these three, is hard. I have heard of Prior's death, and of his epitaph;* and have seen a strange book, writ by a grave and eloquent doctor, † about the Duke of Buckinghamshire. People, who talk much in that moment, can have, as I believe, but one of these two principles, fear, or vanity. It is therefore much better to hold one's tongue. I am sorry, that the first of these persons, our old acquaintance Matt. lived so poor as you represent him. I thought that a certain lord, whose marriage with a certain heiress was the ultimate end of a certain adminis tration, had put him above want. Prior might justly enough have addressed himself to his young * In the following triplet, written by himself: Bp. Atterbury, in a letter to Mr Pope, dated Sept. 27, 1721, says, "I had not strength enough to attend Mr Prior to his grave; else I would have done it, to have showed his friends, that I had forgot and forgiven what he wrote on me. He was buried as he desired, at the feet of Spenser. I will take care to make good, in every respect, what I said to him when living, particularly as to the triplet he wrote for his own epitaph; which, while we were on good terms, I promised him should never appear on his tomb while I was Dean of Westminster." Atterbury's Epistolary Correspondence, 1799, Vol. II. p. 117. The quarrel between those eminent men arose from Prior's siding with Oxford against Atterbury and Bolingbroke in the last year of Queen Anne. Prior speaks with asperity of Rochester in a preceding letter to Swift. + Richard Fiddes, D. D. published in 1721, in octavo, "A Letter in Answer to one from a Freethinker; occasioned by the late Duke of Buckinghamshire's Epitaph; wherein certain Pas. sages in it that have been thought exceptionable, are vindicated; and the doctrine of the soul's immortality asserted, &c." This was followed by a Second Letter, published the same year.-B. Edward Lord Harley, who married in October, 1713, the Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holles, only daughter and heir of John Duke of Newcastle.-B. 66 patron, as our friend Aristippus did to Dionysius; you have money, which I want; I have wit and knowledge which you want." I long to see your "Travels;"* for, take it as you will, I do not retract what I said. I will undertake to find, in two pages of your bagatelles, more good sense, useful knowledge, and true religion, than you can show me in the works of nineteen in twenty of the profound divines and philosophers of the age. I am obliged to return to Paris in a month or six weeks time, and from thence will send you my picture. Would to Heaven I could send you as like a picture of my mind: you would find yourself, in that draught, the object of the truest esteem, and the sincerest friendship. FROM DR SNAPE. REVEREND SIR, Windsor, April 23, 1722. I TAKE the opportunity of two of our choir going over to try their fortune in your country, at once to return my thanks for a very obliging letter you favoured me with some years ago, and your kind interpretation of my endeavours at that time to assert the cause of our establishment against a prelate who was undermining it; and also to recommend to your favour the bearer, Mr Elford; who, *Gulliver's.-N. + Bishop Hoadley.--B. Against whose low-church sermon Dr Snape had written a criticism. upon the encouragement of your worthy primate, is going to settle at Armagh. I cannot pretend to say, he has the same compass of voice with his late brother, whom the good queen so much admired; but I will venture to say, he has a greater compass of understanding, and, upon the whole, that he is a good choirman. The other, that bears him company, was a very useful chorister to us. His voice, since its breaking, is somewhat harsh, but I believe will grow mellower. If you find either of them for your purpose, especially the bearer, when you have a vacancy in your church, I shall be much obliged to you for any favour you are pleased to show; and be ready to approve myself on any occasion, reverend Sir, Your most obliged and affectionate servant, A. SNAPE. TO ROBERT COPE, ESQ. Dublin, Oct. 9. 1722. I AM but just come to town, and therefore look upon myself to have just left Loughgall, and that this is the first opportunity I have of writing to. you. Strange revolutions since I left you: a bishop of my old acquaintance in the Tower for treason, and a doctor of my new acquaintance made a bi * Dr Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, at this time imprisoned for his share in what was called Sayer's plot, in favour of the Chevalier St George, for which he was afterwards banished by act of attainder. shop. * I hope you are returned with success from your Connaught journey, and that you tired yourself more than you expected in taking the compass of your new land; the consequence of which must be, that you will continue needy some years longer than you intended. Your new bishop Bolton was born to be my tormentor; he ever opposed me as my subject, and now has left me embroiled for want of him. The government, in consideration of the many favours they have shown me, would fain have me give St Bride's to some one of their hangdogs, that Dr Howard may come into St Werburgh's. So that I must either disoblige whig and tory in my chapter, or be ungrateful to my patrons in power. When you come to town, you must be ready, at what time you hear the sound of tabret, harp, &c. to worship the brazen image set up, or else be cast into a cold watery furnace; I have not yet seen it, for it does not lie in my walks, and I want curiosity. The wicked tories themselves begin now to believe there was something of a plot; and every plot costs Ireland more than any plot can be worth. The court has sent a demand here for more money by three times than is now in the hands of the treasury, and all the collectors of this kingdom put together. I escaped hanging very narrowly a month ago; for a letter from Preston, directed to me, was opened in the post-office, and sealed again in a very slovenly manner, when Manly found it only contained a request from a poor This hath determined me against writing curate. * Dr Theophilus Bolton, Bishop of Clonfert, Sept. 12, 1722; and in 1729 archbishop of Cashell. + Dr Bolton had been chancellor of St Patrick's. treason: however I am not certain that this letter may not be interpreted as comforting his most excellent majesty's enemies, since you have been a state prisoner. Pray God keep all honest men out of the hands of lions and bears, and uncircumcised Philistines!I hoped my brother Orrery* had loved his land too much to hazard it on revolution principles. I am told that a lady of my acquaintance was the discoverer of this plot, having a lover among the true whigs, whom she preferred before an old battered husband. You never saw any thing so fine as my new Dublin plantations of elms; I wish you would come and visit them; and I am very strong in wine, though not so liberal of it as you. It is said that Kelly the parson † is admitted to Kelly the squire; ‡ and that they are cooking up a discovery between them, for the improvement of the hempen manufacture. It is reckoned that the best trade in London this winter will be that of an evidence. As much as I hate the tories, I cannot but pity them as fools. Some think likewise, that the pretender * Charles Boyle, Earl of Orrery, an accomplished and literary character, inventor of the philosophical instrument to which he bequeathed his name, was about this time apprehended, and com. mitted to the Tower, for some real or supposed accession to the plot which cost Atterbury so dear. + George Kelly, who went under the name of Johnson, an Irish clergyman, was apprehended by three messengers as an accessory to Sayer's plot: he defended himself until he had burned a parcel of papers, and then surrendered himself. He was a nonjuring clergyman, and is stated in the report of the committee of the House of Commons, to have been the person principally entrusted by the Bishop of Rochester. Captain Dennis Kelly, a gentleman of fortune in Ireland, was also apprehended as an active agent in Atterbury's plot. |