an account of these transactions, in Egerton’s (i. e. Curlls’s) Life of Mrs. Oldfield, p. 122. See also Major Pack’s Memoirs of Wycherley, and Pope’s letter soon after his death.—[Other writers vary this story considerably, and some with inaccurate details.]
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Mrs. Martha Fowke, alias Sansom, in her extraordinary memoirs of her own life, in which she gives a history of various lovers, says, p. 67:—“Here, at Bath (about 1714), I became acquainted with Mr. Wycherley, who had wit without politeness; and a levity improper for his age—seventy-four, it appears. He was very little to my taste. I was much more to his; and would love have consented, I might have been wife to that poet; but my heart was averse.”—Clio, or the Secret History of the Life and Amours of the late celebrated Mrs. S—n—m, written by Herself, 8vo, 1752. It is singular that she also was a native of Hertingfordbury. Wycherleys paternal estate was situated at Cleve in Shropshire, about five miles from Shrewsbury, and was worth 600l. per annum.
Mr. Flood wrote and printed an Ode to Fame in 1775, which (ninety-four lines) has considerable merit. Also a translation of The first Pythian Ode of Pindar, about 150 lines. These, and some of his speeches, were presented (to Malone) by himself.
The speeches, says the latter, “On the Declaratory Act of Geo. II., 11th June, 1782;” and on Mr. Grattan’s ‘‘Simple Repeal,” are in my collection of Tracts, vol. 57. Those on the “Commercial
