The correspondence of Thomas Gray and William Mason

Front matter

I . j i

THE CORRESPONDENCE

THOMAS Q.RAY AND WILLIAM MASON,

Preface

The Correspondence between Gray and Mason, which is now published in its entire form, was carefully preserved and arranged by the latter, from which he made a partial selection in his Memoirs of Gray. This volume at his death was bequeathed to his friend Mr. Stonhewer, and from him it passed into the hands of his relative, Mr. Bright of Skeffington Hall, Leicestershire. When, in the year 1845, the library of Gray was sold by the sons of that gentleman, then deceased, this volume of Correspondence was purchased by Mr. Penn of Stoke Park, and by him was kindly placed in my hands for publication.^

Some engagements at the time prevented my preparing it for the press ; and further delay

* One letter, addressed to West, and the " Travels," have been placed in the beginning of this Correspondence, as forming part of the manuscripts collected by Mason; the letter to West being imperfectly printed by Mason, and the Travels having been printed only in the late edition of Gray, will probably not be unacceptable to the readers of the volume.

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arose from the difficulty experienced in explaining the obscure allusions, and identifying the persons mentioned in it. This was only to be removed by inquiries to be made at a distance, which occupied much time, and which, often proving unsatisfactory, had to be renewed in other channels. In the Correspondence of Lord Chesterfield, of Walpole, and others, we meet with names more or less familiar to the reader from the literary eminence, or social rank, or political notoriety attached to them, and less difficulty is felt in giving such notice of them as is required for the reader's instruction ; but Gray's correspondence was maintained for the most part in the seclusion of a collegiate life, and often relates to the small private circle of friends with whom he was connected, and to events only of local and partial importance. To give some personality to names, most of them new, even to those who are acquainted with the common biographies of Gray, has been found, from the lapse of time, a matter of some difficulty ; and success has only been attained by the assistance of various friends. To have passed over this part of the task would have been unsatisfactory, and considered a

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dereliction of duty ; and, though many of the persons whom the reader will meet with in these letters have remained unnoticed, and their names publicly unknown, they formed the select and intimate society of one who was not remarkable for the facility with which his acquaintance was gained, and who required some more than ordinary proofs of excellence in that select few on whom the confidence of his friendship was bestowed. This part of my task has been performed to the best of my ability ; less successfully, perhaps, than I could have wished, but scarcely short of my expectations when I first entered upon it, as more than a century has passed since the Correspondence commenced, and those who could best have explained it have long passed away.* Perhaps the effect of it, on the whole, will be to remove some portion of the general impression of Gray's solitary and secluded life, and to show that, though deprived of domestic

* From the Venerable J. Oldershaw, Archdeacon of Norfolk, and Rector of Redenhall, and from Mr. Professor Smyth, of Cambridge, I received some few anecdotes of the persons who were the contemporaries of Gray, with a faint remembrance of him from their communication ; and I believe that with these two all further knowledge from personal recollection has closed.

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endearments, he had a small enlightened circle of friends in his own and in other colleges, by whom he was esteemed, and to whose society he could always resort : and with many also beyond the precincts of the university he held correspondence. At Mason's rectory at Aston, at Dr. Wharton's, further north, in Durham, at Mr. Chute's at the Vine, he was a frequent visitor; and at Stoke, once his mother's residence, he could always enjoy the leisure and quiet that were so welcome and necessary to him. # In his later years, such was his high reputation and character, that whoever received him as a guest felt that an honour had been conferred. His friends treasured up his little familiar sayings and manner of expression ; f

* Amidst many changes, the room in this house at Stoke which Gray occupied has been very piously preserved, as a spot of classic interest, not to be disturbed or defaced, when all around it has undergone alteration. A view of it may be seen in the Eton edition of Gray published by Mr. Williams.

■f As, for instance, in one of Mason's unpublished letters, in his Correspondence with Lord Harcourt, he says, — " My servants are in what Mr. Gray called the fever of packing up for my York residence." — Aug. 10, 1793. For the notice of this passage I am indebted to my friend Mr. Samuel Rogers, who met with it when reading the Correspondence preserved at

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and a gentleman, who long after the death of Gray paid a visit to Mr. Mcholls of Blundeston, told me that for the week he remained in the honse the conversation turned almost entirely upon Gray. #

It may perhaps be asked, why a narrative containing a more complete account of the circumstances of Gray's life, which would have included also a fuller mention of his friends, did not appear in Mason's Memoirs — a work that has formed the foundation of all subsequent biographies. That volume, which was dedicated by a grateful hand to the memory of his illustrious friend, and which has been ever esteemed a model of elegant composition and structure, was made with great and careful consideration of the duty to be performed, and with an unusual delicacy in the selection of the materials ; and this was deemed requisite at the time, which followed so closely on Gray's

Nuneham, which has subsequently been very kindly lent to me by the present proprietor, and for which I publicly express my thanks.

* The anecdotes of Gray given in Mr. Mathias's observations on his character and writings are all derived from Mr. Nicholls. Mr. Mathias was resident at Cambridge during the last year of Gray's life, but he never saw him.

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death. Notwithstanding the general brightness of the poet's reputation, and the consent of the " chosen few " in the admission of his superior genius, the Elegy * was in truth the only one of his poems that was universally popular. The subject of it was attractive ; the imagery recommended by its elegance ; and the sentiments and reflections were not too deep for the common apprehension. " The Churchyard, " Johnson says, " abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind, and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo. The four stanzas beginning c Yet e'en these bones ' are to me original. I have never seen the notions in any other place. Yet he that reads them here persuades himself that he has always felt them." t This was not the case with the Odes.J The principles

* As a curiosity in criticism, I give the notice of Gray's Elegy as it appeared in the leading review of the day — the Monthly Review. "An Elegy in a Country Churchyard. 4to. Dodsley. Seven pages. — The excellence of this little piece amply compensates for its want of quantity "

j" " C'est le coeur, il faut l'avouer, plus que l'esprit, qui lit la poesie."

\ I am speaking of those Odes on which his high reputation is chiefly founded, and which were the matured products of his later years. The Ode to Eton College has always and

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on which they were formed, and the ornaments they required, were less adapted to the public taste and knowledge. They were of too high a flight. The system was too refined, the ideal abstractions too remote, and the language perhaps too learned and elaborate. There was no story to unfold by which passion could be excited, nor any narrative to allure by which curiosity could be gratified. The reviewers of the day cavilled at them ; the men of wit endeavoured to hold them up to ridicule ; and even Hurd, the leading critic of that age, mentioned them with a courteous and attempered praise, as beyond the common vein of such things. Mason, therefore, was careful in the additions he made to what already had appeared, and did not even dare to present

deservedly been a great favourite; and what we possess of the beautiful Fragment on Vicissitude makes us lament its unfinished form, for it would probably have equalled the other in merit and popularity. It is curious that Dr Barnard, a scholar in the first rank and a poet, should have been unfavourable to the publication of this fragment, unless he thought it injurious to Gray's reputation to have the " sweepings of his study " made public. On the new lyrical metre of these noble Odes, the Bard and the Progress of Poetry, unknown before Gray, and on their surpassing excellence, see Mathias's Observations on Gray's Writings, p. 71.

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that beautiful torso or fragment alluded to in the note without repairing and completing it with his own hands. While to enlarge the circle of personal anecdote, and to admit the public with open confidence into a more intimate knowledge of Gray's private life and habits of intercourse, Mason would have considered as almost treacherous to his friend, as it was also directly opposed to his own temper and conduct, which was, to all but his intimate friends, cold and reserved, and not without a disposition to form austere and perhaps unfavourable judgments of others.*

* Mason was much governed in his opinions and judgments by his strong political feelings. He hated a Tory, and this must have been the chief cause of his dislike of his Diocesan, which he too openly showed, both in conduct and in correspondence ; but the manner in which he speaks, in a letter I possess, of two ladies whose recent loss society is now lamenting, and whose varied attainments formed only one part of the fascinations they possessed, must have arisen, I think, from their having superseded him in the friendship of the master of Strawberry Hill. Mason's satirical powers were dormant at no period of his life. The world only knew them as they appeared from him "jam senior Peleus ;" but they burst out when he was yet at the university, " nee adhuc maturus Achilles" and continued in various flashes through his whole life.

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Vigilantly to guard Gray's memory from any attack upon it, nor by imprudent or incautious admissions of his own to afford ground for critical animadversion or envious cavil, was his object. Eor this he kept some poetical pieces in reserve ; # for this he used the large epistolary stores, placed from various quarters in his hands, with a severe ceconomy of selection ; and, with this in view, he abridged and transposed the letters he did publish so that scarcely one is entire or unaltered. Yet that Mason performed his work of love in the best manner it could have been done must be acknowledged ; and into no other hands could it have been with such safety entrusted,! for there were then difficulties in more freely opening the volume of private life. Within the walls of the university and without, there were private jealousies and personal animosities that might have been awakened ; and in one or two

* Mr. Fox used to lament that Mason withheld any of Gray's Translations from the Classics, so valuable to an English reader.

j I have heard that he asked and obtained the assistance of his frieDd Dr. Hurd in the selection of the papers; but there is no authority for the report that I am aware of, except a casual and private letter.

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instances, where Mason has seemed to break through his usual chain of reserve, I question whether he was not incited by the dislike which he himself felt for the persons held up to ridicule and contempt by his friend.

Some difficulties have arisen, which, however, I hope are mostly overcome, from Gray's habit of mentioning those of whom he wrote only by the initial letters of their name. This was partly a matter of habit, partly of usage by others, and partly, I think, it grew out of a general distrust of the post-office at that period. Walpole has repeated his suspicions or complaints on the subject ; and I found that much of Mason's correspondence with him was transmitted through private hands. Gray also indulged in a habit, that seemed very amusing to him, of designating his friends and others by what the French call le sobriquet, by us termed nicknames. # Thus,

* Nicknames were commonly given to political characters in those days. Lord Temple was called " Tiddy-doll ;" the Duke of Cumberland " the Butcher;" Lord Shelburne's title is well known ; and many may be seen in the newspapers of the time, and some are mentioned in the notes to the Grenville Correspondence, iv. p. 171-2, and iii. Pref. xxxiii.

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King George the Second is styled " the Old Horse;" the Duke of Newcastle "Old Pobus;" Lord Sandwich " Jemmy Twitcher;" Mr. Brown, the Fellow of Pembroke, " Le Petit Bon Homme;" the Rev. Mr. Palgrave " Old Pa. ;" and Mason himself was " Scroddles." Through these verbal masks, however, the real persons were easily discovered; but why Lord Harcourt, in his Manuscript Correspondence with Mason, always calls Horace "Walpole "your wine merchant," is an enigma that I have not yet been able to decipher.

The university in which Gray resided so large a portion of his life, # could not with justice be censured if it did not bestow its voluntary honours on one, who lived there as a private person, almost unconnected with it, and without any official capacity or rank ; nor could he be said to be neglected, whose characteristic reserve forbade any ready approach to him ; but he was treated with the general respect due to his great talents and acquirements, and some few of the most enlightened and illustrious members of the society are ranked among his

* He was entered a fellow commoner of Pembroke Hall;, and in that capacity he resided there.

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friends. # In his later years, from growing infirmity, he did not often appear in public, unless occasionally a day of sunshine, and the softer breath of spring, allured him to the Botanic Garden, to watch the progress of vegetation (one of his daily occupations in his own rooms), and to make an addition to his floral calendar.! Beyond his own college, therefore, he was personally but little known ; and his studies and pursuits were totally unconnected with those of the society among which he lived. In the Letters, however, now printed, his opinions of men and things may be dis-

* These observations have been occasioned by the remark made by a late writer, " Cambridge, indeed, though honoured by the education of almost all the great poets of our country, has not been very propitious to the votaries of the Muse. Spenser, Milton, Dryden, Cowley, Otway, and Gray, were dismissed by their respective societies, if not without an acknowledgment, at least without the reward of their genius," &c. To this reproach the university, I think, may readily find an answer from a better hand than mine : Non nostrum est, inquam, tantas attingere laudes.

"j" Gray, during the chief part of his life, kept a daily record of the blowing of flowers, the leafing of trees, the state of the thermometer, the quarter from which the wind blew, and the falling of rain: these he entered into his pocket journals, in his delicate and correct handwriting, with the utmost precision, and sometimes into a naturalist's calendar in addition.

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closed, without the imputation of any improper or offensive freedom, for time has removed all objections that could once have been reasonably made ; while, through them, a fuller and more lively portrait of himself may be obtained. The close reserve of his general manner may be advantageously contrasted with his playful humour and kindness to his friends ; his warm attachments and his affectionate language may be seen coming more brightly out of the cold surface of his common demeanour ; perhaps showing that some part of it was assumed, as a necessary defence against intrusion and curiosity. " The melancholy Gray " will not indeed disappear altogether ; and there were events and disappointments which had affected him deeply, the effects and remembrance of which he never could remove ; but, more than all, " the long disease of life" accompanied him from his earliest to his latest years, and clouded with a constant and melancholy shadow the best and brightest days of his existence. His private journals, some of which I possess, and others which I have read, mark, day by day, the fatal presence and progress of disease, and the vigilant attention and careful

b

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means by which, however ineffectually, he endeavoured to meet its influence. He kept the records relating to his health in Latin, and such expressions as the following occur in almost every page : — " Insomnia crebra, atque expergiscenti surdus quidem doloris sensus ; frequens etiam in regione sterni oppressio et cardialgia gravis, fere sempiterna." A complete decay of the powers of nature, long threatening and steadily advancing, preceded his death. #

Much has been said of the fastidious delicacy of his manners and habits of life; this, however, he had in common with Walpole, being probably acquired or increased by both during their residence abroad ; and it would have been less noticed, or more readily overlooked, in one to whose rank and fortune it might be supposed to belong; but in Gray it appeared in stronger contrast with his circumscribed means, his slender fortune, and his humbler

* The Rev. Mr. Carey, through whom the great Florentine Poet has become our own, has mentioned his conversing with the college servant who helped to remove Gray from the dinner table in the hall, when suddenly attacked by his last fatal illness.

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station, which brought him into the society of persons of a different character and habits : perhaps, too, some part of it, in any excess beyond what was natural to him, was assumed, to keep his secluded path of life as clear from interruption and inquisitive approach as he could. His main resource against the depressing influence of disease Avas in constant employment. Mason, in a letter to Lord Harcourt, says, " ' To be employed, is to be happy,' said Gray ; and if he had never said anything else, either in prose, or even in verse, he would have deserved the esteem of all posterity."* He certainly practised as he spoke ; for his library bore witness to an extent of curiosity, a perseverance of research, and an accuracy of observation, with a minute diligence in recording what he had gained, and gathering in the harvest of the day, that is hardly to be paralleled in any one who was so gifted with original genius, and the power of forming his own creations of thought. Moreover, this indefatigable attention was not always devoted to the accomplishment of any one particular

* From an unpublished letter, Feb. 20, 1792. See also Dr. Wharton's letter in the present volume, p. 465.

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object, or the completion of any favourite inquiry, but extended over every branch of literature remote from common curiosity, and was pursued through the minutest and most distant channels of research ; so that on many subjects it would appear as pointing to no other end but that of making time subservient to the abstract investigation of truth, and the general enlargement of knowledge. It was said of a contemporary of his, " that he never touched any subject which he did not adorn ;" # but of Gray it may with as much truth be observed, that he seldom closed his laborious inquiries till he had exhausted the means of further investigation. To him, the Genealogical Researches of Dugdale were incomplete ; the scientific language of Linnaeus imperfect ; and the History of the Chinese Dynasties, in fifteen quarto volumes, by Grosier, needed his verbal corrections, and supplemental improvements, before it was worthy of being enrolled in the archives of Pekin.

Gibbon, it is well known, in a Note to his His-

* Dr. Johnson said of Goldsmith, " Nullum tetigit quod non ornavit," though in Latinity somewhat dubious.

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tory, lamented, "that Gray, instead of compiling tables of chronology and natural history, did not apjriy the powers of his genius to finish the philosophical poem, of which he left so exquisite a specimen;" but a later writer, # in his admiration of Gray's genins, has far exceeded the cautious language and the moderate desires of the Historian ; and has regretted to behold " the fatal gulf of pertinacious industry in which the Poet's fire and genius was seen to drop, and which perhaps extinguished in its first conception some great epic work, which would have placed the author on a level, which he was entitled to ascend, with Spenser and Tasso." The answer however to the reasonable wish of Gibbon, in which all mnst participate, will also suffice for the more ambitious vision of the other admirer, and show why such lofty aims could not be accomplished. When a friend once asked of Gray, why he never finished the fragment of " The Alliance of Education and Government," he

* I allude to Dr. Whitaker, the historian, antiquary, and philologer, &c. a person of learning, talents, and high character, and who added to great acquirements much of the elegance and enthusiasm of the poetic mind.

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said, " Because he could not;" and then explained himself somewhat to this effect, ' I have been used to write chiefly lyric poetry, in which, the poems being short, I have accustomed myself to polish every part of them with care, and, as this has become a habit, I can scarcely write in any other manner ; the labour of this in a long poem would hardly be tolerable, and, if accomplished, it might possibly be deficient in effect, by wanting the chiaroscuro;' Mr. Mathias also says, that when one asked Gray why he had written so little poetry, he answered, " It was from the great exertion it cost him in the labour of composition." #

That this limce labor was irksome and unsatisfactory may be seen in the number of unfinished pieces which he left behind him, the Agrippina — the Ode to Vicissitude — the Fragment on Government— the Hymn to Ignorance — the Latin poem De Principiis Cogitandi; and even The Bard itself — called his great lyric master-piece — was for some years lying by him, and only finished by an accident.

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And now we may safely hesitate before we repeat the complaint of the misapplication of the Poet's studies and occupation.

Each species of poetry seems distinguished from another by its peculiar and characteristic style, and it is praise enough, when the attainment of excellence is so rare, to have acquired a mastery over one. " The nearest approach to perfection," says a writer on a kindred art, " can only be in carrying to excellence one great quality with the least alloy of collateral defects."

Thus we find that Gray's delicately enamelled language, sparkling with the gems culled from the remoter treasures of our early poetry, woven into lyric harmony, and set off with depth of colour and variety of imagery, could not be successfully transplanted into the broader spaces of a different species, without losing its characteristic and congenial beauty, — that the structure of the Epic fable demanded a different treatment from the language of the Lyre, which requires a greater elevation of diction, bolder figures, transitions less smoothly connected, and digressions more sudden and remote. Nor must it be forgotten that in the

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construction of works of great length and high design, which appeal to the hest faculties of the intellect, where reason must approve what imagination admires, there is wanted an energy of will, and a vigorous concentration of the powers, that will not weary under the pressure of the duty that is undertaken; that can awaken at will Inspiration from her repose, and send Imagination on the wing after new conquests ; and, readily acknowledging his commanding genius, we must confess that this great task could scarcely have been accomplished by the author of the Bard. To him the calmer occupation of research, and the studious contemplation of the thoughts of others, through the medium of some favourite pursuit, would be better adapted ; and then, if the Muse did visit him in his happier hours, she would come to gather the fruits which leisure had accumulated ; and to find a mind willing to welcome her, enriched with study and invigorated by repose; with new sentiments to warm the heart, and fresh knowledge to animate the mind.

Perhaps too it might be said, that under the shelter of academic bowers is not to be found

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the most favourable residence of the Muse, nor that the seat of science and learning is most congenial to the exercise of the poetic faculty, which expands freely when concentrating its powers in its own domain. The means of gratifying an extended curiosity with ease, among the rich libraries of an university, and a natural sympathy with the pursuits of others, must have a strong tendency to disengage the mind from its own proper exercise and congenial occupations ; from the thoughts that find their best culture in solitary reflection ; and from the steadfast contemplation of those ideal creations that are reflected in the mirror of the visionary world.

The letters which contain the verbal corrections and criticisms on Mason's Poetry will not be read without interest, at least by those who know the great attention paid by Gray to propriety and perspicuity of expression, and to the language transparently representing the image of the thought. They will, I think, not only admit the general correctness of Gray's observations, but feel somewhat surprised that a person like Mason, cradled in poetry, should have given room for them in so great a degree ;

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but there is a passage, for which we are indebted to the recollection of Mr. Mcholls, which will throw some light on the subject ; and though the name of the person alluded to, from obvious motives, is not mentioned by him, that of the author of Oaractacus is to be understood. — ; " Speaking of a modern writer, whose poetry was sometimes too languid, Mr. Gray said, ' it was not a matter of words, for he never gave himself time to think, but he imagined that he should succeed best by writing hastily in the first fervour of his imagination; and therefore he never waited for epithets if they did not occur at the time readily, but left spaces for them, and put them in afterwards. This enervated his poetry, and will do so universally if that method is adopted ; for nothing is done so well as at the first concoction;' and he added, ' We think in words ; poetry consists in expression, if that term be properly understood.' " *

I have still some materials by me which I think will not be unacceptable to the public, partly relating to Gray and partly to those con-

* See Mathias's observations on Mr. Gray's Writings, p. 51.

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nectecl with him and his history, that may serve to illustrate what is already published, and complete in some points our acquaintance with the circumstances of his life. It was the intention of Gray to collect and publish the poetical remains of his friend Richard West ; and probably this tablet, inscribed by the hand of friendship, would have given us in words warm from the heart, such a portrait of one whose genius and virtues were laid in too early a tomb, as would have shewn from what a rich and copious source the few, but beautiful, remains we possess had sprung, and what might have been expected from him in the maturity of his powers. Why Gray left his design unaccomplished is not known; but it may be endeavoured, with the assistance of new materials, not indeed to supply the office which he left unfulfilled, but to raise the best monument to the memory of West from his own works which, at so late a period, can be done. Together with these it is proposed to give extracts from a few unpublished manuscripts of Mason, and chiefly from his correspondence with his friends, and some letters from other hands, which may form no unpleasing commen-

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tary on the character and writings of Horace Walpole.

In this manner the little circle of friends may again he Drought together, and the few additional touches that will he the result, may perhaps he considered as not without their value. In the meantime I present my readers with some brief notes on Gray by the hand of Waipole; I do not know the time when they were written. They are indeed very unfinished, and seem to have been composed in haste ; but they have added something to our knowlege of the Poet's history, and they acquire an authentic value from the quarter from which they come. And now it only remains for me publicly to express my thanks to those who, in the most friendly manner, have assisted me in my inquiries ; — to the Rev. J. Power, Pellow of Pembroke College, I am under deep obligations ; and, while I scarcely know what apologies will excuse the trouble which I gave, I yet most gratefully acknowledge the value of the information it produced : — in my friend Mr. T. Watts, of the British Museum, I possess a treasure-house of literary information, to which I have never applied in vain ;