Browse Dates
1734
Age 17. 7 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
4 July
Entered as pensioner at Peterhouse, Cambridge.
11 August
Thomas Ashton entered King's College, Cambridge.
9 October
Gray fully admitted at Peterhouse.
Gray met Thomas Wharton, a pensioner at Pembroke College, Cambridge.
8 December
Gray had written his first extant English poem, "Lines Spoken by John Dennis at the Devil Tavern", and sent it to Walpole.
1735
Age 18. 14 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
11 March
Gray joined in Cambridge by his friend Horace Walpole, who entered at King's College.
22 May
West entered at Christ Church, Oxford.
22 November
Gray admitted at Inner Temple.
1736
Age 19. 19 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
12 February
Inherited the small property of his paternal aunt, Sarah Gray.
May
Gray's "Hymeneal" on the marriage of the Prince of Wales published in the Cambridge Gratulatio.
1737
Age 20. 12 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
March
Wrote Tripos Verses, i.e. the Latin verses printed with the list of Cambridge Tripos candidates each year, Luna habitabilis.
1738
Age 21. 16 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
14 September
Left Cambridge for his father's house in London without having taken a degree, intending to read for the Bar at the Inner Temple in London.
1739
Age 22. 23 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
29 March
Accompanied Horace Walpole on a two-year Grand Tour through France and Italy.
April - June
Stayed in Paris.
June - September
Stayed at Reims.
September - October
October
On the way to Geneva, visited the Grande Chartreuse. Crossed the Mont Cenis.
7 November
Arrived at Turin.
Winter
By Genoa and Bologna to Florence, where he spent the winter at the house of Horace Mann.
1741
Age 24. 7 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
April
Left Florence for Venice.
3 May
Quarrelled with Walpole at Reggio and proceeded to Venice.
May - July
Stayed at Venice with John Chute.
Returned to England alone through Padua, Verona, Milan, Turin, Lyon, and Paris.
21 August
Visited the Grande Chartreuse again and wrote an Alcaic Ode in the Visitors' Book of the Monastery.
1 September
Arrived back in England, went to London.
6 November
Gray's father, Philip, died, leaving the family financially insecure.
Winter
Gray began his only tragedy, the fragmentary Agrippina.
1742
Age 25. 15 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
Planned to study law in London with West. Regular correspondence with West, exchanging Latin verses and translations with him.
March
Wrote the "Hymn to Ignorance" (fragment).
28 May - 15 October
Visited his uncle Jonathan Rogers at Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire.
Gray wrote the "Ode on the Spring", which he sent to Richard West on 3rd June.
1 June
Richard West, Gray's closest friend, died.
Mid-June - Mid-July
Gray briefly returned to London.
August
Gray wrote the "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College", "Sonnet on the Death of Richard West", and the "Ode to Adversity".
15 October
Returned to Peterhouse, as a Fellow-commoner, resided permanently at Cambridge, with a few protracted absences, for the rest of his life.
Gray's chief friends at Cambridge were Thomas Wharton, Fellow of Pembroke till his marriage in 1747, James Brown, afterwards Master of Pembroke, and William Mason (1724-97).
21 October
Gray's uncle Jonathan Rogers, died.
December
Gray's mother and her sister, Mary Antrobus, retired from Cornhill and settled with their third sister, Anne (1676-1758), the widow of Jonathan Rogers, at West End House at Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire. Gray accordingly divided his summers between Stoke and London in the following decade.
1743
Age 26. 2 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
December
Granted a Bachelor of Laws degree.
1745
Age 28. 2 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
8 November
Reconciled with Horace Walpole.
1746
Age 29. 13 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
Autumn
Gray shared some of his earlier poetry and probably the beginning of the "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard", which he had recently started, with Horace Walpole who had begun living in an apartment within the precincts of Windsor Castle.
1747
Age 30. 15 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
1 March
Sent the "Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes" to Walpole.
30 May
"Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College" published anonymously by Robert Dodsley.
Walpole leased the estate in Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, which he began turning into a Gothic castle.
1748
Age 31. 5 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
15 January
"Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College", "Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes", and "Ode on the Spring" published anonymously in R. Dodsley's Collection of Poems, vol. II
January / February
Met and befriended Rev. William Mason who was to become a fellow of Pembroke College in 1749 and eventually served as Gray's literary executor.
25 March
Gray's childhood home in Cornhill burned down.
August
1749
Age 32. 5 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
William Mason elected Fellow of Pembroke, partly through Gray's influence.
5 November
Gray's aunt and his mother's former business partner, Mary Antrobus, died.
1750
Age 33. 5 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
12 June
Completed the "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" at Stoke Poges and sent it to Walpole who circulated it in MS among his friends and acquaintances.
August - October
Wrote "A Long Story" for Lady Cobham, a neighbour at Stoke Poges. Met Henrietta Jane Speed (1728-1783).
1751
Age 34. 11 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
15 February
An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard published anonymously by Dodsley. Unauthorized versions appear almost immediately in a variety of publications.
1752
Age 35. 10 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
Planned to collaborate with William Mason on a "History of English Poetry".
July
Began "The Progress of Poesy".
1753
Age 36 . 16 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
11 March
Gray's mother, Dorothy, died at Stoke Poges.
29 March
Designs by Mr. R. Bentley for Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray, the first authorized collected edition of Gray's poetry, published by Dodsley.
July - September
1754
Age 37. 12 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
During this and the two following years Gray was engaged with the Pindaric Odes "The Progress of Poesy" and "The Bard".
Probably began "Ode on the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude".
June - September
Made a tour in Northamptonshire and Warwickshire.
December
"The Progress of Poesy" finished.
1755
Age 38. 18 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
14 September
Left Cambridge for his father's house in London without having taken a degree, intending to read for the Bar at the Inner Temple in London.
1756
Age 39. 19 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
5 March
Moved from Peterhouse to Pembroke College.
1757
Age 40. 37 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
May
Attended a concert by harper Mr. Parry. Completed "The Bard".
8 August
Odes by Mr. Gray ("The Progress of Poesy" and "The Bard") published by Walpole at his new Strawberry Hill press.
15 December
Was offered, but refused, the post of Poet Laureate, vacant through the death of Colley Cibber.
1758
Age 41. 31 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
January
Wrote "[Epitaph on Mrs. Clerke]" for John Clerke.
June or July
Wrote "Epitaph on a Child" for Thomas Wharton.
1 September
Gray's aunt, Mrs. Jonathan Rogers, died in Stoke Poges.
Gray's connection with the place ended the following year. Hereafter Gray usually spent his summers visiting friends in different parts of the country.
1759
Age 42. 25 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
9 July
Took lodgings in Southampton Row, London, in order to study at the British Museum, which was opened to the public in January. Collected materials for his planned "History of English Poetry".
1760
Age 43. 24 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
March
Lady Cobham died.
28 June - 21 July
Visited Henrietta Jane Speed at the home of her friend Mrs Jennings at Shiplake, in Oxfordshire.
Autumn
Read and studied the works of James Macpherson and later the Rev. Evan Evans.
1761
Age 44. 25 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
5 May
Gray had completed "The Fatal Sisters", "The Descent of Odin", and the other imitations of Welsh and Norse poems (including "The Triumphs of Owen"), expression of his culminating interest in early Welsh and Icelandic poetry. Intended to include them in his "History of English Poetry", which he had first projected in 1752.
August
Wrote "Epitaph on Sir W. Williams".
October
Wrote "Song" for Miss Speed.
12 November
Henrietta Jane Speed married to Baron de la Perriere.
19 November
Gave up London residence and returned to Pembroke College.
1762
Age 45. 13 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
11 June
Made the acquaintance of Norton Nicholls, an undergraduate at Cambridge, who became a close friend.
1 July - 11 November
Visited Mason in York and Wharton in Durham, and made a tour of places of interest in the north.
November
Gray made overtures for the post of Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, vacant through the death of Dr. Turner, but Lord Bute, George III's chief minister, gave it to Lawrence Brockett.
1764
Age 47. 18 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
January - March
Gray wrote "The Candidate", a satire on the Earl of Sandwich's application for the High Stewardship of Cambridge University.
25 September - 22 October
Visited Southampton, Salisbury, etc.
1765
Age 48. 23 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
27 May - 18 August
18 August - 17 October
Made a tour in the Scottish Highlands with Lord Strathmore. Met Robertson and "other literati" at Edinburgh. Stayed at Glamis castle, where he met James Beattie (1735-1803).
1766
Age 49. 14 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
16 May - 4 July
Travelled in Kent.
1768
Age 51. 31 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
12 March
Collected edition of Poems published by Dodsley in London.
4 May
Poems published by R. and A. Foulis in Glasgow.
7 April - 15 July
Stayed in Kent.
July
Wrote verses "On L[or]d H[olland']s Seat Near M[argat]e, K[en]t".
28 July
Appointed Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, and made Fellow of Pembroke College.
October
1769
Age 52. 25 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
April
Completed the "Ode for Music".
1 July
Ode for Music performed at the installation of the Duke of Grafton, Chancellor of the University.
18 July - 15 October
Visited York, Durham, and the Lakes. Wrote his Journal on his tour
December
Met and befriended Charles Victor de Bonstetten (1745-1832), a young Swiss scholar, in Cambridge.
1770
Age 53. 43 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
March
De Bonstetten left England.
2 July
Gray made his will, left all his works to William Mason.
2 July - 3 August
Gray made an excursion through the Western Counties in company of Norton Nicholls.
1771
Age 54. 25 letters are known to have been written in this year.
From the Chronology:
24 July
Taken ill suddenly while dining at Pembroke College.
30 July
Gray died of suppressed gout.
6 August
He was buried beside his mother and aunt in the churchyard at Stoke Poges.