Summary: Written between 27 March and 23 May 1767 for Mason's wife Mary who died on 27 March 1767 aged 28. Inscribed on a monument in Bristol Cathedral, [1767]. First published in The New Foundling Hospital for Wit (London, new edn. 1784), vi. 45. Transcripts of Mason's own epitaph on his wife beginning "Take, holy Earth, all that my soul holds dear", are at PwV 304 and 1010(ii), Portland Collection, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 43, 83; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 256
Contents: Autograph of Gray's four lines, preceding a transcript in Gray's hand of the 12 lines composed by Mason, the whole entitled "Epitaph", endorsed in the hand of Richard Hurd "Mr. Mason's Ep. on his wife in Mr. Gray's hand-writing", in the papers of Richard Hurd.