sallied out to make Mr. Gray a visit. These were Lady Schaub and Miss Harriet Speed, who afterwards married Count Very of Savoy, both persons of no common wit and vivacity. They did not find him at home. They, however, entered the house, and seemed to have caused no small alarm to the ancient mother and aunt. Having obtained pen and paper, they left an invitation from Lady Cobham to Mr. Gray, to dine with her the next day. He accordingly went, and, as we may well imagine, was very graciously received. This event gave birth to the 'Long Story,' which poem has certainly merit; but there is throughout an attempt towards humour, which is not always happily carried on, nor was it properly an ingredient in Mr. Gray's original composition. "After this, when in the country, he was continually at Stoke House; and this always happened in the summer and autumnal months. When he returned home late in the evening, he was obliged to pass by the churchyard, which was almost close to the house, and he would sometimes deviate into it, and there spent a melancholy moment. The stillness and solemnity of the season after sunset, and the numerous dead deposited before his eyes, afforded room to a person of his turn for much contemplation. His own pensive mood, and the gloomy yet pleasing ideas which then arose, are described by him in the poem which was styled 'An Elegy written in a Churchyard.' It was certainly conceived there, and many of the stanzas probably there composed, when the awful scene was before his eyes; but the whole took up much time before it was completed. This is a composition of uncommon merit, and the most affecting of any that the world perhaps ever experienced; not only the pathos, but the harmony of the verse, the beauty and correctness of the diction by which that pathos is conveyed, were, I believe, never surpassed. This energy, and these pleasing reflections, arose from the vivid impressions in the author's own breast. This verifies the observation of Horace :— 'Si vis me flere, dolendum est Primum ipsi tibi.' and "Not only in this poem, but also in that upon Eton, every soothing idea originated from what the author saw and intimately felt. This was composed, to the best of my remembrance, in the year 1750; and as it was very much admired, and a great number of copies in manuscript were dispersed abroad, there was intimation given of a surreptitious edition which would soon come out. Upon this, the author himself ordered it to be printed by Mr. Dodsley. This was in the year 1751, as appears by Mr. Gray's letter to Mr. Walpole, XV. p. 222. Two years afterwards, there was a very handsome edition of Mr. Gray's poems printed in folio, with designs by Mr. R. Bentley. We find the whole of them there arranged according to the author's own disposition, and the 'Churchyard' comes the last; and it was at that time the last of his works. In some of the stanzas towards the latter end, he has given a description of the lawn, heath, beeches, and springs of water, near which he, with his mother, resided. The nature of the country is too precisely pointed out to be mistaken. In the print, prefixed to the top of the 'Long Story,' is a view of Lady Cobham's venerable mansion, and Stoke Church hard by, where was the night scene of the poet's contemplations. But in this print the articles seem to be reversed, through the fault of the engraver. "Mr. Gray was in stature rather below the middle size. He had a pleasing countenance, in which, however, there was no extraordinary expression, consequently no indication of his internal powers. The print which is prefixed to his 'Life' is rather a caricature, for his features were not so stiff and prominent, but more rounded and delicate. I remember a picture of him by Pond, taken when he was very young, but badly executed. What became of it, I know not. "These anecdotes of this celebrated person I take the liberty to send to you. If you should think proper either to print them, or to make H |