LETTER VII. MR. GEORGE ARBUTHNOT TO MARTHA BLOUNT. I MADAM, AM forry I had not an opportunity of waiting on you before you went out of town which the hurry I was in at the clofe of the term prevented. Above and on the other fide you receive a state of Mr. Pope's affairs. As £2100 and upwards is to be raised on the fecurities on which the money now is it is proper you and Mrs. Racket fhould agree on what fhould be called in or fold and the remainder may be contrived for you to receive the intereft of for your life. I believe there is but £.700 due on Mr. Bethell's bond and as you are willing to take that in part of your £1000 there will remain but 14 or £.1500 to be raised and still less if you ftay till Wright and Bower's accounts are fettled which shall be done with all expedition tho' there is not above £.1500 now to be raised you and Mrs. Racket defire it all the fecurities may be called in and the produce vested in such other fecurities as you and Mrs. Racket fhall agree on but if you are both of opinion fome of them fhould be continued we need only call in what is fufficient to raise If *Of the Court of Exchequer, only fon of Dr. Arbuthrot, and one of Pope's Executors. According to the practice of Lawyers, he ufes very few points in this Letter. C. raise the money now wanted as the executors are to act merely for your own and Mrs. Racket and her fons interest it is proper I fhould have your directions. I hope you enjoy perfect health in the country where I wish you all manner of diversion and a pleasant feafon. I am Madam Your most obedient fervant Allen Lord Bathurst's bond dated 25 March 1738 for £.2000 of which paid off as appears by endorsement .1000 and £.500. Bond of William Pannett fen. and William Pannett the younger citizen and grocer of London-12 Feb. 1714 for £.200 with intereft at 4 per cent. Bond of Slingsby Bethell Efq. dated 27th March 1744 for £.1000. Bond of Ralph Allen Efq. dated 25 June 1743 for £.2000. Thefe bonds are now in Mr. Murray's hands. It appears by a letter of Mrs. Watts and a memcrandum of Mr. Pope's that he had 31 fhares in the Sun Fire Office purchased at £.1011. 75. Mr. Pope likewife mentions in a memorandum of the effects that Wright and Bower the printers would be indebted to him when their accounts were fettled L.200 or £.300 but their accounts are not yet fettled. There was .200 in Mr. Drummond's hands at Mr. Pope's death, but it has been all drawn out of his hands except £.44. 2s. 6d. to pay his debts and funeral expences. I have now in my hands .49. 16s. and a bill of exchange from Mr. Allen for £.50, which will be due in two or three days. I believe all Mr. Pope's debts are paid excepting £.100 and intereft to Mr. Warburton and Mr. and Mrs. Searle's wages which the money in my hands and Mr. Drummond's will probably discharge. The legacies to be paid are― 300 to Mrs. Racket. 200 to her fons Henry and Robert. 100 to John Searle and a year's wages to him and Mrs. Searle. 20 to the poor of Twickenham. L.1620 and the year's wages to Searle and his wife. 150 to Mr. Allen or the Bath Hospital. £.1770 f 300 and intereft to be paid for the house Mrs. Blount now lives in. So that there must be above £.2100 raised out of thefe four bonds and the Sun Fire-Office Shares. * LETTER VIII. MR. POPE TO HER GRACE THE DUCHESS OF HAMILTON. MADAM, MRS. London, October→→ Between day and night. RS. Whitworth (who as her Epitaph on Twitnam Highway affures us, had attained to as much perfection and purity as any fince the Apoftles) is now depofited according to her own order between a fig-tree and a vine, there to be found at the last Refurrection. I am just come from seeing your Grace in much the like fituation, between a honey-suckle and a rosebush; where you are to continue as long as canvas can laft: I suppose the painter by those emblems intended to intimate, on the one hand, your Grace's fweet difpofition to your friends; and, on the other, to fhew you are near enough related to the thiftle of Scotland to deferve the fame motto with regard to your enemies. Nemo me impunè laceffit. Lord William will confter this Latine if you fend it to Thifleworth. The two foregoing periods, methinks, are so mystical, learned, and perplext, that if you have any statef men or divines about you, they can't chufe but be pleased with them. One divine you cannot be with out *The preceding Letters are now firft publifhed: this and the following are reprinted from the "Additions to Pope's Works," with the Notes, by the Editor of that collection. out, as a good chriftian; and a statesman you have lately had, for I hear my Lord Selkirk has been with you. But (that I may not be unintelligible quite to the bottom of this page) I must tell your Grace in English, that I have made a painter beftow the aforefaid ornaments round about you (for upon you there needs none), and I am, upon the whole, pleased with my picture beyond expreffion. I may now fay of your picture, it is the thing in the world the likeft you, except yourself; as a cautious perfon once faid of an elephant, it was the biggest in the world, except itself. You fee, Madam, it is not impoffible for you to be compared to an elephant: and you must give me leave to fhow you one may carry on the fimile. An elephant never bends his knees; and I am told your Grace fays no prayers. An elephant has a most remarkable command of his fnout, and fo has your Grace when you imitate my Lady Oy. An elephant is a great lover of men, and fo is your Grace for all I know, tho' from your partiality to myfelf, I fhould rather think you lov'd little children. I beg you not to be difcouraged in this point. Remember the text which I'll preach upon, the first day I am a parfon. Suffer little children to come to meAnd-Defpife not one of thefe little ones. No, Madam-despise great bears, fuch as Gay; who now goes by the dreadful name of, The Beast of Blois, where Mr. Pulteney and he are fettled, and where he fhows tricks gratis, to all the beafts of his own coun try |