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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 yourfelf. 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 myself plunged into unforeseen, and unavoidable ruin, I retreated from the world, and in a manner buried myself in a dismal place, where I knew none, and none knew me. In this dull unthinking way, I have protracted a lingring death (for life it cannot be called) ever fince you faw me, fequeftred 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 firft rank. I lent fome of them indeed to an ingenious perfon, whe 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 muft 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 difobliging of any. The public, viz. all perfons of tafte and judgment, would be pleased with fo agreeable an amufement; Mr. Cromwell could not be angry, fince it was but justice 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 modefty would

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would have obliged you to refuse, what you would not be difpleased 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 person to whom a letter is addressed, has the fame right to difpofe of it, as he has of goods purchafed with his money. I doubt not but your ge nerosity and honour will do me the right, of owning by a line that I came honestly by them. I flatter myself, in a few months I fhall again be visible 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 fafely transmitted to

her, by

Yours, &c.

E. CURLL,

PE.

To Mr. P O P E.

Epfom, July 6, 1727.

HEN thefe letters were firft printed, I

WHEN 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 fee you. Mr.

Ds, about that time charged me with giving them to a mistress, which I pofitively denied: not in the least, at that time, thinking of it; but some 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 that I was guilty. I have never feen these Letters of Curll's, nor would go to his fhop about them; I have not seen this Sappho alias E. T. thefe seven years. Her writing, That I gave her 'em, to do what I 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 last week, defiring a positive answer about this matter, but finding I would give him none, he went to E. T. and writ a postscript in her long romantick letter, to direct my answer to his houfe; but they not expecting an answer, fent a young man to me, whofe name, it seems, is Pattifon. I told him I should not write any thing, but I believed it might be so as the writ in her letter. I am extremely concerned that my former indifcretion in putting them into the hands of this Pretieufe, fhould have given you fo much disturbance; for the laft thing I fhould do would be to difoblige you, for whom I have ever preferved the greatest efteem, and fhall ever be, Sir,

Your faithful Friend, and
moft humble Servant,

HENRY CROMWELL

To

To Mr. POPE.

August 1, 1727.

HO' I writ my long narrative from Epfom till

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I was tired, yet was I not fatisfied; left any doubt should 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 ftranger to all their proceeding. Should I have protefted 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 served 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 leaft, from her poffeffion to the time of printing them, 'tis manifeft, that I had not the leaft ground to apprehend such a design: 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 played off not only your's to me, but all thofe to herself (as the lady's last stake) into the prefs.-As for me, I hope, when you fhall cooly confider the many thousand inftances of our being deluded by the females, fince that great Original of Adam by Éve, you will have a more favourable thought of the undefigning error of

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. himself any great cause to think it much offence to his modesty, or reflection on his 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 style, 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.

A CA.