He laid out the grounds, built a grotto, and made his villa a famous spot.
Here he was smitten by the masculine charms of the gifted Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who figures in many of his verses, and particularly in the closing lines of the _Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard_.

It was a singular alliance, destined to a speedy rupture.

On her return from Turkey, in 1718, where her husband had been the English ambassador, she took a home near Pope's villa, and, at his request, sat for her portrait.

When, later, they became estranged, she laughed at the poet, and his coldness turned into hatred.
THE ODYSSEY .-- The success of his version of the Iliad led to his translation of the Odyssey; but this he did with the collaboration of Fenton and Broome, the former writing four and the latter six books.

The volumes appeared successively in 1725-6, and there was an appendix containing the _Batrachomiomachia_, or Battle of the Frogs and Mice, translated by Parnell.