[27] "_Pope_ published in 1731 a poem called _False Taste_, in which he very particularly and severely criticises the house, the furniture, the gardens, and the entertainments of _Timon_, a man of great wealth and little taste. By _Timon_ he was universally supposed, and by the Earl of _Burlington_, to whom the poem is addressed, was privately said to mean the Duke of _Chandos_; a man perhaps too much delighted with pomp and shew, but of a temper kind and beneficent, and who had consequently the voice of the publick in his favour. A violent outcry was therefore raised against the ingratitude and treachery of _Pope_, who was said to have been indebted to the patronage of _Chandos_ for a present of a thousand pounds, and who gained the opportunity of insulting him by the kindness of his invitation. The receipt of the thousand pounds _Pope_ publickly denied; but from the reproach which the attack on a character so amiable brought upon him, he tried all means of escaping. The name of _Cleland_ was employed in an apology, by which no man was satisfied; and he was at last reduced to shelter his temerity behind dissimulation, and endeavour to make that disbelieved which he never had confidence openly to deny. He wrote an exculpatory letter to the Duke, which was answered with great magnanimity, as by a man who accepted his excuse without believing his professions. He said, that to have ridiculed his taste, or his buildings, had been an indifferent action in another man; but that in _Pope_, after the reciprocal kindness that had been exchanged between them, it had been less easily excused." _Dr. Johnson, in his Life of Pope._ [28] That Sir _John Gonson_ took a very active part against the Ladies of Pleasure, is recorded by more than one of their votaries: In "A View of the Town, 1735," by Mr. _T. Gilbert_, a fellow of _Peter House Cambridge_, and an intimate companion of _Loveling_,[A] I meet with these lines: "Though laws severe to punish guilt were made, What honest man is of these laws afraid? All felons against judges will exclaim, As harlots startle at a _Gonson's_ name." The magistrate entering with his myrmidons was designed as the representative of this gentleman, whose vigilance on like occasions is recorded in the following elegant Sapphic Ode, by Mr. _Loveling_. This gentleman was educated at _Winchester-school_, became a commoner of _Trinity College, Oxford_, was ordained deacon, lived gaily, and died young. His style, however, appears to have been formed on a general acquaintance with the language of _Roman_ poetry; nor do any of his effusions betray that poverty of expression so conspicuous in the poems of _Nicholas Hardinge_, esq. who writes as if _Horace_ was the only classic author he had ever read. Ad _Johannem Gonsonum_, Equitem.