A letter from Jervas gives the plan of one such jaunt (in 1715) with Arbuthnot and Disney for companions.

Arbuthnot is to be commander-in-chief, and allows only a shirt and a cravat to be carried in each traveller's pocket.

They are to make a moderate journey each day, and stay at the houses of various friends, ending ultimately at Bath.

Another letter of about the same date describes a ride to Oxford, in which Pope is overtaken by his publisher, Lintot, who lets him into various secrets of the trade, and proposes that Pope should turn an ode of Horace whilst sitting under the trees to rest.

"Lord, if you pleased, what a clever miscellany might you make at leisure hours!" exclaims the man of business; and though Pope laughed at the advice, we might fancy that he took it to heart.