r heard of.
His _published_ life--his published speeches, give you no idea of the
man--none at all. He was a _machine_ of imagination, as some one said
that Prior was an epigrammatic machine." Upon another occasion, Byron
said, "the riches of Curran's Irish imagination were exhaustless. I have
heard that man speak more poetry than I have ever seen written--though I
saw him seldom, and but occasionally. I saw him presented to Madame de
Stael, at Mackintosh's--it was the grand confluence between the Rhone
and the Saone; they were both so d----d ugly, that I could not help
wondering how the best intellects of France and Ireland could have taken
up respectively such residences."

* * * * *

COWLEY AT CHERTSEY.

The poet Cowley died at the Porch House, Chertsey, on the 21st of July,
1667. There is a curious letter preserved of his condition when he
removed here from Barn Elms. It is addressed to Dr. Sprat, dated
Chertsey, 21 May, 1665, and is as follows:--

"The first night that I came hither I caught so great a cold, with
a defluxion of rheum, as made me keep my chamber ten days. And,
too, after had such a bruise on my ribs with a fall, that I am yet
unable to move or turn myself in bed. This is my personal fortune
here to begin with. And besides, I can get no money from my tenants,
and have my meadows eaten up every night by cattle put in by my
neighbours. What this signifies, or may come to in time, God knows!
if it be ominous, it can end in nothing but hanging."----"I do hope
to recover my hurt so farre within five or six days (though it be
uncertain yet whether I shall ever recover it) as to walk about
again. And then, methinks, you and I and _the Dean_ might be very
merry upon St. Ann's Hill. You might very conveniently come hither
by way of Hampton Town, lying there one night. I write this in
pain, and can say no more.--_Verbum sapienti._"

It is stated, by Sprat, that the last illness of Cowley was owing to his
having taken cold through staying too long among his labourers in the
meadows; but, in Spence's _Anecdotes_ we are informed, (on the authority
of Pope,) that "his death was occasioned by a mere accident whilst his
great friend, Dean Sprat, was with him on a visit at Chertsey. They had
been together to see a neighbour of Cowley's, who, (according to the
fashion of those times,) made them too welcome. They did not set o