d over her remains an inscription which gly marks his piety and sorrow:

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 LXXII.*

is usually supposed that Gray's' Ode on the ;ress of Poetry' was written in 1755. From ter to Walpole it appears that it was then ned, excepting a few lines at the end. He tions his being so unfortunate as to come too for Mr. Bentley's edition, and talks of inserting

Dodsley's Collection. In 1754, it is supd that he wrote the Fragment of An Ode to ssitude,' as it is now called. The idea and e of the lines are taken from Gresset's' Epitre ma Convalescence.' Another Ode was also ched, which might be called The Liberty of us,' though some of Gray's biographers, for reasons I am ignorant, have called it The

The latter part of Gray's epitaph has a strong reseme to an inscription on a sepulchral cippus found near Villa Pelluchi, at Rome, now (I believe) in the British um.--D. M. Dasumiæ. Soteridi. Liberta. Optimæ. onjugi. Sanctissimæ. bene. mer. fec. L. Dasumius. stus. cum. qua. vixit. An xxxv. sine. ulla. querella. s. ut. ipsa. sibi. potius. superstes. fuisset. quam. se. superstitem. reliquisset.

Connection between Genius and Grandeur.'

The argument of it, the only part which was ever written, is as follows: "All that men of power can do for men of genius is to leave them at their liberty; compared to birds that, when confined to a cage, do but regret the loss of their freedom in melancholy strains, and lose the luscious wildness and happy luxuriance of their notes, which used to make the woods resound." The supplement to this Poem is very inferior to the original, so that we may unite in opinion with an eminent critic, that it is better to leave the unfinished creations of genius in their imperfect form. • Nobis placet exemplum Priscorum, qui Apelleam Venerem imperfectam maluerunt, quam integram manu extraneâ.** Gray, as Walpole remarked, was indeed "in flower" these last three years. The 'Bard' was commenced, and part of it communicated to Mr. Stonehewer and Dr. Wharton, 1755. In these letters he for the first time complains of listlessness and depression of spirits, which prevented his application to poetry: and from this period we may trace the course of that hereditary disease in his constitution, which embittered in a considerable degree the remainder of his days; and the fatal strength of which, not even th: temperance and regularity of a whole life could subdue. In his pocket journal for this year, besides a diary of the weather, and a very accurate calendar of

* Vide Gruteri not: ad Plautum, vol. i. p. 295, 4to.

rvations on natural history, he kept a regular

unt of his health in Latin. By this it

appears his constitution was much enfeebled and imed, that alarming attacks of the gout were perally recurring and disordering his frame. He ks constantly of the sleepless night, and the rish morning; and seems seldom to have been from pain, debility, and disease. Expressions ar to the following, are in almost every page: omnia crebra, atque expergiscenti surdus quidoloris sensus; frequens etiam in regione sterni essio, et cardialgia gravis, fere sempiterna.' The Bard" was for some time left unfinished; "the accident of seeing a blind harper (Mr. y) perform on a Welsh harp,* again (he says) his Ode in motion, and brought it at last to a lusion." This poem appears to have been itted to the critical opinion of his friends. mentions a remark upon it by Dr. Hurd; and ad recourse to the judgement of Mr. Mason, ose cavils (Walpole says) almost induced to destroy his two beautiful and sublime 5."

me time previous to this, Dodsley had pubd his Collection of Poems, in three volumes,+

For an Account of Parry, see Smith's Life of Nollekens, . p. 213.

See Walpoliana, vol. i. p. 46.

Dodsley published three volumes of this Collection, in : the fourth volume was published in 1755; and the OL. I. d

which Walpole sent to Gray. The observations made by the latter, as they were not published in Mr. Mason's Life, and as it is interesting to read the opinions which he entertained of his poetical contemporaries, I shall extract from the letter to his friend, in as short a compass as I can.

"To begin, (he says,) with Mr. Tickell :-This is not only a state poem (my ancient aversion), but a state poem on the Peace of Utrecht. If Mr. Pope had wrote a panegyric on it, one could hardly have read him with patience. But this is only a poor short-winded imitator of Addison, who had himself not above three or four notes in poetry; sweet enough indeed, like those of a German flute, but such as soon tire and satiate the ear with their

frequent return. Tickell has added to this a great poverty of sense, and a string of transitions that hardly become a school-boy. However, I forgive him for the sake of his Ballad, which I always thought the prettiest in the world. All there is of Mr. Green here, has been printed before; there is a profusion of wit every where. Reading would have formed his judgment, and harmonized his verse; for even his wood-notes often break out into strains of real poetry and music. TheSchoolMistress** is excellent in its kind, and masterly:

fifth and sixth volumes, which completed the Collection, in 1758.

* The School-Mistress is by far the best of Shenstone's poems. The variations from the first edition are very curious.

London' is one of those few imitations that all the ease and all the spirit of the original. same man's* Verses at the Opening of Gars Theatre are far from bad. Mr. Dyer has of poetry in his imagination, than almost any ur number; but rough, and injudicious. I ld range Mr. Bramston only a step or two e Dr. King, who is as low in my estimation yours. Dr. Evans is a furious madman; and -existence' is nonsense in all her altitudes. Lyttleton is a gentle elegiac person.† Mr. ent sure did not write his own Ode. I like Whitehead's little poems, (I mean The Ode on mt, The Verses to Garrick, and particularly to Charles Townshend,) better than any thing ever seen before of him. I gladly pass over rown and the rest, to come at you. You know s of the publishing side, and thought your reaagainst it-none: for though, as Mr. Chute extremely well, 'the still small voice' of Poetry writings in prose abound with sound reflection, and edge of human nature; and are written in a neat and cted manner, displaying great benevolence of mind, entleness of disposition. Mr. Graves (the author of iritual Quixote) wrote a pamphlet, called Recollecof some Particulars in the Life of William Shenstone, kc.' to vindicate his friend from the censure of Dr. on, Gray, and Mason.

Dr. Samuel Johnson. See W. S. Landor's Satire on ts, p. 14.

ee Walpole's Noble Authors, vol. i. p. 549, and WarPope, vol. iv. 309.