advantage must first have travelled in mind all the countries he
visits, and must be learned in their literature, their politics, their
scenery, and their antiquities, ere ever he sets a foot upon their
shores. To Italy and France, Gray went as to favourite studies, not as
to relaxations; and spent his time in observing their famous scenes
with the eye of a poet--cataloguing their paintings in the spirit of a
connoisseur--perfecting his knowledge of their languages--examining
minutely the principles of their architecture and music--comparing
their present aspect with the old classical descriptions; and writing
home an elegant epistolary account of all his sights, and all
his speculations. He saw Paris--visited Geneva--passed to
Florence--hurried to Rome on the tidings of Pope Clement XII's death,
to see the installation of his successor--stood beside the cataracts
of Tivoli and Terni, and might have seen in both, emblems of his own
genius, which, like them, was beautiful and powerful, but
artificial--took a rapid run to Naples, and was charmed beyond
expression with its bay, its climate, and its fruitage--and was one of
the first English travellers to visit Herculaneum, discovered only the
year before (1739), and to wonder at that strange and solemn rehearsal
of the resurrection exhibited in its streets. From Naples he returned
to Florence, where he continued eleven months, and began a Latin poem,
"De Principiis Cogitandi." He then, on the 24th of April 1741, set off
with Walpole for Bologna and Reggio. At this latter place occurred the
celebrated quarrel between the two travellers. The causes and
circumstances of this are involved in considerable obscurity.
Dissimilarity of tastes and habits was probably at the bottom of it.
Gray was an enthusiastic scholar; Walpole was then a gay and giddy
voluptuary, although predestined to sour down into the most
cold-blooded and cynical of gossips. They parted at Reggio, to meet
only once afterwards at Strawberry Hill, where Gray long after visited