GRAY'S ELEGY

Perhaps the HERMIT of HOLYPORT will be satisfied with proofs from GRAY himself as to the time and manner of the first appearance of the *Elegy*. GRAY thus writes to Dr. Wharton, under the date of "Dec. 17, 1750." [I quote Mason's "Life" of its Author, p. 216.] "The stanzas" [which he afterwards called *Elegy* at the suggestion of Mason] "which I now enclose to you have had the misfortune, by *Mr.* [Horace] *Walpole's fault*, to be made still more public," &c. The next letter in Mason's publication is a letter from "Mr. Gray to Mr. Walpole" (p. 217.), and is dated "*Cambridge, Feb.* 11, 1751,"…