The Poetical Works Of Alexander Pope, Vol. 1

Excerpt

Alexander Pope was born in Lombard Street, London, on the 21st of May
1688—­the year of the Revolution.  His father was a linen-merchant, in
thriving circumstances, and said to have noble blood in his veins.  His
mother was Edith or Editha Turner, daughter of William Turner, Esq., of
York.  Mr Carruthers, in his excellent Life of the Poet, mentions that
there was an Alexander Pope, a clergyman, in the remote parish of Reay,
in Caithness, who rode all the way to Twickenham to pay his great
namesake a visit, and was presented by him with a copy of the
subscription edition of the “Odyssey,” in five volumes quarto, which is
still preserved by his descendants.  Pope’s father had made about £10,000
by trade; but being a Roman Catholic, and fond of a country life, he
retired from business shortly after the Revolution, at the early age of
forty-six.  He resided first at Kensington, and then in Binfield, in the
neighbourhood of Windsor Forest.  He is said to have put his money in a
strong box, and to have lived on the principal.  His great delight was in
his garden; and both he and his wife seem to have cherished the warmest
interest in their son, who was very delicate in health, and their only
child.  Pope’s study is still preserved in Binfield; and on the lawn, a
cypress-tree which he is said to have planted, is pointed out.