The fields to all their wonted tribute bear: To warm their little loves the birds complain :

I fruitless mourn to him, that cannot hear, And weep the more, becaufe I weep in vain.'

From the winter of the year 1742, to the day of his death, Mr. Gray's principal refidence was at Cambridge. He fpent, indeed, during the lives of his mother and aunts, his fummer vacations at Stoke, and, after they died, in making little tours, or vifits to his friends in different parts of the country. But he was feldom ab. fent from college any confiderable time, except between the years 1759 and 1762; when, on the opening of the British Mafeura, he took lodgings in SouthamptonRow, in order to have recourfe to

there depofited, from which he made feveral curious extracts, amounting in all to a tolerablyfized folio, at prefent in the hands of Mr. Walpole. This gentleman has already printed the fpeech of Sir Thomas Wyat, from them, in the fecond number of his Mifcellaneous Antiquities. The public muft impute it to their own want of curiosity, if more of them do do not appear in print.

and ftrong a diflike to Cambridge, Mr. Gray had conceived fo early that in one of his letters to Mr. Weft, dated 1736, he fent him this humorous and picturefque defcription of the univerfity:

"Surely it was of this place, now Cambridge, but formerly known by the name of Babylon, that the prophet fpoke when he faid, The wild beasts of the defert fhall dwell there, and their houfes fhall be full of doleful creatures, and the owls fhall build there, and fatyrs fhall dance there: their forts and towers fhall be a den for ever, a joy of wild affes; there fhall the great owl make her neft, and lay and hatch and gather under her fhadow; it fhall be a court of dragons; the fcreech owl alfo fhall reit there, and find for herself a place of reft.' You fee here is a pretty collection of defolate animals, which is verified in this towa to a tittle, and perhaps it may alfo allude to your habitation, for you know all types may be taken by abundance of handles; however, I defy your owls to match mine."

It may, therefore, feem ftrange, efpecially as he now returned to that univerfity with his prejudices rather augmented, that he should, when free to chufe, make it his prinD 4

cipal

cipal abode for near thirty years. But this perhaps may be accounted for from his love of books (ever his ruling paffion) and the ftraitnefs of his circumftances, which prevented the gratification of it. For to a man, who could not conveniently purchafe even a fmall library, what fituation fo eligible, as that which affords free access to a number of large ones? This reafon alfo accounts for another fingular fact. During his refidence at Stoke, in the spring and fummer of the fame year 1742, he wrote a confiderable part of his more finished poems. Hence one would be nazurally led to conclude, that, on his return to Cambridge, when the ceremony of taking his degree was over, the quiet of the place would have prompted him to continue the cultivation of his poetical talents, and that immediately, as the mufe feems in this year to have peculiarly infpired him; but this was not the cafe. Reading was much more agreeable to him than writing. He therefore now laid afide compofition almost entirely, and applied himfelf with intenfe affiduity to the fudy of the best Greek authors; in fomuch that, in the fpace of about fix years, there were hardly any writers of note, in that language, which he had not only red, but digefted; remarking, by the mode of common-place, their contents, their difficult and corrupt paffages: and all this with the accuracy of a critic, added to the diligence of a ftudent.

About the year 1747, Mr. Mafon, the editor of Mr. Gray's poems, was introduced to him. The former had written, a year or two be fore, fome imitations of Milton's juvenile poems, viz. A Monody on

the death of Mr. Pope, and two pieces, entitled, Il Bellicofo, and I Pacifico, on the peace of Aix-laChapelle; and the latter revised them, at the request of a friend. This laid the foundation of an intimacy, which continued without interruption to the death of Mr. Gray.

About the year 1750, Mr. Gray had put his laft hand to his celebrated elegy written in a country church-yard, and had communicated it to his friend Mr. Walpole, whofe good tafte was too much charmed with it to fuffer him to with-hold the fight of it from his acquaintance. Accordingly it was fhewn about for fome time in manufcript, and received with all the applaufe it fo juftly merited. Among the reft of the fashionable world, for to thefe only it was at prefent com. municated, Lady Cobham, who now lived at the manfion-houfe at Stoke Pogis, had read and admired it. She wished to be acquainted with the author. Accordingly, her relation Mifs Speed, and Lady Schaub, then at her houfe, undertook to bring this about, by making him the first visit. He happened to be from home, when the ladies arrived at his aunt's folitary man, fion; and when he returned, was furprized to find, written on one of his papers in the parlour, where he ufually read, the following note:

Lady Schaub's compliments to Mr. Gray; fhe is forry not to have found him at home, to tell him that Lady Brown is very well." This neceffarily obliged him to return the vifit, and foon after induced him to compofe a ludicrous account of this little adventure, for the amufement of the ladies in queftion. He wrote it in ballad-measure, and

entitled

entitled it, A Long Story. When it was handed about in manufcript, nothing could be more various than the opinions concerning it. By fome it was thought a mater-piece of original humour; by others, a wild and fantastic farrago. And, when it was published, the fentiments of good judges were equally divided about it.

To return to the Elegy. Mr. Gray, in Feb. 1751, having been informed, that the publisher of one of the magazines had obtained a furreptitious copy of it, wrote to Mr. Walpole, defiring him, that he would put his own manufcript into the hands of Mr. Dodfley, and order him to print it immediately.

This was the most popular of all our author's publications. It ran through eleven editions in a very fhort space of time; was finely tranf. lated into Latin by Meffrs. Anily and Roberts; and, in the fame year, by Mr. Lloyd. The author, in his original manufcript, gave it only the fimple title of, Stanzas written in a Country Church-yard. Mr. Mafon perfuaded him to call it, An Elegy; because the fubject authorized him fo to do: and the alternate measure, in which it was written, feemed peculiarly fit for that fpecies of compofition.

In March, 1753, Mr. Gray loft his mother; which must have deeply affected him, as he had always expreffed for her the tenderet regard.

She was buried at Stoke-Pogis, in the fame vault in which the remains of her fifter Antrobus had been depofited, about three years before. The infcription on the tomb-ftone is fuppofed to have been written by Mr. Gray, and is as follows:

Mr. Mafon obferves, that this infcription has a peculiar pathos to recommend it; and, at the fame time, a true infcriptive fimplicity.

Perhaps therefore it may be thought faftidious criticifm to make an exception to any part of it; yet we will venture to afk, Whether, according to the course of nature, and in the estimation of a Christian philofopher, it can be accounted a misfortune, that a young man of 37 fhould furvive his mother, an old woman of 67?

But to return to Mr. Gray. About the beginning of the year 1756, while he refided at PeterHoufe, two or three young men of fortune, who lived in the fame staircafe, frequently and intentionally disturbed him with their riots. He complained to the governing part of the fociety; but, not thinking that his remonstrance was fufficiently attended to, he quitted the college, and removed to PembrokeHall.

From July, 1759, to the year 1762, he generally refided in London, with a view, as we have already obferved, of having recourse to the British Mufeum.

In July, 1768, his Grace the Duke of Grafton wrote him a polite letter, informing him, that his Majefty had been pleafed to offer to him the Profefforfhip of Modern Hiftory in the univerfity of Cambridge, then vacant by the death of Mr. Laurence Brocket.

This

This place was valuable in itself, the falary being 400l. a year; but what rendered it particularly acceptable to Mr. Gray was its being given him without any folicitation. He was indeed remarkably difinterested in all his pursuits. Though his income, before this addition, was very fmall, he never read or wrote with a view of making his labours ufeful to himself. He may be faid to have been one of thofe few perfonages in the annals of literature, efpecially in the poetical clafs, who are devoid of felf-intereft, and at the fame time attentive to œconomy; and alio was, among mankind in general, one of thofe very few œconomists, who poffeffed that talent, untin&tured with the flightest flain of avarice. When his circumstances were at the lowest, he gave away fuch fums in private charity, as would have done credit to an ampler purfe. But what chiefly deterred him from feeking any advantage by his literary purfuits, was a certain degree of pride, which led him to defpife the idea of being thought an author by profeffion.

However, it is probable, that early in life he had an intention of publishing an edition of Strabo; for his papers contain a great number of notes and geographical difquifitions on that author, particularly with refpect to that part of Afia which comprehends Perfia and India. The indefatigable pains which he took with the writings of Plato, and the quantity of critical, as well as explanatory obfervations, which he has left upon almost every part of his works, plainly indicate, that no man in Europe was better prepared to re-publish and illuftrate that philofopher, than Mr. Gray.

Another work, on which he beftowed uncommon labour, was the Anthologia. In an interleaved copy of that collection of Greek epigrams, he has tranfcribed feveral additional ones, which he felected in his extenfive reading; has inferted a great number of critical notes and emendations, and fubjoined a copious index. But, whether he intended this performance for the prefs or not, is uncertain. The only work, which he meditated upon, with this direct view from the beginning, was a hiflory of English poetry, upon a plan sketched cut by Mr. Pope, and fince published in Ruff head's Life of Pope. He has mentioned this him felf in an advertifement to thofe three fine imitations of Norfe and Welch poetry, which he gave the world in the last edition of his poems. But, after he had made fome confiderable preparations for the execution of this defign, and Mr. Mafon had offered him his affiftance, he was informed, that Mr. Warton, of Trinity College, Oxford, was engaged in a work of the fame kind. The `undertaking was therefore relinquished, by mutual confent; and, foon after, on that gentleman's defiring a fight of the plan, our author readily fent him a copy of it.

Among other fciences, Mr. Gray had acquired a great knowledge of Gothic architecture. He had feen, and accurately studied in his youth, while abroad, the Roman proportions on the fpot, both in ancient times, and in the works of Palladio. In his later years he applied himfelf to confider thofe ftupendous ftructures of more modern date, that adorn our own country; which, if they have not the fame grace, have undoubtedly equal dignity. He

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