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 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 of obligation and respect) is the sincere and constant wish of, SIR, Your ever grateful humble Servant, 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 2. To Mr. WEST. Answer to the former. A translation of some lines 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. a LETTER 13. From Mr. WEST, on leaving the University, and removing to the 14. To Mr. WEST. A Sapphic Ode, occasioned by the preceding letter, 15. From Mr. WEST. 16. To Mr. WALPOLE. Congratulates him on his new place. Whimsical 17. To Mr. WEST. On his own leaving the University Short narrative, concluding the Section Page 33 36 37 38 39 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 Cistertians 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 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 10. To his MOTHER. Journey over the Alps to Turin. Singular accident 12. To Mr. WEST. Genoa. Music. The Doge. Churches and the Pa |