HISTORY OF HARTING. 14! 



ladies (Helen of Troy to wit), I may, perhaps, cele- 

 brate a milkmaid, describe the amours of your parson's 

 daughter, or write an elegy upon the death of a hare : 

 but my articles are quite the reverse of his. Let 

 Mr. Pope and Homer keep company together. I 

 sh d - think that ancient gentleman a good companion in 

 a garret in London, but not in one of the pleasantest 

 seats in England, where I hope next month to have 

 the happiness of good company." "Thus far Mr. Gay," 

 Pope adds, " who in his letter has forestalled all the 

 subjects of raillery and diversion." He adds that 

 Richard Steele, Esq. (to whom, it will be remem- 

 bered, Caryll had introduced him) is now Sir Richard 

 Steele."* 



Gay's remembrance of Lady Holt is pleasantly 

 chronicled in his congratulatory ode to Pope on com- 

 pleting his work, and a " safe return from Troy," 



" I see the friendly Carylls come by dozens : 

 Their wives, their uncles, daughters, sons and cousins." 



It was these "dozens" that contributed to the im- 

 poverishment of the Caryll family, and singularly 

 enough in another sixty years the whole of the 

 numerous family seems to have died out. In 1716, 

 Pope did not come down for Gay was ill. But in 

 1717, June 7, he made another effort to gain the in- 

 spirations of Lady Holt. " I made a party with Lord 

 Jersey last week to have run away and seen the Isle 

 of Wight and Stanstead (Lord Scarborough's). He 

 thought it a mere ramble ; but my design lay deeper 

 to have got with you. ... I must go abroad to follow 

 my business, and if Lady Holt's shades afford me pro- 

 tection, it is there Homer's battles must be fought. 



" ' O qui me gelidis in vallibus JEmi 



Sistat et ingenti ramorum protegat umbra.' "f 



* El win's Pope V. 226, Letter 43. 



f " O who will set me in cool Hcemus' glade, 

 And shield me with a canopy of green ?" 



Virgil, Georg. II. R. D. Blackmore, Esq. 



