Gray's Estimate of his Contemporaries. 45

of his Ballad, which I always thought the prettiest in the world.* All the verses of Mr. Green have been printed before: there is a profusion of wit everywhere reading would have formed his judgment, and harmonized his verse; for even his woodnotes often break out in strains of real poetry and music. The School-Mistress' is excellent in its kind, and masterly; and 'London' is one of those few imitations that have all the ease and spirit of the original. The same man's verses at the opening of the Garrick Theatre are far from bad. Mr. Dyer has more of poetry in his imagination than almost any of our men here, but rough and injudicious. I should range Mr. Bramston as only a step or two above Dr. King, who is as bad in my estimation as in yours. Dr. Evans is a furious madman; and 'Præ-existence' is nonsense in all her altitudes. Mr. Lyttelton is a gentle elegiac person. Mr. Nugent sure did not write his own Ode.† I

*To his fair Lucy, beginning

"Of Leicester, famed for maidens fair."

The Ode addressed to Mr. Pulteney. The following stanza was particularly admired, and is quoted by Gibbon, in the character of Brutus;

"What though the good, the brave, the wise,
With adverse force undaunted rise,

To break th' eternal doom?

Though Cato liv'd, though Tully spoke,
Though Brutus dealt the god-like stroke,

Yet perished fated Rome."

like Mr. Whitehead's little poems (I mean the 'Ode on a Tent,' the 'Verses to Garrick,' and particularly those to C. Townshend) better than any thing I had ever seen before of him. I gladly pass over H. Brown, and the others, to come to you: you know I was of the publishing side, and thought your reasons against it—none. For though, as Mr. Chute said extremely well, the still small voice of Poetry was not made to be heard in a crowd, yet Satire will be heard, for all the audience are by nature her friends. What shall I say to Mr. Lowth, Mr. Ridley, Mr. Rolle, the Rev. Mr. Brown, Mr. Seward, &c. If I say, 'Messieurs, this is not the thing; write prose, write sermons, write nothing at all; they will disdain me and my advice. Mr. S. Jenyns can now and then write a good line or two, such as these :

'Snatch us from all our little sorrows here,

Calm every grief, and dry each childish tear.'

I like Mr. Aston Hervey's Fable; and an Ode, the best of all, by Mr. Mason, a new acquaintance of mine, whose Muse too seems to carry with it the

Gray's conjecture that Nugent did not write his own Ode seems confirmed, for H. Walpole says, "Mr. Nugent had hitherto the reputation of an original poet, by writing verses of his own, after he had acquired fame by an Ode which was the joint production of several others. It was addressed to Lord Bath, upon the author's change of religion; but was universally supposed to be written by Mallet, and improved by Chesterfield." See "Walpole's Memoirs," p. 40.

I was

promise at least of something good to come. glad to see you distinguished who poor West was, before his charming Ode, and called it anything rather than Pindaric. The town is more cruel, if it don't like Lady Mary; and I am surprised at it.* We here are owls enough to think her Eclogues very bad; but that I did not wonder at. Our present taste is 'Sir Thomas Fitzosborne's Letters,'" &c.

In 1756 Gray left Peter-House, where he had. resided about twenty years, on account of some incivilities he met with, which are mentioned in his correspondence. Mason says, that two or three young men of fortune, who lived on the same staircase, had for some time continually disturbed him with their riots; and carried their ill-behaviour so far, as frequently to awaken him at midnight. After having borne with their insults longer than might have been expected, even from a man of less warmth of temper, Mr. Gray complained to the governing part of the society; and not thinking * One of Lady Mary's poetical expressions seems to have been in Gray's memory when he wrote,

"'Twas on a lofty vase's side,

Where China's gayest art had dy'd

The azure flowers that blow," &c.

Compare one of Lady Mary's Town Eclogues :
"Where the tall Jar erects its stately pride

With antic shapes, in China's azure dyed."
The Toilette.

This stately old jar, or vase, is now removed to the Earl of
Derby's, at Knowsley, from Strawberry Hill.

this remonstrance was sufficiently attended to, quitted the College. A month or two before he left, he wrote to Dr. Martin, "I beg you to bespeak me a rope ladder (for my neighbours every day make a great progress in drunkenness, which gives

me cause to look about me). It must be full thirtysix feet long, or a little more, but as light and manageable as may be, easy to unroll, and not likely to entangle. I never saw one, but I suppose it must have strong hooks, or something equivalent

at top, to throw over an iron bar, to be fixed in the side of my window. However, you will choose the properest form, and instruct me in the use of it."*

In 1757 Cibber died at an advanced age, and the Laureateship was offered by the Duke of Devonshire, the Lord Chamberlain, to Gray, with the privilege of holding it as a mere sinecure. This offer he respectfully declined, and mentions his reasons to Mason. "The office itself has always troubled the possessor hitherto if he were a poor writer, by making him conspicuous; and if he were a good one, by setting him at war with the little fry of his own profession: for there are poets little enough even to annoy a poet laureate." The laurel was accepted, on Gray's refusal, by Mr. Whitehead; but Mason was not quite overlooked, for he received a compliment instead of the office. Lord John Cavendish made an apology to him, "that being in orders, he was thought less eligible than a layman."

In 1758 Gray describes himself as composing,

* Two iron bars may still be seen at the window of the chambers at Peter-House occupied by Gray, which are said to be of his placing there, for the purpose he mentions. I have been told, on the authority of Dr. Gretton, the Master of Magdalene (who was formerly of Peter-House), that "the young men of fortune" were the late Lord Egmont, then Mr. Perceval, a Mr. Forrester, a Mr. Williams, and others; that Gray complained to the Master, Dr. Law, Bishop of Carlisle; and he offended Gray by the little regard he paid to the complaint, and by his calling it "a boyish frolic."

E