The Merry Past 



in Southwark, and dealt so largely and extensively 

 in this branch that his stock-in-trade was for many 

 years supposed to be worth sixty or seventy thousand 

 pounds. 



In the latter part of his time in this trade, and 

 when he was well known to be worth a considerable 

 amount, he took to the lending of money, discounting, 

 and buying annuities, mortgages, and the like. In 

 this branch of business Mr. Pope would appear to 

 have been less successful than in his former trade ; 

 for the name of Pope the usurer every now and then 

 appears in the proceedings of the courts of law, 

 when the judges commonly differed widely from Mr. 

 Pope in their opinion of the sharp practices in which 

 he indulged. The most remarkable and the last 

 instance of this sort was, when he was cast in ^10,000 

 damages for some usurious or illegal practices, in 

 some money transactions with Sir Alexander 

 Leith. 



This was generally thought a smart sentence, and 

 probably the notorious character of the man con- 

 tributed not a little towards it. Mr. Pope himself 

 thought it so oppressive that he never ceased to com- 

 plain of its injustice, and even printed a pamphlet, 

 setting forth the hardship and great loss he had 

 suffered. Immediately after the trial Pope, to be 

 even with his plaintiff, went abroad to France with 

 all his effects and property, where a man in his ad- 

 vanced years, ample fortune, and without any family 

 but his wife, who w^as a most respectable woman, 

 might certainly have lived very comfortably. But 



245 



