tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, and 29 are from Birket Foster's designs; illustrations 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, and 16 are from the graceful drawings of "E. V. B." (the Hon. Mrs. Boyle); the rest are from various sources.

    Cambridge, Feb. 29, 1876.

CONTENTS.

THE LIFE OF THOMAS GRAY, BY ROBERT CARRUTHERS

STOKE-POGIS, BY WILLIAM HOWITT

ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD

MISCELLANEOUS POEMS

ON THE SPRING

ON THE DEATH OF A FAVOURITE CAT

ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE

THE PROGRESS OF POESY

THE BARD

HYMN TO ADVERSITY

NOTES

APPENDIX TO NOTES

INDEX

STOKE-POGIS CHURCH.

THE LIFE OF THOMAS GRAY.

Thomas Gray, the author of the celebrated Elegy written in a Country Churchyard, was born in Cornhill, London, December 26, 1716. His father, Philip Gray, an exchange broker and scrivener, was a wealthy and nominally respectable citizen, but he treated his family with brutal severity and neglect, and the poet was altogether indebted for the advantages of a learned education to the affectionate care and industry of his mother, whose maiden name was Antrobus, and who, in conjunction with a maiden sister, kept a millinery shop. A brother of Mrs. Gray was assistant to the Master of Eton, and was also a fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge. Under his protection the poet was educated at Eton, and from thence went to Peterhouse, attending college from 1734 to September, 1738. At Eton he had as contemporaries Richard West, son of the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and Horace Walpole, son of the triumphant Whig minister, Sir Robert Walpole. West died early in his 26th year, but his genius and virtues and his sorrows will forever live in the correspondence of his friend. In the spring of 1739, Gray was invited by Horace Walpole to accompany him as travelling companion in a tour through France and Italy. They made the usual route, and Gray wrote remarks on all he saw in Florence, Rome, Naples, etc. His observations on arts and antiquities, and his sketches of foreign manners, evince his admirable taste, learning, and discrimination. Since Milton, no such