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SECTION IV.

Prefatory narrative. Mr. Gray takes his degree in civil law, and makes Cambridge his principal residence for the rest of his life. The Editor of these Memoirs becomes acquainted with him in the year 1747. He corresponds with Dr. Wharton and several other persons till the year 1768, when he is appointed Professor of Modern History

LETTER

Page

. 169

1. To Dr. WHARTON. On taking his degree of Bachelor of Civil Law 172

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2. To Dr. WHARTON. Ridicule on University laziness. Of Dr. Akenside's poem, on the Pleasures of Imagination

. 176

3. To Dr. WHARTON. His amusements in town. Reflections on riches. Character of Aristotle

. 178

4. To Mr. WALPOLE. Ridicule on Cibber's Observations on Cicero. On the modern Platonic Dialogue. Account of his own and Mr. West's poetical compositions

. 181

- 184

- 187

5. To Mr. WALPOLE. Criticisms on Mr. Spence's Polymetis 6. To Mr. WALPOLE. Ludicrous compliment of condolence on the death of his favourite cat, inclosing his Ode on that subject 7. To Dr. WHARTON. Loss by fire of a house in Cornhill. On Diodorus Siculus. M. Gresset's Poems. Thomson's Castle of Indolence. Ode to a Water-Nymph, with a character of its Author 188 8. To Dr. WHARTON. More on M. Gresset. Account of his own projected poem on the alliance between government and education. 190 Fragment of that poem, with a commentary, notes, and detached sentiments relative to it · 192

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9. To Dr. WHARTON. Character of M. de Montesquieu's L'Esprit des Loix . 199 10. To Dr. WHARTON. Account of books continued. Crebillion's Catalina. Birch's State Papers. Of his own studies, and a table of Greek chronology, which he was then forming

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. 200

11. To Dr. WHARTON. Ludicrous account of the Duke of Newcastle's Installation at Cambridge. On the Ode then performed, and more concerning the Author of it

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202

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204

12. To his MOTHER. Consolatory on the death of her sister
13. To Dr. WHARTON. Wishes to be able to pay him a visit at Durham.
On Dr. Middleton's death. Some account of the first volumes of
Buffon's Histoire Naturelle

.

⚫ 205

Narrative of the incident which led Mr. Gray to write his Long Story.
That poem inserted, with notes by the Editor, and prefaced with
his idea of Mr. Gray's peculiar vein of humour

14. To Dr. WHARTON. On the ill reception which the foregoing poem

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207

LETTER

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met with in town when handed about in manuscript, and how much
his Elegy in a Country Church-yard was applauded

216

15. To Mr. WALPOLE. Desires him to give his Elegy to Mr. Dodsley to be printed immediately, in order to prevent its publication in a magazine

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217

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16. To Dr. WHARTON. Of Madame Maintenon's Character and Letters.
His high opinion of M. Racine. Of Bishop Hall's Satires, and of
a few of Plato's Dialogues
17. To Mr. WALPOLE. Concerning the intention of publishing Mr.
Bentley's designs for his Poems. Refuses to have his own portrait
prefixed to that work

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220

Farther account of those designs, with stanzas which Mr. Gray wrote
to Mr. Bentley on that occasion

Epitaph on Mr. Gray's aunt and mother in the church-yard of Stoke-
Pogis

222

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18. To Mr. MASON. On the death of his father
19. To Dr. WHARTON. On Strawberry-Hill. Occasional remarks on
Gothic architecture

20. To Dr. WHARTON. Objection to publishing his Ode on the Progress
of Poetry singly. Hint of his having other lyrical ideas by him
unfinished

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Explanation of that hint, and a fragment of one of those lyrical pieces
inserted

21. To Mr. STONHEWER. Of Monsignor Baiardi's book concerning Herculaneum. A poem of Voltaire. Incloses a part of his Ode en

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22. To Dr. WHARTON. On his removing from Peter-House to Pembroke Hall. His notion of a London hospital. Of Sully's Memoirs. Mason's four odes

229

235

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23. To Dr. WHARTON. Of his own indolence. Memoirs of M. de la
Porte and of Madame Staal. Intention of coming to town
24. To Mr. MASON. Of his reviewers. Offers to send him Druidical
anecdotes for his projected drama of Caractacus

239

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25. To Mr. MASON. On hearing Parry play on the Welch harp, and finishing his Ode after it. Account of the Old Ballad on which the Tragedy of Douglas was founded

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26. To Mr. HURD. On the ill reception his two Pindaric Odes met with on their publication 27. To Mr. MASON. His opinion of the dramatic part of Caractacus • 246 28. To Mr. MASON. Dissuading him from retirement. Advice concerning Caractacus. Criticisms on his Elegy written in the Garden of a Friend. Refusal of the office of Poet Laureat 29. To Dr. WHARTON. Account of his present employment in making out a list of places, in England, worth seeing 30. To Dr. WHARTON. On the forementioned list. Tragedy of Agis.

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LETTER

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Various authors in the last volumes of Dodsley's Miscellany. Dr.
Swift's four last years of Queen Anne

• 256

31. To Mr. STONHEWER. On infidel writers and Lord Shaftsbury

• 257

A paper of Mr. Gray inserted, relating to an impious position of Lord

Bolingbroke

• 260

32. To Dr. WHARTON. writing an epitaph

On the death of his son, and an excuse for not

265

33. To Mr. PALGRAVE. Desiring him to communicate the remarks he
should make in his tour through the North of England
34. To Mr. MASON. Some remarks on a second manuscript copy of Ca-

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35. To Mr. PALGRAVE. Description of Mr. Gray's present situation in
town, and of his reading in the British Museum
36. To Dr. WHARTON. On employment. Gardening. Character of
Froissart. King of Prussia's Poems. Tristram Shandy

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271

. 272

37. To Mr. STONHEWER. On the latter volumes of M. d'Alembert and the Erse Fragments

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38. To Dr. CLARKE. His amusements with a party on the banks of the Thames. Death of a Cambridge Doctor. More of the Erse Frag

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39. To Mr. MASON. On two Parodies of Mr. Gray's and Mr. Mason's Odes. Extract of a letter from Mr. David Hume, concerning the authenticity of the Erse Poetry

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40. To Dr. WHARTON. On his employments in the country. Nouvelle
Eloise. Fingal. Character of Mr. Stillingfleet
41. To Mr. MASON. More concerning the Nouvelle Eloise. Of Signor
Elisi, and other opera singers
42. To Mr. MASON. On his expectation of being made a residentiary
of York. Recovery of Lord from a dangerous illness. Reason
for writing the Epitaph on Sir William Williams
43. To Dr. WHARTON. Description of Hardwick. Professor Turner's
death. And of the peace

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44. To Mr. MASON. On Count Algarotti's approbation of his and Mr. Mason's poetry. Gothic architecture. Plagiary in Helvetius, from Elfrida

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45. To Mr. BROWN. Sending him a message to write to a gentleman
abroad relating to Count Algarotti, and recommending the Erse
Poems
46. Count ALGAROTTI to Mr. GRAY. Complimentary, and sending him
some dissertations of his own

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48. To Mr. PALGRAVE. What he particularly advises him to see when

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50. To Dr. WHARTON. Description of the old castle of Glamis, and part

of the Highlands

305

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abroad 49. To Mr. BEATTIE. Thanks for a letter received from him, and an invitation from Lord Strathmore to Glamis

LETTER

51. To Mr. BEATTIE. Apology for not accepting the degree of Doctor offered him by the University of Aberdeen

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52. To Dr. WHARTON. Buffon's Natural History. Memoirs of Petrarch. Mr. Walpole at Paris. Description of a fine lady

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314

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316

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55. To Mr. BEATTIE. Thanks for a manuscript poem. Mr. Adam Ferguson's Essay on Civil Society. A compliment to Lord Gray 321 56. To Mr. BEATTIE. On the projected edition of our Author's Poems in England and Scotland. Commendation of Mr. Beattie's Ode on Lord Hay's birth-day

57. To Mr. BEATTIE.

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324

More concerning the Glasgow edition of his

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58. To the Duke of GRAFTON. Thanking him for his Professorship.
59. To Mr. NICHOLLS. Account of Mr. Brocket's death, and of his being
made his successor in the Professorship

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Enumeration of such other literary pursuits of Mr. Gray as were not
sufficiently dilated upon in the preceding letters

1. To Mr. NICHOLLS. On the death of his uncle, Governor Floyer, and advising him to take orders

2. To Mr. NICHOLLS. Congratulating him upon his situation, and men-
tioning his own Ode on the Installation of the New Chancellor

3. To Mr. BEATTIE. His reason for writing that Ode
4. To Dr. WHARTON. A journal of his tour through Westmoreland,
Cumberland, and a part of Yorkshire

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5. To Dr. WHARTON. Description of Kirkstall-Abbey, and some other places in Yorkshire

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6. To Mr. NICHOLLS. Of Nettley-Abbey and Southampton
7. To Mr. BEATTIE. On the first part of his Minstrel, and his Essay on
the Immutability of Truth. Stricture on Mr. D. Hume
8. To Mr. How. On receiving three of Count Algarotti's Treatises, and
hinting an error which that author had fallen into, with regard to
the English taste of gardening

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9. To Mr. How. After perusing the whole of Count Algarotti's works
in the Leghorn edition, and his sentiments concerning them
10. To Mr. NICHOLLS. On the affection due to a mother. Description
of that part of Kent from whence the letter was written

387

390

LETTER

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11. To Mr. NICHOLLS. Character of Froissart and other old French historians. And of Isocrates

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391

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393

12. To Dr. WHARTON.

Of his tour, taken the year before, to Monmouth, &c. Intention of coming to Old Park. And of his ill state of health

Conclusion, with the particulars of Mr. Gray's death. His character
by another hand, and some annotations on it by the Editor

• 394

APPENDIX.

LETTERS TO MR. WALPOLE.

1. The little concern produced by public calamities. Some remarks upon the character of Mr. Pope

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2. Description of true philosophy. Conduct of Mr. Ratcliffe at his execution

3. Elegy written in a Country Church-yard first forwarded. specting a work in the press against Mr. Middleton

405

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4. Observations upon a dramatic performance, entitled Elfrida, from the pen of Mr. Mason

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6. Mr. Lyttleton's Elegy and Mr. Walpole's Epistle from Florence considered-favourable views of the latter

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412

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7. Inquiries concerning a new work of his, containing a history of his own time

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8. The Hymn to Adversity. Two publications of Dr. Middleton's noticed

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9. Promises a new ode

419

10. Review of the writers who contributed to Mr. Dodsley's Collection of Poems. A new ode

420

11. A visit intended

426

12. Acknowledges the receipt of two specimens of Erse Poetry: is anxious to discover the author

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13. Complains of bodily indisposition, and begs to be supplied with literary amusement

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✓ 14. Thanks for a copy of Anecdotes of Painting: the Author's plan of an historical work

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429

15. Thanks for the Castle of Otranto. Remarks upon a pamphlet and Rousseau's Lettres de la Montague

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16. Means recommended to secure his restoration to health. Inquiries relative to an old picture

435

17. Prevailing opinions respecting the work entitled Historic Doubts. Algarotti's purchase of an excellent Holbein picture. Curious tapestry

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