'pluviæque loquaces

Descendere jugis, et garrulus ingruit imber.'

"From this fragment a judgment may be formed of his early taste and proficiency.

"At the same early time of life he was acquainted with Mr. West, who was son to the chancellor of that name in Ireland. I also knew him well, and looked upon him as an extraordinary genius. Two specimens of his compositions were preserved by me, and have since been printed. There also survives a curious parody upon the fourth ode of the fourth book of Horace, which abounds with much good humour, very happily expressed. He was superior to Mr. Gray in learning, and to every body near him. In a letter of Mr. Gray to him, mention is made of versifying when asleep, for which, he says, Mr. West was once famous. This is, I believe, founded in truth; for I remember some who were of the same house mentioning that he often composed in his dormant state, and that he wrote down in the morning what he had conceived in the night. He was, like his friend, quite faultless in respect to morals and behaviour, and, like many great geniuses, often very eccentric and absent. One of his friends, who partook of the same room, told me, that West, when at night composing, would come in a thoughtful mood to him at his table, and carefully snuff his candle, and then return quite satisfied to his own dim taper, which he left unrepaired. This, he said,

he had often experienced. In the seventh letter to Mr. Gray, he encloses to him a most noble and pathetic composition, which some good judges have thought hardly ever equalled. Though he lived four or five years afterwards, yet he seems in this poem to have had a melancholy forecast that his life was not of long duration. Mr. Gray's poem, "De Principiis Cogitandi," would have been, if finished, a work of uncommon merit and consequence the fragment is inestimable.

"When Mr. Gray went to Peter-House, in Cambridge, he had the good fortune to meet his friend Mr. Walpole, who came to the University about the same time; hence their intimacy continued. As I was near Mr. Walpole, it afforded me some opportunities of seeing them both very often. They were alike studious and regular, and still delicate to a degree of fastidiousness, which was sometimes attended with marks of contempt. This some years afterwards, was the cause of much vexation and trouble to Mr. Gray, from which his great learning and other good qualities should have exempted

him.

"When Mr. Walpole set out upon his travels, Mr. Gray accompanied him, and they proceeded for a long time very amicably. But that delicacy, and those nice feelings, which led them to take offence with others, began now, for want of a more distant object, to operate against themselves. Some

little jealousies and disgusts arose, and Mr. Gray separated himself from his friend, and came back to England.

"Mr. Walpole returned soon after, and took a house at Windsor. This affords me an opportunity of mentioning the two most excellent poems of Mr. Gray, and the cause of their production. The first is the 'View of Eton College,' the other the 'Elegy written in a Churchyard,' which was composed some years after the former.

"The year in which Mr. Walpole came to Windsor was 1742, at which time it was my good fortune to live at Eton. By these means I had often an opportunity of seeing him. He had not resided there long, when he heard that Mr. Gray was with his relations at Stoke. He accordingly sent him a kind letter, with overtures of reconciliation, and a desire to see him. Mr. Gray very gladly set out to renew his acquaintance, and as in his way he walked through the playfields at Eton, he saw the boys engaged in their different diversions, and a universal harmony prevailing. The late unhappy disagreement and separation were at that time uppermost in his mind; and when he contemplated this scene of concord and boyish happiness, he could not help, in his melancholy mood, forming a contrast. He was led to consider the feuds and quarrels which were likely one day to ensue, when all that harmony and happiness was to cease, and enmity and bitter

ness were to succeed. He even went so far as to comprehend and anticipate all the dreadful evils to which mankind are liable. It is a gloomy picture, but finely executed; and whoever reads the description with this clue, will find that it was formed from a scene before his eyes. The poet saw and experimentally felt what he so masterly describes. I lived at that time almost upon the very spot which gave birth to these noble ideas, and in of it saw the author very often.

consequence

"The other poem, 'Written in a Country Churchyard,' is, by the editor of Mr. Gray's 'Life,' supposed to have been composed about the same time as the former but it seems to be a mistake. It took its rise from the following circumstances, some of which are mentioned by the editor, but others there are which were not known to him :-) -When Lady Cobham resided at her house at Stoke, Mr. Gray was at no great distance in the same parish. A noble duke, who was then at Eton school, and is still living, used often to go over and dine with that lady, and the Rev. Mr. Purt, his tutor, used to accompany them. One day Lady Cobham asked Mr. Purt if he knew Mr. Gray, a gentleman in her neighbourhood. He said that he knew him very well; that he was much respected for his learning, and was the author of the celebrated poem, styled the 'View of Eton College. Upon this, next morning, two ladies, who were then at Lady Cobham's,