To HENRY CROMWELL, Efq.

A

June 27, 1727.

FTER fo long a filence as the many and great oppreffions I have fighed under have occafioned, one is at a loss how to begin a letter to fo kind a friend as yourfelf. But as it was always my refolution, if I muft fink, to do it as decently (that is, as filently) as I could; fo when I found myself plunged into unforefeen, and unavoidable ruin, I retreated from the world, and in a manner buried myself in a difmal place, where I knew none, and none knew me. In this dull unthinking way, have protracted a lingring death (for life it cannot be called) ever fince you faw me, fequeftred from company, deprived of my books, and nothing left to converse with, but the letters of my dead or abfent friends; among which latter I always placed yours, and Mr. Pope's in the firft rank. I lent fome of them indeed to an ingenious person, who was fo delighted with the fpecimen, that he importuned me for a fight of the reft, which having obtined, he conveyed them to the press, I must not fay altogether with my confent, nor wholly without it. I thought them too good to be loft in oblivion, and had no caufe to apprehend the difobliging of any. The public, viz. all perfons of taste and judgment, would be pleafed with fo agreeable an anufement; Mr. Cromwell could not be angry, fince it was but justice to his merit, to publifh the folemn and private profeffions of love, gratitude, and veneration, made him by fo celebrated an author; and fincerely Mr Pope ought not to refent the publication, fince the early pregnancy of his genius was no difhonour to his character. And yet had either of you been asked, common modefty

I

would

would have obliged you to refufe, what you would not be displeased with, if done without your knowledge. And befides, to end all difpute, you had been pleased to make me a free gift of them, to do what I pleased with them; and every one knows, that the perfon to whom a letter is addreffed, has the fame right to difpofe of it, as he has of goods purchased with his money. I doubt not but your generofity and honour will do me the right, of owning by a line that I came honeftly by them. I flatter myself, in a few months I fhall again be vifible. to the world; and whenever thro' good providence that turn fhall happen, I fhall joyfully acquaint you with it, there being none more truly your obliged fervant, than, Sir,

Your faithful, and

most humble Servant,

E. THOMAS.

P. S. A Letter, Sir, directed to Mrs. Thomas, to be left at my houfe, will be fafely transmitted to

her, by,

Yours, &c.

E. CURLL.

To Mr. P O P E.

Epfom, July 6, 1727.

HEN thefe letters were firft printed, I

WHEN wondered how Curll could come by them,

and could not but laugh at the pompous title; fince whatever you wrote to me was humour, and familiar raillery. As foon as I came from Epfom, I heard you had been to fee me, and I writ you a fhort letter from Will's, that I longed to fee you. Mr.

A 3

DS,

Ds, about that time charged me with giving them to a mistress, which I pofitively denied: not in the least, at that time, thinking of it; but fome time after, finding in the News papers Letters from Lady Packington, Lady Chudleigh, and Mr. Norris to the fame Sappho or E. F. I began to fear that I was guilty. I have never feen thefe Letters of Curll's, nor would go to his fhop about them; I have not seen this Sappho alias E. T. these seven years. Her writing, That I gave her 'em, to do what I would with 'em, is ftraining the point too far. I thought not of it, nor do I think she did then; but fevere neceffity which catches hold of a twig, has produced all this; which has lain hid, and forgot, by me fo many years. Curll fent me a letter laft week, defiring a pofitive answer about this matter, but finding I would give him none, he went to E. T. and writ a poftfcript in her long romantick letter, to direct my answer to his house; but they not expecting an answer, fent a young man to me, whose name, it feems, is Pattifon. I told him I fhould not write any thing, but I believed it might be so as fhe writ in her letter. I am extremely concerned that my former indifcretion in putting them into the hands of this Pretieufe, fhould have given you fo much disturbance; for the last thing I fhould do would be to difoblige you, for whom I have ever preferved the greatest esteem, and shall ever be, Sir,

Your faithful Friend, and

most humble Servant,

HENRY CROMWELL.

Το

To Mr. POPE.

August 1, 1727.

HO' I writ my long narrative from Epfom till

TH

TI was tired, yet was I not fatisfied; left any

doubt fhould reft upon your mind. I could not make protestations of my innocence of a grievous crime; but I was impatient till I came to town, that I might send you thofe Letters, as a clear evidence that I was a perfect stranger to all their proceeding. Should I have protested against it, after the printing, it might have been taken for an attempt to decry his purchase; and as the little exception you have taken has ferved him to play his game upon us for these two years, a new incident from me might enable him to play it on for two more.-The great value The expreffes for all you write, and her paffion for having them, I believe, was what prevailed upon me to let her keep them. By the interval of twelve years at leaft, from her poffeffion to the time of printing them, 'tis manifeft, that I had not the leaft ground to apprehend fuch a defign: but as people in great ftraits, bring forth their hoards of old gold and moft valued jewels; fo Sappho had recourse to her hid treasure of Letters, and played off not only your's to me, but all those to herself (as the lady's laft ftake) into the prefs.-As for me, I hope, when you fhall coòly confider the many thousand inftances of our being deluded by the females, fince that great Original of Adam by Eve, you will have a more favourable thought of the undesigning error of

Your faithful Friend,

and humble Servant, HENRY CROMWELL.

Now

Now fhould our apology for this publication be as ill received, as the lady's feems to have been by the gentlemen concerned; we shall at least have Her Comfort, of being thanked by the reft of the world. Nor has Mr. P. himfelf any great caufe to think it much offence to his modesty, or reflection on his judgment; when we take care to inform the public, that there are few Letters of his in this collection, which were not written under twenty years of age: on the other hand, we doubt not the reader will be much more furprized to find, at that early period, fo much variety of style, affecting fentiment, and juftness of criticism, in pieces which muft have been writ in hafte, very few perhaps ever reviewed, and none intended for the eye of the public.

A CA.