ROBERT DIGBY was fecond fon of William fifth Lord Digby, by Jane, fecond daughter of the Earl of Gainsborough. He was born at Sherborne, and was educated at Magdalen College, where his elder brother, his father, grandfather, and other ancestors, had been admitted members.

His brother John died unmarried in 1717, and was buried in Sherborne church. As it appears from the Lords' Journals, that he must have been of a far different character and temper from his brother; the hopes of the family, and of his friends, rested upon the amiable young man who is the fubject of the following Letters.

He took the degree of Mafter of Arts, October 17, 1711; and, in 1722, was returned to Parliament for the county of Warwick; but owing to a weak conftitution, which, it appears from the date of this Letter, must have been for many years gradually undermining his health, he, after nearly ten years of intermingled hope and anxiety, funk at laft, and was buried at Sherborne. Epitaph, written by Pope, for him, and his fifter Mary, eldest daughter of Lord Digby, who died foon afterwards, is infcribed on a black marble tablet.

The

LETTERS

TO AND FROM

THE HON. ROBERT DIGBY,

From 1717 to 1727.

LETTER I.

TO THE HON. ROBERT DIGBY.

June 2, 1717.

I HAD pleased myself sooner in writing to you, but that I have been your fucceffor in a fit of sickness, and am not yet fo much recovered, but that I have thoughts of ufing your phyficians. They are as grave perfons as any of the faculty, and (like the ancients) carry their own medicaments about with them. But indeed the moderns are fuch lovers of raillery, that nothing is grave enough to escape them. Let them laugh, but people will still have their opinions : as they think our Doctors affes to them, we'll think them affes to our Doctors.

I am glad you are fo much in a better ftate of health, as to allow me to jeft about it. My concern, when I heard of your danger, was fo very serious, that I almost take it ill Dr. Evans* fhould tell you of it, or you mention it. I tell you fairly, if you and a few more fuch people were to leave the world, I would not give fixpence to stay in it.

I am not fo much concerned as to the point whether you are to live fat or lean: moft men of wit or honesty are usually decreed to live very lean: so I am inclined to the opinion that it is decreed you fhall; however be comforted, and reflect, that you will make the better bufto for it.

'Tis fomething particular in you, not to be fatisfied with fending me your own books, but to make your acquaintance continue the frolic. Mr. War

ton

* Dr. Evans, the well-known Epigrammatift, was of St. John's College, Oxford. I think it probable that Pope's acquaintance with this Gentleman, and alfo Mr. Digby, commenced on his journey to Oxford, from Lord Harcourt's, to confult the Libraries for Notes to his Homer. It appears from the Letters in the British Museum, that Evans was much in the confidence of Pope; as indeed so were all who looked up to him. The Epigram made on Evans, on cutting down the trees before his College, when he was Burfar, is well known; the two laft lines of which are,

"The rogue, the gallows, as his fate, forefees,

And bears the like antipathy to trees.”

This was made by Dr. Tadlow, a perfon remarkable for corpulency; upon which Evans wrote what has been fo often quoted,

"When Tadlow treads the freets, the paviors cry,

• God bless you, Sir !' and lay their rammers by." Such were the nuga fcholaftice in those days at Oxford.

ton* forced me to take Gorboduc, which has fince done me great credit with feveral people, as it has done Dryden and Oldham some diskindness in shewing there is as much difference between their Gorboduc and this, as between Queen Anne and King George. It is truly a scandal, that men should write with contempt of a piece which they never once faw, as thofe two Poets did, who were ignorant even of the sex, as well as sense, of Gorboduct.

who was an

Adieu !

* The perfon here mentioned was my father, a Fellow of Mag. dalen College in Oxford, and afterwards Profeffor of Poetry; intimate friend of Mr. Digby, of whofe piety and goodness of heart he used to relate many inftances. Gorboduc was the first drama in our language that was like a regular tragedy. It was first exhibited in the Hall of the Temple, and afterwards before Q. Elizabeth, 1561. It was written by Th. Sackville, Lord Buckhurft; the original contriver of the Mirror of Magiftrates. He was affifted in it by Thomas, a tranflator of some of the Pfalms. Mr. Spence, who fucceeded my father as Profes for of Poetry at Oxford, printed an edition of Gorboduc, from this very Copy of Pope, 1736, with a dedication to his friend Lord Middlefex; a man of tafte, and defcendant of Lord Buckhurit. From this Letter of Pope it appears how little at that time was known of our ancient poets. For a full account of Gorbu duc, fee the Hiftory of English poetry, vol. iii. p. 536, by Mr.

Thomas Warton.

WARTON.

I have been informed by Lord Macartney, that he had feen a Letter from this Lord Treasurer Buckhurst to Queen Elizabeth, reprefenting the great inconvenience and diftance of his houfe at Buckhurst, forty miles from London, through ftrange, uncouth ways, and requefting a grant of Knowle, as being nearer town, and confequently more convenient to him for the duty of his office. So little communication was there, from place to place, at that

time.

WARTON.

Adieu! I am going to forget you: this minute you took up all all my mind; the next I fhall think of nothing but the reconciliation with Agamemnon, and, the recovery of Brifeis. I fhall be Achilles's humble fervant these two months (with the good leave of all my friends). I have no ambition so strong at present, as that noble one of Sir Salathiel Lovel, recorder of London, to furnish out a decent and plentiful execution of Greeks and Trojans. It is not to be expreffed how heartily I wish the death of all Homer's heroes, one after another. The Lord preferve me in the day of battle, which is just approaching! Join in your prayers for me, and know me to be always Your, etc.

This allufion, whether in jeft or earneft, is obfcure. Sir Salathiel Lovel was made Recorder in 1692, and held that office until 1708, when he was promoted to be a Baron of the Exchequer. During his time, the laws again the Pupilts were frequently enforced.

C.