hese saw the other three,
which were written as they here stand with the Essay, anno 1704. AEtatis
meae 16. The alterations from this copy were upon the objections of some
of these, or my own." In his published list of the persons who had read
the Pastorals in manuscript, Pope has added the names of Wycherley and
Lord Somers, and omitted the names of Congreve, Southern, Sir H. Sheers,
Lord Wharton, the Marquis of Dorchester, and the Duke of Buckingham. His
chief adviser seems to have been Walsh, who, of all his admiring
friends, gave him, he says, the greatest encouragement. "I cannot," Pope
wrote to him July 2, 1706, "omit the first opportunity of making you my
acknowledgments for reviewing these papers of mine. You have no less
right to correct me than the same hand that raised a tree has to prune
it." The Richardson collection contains a manuscript in which the poet
has transcribed from his Pastorals the various lines he thought
defective, and after stating his own objection to them, and subjoining
amended readings, he referred the task of selection to Walsh, who has
jotted down his decisions at the bottom of Pope's remarks. Both will be
found in the notes on the passages to which the comments of the author
and his critic relate.

There is no evidence, except the poet's own assertion, to prove that the
Pastorals were composed at the age of sixteen. They had been seen by
Walsh before April 20, 1705, if any dependence could be placed upon the
letter of that date which he wrote to Wycherly, when returning the
manuscript, but the letter rests on the authority of Pope alone, and
there is reason to question the correctness of the date. The letter of
Walsh to Wycherley concludes with the expression of a desire to be made
acquainted with Pope. "If," adds Walsh, "he will give himself the
trouble any morning to call at my house I shall be very glad to read the
verses over with him." The next letter is from Walsh to Pope, and the
opening sentence shows that his correspondence with the poet had only
just commenced. It appears from what follows that they had met in
London, that Walsh had carried Pope's verses into the country, and that
these verses were three of the Pastorals. Walsh expresses a hope that
when he returns to town, Pope will have some fresh verses to show him,
"for I make no doubt," he says, "but any one who writes so well, must
write more." These particulars evidently refer to the period when Walsh
first became acq