The advice doubtless impressed the young man as the echo of his own convictions.

Walsh died (1708), before the effect of his suggestion had become fully perceptible.
The acquaintance with Walsh was due to Wycherley, who had submitted Pope's Pastorals to his recognized critical authority.

Pope's intercourse with Wycherley and another early friend, Henry Cromwell, had a more important bearing upon his early career.

He kept up a correspondence with each of these friends, whilst he was still passing through his probationary period; and the letters published long afterwards under singular circumstances to be hereafter related, give the fullest revelation of his character and position at this time.

Both Wycherley and Cromwell were known to the Englefields of Whiteknights, near Reading, a Catholic family, in which Pope first made the acquaintance of Martha Blount, whose mother was a daughter of the old Mr.Englefield of the day.