with you in Lord Bathurst's wood, and I fear of feeing you till winter, unlefs Lady Scudamore comes to Sherburne, in which cafe I fhall prefs you to fee Dorsetshire, as you propofed. May you have a long en joyment of your new favourite Portico!

Your, etc.

LETTER VI.

FROM MR. DIGBY.

Sherburne, July 9. 1720.

THE

HE London language and conversation is, I find, quite changed fince I left it, though it is not above three or four months ago. No violent change in the natural world ever aftonished a Philofopher fo much as this does me. I hope this will calm all Party rage, and introduce more humanity than has of late obtained in converfation. All fcandal will fure be laid afide, for there can be no fuch difeafe any more as fpleen in this new Golden age. I am pleased with the thoughts of feeing nothing but a general good humour when I come up to town; I rejoice in the universal riches* I hear of, in the thought of their having this effect. They tell me, you was foon content;

and

Alluding to the promifed millions from the South-Sea

fcheme.

and that you cared not for fuch an increase as others wished you. By this account I judge you the richest man in the South-Sea, and congratulate you accordingly. I can wifh you only an increase of health, for of riches and fame you have enough.

Your, etc.

LETTER VII.

July 20, 1720.

YOUR OUR kind defire to know the flate of my health had not been unfatisfied fo long, had not that ill ftate been the impediment. Nor fhould I have feemed an unconcerned party in the joys of your family, which I heard of from Lady Scudamore, whofe fhort Efchantillon of a letter (of a quarter of a page) I value as the fhort glimpse of a vifion afforded to fome devout hermit; for it includes as thofe revelations do) a promise of a better life in the Elyfian groves of Cirencester, whither, I could fay almoft in the style of a fermon, the Lord bring us all*, etc. Thither may

we tend, by various ways, to one blissful bower: thither may health, peace, and good humour wait upon us as affociates; thither may whole cargoes nectar, (liquor of life and longevity!) by mortals

of

called

I have heard it obferved, that Pope was a complete negative example of letter-writing.

called Spa-water, be conveyed; and there (as Milton has it) may we, like the deities,

green

On flow'rs repos'd, and with fresh garlands crown'd,
Quaff immortality and joy.

When I fpeak of garlands, I fhould not forget the vestments and scarfs, which your fifters promised to make for this purpose: I expect you too in green, with a hunting-horn by your fide and a green. hat, the model of which you may take from Ofborne's description of King James the First.

What words, what numbers, what oratory, or what poetry, can fuffice to exprefs how infinitely I esteem, value, love, and defire you all, above all the great ones of this part of the world; above all the Jews, jobbers, bubblers, fubfcribers, projectors, directors, governors, treasurers, etc. etc, etc. in fæcula fæculo

rum.

Turn your eyes and attention from this miferable mercenary period; and turn yourself, in a juft contempt of these fons of Mammon, to the contemplation of books, gardens, and marriage; in which I now leave you, and return (wretch that I am) to water-gruel and Palladio.

I am, etc

LETTER VIII.

FROM MR. DIGBY.

Sherburne, July 30.

I

CONGRATULATE you, dear Sir, on the return of the Golden age; for fure this must be such, in which money is fhowered down in fuch abundance upon us. I hope this overflowing will produce great and good fruits, and bring back the figurative moral Golden age to us. I have some omens to induce me to believe it may; for when the mufes delight to be near a court, when I find you frequently with a Firstminister, I can't but expect from fuch an intimacy an encouragement and revival of the polite arts. I know, you defire to bring them into honour, above the golden Image which is fet up and worshipped; and, if you cannot effect it, adieu to all fuch hopes. You seem to intimate in yours another face of things from this inundation of wealth, as if beauty, wit, and valour would no more engage our paffions in the pleafurable pursuit of them, though affifted by this increase: If so, and if monsters only as various as those of Nile arife from this abundance, who that has any fpleen about him will not hafte to town to laugh? What will become of the play-houfe? who will go

thither

* Written during the delufion of the famous South-Sea fcheme. WARTON.

thither while there is fuch entertainment in the streets? I hope we shall neither want good Satire nor Comedy; if we do, the age may well be thought barren of geniufes, for none has ever produced better fubjects.

.Your, etc.

LETTER IX.

FROM MR. DIGBY.

Coleshill, Nov. 12, 1720.

*

I FIND in my heart that I have a taint of the corrupt age we live in. I want the public Spirit fo much admired in old Rome, of facrificing every thing that is dear to us to the commonwealth. I even feel a more intimate concern for my friends who have fuffered in the S. Sea, than for the public, which is faid to be undone by it. But, I hope, the reason is, that I do not fee fo evidently the ruin of the public to be a confequence of it, as I do the lofs of my friends. I fear there are few befides yourself that will be perfuaded by old Hefiod, that half is more than the whole. I know not whether I do not rejoice in your

Honeft Edward Blount looked up to Pope, and copied him in his faults; hence he wrote Letters as ill, or worse, than Pope. So does Digby, for the fame reason.