Poets, English -- 18th century -- Biography; Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744
later, on the death of his father, he moved up the river to the villa at
Twickenham, which has always been associated with his name, and was his
home for the last twenty-five years of his life. There he had the
advantage of being just on the boundary of the great world. He was
within easy reach of Hampton Court, Richmond, and Kew; places which,
during Pope's residence, were frequently glorified by the presence of
George II. and his heir and natural enemy, Frederick, Prince of Wales.
Pope, indeed, did not enjoy the honour of any personal interview with
royalty. George is said to have called him a very honest man after
reading his Dunciad; but Pope's references to his Sovereign were not
complimentary. There was a report, referred to by Swift, that Pope had
purposely avoided a visit from Queen Caroline. He was on very friendly
terms with Mrs. Howard--afterwards Lady Suffolk--the powerless mistress,
who was intimate with two of his chief friends, Bathurst and
Peterborough, and who settled at Marble Villa, in Twickenham. Pope and
Bathurst helped to lay out her grounds, and she stayed there to become a
friendly neighbour of Horace Walpole, who, unluckily for lovers of
gossip, did not become a Twickenhamite until three years after Pope's
death. Pope was naturally more allied with the Prince of Wales, who
occasionally visited him, and became intimate with the band of patriots
and enthusiasts who saw in the heir to the throne the coming "patriot
king." Bolingbroke, too, the great inspirer of the opposition, and
Pope's most revered friend, was for ten years at Dawley, within an easy
drive. London was easily accessible by road and by the river which
bounded his lawn. His waterman appears to have been one of the regular
members of his household. There he had every opportunity for the
indulgence of his favourite tastes. The villa was on one of the
loveliest reaches of the Thames, not yet polluted by the encroachments
of London. The house itself was destroyed in the beginning of this
century; and the garden (if we may trust Horace Walpole) had been
previously spoilt. This garden, says Walpole, was a little bit of ground
of five acres, enclosed by three lanes. "Pope had twisted and twirled
and rhymed and harmonized this, till it appeared two or three sweet
little lawns, opening and opening beyond one another, and the whole
surrounded with impenetrable woods." These, it appears, were hacked and
hewed into mere desolation by the next proprietor. Pope was, indeed, an
ardent lover of the rising art of landscape gardening; he was familiar
with Bridgeman and Kent, the great authorities of the time, and his
example and precepts helped to promote the development of a less formal
style. His theories are partly indicated in the description of Timon's
villa.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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