THE POET GRAY 
part of his books, among them this copy of the Systema Na- 
turae. At Mason's death, in 1797, they passed to Mr. Richard 
Stonhewer, one of Gray's oldest friends, and when he died they 
came into the possession of his executor, the Reverend Mr. 
Bright of Skeffington Hall, Leicestershire. When Mr. T. J. 
Mathias was preparing his edition of Gray's Works, which ap- 
peared in two quarto volumes in 1814, Mr. Bright placed at his 
disposal the mass of Gray's manuscripts, whether in independent 
note-books or on the margins of printed books, and from them 
Mr. Mathias selected the material which fills his second volume. 
Among his selections were specimens of Gray's annotations to 
the Linnceus; but though they occupy twenty-five pages they 
represent only an inconsiderable part of the notes. Some thirty 
years later, in 1845, many of the books and manuscripts of 
Gray which Mr. Bright had possessed were sold at auction in 
London. Most of them were purchased by Mr. Penn of Stoke 
Pogis, who occupied the house called West End, which had be- 
longed to Gray's uncle, Mr. Rogers, and in which Gray's mother 
had spent the last years of her life, and where she had died. 
Some years later Mr. Penn sold the manuscripts at auction, and 
apparently disposed of the mass of the books by private sale to 
a bookseller. At any rate some of the books got into the mar- 
ket, and were dispersed. The Linnceus finally found its way into 
the hands of Mr. Ruskin. He kept it among his treasures for 
( 10) 
