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Esq., the sum of One hundred pounds. I give to Mrs. Ann Blount the sum of Fifty pounds, and forgive her the debt she owes me. I give to my maid, Mary Brown, Fifty pounds and all my wearing apparel, linen and woollen, with the furniture of my bedchamber and dressing-room. I give to my other maid Five pounds. I give to Elinor Aylmer, my former servant, Thirty pounds. For other proper expenses, I leave to the discretion of my Executor. All the worldly goods and effects I die possessed of (after these legacies are paid) I give to my dear nephew, Michael Blount, of Maple-Durham, in the county of Oxford, Esquire, whom I constitute my full and sole Executor and Administrator of this my last Will and Testament. In witness of which I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 13th day of December, in the year of our Lord 1762.

MARTHA BLOUNT.

Signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of the underwritten witnesses :

E. Cox.

MARY BROWN.

I desire my nephew, Michael Blount, to give Miss Betty Hooke 3 my silver tea-kettle and lamp for her great kindness to me; and Mr. Trustdale £5. 5s. besides his bills, for his kind attendance on me. Dec. 21, 1762. MARTHA BLOUNT.

(The Will was proved by the oath of Mr. Blount, the Executor, on the 18th of July, 1763-six days after the death of the Testator. Teresa Blount seems to have died intestate.)

IV.

PLAN OF POPE'S GARDEN AND GROTTO, By J. SERLE, HIS GARDENER.

IN 1745, was published a slight pamphlet, entitled “A Plan of Mr. Pope's Garden, as it was left at the time of his death, with a Plan and Perspective View of the Grotto. All taken by J. Serle, his Gardener. With an account of all the Gems, Minerals, Spars, and Ores of which it is composed, and from whom they were sent. To which is added a Character of his Writings. London: R. Dodsley. Price 1s. 6d."

2 Sir William Swinburne, the second baronet of Capheaton, Northumberland, married, in 1697, Mary, daughter of Anthony Englefield, Esq., of White Knights, Berks, the maternal grandfather of Martha Blount.

3 Probably the sister or daughter of Nathaniel Hooke the historian, with whom Pope and Martha Blount were very intimate.

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EXPLANATION OF PLAN.

1. The Grass Plat before the House next the Thames.

2. The House.

3. The Under-ground Passage.

4. The Road from Hampton Court to London.

5. The Shell Temple.

6. The Large Mount.
7. The Stoves.

8. The Vineyard.

9. The Obelisk in Memory of his Mother.

10. Two Small Mounts.

11. The Bowling Green. 12. The Grove.

13. The Orangery.

14. The Garden House.

15. Kitchen Garden.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE MATERIALS WHICH COMPOSE THE GROTTO. Over the Entrance from the Garden :

:

'Secretum iter et fallentis semita vitæ."-HOR.

1. At the entrance of the Grotto next the Garden, are various sorts of stones, thrown promiscuously together, in imitation of an Old Ruin; some full of holes, others like honeycombs, which came from RALPH ALLEN'S, Esq., at Widcombe, near Bath. Several fine fossil and snake stones, with petrified wood and moss in various shapes, from the petrifying spring at Nasborough [Knaresborough], in Yorkshire, by the Rev. Dr. Key. Fine verd antique from Egypt, with several sorts of Italian sparry marble of divers colours. Amethysts; several clumps of different forms, with some fine pieces of white spar, from her Grace the Duchess of CLEVELAND, at Raby castle, in Westmoreland. Some fine pieces of German spar, intermixed with yellow mundic, with moss and some English pebbles. In the centre is a fine spring.

2. Flints, moss of many sorts, many pieces of Plymouth marble of different colours, from Mr. COOPER of that place. Several pieces of well-chosen things from the Glass-house. Several fine flakes of gold clift from Mr. CAMBRIDGE, with several fine pieces of White Spar, from the Duchess of CLEVELAND.

Two sorts of yellow

3. Many small dice of mundic and tin ore. flaky copper; one showing, by the different strata of metal, that different masses of copper will, though concreted at different times, unite close into one globe or lump. Several groups of Cornish diamonds incrusted, semi-pellucid, and shot round a globe of yellow

[blocks in formation]

copper. Many thick incrustations of shot-spar of a yellowish cast, sprinkled with small cubes of mundic, lead ore, kallan, or wild iron. Many fine pieces of yellow mundic, several small Cornish diamonds, tinged with a blackish water, and others with a green water. Several large groups of Cornish diamonds, very transparent, from the Rev. Dr. WILLIAM BORLASE, of Ludgvan, in Cornwall. Many fine large pieces of red spar, out of Colonel Stapleton's lead mine, from GEORGE LYTTELTON, Esq. Fine petrifactions from Gilbert West, Esq., at West Wickham, in Kent. Fine incrustrations from Mr. ALLEN'S quarries and several pieces of sparry marble, of different colours, from Plymouth; with many large Cornish diamonds, and other petrifactions: which form two fine rocks, with water distilling from them.

4. Fine sparry marble, from Lord Edgecombe's quarry, with different sorts of moss. Several fine pieces of the eruption from Mount Vesuvius, and a fine piece of marble from the Grotto of Egeria, near Rome; from the Rev. Mr. SPENCE. With several fine petrifactions and Plymouth marble, from Mr. COOPER. Gold clift from Mr. CAMDRIDGE, Gloucestershire; and several fine brain-stones from Mr. MILLER, of Chelsea.

5. Many fine pieces of sparry marble, of divers colours, and between each course of marble many kinds of ores-such as tin ore, copper ore, lead ore, soapy rock, kallan, and wild lead intermixed; with large clumps of Cornish diamonds, and several small ores of different degrees of transparency. The several sorts of figured stones are rich white spars, interlaced with black cockle, or spars shot into prisms of different degrees of waters. Some very particular sorts of fossils, of different sizes and colours; copper ore of a fine purple colour; several fine pieces of granated white mundic, intermixed with plain spar in a copper bed. Several thin crusts or films of bright spar, formed on a surface before shot into protuberances; a lump of yellow copper that has a very singular crust of spar, some grains of mundic interspersed of different colours—some yellow, some purple, and others of a deep blue, inclining to black; all from the Rev. Dr. WILLIAM BORLASE. Several fine Bristol stones of different colours, some of a dark brown, others of a yellow cast, &c., from Mrs. BROXHOLME; and several fine incrustations from Mr. ALLEN.

6. Several large pieces of fine crystal, intermixed with yellow mundic. A fine piece of spar, interwoven like many oyster shells, and intermixed with white mundic. A fine piece of spar, with a mixture of copper interwoven like a fine lace. Several pieces

of crystal with a brown incrustation, and a mixture of mundic from the Hartz mines, in Germany. A fine piece of gold ore from the

Peruvian mines. Silver ore from the mines of Mexico. Several pieces of silver ore from Old Spain. Some large pieces of gold clift from Mr. CAMBRIDGE, in Gloucestershire. Lead ore, copper ore, white spar, petrified wood, Brazil pebbles, Egyptian pebbles, and blood stones, from Mr. BRINSDEN. Some large clumps of amethyst, and several pieces of white spar, from the Duchess of CLEVELAND. Some fine pieces of red spar, several fine icicles, and several sorts of fossils from GEORGE LYTTELTON, Esq. Many pieces of coral and petrified moss, and many other curious stones from the island of St. Christopher, in the West Indies; with several humming-birds and their nests, from ANTONY BROWN, Esq., of Abbs Court, in Surrey. Plymouth marble of different colours, one fine Cornish diamond from the PRINCE'S Mine, in Cornwall. Near a hundred-weight from the Rev. Dr. ASKEW. Several fine pieces of yellow mundic. Some purple copper stained by mineral water. Two stones from the Giant's Causeway, in Ireland, from Sir HANS SLOANE. Some pieces of petrified wood, with coral and petrified moss round a basin of water. 7. Different kinds of Italian marble. Many fine Kerry stones of different waters, with several fine fossils from Ireland, from the Earl of Orrery. Many flakes of white spar and mother-amethyst from the Duchess of CLEVELAND. The roof of small stones, incrusted over, out of the river Thames. Some square dice of mundic. Several pieces of silver ore from Old Spain; with several sorts of moss. 8. Different sorts of sparry marble from Italy. Several large stones interwoven like honeycombs; and others like old broken pillars. Many large pieces of Plymouth marble, German spar, and spar from Norway, by Mr. AFTERLONEY. The roof of purple spar, and some yellow spar; and several fine square dice of mundic from Mr. ORD's mine in Yorkshire. And round a piece of water are fixed different plants, such as maiden-hair, hart's tongue, fern, and several other plants; intermixed with many petrifactions, and some uncommon Cornish diamonds, from Lord GODOLPHIN's great copper works, in Ludgvan.

9. Some very natural rock work, compiled of flints and cinders from the glass-houses, furnaces, &c.; with some grains of mundic artfully mixed with white spar.

10. A fine and very uncommon petrifaction from Okey Hole, in Somersetshire, from Mr. BRUCE.

[Curll, in 1735, said,-"He (Pope) has been annually improving the gardens to the amount of £5000, as Mr. Serle, his gardener, assured us. He has lived with Mr. Pope above eleven years; and, in the hortulan dialect, told us that there were not ten sticks in the ground when his master took the house."]

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