Summary: Written c. 1749 under a sketch of the Rev. Henry Etough drawn by William Mason. First published, ll. 1-2, 5-8, as On Mr. E---'s being ordained and beginning "Such Tophet was--so grum'd the bawling Fiend", in The London Magazine 52 (June 1783), 296. The text, ll. 1-2, 5-8, was also issued on an etching by Michael Tyson of the drawing of Tophet by Mason, 1769.
Alternate Form:
Microfilm copy available in Poetic Commonplace Books and Manuscripts of Thomas Gray, 1716-1771, from Pembroke College, Cambridge (1999), reel one
References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 136, 92; Poetic C. B., Pembroke College (1999), 30
Contents: Transcript of ll. 1-2, 5-8, 3-4 in the hand of William Mason, here entitled "Inscription on a portrait", with ll. 3-4 annotated "addition in the first Copy", in Gray's Commonplace Book, vol. III, 1106.
Surrogates: Digital facsimile [JPEG] from original MS available online.
Alternate Form:
Microfilm copy available in Poetic Commonplace Books and Manuscripts of Thomas Gray, 1716-1771, from Pembroke College, Cambridge (1999), reel two
References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 137, 92; Poetic C. B., Pembroke College (1999), 31; Sutton (ed.), Location Register (1995), 415
Contents: Transcript in the hand of William Cole, ll. 1-2, 5-8 beginning "Such Tophet was--so grinn'd the bawling Fiend", on an early state of Tyson's etching (before the text had been added), annotated by Cole on the recto "Mr. Etough, Rector of Therfeild in Hartfordshire, who had been a dissenting Teacher in a Barn at Debden at Essex, died in August 1757" and on the verso "Donum Mich Tyson Arm: & Collegii Corporis Chri Cantabr Socij Nov: 26.1769, Gulielmo Cole A: Mro".