TO

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 čaurel 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.

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That Providence may long preserve you to your Family (to every branch of which I am bound by the strongest sense of obligation and respect) is the sincere and constant wish of,

SIR,

Your ever grateful humble Servant,

THE PRINTER,

St. John's Square,

Jan. 1, 1820.

CON TEN TS.

SECTION I.

Page 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. Walpole a correspondence begins on their leaving school, and going to the University

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LETTER

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1. From Mr. West. Complains of his friend's silence.
2. To Mr. West. Answer to the former. A translation of some lines

from Statius
3. From Mr. West. Approbation of the version. Ridicule on the

Cambridge Collection of Verses on the marriage of the Prince of
Wales

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Preface of the Editor to the subsequent letter

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4. To Mr. West. On the little encouragement which he finds given to

classical learning at Cambridge. His aversion to metaphysical and
mathematical studies

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5. From Mr. West. Answer to the former, advises his correspondent
not to give up poetry when he applies himself to the law

18 6. To Mr. WALPOLE. Excuse for not writing to him, &c.

20 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.
Walpole

25 9. To Mr. WALPOLE. How he spends his own time in the country, Meets with Mr. Southern, the dramatic poet

26 10. To Mr. WALPOLE. Supposed manner in which Mr. Walpole spends his time in the country

28 11. From Mr. West. Sends him a translation into Latin of a Greek epi

29 gram 12. To Mr. West. A Latin epistle in answer to the foregoing

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LETTER

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Page 13. From Mr. West, on leaving the University, and removing to the Temple

32 14. To Mr. West. A Sapphic Ode, occasioned by the preceding letter, with a Latin postscript, concluding with an Alcaic fragment

33 15. From Mr. West. Thanks for his Ode, &c. His idea of Sir Robert Walpole.

36/ 16. To Mr. WALPOLE. Congratulates him on his new place. Whimsical description of the quadrangle of Peter-house

37 17. To Mr. West. On his own leaving the University 18. From Mr. West. Sends him a Latin Elegy in answer to Mr Gray's

Sapphic Ode

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Short narrative, concluding the Section

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SECTION II.

Connecting narrative. Mr. Gray goes abroad with Mr. Walpole.

Corresponds, during his tour, with his parents and Mr. West

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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.

46 3. To Mr. West. Palace of Versailles. Its gardens and water-works. Installation of the Knights du S. Esprit

50 4. To his MOTHER. Rheims. Its cathedral. Disposition and amusements of its inhabitants

53 5. To his Father. Face of the country between Rheims and Dijon.

Description of the latter. Monastery of the Carthusians and Cis-
tertians

56 6. To Mr. West. Lyons. Beauty of its environs. Roman antiquities 57 7. From Mr. West. His wishes to accompany his friend. His retired

life in London. Address to his Lyre, in Latin Sapphics, on the
prospect of Mr. Gray's return

60 8. To his Mother. Lyons. Excursion to the Grande Chartreuse. So

lemn and romantic approach to it. His reception there, and com-
mendation of the monastery

61 9. To his Father. Geneva. Advantage of a free government exhi

bited in the very look of the people. Beauty of the lake, and
plenty of its fish

64 10. To his MOTHER. Journey over the Alps to Turin. Singular accident in passing them. Method of travelling over mount Cenis

66 11. To Mr. West. Turin. · Its carnival. More of the views and scenery

on the road to the Grande Chartreuse. Wild and savage prospects
amongst the Alps agreeable to Livy's description

69 12. To Mr. West. Genoa. Music. The Doge. Churches and the Palazzo Doria

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LETTER

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13. To his MOTHER. Paintings at Modena. Bologna. Beauty and richness of Lombardy

74 14. To his Mother. The Appennines. Florence and its Gallery 76 15. To Mr. West. Journey from Genoa to Florence. Elegiac verses

occasioned by the sight of the plains where the battle of Trebiæ was
fought

79 16. From Mr. West. Latin Elegy, expressing his wishes to see Italy and Greece

80 17. To his MOTHER. Death of the Pope. Intended departure for Rome. First and pleasing appearance of an Italian spring

82 18. To his Mother. Cathedral of Sienna. Viterbo. Distant sight of

Rome. The Tiber. Entrance into the city. St. Peter's. Intro-
duction of the Cardinal d'Auvergne into the Conclave

83 19. To his MOTHER. Illumination of St. Peter's on Good Friday, &c. • 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 Mecænas, and other remains of antiquity. Modern
aqueducts. A grand Roman ball

88 21. To Mr. West. An Alcaic Ode. Ludicrous allusion to ancient Ro

man 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

92 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 Hercu-
laneum

97 23. To his FATHER. Departure from Rome and return to Florence. No

likelihood of the Conclave's rising. Some of the cardinals dead.
Description of the Pretender, his sons, and court. Procession at
Naples. Sight of the King and Queen. Mildness of the air at
Florence

99 24. From Mr. West. On his quitting the Temple, and reason for it

102 25. To Mr. West. Answer to the foregoing letter. Some account of

Naples and its environs, and of Mr. Walpole's return to Florence · 104 26. To his Mother. Excursion to Bologna. Election of a pope; des

cription of his person, with an odd speech which he made to the
cardinals in the Conclave

108 27. To Mr. West. Description, in Latin hexameters, of the sudden rising

of Monte Nuovo near Puzzoli, and of the destruction which at-
tended it

110 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

114 29. To his FATHER. Total want of amusement at Florence, occasioned

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