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 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028220048 
 
STOKE POQES, 
 
 A CONCISE ACCOUNT of the 
 
 • J 
 
 CHURCH and MANOR, 
 
 and also of the Poet, 
 THOMAS GRAY. 
 

 LONDON 
 PRINTED BY HORACE COX, WINDSOR HOUSE, BREAm's BUILDINGS, E.C. 
 
CO]S"TE]:i^TS. 
 
 PACK 
 
 I. The Manor and Lords of Stoke Poges . . i 
 
 II. The Church of St. Giles and the Hospital . 12 
 
 III. Thomas Gray, the Poet op Stoke Poges . . 21 
 
®lje OlJrurttj ilyvousl) Hre Str«^») mate. 
 
STOKE POGES. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE MANOR AND LORDS OF STOKE 
 POGES. 
 
 It is probable that no stock or stone now stands in 
 the neighbourhood of Stoke Church as it stood when 
 the manor was first enrolled in the Doomsday Survey 
 of 1086. 
 
 Therein is recorded in full the number of hides of 
 land {{.e., about 100 acres, the amount necessary for 
 the support of a house), three arable and five pasture, 
 held by six villeins, in addition to the forest land, 
 which probably covered a far larger area. 
 
 William Fitz Ansculf held the manor, as tenant in 
 capite — that is, direct from the Crown — at this time, 
 its former owner. Sired the Saxon, vassal of Harold 
 and " sokeman " (one who held land on a fixed tenure 
 and could claim trial in the manorial court), having 
 doubtless been ousted in favour of the great Norman 
 Baron. Ditton was held with Stoke both by Sired and 
 Fitz Ansculf; and until 1291 the manor was called 
 Stoke Ditton, and appears as such in the Doomsday 
 Survey. 
 
 The land was assessed at ;^5 gross and ;^3 net 
 
( 2 ) 
 
 value in William's reign, having in Edward the 
 Confessor's reign been valued at £6, which gives 
 good evidence of the depreciation of land consequent 
 on the upheaval caused by the Conquest. This £6 is 
 generally calculated as equivalent to about £200 of 
 our money, for which speculators of the present day 
 would no doubt be ready enough to buy the property. 
 
 William Fitz Ansculf had little personal -connection 
 with his manor of " Stoches Ditton," being lord of 
 sixteen manors in this county, twelve in Berkshire, 
 and sixty-eight elsewhere, while his principal seat 
 was at Dudley, in Worcestershire. 
 
 His daughter Beatrice married Fulk Paganell, of a 
 family that owned many manors in the county, and 
 built a castle and founded an abbey at Newport 
 Pagnell. Hawse Paganell married one John de 
 Somerie about 1200, and in the family of the latter 
 the manor remained for eight generations until 1322. 
 
 Meanwhile, the occupiers of the land had connected 
 themselves more closely with the history of the place ; 
 for from it the tenants from 1086 to 1291 — the family 
 of one Walter — took their name, calling themselves 
 de Stokes. In the fourteenth century the manor 
 gradually gained its present name. In 1291 the name 
 of Poges first occurs, and in 1322 the place is for the 
 last time called Stoke Ditton. About 1291 Amicia 
 de Stoke married Robert Pogis, who owed his name 
 probably to a village Poges on the coast of Normandy, 
 near where the Black Prince was knighted ; and thus 
 the tenancy passed out of the Stoke family. Of the 
 latter, one member, Hugh, may be mentioned, who 
 
( 3 ) 
 
 in 1 1 06 granted the tithes of the place to the Abbey 
 of St. Mary Overy, in Southwark, of which mention is 
 made in the history of the church. 
 
 Robert Pogis appears as a knight of the county for 
 Edward I.'s Parliament ; but being prevented by 
 some illness from serving, he was compelled to send 
 a substitute in the person of Gerard de Braybrooke. 
 Although never sheriff, he was a man of importance, 
 and held two manors in Kent, one in Oxfordshire, 
 and probably that of Arrington, in Cambridgeshire. 
 
 In 1 33 1 a new era began for the manor. Having 
 passed out of the possession of the de Somerie family 
 in 1322, it was held for nine years by some one 
 unknown. It then came into the hands of Sir John 
 de Molines, who made it his abode. The Pogis 
 family vanishes into oblivion before the splendour of 
 the new possessors. The two families were, however, 
 distantly connected, Margaret Pogis having married 
 John Maudit, the cousin of Sir John Molines' wife 
 Egidia. 
 
 Sir John held a high place among Edward III.'s 
 nobles. He was made, in 1331, a gentleman of the 
 privy chamber; in 1335 created a knight banneret, 
 and granted the manor of Ludgershall, in Bucks. As 
 falconer to the king he held the manors of Aston and 
 Ilmere. He was seized suddenly in 1340 for some 
 unknown cause, and thrown into prison, while all his 
 lands were forfeited to the king. Six years later he 
 was restored to favour, and in 1347 created a peer of 
 the realm, and summoned as a baron to Parliament. 
 In 1352 he was made supervisor of the queen's castles. 
 
( 4 ) 
 
 The last notice of him is in a complaint made to 
 Parliament in 1353 for the enormous fines which 
 he levied, after which he disappears from history, 
 probably to die in prison ; for his death remains as 
 deep a mystery as the beautiful tomb he built in the 
 church which he founded. His career is typical of 
 many in that age, when men rose often — like Wolsey 
 at a later time — only to fall as deep. 
 
 The manor in his time included Datchet, Fulmar, 
 part of Burnham, and Cippenham. He obtained the 
 right to erect a gallows in the manors, of which he 
 had twenty in different parts of the country, to judge 
 all malefactors himself, and to seize all goods of felon's 
 within his domains, and to regulate assizes of ale and 
 bread at Stoke. Of the castellated manor which 
 he erected there nothing remains ; it was probably 
 removed to make way for the present Elizabethan 
 house. 
 
 The ancestor of Sir John Molines, Guiscard Lord 
 Molines, had come over from France with Henry I., 
 and was probably connected with the Lancashire 
 family of the same name and origin. 
 
 The Lady Egidia died in 1367, and the property 
 passed to her son William, and from him to Richard 
 Molines in 1381. The last of the name was killed in 
 1428, while defending a bridge against a sortie during 
 the siege of Orleans, having held the manor for forty 
 years. 
 
 On his death the manor came into the possession 
 of Robert Lord Hungerford, who married his daughter 
 Alianore de Molines. She, with her father and 
 
( 5 ) 
 
 mother, Sir William and Lady Margaret de Molines, 
 lie buried within the sanctuary of the church. 
 
 The Hungerford family was deeply engaged in the 
 Wars of the Roses. Lord Robert fought for Queen 
 Margaret at Towton and Wrexham, flying after the 
 former battle with the royal family to Scotland, and 
 after the latter being beheaded at Newcastle, and 
 buried in all probability at Salisbury. 
 
 Alianore, whom Edward committed to the care of 
 Lady Wenlock, afterwards married Sir Oliver Man- 
 ningham. Meanwhile, Stoke had been sequestrated ; 
 nor was it recovered until the time of Mary, the only 
 daughter of Sir Thomas Hungerford, the son of Lady 
 Alianore, who had been beheaded at Shrewsbury in 
 1467. 
 
 Mary married Edward, son of William Lord Hastings, 
 in 1480, and received back all the huge Hungerford 
 estates. One of his ancestors, William, had been 
 steward to Henry IL ; while his father. Baron of 
 Ashby-de-la-Zouche, had a share in the murder of 
 Prince Edward at Tewkesbury, and left provision for 
 a thousand priests to say a thousand masses on one 
 day for his soul. 
 
 On the death of Lord Edward, Mary married Sir 
 Richard Sacheverell, an ancestor of the more famous 
 doctor of Queen Anne's reign, and settled the estate 
 upon him at her death. Both lie buried in St. Mary's 
 Church, Newark. Sir Richard and his stepson George 
 both signed the letter written to urge Pope Clement 
 to greater expedition in the matter of King Henry 
 VIIl.'s divorce. George was, in 1529, created first 
 
( 6 ) 
 
 Earl of Huntingdon by Henry VIII., doubtless for his 
 service in that " great matter" ; and we find him still 
 a faithful servant to the king in 1536, when he was 
 sent to aid the Earl of Shrewsbury to quell the 
 dangerous revolts in the North caused by the ruthless 
 suppression of monasteries. The fall of Anne Boleyne, 
 a few years later, gave this time-serving lord a fresh 
 opportunity for displaying his ready pliancy, and he 
 was one of the peers who condemned her. He died 
 in 1544, and was buried, as is shown by his son's will, 
 in the Hastings chapel of Stoke Church. 
 
 He left three daughters and five sons, the eldest 
 of whom, Francis (the second Earl), was a privy 
 counsellor of Edward VI., and later a strong sup- 
 porter of Lady Jane Grey. But when the storm burst 
 over the heads of that party he wisely bent to it, 
 securing his safety by a marriage with the niece of 
 Reginald Pole. He died in 1561, and was buried at 
 Ashby-de-la-Zouche. 
 
 Sir Edward Hastings (the third son of George Earl 
 of Huntingdon), however, is a person of far greater 
 interest to us, as the founder of the hospital and 
 builder of the Hastings chapel. Unlike his brother, 
 he was a staunch supporter of the Roman cause, and, 
 consequently, in high favour with Queen Mary, by 
 whom he was created a Knight of the Garter and 
 Lord Hastings of Loughborough in 1557. ^i^ brother 
 Francis had been made a knight of the same order by 
 Edward VI., and was busy proclaiming Lady Jane 
 Grey, while his more fortunate brother was raising 
 4000 men in Bucks against the Earl of Northumber- 
 
@ttre ^ctttov Sou««. 
 
( 7 ) 
 
 land's partisans. At Mary's death he, of course, fell 
 from power, and retired to Stoke, where he died in 
 1572, and was buried in the Hastings chapel. 
 
 Henry (the third earl, and second son of George) 
 was as zealous on the Puritan side as his brother was 
 in support of Mary and the Papal claims. There 
 exists a letter written by him from Stoke to the Earl 
 of Shrewsbury; but it appears that the manor had 
 suflfered much during the disquiet of the Reformation, 
 owing doubtless to the opposing tenets of its Several 
 lords ; so that Stoke was mortgaged to one Sergeant 
 Branthwait, to whom he owed money, and the expenses 
 of his funeral in 1595 were borne by Queen Elizabeth, 
 whom he seems to have served well — at least she 
 intrusted him with the custody of Mary Queen of 
 Scots. The old manor house was probably finished 
 in his time. 
 
 Suddenly the long line of lords and barons is 
 broken by the prosaic incident of a mortgage and 
 sale. Sergeant Branthwait obtained possession of 
 the manor from his debtor the earl, and sold it to 
 Sir Edward Coke, subsequently Lord Chief Justice of 
 England. While Attorney-General, Coke was visited 
 at his manor by Queen Elizabeth, M'hom he enter- 
 tained magnificently ; while some years later (in 1600) 
 he received a piece of gold plate, on the occasion of 
 the christening of one of his children, as is duly 
 chronicled in the list of the queen's presentations of 
 the year. 
 
 Whether Sir Christopher Hatton ever lived at 
 Stoke or not seems uncertain. Sir Harris Nicolas, 
 
 B 2 
 
( 8 ) 
 
 his biographer, thinking that the tradition was based 
 only on the marriage of Lady WiUiam Hatton (sister 
 of Thomas Lord Burleigh) to Sir Edward Coke. At 
 any rate, the tradition inspired Gray with the theme 
 of some of the most elegant of his lines in " A Long 
 Story," in which he tells how the Huntingdons 
 
 Employed the power of fairy hands 
 To raise the ceiling's fretted height, 
 
 Each panel, in achievements clothing, 
 Rich windows that exclude the light. 
 
 And passages that lead to nothing. 
 
 and how Sir Christopher himself " led the brawls," 
 and by his fine dancing pleased the queen : 
 
 His bushy beard, and shoe-strings green. 
 
 His high-crowned hat, and satin doublet. 
 Moved the stout heart of England's queen, 
 
 Though Pope and Spaniard could not trouble it. 
 
 Coke and his sedond wife (the widow of Sir William 
 Hatton) were a most unloving pair. D' Israeli, in his 
 " Curiosities of Literature," gives an amusing account 
 of their quarrels. There was an endless fight for the 
 family plate. About 1634 my lady, "on a strong 
 report of his death, posted down to Stoke Poges to 
 take possession of his mansion ; but beyorid Coin- 
 brook they met with one of the physicians coming 
 from him with the mortifying intelligence of Sir 
 Edward's recovery, on which they returned at their 
 leisure." On an earlier occasion he is said to have 
 shut up his wife and daughter in the manor, until the 
 latter consented to marry Sir John Villiers, brother of 
 the Duke of Buckingham, who came into possession 
 
( 9 ) 
 
 in 1645, ^fter the death of Lady Coke. Sir Edward, 
 in disgrace and deserted by all his friends, had already 
 died in 1634. 
 
 Until lately the room in which Queen Elizabeth 
 slept was shown at the manor, and contained a very 
 fine portrait of the queen, which, with the rest of the 
 furniture of the house, was sold and dispersed about 
 the country before the present owner came into 
 possession. The sale left the stately hall on the 
 ground floor a desert. It had been beautifully fur- 
 nished by the late owner as a studio for Sir Edwin 
 Landseer, who painted many of his pictures from the 
 park and farm. 
 
 In 1657 the manor passed to the Gayers, to the 
 Halseys in 1725, then to Mr. Halsey's daughter, the 
 wife of Lord Cobham, whose first acquaintance with 
 Gray is amusingly described by him in "A Long 
 Story"; and in 1760 was bought by Thomas Penn, 
 in the possession of whose family it remained until 
 1848. Thomas Penn was the son of the famous 
 founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, who lies 
 buried at " Jordan's," an old Quaker meeting-house 
 some eight miles to the north of the church. Thomas 
 Penn was no benefactor to the manor; he pulled 
 down the old hospital, the old vicarage, and half the 
 old manor house in the park, rebuilding the two 
 former outside the park in the hideous style peculiar 
 to the period, and raising for himself a " new and 
 imposing edifice " after designs by Wyatt. The same 
 architect is responsible for the two hideous monu- 
 ments erected to the memory of Sir Edward Coke 
 
( 10 ) 
 
 and Thomas Gray in 1799 — a warning to all men to 
 leave lawyers and poets unadorned. 
 
 The Right Hon. Henry Labouchere bought the 
 house in 1848; in 1859 he was created Baron Taun- 
 
( II ) 
 
 ton. From him it passed to Mr. Edward Coleman, 
 and in 1887 was purchased by the present owner, Mr. 
 Wilberforce Bryant. 
 
 It is worth while mentioning two other royal visits 
 to Stoke Manor. Of King Charles I.'s visit. White- 
 lock gives notice thus : " August 2, 1647. Army 
 quartered at Colnbrooke, and the king at Stoke 
 Abbey." During the summer of 1647 several places 
 in the county received hurried visits from the king. 
 July I and 2 he was at Windsor; Saturday, July 3, 
 at Caversham. On the 15th he went to Maidenhead 
 to meet his children, and is traced through Woborne 
 and Latimers to Stoke. There he remained a 
 prisoner in charge of Lord Purbeck [i.e., Sir John 
 Villiers) until August 14th, when he was removed to 
 Oatlands. 
 
 Of William III. it is related that soon after he 
 ascended the throne he visited Stoke, desiring to 
 see the old manor house. But Sir Robert Gayer, in 
 spite of his wife's expostulations and entreaties, 
 stoutly refused him admission. " He has got posses- 
 sion of another man's house already," he said, " and 
 he shall never enter mine.'' And the king, who was 
 actually standing outside the gate, had to return a 
 stranger to the inside of the manor. 
 
 Thus the old manor house entertained one sovereign 
 in all the state and magnificence of royalty ; received 
 another as a prisoner in the custody of his own sub- 
 jects ; and closed its doors to a third, dismissing him 
 as of no account. 
 
II. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF ST. GILES AND THE 
 HOSPITAL. 
 
 Of the church of St. Giles the records are meagre 
 indeed. There is little but the founding of the 
 original building, its re-founding in the fourteenth 
 century, and the tombs within the sanctuary, to which 
 any certain history belongs. 
 
 About the year 1107 Hugh de Stoke and his wife 
 joined with Aluredus, the priest of Stoke, to make 
 over the church and tithes of the parish of Stoke and 
 Ditton for ever to the Priory of St. Mary Overy, in 
 Southwark. The charter is witnessed by William 
 Giffard, Bishop of Winchester, who died 1128-1129. 
 In 1107 William had founded the first Cistercian 
 house in England, of which the remains are still 
 visible in the lovely valley of Waverley, near Farn- 
 ham, in Surrey. St. Giles was the eighth church so 
 appropriated by the abbey, nor is there any reason 
 to suppose that it was then a new building. But of 
 this twelfth or eleventh century building there are 
 apparently no remains, unless it be in the north wall 
 of the chancel, in which is a blocked-up Norman 
 window, but into the outside wall of which is built 
 a fragmentary capital, which may more reasonably 
 claim to have been part of this early church. 
 
( 13 ) 
 
 The name of the de Molines family is connected 
 with all that we can guess of the building of the later 
 church ; nor is it improbable that the beautiful four- 
 
 teenth century tomb in the north wall of the chancel 
 was built for one of this name, although it is by no 
 means evident that the fabric of the north wall is of 
 
 c 
 
( 14 ) 
 
 the same date. However, the position of the tomb 
 makes it probable that its occupant had a large share 
 in building the church. In 1331 Sir John Molines 
 and his wife Egidia obtained a charter empowering 
 
 
 him to hold a fair on St. Giles's Day ; and as such 
 parish fairs were always headed by the founder of the 
 church or his representative, and as we find Sir John 
 performing this duty, it seems probable that he re- 
 founded the church, especially as his date agrees with 
 
( 15 ) 
 
 that most probably to be assigned to the existing 
 church. The monks, moreover, of St. Mary Overy, 
 agreed to make mention of him in all their masses 
 after his death, and to inscribe the name of his wife 
 Egidia in their martyrology. In 1340 he gave the 
 advowson of Stoke Church, with all the privileges 
 which he had bestowed on the church, to the monks, 
 having already, in 1333, effected the exchange of 
 certain lands in Stoke with the Priory. 
 
 Whether or not he lies buried in the tomb in the 
 north wall must remain uncertain ; the absence of an 
 inscription is at least no argument. He seems to 
 have died in disgrace, and it is not improbable that 
 he never occupied the resting place he prepared for 
 himself. 
 
 The chapel on the south of the chancel — of which 
 little resemblance to its original character now 
 remains — was built about 1558 by the same Lord 
 Hastings of Loughborough who founded the hospital. 
 He purposed to build a chapel of stone, with an altar 
 therein, adjoining the church, and a tomb to be raised 
 to his father and mother and a vault for his own body. 
 He also left ;^5 yearly to be paid to some learned 
 man or men for ten sermons every year in perpetuity 
 in the church of Stoke. 
 
 From 1 702- 1 734 the rates show records of constant 
 repairs to the church, and it is doubtless to this period 
 that we owe the additions that disfigure the interior 
 of the church — the plaster on ceiling and walls and 
 the galleries, of which the western has happily been 
 removed. The great square pews that belong to 
 
( i6 ) 
 
 some of the older houses of the parish are doubtless 
 of later erection. May a hope be expressed that 
 when the time comes it may be found possible to 
 restore the space they occupy to a condition more in 
 harmony with the architecture of the church. 
 
 Of the windows in the church, the west alone calls 
 for any notice. It is a fine specimen of Kemp's work. 
 In the cloisters there is some very remarkable glass, 
 
 
 part removed from the manor house, part collected by 
 the late Mr. Coleman, and placed together here. The 
 local tradition says that there is a large store of glass 
 hidden in the north wall of the chancel, which there 
 has hitherto been no attempt made to verify. 
 
 Perhaps the most interesting relic in the church is 
 the slab of a crusader's tomb, unearthed some years 
 since in the churchyard, and lately placed in the 
 
( 17 ) 
 
 cloisters. From the style of the inscription it seems 
 to date from early in the thirteenth century. 
 
 Within the altar rails are several brasses of interest. 
 That on the north side commemorates the last of the 
 de Molines, Sir William, who fell at Orleans in 1429, 
 and his wife the Lady Margaret. On the south side 
 lies their daughter Eleanor, who married Robert Lord 
 Hungerford, and transmitted the manor of Stoke to 
 another great family. 
 
 Near these lie four members of the Hampdyn 
 family, and under the altar was buried, in 1653, Philip 
 Gill, " doctor in physicke," tithe-holder and parish 
 overseer. 
 
 In the Hastings Chapel, Dean Hascard, the Hugue- 
 not preacher, lies buried ; and at the west end of the 
 north aisle is, perhaps, the chief artistic treasure of 
 the church — an exquisite little memorial tablet by 
 Flaxman. 
 
 The living is in the presentation of the Duke of 
 Leeds. At the suppression of the monasteries the 
 great tithes passed into the hands of one John Dorset, 
 from whose representatives they were purchased in 
 the middle of the twelfth century by Robert Clarges. 
 He again sold them to Dr. Godolphin, Dean of St. 
 Paul's and Provost of Eton College. The Hon. 
 Francis Baron Godolphin and his wife. Lady Anne, 
 augmented the vicarage by a rentcharge of £4.8 for 
 ever, issuing out of the manor of the Bower in 
 Sussex ; and the family has maintained a close con- 
 nection with the parish ever since. 
 
 In 1557 Sir Edward Hastings (son of George, fourth 
 
( i8 ) 
 
 Earl of Huntingdon) was created Lord Hastings of 
 Loughborough, and in the same year founded a 
 
 hospital at Stoke Poges to support a priest to pray 
 for the souls of those of the Hastings family already 
 dead, especially his father and mother, as well as four 
 
( 19 ) 
 
 poor men and two poor women. This hospital, with 
 its " master, four poor men, and two poor women, 
 there ever to pray," is mentioned in Acts of the 
 fourth and fifth years of William and Mary, when it 
 naturally came to pass that the foundation of the 
 pious earl had to be modified in accordance with the 
 churchmanship of the Restoration. By this Act the 
 inmates were confirmed in the style and privileges of 
 a corporation, as " master, brethren, sisters, with a 
 common seal and perpetual possession." The master 
 and men might be either " sole or married," the 
 sisters must be " sole and unmarried." The priest 
 was to have :£\o yearly and five loads of fire-wood; 
 and ;£20 and four loads of the fire-wood was to be 
 divided among the other members. Once in two 
 years a blue gown of broadcloth, of measure of four 
 yards, was to be given them, with the crest of Lord 
 Loughborough (a bull's head) worked upon the 
 sleeve. 
 
 Of the original building near the church nothing, 
 alas, remains. It fell a victim, like the vicarage — 
 which once stood not far from the manor house — to 
 the vandal zeal of Thomas Penn in 1765, who, Quaker 
 as he was, saw little to admire in Lord Hastings' 
 foundation by the church. Its chantry priest, no 
 doubt, had long since been abolished, and a chaplain 
 could as well perform his functions in the ugly build- 
 ing which he built about a quarter of a mile to the 
 north of the church as in the Hastings Chapel, already 
 diverted from its original use. 
 
( 20 ) 
 
 List of Vicars of St. Giles's, Stoke Poges. 
 
 YEAR. 
 
 Alarus de Netel 1222 
 
 Geoffrey de Haveringtcn ... 1 224 
 
 John Dryn 1228 
 
 Nicolas de London 1274 
 
 Wm. de Mersham 1294 
 
 Walter de Gippswich 1321 
 
 Wm. de Medburn 1333 
 
 Robert Nell 1365 
 
 Thos. Bray 1365 
 
 — Milward 1386 
 
 Thos. Chapman i399 
 
 Thos. Clerk, exchanged for 
 Leatherhead with John 
 
 Gallup 1414 
 
 John Gully 1417 
 
 Edward Pepyng 1421 
 
 Thomas Howe 1454 
 
 John Fowkes 1461 
 
 Ambrose Repyngdon 1474 
 
 Alex. White 1479 
 
 Robert Blakeloke 1489 
 
 Robert Taylor 1508 
 
 Milo Braythwayt '530 
 
 YEAR. 
 
 John Dogeson 1531 
 
 Oliver Stacey IS37 
 
 John Munday ISSS 
 
 Edward Purey 1563 
 
 Samuel Kelbridge 1592 
 
 John Duflield 1601 
 
 Abraham Montague 1620 
 
 Nicolas Lovell 1637 
 
 Adrian Lugan 1659 
 
 Thomas Browne 1661 
 
 Roland Gower 1663 
 
 Robert Vill 1675 
 
 John Provote 1679 
 
 Richard Redding 1687 
 
 Francis Phillips 1719 
 
 Thomas Dolben 1726 
 
 William Duckworth I7S4 
 
 Richard Kilsha '794 
 
 Arthur Bold 1803 
 
 S. Godolphin Osborne 1836 
 
 John Shaw 1841 
 
 Vernon Blake 1866 
 
(Bvttij's aaicrttjtiitcnt. 
 
III. 
 
 THOMAS GRAY, THE POET OF STOKE 
 POGES. 
 
 Interesting to the students of English country life 
 is the history of any English village, but some spots 
 there are round which lingers the memory of some 
 departed genius, whose spirit seems even after death 
 to hover round the haunts he loved in life, calling 
 men and women from all lands to visit the calm 
 retreat made famous by his muse. Had Shakspere 
 not lived, Stratford-atte-Bowe would have been as 
 well known as Stratford-upon-Avon ; and, but for 
 Gray, Stoke Poges would have been a jiame unknown 
 to the world at large. Born at his father's house in 
 Cornhill, on December 26th, 17 16, Thomas Gray was 
 the only one of a family of twelve who reached 
 maturity. His father was a clever man of business, 
 with extravagant tastes, and cruel to a degree both 
 to his wife and son. His mother (Dorothy Antrobus 
 her maiden name), possessed the good sense and 
 kindly heart her husband lacked, and seems to have 
 fully deserved the affection her son ever showed her. 
 About 1727 Gray was sent to Eton at his mother's 
 charges, and there began his famous friendship with 
 Horace Walpole and Richard West. There, too, he 
 gained that love for the literature of Greece and 
 
( 22 ) 
 
 Rome which makes its influence felt in almost every 
 line of his poetry. At Eton he chose the student's 
 life — " Gray never was a boy," says Walpole — and 
 that choice he never deserted. Pembroke Hall, Cam- 
 bridge, was his home for a short time in 1734, but he 
 soon left it for Peterhouse, Walpole going to King's 
 a little later, and West to Christ Church, Oxford. 
 His vacations he spent at his uncle's house at Burn- 
 ham, where he revelled in the beeches, and doubtless 
 found time to explore Stoke Poges. He left Cam- 
 bridge in 1738, and six months afterwards started on 
 his famous Continental tour with Horace Walpole. 
 They began their travels on terms of closest friend- 
 ship, but two years and a half of close companionship 
 gave birth to differences which parted them in 1741, 
 to come together again in three years' time into a 
 renewal of intimacy only broken by death. In 
 November, 1741, Gray's father died, having before 
 his death succeeded in squandering all his posses- 
 sions. Mrs. Gray wound-up her business in Cornhill, 
 and came to live with her sister, Mrs. Rogers, at the 
 farmhouse in Stoke Poges, where Stoke Court now 
 stands. Here, in June, 1842 — the month and year 
 that West (" Favonius ") died — Gray made his first 
 of many visits to Stoke Poges. At that time the old 
 manor house still stood in its original shape as built 
 in 1555 by the Earl of Huntingdon, and was occupied 
 by Viscount Cobham. Mrs. Rogers' house, where Gray 
 stayed with his mother, was at West End, some 
 three-quarters of a mile from the church Gray after- 
 wards made so famous. In those days it was a two- 
 
( 23 ) 
 
 storeyed farmhouse, of which the stone fireplace with 
 "1.6.4.8" engraved on it, Gray's bed-room, and the 
 window at which he sat, alone remain in their original 
 condition. 
 
 On a slope some little distance from the house 
 there still exists the arbour in which Gray " used to 
 sit and dream," and the scene around is still as calm 
 and remote from all the busy stir of life as when Gray 
 described himself as " still at Stoke, hearing, seeing, 
 doing absolutely nothing." It was in this year, how- 
 ever, that he laid the foundations of his fame. Exegi 
 monumentum 3sre perennius might have been said 
 by Gray if he could have looked into the secrets of 
 the future, for it was in November, 1742, that he 
 began the " Elegy." In August he had written his 
 " Ode to Spring " — famous for " a solitary fly " — an 
 ode that sounded the note of revolt against the 
 dominion of the couplet, a sonnet to the memory of 
 West, his " Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton 
 College," and the " Ode on Adversity." 
 
 In October or November, brooding perhaps over 
 the late death of his friend West, and inspired by the 
 quiet rusticity of his surroundings, he began the poem 
 which more than all others has made his name famous. 
 His uncle, Jonathan Rogers, died at Stoke Poges on 
 October 31st, 1742, and was buried in the neighbour- 
 ing parish of Burnham. There seems to be little 
 doubt that it was very soon after that date that Gray 
 began the composition of the " Elegy," though it was 
 not actually finished till the year 1750. Some jealous 
 souls would try to prove that "the country church- 
 
( 24 ) 
 
 yard " is not that of Stoke Poges. It is enough to 
 remember that Gray began the "Elegy" when 
 residing at Stoke Poges, that for many years he 
 spent his vacations at Stoke Poges, that his aunt 
 and his mother were both buried at Stoke Poges, 
 
 
 and that if he knew any country churchyard well 
 that was the one. 
 
 It was in 1750, some few months after his aunt's 
 burial at Stoke, that he wrote to Walpole : " I have 
 been here at Stoke a few days, and having put an 
 
( 25 ) 
 
 end to a thing whose beginning you have seen long 
 ago, I immediately send it to you." Its beginning 
 was at Stoke, at Stoke were added the final touches, 
 the " Weary Ploughman's " descendants still plough 
 the Stoke furrows, and in the Tower the " Moping 
 Owl " still rears its brood. There may be some 
 doubt as to the real birthplace of Homer, but none 
 as to the cquntry churchyard in which the " Elegy " 
 was "wrote." From this year (the year 1742) begins 
 the second period of Gray's life. Forced by circum- 
 stances and the want of money to give up his original 
 idea of reading for the Bar, he decided to live at Cam- 
 bridge, spending all his spare time with his mother 
 and aunt at Stoke. He returned to Peterhouse, 
 and devoted all his hours to study ; he deserted his 
 " Muse," and for five years read Greek and little 
 else. In 1747, at Walpole's persuasion, he published 
 his " Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College," 
 but it met with scant appreciation. In 1747 also 
 he immortalised Walpole's cat in a poem that was 
 "rather too long for an epitaph," but not too long 
 to delight the lovers of "happy trifles." In 1749 his 
 aunt died, and was buried at Stoke, and shortly after- 
 wards he finished the " Elegy." Walpole received 
 a copy, and showed it to his friends, and among 
 others to Lady Cobham (then living at the manor 
 house), who had little idea, till she was told by the 
 Rev. Robert Purt, that "a wicked imp they call a 
 poet" had been for some years living in her parish. 
 Feminine curiosity was aroused, and two messengers 
 of Fate, in the shape of Lady Schaub and Miss Speed 
 
( 26 ) 
 
 (Lady Cobham's niece), invaded the shy poet's retreat, 
 only to find him out. A note was left, the fish rose 
 to the fly, and thus began Gray's intimacy with Lady 
 Cobham, and literature was enriched by a story not 
 too long. The " Long Story," redolent of quiet 
 humour, was written in August, 1750, but not pub- 
 lished (except privately) during Gray's lifetime. The 
 "Elegy" was published by Dodsley in 1751, and' 
 rapidly went through fifteen editions, meeting with 
 ready appreciation everywhere. Criticism of such a 
 poem would here be out of place, but what was 
 written of it by Dr. Johnson, who had a very poor 
 opinion of Gray's merits as a poet, is interesting : 
 " It abounds with images which find a mirror in every 
 mind, and with sentiments to which every bosom 
 returns an echo. The four stanzas beginning ' Yet 
 ev'n these bones ' are to me original : I have never 
 seen the notions in any other place ; yet he that reads 
 them here persuades himself that he has always felt 
 them. Had Gray written often thus, it had been vain 
 to blame and useless to praise him." 
 
 The year 1753 saw the first appearance of a collec- 
 tion of Gray's poems in the shape of "The Six Poems, 
 by T. Gray," published by R. Bentley, and con- 
 taining a portrait of the poet. The same year Mrs. 
 Gray died, and was buried at Stoke, her son com- 
 posing the epitaph, which may still be read : " In the 
 same pious confidence, beside her friend and sister, 
 here sleep the remains of Dorothy Gray, widow, the 
 careful mother of many children, one of whom alone 
 had the misfortune to survive her." His mother's 
 
( 27 ) 
 
 death left Gray with a sufficient competence to enable 
 him to live on at Cambridge in the simple fashion he 
 loved best ; and, except for occasional visits to friends 
 and tours to Scotland and the Lakes, and a three 
 years' stay in London, the rest of his life was spent in 
 that town. 
 
 In 1754 he wrote the "Progress of Poesy," which 
 quickly brought him to the front as a master of 
 English lyrics, and the following year he began 
 "The Bard." A silly freak of some undergraduates 
 at Peterhouse, who knew of Gray's constitutional 
 terror of fire, led him to leave his rooms at that 
 college and accept the welcome willingly offered 
 him at Pembroke, where, for the last fifteen years 
 of his life, he spent his time quietly and happily 
 among his books and his flowers. Some concerts 
 given at Cambridge by John Parry, the famous blind 
 harper, set " all his learned body a dancing," and 
 spurred him on to the completion of "The Bard." 
 There was now no living poet who approached him 
 either in the estimation of the public or of the literary 
 world; and on Colley Cibber's death, in 1757, he was 
 offered the post of Poet Laureate. Partly from a 
 disinclination to be " at war with the little fry of his 
 own profession," he thought fit to decline. In 1758 
 his aunt (Mrs. Rogers) died at Stoke, and Gray then 
 shut up West End Farm, only visiting the village 
 rarely during the rest of his life. 
 
 The three next years he spent in London, living 
 in Southampton-row, close to the British Museum, 
 then in its infancy, but even in its earliest days a real 
 
( 28 ) 
 
 treasure to a student such as Gray. It was at this 
 time that some friends of his thought, and perhaps 
 hoped, that he would marry Lady Cobham's niece. 
 Miss Speed. He confined himself, however, to 
 writing her a sonnet, which has but little of the ring 
 of a successful wooer, and gave himself up to his 
 books and his friends. 
 
 In 1762 the post of Professor of Modern History 
 and Modern Languages at Cambridge fell vacant, and 
 Gray's friends tried, but in vain, to secure his election. 
 Other influences were more powerful, and it was not 
 till 1 768 that he was elected to the only post he ever 
 seems to have coveted. During the next few years 
 he took great interest in Icelandic literature, and the 
 " Descent of Odin " and the " Fatal Sisters " show 
 what time he must have bestowed upon his study of 
 a new and difficult language. Few events ruffled the 
 even tenor of his last years. Travels in the south, 
 travels in the north of England, an occasional visit to 
 Mason at York, and a short tour in the Highlands 
 occupied his vacations ; while his time at Cambridge 
 slipped happily along, cheered by his friendship with 
 Nicholls and Bonstetten, whose frankness, gaiety, and 
 love of literature did much to enliven Gray's last two 
 years. 
 
 For some time his health had been poor, and a 
 visit to London in May, 1771, did him little good. 
 Troubled with gout, neuralgia, and an incessant 
 cough, he went back to Cambridge in July, after 
 paying his last visit to Walpole. On July 24th he 
 was taken seriously ill while at dinner in hall 
 
( 29 ) 
 
 at Pembroke, and alfter five days' illness he passed 
 quietly away, comforted at the end by the presence 
 of Mary Antrobus, his niece. On August 5th he 
 was, according to his own desire, buried in the 
 churchyard he loved, " in the vault made by my 
 late dear mother " ; and there he lies, with only a 
 simple stone on the church wall opposite to mark the 
 place. Erected by John Penn, there is a monument, 
 only interesting through the verses inscribed upon it ; 
 and the best memorial to Gray is the spirit which 
 yearly brings hundreds of visitors to gaze upon his- 
 tomb. 
 
 The following is a record of the chief points of 
 intereist in Gray's life : 
 
 Dec. 26, 1 7 16. — Born. 
 
 Circa 1727. — Entered at Eton. 
 
 1734. — Entered at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge ; migrates on 
 July 3 to Peterhouse. 
 
 1736. — Visits Burnham. 
 
 1738. — Leaves Cambridge for his father's house in London. 
 
 1739. — Starts with Horace Walpole on the grand tour. 
 Nov. 6, 1741. — His father dies. 
 
 1742. — Mrs. Gray and Mary Antrobus, her sister, go to live 
 with their sister, Mrs. Rogers, at West End Farm, 
 Stoke Poges. June 1st. — West died. Gray at 
 Stoke Poges. " Ode to Spring," " Ode on a 
 Distant Prospect of Eton College " written. The 
 " Elegy " begun (not finished till June 12, 17S0), 
 soon after funeral of Mr. Rogers on Oct. 31. In 
 December Gray takes his bachelor's degree, and 
 begins his residence at Peterhouse, Cambridge, as 
 a bachelor. " Hymn to Ignorance" probably 
 written in this month. 
 
( 30 ) 
 
 1744- — Reconciliation with Horace Walpole. Pope dies. 
 
 1747. — " Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College " pub- 
 lished anonymously by Dodsley. Gray meets 
 Hogarth at dinner at Walpole's. Writes " Ode 
 on the Death of a Favourite Cat," "'Twas on a 
 lofty vase's side." 
 
 1748. — Gray's house in Cornhill was burnt down. " A Col- 
 lection of Poems " published by Dodsley, the 
 second volume containing Gray's odes " To Spring," 
 " On Mr. Walpole's Cat," and the " Eton Ode." 
 
 1749. — Mrs. Mary Antrobus dies at Stoke, Nov. 5. Gray 
 writes some more of the " Elegy " at Cambridge. 
 
 1750. — Gray finishes the " Elegy" at Stoke Poges, on June 
 12, first edition being printed without any pause 
 between the stanzas. Beginning of friendship 
 with Lady Cobham and Miss Speed. Wrote the 
 " Long Story " in August. 
 
 Feb. l6, 1751. — Dodsley publishes the "Elegy"; four editions in 
 two months ; fifteen authorised editions by 1762. 
 
 1753. — First edition published of "Designs by Mr. R. 
 Bentley from Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray, contain- 
 ing the ' Ode to Spring,' ' Ode on the Death of a 
 Favourite Cat,' third edition of the ' Eton Ode,' 
 the ' Long Story,' ' Hymn to Adversity,' twelfth 
 edition of the ' Elegy.' " This edition contains a 
 sketch of Gray from life, and sketches of Lady 
 Schaub, Mr. Purt, and Miss Speed. 
 Mar. II, 17S3. — Mrs. Gray dies. 
 
 1754. — The " Ode on Vicissitude " begun, but never finished. 
 The " Progress of Poesy " finished in December. 
 
 I7SS- — " The Bard " begun, finished in 17S7. 
 
 1756. — Gray leaves Peterhouse for Pembroke in February. 
 
 17S7. — "The Bard" finished. Gray's odes printed at 
 Horace Walpole's press at Strawberry Hill ; 2000 
 copies published by Dodsley. Gray receives forty 
 guineas, the only money he ever gained by his 
 
( 31 ) 
 
 ■writings. Colley Gibber dies. The office of Poet 
 Laureate offered to Gray by the Dulce of Devon- 
 shire, and refused. 
 
 1758. — Mrs. Rogers dies at Stoke Poges in September. 
 
 1759. — Gray closes West End Farm. Leaves Stoke Poges, 
 alter spending his vacations there for seventeen 
 successive years, and settles in Southampton-row, 
 London, for three years. Sept. 12. — Wolfe recites 
 the " Elegy " while being rowed to Quebec. " I 
 would prefer being the author of that poem to the 
 glory of beating the French to-morrow." 
 
 1760. — Lady Cobham dies. Gray corresponds with Mac- 
 pherson (Ossian) ; meets NichoUs. 
 
 1762. — Returns to Cambridge. 
 
 1763. — Begins his study of Icelandic literature. Writes the 
 " Fatal Sisters," the " Descent of Odin," the 
 " Triumphs of Owen." 
 
 1764. — Gray's health begins to fail. Writes the "Candi- 
 date" and "Tophet." Tour in the South of 
 England. 
 ^ 1765- — Tour in the North of England and Scotland. 
 Health improves. 
 
 1768. — Dodsley republishes Gra^s poems in a cheap 
 form ; 2250 copies sold. Foulis, of Glasgow, also 
 publishes an edition. Gray elected Professor of 
 Modern History, &c., at Cambridge. 
 
 1769. — The "Installation Ode" written on the Duke of 
 Grafton succeeding the Duke of Newcastle as 
 Chancellor of the University. Gra3r's last work. 
 Tour to the Lakes. Beginning of friendship with 
 Bonstetten. 
 
 1771. — May. — Gray goes to London. July 22. — Returns to 
 Cambridge. July 30 — Dies after five days' illness. 
 
 The writer of this short sketch of Gray's life begs 
 to acknowledge the great debt he owes to Mr. E. W. 
 
( 32 ) 
 
 Gosse's life of Gray in the " English Men of Letters " 
 series. No better account of Gray can be found. All 
 lovers of Gray should also read his letters, of which 
 several editions have been published. Masoji's 
 edition was first published in 1775 ; Mitford pub- 
 lished a better text in 1816 ; but the best is the latest 
 edited by E. Gosse, and published by Macmillan. 
 
Cornell University Library 
 DA 690.S845S87 
 
 Stoke Poges 
 
 3 1924 028 220 048