household of James the First's queen, Anne; and if he had a _pension_ on
her death, it would have been from James, not from Charles.

I would also, in reference to Pope, beg leave to propound another query.

In the "Imitation of the 2nd Sat. Book I. of Horace," only to be found
in modern editions, but attributed, I fear, too justly to Pope, there is
an allusion to "poor E----s," who suffered by "_the fatal steel_," for
an intrigue with a royal mistress. E----s is no doubt _John Ellis_, and
the royal mistress the _Duchess of Cleveland_. (See Lord Dover's
Introduction to the "Ellis Correspondence," and "Anecdotes of the Ellis
Family," _Gent. Mag_. 1769. p. 328.) But I cannot discover any trace of
the circumstances alluded to by Pope. Yet Ellis was a considerable man
in his day;--he had been Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in
the reign of Charles II., and was Under-Secretary of State under William
III.; he is said to have afterwards sunk into the humbler character
{246} of a "London magistrate," and to have "died in 1788, at 93 or 95,
immensely rich." I should be glad of any clue to Pope's allusion.

J.W.C.

Feb 12. 1850.


* * * * *
"Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow;
The rest is all but leather and prunello."

_Essay on Man_, Epistle IV. 203.