18                                   Robert Halsband

and Pope. Lord Carnarvon is the source for the story that
"the nine ladies used to amuse themselves by standing in niches in
the grotto, as the Nine Abuses; Pope being placed in the midst,
as Apollo." It makes a charming picture. If true, how could Pope
resist celebrating the young ladies and their grotto with a graceful
epigram?
 

Pope's grotto was actually an underground passage"wa\', connecting hi;
two gardens, and decorated with bits of mineral and mirror.