ful
finish. His fame rests mainly on three poems: the _Elegy_, _The
Progress of Poesy_, and _The Bard_. Of these the _Elegy_ is by far the
most popular, because it expresses in simple and beautiful language
sentiments which appeal to all, whatever their condition.

In character Gray was high-minded, and in temperament reserved and shy.
It is said that after he was acknowledged to be the greatest poet
living in England, people used to watch eagerly for a glimpse of him;
but he usually managed to elude them and to slip away unnoticed. His
sensitiveness may have been due in part to the fact that his health was
delicate and that he was much alone when a child--for all his brothers
and sisters died in infancy. Although unfortunate in his father, he
was blessed with a devoted mother, who by her exertions enabled him to
go to Cambridge University. It is pleasant to know that he warmly
returned her love and that he now rests by her side in the churchyard
at Stoke Poges, which is always associated with the _Elegy_. On her
tomb he placed the inscription "--mother of many children, one of whom
alone had the misfortune to survive her." Gray's friends were warmly
attached to him. With one of them, Horace Walpole, the well-known
author and collector, he traveled on the continent soon after leaving
the university; and although they quarreled and separated the
friendship was renewed later. Gray never married. In 1742 he returned
to Cambridge and lived there during the rest of his life, with the
exception of two years spent in London. After he became famous the
laureateship was offered to him, but his dislike of publicity caused
him to refuse it. In 1768 he was made Professor of Modern History and
Languages at Cambridge. All his life he was a student; indeed he was
the most learned of the English poets, except possibly Milton. In some
respects he was in advance of his age. He appreciated certain kinds of
poetry that no one else liked in his time, and he cared greatly for
wild nature. In these days, when almost every one loves rugged
mountains and remote regions by the sea, it is hard to realize that
there ever was a time when most persons preferred to look upon trim or
even stiff gardens or the cultivated grounds of a country seat; but
such was the case. Gray's admiration for wild nature comes out in his
prose, especially in his letters, and in his _Journal in the Lakes_
written in 1769; but later writers, Wordsworth ab