The Dedication of this Book, was to the Right Honourable the Lady _Mary Wortley Montague_; wherein he says thus, "Nature seems to have form'd my Mind as inconsistently, as Fortune has my Condition: She has given me a _Heart_ that is as _proud_ as my _Father's_; to a Rank in Life, almost as _low_ as the Humanity of my Mother!" He had also wrote a long Preface to it, giving some Account of his _Mother's_ unparallel'd ill Treatment of him; but was prevail'd on through the Imposition of some very considerable Persons to cancel it; and about that Time he had a Pension of 50 Pounds a Year settled upon him. I will not venture to say whether this Allowance came directly from _her_, or, if so, upon what Motives she was induced to grant it him; but chuse to leave the Reader to guess at it. This was the first Time that he may properly be said to have enjoyed any Certainty in Life, and this, alass! of how short a Duration is it like to be, from the unhappy Affair that has brought him under the heaviest Sentence of the Law! A Sentence, which, of all Men living, he was thought, by his whole Acquaintance, the most unlikely to have incurr'd his good Nature and Meekness of Temper, having before this fatal Accident, been remarkable, among all who convers'd with him, if I may be allow'd the Expression, even to a Fault. The last Piece which he exhibited to the World, was, a _Poem_ Sacred to the Memory of our late most gracious Sovereign, address'd to the Right Honourable Mr. _Doddington_, one of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, which Subject, tho' it employ'd several other poetic Genius's; he is allow'd, by some approv'd Judges in that way of Writing, to have manag'd with a Delicacy, superior to any of his Competitors. But to come to the dismal Cause of his present Condition; having for some Time had a Lodging at _Richmond_ in _Surrey_, for the Benefit of the Air, and the Conveniencies of his Studies; he came to Town on _Monday_ the 20th Day of _November_ last, in order to pay off another he had in _Queen-street, Westminster_, thinking the Expence too great to keep them both; and falling into Company with Mr. _Merchant_ and Mr. _Gregory_, they all went together to a Coffee-house near his old Lodgings, where they drank till pretty late in the Evening; Mr. _Savage_ would willingly have got a Bed at the Coffee-house for that Night, but there not being a Conveniency for himself, and Company both, they went away from thence with a Resolution to waste Time as well as they could till Morning, when they purposed to go together to _Richmond_. In their Walks, seeing a Light in _Robinson's_ Coffee-house, they thought that a Place proper to entertain them, tho' Mr. _Savage_ protested he was entirely ignorant of the Character of the House, and had never been there in his Life before. Let it suffice in this Place to say, that the direful Consequence of their going in there, was from an Insult offer'd by Mr. _Merchant_ to