: spondence which passed between them for eight years, and portions of which Mason published, shows on the part of both not only an ardent pursuit of literature, but an extraordinary proficiency in classical knowledge, combined with judgment and taste, remarkable at so early a period of life. Nor are the productions of West at all inferior in elegance or correctness to those of Gray in fact, Mason says, that "when at school, West's genius was thought to be more brilliant than his friend's ;" and Bryant says, "West was the better scholar." His Latin Compositions, in my opinion, are beautiful in sentiment and expression, though a few inaccuracies may be detected; and some of his English verses even Pope would not have disliked to own. In the Letters which form this early part of the Memoirs of Gray, and which passed between him and his friend, there is a purity in the feeling, and an elegance in the subjects and descriptions, which have always made a most pleasing impression on my mind, increased perhaps in no small degree * Ex. gr. * "How weak is man to reason's judging eye! Part mortal clay, and part ethereal fire, Too proud to creep, too humble to aspire, &c." We have often heard these lines receive the high praise of one whose judgment, knowledge, and poetical taste, no one would dispute. by that tender shade of melancholy, which West's declining health, and other circumstances, threw over the opening prospects of his life. A friend, after a long interval had passed, and indeed during Gray's last years, mentioned the name of West to him, when he looked serious, and seemed to feel the affliction of a recent loss. It is said the cause of West's disorder, a consumption which brought him to an early grave, was the fatal discovery which he made of the treachery of a supposed friend, and the viciousness of a mother whom he tenderly loved. This man, under the mask of friendship to him and his family, intrigued with his mother, and robbed him of his peace of mind, his health, and his life. The regret of friendship has been preserved in some affectionate and beautiful lines with which the fragment of the fourth book De Principiis Cogitandi begin, and which he sent to Mr. Walpole, he says, "for the sake of the subject." "Vidi egomet duro graviter concussa dolore Pectora, in alterius non unquam lenta dolorem ; Heu moestos Soles, sine te quos ducere flendo Though Gray in after-life had many accomplished and attached friends, the loss of West was never supplied.* When he removed to Peter-House, Horace Walpole went to King's College, and West to Christ-Church, Oxford. From this period the life of the poet is conducted by his biographer, Mr. Mason, through the medium of his letters. From these we gain no information concerning his college studies, which were probably not very diligently prosecuted. Of mathematics, he was almost entirely ignorant; and West describes him self and his friend as walking, hand in hand, "Through many a flow'ry path and shelly grot, During his residence at college, from 1734 to 1738, his poetical productions are, a copy of Latin verses inserted in the Musæ Etonenses, "Luna * So far as I can judge, the more intimate friends of Gray were Mason, Wharton, Chute, Stonhewer, Brown, Nicholls. He was acquainted with Hurd, but not intimate; and the name of one friend drops off in the correspondence. Mr. Stonhewer, I think, received his rents for his London houses, and Mr. Nicholls was much younger, and a late acquaintance. When at college, the intimacy between Gray, Walpole, West, and Asheton, was called the "Quadruple Alliance," and they passed under the names of Tydeus, Orosmades, Almanzor, and Plato. For an account of Asheton, see Aldine Ed. Vol. I. p. iii. Habitabilis ;" another on the Marriage of the Prince of Wales ;* a Sapphic Ode to West; and some smaller poems, among which is a translation of part of the Fourteenth Canto of Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered." I give the concluding lines, with which I remember hearing the late Dr. Edward Clarke, when Professor of Mineralogy, finish one of his Lectures, and rest on the beautiful expression of the last line with peculiar enunciation ; "Here gems break through the night with glitt'ring beam, And paint the margin of the costly stream; All stones of lustre shoot their vivid ray, In 1739, at the request of Horace Walpole, Gray accompanied him in his travels abroad; and from his letters to West, and his own family, we have a tolerably accurate account of his pursuits. Mason says, "He catalogued and made occasional short remarks on the pictures which he saw. He wrote a minute description of everything he saw in his tour from Rome to Naples, as also of the environs of Rome, Florence, &c. They abound with many * The twelfth line of this poem is not metrical "Irasque, insidiasque, et tacitum sub pectore vulnus ;" but it stands so in the original edition. uncommon remarks and pertinent classical quotations.' Most of his journals and collections I have had an opportunity of seeing, and I printed his "Criticisms on Architecture and Painting, &c. during a Tour in Italy," which show at once the great attention he paid to the subject, and an extraordinary knowledge of ancient and modern art at so early a period of life. At Florence he made a collection of music, chiefly embracing the works of Cimarosa, Pergolesi, and the old Italian masters, with notices also of the chief singers of the time, and the operas in which they appeared, and the arias they sung. His collection of engravings also is still in existence; at the bottom of each he had written an account of the picture and the engraver, with a reference to the work of art that describes it. I do not know any branch of the Fine Arts which escaped his observation, or in which he was not a proficient. These remarks came into possession of his friend Mr. Chute, of the Vine, in Hampshire, and were probably given to him by Gray. They are printed in the fourth volume of the Aldine Edition of Gray's poems. Others of the same kind I also possess. There is in MS. in my possession a copy of the Wilton Gallery, very amusing, and filled with critical remarks by Gray on the statues; and I have also his criticisms on the pictures then in Kensington Palace. The only collection he himself made in works of art was in prints. These books of music were in six large volumes, and were sold at the sale of his library in 1845. |