will say, is worse than blotting out rhymes); the descriptive part is excellent.

Pray, when did I pretend to finish, or even insert passages into other people's works, as if it were equally easy to pick holes and to mend them? All I can say is, that your Elegy must not end with the worst line in it*. It is flat; it is prose; whereas that, above all, ought to sparkle, or at least to shine. If the sentiment must stand, twirl it a little into an apophthegm; stick a flower in it; gild it with a costly expression; let it strike the fancy, the ear, or the heart, and I am satisfied.

The other particular expressions which I object to, I mark on the manuscript. Now, I desire you would neither think me severe, nor at all regard what I say, further than as it coincides with your own judgment; for the child deserves your partiality; it is a healthy well-made boy, with an ingenuous countenance, and promises to live long. I would only wash its face, dress it a little, make it walk upright and strong, and keep it from learning paw words.

I hope you couched my refusal + to Lord John Cavendish in as respectful terms as possible, and with all due acknowledgments to the Duke. If you hear who it is to be given to, pray let me know; for I interest myself a little in the history of it, and rather

An attempt was accordingly made to improve it; how it stood when this criticism upon it was written, I cannot now recollect.-Mason.

+ Of being Poet Laureat on the death of Cibber, which place the late Duke of Devonshire (then Lord Chamberlain) desired his brother to offer to Mr. Gray; and his Lordship had commissioned me (then in town) to write to him concerning it.Mason.

wish somebody may accept it that will retrieve the credit of the thing, if it be retrievable, or ever had any credit. Rowe was, I think, the last man of character that had it; Eusden was a person of great hopes in his youth, though at last he turned out a drunken parson; Dryden was as disgraceful to the office, from his character, as the poorest scribbler could have been from his verses.

LETTER LXXI.

'MR. GRAY TO DR. WHARTON.

February 21, 1758.

DEAR DOCTOR,

I FEEL very ungrateful (which is the most uneasy of all feelings), in that I have never once enquired how you and your family enjoy the region of air and sunshine, into which you are removed, and with what contempt you look back on the perpetual fogs that hang over Mrs. Payne and Mrs. Paterson. Yet you certainly have not been the less in my mind. That at least has packed up with you, has helped Mrs. Wharton to arrange the mantle-piece, and drank tea next summer in the grotto. But I am much puzzled about the bishop and his fixtures, and do not stomach the loss of that money.

Would you know what I am doing? I doubt you have been told already, and hold my employment cheap enough: but every one must judge of his own capabilities, and cut his amusements according to his disposition. The drift of my present studies, is

to know, wherever I am, what lies within reach, that may be worth seeing; whether it be building, ruin, park, garden, prospect, picture, or monument. To whom it does, or has belonged, and what has been the characteristic and taste of different ages. You will say, this is the object of all antiquaries. But pray, what antiquary ever saw these objects in the same light, or desired to know them for a like reason? in short, say what you please, I am persuaded whenever my List* is finished, you will approve it, and think it of no small use. My spirits are very near the freezing point; and for some hours of the day, this exercise, by its warmth and gentle motion, serves to raise them a few degrees higher. I hope the misfortune that has befallen Mrs. Cibber's canary-bird will not be the ruin of Agis. It is probable you will have curiosity enough to see it, as it comes from the writer of Douglas. I expect your opinion. I am told that Swift's History of the Tory Administration is in the press; and that Stuart's Attica+ will be out this spring. Adieu! Dear Sir,

I am ever yours,

T. G.

Mr. Brown joins his compliments with mine to you and Mrs. Wharton. ?

* A Catalogue of the Antiquities, Houses, &c. in England and Wales; which Gray drew up in the blank pages of Kitchen's English Atlas: after his death, Mr. Mason printed a few copies, and distributed them among the friends of Gray; and, in 1787, a new edition was printed for sale. See Life of Gray. Vol. 1. p. xxxv.-Ed.

+ Gray was a subscriber to this book, as appears by a note in one of his pocketjournals.-Ed.

1

LETTER LXXII.

MR. GRAY TO DR. WHARTON.

Sunday, April 9, 1758.

MY DEAR SIR,

I AM equally sensible of your affliction, and of your kindness that made you think of me at such a moment. Would to God I could lessen the one, or requite the other with that. consolation which I have often received from you, when I most wanted it: but your grief is too just, and the cause of it too fresh, to admit of any such endeavour. What indeed is all human consolation? Can it efface every little amiable word or action of an object we loved, from our memory? Can it convince us that all the hopes we had entertained, the plans of future satisfaction we had formed, were ill-grounded and vain, only because we have lost them? . The only comfort (I am afraid) that belongs to our condition is to reflect (when time has given us leisure for reflection) that others have suffered worse, or that we ourselves might have suffered the same misfortune, at times and in circumstances that would probably have aggravated our sorrow. You might have seen this poor child arrive at an age to fulfil all your hopes, to attach you more strongly to him by long habit, by esteem, as well as natural affection, and that towards the decline of your life, when we most stand in need

* Occasioned by the death of his eldest (and at the time his only) son.-Mason.

of

support, and when he might chance to have been your only support; and then by some unforeseen and deplorable accident, or some painful lingering distemper, you might have lost him. Such has been the fate of many an unhappy father! I know there is a sort of tenderness which infancy and innocence alone produce; but, I think, you must own the other to be a stronger, and more overwhelming sorrow.

I am glad Mrs. Wharton has fortitude enough not to suffer this misfortune to prevail over her, and add to the natural weakness of her present condition. Mr. Brown sincerely sympathises with you, and begs to be kindly remembered to you both. I have been and should have been in

town by this time, had I not heard Mason was coming hither soon, and I was unwilling to miss him. Adieu, my dear Wharton, and believe me ever

Most sincerely yours,

T. G.

LETTER LXXIII.

MR. GRAY TO DR. WHARTON.

DEAR DOCTOR,

I AM much concerned to hear the account you give of yourself, and particularly for that dejection of spirits which inclines you to see every thing in the worst light possible, and