linger_ in the _lonely_ walks" in the second.]

The second of these stanzas has been remodelled and used as the 24th
of the present version. Mason thought that there was a pathetic
melancholy in all four which claimed preservation. The third he
considered equal to any in the whole _Elegy_. The poem was originally
intended to end here, the introduction of "the hoary-headed swain"
being a happy after-thought.

In the 19th stanza, the MS. has "never _learn'd_ to stray."

In the 21st stanza, "fame and _epitaph_," etc.

In the 23d stanza, the last line reads,

"And buried ashes glow with social fires."

"Social" subsequently became "wonted," and other changes were made
(see p. 74, foot-note) before the line took its present form.

The 24th stanza reads,

"If chance that e'er some pensive Spirit more,
By sympathetic musings here delay'd,
With vain, though kind inquiry shall explore
Thy once-lov'd haunt, this long-deserted shade."[6]

[Footnote 6: Mitford (Eton ed.) gives "sympathizing" in the second
line, and for the last,

"Thy ever loved haunt--this long deserted shade."

The latter is obviously wrong (Gray was incapable of such metre), and
the former is probably wrong also.]

The last line of the 25th stanza reads,

"On the high brow of yonder hanging lawn."

Then comes the following stanza, afterwards omitted:

"Him have we seen the greenwood side along,
While o'er the heath we hied, our labour done,
Oft as the woodlark pip'd her farewell song,
With wistful eyes pursue the setting sun."[7]

Mason remarked: "I rather wonder that he rejected this stanza, as it
not only has the same sort of Doric delicacy which charms us
peculiarly in this part of the poem, but also completes the account
of his whole day; whereas, this evening scene being omitted, we have
only his morning walk, and his noontide repose."

[Footnote 7: Here also we follow Mason; the _North American Review_
reads "our _labours_ done."]

The first line of the 27th stanza reads,

"With gestures quaint, now smiling as in scorn."

After the 29th stanza, and before the Epitaph, the MS. contains the
following omitted stanza:

"There scatter'd oft, the earliest of the year,
By hands unseen are frequent violets found;
The robin loves to build and warble there,
And little footsteps lightly print the ground."

This--with two or three verbal changes only[8]--was inserted in all
the edition