406 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2n«i S. N» 99., Nov. 21, '57. 



tbat every one of the biographers, from Ruffhead 

 to Carrutliers, had quoted from those Manuscripts, 

 and all without discovering it. This patent ob- 

 jection, however, was soon and satisfixctorily dis- 

 posed of. The Illustrated News subsequently 

 published, and for the first time, as believed, "a 

 highly interesting and characteristic " letter from 

 Bolingbroke to Pope, which letter The Athenceum 

 showed, as in duty bound, was a forgery, and 

 which, as subsequently appeared, had been copied, 

 by some unknown person, from that rare and re- 

 condite work Dodsley's Animal Hegister. The 

 reply settled the patent. " Is it possible," said 

 the Illustrated News, "a censor so authoritative 

 can be ignorant of, or can have forgotten, the death 

 of the poefs father at Twickenham in 1717 ? " 



Mr. CoRNEY says that it is not for him to explain 

 " how far the fact in question has become patent." 

 Certainly not ; but until Mb. Cornet or some 

 other person shall have shown that the fact brought 

 forward by Mr. Edwards had been published 

 before — that there was at least a possibility of its 

 having become patent — my question (2"^ S.iii. 462.) 

 will not have been answered. Concede all that 

 Mr. Cornet asks, and he only proves that the fact 

 was latent, not patent. D. 



Alexander Pope of Broad Street ; his Besidence 

 therefrom 1677 to 1685. — I had thought a discus- 

 sion of this subject was one of the things of the 

 past, and expected no more to see the pages of 

 " N. & Q." occupied with the question. 



In May last I wrote a short article, giving to 

 the world for the first time the fact that " Alex- 

 ander Pope, presumed to be the poet's father, 

 resideil, in the year 1677, in Broad Street, City." 

 Mr. Edward Edwards, of the Free Library, Man- 

 chester, kindly supplied the fact from a dimi- 

 nutive London Directory (probably the earliest 

 book of the kind) published in the year 1677, — 

 the existence of which must certainly by this time 

 be "patent" to the readers of "N. & Q," — and I 

 Jook upon myself to ask for farther evidence in 

 support of the discovery. 



Pope being in fashion, the subject was im- 

 mediately handled by different journals. The 

 Atheh(Bum immediately published several columns, 

 bringing forward other most important and valu- 

 able particulars. " N. & Q." gave some inter- 

 esting articles ; the Illustrated London Neios 

 mentioned the sul<ject, although in a spirit of 

 ungenerous depreciation ; the poet Bryant, in his 

 paper, the New York Evening Post, published the 

 article with a short comment, which was reprinted 

 in several American periodicals ; while many of 

 the local journals in this country informed their 

 readers in the " Literary column," that Pope's 

 father carried on his business and made his 

 money in Broad Street. The discussion conse- 



quent on the discovery is, however, not allowed to 

 rest embalmed in the old numbers of these perio- 

 dicals. The London Directory is once more taken 

 from the shelf, and the claim to the discovery (if 

 it is worth so calling) is disputed. 



In "N. & Q." for November 14th appears an 

 article from the able pen of Mr." Bolton Cornet, 

 stating that some years ago he lent a copy of this 

 " precious " work to Mr. Peter Cunningham, who, 

 with himself, had known the fact, and had con- 

 versed on the subject, many years since, and that 

 Mr. Edward Edwards' discovery was evidently 

 occasioned by Mr. Bolton Coeney's account of 

 the Directory given in '' N. & Q." in May last. 



I am sorry to have to confute this conjecture, 

 because no aspirant in discovery is more deserving 

 the honour of a literary compliment than the gen- 

 tleman owning the precious book ; but the truth 

 must be told. Mr. Edward Edwards knew of the 

 entry, " Alexand. Pope^' some time before the ac- 

 count qf the Directory appeared in your valuable 

 pages. Mr. Saxe Bannister, one day in April 

 last, in a conversation about the poet, informed 

 me of the discovery made by the librarian of the 

 Free Library, to whom I addressed a note, and 

 received his polite reply, with the information 

 required. A few weeks afterwards the item was 

 announced in the Adversaria appended to my 

 Catalogue. 



If the claimants to the discovery knew of the 

 fact "many years since," why not have published 

 It in " N. & Q. ?" I really cannot see the value of 

 placing a light under a bushel, and keeping for 

 nine whole years 2, fact quiet and snug, that woidd 

 have interested the late Mr. Croker, Mr. Carru- 

 thers, and a score of gentlemen anxious about the 

 history of the poet. Surely, In amuch less time thnn 

 nine years, all the parish registers in London could 

 have been searched. To Mr. Edwards, therefore, 

 belongs any honour which attaches to the disco- 

 very ; it being through his instrumentality that the 

 fact was brought before the literary world. 



Pope's Father still living in Broad Street in 

 1685. — A curious document has just been shown 

 to me, which I trust before long I may be allowed 

 to publish verbatim. It consists of a receipt for 

 money loaned to one Saunders by the elder Pope. 

 All that I can say at present is, that it contains 

 the nnme, Alexander Pope, in full 5 and mentions 

 his living in Broad Street, as a " dealer," in the 

 year 168|. The memorandum appears to be In 

 the handwriting of a scrivener or clerk, and is 

 very regular and legible. But the signature, 

 Walter Saunders, is roughly executed, and is not at 

 first sight intelligible. This document, then, when 

 published, will leave only three years and a month 

 or two to be accounted for, instead of eleven years 

 — the time that elapsed betwixt the record of the 

 old London Directory (that In 1677 Pope's father 

 was a merchant in Broad Street) and the year 



