able number being assembled in the quadrangle to see Mr. Gray, who was seldom seen. I asked, he added, Mr. Gray, to the great dismay of his companions, "What he thought of 'Garrick's Jubilee Ode' just published?" He answered, "I am easily pleased."

The political opinions of Gray, Walpole said he never understood. Sometimes he seemed inclined to the side of authority, and sometimes to that of the people. "I remember in one of his manuscript letters his saying, 'You know how much I dislike the spirit of trade,' which was then rapidly increasing." In conversation, Walpole says, "that Gray was so circumspect in his usual language, that it seemed unnatural, though only pure English." And in a letter to George Montague, he writes, "I agree with you most absolutely in your opinion about Gray: he is the worst company in the world, from a melancholy turn, from living reclusely, and from a little too much dignity: he never converses easily; all his words are measured and chosen, and formed into sentences." And again; "My Lady Ailesbury has been much diverted, and so will you too. Gray is in their neighbourhood. My Lady Carlisle says, He is extremely like me in his manner. They went on a party to dine on a cold loaf, and passed the day. Lady A. protests he never opened his lips but once, and then only said, 'Yes, my lady, I believe

F

so.'" Mr. Nicholls, who made a tour with him, as has been mentioned, the year before his death, says, "That with the society at Malvern, he had neither inclination to mix much in conversation, nor much facility, had he been willing. This arose partly from natural reserve, and which is called shyness, and partly from having lived retired in the University during so great a part of his life; where he had lost, as he told me himself, the versatility of his mind." This account is probably true enough, as regards mixed company and general society; but when it was worth his while to talk-when his companion was a man of knowledge, and his subject one of interest, we shall find a very different relation of his conversational nabits. "Gray's letters," says Dr. Beattie, "very much resemble what his conversation was: he had none of the airs either of a scholar or a poet; and though on these, and on all other subjects, he spoke to me with the utmost freedom, and without any reserve, he was in general company much more silent than one could have wished." He writes to Sir W. Forbes; "I am sorry you did not see Mr. Gray on his return; you would have been much pleased with him. Setting aside his merit as a poet (which, however, is greater in my opinion than any of his contemporaries can boast, in this or any other nation), I find him possessed of the most exact taste, the soundest judgment,

and the most extensive learning. He is happy in a singular facility of expression. His composition abounds with original observations, delivered in no appearance of sententious formality, and seeming to arise spontaneously, without study or premeditation. I passed two days with him at Glammis, and found him as easy in his manner, and as communicative and frank as I could have wished."*

Soon after Gray's death, a character of him was drawn up and printed by the Rev. Mr. Temple, of whom the reader will find some account in the correspondence which has been lately published between Gray and Mr. Nicholls. This account was adopted both by Mr. Mason and Dr. Johnson, as impartial and accurate; and Boswell says, that Mr. Temple knew Gray well. The following is an extract from it :-"Perhaps Mr. Gray was the most learned man in Europe. He was equally acquainted with the elegant and proper parts of science, and that not superficially, but thoroughly. He knew every branch of history, both natural and civil; had read all the original histories of England, France, and Italy; was a great antiquarian. Criticism, metaphysics, morals, politics, made a principal part of his study. Voyages and travels of all sorts were his favourite amusement; and he

* See Life of Beattie, by Sir W. Forbes, Vol. II. p. 321.

had a fine taste in prints, paintings, architecture, and gardening.* With such a fund of knowledge, his conversation must have been equally instructive and entertaining. There is no character without some speck or imperfection; and I think the greatest defect in his was, an affectation of delicacy, or rather effeminacy, and a visible fastidiousness, or contempt and disdain of his inferiors in science. He had also in some degree that weakness, which disgusted Voltaire so much in Congreve. Though he seemed to value others chiefly according to the progress they had made in knowledge, yet he would rather not be considered merely as a man of letters; and though without birth, fortune, or station, his desire was to be looked upon as that of a private independent gentleman, who read for his amusement," &c.

* This is very incorrect. Gray always disclaimed any skill in gardening, and held it in little estimation, declaring himself only charmed with the wilder parts of unadorned nature. See also "Mason's English Garden,” Book III. 25. It was mountain scenery in which he delighted. I remember in one of his MS. Letters, after he had returned from the Highlands of Scotland, his burst of delight, and saying—“One ought to go there every year." Sir James Mackintosh observed, in a letter to a friend, "In the beautiful scenery of Bolton Abbey, where I have been since I began this note, I am struck by the recollection of a sort of merit in Gray, which is not generally observed; that he was the first discoverer of the beauties of nature in England, and has marked out the course of every picturesque journey that can be made in it."

Towards the end of the year 1769, Mr. Nicholls introduced Mr. de Bonstetten, then a youth, in a letter from Bath, to Gray's notice. He resided at Cambridge some months, during which time he enjoyed daily the society of Gray, who appears to

have been quite captivated by the disposition and manners of the young foreigner. Sixty years after this time, and just before his death, Bonstetten printed a little volume of his Recollections, and the following very curious account of Gray is to be