POPE. A LEXANDER POPE was born in London, May 22, 1688, of parents whose rank or station was never afcertained: we are informed that they were of gentle blood; that his father was of a family of which the Earl of Downe was the head, and that his mother was the daughter of William Turner, Efquire, of York, who had likewife three fons, one of whom had the honour of being killed, and the other of dying, in the fervice of Charles the Firft; the third was made a general officer in Spain, from whom the fifter inherited what fequeftrations and forfeitures had left in the family, This, and this only, is told by Pope; who is more willing, as I have heard obferved, to fhew what his father was not, than what he was. It is allowed that he grew rich by trade; but whether in a fhop or on the Exchange has never been discovered. Both parents were papists. Pope was from his birth of a conftitution tender and delicate; but is faid to have shewn remarkable gentleness and sweetness of difpofition. The weakness of his body continued through his life, but the mildness of his mind perhaps ended with his childhood. His voice, when he was young, was fo pleafing, that he was called in fondness the little Nightingale, Being not fent early to fchool, he was taught to read by an aunt; and when he was feven or eight years old became a lover of books. He firft learned to write by imitating printed books; a fpecies of penmanfhip in which he retained great excellence through his whole life, though his ordinary hand was not elegant. When |