Antony Alsop, respecting whom a query appears in No. 14. p. 215., was of
Christchurch, under the famous Dr. Aldrich, by whom the practice of
smoking was so much enjoyed and encouraged. The celebrated Sapphic ode,
addressed by Alsop to Sir John Dolben, professes to have been written
with a pipe in his mouth:--
"Dum tubum, ut mos est meus, ore versans,
Martiis pensans quid agam calendas,
Pone stat Sappho monitisque miscet
Blanda severis."
Ant. Alsop took his degree of M.A. March 23. 1696, B.D. Dec. 1706. He
died June 10, 1726; and the following notice of his death appears in the
_Historical Register_ for that year:--
"Dy'd Mr. Antony Alsop, Prebendary of Winchester, and Rector of
Brightwell, in the county of Berks. He was killed by falling into a
ditch that led to his garden door, the path being narrow, and part of it
foundering under his feet."
I believe Alsop was not the author of a volume by a gentleman of Trinity
College, and that he never was a member of that society; but that doubt
is easily removed by reference to the entry of his matriculation at
Oxford.