In the retirement of Peterhouse, Mr. Gray wrote, in 1747, An Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat *; and the year afterwards attempted a poem of more importance, On Education and Government †, of which the fragments that remain contain some exquisite lines. His next production (1750) was his far-famed Elegy in a Country Church Yard, which was first communicated to Mr. Walpole, and passed from him into the hands of several persons of distinction §. After having for some time been privately transmitted from one hand to another, it at length found its way to the public eye in "The Magazine of Magazines." This ich were repaid by the Poet with some anzas, of which, however, only a frag

ns *.

1, 1753, Mr. Gray lost that mother for all occasions, he showed a most tender

THE R

MARY A

SHE DIED, UNMARR

buried in the same vault in Stoke d, where her sister's remains had been more than three years before. As the on the tombstone (at least the latter s undoubtedly of Mr. Gray's writing, ere claim a place, even if it had not a

AGE

IN THE SAME
BESIDE HER F
HERE SLEEP

DOROTHY

THE CAREFUT
OF MANY CHILDRE
HAD THE MISFOR

SHE DIED MA

AG

About three years: e of the College

THE REMAINS OF

MARY ANTROBUS.

SHE DIED, UNMARRIED, NOV. V. MDCCXLIX. AGED LXVI.

IN THE SAME PIOUS CONFIDENCE,
BESIDE HER FRIEND AND SISTER,

HERE SLEEP THE REMAINS OF

DOROTHY GRAY, WIDOW,

THE CAREFUL TENDER MOTHER

OF MANY CHILDREN, ONE OF WHOM ALONE
HAD THE MISFORTUNE TO SURVIVE HER.

SHE DIED MARCH XI. MDCCLIII,
AGED LXVII.

About three years afterward (1756) some young men of the College, whose chambers were near ecoming spirit removed himself to Pem

11.

7 he published The Progress of Poesy *, Cardt, which have occasioned some sar

From this splenetic to the more just rem said, who says of M. "They have a muc

"Odes of the Theb: "And in our own

ervations from the pen of Dr. Johnson, agage. Wild

them, "two compositions at which the

of verse, had usu

of poetry were at first content to gaze way to resemble

Te amazement. Some that tried them

excellencies of P

ed their inability to understand them, of con

Warburton said that they were under

3 well as the works of Milton and Shakewhich it is the fashion to admire. Gar

of conception, bo stile, rapidity of co of phraseology. formed upon tho

rote a few lines in their praise 1. Some desolations of tim

See p. 19. + See p. 31.

These are inserted in p. 163 of this Volume.

imagery and regu

Faised by Mr. G

From this splenetic effusion I turn with pleasu to the more just remarks of Mr. Gilbert Wake field, who says of Mr. Gray's Pindaric Odes, tha "They have a much greater resemblance to th "Odes of the Theban bard than any thing of th " kind in our own, and probably in any othe "language. Wildness of thought and irregularit " of verse, had usually been esteemed the onl

66

way to resemble Pindar. The characteristi " excellencies of Pindar's poetry are, sublimit " of conception, boldness of metaphor, dignity ( " stile, rapidity of composition, and magnificenc " of phraseology. If a fair judgment can b " formed upon those few specimens which th " desolations of time have spared, in grandeur " imagery and regularity of thought, he is sur " passed by Mr. Gray. These sublime and ela

C