neighbourhood of Windsor Forest. He is said to have put his money in a
strong box, and to have lived on the principal. His great delight was in
his garden; and both he and his wife seem to have cherished the warmest
interest in their son, who was very delicate in health, and their only
child. Pope's study is still preserved in Binfield; and on the lawn, a
cypress-tree which he is said to have planted, is pointed out.

Pope was a premature and precocious child. His figure was deformed--his
back humped--his stature short (four feet)--his legs and arms
disproportionably long. He was sometimes compared to a spider, and
sometimes to a windmill. The only mark of genius lay in his bright and
piercing eye. He was sickly in constitution, and required and received
great tenderness and care. Once, when three years old, he narrowly
escaped from an angry cow, but was wounded in the throat. He was
remarkable as a child for his amiable temper; and from the sweetness of
his voice, received the name of the Little Nightingale. His aunt gave
him his first lessons in reading, and he soon became an enthusiastic
lover of books; and by copying printed characters, taught himself to
write. When eight years old, he was placed under the care of the family
priest, one Bannister, who taught him the Latin and Greek grammars
together. He was next removed to a Catholic seminary at Twyford, near
Winchester; and while there, read Ogilby's "Homer" and Sandys's "Ovid"
with great delight. He had not been long at this school till he wrote a
severe lampoon, of two hundred lines' length, on his master--so truly
was the "boy the father of the man"--for which demi-Dunciad he was
severely flogged. His father, offended at this, removed him to a London
school, kept by a Mr Deane. This man taught the poet nothing; but his
residence in London gave him the opportunity of attending the theatres.
With these he was so captivated, that he wrote a kind of play, which was
acted by his schoolfellows, consisting of speeches from Ogilby's