Friendship was an important concept for Pope and a major element in his versions of the desirable self. Eighteenth-century schoolboys learnt from Cicero of the moral strength which radiated out from a properly maintained friendship, and as adults many, like Pope, put great energy into preserving ties with some kindred spirit. The best known and most intimate of these relationships, in the case of Pope, were his dealings with the Scriblerus group, headed by Swift, Arbuthnot and Gay. But earlier on there were mentors such as Trumbull, Garth and Wycherley; whilst in his later life Pope developed close friendships with men such as Bolingbroke, Orrery and Lyttelton. (His relations with women have been studied by Valerie Rumbold, and as seen above, pp. 161–6, involve slightly different issues.) However, Pope also enjoyed links with less celebrated individuals, and it is one such subset in his friendship – previously unexplored – which is the theme of this chapter.

Recently there have been a number of signs that the contributions of the third Earl of Burlington to English culture has been more widely recognized. An index of this growing appreciation of Burlington came in the exhibition mounted by the University of Nottingham in January 1973. The exhibition catalogue, entitled ‘Apollo of the Arts: Lord Burlington and his Circle’, constituted in itself an important advance in our understanding of early eighteenth-century taste. Essays by John Wilton-Ely, Peter Willis, Stanley Boorman and Clive Probyn took as their respective themes Burlington's connections with architecture, landscape design, music and literature. In showing Burlington's centrality, however, the catalogue perhaps did something to conceal one pertinent fact about Burlington's influence.