of which he had to provide a French and an Italian teacher. The Italian was Agostino Isola, grandfather of Emma Isola, adopted by Charles and Mary Lamb. Gray behaved liberally to them; but the habits of the time made lecturing unnecessary. Gray's appointment was suggested by his old college friend Stonehewer, who was at this time secretary to the Duke of Grafton.
In January 1768 Gray had a narrow escape from a fire which destroyed part of Pembroke. In April 1769 he had to show his gratitude to Grafton, who had been elected chancellor of the university, by composing the installation ode. It was set to music by J. Randall, the professor of music at the university, and performed 1 July 1769.
Gray lived in great retirement at Cambridge; he did not dine in the college hall, and sightseers had to watch for his appearance at the Rainbow coffee-house, where he went to order books from the circulating library. His ill-health and nervous shyness made him a bad companion in general society, though he could expand among his intimates. His last acquisition was Charles Victor de Bonstetten, an enthusiastic young Swiss, who had met Norton Nicholls at Bath at the end of 1769, and was by him introduced to Gray. Gray was fascinated by Bonstetten, directed his studies for several weeks, saw him daily, and received his confidences, though declining to reciprocate them. Bonstetten left England at the end of March 1770. Gray accompanied him to London, pointed out the ‘great Bear’ Johnson in the street, and saw him into the Dover coach. He promised to pay Bonstetten a visit in Switzerland (for Bonstetten see Ste.-Beuve, Causeries du Lundi, xiv. 417–79, reviewing a study by M. Aimé Steinlen). Nicholls proposed to go there with Gray in 1771, but Gray was no longer equal to the exertion, and sent off Nicholls in June with an injunction not to visit Voltaire. Gray was then in London, but soon returned to Cambridge, feeling very ill. He had an attack of gout in the stomach, and his condition soon became alarming. He was affectionately attended by his friend, James Brown, the master of Pembroke, and his friend Stonehewer came from London to take leave of him. He died 30 July 1771, his last words being addressed to his cousin Mary Antrobus, ‘Molly, I shall die.’ He was buried at Stoke Poges on 6 Aug., in the same vault with his mother.
His aunt, Mrs. Olliffe, had died early in the same year, leaving what she had to Gray. Gray divided his property, amounting to about 3,500l., besides his house in Cornhill, rented at 65l. a year, among his cousins by his father's and mother's side, having apparently no nearer relatives; leaving also 500l. apiece to Wharton and Stonehewer, and 50l. to an old servant. He left his papers to Mason, Mason and Browne being his residuary legatees.
Portraits of Gray are (1) a full-length in oil by Jonathan Richardson at the age of thirteen, now in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge; (2) a half-length by J. G. Eckhardt, painted for Walpole in 1747. An engraving of this was intended to be prefixed to Gray's poems in 1753, but the plate was destroyed in deference to his vehement objection. It is engraved in Walpole's ‘Letters’ (Cunningham), vol. iv.; (3) a posthumous drawing by Benjamin Wilson, from his own and Mason's recollections, now in Pembroke, from Stonehewer's bequest. It was engraved for the ‘Life’ (4to) by Mason. Walpole (Correspondence, vi. 67, 207) says that it is very like but painful; (4) a drawing by Mason himself, now at Pembroke, was etched by W. Doughty for the 8vo edition of the life. From it were taken two portraits by Sharpe of Cambridge and Henshaw, a pupil of Bartolozzi. This was also the original of the medallion by Bacon upon the monument in Westminster Abbey, erected at Mason's expense in 1778. A bust by Behnes in the upper school at Eton is founded on the Eckhardt portrait. Walpole says that he was ‘a little man, of a very ungainly appearance’ (Walpoliana, i. 95).
In 1776 Brown and Mason gave 50l. apiece to start a building fund in honour of Gray. It accumulated to a large sum, and the college was in great part rebuilt between 1870 and 1879 by Mr. Waterhouse. In 1870 a stained glass window, designed by Mr. Madox Brown, and executed by Mr. William Morris, was presented to the college hall by Mr. A. H. Hunt. In 1885 a subscription was promoted by Lord Houghton and Mr. E. Gosse, and a bust by Mr. Hamo Thornycroft, A.R.A., was placed in the hall, and unveiled on 20 May, when addresses were delivered by Mr. Lowell, Sir F. Leighton, Lord Houghton, and others.
A character of Gray, written by W. J. Temple, friend of Gray in his later years and also an intimate friend of James Boswell, appeared in the ‘London Magazine’ (March 1772), of which Boswell was part proprietor. Temple says that Gray was perhaps ‘the most learned man in Europe.’ Mason says that he was a competent student in all branches of human knowledge except mathematics, and in some a consummate master. He had a very extensive knowledge of the classical writers, reading them less as a critic than as a student of thought and manners. He made elaborate notes upon Plato, upon Strabo, a
