with Chefnut Groves, and others with thickets of Myrtle and Lentifcus. The Fields on the Northern fide are divided by hedge-rows of Myrtle. Several Fountains and Rivulets add to the Beauty of this Landscape, which is likewife fet off by the Variety of fome barren Spots, and naked Rocks. But that which crowns the Scene, is a large Mountain, rifing out of the middle of the Island (once a terrible Volcano, by the Ancients called Mons Epomeus) it's lower parts are adorned with Vines and other Fruits, the middle affords Pasture to flocks of Goats and Sheep, and the top is a fandy pointed Rock, from which you have the finest Profpect in the World, furveying at one view, befides several pleasant Islands lying at your Feet, a Tract of Italy about three hundred Miles in length, from the Promontory of Antium, to the Cape of Palinurus. The greater part of which hath been fung by Homer and Virgil, as making a confiderable part of the Travels and Adventures of their two Heroes. The Islands Caprea, Prochyta, and Parthenope, together with Cajeta, Cuma, Monte, Mifeno, the Habitations of Circe, the Syrens, and the Leftrigones, the Bay of Naples, the Promontory of Minerva, and the whole Campagnia felice, make but a part of this noble Landscape; which would demand an Imagination as warm, and Numbers as flowing as your own, to defcribe it. The Inhabitants of this delicious Ifle, as they are without Riches and Honours, so are they without the Vices and Follies that attend them; and were they but as much Strangers to Revenge, as they are to Avarice or Ambition, they might in fact answer the poetical Notions of the Golden Age. But they have got, as an alloy to their Happiness, an ill habit of murdering one another on flight Offences. We had an Inftance of this the fecond Night after our Arrival; a Youth of eighteen, being fhot

dead

dead by our Door: And yet by the fole Secret of minding our own Bufinefs, we found a Means of living fecurely among thefe dangerous People. Would you know how we pafs the Time at Naples? Our chief Entertainment is the Devotion of our Neighbours. Befides the gayety of their Churches (where Folks go to fee what they call una Bella Devotione (i. e.) a fort of Religious Opera) they make Fireworks almost every Week out of Devotion; the Streets are often hung with Arras out of Devotion; and (what is ftill more frange) the Ladies invite Gentlemen to their Houfes, and treat them with Mufic and Sweetmeats, out of Devotion; in a word, were it not for this Devotion of it's Inhabitunts, Naples would have little else to recommend it, befide the Air and Situation. Learning is in no very thriving State here, as indeed no where else in Italy. However, among many pretenders, fome Men of Tafte are to be met with. A Friend of mine told me not long fince, that being to vifit Salvini at Florence, he found him reading your Homer. He liked the Notes extreamly, and could find no other fault with the Verfion, but that he thought it approached too near a Paraphrase; which fhews him not to be fufficiently acquainted with our Language. I wish you Health to go on with that noble Work, and when you have that, I need not with you Succefs. You will do me the Juftice to believe, that whatever relates to your Welfare, is fincerely wifhed, by

Yours, &c.

Mr

ΤΗ

Mr POPE to

DEC. 12, 1718.

HE old project of a Window in the Bofom, to to render the Soul of Man vifible, is what every honeft Friend has manifold Reafon to wish for; yet even that would not do in our cafe, while you are fo far separated from me, and fo long. I begin to fear you'll die in Ireland, and that the Denunciation will be fulfilled upon you, Hibernus es, & in Hiberniam reverteris- I fhou'd be apt to think you in Sancho's cafe; fome Duke has made you Governor of an Ifland, or wet place, and you are adminiftring Laws to the wild Irish. But I must own, when you talk of Building and Planting, you touch my String; and I am as apt to pardon you, as the Fellow that thought himself Jupiter would have pardon'd the other Madman who call'd himself his Brother Neptune. Alas, Sir, do you know whom you talk to? One that had been a Poet, was degraded to a Tranflator, and at last thro' meer dulnefs is turn'd an Architect. You know Martial's Cenfure-Præconem facito, vel Architectum. However, I have one way left, to plan, to elevate, and to furprize (as Bays fays). The next you may expect to hear, is that I am in Debt.

The History of my Tranfplantation and Settlement which you defire, would require a Volume, were I to enumerate the many Projects, Difficulties, Viciffitudes, and various Fates attending that important part of my Life: Much more fhould I defcribe the many Draughts, Elevations, Profiles, Perfpectives, &c. of every Palace and Garden propos'd, intended, and happily raised, by the strength of that Faculty wherein all great Genius's excel, Imagination.

At

At laft, the Gods and Fate have fix'd me on the Borders of the Thames, in the Districts of Richmond and Twickenham. It is here I have paffed an entire Year of my Life, without any fix'd abode in London, or more than cafting a tranfitory Glance (for a day or two at moft in a Month) on the Pomps of the Town. It is here I hope to receive you, Sir, return'd in Triumph from eternizing the Ireland of this Age. For you my Structures rife; for you my Colonades extend their Wings; for you my Groves afpire, and Rofes bloom. And, to fay truth, I hope Pofterity (which no doubt will be made acquainted with all these things) will look upon it as one of the principal Motives of my Architecture, that it was a Manfion prepar'd to receive you, against your own fhould fall to duft, which is deftin'd to be the Tomb of poor and and the immortal Monument of the Fidelity of two fuch Servants, who have excell'd in Conftancy the very Rats of your Family.

What more can I tell you of my felf? fo much, and yet all put together to little, that I fcarce care, or know, how to do it. But the very Reasons that are against putting it upon Paper, are as ftrong for telling it you in Perfon; and I am uneafy to be fo long deny'd the Satisfaction of it.

At prefent I confider you bound in by the Irish Sea, like the Ghofts in Virgil,

Trifti palus inamabilis unda

Alligat, & novies Styx circumfufa coercet!

and I can't exprefs how I long to renew our old Intercourfe and Converfation, our morning Conferences in bed in the fame Room, our evening Walks in the Park, our amufing Voyages on the Water, our philofophical Suppers, our Lectures, our Differtations, our Gravities, our Reveries, our Fooleries,

our what not?

This awakens the memory of

fome of those who have made a part in all these. Poor Parnelle, Garth, Rowe! You juftly reprove me for not speaking of the Death of the laft: Parnelle. was too much in my mind, to whose Memory I am erecting the best Monument I can. What he gave me to publish, was but a small part of what he left behind him, but it was the beft, and I will not make it worse by enlarging it. I'd fain know if he be buried at Chefter, or Dublin; and what care has been, or is to be, taken for his Monument, &c. Yet I have not neglected my Devoirs to Mr Rowe; I am writing this very day his Epitaph for WestminsterAbbey After thefe, the best natur'd of Men, Sir Samuel Garth, has left me in the trueft Concern for his Lofs. His Death was very Heroical, and yet unaffected enough to have made a Saint, or a Phílofopher famous: But ill Tongues, and worfe Hearts have branded even his laft Moments, as wrongfully as they did his Life, with Irreligion. You must have heard many Tales on this Subject; but if ever there was a good Chriftian, without knowing himself to be fo, it was Dr Garth.

I am, &c.

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