THE BIRTHPLACE OF MATTHEW PRIOR. 81 



his lowly origin which made him wish to conceal as far as 

 possible the place of his birth, and so in one of the three 

 entries to register himself as a native of Middlesex ; though 

 the name of no town is given whilst, in the original entries 

 in both the other places, he is spoken of as having been 

 born at Wimborne in Dorset. And indeed, there is no such 

 place as Wimborne in Middlesex. The Index Villaris gives 

 only Wimborne in Dorset. But, more probably, the sugges- 

 tion made by a writer in the Gentleman'' s Magazine for 

 1779 (Vol. XLIX., pp. 640 1) gives the reason ; alluding 

 to the question whether Dorset or Middlesex was Matthew 

 Prior's native county he says "Had it been thought of at 

 " election time he would have been rejected as incerti 

 " comitatus. Only two (Fellows) can be chosen from a 

 " county by the college statutes." If already there were 

 two Dorset men who were Fellows of the College, he would 

 not as a third Dorset man be qualified by election. In the 

 two entries, which register his admission to the College, 

 Wimborne, Dorsetshire, is mentioned. But in the entry, 

 which chronicles his election, 5 years later, to a fellowship, 

 his county is given as Middlesex that is the county in 

 which he then resided, and not that in which he was born. 

 In all probability it was to make the earlier register agree 

 with this that in one of the other entries the name Middlesex 

 was substituted for Dorset. He took his B.A. degree in 1686. 

 In the same year, with his friend Charles Montagu, he pub- 

 lished " The Story of the Country Mouse and the City Mouse," 

 a parody of Dryden's " The Hind and the Panther." In 

 1688 he obtained a fellowship at his college, and wrote the 

 annual poem which St. John's College each year sent to its 

 benefactor, the Earl of Exeter. As a result he paid a visit to 

 Burleigh, and became for a short time tutor to Lord Exeter's 

 son. In 1690 he obtained a diplomatic appointment, and 

 went as secretary to the ambassador to the Hague. He had 

 a corresponding appointment in connection with the Treaty 

 of Ryswick in 1697, and then for some time held a similar 

 position in Paris, where he was a persona grata at the French 



