2°d s. No 101., Dec, 6. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



445 



LONDbH, SATURDAY, DtlCEMSEIt 5. 1857. 



^otei. 



PopCi his Descent. — Mr. HuSIer having as- 

 sumed tliat Pope's grandfather was the rector of 

 Thurston, says : " it may be asked," why Pope 

 "did not come boldly forward, and claim to be 

 descended from a clergyman occupying so good a 

 position," and he thus replies to his own ques- 

 tion : — 



" It is no unreasonable conjecture that here his re- 

 ligious, or rather ecclesiastical, opinions came into play ; 

 and that he, a Roman Catholic, would not regard with 

 the same satisfaction as others would a descent from a 

 Protestant clergyman, a married priest." 



I doubt whether any English Catholic would be 

 influenced by such feelings, and least of all Pope. 

 1 think it far more probable that Pope was anxi- 

 otts it should not be known that his father was a 

 convert — an apostate — a class then especially hate- 

 ful and despised. Even Swift writes of the ^^ crime 

 of apostasy." And we know from Clarendon's 

 Life, that in 1664, "His Majesty did in his 

 judgment and inclination put a great difference 

 between those Roman Catholics" who "had con- 

 tinued of the same religion from father to son," 

 and those " who had apostatised from the Church 

 of England ;" and he proposed to have a Bill 

 brought in whereih there should be a distinction 

 made between those classes. I am inclined to 

 think that such a distinction was made in some of 

 the Acts of King Williarn. P. H. D. 



Mannich. — Mr. Joseph Hunter's tract on Pope 

 is peculiarly interesting and valuable, and I hope 

 he will lose no time in committing his other poeti- 

 cal collections to the press. A volume such as he 

 contemplates, consisting of "New Facts in the 

 History of Poets and Verse Writers from Chau- 

 cer to Pope," would be a text-book to future 

 biographers, and a companion to all editions of 

 the English Poets. With such a guide to direct 

 our steps we should walk firmly over the classic 

 ground of English genius ! It is surprising that 

 Pope should nowhere have alluded to his rela- 

 tives, the family of Samuel Cooper. In his bouse 

 were objects that must constantly have reminded 

 him of them — the artist's " grinding stone and mul- 

 ler," the portrait of his maternal grandmother, 

 the " painted China dish with a silver foot to set it 

 in," and the " books, pictures, and medals set in 

 gold or otherwise," left to the poet by his god- 

 mother, Cooper's widow. One would have ex- 

 pected a poet-artist like Pope to have cherished 

 the memory of Samuel Cooper, and to have com- 

 memorated his genius, blended with traits of 

 family affection, in his immortal yefse. The exe- 



ciltof 6f Mfs. Cooper's will was her nephew, 

 Samuel Mawhood, citizen and fishmonger of 

 London. Can this, or one of the numerous family 

 of Mawhoods, be the person whom Spence has 

 named Mannich, or was there some family friend of 

 the Popes bearing the name of Mannick, whonii 

 neither Mr. Hunter nor the AthencBum has yet 

 traced ? Mannick seems to have been an inmate 

 of the poet's house or that of Mrs. Raokett. He 

 tells Spence of the poet's earliest friends, of hig 

 being at school at Twyford, and of his going up 

 to London to learn French and Italian. "We 

 in the family" he says, " looked upon it as a 

 wildish sort of resolution," &c. Now, who was 

 Mr. Mannick ? His name does not occur in the 

 will of Mrs. Cooper, or in that of William Turner 

 given by Mr. Hunter ;. and as the Athenaeum sug- 

 gests that Spence may have mistaken the name of 

 Bevan the apothecary, substituting that of "Mor- 

 gan," 1 think it not improbable that Mannick may 

 be a corruption for Slawhood. Or could Man- 

 nick have been the name of a priest residing in 

 the family ? It would be gratifying also to find 

 Mr. Hunter direct his attention to the history of 

 Major William Cleland, whose curious connexion 

 with Pope has never been fully explained, and 

 who challenges inquiry as the reputed original of 

 Will Honeycomb. The late Lord Carysfort (the 

 first earl) used to show with pride, in his library, 

 a portrait of Pope by Jcrvas, which the poet pre- 

 sented fo Cleland, accoinpanying the present with 

 what Lord Carysfort termed " a very humorous 

 letter," also in the possession of this nobleman. 

 Mr. Carruthers, though he mentions the fact of 

 the picture, seems to have been unable to trace 

 the connexion. If I recollect right. Lord Carys- 

 fort said that Mrs. Cleland was his grand-aunt ; 

 but this is a ifiore than thirty years' indistinct re- 

 collection. D. (1.) 



On Wit. — Can any of the readers of " N. & Q." 

 name the author of the following fine verses on 

 " Wit," which appear in the Grub Street Journal 

 of Wednesday, March 30, 1731 ? Pope was ac- 

 tively, though secretly, connected with this paper ; 

 but the verses do not appear to be of his composi- 

 tion : — 



" True wit is lilie the brilliant stone, 

 Dug from the Indian mine ; 

 Which boasts two various powers in one — 

 To cut as well as shine. 

 « Genius, like that, if polish'd right, 

 With the same gifts abounds ; 

 Appears at once both keen and bright, 

 And sparkles while it wounds." 



Z. 



Bolinglrohes Letter to Pope (2"^ S. ii. 127.) — 

 This celebrated discovery of one of your contem- 

 poraries, which the Athenceum showed to be a for- 



