" The writer adds, "I shall hope
to see you this evening, as late as you will, or to-morrow morning as
early, _before this winter flower is faded_."
On the small obelisk in the garden, erected by Pope to the memory of his
mother, he placed the following simple and pathetic inscription.
AH! EDITHA!
MATRUM OPTIMA!
MULIERUM AMANTISSIMA!
VALE!
I wonder that any one could have had the heart to remove or to destroy
so interesting a memorial.
It is said that Pope planted his celebrated weeping willow at Twickenham
with his own hands, and that it was the first of its particular species
introduced into England. Happening to be with Lady Suffolk when she
received a parcel from Spain, he observed that it was bound with green
twigs which looked as if they might vegetate. "Perhaps," said he, "these
may produce something that we have not yet in England." He tried a
cutting, and it succeeded. The tree was removed by some person as
barbarous as the reverend gentleman who cut down Shakespeare's Mulberry
Tree. The Willow was destroyed for the same reason, as the Mulberry
Tree--because the owner was annoyed at persons asking to see it. The
Weeping Willow
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream,[013]
has had its interest with people in general much increased by its
association with the history of Napoleon in the Island of St.
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