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 GlamesCastle, 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, (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 vo

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

I thought it necessary to offer an apology turing to address you in this abrupt manner, ld be very much at a loss how to begin. I plead my admiration of your genius, and tachment to your character; but who is he ould not with truth urge the same excuse truding upon your retirement? I might my earnest desire to be personally acquainted man, whom I have so long and so passionadmired in his writings; but thousands, of r consequence than I, are ambitious of the honour. I, indeed, must either flatter myat no apology is necessary, or otherwise, I despair of obtaining what has long been the of my most ardent wishes. I must for ever - all hopes of seeing you, and conversing

you.

t was yesterday I received the agreeable of your being in Scotland, and of your inng to visit some parts of it. Will you permit hope, that we shall have an opportunity at leen, of thanking you in person, for the r you have done to Britain, and to the poetic y your inestimable compositions, and of offer

ing 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

t of the summer of 1766 Gray passed in a n Kent, and at the house of his friend Mr. son, on the skirts of Barham Down. In a in my possession, from Mrs. Robinson to a , dated June 2, 1766, she says: "I have ith several interruptions, partly owing to our had for almost a fortnight a very agreeable man in the house, whose conversation is both ctive and entertaining; after what I have you will wish to hear his name---' --'tis Mr. ---who is well known for having wrote several elegies; he is also an acquaintance of your Mr. Rycroft," &c.* In 1767 he again left

Gray, who admired Dryden almost beyond bounds, o say of a very juvenile poem of his, in Tonson's llany, written on the Death of Lord Halifax, that e not so much as the slightest promise of his future ency, and seemed to indicate a bad natural ear for cation. I believe Derrick reprinted this poem in ition of Dryden." There is no poem that I can disby Dryden on the Death of Lord Halifax; but I se Mr. Mason meant a Poem on the Death of Lord ngs, (See Scott's Life of Dryden, p. 28.) written Dryden was only eighteen, and at Westminster 1, and which is the first poem in Derrick's Collection; also in p. 116 of the first volume of Tonson's MiscelThese lines are certainly most singularly inharmowith much of the strained allusion and rough style nne. At the end of Halifax's Miscellanies,' there is onymous poem to his memory, of considerable merit; am not able to say by whom it is written. See also n's Works, vol. i. p. 451.

ee Miss Carter's Letters to Mrs. Montagu, vol. i. p. 364.

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 exceedingly obscure. I have mentioned, in the notes to this poem, that Gray translated only that part of it which he found in the Latin version of Bartholinus; and to this cause much of the obscurity is owing. In a letter to Walpolet he says, "As to what you say to me civilly,---that I ought to write more,---I reply in our own words, like the pamphleteer who is going to confute you out of your own mouth; What has one to do, when turned of fifty, but really to think of finishing?' However, I will be candid, for you seem to be so

See Mason's Life of Whitehead, p. 84. See also Dryden's Miscell. v. vi. p. 387, for a translation that may have turned Gray's thoughts to the Northern Poetry.

+ See Walpole's Works, vol. v. p. 374, Letter viii.