for the country people, and the second, the "religious" one, was adopted. Truth to say, neither is an inspired piece of work, and perhaps it was the ornate manner in which the incident was recounted and the bald platitudes of the accompanying verses that moved Lady Mary to merriment and parody in her letter of acknowledgment. Pope had pompously assured her that "the greatest honour people of this low degree could have was to be remembered on a little monument; unless you will give them another-that of being honoured with a tear from the finest eyes in the world. I know you have tenderness; you must have it; it is the very emanation of good sense and virtue; the finest minds, like the finest metals, dissolve the readiest."

Lady Mary was in a capricious mood when she sat down to answer this letter. Having no illusions about hay-makers or their methods of courtship, she tore away the web of sentiment that the poet had woven around the rustic tragedy. She did not imagine that the lovers were either wiser or more virtuous than their neighbours. Nor did she suppose for a moment that their sudden death was a reward of their mutual virtue, as Pope suggested

II.

Think not, by rigorous judgment seized,

A pair so faithful could expire;

Victims so pure Heaven saw well pleased,

And snatched them in celestial fire.

Live well, and fear no sudden fate.

When God calls virtue to the grave

Alike His justice soon or late :

Mercy alike to kill or save.
Virtue unmoved can hear the call,

And face the flash that melts the ball.

in his epitaph. Her own mock-epitaph is a scathing satire upon the sentimental vapourings of Pope, and is certainly better worth printing than his own effusions :

Here lie John Hughes1 and Sarah Drew;
Perhaps you'll say, what's that to you?
Believe me, friend, much may be said
On that poor couple that are dead.
On Sunday next they should have married:
But see how oddly things are carried;
On Thursday last it rained and lightened,
These tender lovers, sadly frightened,
Sheltered beneath the cocking hay
In hopes to pass the time away.

But the bold thunder found them out
(Commissioned for that end, no doubt),
And, seizing on their trembling breath,
Consigned them to the shades of death.
Who knows if 'twas not kindly done?
For, had they seen the next year's sun,
A beaten wife and cuckold swain
Had jointly cursed the marriage chain.
Now they are happy in their doom,

For Pope has wrote upon their tomb.

At Stanton Harcourt Pope finished his fifth volume of Homer, as was recorded on a window-pane of the room in which he worked. He was now nearing the end of his gigantic task, and found, to his satisfaction, "that daring work less and less censured, and the last volumes generally allowed to be better done than the former, which yet no way raises my vanity, since it is only allowing me not to grow worse and worse."

On October 8 Pope was enjoying what he calls

1 Lady Mary has altered the name of the hero, in order to make her line scan.

his "bower" in Oakley Wood, Cirencester, and the company of Lord Bathurst' and Gay. In a letter to the Blounts he gives a rosy account of his surroundings and mode of life.

"I write an hour or two every morning, then ride out a-hunting upon the Downs, eat heartily, talk tender sentiments with Lord Bathurst, or draw plans for houses and gardens, open avenues, cut glades, plant firs, contrive water-works-all very fine and beautiful in our imagination. At night we play at commerce, and play pretty high. I do more: I bet too; for I am really rich, and must throw away my money, if no deserving friend will use it. I like this course of life so well that I am resolved to stay here till I hear of somebody's being in town that is worth coming after."

1 Allen, Lord Bathurst (1684-1775), was a pleasant companion and an ideal host. He was one of the dozen Peace peers, created in 1711, to form a Tory majority in the House of Lords. He made no great figure in politics, but enjoyed life, and helped his friends and guests to do the same. Lord Lansdowne said of him (in a letter to Mrs. Pendarves): "Lord Bathurst can best describe to you the ineffable joys of that country where happiness only reigns. He is a native of it." Bathurst had a strong constitution and abounding vitality. In his old age Sterne said of him: "This nobleman is a prodigy; for at eighty-five he has all the wit and promptness of a man of thirty. A disposition to be pleased, and the power to please others beyond whatever I knew, added to which a man of learning, courtesy, and feeling." Sterne also relates the following story of him: "About two years before his death, having some friends with him at his country-seat, and being loth to part with them one night, his son, the Lord Chancellor, objected to sitting up any longer, and left the room. As soon as he was gone the lively old peer said, 'Come, my good friends, since the old gentleman is gone to bed, I think we may venture to crack another bottle.""

CHAPTER XXII

1719

Move to Twickenham-Relations with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu-Theories of Gardening

MA

AWSON'S New Buildings was but a shabby address for a celebrated poet, and in the spring of this year Pope thought of building himself a house in or near London. But from this project he was dissuaded by his friends, more especially by Lord Bathurst, who warned him that saws and hammers, besides making a good deal of noise, possessed a curious trick of melting gold and silver. Finally, the poet contented himself with renting a small house at Twickenham, with five acres of land, which he proceeded to beautify in accordance with his own artistic taste. The house was pleasantly situated on the banks of the river, and the village of Twickenham was then the most fashionable country retreat within easy reach of London.

Pope intended to add to the house, but, fortunately for his purse, he never got beyond scribbling plans on the backs of envelopes. He found endless amusement, however, in laying out his grounds. His taste and knowledge, more especially with regard to

effects of light and shade, distance and grouping, were in advance of his time, and his advice was sought by the great men of his acquaintance who were engaged in "improving" their own places, such as Lord Burlington, Lord Bathurst, and Lord Oxford.1

As early as 1713 Pope had written an article on Gardening in The Guardian, and now, for the first time, he had a free hand in putting his theories into practice. The formal style of gardening had fallen out of favour, and the stately pleasaunces, with their pleached alleys, yew-hedges and walled enclosures, were being "stubbed up" by the new school of "nature," or landscape gardeners, led by Kent and Bridgman. Though there were but "ten sticks" in the garden when he took the place, Pope "twisted and twirled and rhymed and harmonised it till it appeared two or three sweet little lawns, opening and opening beyond one another, and the whole surrounded with impenetrable woods." 2 Before he had finished with it the garden boasted, besides the famous Grotto, one large mount, two

1 The charges against Lord Oxford had been dismissed, and he was released in 1717. He continued to attend the House of Lords, though he was excepted from the Act of Grace, and forbidden to appear at Court.

Horace Walpole. After Pope's death Sir William Stanhope bought the villa. In 1760, to quote Walpole again, "He hacked and hewed these groves, wriggling a winding gravel walk through them with an edging of shrubs, in what they call the modern taste, and, in short, has desired the three lanes to walk in again—and now is forced to shut them out again by a wall, for there was not a Muse could walk there but she was spied by every country fellow that went by with a pipe in his mouth." In 1807 the villa became the property of Lady Howe, who pulled it down and built another house a hundred yards away.