APPENDIX.

THE following extracts from a Poem on the Letters of the Alphabet were transcribed from a manuscript of Gray, and are published in the fifth volume of Mr. Mitford's edition of his works. As they are not inserted among the Poems, which are contained in the first volume of that edition, we presume that they came into Mr. Mitford's possession after it was printed. They appear in what seems to be an imperfect or mutilated letter. Horace Walpole mentions that Gray would never allow this poem to be his, but the humor and versification were so much in Gray's style that he could not believe it to be written by any other hand. The manuscript says:

"To make my peace with the noble youth you mention, I send you a poem that I am sure they will read (as well as they can) — a masterpiece, it is said, being an admirable improvement on that beautiful piece called Pugna Porcorum, which begins

'Plangite porcelli Porcorum pigra propago;'

but that is in Latin, and not for their reading; but indeed this is worth a thousand of it, and unfortunately it is not perfect, and it is not mine."

THE CHARACTERS OF THE CHRIST-CROSS ROW, BY A CRITIC, TO MRS.

GREAT D draws near the Duchess sure is come,
Open the doors of the withdrawing-room;
Her daughters decked most daintily I see,
The Dowager grows a perfect double D.
E enters next, and with her Eve appears,
Not like yon Dowager deprest with years;

What Ease and Elegance her person grace,
Bright beaming, as the Evening-star, her face;
Queen Esther next- how fair even after death,
Then one faint glimpse of Queen Elizabeth;
No more, our Esthers now are naught but Hetties,
Elizabeths all dwindled into Betties :

In vain you think to find them under E,
They 're all diverted into H and B.
F follows fast the fair and in his rear
See Folly, Fashion, Foppery, straight appear,
All with fantastic clews, fantastic clothes,
With Fans and Flounces, Fringe and Furbelows.
Here Grub-street Geese presume to joke and jeer,
All, all, but Grannam Osborne's Gazetteer.
High heaves his hugeness H, methinks we see,
Henry the Eighth's most monstrous majesty;
But why on such mock grandeur should we dwell?
H mounts to Heaven, and H descends to Hell.

As H the Hebrew found, so I the Jew,
See Isaac, Joseph, Jacob, pass in view;
The walls of old Jerusalem appear,

*

See Israel, and all Judah thronging there.

*

*

*

P pokes his head out, yet has not a pain ;
Like Punch, he peeps, but soon pops in again;
Pleased with his Pranks, the Pisgys call him Puck,
Mortals he loves to prick, and pinch, and pluck;
Now a pert Prig, he perks upon your face,
Now peers, pores, ponders with profound grimace,
Now a proud Prince, in pompous Purple drest,
And now a Player, a Peer, a Pimp, or Priest;

A Pea, a Pin, in a perpetual round,

Now seems a Penny, and now shows a Pound;
Like Perch or Pike, in Pond you see him come,
He in plantations hangs like Pear or Plum,
Pippin or Peach; then perches on the spray,
In form of Parrot, Pye, or Popinjay.

P, Proteus-like, all tricks, all shapes can show,
The Pleasantest Person in the Christ-Cross row.

As K a King, Q represents a Queen,

*

And seems small difference the sounds between;
K, as a man, with hoarser accent speaks,
In shriller notes Q like a female squeaks;
Behold K struts, as might a King become,
Q draws her train along the Drawing-room,
Slow follow all the quality of State,

Queer Queensbury only does refuse to wait.

*

*

*

*

*

Thus great R reigns in town, while, different far, Rests in Retirement little Rural R;

Remote from cities lives in lone Retreat,

With Rooks and Rabbit burrows round his seat

S, sails the Swan slow down the Silver stream.

So big with Weddings, waddles W,

And brings all Womankind before your view;
A Wench, a Wife, a Widow and a W
With Woe behind, and Wantonness before.

20*

Ir would be unjust to Gray to insert the following extempore effusions among his Poems; but they have been preserved and printed, and, that we may omit nothing in verse from his pen, we insert them in this place :

EPIGRAM ON DR. KEENE.

THE Bishop of Chester,
Though wiser than Nestor,
And fairer than Esther,

If you scratch him will fester.

EPITAPH ON DR. KEENE.

HERE lies Dr. Keene, the good Bishop of Chester,
Who eat a fat goose, and could not digest her.

EXTEMPORE EPITAPH

On Anne, Countess of Dorset, Pembroke and Montgomery, made by Mr. Gray on reading the Epitaph on her mother's tomb in the church at Appleby, composed by the Countess in the same manner.

Now clean, now hideous, mellow now, now gruff,
She swept, she hissed, she ripened and grew rough,
At Brougham, Pendragon, Appleby and Brough.

IMPROMPTU.

(From the Wharton Manuscript.)

WHEN you rise from your dinner as light as before, 'T is a sign you have eat just enough and no more.

NOTES TO GRAY.

ON THE SPRING.

PAGE 25.- Mason tells us that, in the original manuscript, Gray had given to this ode the title of Noontide.

Page 25, line 14.

"Nare per æstatem liquidam." — Georg. iv. 59. — Gray.

Page 26, line 10.

sporting with quick glance,

Shew to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold.'

Par. Lost, vii. 410. — Gray.

Page 26, line 23.-"While insects from the threshold preach." — Green, in the "Grotto." Dodsley's Misc. v. p. 161. — Gray.

ON THE DEATH OF A FAVORITE CAT, DROWNED IN A TUB OF GOLD FISHES. Page 27.-The subject of this poem was a cat of Walpole's, which Gray said he was about to "immortalize for a week or a fortnight." After the poet's death, Walpole placed the china vase on a pedestal, inscribing on it the four first lines of the ode. From Strawberry Hill it was removed to the seat of Lord Derby, at Knowsley.

ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON College.

Page 28, line 20.- King Henry the Sixth, founder of the College. — Gray.

- —

Page 29, line 9. "And bees their honey redolent of spring." - Dryden's Fable on the Pythag. System.

Gray.

Page 31, line 9.-"Madness laughing in his ireful mood." - Dryden. — Gray.

THE PROGRESS OF POESY.

Page 34. When the author first published this and the following Ode, he was advised, even by his friends, to subjoin some few explanatory notes; but had too much respect for the understanding of his readers to take that liberty. - Gray.

Page 34, line 1.

"Awake, my glory awake, lute and harp."

David's Psalms.- -Gray.

"Awake, awake, my lyre,

And tell thy silent master's humble tale.'

Cowley, "Ode of David."