Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Autograph letter signed (‘A. Pope’) to ‘Mr [John] Brinsden’, Twickenham (‘Twitnam’), 30 June [1742]
1 page, 195 x 159mm, bifolium, integral address leaf with remains of red seal. Provenance: Sotheby's, 12 June 1899; Library of Samuel A. Boyle; Sotheby's, 14 February 1930; Arthur A. Houghton, Jnr (1906-1990); his sale, Christie's, 11 & 12 June 1980, lot 386.

A document of Pope’s relationship with Bolingbroke’s secretary, John Brinsden. Pope apologises that he has been unable to visit Brinsden at Chelsea, where he has been housebound for some time due to illness. Pope has ‘a whole family of visitors, who do not leave me these five days yet’, so he has not been able to make the journey. Pope asks Brinsden ‘to give Holms the waterman the fourscore pounds I left with you’. However, he notes in a postscript that he is instead sending ‘John, y^r faithful servant, for y^e notes’.

I have been much concern'd not to have a day in my power to see you in y^r Confinement, w^ch I am heartily sorry to find continued. But I have a whole family of Visiters, who do not leave me these five days yet, after w^ch nothing shall hinder me. I attempted the only day I had in London, to get to Chelsea, but could not, so as not to be in the night.

Pope had been living at his villa in Twickenham since 1719. He was guarded about his physical infirmity, which made travel difficult and might been a further reason for his not travelling to Chelsea. Brinsden’s master was Henry St John, 1^st Viscount Bolingbroke, the Tory leader, political philosopher and notorious bon-vivant. He was a friend and patron of Pope, whose Essay on Man (1734) is dedicated to him.