the Lord Lansdown.]

[Footnote 10: 'Smith:' Edmund, commonly called 'Rag;' see Johnson's
'Poets.']

[Footnote 11: 'Lyaeus:' Bacchus.]

[Footnote 12: 'Princess of Wales:' Willielinina Dorothea Carolina of
Brandenburg-Anspach--afterwards Caroline, Queen of George II.; she
figures in the 'Heart of Mid-Lothian.']

[Footnote 13: 'Gloriana:' Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I. See our
edition of Waller.]

[Footnote 14: 'Sir Godfrey Kneller:' born at Lubeck in 1648; became a
painter of portraits; visited England; was knighted by William III.; died
in 1723; lies in Westminster Abbey.]

[Footnote 15: This refers to a portrait of George I.]

[Footnote 16: 'R----:' Rich.]

[Footnote 17: Otherwise,
'Thy goodness I'll proclaim;'
And,
'Resume the glorious theme.' ]

THE LIFE OF JOHN GAY.

This ingenious poet and child-like man was born, in 1688, at Barnstable,
in Devonshire. His family, who were of Norman origin, had long possessed
the manor of Goldworthy, or Holdworthy, which came into their hands
through Gilbert Le Gay. He obtained possession of this estate by
intermarrying with the family of Curtoyse, and gave his name, too, to a
place called Hampton Gay, in Northamptonshire. The author of the "Fables"
was brought up at the Free School of Barnstable--Pope says under one
William Rayner, who had been educated at Westminster School, and who was
the author of a volume of Latin and English verse, although Dr Johnson
and others maintain that his master's name was Luck. On leaving school,
Gay was bound apprentice to a mercer in London--a trade not the most
propitious to poetry, and which he did not long continue to prosecute. In
1712, he published his "Rural Sports," and dedicated it to Pope, who was
then rising toward the ascendant, having just published his brilliant
tissue of centos, the "Essay on Criticism." Pope was pleased with the
honour, and ever afterwards took a deep interest in Gay. In the same year
Gay had been appointed domestic secretary to the Duchess of Monmouth.
This lady was Anne Scott, the daughter and heiress of the Duke of
Buccleuch, and widow of the well-known and hapless Duke of Monmouth, who
had been beheaded in 1685. She plays a prominent part in the "Lay of the
Last Minstrel," and of her a far greater poet than her secretary thus
sings:--

"The Duchess mark'd his weary pace,
His timid mien, and reverend face,
And bade her pa