THE few letters here preserved of Sir William Trumbull, are distinguished by good sense, placidity of mind, and a warm predilection and correct taste for the productions of literature. He appears to have watched over the youth of Pope with the affection of a parent and the feelings of a friend. When Pope bade farewell to Windsor Forest to reside at Twickenham, he parted, as he informs us, "from Sir William Trumbull, foretelling, with uplifted hands, the miseries to come, from which he was just going to be removed himself."

I

October 19, 1705.

RETURN you the book you were pleased to send me, and with it your obliging letter, which deserves my particular acknowledgment: for, next to the pleasure of enjoying the company of so good a friend, the welcomest thing to me is to hear from him. I expected to find, what I have met

Pope.

* Secretary of State to King William the Third. "Sir William Trumbull was born at Easthamstead, in Berkshire. He was Fellow of All Souls College, in Oxford; followed the study of the Civil Law, and was sent by King Charles II. Judge Advocate to Tangier; thence Envoy to Florence, Turin, &c.; and in his way back, Envoy Extraordinary to France; from thence sent by King James II. Envoy to the Ottoman Porte. Afterwards he was made Lord of the Treasury; then Secretary of State with the Duke of Shrewsbury, which office he resigned in 1697, and retired to and died in the place of his nativity in Dec. 1716, aged 77 years." Ayre, Life of Pope, vol. i. p. 5.

Several curious Letters of Sir William Trumbull, written while he was Ambassador in France, are preserved in the paper office; and some relating to the cruel Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685, are published in the Memoirs of Sir John Dalrymple, p. 123. Warton.

with, an admirable genius in those poems, not only because they were Milton's, or were approved by Sir Hen. Wooton, but because you had commended them; and give me leave to tell you, that I know nobody so like to equal him, even at the age he wrote most of them, as yourself. Only do not afford more cause of complaints against you, that you suffer nothing of yours to come abroad; which in this age, wherein wit and true sense is more scarce than money, is a piece of such cruelty as your best friends can hardly pardon. I hope you will repent and amend; I could offer many reasons to this purpose, and such as you cannot answer with any sincerity, but that I dare not enlarge, for fear of engaging in a style of compliment, which has been so abused by fools and knaves, that it is become almost scandalous. I conclude therefore with an assurance which shall never vary, of my being ever, etc.

L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, Lycidas, and the Masque of Comus.

Pope.

From hence it appears, that these four exquisite poems of Milton were read, and relished, and recommended by our author, much earlier than they are supposed to have been. He has taken many expressions from them in the Eloisa, and the Temple of Fame, and other pieces. See the Preface to the second edition, 1791, p. 10, of Milton's smaller Poems, by T. Warton. That a person of Trumbull's taste and literature should not have been before acquainted with these poems of Milton, is a clear proof how little they were known and regarded in general. Warton.