For the preceding two months, the two friends had maintained a constant correspondence on subjects of general and, more particularly, classical literature. Gray's last letter contained his 'Ode on the Spring;' but West was dead, before it reached his residence. His Ode on the distant Prospect of Eton College,* and his Hymn to Adversity,' both written the August following, bear sufficient indications not of mere splenetic melancholy, but of his deep regret for his lost associate. The vacancy in his heart indeed, occasioned by the decease of this amiable confidant of his sentiments and partner of his studies, seems never to have been supplied. In 1756, some young men of fortune, whose chambers were near those of Mr. Gray in Peter House, diverted themselves with disturbing him by frequent noises. Their insolence he represented to the governors of the society, but with little effect. As the rooms (to use his own expression) were noisy, and the people of the house uncivil, he left his lodgings, and removed to Pembroke Hall; a circumstance, which he describes as an era in a life so barren of events as his.' In 1757, he published his two celebrated Lyric Odes, The Progress of Poesy,' written two years before, and pressly meant to be The Bard.' These being exvocal to the intelligent alone,' Which prompts me still to hover round thy tomb, T. A. C. * This poem, however, was not published till 1747, when in gigantic folio it first ushered it's writer into the world as an author: but, as Dr. Warton informs us, it was then little noticed.' it is not surprising that they "pleased not the million, but were caviare to the general." Garrick, indeed, wrote a few lines in their praise: but by Lloyd and Colman they were ridiculed, not without ingenuity, in two Odes to Oblivion' and 'Obscurity.' About this time, he began to complain of listlessness and depression of spirits; and hencefor ward we may trace the effects of that hereditary disease, the gout, which embittered the remainder of his days, and whose fatal strength not even the temperance of a whole life could subdue. Upon the death of Cibber, he had the offer from the Duke of Devonshire (at that time Lord Chamberlain) of the laureatship; but he declined the office, which was subsequently conferred upon Whitehead. Two years afterward, in 1759, he took an apartment in the neighbourhood of the British Museum; where he resided nearly three years. The professorship of Modern History at Cambridge (worth 4001. per ann.) becoming vacant in 1762, he was to use his own words, "cockered and spirited up " to ask it of Lord Bute; but it was given to a Mr. Brocket, whose pupil Sir James Lowther had great parliamentary interest, though this seems naturally to have little to do with an academical appointment. In the summer of 1765, with a view of improving his precarious health, as well as of exploring *The curious extracts which he made from the Harleian and other Manuscripts there deposited, amounting in all to a tolerable-sized folio, came into the hands of Mr. Walpole, who however published from them only a single paper, the Speech of Sir Thomas Wyat, in the second number of his Miscellane ous Antiquities. the natural beauties and antiquities of a romantie country, he visited Scotland; and the account of his tour, as far as it extends, is curious and elegant: for, as his comprehension was ample, his curiosity extended to all the works of art, all the appearances of nature, and all the monuments of past events. Part of the two ensuing summers he passed in journeys in England. In the latter of these years, by the desire of Dr. Beattie, a "poet, a philosopher, and a good man," with whom he had formed an acquaintance at Aberdeen, the Foulis of Glasgow were permitted to print a new edition of his poems, in which some pieces of Welsh and Norwegian poetry were substituted for the Long Story.' In 1768, the coveted professorship again becoming vacant, it was bestowed upon him "unsolicited and unexpected" by the Duke of Grafton, who was then at the head of the ministry: and as a voluntary return, in 1769, when his noble patron was installed Chancellor of the University, he wrote the Ode for Music,' the offering of no venal muse, which was performed upon the occasion. Not long after the bustle of this ceremony, he visited the lakes of Cumberland and Westmorland; of which (says John. son) he, who reads the "epistolary narrative, wishes that to travel and to tell his travels had been more of his employment: but it is by staying at home, he adds, "that we must obtain the ability of travelling with intelligence and improvement." In 1771, after sketching in a letter to his friend Dr. Wharton the mere outlines of a tour which he had made in Wales and some of the adjacent countries, he complains of an incurable cough, of spirits habitually and mechanically low, and of the uneasiness excited in his mind by reflecting upon the duties of his office, which he had in consequence resolved to resign. He drew up however, in Latin, a part of an introductory Lecture, containing a plan of much greater extent than from his inactivity, the result either of illness or of indolence, he would probably have been able to execute. But his death intercepted the experiment. About the end of May, he removed to Jermyn Street, London; where his indisposition increasing, he was advised by Dr. Gisborne to seek freer and purer air at Kensington. This change was of so much benefit to him, that he was enabled to return to Cambridge, and even meditated a visit to Dr. Wharton at Old Park near Durham. But on the twenty fourth of July, while at dinner in the college-hall, a sudden nausea announced that his inveterate foe had fixed upon his stomach. He died six days afterward, aware of his danger throughout the whole interval, and expressing no alarm at the impending result; and was buried by the side of his mother, in the church-yard of Stoke. To temperance, integrity, independence of spirit, unusual patience under the teazing of hypercriticism, and a friendly and affectionate disposition Mr. Gray united remarkable disinterestedness. He may be regarded, indeed, as one of the few literati, especially in the poetical class, who without either selfishness or avarice was ever attentive to economy. Even when his circumstances were at the lowest, he gave away such sums in private charity, as would have done credit to a much ampler purse. But what chiefly deterred him from profiting by his literary pursuits, was a certain degree of pride, which led him to despise the idea of being an author by profes sion; though upon the strength of his public reputation alone he must have relied, when he became a petitioner for a lucrative appointment. From the number of notes and geographical disquisitions however on Strabo, found among his papers, (particularly with respect to that part of Asia, which comprehends Persia and India) it has been inferred that, early in life, he had conceived an intention of publishing that author. He had, also, admirably qualified himself, by his investigations, to illustrate Plato. Upon the Anthologia, likewise, he had bestowed uncommon labour; having in an interleaved copy of that work transcribed several additional epigrams, inserted numerous comments and emendations, and subjoined a copious index referring each to it's author: but whether he designed any of these his lucubrations for the press, or not, is uncertain. The only work, continue the Editors of the Encyclopædia Britannica' which he meditated with this express view, was a History of English Poetry' upon a plan sketched by Mr. Pope. But after he had made some considerable preparations for the execution of this design, and Mr. Mason (to whom he had been known from the year 1747) had offered him his assistance, being informed that Mr. Thomas Warton was engaged in a similar undertaking, he relinquished his project.* * The following Sketch of his arrangement of the subject' he readily communicated to Mr. Warton, at that gentleman's desire: 'Introduction. On the poetry of the Galic or Celtic nations, as far back as it can be traced. On that of the Goths, it's introduction into these islands by the Saxons and Danes, and it's duration. On the origin of rhyme among the Franks, the |