To HENRY CROMWELL, Efq;

A

June 27. 1727.

FTER fo long a filence as the many and great oppreffions I have fighed under have occafioned, one is at a loss how to begin a letter to so kind a friend as yourself. But as it was always my refolution, if I must sink, to do it as decently (that is, as filently) as I could; fo when I found myself plunged into unforefeen, and unavoidable ruin, I retreated from the world, and in a manner buried myself in a difinal place, where I knew none and none knew me. In this dull unthinking way I have protracted a lingering death (for life it cannot be called) ever fince you faw me, fequestered from company, deprived of my books, and nothing left to converfe with, but the letters of my dead or abfent friends; among which latter I always placed your's, and Mr Pope's in the firft rank. I lent fome of them indeed to an ingenious perfon, who was fo delighted with the specimen, that he importuned me for a fight of the rest, which having obtained, he conveyed them to the prefs, 1 muft not fay, altogether with my confent, nor wholly without it. I thought them too good to be loft in oblivion, and had no cause to apprehend the disobliging of any. The public, viz. all perfons of taste and judgment, would be pleafed with fo agreeable an amufement; Mr Cromwell could not be angry, fince it was but justice to his merit, to publish the folemn and private profeffions of love, gratitude and veneration, made him by fo celebrated an author;, and fincerely Mr Pope ought not to refent the publication, fince the early pregnancy of his genius was no disho

nour to his character. And yet had either of you been asked, common modesty would have obliged you to refuse, what you would not be displeased with, if done without your knowledge. And befides, to end all difpute, you had been pleased to make me a free gift of them, to do what I pleased with them; and every one knows, that the perfon to whom a letter is addreffed, has the fame right to difpofe of it, as he has of goods purchased with his money. I doubt not but your generosity and honour will do me the right, of owning by a line that I came honestly by them. I flatter myself, in a few months, I fhall again be visible to the world; and whenever thro' good providence that turn fhall happen, I fhall joyfully ac quaint you with it, there being none more truly your obliged fervant, than Sir,

Your faithful, and

most humble Servant,

E. THOMAS,

P. S. A Letter, Sir, directed to Mrs Thomas, to be left at my houfe, will be fafely tranfmitted to her, by

WH

To Mr POPE.

Your, &c. E. CURLL.

Epfom, July 6. 1727.

7HEN thefe letters were first printed, I wondered how Curll could come by them, and could not but laugh at the pompous title; fince whatever you wrote to me was humour, and familiar raillery.

As foon as I came from Epfom, I heard you had beerr to fee me, and I writ you a fhort letter from Will's,' that I longed to see you. Mr D's, about that time charged me with giving them to a mistress, which I pofitively denied: not in the leaft at that time thinking of it; but some time after, finding in the News papers, Letters from Lady Packington, Lady Chudleigh, and Mr Norris, to the fame Sappho or E..T. I began to fear I was guilty. I have never feen thefe Letters of Curll's, nor would go to his shop about them; I have not seen this Sappho alias E. T. these seven years.

Her writing, That I gave her em, to do what he would · with 'em, is straining the point too far. I thought not of it, nor do I think she did then; but severe neceflity which catches hold of a twig, has produced all this; which has lain hid, and forgot, by me so many years. Curll fent me a letter laft week, defiring a pofitive anfwer about this matter; but finding I would give him none, he went to E. T. and writ a poftfcript in her long romantic letter, to direct my answer to his houfe; but they not expecting an answer, fent a young man to me, whofe name, it seems, is Pattifon. I told him I should not write any thing, but I believed it might be fo as fhe writ in her letter. I am extremely concerned that my former indiscretion in putting them into the hands of this Pretieufe, fhould have given you fo much disturbance; for the last thing I should do, would be to difoblige you, for whom I have ever preferved the greateft efteem, and shall ever be, Sir,

Your faithful Friend, and

moft humble Servant,

HENRY CROMWELL.

To Mr Por E.

Aug. 1. 1727.

THO

HO'I writ my long narrative from Epsom till I was tired, yet was I not doubt fhould reft upon your mind.

fatisfied; left any

you

I could not make proteftations of my innocence of a grievous crime; but I was impatient till I came to town, that I might send you thofe Letters as a clear evidence that I was a perfect stranger to all their proceeding. Should I have protested against it, after the printing, it might have been taken for an attempt to decry his purchase; and as the little exception you have taken has ferved him to play his game upon us for these two years, a new incident from me might enable him to play it on for two more. The great value the expreffes for all write, and her paffion for having them, I believe was what prevailed upon me to let her keep them. By the interval of twelve years at leaft, from her poffeffion to the time of printing them, 'tis manifest, that I had not the leaft ground to apprehend such a design: but as people in great straits, bring forth their hoards of old gold and most valued jewels; fo Sappho had recourse to her hid treasure of Letters, and played off not only. your's to me, but all those to herself (as the lady's last stake) into the press.-As for me, I hope, when you *fhall coolly confider the many thousand inftances of our being deluded by the females, fince that great Ori

ginal of Adam by Eve, you will have a more favour

able thought of the undesigning error of

Your faithful Friend,

and humble Servant,

HENRY CROMWELL.

Now, fhould our apology for this publication be as ill received, as the lady's feems to have been by the gentlemen concerned, we shall at least have Her Comfort of being thanked by the rest of the world. Nor has Mr P. himself any great cause to think it much offence to his modefty, or reflection on his judgment; when we take care to inform the public, that there are few Letters of his in this collection, which were not written under twenty years of age: on the other hand, we doubt not the reader will be much more furprized to find at that early period, fo much variety of ftyle, affecting fentiment, and juftnefs of criticifm, in pieces which must have been writ in hafie, very few perhaps ever reviewed, and none intended for the eye of the public.