( 9 )
to all this oppression, submitted to imprisonment rather than pay the damages. This he did most heroically, and has suffered the long imprisonment of eleven years and three months.
In the course of this period, Mr. Pope's affairs wore very different complexions; and at one time he might have got his liberty for a thousand pounds, but he remained inflexible, and sent them word, that this would be acknowledging the justness of their debt, which he would die sooner than do. And he kept his word.
Mr. Pope, in prison, had many opportunities of indulging those propensities he had all his life been remarkable for. He looked always at the pint pot of small beer before he paid for it, to see that it was full; a measure that in him was somewhat excusable, as the pint lasted him generally two days, water being his common drink; and as to strong beer, it used to be a note of admiration among his fellow-prisoners, when he drank any with them at their apartments; but as for his sending for any for himself, of that he never was guiity.
He always bought his three-farthing candle by weight, taking the heaviest of six, eight or ten, for his money.
In all his near twelve years, he never had a joint of meat at his table; his greatest luxury was a groat plate from the cook’s shop, and that served him for two meals generally: but in these points he was not much at a loss, for his family, though living at a great distance, knowing of his penurious disposition, sent to him frequently a very comfortable and proper supply; and on these occasions, he has even been known someetimes to give some leavings to his errand girl, or else to some distressed object.
To do justice to so eccentric a character as Mr Pope, it is proper to state, that, while in trade, he had early begun the benevolent practice of giving away every week, a stone, and better, of meat among his workmen and poor neighbours; and this practice he never left off, (illegible text) when he was every day weighing his candle, (illegible text) after the measure of his final beer.
