ADVERTISEMENT.

vii

In erecting a monument to the honour of Mr. Gray, let Mr. Mason be careful that he does not, by his behaviour, unthinkingly erect one of another kind for himself. Nor should this advice be despised, because it proceeds from a person he but little regards; truth being the same, through whatever channel it runs.

After this detail, it remains to say something of the present edition; and this can be comprized within a very few words. It cannot be denied that it appears under fome disadvantages; but there are advantages to compensate for these: The reader is left in full poffeffion of all Mr. Gray's valuable and best poems; and some articles are added which are not to be met with in any other edition of the author's works. The plates are engraved at a considerable expence from original designs; and four New Plates have been designed and engraved for this edition,

CON

C Ο Ν Τ Ε Ν Τ S.

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1

II

Page
DVERTISEMENT to this Edition

A Short Account of the Life and Writ-

ings of Mr. Gray -

Last Will and Testament of Mr. Gray

25

Tears of Genius, an Ode, to the Memory of

Mr. Gray

33

Ode on the Spring

43

Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, drowned

in a Tub of Gold Fishes

49

Ode on a distant Prospect of Eton College

55

A Long Story

65

Ode to Adversity

77

The Progress of Poesy, a Pindaric Ode

83
The Bard, a Pindaric Ode

95
The Fatal Sisters, an Ode
The Descent of Odin, an Ode

119

The Triumphs of Owen, a Fragment

131

Ode for Music

135

Epitaph on Mrs. Clarke

145

Elegy written in a Country Church-yard

149

III

MR.

R. THOMAS GRAY, the subject

of this memoir, was born in Cornhill, the twenty-sixth day of December 1716. His grandfather had been

B