George is said to have called him a very honest man after reading his Dunciad; but Pope's references to his Sovereign were not complimentary.

There was a report, referred to by Swift, that Pope had purposely avoided a visit from Queen Caroline.

He was on very friendly terms with Mrs.Howard--afterwards Lady Suffolk--the powerless mistress, who was intimate with two of his chief friends, Bathurst and Peterborough, and who settled at Marble Villa, in Twickenham.

Pope and Bathurst helped to lay out her grounds, and she stayed there to become a friendly neighbour of Horace Walpole, who, unluckily for lovers of gossip, did not become a Twickenhamite until three years after Pope's death.

Pope was naturally more allied with the Prince of Wales, who occasionally visited him, and became intimate with the band of patriots and enthusiasts who saw in the heir to the throne the coming "patriot king." Bolingbroke, too, the great inspirer of the opposition, and Pope's most revered friend, was for ten years at Dawley, within an easy drive.