I condole with you from my heart, on the loss of so worthy a man, and a Friend to us both. Now he is gone, I must tell you he has done you many a good office, and set your character in y^e fairest light, to some who either mistook you, or knew you not. I doubt not he has done the same for me. Adieu: Let us love his Memory, and profit by his example. I am very sincerely D^r SIR, Your affectionate & real Servant, A. POPE. Aug. 29th 1730. ----- [Footnote 22: He was born at Shelton, near Newcastle, May 20, 1683; and was the youngest of eleven children of John Fenton, an attorney-at-law, and one of the coroners of the county of Stafford. His father died in 1694; and his grave, in the church-yard of Stoke upon Trent, is distinguished by the following elegant Latin inscription from the pen of his son: H.S.E. JOHANNES FENTON, de Shelton antiqua stirpe generosus: juxta reliquias conjugis CATHERINAE forma, moribus, pietate, optimo viro dignissimae: Qui intemerata in ecclesiam fide, et virtutibus intaminatis enituit; necnon ingenii lepore bonis artibus expoliti, ac animo erga omnes benevolo, sibi suisque jucundus vixit. Decem annos uxori dilectee superstes magnum sui desiderium bonis omnibus reliquit, anno{salutis humanai 1694, {aetatis suffi 56. See Gent. Mag. 1791, vol. lxi. p. 703. N. ] [Footnote 23: He was entered of Jesus college, and took a bachelor's degree in 1704: but it appears, by the list of Cambridge graduates, that he removed, in 1726, to Trinity hall. N.] [Footnote 24: 1717. M.] [Footnote 25: Ford was Johnson's relation, his mother's nephew, and is said to have been the original of the parson in Hogarth's Modern Midnight Conversation. See Boswell, i. and iii. ED.] [Footnote 26: July 16.] [Footnote 27: Spence.] [Footnote 28: Shiels, Dr. Johnson's amanuensis, who says, in Cibber's Lives of the Poets, that he received this anecdote from a gentleman resident in Staffordshire. M.] GAY. John Gay, descended from an old family that had been long in possession of the manor of[29] Goldworthy in Devonshire, was born in 1688, at or near Barnstaple, where he was educated by Mr. Luck, who taught the school of that town with good reputation, and, a little before he retired from it, published a volume of Latin and English verses. Under such a master he was likely to form a taste for poetry. Being born without prospect of hereditary riches, he was sent to London in his youth, and placed apprentice to a silkmercer. How long he continued behind the counter, or with what degree of softness and dexterity he received and accommodated the ladies, as he probably took no delight in telling it, is not known. The report is, that he was soon weary of either the restraint or servility of his occupation, and easily persuaded his master to discharge him.