ABSTRACT
In March 1719, Alexander Pope moved to the riverside villa he had rented in Twickenham and there he kept depression at bay to some extent, as he busied himself with plans for the house and garden. Pope was also in the vanguard when he created the garden at Twickenham. If the Muses no longer claimed Pope, it was not because he was any less creative than he had ever been. The plans he made for the garden at his Twickenham villa showed that. Nor was he suffering from writers' block – he still wrote short poems on personal themes, as well as the occasional, strictly anonymous, political ballad. The real Lady Mary was soon acclaimed as a leader of cultivated society in Twickenham. Pope was delighted by the finished portrait, which showed Lady Mary with dark searching eyes and a dimpled chin in her voluptuous prime.
