Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Pope, and the York Connection

Abstract

Both of the writers involved in a famous literary quarrel, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Alexander Pope, had a number of contacts with Yorkshire, largely ignored until now. For Montagu, these include her residence in York in 1713–1714, adjacent to what became the Knavesmire course; her youthful involvement in racing; her support of attempts by her husband, Edward Wortley Montagu, to obtain a parliamentary seat in the county, as late as 1734; and the ongoing presence throughout the couple’s career of figures prominent in the political and sporting life of the district, some of them from families well known to Montagu from her childhood. For Pope the relevant data spring from his lasting friendship with the local magnate, Lord Burlington, and his close relations with a set of Burlingtonian devotees based around York, with whom he discussed local affairs. Matters came to a head in 1731 and 1732, with Pope’s controversial Epistle to Burlington, together with its hostile reception; a satirical response from Pope to his critics, A Master Key to Popery, also little explored in scholarship; and the first meeting at the Knavesmire course, together with the opening of the York Assembly Rooms, designed by Burlington. These two events, widely reported in the press, were attended by groups familiar to Montagu and to Pope. Detailed analysis suggests that an unexplained reference to ‘Lady Knaves-Acre’ in Pope’s Master Key may well be another barb directed at Montagu, that proceeds from his knowledge of some key episodes connecting her with Yorkshire.