unattended by all but my own virtues, which were not of so modest a nature as to keep themselves, or me, concealed: for I met the prince with all his ladies on horseback, coming from hunting. Mrs. B. and Mrs. L.* took me into protection, (contrary to the laws against harbouring papists,) and gave me a dinner, with something I liked better, an opportunity of conversation with Mrs. H.* We all agreed that the life of a Maid of Honour was of all things the most miserable: and wished that every woman who envied it, had a specimen of it. To eat Westphalia ham in a morning, ride over hedges and ditches on borrowed hacks, come home in the heat of the day with a fever, and (what is worse a hundred times) with a red mark in the forehead from an uneasy hat; all this may qualify them to make excellent wives for foxhunters, and bear abundance of ruddy complexioned children. As soon as they can wipe off the sweat of the day, they must simper an hour, and catch cold, in the princess's apartment: from thence (as Shakespear has it) to dinner, with what appetite they may—— and after that, till midnight, walk, work, or think, which they please. I can easily believe, no lone house in Wales, with a mountain and a rookery, is more contemplative than this court; and as a proof

* Mary Bellenden, Mary Lepell, Maids of Honour to the Princess; Mrs. Howard, afterwards Countess of Suffolk. It is well known that at the time this was written, unmarried ladies were called generally Mrs's. Miss Bellenden and Lepell have been before spoken of.

Bowles.

1

of it, I need only tell you, Mrs. L. walked with me three or four hours by moonlight, and we met no creature of any quality but the king, who gave audience to the vice chamberlain, all alone, under the garden-wall.

In short, I heard of no ball, assembly, bassettable, or any place where two or three were gathered together, except Madam Kilmansegg's, to which I had the honour to be invited, and the grace to stay away.

I was heartily tired, and posted to park: there we had an excellent discourse of quackery; Dr. S*** was mentioned with honour. Lady *** walked a whole hour abroad without dying after it, at least in the time I stayed, though she seemed to be fainting, and had convulsive motions several times in her head. 1 arrived in the forest by Tuesday noon, having fled from the face (I wish I could say the horned face) of Moses, who dined in the midway thither. I passed the rest of the day in those woods where I have so often enjoyed a book and a friend; I made a hymn as I passed through, which ended with a sigh, that I will not tell you the meaning of.*

*" All hail! once pleasing, once inspiring shade,

Scene of my youthful loves, and happier hours!
Where the kind Muses met me, as I stray'd,

And gently press'd my hand, and said, Be ours.
Take all thou e'er shalt have, a constant Muse:

At court thou may'st be lik'd, but nothing gain:
Stocks thou may'st buy and sell, but always lose;
And love the brightest eyes, but love in vain.

" On

Your doctor is gone the way of all his patients, and was hard put to it how to dispose of an estate miserably unwieldy, and splendidly unuseful to him. Sir Samuel Garth says, that for Radcliffe to leave a library,* was as if a eunuch should found a seraglio. Dr. S*** lately told a lady, he wondered she could be alive after him: she made answer, she wondered at it for two reasons, because Dr. Radcliffe was dead, and because Dr. S*** was living. I am your, &c.

SIR,

LETTER XXVII.

FROM MRS. MARTHA BLOUNT.

Sunday Morning.

My sister and I shall be at home all day. If any company come that you do not like, I'll go

"On Thursday I went to Stonor, which I have long had a mind to see since the romantic description you gave me of it. The melancholy which my wood and this place have spread over me, will go near to cast a cloud upon the rest of my letter, if I do not make haste to conclude it here. I know you wish my happiness so much, that I would not have you think I have any other reason to be melancholy: and after all, he must be a beast that is so, with two such fine women for his friends. It is enough to make any creature easy, even such an one as your humble Servant." What follows in the printed Letter, appears to have been added by Pope for publication. C. Bowles.

* Because it was notorious that he had little learning; but he possessed what was better, wonderful sagacity and penetration in judging of diseases. Dr. Young has the same simile in his second satire :

Unlearned men of books assume the care,
As Eunuchs are the guardians of the Fair.

Warton.

up into any room with you. I hope we shall see you.*

Your, &c.

LETTER XXVIII.

LADIES,

TO THE MISS BLOUNTS.

Thursday Morn.t

PRAY think me sensible of your civility and good meaning, in asking me to come to you. You will please to consider, that my coming or not is a thing indifferent to both of you. But God knows it is far otherwise to me with respect to one of you.

I scarce ever come but one of two things hap

* This letter, it has been observed, is short, but very much to the purpose. Bowles.

In the foregoing note Mr. Bowles has ventured to throw out an insinuation which will be rejected by every candid mind. But what shall we say when we find in Mr. Bowles's edition of Pope, vol. vii. p. 200, the same letter thus referred to:

"In a note signed Teresa and Martha, Pope is invited to meet them; and they say, if there is any company he disliked, they will retire with him into any room. Pope, in answer, requests they will write their surnames, as he says Teresa and Martha may be two saints for what he knows to the contrary."

The note from Miss Blount yet exists in the British Museum, written on by Pope in his translation of Homer. Of the existence of any other note of a similar tenor, signed Teresa and Martha, I am not aware, but if there be such a one, it certainly is not so much to the purpose so significantly pointed out by Mr. Bowles as he would have us believe.

From the date of this letter, it can scarcely be an answer to the preceding one of Sunday; but, if not, it refers at least to some invitation of a similar nature.

VOL. VIII.

pens, which equally afflicts me to the soul: either I make her uneasy, or I see her unkind.

If she has any tenderness, I can only give her every day trouble and melancholy. If she has none, the daily sight of so undeserved a coldness must wound me to death.

It is forcing one of us to do a very hard and very unjust thing to the other.

My continuing to see you will, by turns, teaze all of us. My staying away can at worst be of ill consequence only to myself.

And if one of us is to be sacrificed, I believe we are all three agreed who shall be the person.

LETTER XXIX.

TO MRS. MARTHA BLOUNT.

THIS is a day of wishes for you, and I hope you have long known, there is not one good one which I do not form in your behalf. Every year that passes, I wish some things more for my friends, and some things less for myself. Yet were I to tell you what I wish for you in particular, it would be only to repeat in prose, what I told you last year in rhyme (so sincere is my poetry): I can only add, that as I then wished you a friend,* I now wish that friend were Mrs.

* To Mrs. Blount on her birth-day.

"O be thou blest with all that Heaven can send,

Long health, long youth, long pleasures, and a friend."

Warburton.