WILLIAM FOWLE MIDDLETON, ESQ. SHRUBLAND PARK, Suffolk. SIR, Impelled by feelings of the sincerest regard for your great and continued Support since my commencement in Business, I have been anxious to testify my gratitude in a manner not unworthy your acceptance:—and I indulge a hope, that, in dedicating to you the present Edition of the Writings of the illustrious GRAY, my desire may in some measure be accomplished.—What he was as a Poet and a Man has justly entitled him to a laurel lasting as Time itself; and Sir, let it not be considered an unmerited encomium to remark, that the same benevolent virtues, which so eminently adorned and distinguished him, now shine with corresponding lustre and energy in yourself. .. That Providence may long preserve you to your Family (to every branch of which I am bound by the strongest sense obligation and respect) is the sincere and constant wish of, SIR, Your ever grateful humble Servant, of St. John's Square, Jan. 1, 1820. THE PRINTER. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. Mr. GRAY's birth. Education at Eton, where he commences a friendship with the Hon. Horace Walpole and Mr. Richard West. Account of the latter, with whom and with Mr. Wal- pole a correspondence begins on their leaving school, and going to the 3. From Mr. WEST. Approbation of the version. Ridicule on the Cambridge Collection of Verses on the marriage of the Prince of 4. To Mr. WEST. On the little encouragement which he finds given to classical learning at Cambridge. His aversion to metaphysical and 6. To Mr. WALPOLE. Excuse for not writing to him, &c. 7. From Mr. WEST. A poetical epistle addressed to his Cambridge friends, taken in part from Tibullus and a prose letter of Mr. Pope. 21 8. To Mr. WEST. Thanks him for his poetical epistle. Complains of low spirits. Lady Walpole's death, and his concern for Mr. H. 9. To Mr. WALPOLE. How he spends his own time in the country, Meets with Mr. Southern, the dramatic poet 10. To Mr. WALPOLE. Supposed manner in which Mr. Walpole spends 11. From Mr. WEST. Sends him a translation into Latin of a Greek epi- 18. From Mr. WEST. Sends him a Latin Elegy in answer to Mr Gray's Sapphic Ode LETTER 13. From Mr. WEST, on leaving the University, and removing to the Temple 14. To Mr. WEST. A Sapphic Ode, occasioned by the preceding letter, with a Latin postscript, concluding with an Alcaic fragment 15. From Mr. WEST. Thanks for his Ode, &c. His idea of Sir Robert Walpole 16. To Mr. WALPOLE. Congratulates him on his new place. Whimsical description of the quadrangle of Peter-house 17. To Mr. WEST. On his own leaving the University Page · 32 33 36 37 38 39 Short narrative, concluding the Section 41 SECTION II. Connecting narrative. Mr. Gray goes abroad with Mr. Walpole. 42 1. To his MOTHER. His voyage from Dover. Description of Calais. Abbeville. Amiens. Face of the country, and dress of the people 43 2. To Mr. WEST. Monuments of the Kings of France at St. Denis, &c. French opera and music. Actors, &c. 3. To Mr. WEST. Palace of Versailles. Its gardens and water-works. Installation of the Knights du S. Esprit 4. To his MOTHER. Rheims. Its cathedral. Disposition and amusements of its inhabitants 5. To his FATHER. Face of the country between Rheims and Dijon. Description of the latter. Monastery of the Carthusians and Cis tertians 7. From Mr. WEST. 56 6. To Mr. WEST. Lyons. Beauty of its environs. Roman antiquities 57 His wishes to accompany his friend. His retired Address to his Lyre, in Latin Sapphics, on the Gray's return life in London. 8. To his MOTHER. Lyons. Excursion to the Grande Chartreuse. Solemn and romantic approach to it. His reception there, and commendation of the monastery 9. To his FATHER. Geneva. Advantage of a free government exhibited in the very look of the people. Beauty of the lake, and plenty of its fish Journey over the Alps to Turin. Singular accident in passing them. 12. To Mr. WEST. Genoa. Music. The Doge. Churches and the Palazzo Doria LETTER Page 74 76 13. To his MOTHER. Paintings at Modena. Bologna. Beauty and rich- 14. To his MOTHER. The Appennines. Florence and its Gallery 16. From Mr. WEST. Latin Elegy, expressing his wishes to see Italy and Greece 17. To his MOTHER. Death of the Pope. Intended departure for Rome. First and pleasing appearance of an Italian spring 18. To his MOTHER. Cathedral of Sienna. Viterbo. Distant sight of Rome. The Tiber. Entrance into the city. St. Peter's. Introduction of the Cardinal d'Auvergne into the Conclave 19. To his MOTHER. Illumination of St. Peter's on Good Friday, &c. . 87 20. To Mr. WEST. Comic account of the palace of the Duke of Modena at Tivoli. The Anio. Its cascade. Situation of the town. Villas of Horace and Mecenas, and other remains of antiquity. Modern aqueducts. A grand Roman ball 21. To Mr. WEST. An Alcaic Ode. Ludicrous allusion to ancient Roman customs. Albano and its lake, Castle-Gondolfo. Prospect from the palace; an observation of Mr. Walpole's on the views in that part of Italy. Latin inscriptions, ancient and modern 22. To his MOTHER. Road to Naples. Beautiful situation of that city. Its bay. Of Baiæ, and several other antiquities. Some account of the first discovery of an ancient town, now known to be Herculaneum 23. To his FATHER. Departure from Rome and return to Florence. No Naples. Sight of the King and Queen. Mildness of the air at 88 92 97 24. From Mr. WEST. On his quitting the Temple, and reason for it 25. To Mr. WEST. Answer to the foregoing letter. Some account of Naples and its environs, and of Mr. Walpole's return to Florence 26. To his MOTHER. Excursion to Bologna. Election of a pope; description of his person, with an odd speech which he made to the cardinals in the Conclave 104 27. To Mr. WEST. Description, in Latin hexameters, of the sudden rising of Monte Nuovo near Puzzoli, and of the destruction which attended it 28. To his FATHER. Uncertainty of the route he shall take in his return to England. Magnificence of the Italians in their reception of strangers, and parsimony when alone. The great applause which the new Pope meets with. One of his bon mots 29. To his FATHER. Total want of amusement at Florence, occasioned by the late Emperor's funeral not being public. A procession to avert the ill effects of a late inundation. Intention of going to Venice. An invasion from the Neapolitans apprehended. The inhabitants of Tuscany dissatisfied with the government 30. To Mr. WEST. The time of his departure from Florence determined. 114 116 |