Summary: Written at Stoke Pogesc. August 1742 during one of Gray's most productive periods. First published, anonymously, as a folio pamphlet by Dodsley, 30 May 1747.
References: Parks, Stephen et al. (ed.), Osborn Collection First-Line Index. New Haven: Beinecke Library, Yale University, 2005, 1075, item Y0034; Nelson (ed.), Union First Line Index. Mar. 2010. Folger Shakespeare Library. 23 April 2010. <http://firstlines.folger.edu/detail.php?id=10639>
Contents: Transcript, entitled "Ode on a distant prospect of Eton College", in the Frances Boscawen and Julia Evelyn Commonplace Book, a collection of verse by various authors and some original verse, contains about 100 poems copied by the authors, beginning in 1746.
References: Parks, Stephen et al. (ed.), Osborn Collection First-Line Index. New Haven: Beinecke Library, Yale University, 2005, 1075, item Y0034; Nelson (ed.), Union First Line Index. Mar. 2010. Folger Shakespeare Library. 23 April 2010. <http://firstlines.folger.edu/detail.php?id=10638>
Contents: Transcript, entitled "Ode on a distant prospect of Eton College", in James Forbes' Commonplace book, 1766-1800, vol. I "Poems on Several Occasions Collected from Different Authors", a manuscript of a collection of approximately 150 poems and excerpts, primarily epitaphs and elegies, poems in praise of virtues, odes dedicated to women, and poems on nature and weather.