[4] This word originally stood as 'low-born;' but Pope (himself a linendraper's son, it will be remembered) altered it, as it is said, at Allen's request. Pope had previously asked Allen's leave to insert some such passage (28th April, 1738).

[5] Allen's sister married a Mr. Philip Elliott.

[6] For particulars, see 'Parliamentary Papers,' 1807, 1812, and 1813. The following extract from the London Gazette of 16th April, 1720, fixes the date of the commencement of the scheme: 'General Post Office, London, April 12, 1720. The announcement recites that the Post Office authorities, having granted to Ralph Allen, of Bath, gentleman, a farm of all the by-way or cross-road letters throughout England and Wales, and being determined to improve postal communication, give notice that "the postage of no by-way or cross-road letters is anywhere to be demanded at the places they are sent from (upon any pretence whatever) unless they are directed on board of a ship,"' etc., etc.

[7] Curiously enough, after the lapse of many years, it has again reverted, after a chequered history, to similar uses. It was used as a Roman Catholic seminary in 1820, but did not at first succeed; and much of the internal part was destroyed by fire in 1836.

[8] Their friendship seems to have arisen from Allen's great admiration of Pope's letters (notwithstanding their artificiality) and of his poems, of which Allen is said to have offered to print a volume at his own expense. Mr. Leslie Stephen says, 'Pope first attracted Allen's notice by his adroit but dishonest manipulation of the controversy touching the Curil correspondence.'

[9] This lady, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Holden, was Mr. Allen's second wife.

[10] In the Rebellion of 1745 he raised and equipped at his own expense a corps of 100 volunteers.

[11] Engraved by Meyer for Polwhele's 'Cornwall.'

[12] The local guide-books to Weymouth state that Allen, whilst here, invented an ingenious form of bathing-machine for his own use.

[13] Amongst other buildings, he cased the exterior of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, in London, with Bath stone, provided at his own expense; and furnished the same material for his nephew's, Thomas Daniell's house in Prince's Street, Truro.

[14] Wood was author of three architectural treatises: one of them descriptive of Bath; and another entitled 'The Origin of Building; or, the Plagiarism of the Heathens Detected, 1741.' The former work contains an elaborate, illustrated account of the mansion at Prior Park.

[15] A member of this family—a Truro man, it is believed—accompanied Sir Francis Drake in his famous voyage round the world.

[16] It may not be out of place to remark that an article on Ralph Allen in the Family Economist, and another (apparently by the same writer) in Chambers's Journal, entitled 'The Bath Post Boy,' are mere romances, with only a slight sprinkling of facts.