G R A 



G R A 



The (lory, tliougli i^iven by Burnet, is ahnndantly refuted 

 hy tlie writers of tlie Biojra;)!iia Brit?.niiica. Mr. Graur>t 

 continued his appliciUion to hi-) lludies, and made large ad- 

 ditions to his " Obferv;itions'' but two years before his 

 death, wliich happened on the i8th of April, 1674. He was 

 buried at St. Dunllan's \VlII, and manv of the moll eminent 

 and ingenious perfons of that time, among whom was fir Wil- 

 liam Petty, paid thi-ir lall refpecls to iifs memory. He left he- 

 hind him a diicourfe upon the advance of the exoife, and fome 

 papers on religious topics, which have not been piib!i(h<d. 

 It muil be mentioned to his honour, that immediately after 

 the publicati<in of his book, Lewis XIV. or his minillers, 

 enacted a law to enforce the moft exact regiller of births and 

 burials that was to be found anv where in Kurooe. Biog. 

 Brit. 



GRAUPEN, a term ufed bv the German miners to ex- 

 prefs the reliduum of any ore after the reguhis, or metalline 

 part, is run from it. Thus the ores of bifmuth leave beliind 

 them, after the regnlas is melted off, an earthv fiibflance, 

 called bilmuth graupen, with whicli, mixed witli flints and 

 an alkali, they make a kind ot fmalt, not dillingnilhable from 

 the true fmalt made from cobalt. Phil. Tranf. N ^90. 



(^RAUSTONE. SeeGi'.EvsToM-. 



G R AU WAC KE. See Tran/ition Rof K.«. 

 . GRAY, TllOMA.";, in Bir^raphv, a diUinguifhed Englifll 



poet, defcended from very refpertable citizens of London, 

 was born in Cornhill, December the 26th, 17 16. His 

 grandf,!t!icr \vas a confidernb'e merchant ; but his father, 

 Mr.Piiilip Gray, was f)f an indolent and referved temper ; and 

 therefore dimini(hcd rather than increafed his paternal for- 

 tune. He had manv children, of w hom Thomas, the fiibjeft 

 of thefe mersoirs, was the iifth : all of them except himfelf 

 died in their infancy, and he is faid to have narrowly efcaped 

 fuffocatiiin, owing to a too great fiillnefs of blood, which 

 deilroyed the reil, and he would certainly have been cut off 

 as early, had not his mother, with a courage remarkable for 

 one of her fex, ventured to open a vein with her own hand, 

 which inftantlv r«moved the paroxyfm. He was probably 

 deiHned for a profefhnn, and accordingly fent to Eton 

 fchool to acquire the fundamental llock of claffical literature. 

 Here he was placed under the immediate careot Mr. Antro!>us, 

 his mother's brother, at that time one of the afllllant mailers, 

 and likewife a fellow of St Peter's college, Cambridge, to 

 which place Mr. Gray removed, and was admitted a pen- 

 fioner in the year 17^4- Of his rcfKlencc at Cambridge few- 

 memorials are recorded ; he feems rather to have cultivated 

 a literary talle in filence, than to have had any aim at public 

 ^ilHnflion. He neverthelefs appeared as a poet among the 

 univerfity congratulators of the prince of W ales'.s ma' 1 iage, 

 and his verfes were admitted to be tlie beft of the academical 

 colleftion. His li-tters, during this period, to Mr. 'Well, 

 which are printed by Mr. Mafon, fliew that he had little re- 

 verence for the graver iludies, or for the dignified perionage^ 

 of the place, and that he had acquired that claffic fadidioui- 

 nefs whicli was the permanent feature in his character. He 

 quitted college in 173S, and occupied a fet of chambers in 

 the Inner Temple, with the avowed intention of iludying the 

 law. A Latin ode, addrefl'ed upon this occafion to Mr. Well, 

 who had the fame purpofe in view, exhibits in a ilriking man- 

 ner the afcendancy which the poet poU'elfed in his mind over 

 the ideal huvver ; and on tiie mvitation which Mr. Walpole 

 j;ave him to he the companion of his travels, he laid alide this 

 intention, and never after relumed it. They fet out in the 

 fpring, and liis letters from the different Uages of his pro- 

 greft, are a proof of the intelligent curiofity with which 

 he viewed all the ftriking objects of art and nature, and the 

 manners and habits of mankind. Thus, in hii letter from 



Amien% he defcribes even- thing that he favr on tl e road, 

 paints in vivid colours what was remarkable in the fevcml 

 towns through which he paffed ; and he adds, that " on 

 every hillock is a v^-indmili, a crucifix, or a Virgin Mary 

 dreffed in flowers, and a i rfcnct robe ; one fees not many 

 people or carriages on ihe road ; now and then a ilrollingr 

 friar, a countryman with a great muff, or a woman riding 

 aflride on a little afs, with ihort petticoat', and a great 

 hcad-drefs of blue wool.'* They travelled liiroi:t;-h France, 

 croffed the Alps, vifited the priricipal towns of Italy as far 

 as Naples, returned to FIi>rence, and in the fpritig of 1741 

 proceeded for Venice. Upon their way thithrr th~ two 

 companions fell into a difagreement, which occalioned ihfir 

 feparation Of this unfortunate incident th-- hiograplicT 

 fays, " Mr. Walpole enjoins me to charge himfelf with the 

 chief blame in their quarrel ; confeffmg that more attention 

 and complaifance, more deference to a v. arm fricndfhip, fu- 

 perior judgment and prudence, might have prevented a rap- 

 ture that gave much uneafmefs to tht m both, and a lafting 

 concern to the furvivor; though, in the year S744, a re- 

 conciliation was effected between tiiem.'' ^Jr. CJray, with 

 his own v.-ry moder.'.te refources, finiilied the reft of the 

 tour, and an-ived in England in September 1741, two 

 months previoudy to the deatii of his fathiT. He now re- 

 tm-ncd to academic retirement r.t Cambridge. In the follow. 

 ing year he had the misfortune to lofe hi.-; friend Mr. Weft, 

 the confident of his fentiments and partner of l.is ftudi'S. 

 The death of this hopeful young man left a vacancy m Mr« 

 Grav's heart, which was never after fupplied. He had an 

 ambitirm to exc<-l in Latin poetry, but was convinced that 

 lading fame could only be acquired by works acccrdant 

 to the general tafte of his cinintrynvn. He m.ade many 

 noble bi-ginnings of poems, whitli, if he had po.Teffcd pcr- 

 feverance enough to have completed thitn, would have re- 

 dounded to his immortal honour. In tiie year 1742, he 

 took the degree of bachelor of civil law, a circumllance 

 which gave him every neceiTary privilege for improving an 

 univerfity refidence, and he fat down to a courfe of reading, 

 which he piirfucd « ith the diligence of an ex7Ct critic. I or 

 fevcral years his exquifitc learning ami high poetic talents 

 were known to but a very few of his moll intimate friend'. 

 In 1747 he publilVdhis " Ode on the di'ant Profpect of 

 Eton College;" and in 17^1 hs " Elegy written in a 

 Country Church-vard," was fent into the world without the 

 author's name. Eew poems w ere ever lo popular ; it hai 

 -paffed through an almotl indefinite number of editions, ard it 

 at this moment one of the moft favourite proiluclions of th- 

 Britilh mufe. It has been tranllated into Latin and Greek 

 verfe. In i 79^ Gray buried his mother, to whom he had 

 always behaved with true filial duty and affection, and on 

 her tomb he wrote, " the tender mother of many children, 

 one of whom alone had the misfortune to turvive her *" .\t 

 college he was, on account of fome peculiarity in his man- 

 ners, fubjetl to the boi(li;roiis tricks of a few riototis youn« 

 men of fortune, who tooka ]>leafurcin dilhirbing and alarn - 

 in<T him ; he made remonlli-ances on the lubject to the head* 

 of the houfe, whicli not producing the effccl which he anti- 

 cipated, he removed his refidcnce to Pembroke Hall in i •'5^, 

 and in the fucceeding year he was, on the death »f Cibber. 

 offered the poll of poet laureat. which he declined. H:. 

 motive tor refuling this office could not have been throu,u:!i 

 any doubt of his being adequate to its duties, for in the fan ? 

 year he ihewed what he was capable of doing as a lyric poe; 

 bv the publication of his two principal odes, entitled '• O.i 

 the Progrefs of Poefv ;" and " The Bard.'' It would in- 

 deed have been moil lamentable that a man of his gi-niui 

 and Ijidependeot mind Ibouhl have been fettertrU by the obi:, 

 4 S J gatiijK 



