[Footnote 136: The earliest of the three letters bears in the body of the work, the heading "Mr. Gay to Dr. Swift;" but in the Table of Contents it is entitled "From Mr. Gay and Mr. Pope," and the language in portions of the letter itself shows that it was the production of both.] [Footnote 137: "I never," said the poet to Caryll, November 19, 1712, "kept any copies of such stuff as I write," which would be decisive of his custom at that early date, if much reliance could be placed on his word. In 1716 he commenced correspondence with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and afterwards published several of the letters among his "Letters to Ladies." He was then at enmity with her, and as she retained the originals, he must either have borrowed them prior to the quarrel for the purpose of copying them, or else must have copied them before they were sent. There is no direct evidence to show at what time he commenced the practice of transcribing letters; but at the close of 1726 he began to compile the collection of 1735, and thenceforward he was sure to let nothing escape which could contribute to his design.] [Footnote 138: Mrs. Whiteway to Lord Orrery.] [Footnote 139: Dr. Hawkesworth published a letter from Swift to Pope, introducing his cousin, Mr. D. Swift, and three more were published by Mr. D. Swift himself. He does not say by what means he obtained them, but they form part of a collection of some seventy stray letters addressed by Swift to thirty or forty different persons, who had certainly not returned them.] [Footnote 140: Pope to Lord Oxford, Dec. 14, 1725.] [Footnote 141: Pope to Lord Oxford, Dec. 14, 1725.] [Footnote 142: Nichols's "Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century," Vol. V. p. 379.] [Footnote 143: Birch MSS. Brit. Mus., quoted in Warton's Pope, Vol. II. p. 339. When Mr. Gerrard was about to return to Ireland from Bath, Pope wrote to him, May 17, 1740, to say that he had found another conveyance for the letter he had intended to send by him to Swift. Mr. Gerrard may nevertheless have carried over the printed correspondence, which would not have been openly entrusted to him by Pope, who professed to know nothing about it. The poet may have thought upon reflection that it would look less suspicious if his avowed letter and the anonymous parcel were not transmitted by the same bearer.] [Footnote 144: Mrs. Whiteway to Lord Orrery.] [Footnote 145: Pope to Mr. Nugent, March 26, 1740, and Mr. Nugent to Mrs. Whiteway, April 2, 1740.] [Footnote 146: Pope to Mr. Nugent, August 14, 1740.] [Footnote 147: Ruffhead's "Life of Pope," p. 469. The letter to Allen was not published till twenty-five years after Pope's death.] [Footnote 148: Millar _v._ Taylor, Burrow's Reports, Vol. IV. p. 2397.] [Footnote 149: "Athenæum" for Sept. 15, 1860.]