crook, alias Sir Peter Stranger, was punished with the loss of those parts, for having forged a conveyance of an Estate to himself, upon which he took up several thousand pounds. He was at the same time sued in Chancery for having fraudulently obtained a Will, by which he possessed another considerable Estate, in wrong of the brother of the deceased. By these means he was worth a great sum, which (in reward for the small loss of his ears) he enjoyed in prison till his death, and quietly left to his executor.”—Pope. 96. "A famous Duchess of Richmond in her last Will left considerable legacies and annuities to her Cats."-Pope. 100. "This epistle was written in the year 1730, when a corporation was established to lend money to the poor upon pledges, by the name of the Charitable Corporation; but the whole was turned only to an iniquitous method of enriching particular people, to the ruin of such numbers, that it became a parliamentary concern to endeavour the relief of those unhappy sufferers, and three of the managers, who were members of the house, were expelled. By the report of the Committee, appointed to enquire into that iniquitous affair, it appears, that when it was objected to the intended removal of the office, that the Poor, for whose use it was erected,

would be hurt by it, Bond, one of the Directors, replied, Damn the Poor. That 'God hates the poor,' and, "That every man in want is knave or fool,' &c. were the genuine apothegms of some of the persons here mentioned."-Pope.

118. "In the extravagance and luxury of the South-sea year, the price of a haunch of Venison was from three to five pounds."-Pope.

120. General Excise. "Many people about the year 1733, had a conceit that such a thing was intended, of which it is not improbable this lady might have some intimation."-Pope. In that year the Opposition charged that Walpole intended a general excise upon all articles of consumption. The charges were generally believed and, as this form of revenue was decidedly unpopular, great political excitement ensued. Pope here insinuates that the prime minister's mistress had invested money, as she thought, advantageously, in the light of advance political information.

123. Peter. “Peter Walter, a person not only eminent in the wisdom of his profession, as a dextrous attorney, but allowed to be a good, if not safe, conveyancer; extremely respected by the Nobility of this land, tho' free from all manner of luxury and ostentation: his Wealth was never seen, and his bounty never heard of, except to his own son, for whom he procured an employment of considerable profit, of which he gave him as much as was necessary. Therefore the taxing this gentleman with any Ambition, is certainly a great wrong to him."-Pope. Peter Walter was also the original of Peter Pounce in Fielding's Joseph Andrews, and Pope's ironical defence of him here may be compared with Book III, chapter 13, of Fielding's novel.

126. Didius. “A Roman Lawyer, so rich as to purchase the Empire when it was set to sale upon the death of Pertinax."-Pope.

128-9. Gage, Maria. "The two persons here mentioned were of Quality, each of whom in the Mississippi despis'd to realize above three hundred thousand pounds; the Gentleman with a view to the purchase of the Crown of Poland, the Lady on a vision of the like royal nature. They since retired into Spain, where they are still in search of gold in the mines of the Asturies.”—Pope.

133. Blunt. "Sir John Blunt, originally a scrivener, was one of the first projectors of the South-sea company, and

afterwards one of the directors and chief managers of the famous scheme in 1720. He was also one of those who suffer'd most severely by the bill of pains and penalties on the said directors. He was a Dissenter of a most religious deportment, and profess'd to be a great believer. Whether he did really credit the prophecy here mentioned is not certain, but it was constantly in this very style he declaimed against the corruption and luxury of the age, the partiality of Parliaments, and the misery of party-spirit. He was particularly eloquent against Avarice in great and noble persons, of which he had indeed lived to see many miserable examples. He died in the year 1732."-Pope.

177. Cotta. "Supposed to be the Duke of Newcastle, who died in 1711; and his son, the well-known peer of that name, who afterwards became prime minister.”—Carruthers.

243. Oxford. "Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford. The son of Robert, created Earl of Oxford, and Earl of Mortimer by Queen Anne. This Nobleman died regretted by all men of letters, great numbers of whom had experienced his benefits. He left behind him one of the most noble Libraries in Europe."-Pope.

250. Man of Ross. "The person here celebrated, who with a small Estate actually performed all these good works, and whose true name was almost lost (partly by the title of the Man of Ross given him by way of eminence, and partly by being buried without so much as an inscription) was called Mr. John Kyrle. He died in the year 1724, aged 90, and lies interred in the chancel of the church of Ross in Herefordshire."-Pope.

"We must understand what is here said, of actually performing, to mean by the contributions which the Man of Ross, by his assiduity and interest, collected in his neighbourhood.' -Warburton.

296. “The poet ridicules the wretched taste of carving large periwigs on bustos, of which there are several vile examples in the tombs at Westminster and elsewhere.”—Pope.

305. Great Villiers. "This Lord, yet more famous for his vices than his misfortunes, having been possessed of about 50,000 1. a year, and passed through many of the highest posts in the kingdom, died in the year 1687, in a remote inn in Yorkshire, reduced to the utmost misery."-Pope. George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, the Zimri of Dryden's Absalom

and Achitophel, did not die in poverty, as Pope insinuates. Pope exaggerated for satirical effect.

307. Clivedon's proud alcove. "A delightful palace, on the banks of the Thames, built by the Duke of Buckingham."Pope.

308. Shrewsbury. "The Countess of Shrewsbury, a woman abandoned to gallantries. The Earl her husband was killed by the Duke of Buckingham in a duel; and it has been said, that during the combat she held the Duke's horses in the habit of a page."-Pope.

315. Cutler. Sir John Cutler, a wealthy citizen of London, created Baronet by Charles II, who had acquired a reputation for parsimony. Arbuthnot told an anecdote of him: "Sir John Cutler had a pair of black worsted stockings, which his maid darned so often with silk that they became at last a pair of silk stockings."

339. "The Monument, built in the memory of the fire of London, with an inscription, importing that city to have been burnt by the Papists."-Pope.

EPISTLE IV

"Richard Boyle, third Earl of Burlington, born in 1695, died in 1753. He took no prominent part in politics, although his high rank obtained for him a great post at court and the order of the Garter. But he obtained wide fame by his taste in architecture, inspired by a natural love of art and educated by studies in Italy. Horace Walpole says of him that he 'had every quality of genius and artist, except envy.' It has been doubted whether the architect Kent, who long lived with him, did not owe more to his patron, than the latter owed to the artist."-Ward.

7. Topham. "A Gentleman famous for a judicious collection of Drawings."-Pope.

10. Mead, Sloane. "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."-Pope.

18. Ripley. "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."-Pope. The minister was, of course, Walpole.

20. Bubo. Bubb Doddington, Lord Melcombe. See Epistle to Arbuthnot, line 280.

23. "The Earl of Burlington was then publishing the Designs of Inigo Jones, and the Antiquities of Rome by Palladio.”—Pope.

46. “Inigo Jones the celebrated Architect, and M. Le Nôtre the designer of the best Gardens of France."-Pope.

70. Stowe. "The seat and gardens of the Lord Viscount Cobham in Buckinghamshire."-Pope.

75-76. "This was done in Hertfordshire, by a wealthy citizen, at the expence of above 5000 1. by which means (merely to overlook a dead plain) he let in the north-wind upon his house and parterre, which were before adorned and defended by beautiful woods."-Pope.

78. "Dr. S. Clarke's busto placed by the Queen in the Hermitage, while the Dr. duely frequented the Court."-Pope.

95. "The two extremes in parterres, which are equally faulty; a boundless Green, large and naked as a field, or a flourish'd Carpet, where the greatness and nobleness of the piece is lessened by being divided into many parts, with scroll'd works and beds, of which the examples are frequent." -Pope.

96. "Touches upon the ill taste of those who are so fond of Ever-greens (particularly Yews, which are the most tonsile) as to destroy the nobler Forest-trees, to make way for such little ornaments as Pyramids of dark-green continually repeated, not unlike a Funeral procession."-Pope.

99. "This description is intended to comprize the principles of a false Taste of Magnificence, and to exemplify what was said before, that nothing but Good Sense can attain it.”—Pope. By Timon, Johnson says, Pope "was universally supposedand by the Earl of Burlington, to whom the poem is addressed, was privately said-to mean the Duke of Chandos, a man perhaps too much delighted with pomp and show, but of a temper kind and beneficent, and who had consequently the voice of the public in his favour. A violent outcry was therefore raised against the ingratitude and treachery of Pope, who was said to have been indebted to the patronage of Chandos for a present of a thousand pounds, and who gained the opportunity of insulting him by the kindness of his invitation."