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hap. UT] THE EDGWABE COTTAGE AND ST. STEPHEN'S 129 jet see the shadow of his own early decay. Gray, who had invain solicited the Cambridge professorship of modern his-tory' while he yet had the health it would have given himspirit to enjoy, and was now about to receive it from theDuke of Orafton when no longer able to hold it,* was won-dering at a new book about Corsica in which he found ahero portrayed by a green goose, and where he had thecomfort of feeling that what was wise in it must be true, master, ' go and inquire how Mr. Sterne is to-day.' I went, returned, andsaid: ' I went to Mr. Sterne's lodging— the mistress opened the door— I en-quired how he did. She told me to go up to the nurse ; I went into theroom, and he was Just a-dying. I waited ten minutes; but in five, he said," Now it is come!" He put up his hand as if to stop a blow, and died ina minute.' Tlie gentlemen were aU very sony, and lamented him verymuch "^TTie Life qfa Footman; or, The Travels of James Mdedonaid, 8vo.1790. (1852.) I may now refer to Mr. Fitzgerald's very lively, interest-ing, and carefully written Life of Sterne, for the sad and shocking inci-dent that closed this terrible tragedy. 1870. 1 From Lord Bute. See Walpole's (M, LeU, ▼. 842. "As this," saysMason, " was the only application Mr. Qray ever made to the ministry,I thought it necessary to insert his own account of It" His own ac-count of it is in a letter to Dr. Warton ( Works, iii. 801). After describinghis application, to which he says he was "coclcered and spirited up byflome friends," he continues : " I received my answer very soon, which waswhat you may easily imagine, but joined with great professions of hisdesire to serve me on any future occasion, and many more fine words thatI pass over, not out of modesty, but for another reason. So you see Ihave made my fortune, like Sir Fr. Wronghead." The tutor of Sir JamesLowther, a great ministerial man, got the place. For the affecting ex-pressions of gratitude with which Qray received at last the tardy giftwhich he enjoyed for so short a time, see Wbrks^ iv. 120-126. I ought, per-haps, to add that five years before his unsuccessful application to LordBute, the Duke of Devonshire (then Lord Chamberlain) offered him theoffice of Poet Laureate, at that time in very low esteem, which he respect-fully had ded\ned,^Works, iii. 186. And see Oorrespondenee vfiih Mason,112-114 ' Poor Qray I even his quiet, scholarly life could not protect him fromthe scurrility of the time, from which (Goldsmith so sorely suffered. ''Myfriend Mr. Qray," says Walpole's friend Ck>le, " a man devoid of all am-bitious views, because his friend, Mr. Stonehewer, had pointed him out asa most proper person to the Duke of Qraf ton for the professorship of mod-em history, without the least application or thought of it himself, met withthe most illiberal abuse in the public papers, "etc. — Golems M88. xzxii. 12.<]awndish Debates, i. 621. And see WooU's Warton, 886-886.XI— 9 A
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