To HENRY CROMWELL, Efq;

June 27, 1727.

FTER fo long a filence as the many and great oppreffions I have fighed under have occafioned, one is at a lofs how to begin a letter to fo kind a friend as yourself. But as it was always my refolution, if I muft fink, to do it as decently (that is, as filently) as I could; fo when I found myfelf plunged into unforeseen, and unavoidable ruin, I retreated from the world, and in a manner buried myself in a difmal 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 converse with, but the letters of my dead or abfent friends; among which latter I always placed yours, and Mr. Pope's in the first rank. I lent fome of them indeed to an ingenious perfon, who was fo delighted with the fpecimen, that he importuned me for a fight of the reft, which having obtained, he conveyed them to the prefs, I must not fay, altogether with my confent, nor wholly without it. I thought them too good to be loft in oblivion, and had no caufe 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

juftice 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 difhonour to his character. And yet had either of you been afked, 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 addressed, has the fame right to dispose of it, as he has of goods purchased with his money. I doubt not but your generofity and honour will do me the right, of owning by a line that I came honeftly by them. I flatter myself, in a few months I fhall again be vifible to the world; and whenever thro' good providence that turn fhall happen, I fhall joyfully acquaint you with it, there being none more truly your obliged fervant, than. Sir,

Your faithful, and

moft humble Servant,

E. THOMAS.

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

Yours, &c.

E. CURLL.

To Mr. PoP E.

Epfom, July 6, 1727.

HEN these 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 been 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 den ed: not in the leaft, at that time, thinking of it; but fome 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 seen thefe Letters of Curll's, nor would go to his shop about them; I have not feen this Sappho alias E. T. these seven years.-Her writing, That I gave her 'em, to do what he would with 'em, is ftraining the point too far. I thought not of it, nor do I think fhe did then; but fevere neceffity which catches hold of a twig, has produced all this; which has lain hid, and forgot, by me fo many years. Curll fent me a letter laft week, defiring a positive answer about this matter, but finding I would give him none, he went to E. T. and writ a poftfcript in her long romantick letter, to direct my answer to his houfe; but they not expecting an anfwer, fent a young man to me, whofe name, it

feems, is Pattifon. I told him I should not write any thing, but I believed it might be as the 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 difturbance; for the last thing I should do would be to difoblige you, for whom I have ever preserved the greatest esteem, and shall ever be, Sir,

Your faithful Friend, and

most humble Servant,

HENRY CROMWELL.

TH

To Mr. POPE.

Aug. 1, 1727.

HO' I writ my long narrative from Epfom 'till I was tired, yet was I not fatisfied; left any doubt fhould reft upon your mind. I could not make proteftations of my innocence of a grievous crime; but I was impatient till I came to town, that I might fend 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 thefe two years, a new incident from me might enable him to play it on for two more. The great value fhe expreffes for all you 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 least, from her poffeffion to the time of printing them, 'tis manifeft, that I had not the least ground to apprehend fuch a defign: but as people in great ftraits, bring forth their hoards of old gold and most valued jewels; fo Sappho had recourse to her hid treasure of Letters, and play'd off not only your's to me, but all those to herself (as the lady's last stake) into the prefs-As for me, I hope, when you fhall coolly confider the many thousand inftances of our being deluded by the females, fince that great Original of Adam by Eve, you will have a more favourable thought of the undefigning 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. bimfelf any great cause to think it much offence to his modefty, or reflection on bis 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 juftness of criticism, in pieces which must have been writ in hafte, very few perhaps ever reviewed, and none intended for the eye of the public.