Poems, [ca. 1725]-1771

• "The Candidate"

  • Archive Work ID: poems.cand
  • Uniform Title: "The Candidate" [e-text]
  • First Line: When sly Jemmy Twitcher had smugged up his face
  • Language: English
  • First Published: [1774?] or 1777
  • References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 78-79; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 243-252
  • Summary: Written between January and March 1764 when Lord Sandwich's campaign for the post of High Steward at Cambridge was at its height. First(?) printed, ll. 1-32, entitled "The Candidate: By Mr. Gray" in [1774?] by Walpole at his Strawberry Hill Press. Published, ll. 1-32, untitled, in the London Evening Post, February 1777.

  1 Manuscript:

  • • Archive MS ID: mss.0025 (Source: EAD/XML)
    • Title: "On Lord Sandwich's canvass for the high stewardship of the University of Cambridge"
    • Date: [1783?]
    • Physical Description: [?] pages; transcript in an unidentified hand
    • Language: English
    • Location: Portland Papers, Vol. XX, f. 62, Library and Archives, Longleat House, Warminster, UK <https://www.longleat.co.uk/things-to-do/house/the-collections/access-the-collections>
    • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), 80
    • Contents: Transcript in an unidentified hand.
    
    
  
  

• "On L[or]d H[olland']s Seat near M[argat]e, K[en]t"

  • Archive Work ID: poems.oxst
  • Uniform Title: "On L[or]d H[olland']s Seat near M[argat]e, K[en]t" [e-text]
  • First Line: Old and abandoned by each venal friend,
  • Language: English
  • First Published: 1769
  • References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 53; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 259-264
  • Summary: Written while on a visit to William Robinson in Denton, Kent, in June 1768. First published, anonymously without Gray's consent, as "Inscription for the Villa of a decay'd Satesman [sic] on the Sea-Coast", in The New Foundling Hospital for Wit (London, 1769) iii. 34-35.

  1 Manuscript:

  • • Archive MS ID: mss.0129 (Source: EAD/XML)
    • Title: [?]
    • Date: [1782?]
    • Physical Description: [?] pages; transcript in an unidentified hand
    • Language: English
    • Location: Portland Papers, Vol. XIX, f. 222, Library and Archives, Longleat House, Warminster, UK <https://www.longleat.co.uk/things-to-do/house/the-collections/access-the-collections>
    • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), 89
    • Contents: Transcript in an unidentified hand.