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: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), 87; Johnsen, Mary Catharine, "Gray's Distant prospect". E-mails to the editor, 8 and 19 January 2007
Contents: Transcript, possibly contemporary, entitled "Reflections on Human Life, An Ode, Occasion'd by a distant Prospect of Eton: College, where the author was educated". According to a dealer-catalogue ticket on the front paste-down of the little portfolio holding the MS, the MS was initially purchased by William H. Robinson Ltd. Pall Mall by private treaty from the Bibliotheca Phillippica and, according to a pencilled note on the rear paste-down, acquired by Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt in 1953.
Contents: Transcript in an unidentified neat and legible hand, entitled "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eaton College" (p. 15) ("Ode. III." [p. 17]). The poem, which includes the motto (attributed in a different hand to "Menander") on the title page and Gray's note to l. 4, is part of a section called "Poems", which is separately paginated and has its own table of contents (p. 129), in a volume entitled Gray's Poems. The book carries the bookplate of Gray's friend and biographer William Mason.
Contents: Transcript of the poem in Vol. DCXXXI (a volume of unbound MSS of "Misc. prose and verse") of the Holland House Papers, the papers of the Fox and Fox-Strangways families, Barons Holland and Earls of Ilchester, of Holland House, Kensington.
Contents: Transcript of the poem, partial, beginning "Say [i.e. Gay] hope is theirs by fancy led", in the hand of William Pitter Woodhouse, in his Commonplace book of verse and prose by various authors, July-August 1827, vol. i (82 leaves), f. 17.
Contents: Transcript of the poem in the hand of Melesinda Munbee in her autograph Commonplace book (1749-1750), signed, containing poetry in the form of odes, epitaphs, and riddles.
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.