Representing the data this way allows one to see how authors differ. Richardson is recorded for more first usages than Pope – does that mean he was more lexically innovative? Perhaps because he was using the epistolary form? While Pope was more inclined, in his translations from Homer at any rate, to favour archaisms? Looking at the detail of the evidence would appear to back this hypothesis up (but caution is required: we are dealing with OED-filtered data rather than primary material).