A LONG STORY.*

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 130, and Pennant's Life, p. 23.]

Gray's Elegy in a Country Church-yard, previous to its publication, was handed about in manuscript; and had amongst other admirers the Lady Cobham, who resided at the mansion-house at Stoke-Pogeis. The performance inducing her to wish for the author's acquaintance, her relation, Miss Speed, and Lady Schaub, then at her house, undertook to effect it. These two ladies waited upon the author at his aunt's solitary habitation, where he at that time resided; and not finding him at home, they left a card behind them. Mr. Gray, surprised at such a compliment, returned the visit. And as the beginning of this acquaintance bore some appearance of romance, he soon after gave a humorous account of it in the following copy of verses, which he entitled "A Long Story." Printed in 1753 with Mr. Bentley's designs, and repeated in a second edition.

MS.

IN Britain's isle, no matter where,
An ancient pile of building stands:
The Huntingdons and Hattons there

Employ'd the pow'r of fairy hands.

*This Poem was rejected by Gray in the Collection published by himself; and though published afterwards by Mason in his Memoirs of Gray, he placed it amongst the Letters, together with the Posthumous Pieces; not thinking himself authorized to insert among the Poems what the author had rejected.

V. 2. The mansion-house at Stoke-Pogeis, then in the possession of Viscountess Cobham. The house formerly belonged to the earls of Huntingdon and the family of Hatton. Mason Sir Edmond Coke's mansion at Stoke-Pogeis, now the seat of Mr. Penn, was the scene of Gray's Long Story. The antique chimneys have been allowed to remain as vestiges of the Poet's

To raise the ceiling's fretted height,

Each panel in achievements clothing, Rich windows that exclude the light,

And passages that lead to nothing.

Full oft within the spacious walls,
When he had fifty winters o'er him
My grave Lord-Keeper led the brawls;
The seals and maces danc'd before him.

His bushy beard, and shoe-strings green,
His high-crown'd hat, and satin doublet,
Mov'd the stout heart of England's queen,

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Though Pope and Spaniard could not trouble it.

What, in the very first beginning!

Shame of the versifying tribe!

Your hist❜ry whither are you spinning?
Can you do nothing but describe ?

A house there is (and that's enough)
From whence one fatal morning issues

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fancy, and a column with a statue of Coke marks the former abode of its illustrious inhabitant. D'Israeli. Cur. of Lit. (New Ser.) i. 482. Coke married Lady Hatton, relict of Sir William Hatton, sister of Lord Burlington.

V. 7. "And storied windows richly dight,

Casting a dim religious light." Il Pens. 159.

And Pope. Eloisa, 142:

“Where awful arches make a noonday night,

W.

And the dim windows shed a solemn light." V. 11. Sir Christopher Hatton, promoted by Queen Elizabeth for his graceful person and fine dancing. Gray. See Hume's England, vol. v. p. 330. Naunton's Fragmenta Regalia, and Ocklandi Elizabetha. Mi. Barrington on the Statutes, p. 405.

A brace of warriors, not in buff,

But rustling in their silks and tissues.

The first came cap-a-pee from France,

Her conqu❜ring destiny fulfilling, Whom meaner beauties eye askance, And vainly ape her art of killing.

The other amazon kind heav'n

Had arm'd with spirit, wit, and satire ; But Cobham had the polish giv'n,

And tipp'd her arrows with good-nature.

To celebrate her eyes, her air

Coarse panegyrics would but tease her; Melissa is her " nom de guerre."

Alas, who would not wish to please her!

With bonnet blue and capuchinė,

And aprons long, they hid their armour; And veil❜d their weapons, bright and keen, In pity to the country farmer.

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V. 11. Brawls were a sort of French figure-dance, then in vogue. See England's Helicon, p. 101; Browne's Poems, vol. iii. p. 149, ed. Thompson; and the note by Steevens to Love's Lab. Lost, act iii. sc. 1. And so Ben Jonson, in a Masque, vol. vi. p. 27, ed. Whalley:

"And thence did Venus learn to lead

The Idalian brawls.”

But see more particularly Marston. Malcontent, act iv. sc. 2, where it is described:

"We have forgot the brawl," &c.

See Dodsley. Old Plays, vol ü. p. 210.

Fame, in the shape of Mr. P-t,
(By this time all the parish know it)
Had told that thereabouts there lurk'd
A wicked imp they call a poet:

Who prowl'd the country far and near,

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Bewitch'd the children of the peasants, Dried up the cows, and lam'd the deer, And suck'd the eggs, and kill'd the pheasants.

My lady heard their joint petition,

Swore by her coronet and ermine, She'd issue out her high commission To rid the manor of such vermin.

The heroines undertook the task,

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Thro' lanes unknown, o'er stiles they ventur'd,

V. 41. It has been said, that this gentleman, a neighbour and acquaintance of Gray's in the country, was much displeased with the liberty here taken with his name: yet, surely, without any great reason. Mason. Mr. Robert Purt was Fellow of King's Coll. Cant. 1738. A.B. 1742, A.M. 1746; was an assistant at Eton school, tutor to Lord Baltimore's son there, and afterwards to the Duke of Bridgewater; in 1749 he was presented to the rectory of Settrington in Yorkshire, which he held with Dorrington in the same county: he died in Ap. 1752 of the small pox. Isaac Reed.

V. 51. Henry the Fourth, in the fourth year of his reign, issued out the following commission against this species of vermin: -“And it is enacted, that no master-rimour, minstrel, or other vagabond, be in any wise sustained in the land of Wales, to make commoiths, or gatherings upon the people there." -" Vagabond," says Ritson, "was a title to which the profession had been long accustomed."

"Beggars they are with one consent,
And rogues by act of parliament."

Pref. to Anc. Songs, p. xi

Rapp'd at the door, nor stay'd to ask,
But bounce into the parlour enter'd.

The trembling family they daunt,

They flirt, they sing, they laugh, they tattle, Rummage his mother, pinch his aunt, And up stairs in a whirlwind rattle:

Each hole and cupboard they explore,
Each creek and cranny of his chamber,

Run hurry-scurry round the floor,

And o'er the bed and tester clamber;

Into the drawers and china pry,

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Papers and books, a huge imbroglio!

Under a tea-cup he might lie,

Or creased, like dogs-ears, in a folio.

There are still stronger Scotch statutes against them, some condemning them and "such like fules" to lose their ears, and others their lives. By a law of Elizabeth, the English minstrels were pronounced "rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars," xxxix. Eliz. c. 4. s. 2. See Ritson's Engl. Songs, 1. liii. Barrington on the Statutes, p. 360. Dodsley. Old Plays, xii. p. 361. Strutt. Sports and Pastimes, p. 182-196. Puttenham. Art of Engl. Poesie. (1589) Lib. ii. c. 9.

V. 67. There is a very great similarity between the style of part of this poem, and Prior. Tale of the Dove : as for instance in the following stanzas, which Gray, I think, must have had in his mind at the time:

"With one great peal they rap the door,
Like footmen on a visiting day:

Folks at her house at such an hour,

Lord! what will all the neighbours say?

"Her keys he takes, her door unlocks,
Thro' wardrobe and thro' closet bounces,