THE EARL OF ORRERY TO MR. POPE.
I AM more and more convinced that your letters are neither lost nor burnt; but who the dean means by a safe hand in Ireland is beyond my power of guessing, though I am particularly acquainted with most, if not all, of his friends. As I know you had the recovery of those letters at heart, I took more than ordinary pains to find out where they were; but my inquiries were to no purpose; and, I fear, whoever has them is too tenacious of them to discover where they lie. "Mrs. Whiteway did assure me she had not one of them; and seemed to be under great uneasiness, that you should imagine they were left with her. She likewise told me she had stopped the dean's letter which gave you that information, but believed he would write such another; and therefore desired me to assure you, from her, that she was totally ignorant where they were."
You may say what you please, either to the dean or any other person, of what I have told you. I am ready to testify it; and I think it ought to be known, "That the dean says they are delivered into a safe hand; and Mrs. Whiteway[1] declares
" she
manded
