velvets to the ladies";[8] while his nephew, the Rev. Joseph Bailer,
says: "Young Gay, not being able to bear the confinement of a shop, soon
felt a remarkable depression of spirits, and consequent decline of
health; he was, therefore, obliged to quit that situation, and retire to
Barnstaple, in the hope of receiving benefit from his native air."[9] No
doubt the mercer was willing enough to cancel the indentures of an
apprentice so unsatisfactory as Gay probably was. Anyhow, Gay returned
to Barnstaple, and stayed awhile with his maternal uncle, the Rev. John
Hanmer.

It has been said that it was during this visit to Barnstaple that Gay
began to write verses; and as most men who take to poetry began to
dabble in ink in their youth, this statement may well be accepted.
Only, so far no bibliographer has traced any of these early writings.
Some poems, said to have been written by him in these days have been
printed in the volume to which reference has already been made, "Gay's
Chair: Poems never before printed, written by John Gay.... With a
Sketch of his Life from the MSS. of the Rev. Joseph Bailer, his
nephew. Edited by Henry Lee ... 1820," but the authenticity of these
cannot definitely be accepted. A chair, said to have been the property
of Gay at Barnstaple, was sold early in the nineteenth century to
Henry Lee, who sent it to be repaired. "On taking out the drawer in
front, which was somewhat broken," so runs the story, "I found at the
back part of the chair a concealed drawer, ingeniously fastened with a
small wooden bolt;... it was full of manuscript papers, some of which
appeared to have slipped over, as I found them stuck to the bottom or
seat of the chair."[10] The poems in question are: "The Ladies'
Petition to the Honorable the House of Commons," the longest and most
ambitious of the pieces; "To Miss Jane Scott," "Prediction,"
"Comparisons," "Absence," "Fable," "Congratulation to a Newly-married