and conversations, and Gildon wrote a thing about Wycherley, in
which he had abused both me and my relations very grossly. Lord
Warwick himself told me one day that it was in vain for me to
endeavour to be well with Mr. Addison; that his jealous temper would
never admit of a settled friendship between us; and, to convince me
of what he had said, assured me that Addison had encouraged Gildon
to publish those scandals, and had given him ten guineas after they
were published. The next day, while I was heated with what I had
heard, I wrote a letter to Mr. Addison, to let him know that I was
not unacquainted with this behaviour of his; that if I was to speak
severely of him in return for it, it should not be in such a dirty
way; that I should rather tell him himself fairly of his faults, and
allow his good qualities; and that it should be something in the
following manner. I then adjoined the first sketch of what has
since been called my satire on Addison. Mr Addison used me very
civilly ever after."

The verses on Addison, when they were sent to Atterbury, were
considered by him as the most excellent of Pope's performances; and
the writer was advised, since he knew where his strength lay, not to
suffer it to remain unemployed. This year (1715), being by the
subscription enabled to live more by choice, having persuaded his
father to sell their estate at Binfield, he purchased, I think only
for his life, that house at Twickenham to which his residence
afterwards procured so much celebration, and removed thither with
his father and mother. Here he planted the vines and the quincunx
which his verses mention; and being under the necessity of making a
subterraneous passage to a garden on the other side of the road, he
adorned it with fossil bodies, and dignified it with the title of a
grotto; a place of silence and retreat, from which he endeavoured to