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never fuffered this criticism, but on the fcore of your head, and the two eyes that are in it.

Pray, when you write to me, talk of yourself; there is nothing I fo much defire, to hear of: talk a great deal of yourself; that the who I always thought talked the beft, may fpeak upon the beft fubject. The fhrines and reliques you tell me of, no way engage my curiofity; I had ten times rather go on pilgrimage to fee one fuch face as yours, than both St. John Baptift's heads. I wish (fince you are grown fo covetous of golden things) you had not only all the fine ftatues you talk of, but even the golden image which Nebuchadnezzar fet up, provided you were to travel no farther than you could carry it.

The court of Vienna is very edifying. The ladies, with refpect to their husbands, feem to understand that text literally, that commands to bear one another's burdens: but, I fancy, many a man there is like Iffachar, an afs between two burdens. I fhall look upon you no more as a Chriftian, when you pass from that charitable court to the land of jealoufy. I expect to hear an exact account how, and at what places, you leave one of the thirty-nine articles after another, as you approach to the land of infidelity. Pray how far are you got already? Amidst the pomp of a high mafs, and the ravishing thrills of a Sunday opera, what did you think of the doctrine and discipline of the church of England? Had you from your heart a reverence for Sternhold and Hopkins? How did your Chriftian virtues hold out in fo long a voyage? You have, it feems (without paffing the bounds of Christendom) out-travelled the fin of fornication; in a little time you'll look upon fome others with more patience than the ladies here are capable of. I reckon, you'll time it fo well as to make your religion laft to the verge of Christendom, that you may difcharge your chaplain (as humanity requires) in a place where he may find fome bufinefs.

I doubt not but I fhall be told (when I come to follow you through these countries) in how pretty a manner you accommodated yourself to the customs of the true Muffulmen. They will tell me at what town you practifed to fit on the fopha, at what village you learned to fold a turban, where you was bathed and anointed, and where you parted with your black fullbottom. How happy must it be for a gay young woman, to live in a country where

it is a part of religious worship to be giddy-headed! I fhall hear at Belgrade how the good bafhaw received you with tears of joy, how he was charmed with your. agreeable manner of pronouncing the words Allah and Muhamed; and how earneftly you joined with him in exhorting your friend to embrace that religion. But I think his objection was a just one; that is was attended with fome circumftances under which he could not properly reprefent his Britannic majesty.

Laftly, I fhall hear how, the first night you lay at Fera, you had a vision of Mahomet's paradife, and happily awaked without a foul; from which bleffed moment the beautiful body was left at full liberty to perform all the agreeable functions it was made for.

I fee I have done in this letter, as I often have done in your company; talked myfelf into a good humour, when I begun in an ill one: the pleasure of addreffing to you makes me run on; and 'tis in your power to fhorten this letter as much as you pleafe, by giving over when you pleafe; fo I'll make it no longer by apologies.

Pope.

$ 40. The Manners of a Bookseller.
To the Earl of Burlington.
My Lord,

If your mare could fpeak, fhe would give an account of what extraordinary company fhe had on the road; which fince fhe cannot do, I will.

It was the enterprising Mr. Lintot, the redoubtable rival of Mr. Tonfon, who, mounted on a stone-horse (no disagreeable companion to your lordship's mare) overtook me in Windfor-foreft. He faid, he heard I defigned for Oxford, the feat of the Mufes; and would, as my bookfeller, by all means accompany me thither.

I asked him where he got his horse? He answered, he got it of his publisher: "For that rogue, my printer (said he)

disappointed me: I hoped to put him in

good humour by a treat at the tavern, "of a brown fricaffee of rabbits, which "coft two fhillings, with two quarts of "wine, befides my converfation. I thought

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myfelf cock-fure of his horfe, which he readily promifed me, but faid that Mr. "Tonfon had just fuch another defign of "going to Cambridge, expecting there "the copy of a new kind of Horace from "Dr. ; and if Mr. Tonson went, he

" was

"was pre-engaged to attend him, being jog on apace, and I'll think as hard as I "to have the printing of the faid copy.

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"So, in fhort, I borrowed this tone"horfe of my publisher, which he had of "Mr. Oldmixon for a debt; he lent me, too, the pretty boy you fee after me: "he was a smutty dog yefterday, and coft "me near two hours to wash the ink off" "his face: but the devil is a fair-condi"tioned devil, and very forward in his " catechife: if you have any more bags, "he fhall carry them."

I thought Mr. Lintot's civility not to be neglected; fo gave the boy a fmall bag, containing three fhirts, and an Elzevir Virgil; and mounting in an instant, proceeded on the road, with my man before, my courteous ftationer befide, and the aforefaid devil behind.

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Don't you defign to let him pafs a year at Oxford? To what purpofe? (faid he) "the univerfities do but make pedants, "and I intend to breed him a man of bufi"< nefs."

As Mr. Lintot was talking, I obferved he fat uneafy on his faddle, for which I expreffed fome folicitude. Nothing, fays he, I can bear it well enough; but fince we have the day before us, methinks it would be very pleasant for you to rest awhile under the woods. When we were alighted," See here, what a mighty pretty "kind of Horace I have in my pocket! "what if you amufed yourself in turning "an ode, till we mount again? Lord! if "you pleased, what a clever mifcellany

might you make at your leisure hours!" Perhaps I may, said I, if we ride on; the motion is an aid to my fancy; a round trot very much awakens my fpirits: then

Silence enfued for a full hour: after which Mr. Lintot lugg'd the reins, stopp'd fhort, and broke out, “Well, Sir, how far have you gone?" I answered Seven miles. "Z-ds! Sir," faid Lintot, "I thought you had done feven ftanzas. Oldfworth, "in a ramble round Wimbleton-hill, would "tranflate a whole ode in half this time. "I'll fay that for Oldsworth (though I loft "by his Timothy's) he tranflates an ode of "Horace the quickest of any man in Eng"land. I remember Dr. King would write "verses in a tavern three hours after he "could not speak: and there's Sir Richard, "in that rumbling old chariot of his, be"tween Fleet-ditch and St. Giles's pound "shall make you half a job."

Pray, Mr. Lintot (faid I) now you talk of tranflators, what is your method of managing them? « Sir, (replied he) thofe are "the faddeft pack of rogues in the world; "in a hungry fit, they'll fwear they under"ftand all the languages in the universe : "I have known one of them take down a "Greek book upon my counter, and cry, "Ay, this is Hebrew, I must read it from "the latter end. By G-d, I can never "be fure in thefe fellows; for I neither "understand Greek, Latin, French, nor "Italian myself. But this is my way; I "agree with them for ten fhillings per "fheet, with a provifo, that I will have "their doings corrected by whom I please: "fo by one or other they are led at last "to the true fenfe of an author; my judg"ment giving the negative to all my "tranflators." But how are you fecure thofe correctors may not impofe upon you? Why, I get any civil gentleman (efpecially any Scotchman) that comes into my fhop, to read the original to me in "English; by this 1 know whether my "tranflator be deficient, and whether my "corrector merits his money or not.

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Pray tell me next how you deal with the critics?" Sir (faid he) nothing more "easy. I can filence the most formidable "of them: the rich ones with a sheet a"piece of the blotted manufcript, which cofts me nothing; they'll go about with "it to their acquaintance, and say they "had it from the author, who fubmitted "to their correction: this has given fome "of them fuch an air, that in time they "come to be confulted with, and dedi"cated to, as the top critics of the town. "As for the poor critics, I'll give you "one inftance of my management, by "which you may guefs at the reft. A lean 66 man, that looked like a very good fcholar, came to me t'other day; he turned "over your Homer, fhook his head, fhrugged up his fhoulders, and pished at every "line of it: One would wonder (fays he) "at the strange prefumption of fome men; "Homer is no fuch easy tafk, that every ftripling, every verfifier-He was going on, when my wife called to dinner-Sir, "faid I, will you pleafe to eat a piece of "beef with me? Mr. Lintot (faid he) "I am forry you should be at the expence "of this great book; I am really con"cerned on your account-Sir, I am much obliged to you: if you can dine upon a piece of beef, together with a flice of pudding-Mr. Lintot, I do not fay but "Mr. Pope, if he would but condefcend "to advife with men of learning-Sir, the pudding is upon the table, if you please "to go in -My critic complies, he comes to a taste of your poetry; and tells me, "in the fame breath, that your book is "commendable, and the pudding excel

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"Now, Sir, (concluded Mr. Lintot) in "return to the frankness I have fhewn, 66 pray tell me, Is it the opinion of your "friends at court that my Lord Lanfdown "will be brought to the bar or not?" I told him, I heard he would not; and I hoped it, my lord being one I had particular obligations to. "That may be (replied Mr. Lintot); but, by God, if he is not, I fhall lose the printing of a very good trial."

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Thefe, my lord, are a few traits by which you may difcern the genius of Mr. Lintot; which I have chofen for the fubject of a letter. I dropt him as foon as I

got to Oxford, and paid a visit to my lord Carleton at Middleton.

The converfations I enjoy here are not to be prejudiced by my pen, and the pleafures from them only to be equalled when I meet your lordship. I hope in a few days to caft myself from your horse at your feet. Pope.

§ 41. Defcription of a Country Seat.
To the Duke of Buckingham.

In anfwer to a letter in which he inclofed the defcription of Buckingham-house, written by him to the D. of Sh.

Pliny was one of those few authors who had a warm houfe over his head, nay, two houfes; as appears by two of his epiftles. I believe, if any of his contemporary authors durft have informed the public where they lodged, we fhould have found the garrets of Rome as well inhabited as those of Fleet-ftreet; but 'tis dangerous to let creditors into fuch a fecret; therefore we may prefume that then, as well as now-adays, nobody knew where they lived but their bookfellers.

It seems, that when Virgil came to Rome, he had no lodging at all; he first introduced himfelf to Auguftus by an epigram, beginning Notte pluit tota-an obfervation which probably he had not made, unless he had lain all night in the

Atreet.

Where Juvenal lived, we cannot affirm; but in one of his fatires he complains of the exceffive price of lodgings; neither do I believe he would have talked fo feelingly of Codrus's bed, if there had been room for a bed-fellow in it.

I believe, with all the oftentation of Pliny, he would have been glad to have changed both his houses for your grace's one; which is a country-houfe in the fummer, and a town-houfe in the winter, and must be owned to be the propereft habitation for a wife man, who fees all the world change every season without ever changing himself.

I have been reading the description of Pliny's houfe with an eye to yours; but finding they will bear no comparison, will try if it can be matched by the large country-feat I inhabit at prefent, and fee what figure it may make by the help of a florid description.

You must expect nothing regular in my defcription, any more than in the houfe; the whole vaft edifice is fo disjointed, and

the

the feveral parts of it fo detached one from the other, and yet so joining again, one cannot tell how, that, in one of my poetical fits, I imagined it had been a village in Amphion's time; where the cottages, having taken a country-dance together, had been all out, and stood stone-still with amazement ever since.

You must excuse me, if I fay nothing of the front; indeed I don't know which it is. A ftranger would be grievously difappointed, who endeavoured to get into the house the right way. One would reafonably expect, after the entry through the porch, to be let into the hall: alas, nothing lefs! you find yourself in the house of office. From the parlour you think to ftep into the drawing-room; but, upon opening the iron-nailed door, you are convinced, by a flight of birds about your ears, and a cloud of duft in your eyes, that it is the pigeon-houfe. If you come into the chapel, you find its altars, like thofe of the ancients, continually fmoaking; but it is with the fteams of the adjoining kitchen.

The great hall within is high and fpacious, flanked on one fide with a very long table, a true image of ancient hofpitality: the walls are all over ornamented with monstrous horns of animals, about twenty broken pikes, ten or a dozen blunderbuffes, and a rufty match-lock mufquet or two, which we were informed had ferved in the civil wars. Here is one vaft arched window, beautifully darkened with divers 'fcutcheons of painted glafs; one fhining pane in particular bears date 1286, which alone preferves the memory of a knight, whofe iron armour is long fince perished with ruit, and whofe alabafter nofe is mouldered from his monument. The face of dame Eleanor, in another piece, owes more to that fingle pane than to all the glaffes the ever confulted in her life. After this, who can fay that glass is frail, when it is not half fo frail as human beauty, or glory! and yet I can't but figh to think that the most authentic record of fò ancient a family should lie at the mercy of every infant who fings a ftone. In former days there have dined in this hall gartered knights, and courtly dames, attended by ufhers, fewers, and fenefchals; and yet it was but last night that an owl flew hither, and miftook it for a barn.

This hall lets you (up and down) over a very high threshold into the great parlour. Its contents are a broken-belly'd virginal, a couple of crippled velvet chairs,

with two or three mildew'd pictures of mouldy ancestors, who look as difmally as if they came fresh from hell, with all their brimflone about them: thefe are carefully fet at the farther corner; for the window s being every where broken, make it fo convenient a place to dry poppies and muftard-feed, that the room is appropriated to that ufe.

Next this parlour, as I faid before, lies the pigeon-houfe; by the fide of which runs an entry, which lets you on one hand and 'other into a bed-chamber, a buttery, and a small hole called the chaplain's ftudy: then follow a brewhouse, a little green and gilt parlour, and the great ftairs, under which is the dairy: a little farther, on the right, the fervants hall; and by the fide of it, up fix fteps, the old lady's closet for her private devotions; which has a lattice into the hall, intended (as we imagine) that at the fame time as the pray'd the might have an eye on the men and maids. There are upon the ground-floor, in all, twenty-fix apartments; among which I must not forget a chamber which has in it a large antiquity of timber, that feems to have been either a bedftead, or a cyder-prefs.

The kitchen is built in form of a rotunda, being one vast vault to the top of the houfe; where one aperture ferves to let out the fmoke, and let in the light. By the blacknefs of the walls, the circular fires, vaft cauldrons, yawning mouths of ovens and furnaces, you would think it either the forge of Vulcan, the cave of Polypheme, or the temple of Moloch. The horror of this place has made fuch an impreffion on the country people, that they believe the witches keep their Sabbath here, and that once a year the devil treats them with infernal venifon, a roafted tiger stuffed with ten-penny nails.

Above flairs we have a number of rooms; you never pafs out of one into another, but by the afcent or defcent of two or three stairs. Our best room is very long and low, of the exact proportion of a banbox. In most of thefe rooms there are hangings of the fineft work in the world, that is to fay, thofe which Arachne fpins from her own bowels. Were it not for this only furniture, the whole would be a miferable fcene of naked walls, flaw'd ceilings, broken windows, and rufty locks. The roof is fo decayed, that after a favourable shower we may expect a crop of mushrooms between the chinks of our floors. All the doors are as little and low

as

as thofe to the cabins of packet-boats. Thefe rooms have, for many years, had no other inhabitants than certain rats, whofe very age renders them worthy of this feat, for the very rats of this venerable house are grey: fince these have not yet quitted it, we hope at least that this ancient manfion may not fall during the fmall remnant thefe poor animals have to live, who are now too infirm to remove to another. There is yet a fmall fubfiftence left them in the few remaining books of the library.

We had never seen half what I had defcribed, but for a ftarch'd grey-headed fteward, who is as much an antiquity as any in this place, and looks like an old family picture walked out of its frame. He entertained us as we paffed from room to room with several relations of the family; but his obfervations were particularly curious when he came to the cellar: he informed us where ftood the triple rows of butts of fack, and where were ranged the bottles of tent, for toafts in a morning; he pointed to the ftands that fupported the iron-hooped hogfheads of ftrong beer; then stepping to a corner, he lugged out the tattered fragments of an unframed picture: "This (fays he, with tears) was poor Sir Thomas! once mafter of all this drink. He had two fons, poor young "masters! who never arrived to the age of "his beer; they both fell ill in this very "room, and never went out on their own legs." He could not pafs by a heap of broken bottles without taking up a piece, to fhew us the arms of the family upon it. He then led us up the tower by dark winding ftone steps, which landed us into feveral little rooms one above another. One of these was nailed up, and our guide whispered to us as a fecret the occafion of it: it seems the courfe of this noble blood was a little interrupted, about two centuries ago, by a freak of the lady Frances, who was here taken in the fact with a neighbouring prior; ever fince which the room has been nailed up, and branded with the name of the Adultery-Chamber. The ghoft of lady Frances is fuppofed to walk there, and fome prying maids of the family report that they have seen a lady in a fardingale through the key-hole: but this matter is hufht up, and the fervants are forbid to talk of it.

I must needs have tired you with this long defcription: but what engaged me in it, was a generous principle to preferve the

memory of that, which itself muft foon fali into duft, nay, perhaps part of it, before this letter reaches your hands.

Indeed we owe this old houfe the fame kind of gratitude that we do to an old friend, who harbours us in his declining condition, nay even in his laft extremities. How fit is this retreat for uninterrupted ftudy, where no one that paffes by can dream there is an inhabitant, and even those who would dine with us dare not flay under our roof! Any one that fees it, will own I could not have chofen a more likely place to converfe with the dead in. I had been mad indeed if I had left your grace for any one but Homer. But when I return to the living, I fhall have the fenfe to endeavour to converfe with the best of them, and fhall therefore, as foon as poffible, tell you in perion how much I am, &c. Pope.

§ 42. Apology for his religious Tenets. My Lord,

I am truly obliged by your kind condolence on my father's death, and the defire you exprefs that I should improve this incident to my advantage. I know your lordship's friendship to me is fo extenfive, that you include in that with both my fpiritual and my temporal advantage; and it is what I owe to that friendship, to open my mind unreservedly to you on this head. It is true I have loft a parent, for whom no gains I could make would be any equivalent. But that was not my only tie; I thank God another ftill remains (and long may it remain) of the same tender nature; Genitrix eft mihi-and excufe me if I fay with Euryalus,

Nequeam lachrymas perferre parentis.
A rigid divine may call it a carnal tie, but
fure it is a virtuous one: at least I am
more certain that it is a duty of nature to
preferve a good parent's life and happi-
nefs, than I am of any speculative point
whatever.

Ignaram hujus quodcunque pericli
Hanc ego, nunc, linquam ?

For fhe, my lord, would think this fepara-
tion more grievous than any other; and I,
for my part, know as little as poor Eurya-
lus did, of the fuccefs of fuch an adven-
ture (for an adventure it is, and no fmall
one, in fpite of the most pofitive divinity).
Whether the change would be to my fpi-
ritual advantage, God only knows; this I

know,

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