cient sense, and knows the
town."

After Dryden's death, in 1701, Will's continued for about ten years
to be still the Wits' Coffee-house, as we see by Ned Ward's
account, and by the "Journey through England" in 1722.

Pope entered with keen relish into society, and courted the
correspondence of the town wits and coffee-house critics. Among his
early friends was Mr. Henry Cromwell, one of the _cousinry_ of the
Protector's family: he was a bachelor, and spent most of his time
in London; he had some pretensions to scholarship and literature,
having translated several of Ovid's Elegies, for Tonson's
Miscellany. With Wycherly, Gay, Dennis, the popular actors and
actresses of the day, and with all the frequenters of Will's,
Cromwell was familiar. He had done more than take a pinch out of
Dryden's snuff-box, which was a point of high ambition and honor at
Will's; he had quarrelled with him about a frail poetess, Mrs.
Elizabeth Thomas, whom Dryden had christened Corinna, and who was
also known as Sappho. Gay characterized this literary and eccentric
beau as

Honest, hatless Cromwell, with red breeches:

it being his custom to carry his hat in his hand when walking with
ladies. What with ladies and literature, rehearsals and reviews,
and critical attention to the quality of his coffee and Brazil
snuff, Henry Cromwell's time was fully occupied in town. Cromwell
was a dangerous acquaintance for Pope at the age of sixteen or
seventeen, but he was a very agreeable one. Most of Pope's letters
to his friends are addressed to him at the Blue Hall, in Great
Wild-street, near Drury Lane, and others to "Widow Hambledon's
Coffee-house, at the end of Princes-street, near Drury-lane,
London." Cromwell made one visit to Binfield; on his return to
London, Pope wrote to him, "referring to the ladies in particular,"
and to his favorite coffee.

* * * * *

Will's was the great resort for the wits of Dryden's time, after
whose death it was transferred to Button's. Pope describes the
houses as "opposite each other, in Russell-street, Covent Garden,"
where Addison established Daniel Button, in a new house, about
1712; and his fame, after the production of _Cato_, drew many of
the Whigs thither. Button had been servant to the Coun