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first year at Oxford that Gray published his 'Ode on Eton College' that has since been presented to every Etonian on taking leave of his Alma Mater. In Gray Thomas Percy found a kindred spirit, and with all the enthusiasm of youth began a short memoir of his friend, which, alas! came to an early and abrupt conclusion after the manner of our childish diaries, which rarely survived the first few weeks of the opening year. Percy prefaces his Short Minutes of my Conversation with Mr. Gray, the Poet,' with the statement that, though dated at the time, they were not written till a month after, when it was possible for some small particulars to have escaped his memory, and some trifling mistakes to have occurred to him. He who would play Boswell must not procrastinate.

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'Mr. Gray was educated at Peter House. In the great fire in Cornhill he had a parcel of houses burnt down, in which his fortune then chiefly consisted, which reduced him to some straits and made a great impression on his spirits. He retired for some time to private lodgings in the country and indulged in melancholy, under the influence of which he wrote his "Elegy in on the Country Churchyard." Upon his return to College he brought back with him such a dread of fire that he never slept without a ladder of ropes near him. Some young rakish Fellow-Commoners one night in a frolick raised . . .' Here ends this brief biography, and unfortunately the friendship that started with so much enthusiasm was broken off in like manner. In 1767 Percy wrote to a friend asking him to procure from Mr. Gray some anecdotes about Jane Shore, and added 'I must beg you not to mention my name; I do not choose to apply to him for any favour of any kind.' Though Percy was quick-tempered and ready to take

offence, it must be remembered that Gray's friendship with Horace Walpole also closed abruptly.

Percy, however, preserved the following note, written by the poet in the early days of their acquaint

ance:

'Mr. Gray presents his compliments to Mr. Piercy. He sent the book this morning to Mr. Blakeway's Chambers, where he imagined Mr. Piercy to be.

'The Messenger is a little in liquor, therefore have a care of sending him to fetch it.'

He also kept a list of old English books, of which Gray was anxious to get a sight for a few days.'

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Thomas Percy was possessed of a secret treasure that stimulated his interest in such books; he tells us that it was in his early youth' that he discovered a manuscript that proved to be the foundation of his great work, the 'Reliques,' which made an epoch in the history of English literature. Though we do not know the exact date, it was evidently before his college days that he found the 'scrubby, shabby paper book lying dirty on the floor under a bureau in the parlour of Humphrey Pitt, of Shifnal in Shropshire." If any circumstance that decides a man's life-work can be accounted an accident, we should say that he chanced to enter the room when the manuscript was being used by the maids to light the fire. The volume had already lost some of its first and last pages, and even its rescuer, who had not as yet become an antiquary, admits that he only learnt by degrees to reverence it. In later life he pleaded his youth as an excuse for the scribble which he made on its margin, and confesses that in one or two instances he took out leaves to save the trouble of transcribing. He was afterwards more careful of the book that was destined to make his name revered as

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the Father of poetical taste' and was also to prove the object of unsatisfied curiosity and endless controversy among succeeding generations of antiquaries and men of letters.

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To become a Clerk in Holy Orders' was at that time the natural course for youths with literary tastes to pursue, and shortly after taking his M.A. degree Thomas Percy was ordained, and was presented by his college to the country living of Easton Maudit, in the county of Northampton. He was instituted on November 27, 1753, though he did not become resident in his parish until three years later, when he was presented to the additional living of Wilby. This extension of his sphere of usefulness made an occasional residence among his parishioners desirable during the twenty-nine years that he held the two benefices. But, as will be seen, his work in the Midlands was varied by long periods of residence at Alnwick and Syon, Northumberland House and the Deanery at Carlisle, not to mention his constant presence in the literary world in London.

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CHAPTER II

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1753-1758

EASTON MAUDIT is a picturesque little village with a few scattered farmhouses and cottages. Its fine church possesses one of those beautiful and graceful spires for which this county of Spires and Squires' is famous, and those who have travelled between Peterborough and Northampton will remember the succession of hills rising from a flat country, each crowned by its church, around which cluster the village and the seat of the Squire.

From the quiet churchyard of Easton Maudit might be seen Castle Ashby, belonging to the Earl of Northampton, and adjoining the north side of the churchyard stood the old Hall, where dwelt the Earl of Sussex, who ever proved himself a kind friend to Thomas Percy. At his death in 1799 the title became extinct, and the elopement of his daughter and heiress, Lady Barbara Yelverton, from an inn at Barnet to Gretna Green, with Colonel Gould, caused family dissensions that resulted in the sale of all his possessions.

The vicarage of Easton Maudit was 'a neat cottage of stone, with window sashes throughout the house,' a luxury with which the true Queen Anne houses were furnished, though late Victorian imitations have reverted to the clumsy method of earlier days by opening their windows outwards. The cottage, which was thatched, commanded no prospect, but was perfectly

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snug and pastoral,' and contained two comfortable parlours of pleasant dimensions, neatly wainscoted, and also two very good bed-chambers.'

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The garden was sheltered on every side, except the south, by Lord Sussex's 'stately groves,' and was bounded by a meadow through which ran a smooth and limpid stream, whose banks Percy planted with wild flowers. Immediately adjacent were a kitchen garden, brew-house, and all other things convenient. Hard by a good turnpike road put this compact little retirement' in regular communication with London three times a week, and the journey of sixty miles could be performed with ease in one day. Notwithstanding these attractions Thomas Percy did not take up his residence at Easton Maudit till 1756, when Lord Sussex added the adjoining parish, on the condition that he should occasionally go down and take care of his churches.

Shortly after Percy had taken possession of his second living he wrote from Lord Sussex's house in Pall Mall to his cousin, William Cleveland, to congratulate him on his own entrance into Priest's orders, and added:

'I sincerely wish you all imaginable success in your pursuits, and hope to see you happily settled, preferr'd and married. For my part I am a sincere admirer of the ladies and endeavour to be upon very good terms with all the lovely and amiable part of them; but for an attachment for life to any one of them I cannot say I am very eager about it. Seated as I am in a rural retreat for life, I have the happiness to be upon a very friendly footing with several very good girls; but perhaps the peculiar chosen female that is to take me captive for life has not yet fallen in my way.

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