The humour of these poems, in my opinion, has been much overpraised. Like all other productions of a personal and satirical nature, their subject ensured to them a short period of popularity. We know with what avidity those works are perused, which hold up to the derision of the public the peculiarities of genius and learning. Almost every author of talent, at some time or other, becomes the mark at which ridicule is aimed. In this particular case, the most modest and retired habits, as well as the most exalted talents, were dragged out with circumstances of laughter and contempt, by men very inferior to Gray, either in the strictness of their moral character, or in the depth and extent of their literary attainments. Yet, while I think their ridicule was not happy or successful, I do not see those marks of rancour and malevolence in their design, which so often imbitter and disgrace the Satires of Churchill ;* which the intemperance of youth, I am afraid, can hardly excuse; and which must raise constant disgust in those, who read the works of that powerful, though unfinished writer. Dr. Warton, in his notes on Pope,t says, "The Odes of Gray were burlesqued by two men of wit and genius; who, however, once owned to me, that they repented of the attempt."

* Churchill mentions Gray in a poem called "The Journey,' and particularly Armstrong: the latter, in language of unbecoming and inexcusable asperity. Mrs. Chapone in a Letter dated 1764, says, " You keep my genius down continually by throwing cold water on its dying embers; and terrifying my poor muse, as much as Churchill does that of Gray." Chapone's Letters, vol. ii. p. 164.

+ See Warton's Pope, vol. i. p. 236.

6

During Gray's residence in London, he became slightly acquainted with the amiable naturalist Mr. Stillingfleet, whose death took place a few months after his own.* At the request of Mr. Montagu, he wrote an Epitaph on Sir William Williams,' who was killed at the siege of Belleisle. In 1762 the professorship of modern history became vacant by the death of Mr. Turner. By the advice of his friends, he applied to Lord Bute for the place, through the medium of Sir Henry Erskine. He was refused; and the professorship was given to Mr. Brocket, the tutor of Sir James Lowther. "And so (says Gray, humorously passing over his disappointment) I have made my fortune like Sir Francis Wronghead."

In the summer of 1765, he took a journey into Scotland, to improve his health, which was becoming more weak and uncertain, as well as to gratify his curiosity with the natural beauties and antiquities of that wild and romantic country. He went through Edinburgh and Perth to Glames-Castle, the residence of Lord Strathmore, where he stayed some time. Thence he took a short excursion into the Highlands, crossing Perthshire by Loch-Tay, and pursuing the road from Dunkeld to Inverness, as far as the pass of Gillikrankie. Then returning to Dunkeld, he travelled on the Stirling road to Edinburgh. "His account of his journey,

* Mr. Benjamin Stillingfleet died December 15, 1771, aged 69. A very pleasing tribute to his memory has lately been paid by the Rev. Mr. Coxe; by a careful selection from his unpublished Works, and a Life of him, and his literary friends, in three volumes 8vo. 1811.

(says Dr. Johnson,) so far as it extends, is curious and elegant: for as his comprehension was ample, his curiosity extended to all the works of art, all the appearances of nature, and all the monuments of past events." In Scotland he formed an acquaintance with Dr. Beattie; who had been the first to welcome him on his arrival in the North, with a testimony of the high admiration in which he held his genius and his character; and which was truly valuable, because it was the voluntary praise of one, who himself possessed the feeling, and power of a poet. I transcribe Dr. Beattie's Letter, from his Life, published by Sir William Forbes :

"Marischal College of Aberdeen, 30th of August, 1765.

"If I thought it necessary to offer an apology for venturing to address you in this abrupt manner, I should be very much at a loss how to begin. I might plead my admiration of your genius, and my attachment to your character; but who is he that could not with truth urge the same excuse for intruding upon your retirement? I might plead my earnest desire to be personally acquainted with a man, whom I have so long and so passionately admired in his writings; but thousands, of greater consequence than I, are ambitious of the same honour. I, indeed, must either flatter myself that no apology is necessary, or otherwise, I must despair of obtaining what has long been the object of my most ardent wishes. I must for ever forfeit all hopes of seeing you, and conversing with you.

"It was yesterday I received the agreeable news of your being in Scotland, and of your intending to visit some parts of it. Will

you permit us to hope, that we shall have an opportunity at Aberdeen, of thanking you in person, for the honour you have done to Britain, and to the poetic art, by your inestimable compositions, and of offering you all that we have that deserves your acceptance; namely, hearts full of esteem, respect, and affection? If you cannot come so far northward, let me at least be acquainted with the place of your residence, and permitted to wait on you. Forgive, sir, this request: forgive me, if I urge it with earnestness, for indeed it concerns me nearly and do me the justice to believe, that I am with the most sincere attachment, and most respectful esteem," &c.

Gray declined the honour which the University of Aberdeen was disposed to confer on him, (of the degree of doctor of laws,) lest it might appear a slight and contempt of his own University, "where (he says) he passed so many easy and happy hours of his life, where he had once lived from choice, and continued to do so from obligation." In one of his conversations with Dr. Beattie,* who expressed himself with less admiration of Dryden than Gray thought his due; he told him, "that if there was any excellence in his own numbers, he had learned it wholly from that great poet; and pressed him with great earnestness to study him, as his choice of words and versification was singularly happy and harmonious."-"Remember Dryden, (he also wrote,) and be blind to all his faults."+

See Beattie's Essay on Poetry and Music, 4to., p. 360 (note).

+ Mr. Mason, in his Life of Whitehead, p. 17, says, "that Gray, who admired

Part of the summer of 1766 Gray passed in a tour in Kent, and at the house of his friend Mr. Robinson, on the skirts of Barham Down. In 1767 he again left Cambridge, and went to the North of England, on a visit to Dr. Wharton. He had intended a second tour to Scotland, but returned to London without accomplishing his design. At Dr. Beattie's desire, a new edition of his Poems was published by Foulis at Glasgow; and at the same time Dodsley was also printing them in London. In both these editions, the Long Story' was omitted, as the plates from Bentley's designs were worn out: and Gray said, "that its only use, which was to explain the prints, was gone." Some pieces of Welch and Norwegian Poetry, written in a bold and original manner, were inserted in its place: of which the Descent of Odin' is undoubtedly the most valuable, though in many places it is exceed ingly obscure. I have mentioned, in the notes to this poem, that Gray translated only that part of it which he found in the Latin

Dryden almost beyond bounds, used to say of a very juvenile poem of his, in Tonson's Miscellany, written on the Death of Lord Halifax, that it gave not so much as the slightest promise of his future excellency, and seemed to indicate a bad natural ear for versification. I believe Derrick reprinted this poem in his edition of Dryden." There is no poem that I can discover by Dryden on the Death of Lord Halifax; but I suppose Mr. Mason meant a Poem on the Death of Lord Hastings, written when Dryden was only eighteen, and at Westminster school, and which is the first poem in Derrick's Collection; and is also in p.116 of the first volume of Tonson's Miscellany. These lines are certainly most singularly inharmonious, with much of the strained allusion and rough style of Donne. At the end of 'Halifax's Miscellanies,' there is an anonymous poem to his memory, of considerable merit; but I am not able to say by whom it is written.