to make Teresa Blount jealous, "Mrs. Lepell 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." poor king!

The

For true unostentatious satisfaction and delight, Pope had the cordial society of his painter-friend Jervas (whose house was his town residence), the witty Arbuthnot, the gentle Parnell, Rowe—who laughed everywhere but in his tragedies the simple, admiring John Gay, Colonel Disney, a clever man of the world, who had seen service and reaped his opima spolia, and two excellent Devonshire worthies, learned in the law, Fortescue and Bickford. Country excursions on horseback were occasionally adventured upon by this light-hearted brotherhood, and Jervas's notes-short notes full of sense, business, and kindness, let us see how they managed the details. Arbuthnot, as the oldest and gravest of the party, laid down rules, and was inflexible in cutting off all superfluities and impediments. "The Doctor proposes," says Jervas, "that himself or his man ride my spare horse, and that I leave all equipage to be sent by the carrier, with your portmanteau. The Doctor says he will allow none of his friends so much as a night-gown or slippers for the road, so a shirt and cravat in your pocket is all you must think of in his new scheme. His servant may be bribed to make room for that. You shall have a shorter and less bridle sent down on Saturday, and the other shall be returned in due time. The tailor shall be chastised if it is really negligence on his part, but if it is only vapours, you must beg pardon." "Your old sword went with the carrier, and was tied to the other things with a cord, and my folks say very fast. You must make the carrier responsible; mine will swear to the delivery." A particular man, the poet, and somewhat troublesome!

Visits to Bath were then a favourite summer recreation, and the Abbey bells often rang in Pope and his friends. The poet relished the amusements of the place, regulated

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX AND

TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

by the redoubted Beau Nash, and spent the day pleasantly among the pump assemblies, the walks, the chocolate-houses, raffling-shops, plays, and medleys. He even thought the appearance of the ladies in the bath, encased in buckram, and moving about, in common with the men, between swimming and walking, a spectacle worthy the applause and imitation of Teresa Blount. The barbarity of the practice shocked Dr. Johnson and the cynical Matthew Bramble

and it affords a curious illustration of the taste and manners of the period. But Pope wished to be esteemed a man of vivacity and spirit, or as he has himself said,

The gayest valetudinaire,
Most thinking rake alive!

2 Bath had become a very fashionable resort after the visit of Queen Anne to the city. Goldsmith describes the amusements of the day. "The

And whether in town or country his company was courted. Without fortune, without the advantages of high birth or connections, without personal graces or fashionable accomplishments, he had by his genius and management raised himself to social eminence and unrivalled literary celebrity. Dryden, better descended, and with good family alliances, failed to accomplish as much. There was no inferiority of

hours for bathing are commonly between six and nine in the morning. The lady is brought in a chair, dressed in her bathing clothes, to the bath, and being in the water, the woman who attends presents her with a little floating dish like a basin; into which the lady puts a handkerchief, a snuff-box, and a nosegay. She then traverses the bath; if a novice with a guide, if otherwise by herself; and having amused herself thus while she thinks proper, calls for her chair, and returns to her lodgings. The amusement of bathing is succeeded by a general assembly of the people at the pumproom, some for pleasure, and some to drink the hot waters. Three glasses at three different times is the usual portion, and the intervals between every glass are enlivened by the small band of music, as well as by the conversation of the gay, the witty, or the forward. From the pump-room the ladies from time to time withdraw to a female coffee-house, and from thence return to their lodgings to breakfast. The gentlemen withdraw to their coffee-houses, to read the papers or converse on the news of the day.” And with equal minuteness Goldsmith goes over the whole day, till the round is closed by evening prayers in the pump-room, and by nightly balls, plays, or visits. When Frederick Prince of Wales visited Bath in 1738, Beau Nash commemorated the event by erecting an obelisk, and he wrote to Pope requesting an inscription. Pope replied that he had received so few favours from the great, that he was utterly unacquainted with what kind of thanks they liked best. "Whether," he said, "the Prince most loves poetry or prose I protest I do not know; but this I dare venture to affirm, that you can give him as much satisfaction in either as I can." Nash persevered in his request, and Pope sent a brief prose inscription: “In memory of honours bestowed, and in gratitude for benefits conferred on this city by his Royal Highness Frederick, Prince of Wales, and his royal consort, in the year 1738, this obelisk is erected by Richard Nash, Esq." Goldsmith's comment on this affair is the most amusing part of the business: "I dare venture to say there was scarce a common council-man in the corporation of Bath but could have done this as well. Nothing can be more frigid, though the subject was worthy of the utmost exertions of genius!" -See Goldsmith's Works by Prior, Vol. III.