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Inscribed in black ink upper right: "1"; on verso in gray ink upper left: "2"

Lettered on inlaid page: "A | LONG STORY. | E3"; Lettered on verso, on inlaid page: "MR. GRAY'S Elegy in the Country Church- | Yard, before it appeared in print, was handed about | in manuscript; and amongst other eminent person- | ages who saw and admired it, was the Lady Cob- | ham, who resided at the Mansion-house at Stoke- | Pogeis. The performance induced her to wish for | the author's acquaintance; and Lady Schaub and | Miss Speed, then at her house, undertook to effect | it. These two ladies waited upon the author at his | aunt's solitary mansion, where he at that time re- | sided; and not finding him at home, they left their | names. Mr. Gray, surprised at such a compliment, | returned the visit. And as the beginning of this ac- | quaintance wore a little of the face of romance, he | soon after gave a fanciful and pleasant account of it | in the following copy of verses, which he entitled | A LONG STORY. "ALTHOUGH this performance certainly possesses | great humour, yet it is not immediately perceived; | and has not been universally relished. The author | perceived this himself, and owned it candidly.-- | 'The verses', he writes to Dr. Wharton, 'you | 'so kindly try to keep in countenance, were writ- | 'ten merely to divert Lady Cobham and her fa- | 'mily, and succeeded accordingly; but being | 'shewed about in town, are not liked at all'. This | last consideration induced Mr. Gray to reject them | in the Collection which he himself made of his | poems. "MR. GRAY'S Executor having thought fit to | restore them, they are retained here."