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ago I brought it to you, with the vouchers, to look over; but you declined doing it. I will order it to be again transcribed and send it to you. I don't remember you ever asked for an account before. I am, Madam, your most obedient servant, "GEO. ARBUTHNOT.

"Beaufort Buildings, 1st July, 1748."

The correspondence between Mr. Arbuthnot and his client continued up to the death of the latter, and we subjoin the concluding letter as connected with Pope's estate:

"Cork-street, 18th Feb. 1762.

"MADAM,-I had the favour of your letter, with that from Mr. Andrews enclosed, which I return to you. My ill health has, in some measure, been the reason of my not answering it sooner.

"I find your present lease is for thirty-one years from the 24th of June, 1737, so you have six and a quarter years to come. Mr. Pope having left you the interest of his fortune for life, which was afterwards to go to Mrs. Rackett's sons, I remember Mr. Henry Rackett was very angry that part of it should go in the purchase of your lease, of which he and his brothers were not likely to have any advantage. And if it had not been purchased in pursuance of an agreement made in Mr. Pope's lifetime, his objection would have been very reasonable; so you see Mr. Pope's executors cannot renew the lease, nor do I know that it is to your advantage they should. But I think Mrs. Rackett's sons, if any are now alive, or their representatives (as they have had a bad bargain in the first case), should have it in their power to renew it if they think it worth their while, and should be acquainted with Lord Berkeley's proposal. But I really do not know where any of them are, or if living. Mr. Henry Rackett was an attorney, and I used to see him frequently on business, but it was many years ago. I am, &c., "GEO. ARBUTHNOT."

Among Pope's Homer MSS. in the British Museum is the following note addressed to Pope's mother by Mrs. Rackett:

"DEAR MOTHER,-The somer coming on and y' roads good putts me in hopes I shall soon see you att Hall Grove. Mr. Morris is goeing, and I shall have an empty room at your servis, and another for my brother, if he will oblidg me with his good company. Mrs. Doune comes not this somer. I shall be alone all somer if my mother, Rackett, and you don't come to see me. All here joine in reall love and service. From, Dear Mother, your dutyfull Dau'.

"Apll y 19."

"M. RACKETT.

Ladies at that time-even young ladies of rank-spelt

THE RACKETT FAMILY.

459

very indifferently. The following note, addressed to Pope by his aged mother, is worse in this respect than the usual run of female epistles; but it illustrates the motherly affection and piety of the excellent old lady :

"Tuesday, 12 o'clock.

"MY DEARE,-A letter from your sister yust now is come and gone, Mr. Mannock and Charls Rackitt, to take his leve of us, but being nothing in it doe not send it. He will not faile to cole here on Friday morning, and take ceare to cearrie itt to Mr. Thomas Doncaster. He shall dine wone day with Mrs. Dune, in Ducke-street; but the day will be unsirton, soe I thinck you had better to send itt to me. He will not faile to cole here, that is Mr. Mannock. Your sister is very well, but your brother is not. There's Mr. Blunt of Mapill Durom is dead; the same day that Mr. Inglefield died. [25th June, 1710.1 My servis to Mrs. Blunts, and all that ask of me. I hope to here frome you, and that you are well, which is my dalye prayers; this, with my blessing. I am," &c.

The Athenæum, May 30, 1857, furnishes information respecting the Rackett family. Charles Rackett, the husband of Pope's sister, must have been a man of some property and respectable position. He resided at Hall Grove, near Bagshot, in Windlesham, where his family had held property for several generations. He appears to have died in 1728, administration being granted to his widow on the 7th of November of that year. "We presume," says the Athenæum, "that Mrs. Rackett had property of her own, or property settled to her own use, probably received from her father; for we find from MS. accounts in our possession relating to the estate of a Catholic Lady Carrington, that 551. a year, as interest on 11007., is regularly charged as paid to Mrs. Rackett, from October, 1723, to June, 1730: and in her will, dated so long after as 1746, Magdalen Rackett refers to money due to her and received on, or arising from, the estate of Lady Carrington." Pope interested himself to obtain professional employment for one of his nephews-evidently Henry Rackett-who was, he says, "bred an attorney, but by nature and grace both, an honest man, which even that education hath not overcome." We quote the following further particulars from the Athenæum, which has proved a perfect mine of unprinted materials for illustrating the biography of Pope:

"Magdalen Rackett died in 1747 or 1748. Her Will is dated the 16th of May, 1746, and was proved, with three codicils, in 1748. She is therein described as widow, of the parish of St. George the Martyr, in the county of Middlesex. The executors are, Henry Rackett, George Rackett, and George Wilmot. So far as our memory and notes made long since can be relied on, she bequeaths to her eldest son, Michael, an annuity of 50%. per annum, secured on certain messuages and tenements at Windlesham,-leaves small sums-by codicil, we think, 2001. and 3007. each-to her sons Bernard, Henry and John, and bequeaths the whole of the residue to her son Robert, assigning as her reason for this preference, that she had not done so much for him as for her other children, on whom she had already spent considerable sums in settling them in life. Certain legacies she directs to be paid out of my late brother's personal estate at the death of Mrs. Martha Blount;' and she mentions money belonging to her secured upon the estate of Lady Carrington. She bequeaths some pictures to her 'good friend William Mannock,' if her son Robert be willing to part with them. This was probably Spence's informant, Mr. Mannick.' By a codicil dated the 30th of June, 1746, she bequeaths, in the event of the death of her son Robert, the residue to George Lamont, of Green-street, Leicester-fields, Doctor of Physic, and to John Byfield, of the parish of St. George the Martyr, organ-builder, in trust for the issue of Robert; and in another document, she mentions Alexander, the son, and Charles, the eldest son of her son Bernard. She twice mentions her white parchment AccountBook, and names George Wilmot as the executor who is to have possession of it.

"Amongst deaths announced in the Gentleman's Magazine for January, 1780, is that of Robert Rackett, Esq., the last surviving nephew of Alexander Pope.' In his Will he is described as of Devonshire-street, Queen-square, gentleman. It is dated the 20th of October, 1775, with a codicil dated the 15th of October, 1778, and was proved the 29th of December, 1779. He therein sets forth the Will of his brother, Henry Rackett, of East-street, near Red-Lyon-square; from which it appears that Henry had left personal property to the value of about 4000l. to his brother Robert, subject to the payment of an annuity of 801. a year to his own widow, Mary Rackett, and of 5007. due to her under their marriage settlement. Robert directs his executors to fulfil the trusts of his brother's Will. He gives all the furniture, &c., in his house to his servant, Mrs. M'Carty, and, by codicil, an annuity of 201,-100 guineas to each of his executors, -and all the residue to his executors in trust for his grand-nephews, Robert Rackett and George Rackett, sons of his late nephew Alexander; and in default to his nephew Charles Rackett, of the city of Chester, or his children, if any living. The witnesses to the will sign as 'clerks to Mr. Robert Rackett.'

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"It appears from this Will that the last of the sons of Magdalen Rackett died in 1779; and the probabilities are, that at that time she had a grandson living at Chester, and two great-grandchildren, Robert and George, probably youths, also living. We have set forth the names of executors and others, because it may help the curious to further information:-even the white parchment Account-Book, with its possible revelations, may yet be in unhonoured existence."

The estate of Hall Grove comprises a good house and 120 acres of ground. Fifty years ago it was in the occupation of Squire Lister;" now of Mr. Hulse. The house has had additions made to it, and the present owner has added largely to the grounds, so that it was, we suppose, in Pope's time, a much humbler residence.

V.

RELICS OF POPE.

THE Editor received from Sir Edward F. Bromhead, Bart., of Thurlby Hall, Lincolnshire, an impression of a portrait seal, on a ring presented by Pope to Warburton. The seal contains a good likeness of the poet, apparently reduced from Richardson's profile. The ring is inscribed, "Don. A. Pope, G. Warburton.-G. Warburton, John Brown." The last named is evidently Dr. John Brown, author of several poems, including an "Essay on Satire," addressed to Warburton, and by him prefixed to Pope's Works. Dr. Brown left the ring to Dr. William Stephens, who left it by will to James Edwards, Esq.; and Mr. Edwards left it, also by will, to his wife, now Mrs. Butt, Trentham, Staffordshire. An engraving of the portrait is subjoined. Of this interesting relic Mrs. Butt says: "The ring has been much worn, but the lettering is quite legible. The red cornelian is also slightly scratched, but the portrait is perfect and uninjured.”

A snuff-box is in possession of a gentleman in Edinburgh bearing the following inscription:

"This Box, with a Copy of his Published Works, was sent by

Alexander Pope, Esq., the Poet, accompanied by a written Note, in which he claimed a distant Relationship to my Grandfather (on my Mother's side), the Rev. Alexander Pope, Minister of Reay, Thurso, Caithness, who was himself something of a literary character:-the Books, so received were, on the Death of Mrs. Pope (who survived her Husband), taken away by Relatives of the Family, who usually attend on such occasions-and the NOTE, also, which my eldest Brother distinctly recollected to have often seen and read during my Grandfather's life:

"The loss of this latter Memento, of a very eminent Man, is to me as now the only Male Representative of both Father and Mother's Families-a source of deep regret.

"Edinburgh, April, 1854."

JAS. CAMPBELL,
Ass'. Commissary Gen1.

This box is a handsome one, gilt, and with an allegorical scene in relief on the lid. Mr. Campbell has been misinformed as to the note written by the poet: there was no relationship between the parties. We have now before us a statement, dated August, 1822, and written by Mr. William Pope, nephew of the Caithness clergyman, in which he says: "We claimed no kindred with the poet, well knowing that we were the descendants of a very different family." The nephew states that his uncle, on his visit to London, was introduced to Lord Bolingbroke, who invited him to dinner in company with the poet, and that they advised him to abandon the Church of Scotland and come to England with his family, and qualify himself for entering the English Church. This advice the minister declined to follow.

The drawing of the Prodigal Son, by Pope, in the possession of the Rev. Thompson Stoneham, Ketley, by Wellington, Salop, was engraved, as stated in the text (antè, page 90), for an edition of the Essay on Man, printed in 1748. There may have been an earlier impression, as the plate is dated in 1744. At the close of his introductory " Advertisement" to the Essay, Warburton says: "The reader will excuse my adding a word concerning the frontispiece; which, as it was designed and drawn by Mr. Pope himself, would be a kind of curiosity, had not the excellence of the thought otherwise recommended it. We see it represents the vanity of human glory in the false pursuits after happiness; where the ridicule in the curtain-cobweb, the death's head crowned

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