there was no danger.—­In which passage however, he found a great obstacle in the rocks, by which that river seemed impassible; but on these he ordered fires to be made, when by the lowness of the river they were most expos’d; and then had quantities of water thrown upon them:  Which method being repeated with the help of proper tools, they were broke in pieces and thrown down, which made the passage easy for the floats.

This affair was carried on to a very good account, till those concern’d thought proper to call off the men and horses from the woods of Abernethy, in order to employ them in their lead mines in the same country; from which they hoped to make greater advantage.

The magistrates of Inverness paid him the compliment of making him a present of the freedom of that place (at an elegant entertainment made by them on that occasion) a favour likewise offered him at Aberdeen, &c.

After a stay of several months in the Highlands, during which time he visited the duke and duchess of Gordon, who distinguished him with great civilities, he went to York, and other places in that country; where his wife then was, with some relations, for the recovery of her health; but his staying longer there (on that account) than he intended, had like to have proved of unhappy consequence; by giving room for some, who imagined (as they wished) that he would not return, to be guilty of a breach of trust that aimed at the destruction of great part of what he then was worth; but they were disappointed.

In that retirement in the North, he wrote a poem intitled, The Progress of Wit, a Caveat for the use of an eminent Writer.  It was composed of the genteelest praise, and keenest allegorical satire; and it gave no small uneasiness to Mr. Pope:  Who had indeed drawn it upon himself, by being the aggressor in his Dunciad.—­This afterwards occasioned a private paper-war between those writers, in which ’tis generally thought that Mr. Hill had greatly the advantage of Mr. Pope.  For the particulars, the reader is referred to a shilling pamphlet lately published by Owen, containing Letters between Mr. Pope and Mr. Hill, &c.

The progress of wit begins with the eight following lines, wherein the SNEAKINGLY APPROVES affected Mr. Pope extreamly.

  Tuneful Alexis on the Thames’ fair side,
  The Ladies play-thing, and the Muses pride,
  With merit popular, with wit polite,
  Easy tho’ vain, and elegant tho’ light: 
  Desiring, and deserving other’s praise,
  Poorly accepts a fame he ne’er repays: 
  Unborn to cherish, SNEAKINGLY APPROVES,
  And wants the soul to spread the worth he loves.

During their controversy, Mr. Pope seemed to express his repentance, by denying the offence he had given; thus, in one of his letters, he says,

’That the letters A.H. were apply’d to you in the papers I did not know (for I seldom read them) I heard it only from Mr. Savage[4], as from yourself, and sent my assurances to the contrary:  But I don’t see how the annotator on the D. could have rectified that mistake publicly, without particularizing your name in a book where I thought it too good to be inserted, &c.[5].’