Alexander Pope at Bevois Mount
ALEXANDER POPE probably first met the Earl of Peterborough in 1722. He was already a successful and admired poet and his expressive and vivacious personality drew people to him in spite of his twisted body caused by a tubercular disease suffered during his youth. The inquisitive nature of Peterborough’s mind and his warmth and generosity attracted not only Pope but several other writers to him; Gay, Voltaire, Arbuthnot, Swift and several more were of his circle.
Pope and Peterborough shared a love of horticulture and the friendship of opera diva, Anastasia Robinson, who became the unacknowledged Countess of Peterborough. At first Pope visited him at his house in Parsons Green, Fulham, but in later years the poet would spend weeks on end at the earl’s Southampton estate, Bevois Mount, which he described as “beautiful beyond imagination”. His host, with Pope’s active participation, covered a gravelly hill with exquisite gardens and laced them with paths “so prettily diversfiy’d that it appears to be a very large garden, tho’ in reality it is a very small spot”. One of the paths came to be known as Pope’s Walk.
Pope spent six weeks at Bevois Mount In 1734. He wrote to the earl of Oxford that Bevois Mount had “the best Sea fish and River fish in the world, much tranquillity, some Reading, no Politiques, admirable Melons, an excellent Bowling-green and Ninepin alley”. He found the summerhouse on top of the mount a very congenial place to write. In a letter to Arbuthnot he says, “ I write this from the most beautiful Top of a Hill I ever saw, a little house that overlooks the Sea, Southampton & the Isle of Wight; where I study, write, and have what Leisure I please”.
His visit to Bevois Mount in 1735 was a less happy one. Peterborough, had been suffering from the stone and had even undergone an operation in Bristol, in these surgically primitive times, in an attempt to alleviate his condition. He returned to Bevois Mount to recuperate but it soon became clear that recovery was unlikely. The earl called for his old friend to join him which Pope did although he was by now in poor health himself and travelling was onerous for him. The poet described in letters the torment that Peterborough was suffering. The earl had by now acknowledged Anastasia as his wife and extracted a promise from Pope that he would return to Bevois Mount, not only to carry out landscaping works that they had planned together, but also to maintain his friendship with Lady Peterborough. There is evidence that he kept this promise, his last visit to Southampton being in 1740. Lastly Peterborough gave Pope his watch, which had been a gift from Victor Amadeus II, king of Sardinia. Pope had it suitably inscribed and wore it for the rest of his life.
Shortly afterwards the earl set sail with Anastasia in the fruitless hope that warmer climes might improve his health. He died in Lisbon on the 25th October.
Pope and Peterborough shared a love of horticulture and the friendship of opera diva, Anastasia Robinson, who became the unacknowledged Countess of Peterborough. At first Pope visited him at his house in Parsons Green, Fulham, but in later years the poet would spend weeks on end at the earl’s Southampton estate, Bevois Mount, which he described as “beautiful beyond imagination”. His host, with Pope’s active participation, covered a gravelly hill with exquisite gardens and laced them with paths “so prettily diversfiy’d that it appears to be a very large garden, tho’ in reality it is a very small spot”. One of the paths came to be known as Pope’s Walk.
Pope spent six weeks at Bevois Mount In 1734. He wrote to the earl of Oxford that Bevois Mount had “the best Sea fish and River fish in the world, much tranquillity, some Reading, no Politiques, admirable Melons, an excellent Bowling-green and Ninepin alley”. He found the summerhouse on top of the mount a very congenial place to write. In a letter to Arbuthnot he says, “ I write this from the most beautiful Top of a Hill I ever saw, a little house that overlooks the Sea, Southampton & the Isle of Wight; where I study, write, and have what Leisure I please”.
His visit to Bevois Mount in 1735 was a less happy one. Peterborough, had been suffering from the stone and had even undergone an operation in Bristol, in these surgically primitive times, in an attempt to alleviate his condition. He returned to Bevois Mount to recuperate but it soon became clear that recovery was unlikely. The earl called for his old friend to join him which Pope did although he was by now in poor health himself and travelling was onerous for him. The poet described in letters the torment that Peterborough was suffering. The earl had by now acknowledged Anastasia as his wife and extracted a promise from Pope that he would return to Bevois Mount, not only to carry out landscaping works that they had planned together, but also to maintain his friendship with Lady Peterborough. There is evidence that he kept this promise, his last visit to Southampton being in 1740. Lastly Peterborough gave Pope his watch, which had been a gift from Victor Amadeus II, king of Sardinia. Pope had it suitably inscribed and wore it for the rest of his life.
Shortly afterwards the earl set sail with Anastasia in the fruitless hope that warmer climes might improve his health. He died in Lisbon on the 25th October.