Sometimes the visit was private; the sickly Princess Caroline had a
fancy to make one of the group who are bound to Pope's villa.
Twickenham, where that great little man had, since 1715, established
himself, was pronounced by Lord Bacon to be the finest place in the
world for study. 'Let Twitnam Park,' he wrote to his steward, Thomas
Bushell, 'which I sold in my younger days, be purchased, if possible,
for a residence for such deserving persons to study in, (since I
experimentally found the situation of that place much convenient for the
trial of my philosophical conclusions)--expressed in a paper sealed, to
the trust--which I myself had put in practice and settled the same by
act of parliament, if the vicissitudes of fortune had not intervened and
prevented me.'
Twickenham continued, long after Bacon had penned this injunction, to be
the retreat of the poet, the statesman, the scholar; the haven where the
retired actress, and broken novelist found peace; the abode of Henry
Fielding, who lived in one of the back-streets; the temporary refuge,
from the world of London, of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and the life-long
home of Pope.
Let us picture to ourselves a visit from the princess to Pope's
villa:--As the barge, following the gentle bendings of the river, nears
Twickenham, a richer green, a summer brightness, indicates it is
approaching that spot of which even Bishop Warburton says that 'the
beauty of the owner's poetic genius appeared to as much advantage in the
disposition of these romantic materials as in any of his best-contrived
poems.
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