I am ever, yours faithfully,
A. Pope
Twitnam. Nov 2 (1738).
My other three Pope letters are unknown. They are addressed to Mr. Bethel on Tower Hill, London, Mr. Charles Ford in Park Place, and Mr. Jonathan Richardson, of Queen Square, London. The last-named was catalogued last year as written to Samuel Richardson. I gave £5 for it. Mr. Barker valued it at £8 in 1891. It provides an antidote to the unkind things Pope wrote about "Sulphureous" Bath on other occasions:—
Bath. November 14. 1742.
De Sir,—The whole purpose of this is only to tell you that the length of my stay at this distance from you, has not made me unmindful of you; and that I think you have regard enough for me to be pleased to hear, I have been, and am, better than usual. In about a fortnight or three weeks I hope to find you as little altered as possible at yr age, as when I left you, as I am at mine. God send you all Ease, philosophical and physical.
I am your sincerely-affectionate friend and servant,
A. Pope
My services to yr Son.
The letters of Horace Walpole, who generally wrote for posterity, are valuable,[49] but by no means as costly as those of Thomas Gray. Mr. Quaritch lately showed a group of holograph letters, illustrating the "quadruple alliance" of Gray, Walpole, West, and Ashton, which began at Eton. It included two fairly long letters of Gray and Walpole. I consider the collection very cheap at £55. Here is a characteristic unpublished note written by Horace Walpole to Hannah More, while the latter was staying with the Garricks in the Adelphi:—