2 54 THE EXETER ROAD 



must have been a sore blow to the dignity of one 

 who possessed, as we are told, ' the courtly and 

 profound devotion of a Spaniard towards women, 

 with the ease and ^gaiety of a Frenchman to men,' 



Rolling down the Exeter Road, from his London 

 mansion, or from his suburban retreat of ' La 

 Trappe,' at Hammersmith, in his gilded, old-fashioned 

 chariot, he gathered a variety of literary men at what 

 Young calls ' Pierian Eastbury.' Johnson, sick of 

 the Chesterfields and the whole gang of literary 

 patrons, scornfully refused Dodington's proffered 

 friendship ; but Fielding, Thomson, Bentley, Cumber- 

 land, Youno;, Voltaire, and others were not slow to 

 revel in these more or less Arcadian delights. Chris- 

 topher Pitt wrote to Young, congratulating him on 

 his stay here : — 



Where with your Dodingtoii retired you sit, 

 Charmed with his flowing Burgundy and wit ; 

 Where a \\q,\\ Eden in the wild is found, 

 And all the seasons in a spot of ground. 



While Thomson, moved to it by the Burgundy or the 

 more potent punch, has celebrated palace and park in 

 his Autumn. 



Dodington had either no stomach for fighting, or 

 else was a good fellow beyond the common run, as 

 the following affair proves. Eastbury marches with 

 Cranborne Chase, and one day the Ranoer found one 

 of Dodington's keepers with his dogs in a part of the 

 Chase called Burseystool Walk. The keeper was 

 warned that if he v/as found there again, his doos 

 would be shot and himself prosecuted ; but despite 

 this warning he was found near the same spot a few 



