i8o THE MUSIC OF WILD FLOWERS 



prebendary of the Cathedral in 1788, not, it is interest- 

 ing to notice, by the bishop of the diocese, but by 

 William Pitt, the Prime Minister. Two years after his 

 installation, on the death of Sir Peter Rivers Gay, 

 Bart., he took possession of the first house on the right- 

 hand side in Dome Alley, paying to Lady Rivers for 

 fixtures and wainscot-money the sum of 117. In 

 that house Dr Warton lived, when in residence at the 

 Cathedral, until his death in 1800. His time was 

 divided between the rectory of Wickham, on the banks 

 of the River Meon, and his house in the Close of Win- 

 chester. Until the Wainscot Book was discovered no 

 one knew which residence in the Close was associated 

 with Dr Warton and his friends. For he had a large 

 circle of distinguished friends, which included Edmund 

 Burke and Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Mrs Elizabeth 

 Montagu, and other celebrities. They were all getting 

 on well in years when Dr Warton was appointed to his 

 stall at Winchester, but it is not impossible that he may 

 have received a few of them in his residence in Dome 

 Alley. Certainly that residence must have witnessed 

 some of his literary labours. During the last ten years 

 of his life he was busily engaged on the works of Pope 

 and of Dryden. His annotated edition of Pope's works, 

 in nine volumes, appeared in 1797, when he at once 

 began a similar edition of Dryden. He lived to publish 

 two volumes, and had other two ready for the press, 

 when death overtook him in his rectory at Wickham, 

 on 23rd February 1800. By his own desire his remains 

 were conveyed to Winchester and interred in the north 

 aisle of the nave of the Cathedral, by the side of his 

 first wife. 



Such are some of the revelations contained in the 



