GREAT part of the Letters to and from Blount and Atterbury would be unintelligible to thofe who were ignorant of many particular circumstances in the times when they were written :-Thefe I have for the moft part briefly explained, that the Reader may, with more facility, enter into the character of the Writers.

LETTERS

TO AND FROM

EDWARD BLOUNT, ESQ.

From 1714 to 1725.

LETTER I.

MR. POPE TO EDWARD BLOUNT*, ESQ.

WH

Auguft 27, 1714THATEVER ftudies on the one hand, or amufements on the other, it shall be my fortune to fall into, I fhall be equally incapable of forgetting you

in

Edward Blount, of a Catholic family, chiefly refident at Maple-Durham, near Reading in Berkshire, appears to have been early in intimacy with Pope. The Verfes to a Lady leaving the Town after the Coronation, were addreffed to his elder fifter, as hath been before observed. This circumftance is explained, from the Correfpondence added to this edition.

Edward, the brother, was not only a Catholic, but very much in the intereft of the Pretender; and Ayres feems to think that he was concerned in the plot with the leaders of the Rebellion in 1715: foon after which he certainly felt it neceffary to leave England, and refided for fome time abroad. Of Pope, therefore, and his friend, it might be faid they were, I fear, in this refpect, con

cordes anima!

When to this be added an attachment, first to one, and then to the other fifter, which lafted with his life, we cannot wonder at Pope's warm and particular friendship. Bating his high Tory principles,

B 3

in any of them. The task I undertook, though of weight enough in itself, has had a voluntary increase by the enlarging my defign of the Notes; and the neceffity of confulting a number of books has carried me to Oxford: But I fear, through my Lord Harcourt's and Dr. Clarke's means, I fhall be more converfant with the pleasures and company of the place, than with the books and manuscripts of it.

*

I find ftill more reafon to complain of the negligence of the Geographers in their Maps of old Greece,

principles, Blount feems to have been a moft amiable, goodnatured, worthy man. His external appearance, and open, carelefs manner, are well defcribed by Gay, in his "Welcome from

Greece:"

"Ned Blount advances next, with bufy pace,

In hafte, but fauntering careless in his ways." Maple-Durham is ftill the refidence of the family, where Zephylinda was defcribed, in 1715, as

Going to plain work, and to purling brooks,

Old-fashion'd halls, dull aunts, and croaking rooks!"

Other circumftances relating to Blount will be feen in the Notes, as they occur.

a The Tranflation of Homer's Iliad.

POPE.

*The learned and entertaining Mr. Wood, in his discourse on the original genius of Homer, cenfures the inaccuracies of this Map which Pope himfelf drew, to be prefixed to his Homer. Among other things, he fays, "that fo capital an error, for inftance, as that of difcharging the Scamander into the Egean Sea, inftead of the Hellefpont, is a ftriking fpecimen of the careless and fuperficial manner in which this matter has been treated." And he adds, "the tranflator is as inconfiftent, fometimes, with his own incorrect Map, as both he and his Map are with the real fituation of the ground." These remarks are more valuable, because they were made by an accurate obferver, on the fpot, with Homer in his hand. WARTON.